For a few fun years in the 1970s, Kate Jackson was the queen of the humdinger ending. From Killer Bees to Death Cruise and Satan’s School for Girls, she delivered morbid laughs with a winsome smile. Unlike those offerings, director E.W. Swackhamer’s Death at Love House (1976) isn’t particularly humorous—at least not intentionally—but its overwrought ending might remind you of the flaming baby scene from Susan Slade, which puts it in a league of its own.
Jackson’s Donna Gregory is the newly pregnant wife and writing partner of Joel Gregory, Jr. (Robert Wagner). Together they’re probing the history of Joel Sr., the father Junior barely knew, and his turbulent Hollywood romance with the late Lorna Love (Marianna Hill), a legendary bombshell actress. If the actors aren’t entirely convincing as Didion and Dunne knockoffs, modern audiences would have to uncomfortably concede that Wagner (who also plays Joel Sr.) is right at home in a story about the sordid circumstances surrounding the premature death of a beloved actress.
For research purposes, the pair descend on Love House, Lorna’s sprawling estate, which agent Oscar Payne (Bill Macy) calls a monument to her ego. It’s unclear why the mansion has been meticulously maintained for decades when no one lives there but a slinky black cat and a taciturn caretaker, Clara Josephs (Sylvia Sidney, who’d recently appeared in The Secret Night Caller). But you’d be silly to scrutinize Death at Love House too closely when you can just as easily surrender and enjoy the discoveries the Gregorys make about Lorna’s interest in the occult—and her association with a faith healer known as Father Eternal Fire.
Equally unsettling are their encounters with notable figures from Lorna’s past: John Carradine, feasting on scenery as the DeMille-esque director who “molded her out of clay and dirt,” only for her to destroy his career; Joan Blondell as a loony fan club president; and Dorothy Lamour as Denise Christian, a former rival who interrupts the filming of a coffee advertisement (that sadly lacks the pizzazz and rich flavah of a Lauren Bacall commercial) to admit “I hated the witch.” Screenwriter James Barnett is more interested in this side of Lorna’s existence than her dabbling in the supernatural realm; he crafts a colorful parade of characters with grievances against the actress.
“She’s evil,” Donna concludes. “And this house is rotten with her memory.” But Joel Jr. feels otherwise, dismissing her concerns about the athame, a “ritual knife used in witchcraft,” found in their guest suite, where a portrait of the two was torn in half. Even after his pregnant wife is locked in a bathroom and almost lethally gassed, Joel can’t resist the hypnotic pull of Love House or the haunting portrait of Lorna that was painted by his father. And what’s with his creepy late-night prowling around the glass shrine where Love’s well-preserved corpse is bafflingly displayed?
Death at Love House struggles at times to overcome a paper-thin plot, and its plodding, sepia-toned flashbacks of Lorna’s affair with Joel Sr. only emphasize the star wasn’t as captivating in the flesh as she was in the imagination. (Hill’s modern sensuality was also out of place, her attire in a silent film clip laughably anachronistic.) But the supporting cast is mostly great and Jackson’s right at home in hokey material such as this. That Wagner’s about as appealing as soggy cardboard in his one-dimensional roles makes the howler of an ending that much more memorable.
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Streaming and DVD availability
Death at Love House is currently out-of-print on DVD but it streams at both Amazon and Tubi.
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Cranky Lesbian is a disgruntled homosexual with too much time on her hands. Click for film reviews or to follow on Instagram.
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