Terror From Under the House – 1970
Director
Sidney Hayers

Writer
John Kruse

Cast
Joan Collins, James Booth, Ray Barrett
Judy Pace, Larry Hagman, Wes Stern, Nira Barab

Review by Wayne Malin

Very dated but has its moments,

College student Colin Slade (Wes Stern) is unjustly thrown out of a college by a computer error. Self-righteous principal Maurice Cambers (Larry Hagman) won’t lift a finger to help him–because he installed the computers so they HAVE to be right! To get revenge Colin joins a revolutionary group and seduces Cambers wife (Joan Collins), daughter (Nira Barab) and black mistress (Judy Pace)! And Cambers is running for political office.

At first I hated this. The plot and jokes were VERY 60s (and not very funny now) and there were dreadful late 60s fashions, hairstyles and dialogue. And Stern is a lousy actor…and unattractive to boot. But slowly I began to like it and by the last half I was enjoying myself a lot! The movie was made to cash in through the enormous success of 1968s “Three in the Attic”. I haven’t seen that film–I’d love to but it’s impossible to find–so I can’t say how much of a copy this is. But this turns into a very sharp satire on politics, universities, self-righteousness and censorship. Some of it is still (sadly) relevant today. And it has an ending where EVERYBODY ends up happy! As I said Stern was lousy and Barab was even worse. But Hagman is a howl (and is really enjoying himself); David Arkin is great in a small role as Hugo Crane (his description of the revolutionary group is a definite highlight); Pace is wonderful in her role and Joan Collins successfully fakes an American accent and has a hysterical speech in front of an audience at the end.

So–it took a while for me to warm up to it but I ended up being very entertained. I give it a 7.