This is really nothing more than a slightly gorier rendition of SUNSET BOULEVARD/BABY JANE hysterics. Miriam Hopkins, one of Hollywood's finest actresses during the '30's, gives an appropriately hammy performance as a demented former movie queen who, when not chugging down a bottle of vodka, is staggering around her decaying Hollywood mansion(the real-life home of famous silent screen star Norma Talmadge) plotting to make a comeback. When she breaks her leg during a drunken episode, she is assisted by a good-looking, but strange young man(John Garfield, Jr.) who passes himself off as a male nurse, but is, in fact, a sick psychopath who has been dismembering several women who live in the Hollywood hills. Despite being almost totally beyond redemption, the movie offers some occasionally worthwhile moments supplied by several familiar old-time character actors, and Miss Hopkins, in her final film role, gives a much better performance than the circumstances warrant. Also out on video as: HOLLYWOOD HORROR HOUSE. Originally titled: THE COMEBACK.
Review of Hollywood Horror House
