Dear Dead Delilah

source: Dear Dead Delilah

I found that the plot was rather unique, no one in the story is completely perfect. with the main character being a former convict. It would be interesting to see a modern day remake of it! The southern plantation is a little cliche but the gore and the classiness of the movie makes up for that. The acting is wonderfully good especially from a b-movie.

Story of a heavily dysfunctional Southern family. They've all gathered at the mansion of the head of the family Delilah (Agnes Moorehead). She's dying and has hidden a large amount of money somewhere on the estate but won't say where. Someone starts killing off family members with an axe. Who's doing it and where is the money? Pretty good movie. It's very low budget and was only previously available in edited prints in lousy shape. It's just been remastered and looks great. The script is interesting and the acting is very good--especially by Moorehead in her last theatrical film. As for blood and gore--there's not much but what is there is pretty strong. So--a good drive-in movie from the 1970s. It's great to see it uncut and remastered.

Made fun by one of the last appearances of Agnes Moorhead, this entry into the hag horror genre is defeated by a trashy low budget and excessive gore. Its back story starts with an obviously demented plain young woman (Patricia Carmichael) talking to her dead mother's bloody corpse while making herself up for a date which obviously never occurs. Released from a mental institution, she goes to work for imperious southern matriarch Moorhead whose greedy clan seemingly can't wait for her to croak. Moorhead, their stepmother, announces that she's dying and that the estate will go to the state and a bequest of $5000 will go to each of them. She then sets up a rave to find money their father hid on the estate, leading to a series of gruesome killings that seem to point to nurse Carmichael. With the role of a cranky goose and a brief run in the Broadway musical "Gigi" awaiting her, this was Moorehead's first film after nearly a decade as Endora awaiting her. She manages to create a memorable characterization, playing the part with commanding authority and not losing her dignity. Will Geer, Michael Ansara Anne Meachum, Dennis Patrick and Emmy winning soap actor Robert Gentry are among the supporting cast, with hunky Gentry having some interesting sadomasochistic tendencies added to a kinky love scene. Carmichael's story needed more detail to make her into a completely interesting and sympathetic character. I wouldn't call this a complete disaster, but it suffers from truly horrid technical aspects that makes it appear quite amateurish.

Southern fried hokum that, despite the presence of a few A-list talents, offers up very few thrills. Wealthy Agnes Moorehead rules her family of ne'er-do-wells with an iron fist and taunts them into finding a stash of loot somewhere on their sprawling estate. Mayhem ensues. While Moorehead is quite good and Will Geer and Dennis Patrick offer able support, much of the cast act as if they're appearing in an amateur production of a Tennessee Williams' play. They're not helped by the unimaginative direction of John Farris. There are no scares, only silliness. It's awkwardly made and awkwardly scripted. Most ridiculous: somehow, Moorehead has the dumb-luck of hiring a recently paroled ax-murderess as a caregiver. Michael Ansara, Robert Gentry and Anne Meacham (awful as Moorehead's soused sister) are in it too.

"Dear Dead Delilah", as far as I could tell, was one of those movies that wants to be something, but only succeeds in remaining a wannabe connection between several classic TV shows. It stars Agnes Moorehead (aka Endora on "Bewitched"), Will Geer (aka Grandpa on "The Waltons"), Michael Ansara (aka Barbara Eden's ex-husband who made three appearances on "I Dream of Jeannie") and Dennis Patrick (I believe that he's best known for a role on "Dallas", but I remember him as Susan Sarandon's father in "Joe"). The movie centers on a killing spree at a Nashville estate, but is mostly either a series of body parts getting lopped off, or long-winded conversations. In relation to "Bewitched", you might say that this movie corroborates Darrin's worst fears about Endora, and makes Samantha want to distance herself from her mother. Oh, and did you know that Agnes Moorehead also played Citizen Kane's mother? "Citizen Kane" to "Bewitched" to a slasher movie. The things that we see in life...

I thought the acting in this movie was great. Much better than your normal B-horror movies. Moorehead had a full sculpted character with perfect facial expressions, southern accent and dry, humorless yet honest remarks. I couldn't decide if I liked her or hated her, which is probably what she was trying to do. The character of Luddy was unique, as well. She had an eerie presence to her, probably because of all the eye makeup she was in. Her character gave the movie more intrigue because you don't really understand what her purpose is. The young Luddy was interesting looking with her bad eye. I wonder why they didn't incorporate the bad eye into the older Luddy..?? I even liked Buffy and her line, "That's a big incompatibility between us because I could NEVER imagine drinking a martini without an olive!!" This is the angriest we see her, and it does a great job showing her optimistic, happy-go-lucky spirit amongst the white, spoiled, snobby people she's with. The disgusted glare she gets from Delilah when she puffs on a cigar was one of my favorite parts. Even the characters of Grace and Marshall were well acted and unique. And Robert Gentry is pretty hot! The acting and interesting characters make this movie more of drama than a horror. HOWEVER, these immensely gory scenes seem to come out of nowhere just to shake you up. I like this style! It's like a classy AND campy horror movie. Not that pure white-bred, rich, plantation owners in the south are really classy, but it gives you that illusion, anyway. Rent this if you want to see a horror movie that strays from the usual b-horror path.

