Review of Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971) by Alex Aka Zander W — 02 Oct 2006

[b]Nothing Sacred[/b] = complete waste of time. It's a screwball comedy, and, while that is not my favorite genre, I have enjoyed it in the past. But this was just tedious in the extreme. Fredric March ("The Iceman Cometh") stars as a shamed reporter trying to redeem himself. So he decides to show a dying girl, Carole Lombard ("To Be or Not to Be"), New York City. Only she's not really dying. She just wants a free trip. Then they fall for each other. Then he finds out it's a hoax. Hilarity is supposed to ensue. There were a couple of times I thought about laughing, but, by then, I was so bored it was just too much trouble.

Also, the transfer was terrible. Sometimes there were scratches and the entire thing was dirty. Every once in awhile it seemed to be ghosting, where the images blurred up. It made me crazy, and really appreciative of good transfers.

[b] Let's Scare Jessica to Death[/b] turned out to be a delightful surprise. An atmospheric horror film that focuses on the fraying mind of Jessica, recently released from the mental hospital where she was sent for hearing voices and seeing things that weren't there. So when she, her husband, and their close friend (how close I sometimes wondered) move out to a farm and meet a bunch of strangely bandaged townsfolk and an engaging redhead, no one believes the things she tells them about how wrong everything is. Excellent music.