Home for the Holidays (1972 film)

A wealthy invalid, Benjamin Morgan (Walter Brennan), believes his wife, Elizabeth (Julie Harris), is trying to poison him. Alex (Eleanor Parker), his daughter, believes him. Thus, she summons her three sisters -- Freddie, Jo, and Chris -- to the Morgan country estate for Christmas. When they arrive, Mr. Morgan calls them to his room, where he urges the sisters to kill Elizabeth before she kills them all. Later, Elizabeth shows them to their rooms before preparing dinner. But before they can eat, Jo (Jill Haworth) bombards Elizabeth with questions about her first husband's death. Suddenly Freddie's screams are heard upstairs. The sisters find a drunken, crying Freddie (Jessica Walter) clutching a glass of vodka, with a shard of glass cutting into her other hand. They attempt to calm Freddie before putting her to bed. Later that night, a storm kicks up, influencing Jo's decision to leave. She asks for the loan of Alex's car to travel to the local train station. After bidding her sisters goodbye, she approaches the car and suddenly becomes victim to a mysterious figure in a yellow rain slicker, rubber gloves, and boots. Jo is stabbed in the back with a pitchfork. Inside, Freddie refuses Elizabeth's offer of a milk-and-honey concoction and decides to continue her vodka supper, eventually climbing into a warm bath and passing out. Soon, the same rubber-gloved intruder appears, grabbing Freddie's feet, pulling her under water. She drowns.

The next morning, Christmas Day, Chris (Sally Field) discovers Freddie's body in the tub. She screams. As the others enter, Alex accuses Elizabeth of poisoning Freddie, a claim which Elizabeth denies. Chris attempts to call the police only to find the phone dead. She then decides to navigate her way through a wooded area to use a neighbor's phone. After entering the woods, Chris notices she's being followed, starts to panic, and runs. Her nemesis is dressed in the (by now) customary yellow slicker outfit. Chris manages successfully to hide beneath a log, watching the killer give up and leave. She then backtracks and runs all the way home. Upon arriving, she notices Alex's car still inside the barn. While investigating, she stumbles upon Jo's dead body, half buried in mud. Elizabeth then appears, telling her to come with her. Instead, Chris runs inside the house, where she locks the door, and then discovers Benjamin dead. Chris screams and later bolts from the house alone, flagging down a passing car -- which turns out to be driven by Alex. Chris explains that Elizabeth has murdered everyone, but Alex confesses that she is the actual killer. Elizabeth was merely set up as a patsy. She then sloughs Chris over the head with a tire iron and hides the body before driving to police headquarters. Investigators accompany Alex to the farmhouse, kicking off a series of events that finally lead to her arrest. Alex sails into hysteria upon seeing Chris still alive. Chris watches the police lead Alex away. In the end, Elizabeth is left to tend to the Morgan farmhouse alone.

• Jessica Walter as Frederica (Freddie) Morgan
• Sally Field as Christine (Chris) Morgan
• Eleanor Parker as Alexandra (Alex) Morgan
• Julie Harris as Elizabeth Hall Morgan
• Walter Brennan as Benjamin Morgan
• Jill Haworth as Joanna (Jo) Morgan
• John Fink as Dr. Ted Lindsay
• Med Flory as Sheriff Nolan

The film debuted on the American Broadcasting Company on November 28, 1972, as part of the ABC Movie of the Week series.

The film was released on DVD by Echo Bridge Home Entertainment on May 7, 2013, as a part of its "8 Midnight Horror Movies" pack. Echo Bridge later re-released the film on September 9, 2014, and on June 23, 2015.[1]

Probably the most insightful analysis of Home for the Holidays can be found in David Deal's critique, from his book, Television Fright Films of the 1970s. He notes that the four Morgan daughters in the film all have masculine first-names, implying that "the father had always wanted sons and was therefore unforgiving of his progeny, [causing] the break in family ties."[2] However, Deal also notes that "such subtleties are admirable but unnecessary" considering the movie's chief purpose was to frighten TV audiences. The author goes on to assail John Llewelyn Moxie's direction as being strictly pedestrian, with "very little visual flair or suspense, where a touch of either would have gone a long way."

However, critic Howard Thompson of the New York Times was less sparing in his criticism, published the morning of the film's prime-time premiere. According to his article, "you never saw a grislier, wetter and flatter Yuletide meatball in the guise of a thriller." Ticking off the body count and describing how each victim is murdered, Thompson finally observes that "[if] you...really care whodunit, simply pick the shiftiest pair of eyes on the premises. This is a Christmas present? Somebody's got to be kidding."[3]

Justin Kerswell from Hysteria Lives! awarded the film 4/5 stars, writing, "Perhaps the film sails too close to soap opera histrionics at times... However, the performances are roundly so good that this doesn't matter, plus the story just keeps twisting and turning."[4] Brett Gallman from Oh, the Horror! wrote, "Unfolding like a film adaptation of an Agatha Christie play, Home For the Holidays often feels stagebound and hemmed up; if not for beating the “Christmas horrors” out of the gate, I suspect it may be even more obscure than it already is, despite all of the talent involved. As it stands, it's a movie you'll probably hear about this time every year when horror fans begin to discuss the holiday-tinged offerings, and this is one of the last courses you'll ever need to digest."[5]

• Home for the Holidays at AllMovie
• Home for the Holidays at IMDb
• Home for the Holidays at Rotten Tomatoes
• Home for the Holidays at the TCM Movie Database
• Home for the Holidays: The Terror Trap