W 1973
director: Richard Quine
Genre
Country
United States
Alternative Titles
- Terror Is a One Letter Word
- I Want Her Dead
Cast
Twiggy [Lesley Hornby] Michael Witney Eugene Roche Dirk Benedict John Vernon Michael Conrad Alfred Ryder Carmen Zapata Dave Morick Ken Lynch Peter Walker
Other Releases
Formats
Average User Rating: 2 Vote(s)
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 Not Available | Purchase this movie on DVD! |  Not Available |
| Distributor | Films of the 80's |
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User Reviews:
by sabre210
British Model Twiggy stars in this US attempt at a psychological thriller. Twiggy plays Katie Lewis, a delicate woman living a secret life with a new identity and new husband after fleeing an oppressive and abusive first marriage. Her former husband, Billy, is serving time for her presumed murder, despite the police never having found her body. Just as Katie's life appears to be back on track after years of mental fragility, strange occurrences threaten to tip her over the edge towards a state of madness. After her car lurches uncontrollably into a wall near her home, Katie becomes convinced her deranged and overbearing former husband has escaped incarceration and has tracked her down in order to exact a terrible revenge, leaving a scrawled 'W' at the scene.
Current husband Ben initially dismisses her concerns as paranoia, but when his own vehicle is tampered with and the family home is broken into and their pet dog killed, he realises the threat is very real and not a fabrication of Katie's. Convinced to pay for personal protection after an unsolicited visit by private investigator Jasper , Ben and Katie become suspicious and instigate their own investigations which seems to confirm that Billy is still locked away and that Japser himself might be responsible for the reign of terror.
Whilst no nail-biter by any stretch of the imagination, it's not too bad a movie to be fair but never really delivers what it promises. Model Twiggy tries her best to give a performance but her lack of acting experience, training or natural ability shows at times. John Vernon puts in an appearance as does Dirk Benedict (Face from the A-Team) as the eponymous 'W' - Billy.
The Films of 80's release only surfaced as recently as Spring 2012, having made the journey in the early 80's from UK Video wholesaler to rental library in Norway and now back to British shores. It is currently the only one of its kind known to exist. Whilst the picture quality is what one might expect, the print used to duplicate from appears to have suffered a lot of damage and/or some censorship. Scenes simply hiccup from one to the next, often mid-dialogue indicating removal of crucial frames possibly due to damage. The scene where Katie and Ben discover their dead pet, is almost excised in its entirety and is only briefly mentioned a few scenes later, providing the viewer with a crucial piece of plot. Whether this jump is due to censorship or is just one of several damaged sections remains unknown.
All in all, worthy of a watch, but nothing jaw-dropping. In view of the rarity of the Films of the 80's version and the disjointed scene-hopping of the print, my advice is seek out the Vestron release if you wish to catch up with this movie as it remains (to my knowledge) currently unavailable on DVD.