The Screaming Woman is a 1972 television movie starring screen legend Olivia de Havilland. The movie is based on a Ray Bradbury short story and the iconic John Williams provided the soundtrack.
Laura Wyant (Olivia de Havilland, The Heiress) is a rich, former mental patient who decides to go to her countryside estate to rest and recuperate. One evening, while walking around the grounds she hears the screams of a woman coming from underneath the ground. Laura runs off screaming, and tells her family, but no one believes her that there is a woman buried alive. Her family, in particular her son, ever so opportunistic, sees this incident as a chance to prove that Laura’s mind has snapped again so they can take control of her money and property. But that’s just the subplot to Laura spending most of the movie trying to find someone, anyone to help her dig up the body that is buried underground. Not only does she discover the body, she also inadvertently finds out who the killer is!
The Screaming Lady is a decent made-for-television movie. The actors are excellent in their roles. I wasn’t overwhelmed with the film, but it’s still an entertaining yarn. In addition to Olivia de Havilland, screen legends Joseph Cotten, Ed Nelson and Walter Pidgeon have some solid key roles in the movie. Ed Nelson as many might recall, was in a plethora of B-movies ranging from Invasion of the Saucer Men and Attack of the Crab Monsters to The Devil’s Partner and Hot Car Girl.
The Screaming Woman arrives on Blu-ray sporting what is advertised by Kino Lorber as a brand new 2K master. The video quality for this release is tremendous. The colors are vibrant, bright, and cheerful. The blue skies above, the grounds of the property and the outfits that the actors wear simply look fantastic. Shadow details are excellent during the evening nights, black levels are balanced. The details are strong and have much depth than I expected from a TV movie! No video distortions or DNR appears to have been applied.
Kino uses a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track for The Screaming Woman and is perfectly fine with dialogue and screams coming in clearly without any defects such as hissing. English subtitles are available for this release.
This release has an audio commentary by Film Historian and Screenwriter Gary Gerani, who shares loads of information about this film and the actors involved.
There are also TV Spots for Scream Pretty Peggy, Fear No Evil, Ritual of Evil and Kolchak the Night Stalker. This release also sports a slipcover with art by Vince Evans.
Fans of these television movies such as The Screaming Woman should rejoice that these films are getting some superb restoration efforts. The Victim and Scream, Pretty Peggy are a couple more recent television movie released by Kino Lorber that I can easily recommend in addition to this film!
The Screaming Woman
Director- Jack Smight
Cast- Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Walter Pidgeon
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –11/13/2021