Customer Reviews

Fatal Confinement [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Contrary to the write-up on the box of this movie, it is excellent. Joan looks wonderful in this presentation. Her daughter, who is confined to the homestead because of illness (mental), is watched over lovingly and carefully by Joan Crawford. Her love for her daughter is obvious in the movie, and the manner the movie is made keeps you wondering what is up until the excellent denoument. This movie was also released as "Della." It was part of a television series that did not make it. It really shows a lovely Joan Crawford near the end of her career. It is well worth your time to watch.

This is the original home-video release, from 1988. Note, there is an even scarcer release of this film, re-issued in 1997 under the title, Della.

"Fatal Confinement" was originally a pilot from 1964 titled, "Royal Bay." But when the TV series didn't pick up it was edited for theatrical presentation with Ms. Crawford billed as the star. The picture is in color and it is a total of 70 minutes long. This particular release was distributed by a company called International Film Forum. The original studio that produced this film is Four Star Productions. And, the original studio that produced this for TV is Four Star Productions.

In this film, Joan plays Della Chappell, a very wealthy and incredibly reclusive woman. When a big company wants the land Della lives on, the town sends out Barney Stafford to talk to her. She invites Barney over to negotiate the proposal. Barney soon takes a liking to Della's equally reclusive daughter, Jenny Chappell. After spending some time with Jenny, he realizes that Della has a dark secret, one that keeps them from the outside world.

I am not crazy about the cover of this video. Joan should have been on it. Afterall, she was the star of the movie, and Hollywood Royalty for more than 50 years.

Watch a fabulous movie late into Ms. Crawford's career!

This was filmed as the pilot for a show that didn't happen I am told. Too bad, it might have been an ok show although this episode is long on melodrama and short on logic. As is often typical for "mysterious house with troubled inhabitants" movies, if the characters had ever talked , not much of this would have happened. The big mystery turns out to be something sad, but not any kind of shameful secret, and the reason given for secrecy, carried to that extreme, is pretty farfetched. I am a fan of Diane Baker and she is lovely in this but her character comes off as a first class nut job; why a smart lawyer would let himself get pulled into that situation is the real mystery. Crawford looks very 60's glamorous and never forgets, or lets the other characters forget, for a single second, that she is a MAJOR MOVIE STAR acting in a tv movie. Is she fun to watch? you bet! (and occasionally moving as well). Paul Burke is reasonably good and it's always nice to see the great Charles Bickford who was a real master of his craft. So,to sum it up: kind of campy, not too believable, but I enjoyed it.

After 40 years in films, Joan still looks good and brings a little bit of class to this otherwise atrocious film. The other performances are hammy and overwrought, with incidental music and sets that bring to mind the worst moments of 60s' tv. Save your money and wait to see it on late (really, really late) night tv, if you must see it. I stayed with it just to find out about the 'dark secret' - which turns out to be some sort of utterly implausible fatal allergy to sunlight which afflicts the daughter (I tell people this so they won't feel they have to watch this terrible film to the end). Poor Joan - what a sad way to end her wonderful career - making rubbish films like this. You get the feeling that even she knew how terrible it was.