Late Corman, Early Coppola

DEMENTIA 13-1963-This begins with a husband and wife out in a row boat at night discussing his mother's inheritance. He has a heart attack and dies. She fears that she will be cut out of MIL's will if his death is discovered so she throws his weighted body into the water. After some brief credits, the woman Louise (Luana Anders) packs hubby's suitcase and forges his signature on a note to his mom (Eithne Dunne). Louise is living in an old Irish castle with her two brothers in law. William Campbell is the older brother Richard, an artist who works in metal and is engaged to Kane (Mary Mitchel). Billy (Bart Patton) is the younger bro, shy and weak. They are all haunted by the memory of Kathleen, a sister who drowned when she was a little girl. The woman schemes to make MIL change her will by making the old woman think Kathleen has come back. Her plan doesn't work as she is killed by a mysterious ax murderer who also decapitates an old poacher. Patrick Magee is the weird family doctor who figures it out. 

Producer Roger Corman wanted a low budget PSYCHO rip-off made with money left over form his THE YOUNG RACERS (which had featured Campbell, Anders and Magee). He hired Francis Ford Coppola (only his third film) to write and directed it in Ireland. It's dark and bizarre and the acting is very good. Corman and Coppola clashed over the final cut's running time and Corman added a  "gimmick" prologue (directed by either Jack Hill or Monte Hellman) to pad it out.  So Corman wanted to rip-off Hitchcock and William Castle??

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