The Legacy * (1978, Katharine Ross, Sam Elliott, Roger Daltrey, John Standing, Ian Hogg, Margaret Tyzack, Charles Gray, Lee Montague, Hildegard Neil) – Classic Movie Review 8,422

The almost unbearable 1978 supernatural horror movie The Legacy stars Katharine Ross and Sam Elliott as a couple of dull American architects who are stranded in an English old, dark house with a bunch of camp and creepy Brits.

Debut director Richard Marquand’s almost unbearable 1978 supernatural horror movie The Legacy stars Katharine Ross and Sam Elliott as a couple of dull American architects who are stranded in an English old, dark house with a bunch of camp and creepy Brits, a bigger bunch of stale ideas and hints of satanic rites around every corner.

A UK/ US co-production, it also stars Roger Daltrey, John Standing, Ian Hogg, Margaret Tyzack, Charles Gray, Lee Montague, and Hildegard Neil. 

The Legacy is slow paced, unbelievable and not at all creepy. Despite the good cast and Jimmy Sangster as one of the writers, it boasts little to excite horror aficionados and it is of no interest to anyone else.

Actually, it’s terrible. The Kiki Dee theme song! The zoom shots! The bad acting! The awful score!

Also in the cast are Roger Daltrey, John Standing, Ian Hogg, Margaret Tyzack, Charles Gray, Lee Montague, and Hildegard Neil, with Marianne Broome, William Abney, Patsy Smart, Mathias Kilroy, and Reg Harding.

It was shot at Bray Studios in Berkshire, England, from 16 January 1978 to 23 March 1978, with location filming at Mountolive Manor House and Loseley Park in Guildford, Surrey.

Jimmy Sangster’s supernatural script was set in a run-down hospital in downtown Detroit but to his dismay changed to take place in an English country estate with stereotype butlers, chauffeurs and curtseying maids.

It premiered in the UK on 29 September 1978, with its US premiere a year later, opening in New York City on 28 September 1979.

It is edited by the legendary British film editor Anne V Coates. She recalled she had lunch with Richard Marquand: ‘He sold the idea of the film, and I thought, God! this is a director who really knows what he is doing. But unfortunately when he actually got on the floor he clearly didn’t know what he was doing at all.’

She added that the film ‘is almost continually on American television. Funny how you make some quite good films and some that you’re not that proud of. And it’s a very popular film, funnily enough. I don’t think it ever was particularly as a cinema film.’ But actually it was. Incredibly, it was popular. On a budget of $2.5 million, it grossed $11.36 million in the US.

Michael J Lewis composes the original music score and the opening credits theme song ‘Another Side of Me’ is performed by Kiki Dee.

The Legacy is directed by Richard Marquand, runs 100 minutes, is made by Pethurst and Turman-Foster, is released by Columbia-Warner Distributors (UK) and Universal Pictures (US), is written by Jimmy Sangster, Patrick Tilley and Paul Wheeler, based on a story by Jimmy Sangster, is shot by Dick Bush and Alan Hume, is produced by Arnold Kopelson (executive producer) and David Foster, is scored by Michael J Lewis, and is designed by Disley Jones.

The US cut runs two minutes shorter and has some alternative shots.

Katharine Ross married Sam Elliott on May 1, 1984, after working together on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and becoming reacquainted on the set of The Legacy.

The cast

The cast are Katharine Ross as Maggie Walsh, Sam Elliott as Pete Danner, Roger Daltrey as Clive Jackson, John Standing as Jason Mountolive, Ian Hogg as Harry, Margaret Tyzack as Nurse Adams, Charles Gray as Karl Liebnecht, Lee Montague as Jacques Grandier, Hildegard Neil as Barbara Kirstenburg, Marianne Broome as Maria Gabrieli, William Abney, Patsy Smart, Mathias Kilroy and Reg Harding.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8,422

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