THE LEGACY
UK, 1978, 102 minutes, Colour.
Katharine Ross, Sam Elliott, John Standing, Ian Hogg, Margaret Tyzack, Charles Gray, Lee Montague, Hildegard Neil, Roger Daltrey.
Directed by Richard Marquand.
The Legacy: And still they come, occult and soul-selling melodramas of diabolical powers and death. This British production is pleasingly done (and has a gorily disappearing cast including Roger Daltrey) and the audience identification and belief rests with the attractive Katharine Ross. However, her boyfriend Sam Elliott is a bit too callowly U.S. nonchalant to be convincing except for his final action and decision. A British country estate and stately home make an attractive setting for the devilish proceedings. The screenplay illustrates how classic plots like Faustian soul-selling to the Devil have perennial interest and give substance to the more fashionable styles of horror and occult trends.
1. A satisfying horror story? The appeal of horror and crime films? Audience identification, revulsion? Fear, violence, death, gore? The exploitive aspects of this film?
2. The traditions of the old, dark house and the disappearing guests, Agatha Christies Ten Little Niggers and the criminals being repaid in kind? The traditional plot and its adaptation to the '70s? Its linking with occult and Satanist themes of the film of the '70s? The international background - American-contribution, European, British setting? The appeal of the basic story?
3. The British production and values, the American atmosphere of the opening, the stars? The guest character actors? The English setting, the countryside and its beauty, sinister aspects and isolation, the stately how and its beauty and its destructiveness? The interiors of the mansion? The special effects especially in the killings? The emphasis on blood and gore?
4. The appeal of the occult trends of the '70s, satanic power, evil incarnate? The linking of this with crime, the seeking of power, deaths and retribution?
5. The traditional stories of selling one's soul to the Devil for power - how well was this incorporated into the plot?
6. The attractiveness of Maggie and Pete at the beginning of the film? Their work, living in Los Angeles, American style, their relationship? The decision to go to London - the lure of the legacy? Settling in England, the suddenness of the accident and its effect? Jason Mountolive and his kindness, leading them on (and leading the audience on)? The atmosphere of puzzle and mystery?
7. The initial focus on Jason - pleasant English gentleman, his car, his chauffeur (and his later becoming sinister)? Taking care of his guests, of the bike? The ominous indication about his leg? His disappearance? The shock of the later discovery about his age, decomposition? His being a recluse and his need for health care? The discovery of his power, the giving of the ring to Maggie? The revelation of his motives? The nurse? The old Elizabethan witchcraft, the curse, the satanic power, its being handed on as a legacy? His corruption in death?
8. The film's focus on the group - the quick delineation of character, the international background, the build-up of their deaths and these corresponding to their crimes - as discovered by Pete? Maria and her glamour and her drowning? Karl and his revealing some of the truth to Maggie and his burning? Clive as the pop star (and Roger Daltrey's presence) and his choking and having his throat slit? Barbara and her fears, vanity and the mirror slashing her to pieces? Jacques and his shooting from the roof and fall to death? The cumulative effect of such deaths?
9. Maggie and her fears. the ring and her inability to get it off, the story of Elizabethan times, her portrait? Power and fear? Her encounter with Jason? Her terror at what seemed to be telekinetic powers? The long escape sequence with Pete and their continual returning to the house?
10. Pete as the callow American? His wanting to take Maggie away? Killing Jacques and being free? His agreement to participate in Maggie’s power? Was this in character? His future? His selling his soul - and his future retribution?
11. The presentation of the very British household, the servants and their back stairs and kitchen discussions? The nurse and her control? Her control of Jason? Orders for Maggie, her ominous presence - especially in cutting Clive's throat? Her turning into a cat and the death of the cat? Her ominous reappearance?
12. The plausibility of the Elizabethan story, Maggie's disbelief, her fascination with the power, her choosing finally to accept the legacy? What did this leave the audience with - in terns of Maggies future and satanic power?