This is one of the truly great low-budget American semi-exploitation movies of the 70's, comparable (talking purely in terms of quality and shock-value) with other forgotten gems like for example "Blood and Lace", "The House that Vanished", "The Evictors" and "The Town that Dreaded Sundown". They don't necessarily revolve on common themes or substances, but they all feature a genuinely unsettling atmosphere and convoluted story lines you can't possibly predict. You continuously feel that anything can happen in this type of movies, from the most absurd plot twists to the totally unanticipated death of a pivot character. "Dear Dead Delilah" (that title alone!!) opens with a magnificently sinister sequence, supposedly taking place in a godforsaken Tennessee town in the mid-forties. We see how an eerie-looking teenage girl rebels vocally against her mother because she can't go on a date with a boy, but then the camera moves away from her room and we notice how chopped off body parts of the mother are spread around the hallway and the mother lies dead in the bathroom. Several years later the young teenager from the intro, Luddy, is released from the mental institution before the opening credits appear on screen. Almost naturally, you then expect the rest of the film to handle about the now matured woman reverting back to her old murderous habits, but that's exactly where the wicked imagination of 70's horror scriptwriters kicks in. Through a series of coincidental events, Luddy ends up working as a nurse in an environment that is even more demented as her own past. The crazed, wheelchair-bound spinster Delilah takes her into her mansion, just when there's a family reunion taking place to discuss Delilah's inheritance. The mean-spirited woman reveals the family fortune of nearly $500.000 is hidden somewhere on the estate, and this obviously generates a large-scaled treasure hunt as well as a sardonic killing spree. Delilah's greedy and troubled siblings are all looking for the fortune, but encounter an axe-wielding maniac rather than a pile of money. Probably not intended for the eyes of nowadays horror crowds, but "Dear Dead Delilah" is a gloriously nostalgic gem with delightfully insane character drawings, unusual suspense and – most surprisingly – outrageously gory make-up effects. The film is extremely bloody with, for example, an explicit decapitation and someone getting shot in the head. The cast is terrific, with Agnes Moorehead as the crazed matriarch on top, and the ambiance is just … thoroughly creepy! Very much recommended! Thank you, Mr. Vomitron, for your help in obtaining this purely gold gem.

'Dear Dead Delilah' is a twisted low-budget whodunnit horror exploitation flick blended with gothic melodrama and a dose of giallo elements thrown into the mix, creating a rather fun ride. The movie boasts some wonderfully gory death scenes, hammy acting and a macabre sense of humour. But what holds it back from being great is the lack of visual style and the sluggish pace where it takes an awfully long time to find its sense of rhythm, but once it gets there then it becomes a lot more entertaining. The plot = An elderly southern matriarch Delilah Charles (Agnes Moorhead) invites her family to her Plantation estate to search for the money her late father left to her on her property, but soon enough someone starts killing off the family members one by one. The movie has a rather quirky charm to it and a gritty gothic atmosphere with some enjoyable soap opera elements, effective red herrings and plenty of colourful characters. However, there are quite a few problems with this flick, for starters the clear lack of direction as the movie seems to amble from one scene to the next without any real structure and it takes way too long for something to happen, but once the murders happen, it does almost make up for the long boring dialogue scenes and lack of plot development. This feels more like an acquired taste sort of film that you got to be in the right kind of mood for, I found it okay though, not something I'd seek out to own or watch again though. The cast here is rather decent with Agnes Moorehead in her final film role delivering an delightful and entertaining performance as the over the top matriarch Delilah, she clearly had fun with the role and so did the audience. Patricia Carmichael was also fun as the housekeeper Luddy with a murderous past and delivers a decent performance. Anne Meacham also delivers a standout and perfectly hammy performance as the erratic drunk Grace. Overall 'Dear Dead Delilah' is a fine 70's low budget oddity that doesn't quite rank as a lost classic, but there's just enough entertainment value to it.

Ailing miserly matriarch Delilah Charles (a deliciously wicked and formidable portrayal by Agnes Moorehead) lives on a large plantation estate. Her various greedy and back-stabbing siblings gather together to collect Delilah's sizeable inheritance only to get bumped off left and right by a mysterious axe-wielding killer. Writer/director John Farris relates the absorbing and enjoyable story at a steady pace, adroitly crafts a brooding gloom-doom Southern gothic atmosphere, and presents a colorful array of seriously damaged and dysfunctional characters. Moreover, it's acted with aplomb by an able and enthusiastic cast: Will Geer as rascally lawyer Ray Jurroe, Michael Ansara as the slimy Morgan, Dennis Patrick as pathetic junkie Dr. Alonzo Charles, Anne Meacham as shrill alcoholic Grace, Robert Gentry as jerky hunk Richard, Patricia Carmichael as troubled housekeeper Luddy, Elizabeth Eis as fetching nurse Ellen, and Ruth Baker as the ditsy Buffy. The startling moments of graphic gore pack a vicious punch. A solid and satisfying little shocker.