Director: Lee Philips
Stars: Linda Blair, Martin Sheen and Jeanne Cooper
Distributed: Warner Bros. Archive
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 91 minutes
Our Score: 2 out of 5 stars
I have no idea how this film got nominated for a Golden Globe in 1976 for Best Television Movie, except for lack of options. The only good thing about this film is the cast which includes Martin Sheen and Linda Blair. The film is slow moving and repetitive. This is the first time that this film has been released on DVD, due to Warner Brothers Archive Collection. It is a nice transfer to DVD but it is only full screen ratio.
The film follows an escaped mental patient who kidnaps a teenage farm girl and takes her to his mountain hide-away. The two over a short period of time become friends and, eventually, lovers. This seems like it would work better as a 30 minute episode on a soap opera then a full length TV movie. Besides the strong performances, this film does not have much going for it.
The major issue I had with this was that it wasn’t convincing with the story. Doris Mae is kidnapped she is scarred at first and then she is in love with her capturer after a few days. Leonard Hatch escapes from a mental institution but he doesn’t even act like he is insane and what is the point of even kidnapping Doris Mae? Overall this TV film did not interest me and I understand why it has never been released on DVD before. Also there are zero extras on this disc…it is totally bare bones.