Garry Rusoff Movies

By the admission of its own producers, the made-for-TV Marian Rose White was "extremely loosely based" on a true story. The real Marian Rose White was a 1930s teenager who suffered from a congenital visual defect. This led to her being misdiagnosed as "feebleminded," and locked away in a Sonoma, California institution. Despite the entreaties of sympathetic staffers, Marian was forced to undergo a legally mandated sterilization--which her widowed, impoverished mother readily agreed to. Thirty years passed before this terrible wrong was addressed and Marian was allowed to re-enter society. For the purposes of this film, those three decades were telescoped into four years. The result is a sincere (if somewhat rushed) "injustice of the week" TV effort. Katherine Ross is top-billed as a compassionate nurse, while Valerie Perrine is cast as Marian's unfeeling mother. Marian Rose White is brilliantly essayed by Nancy Cartwright, who is best known today as the voice of cartoon character Bart Simpson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This pedestrian haunted-house film stars Vic Morrow as a creepy real estate agent who introduces a young couple to a quaint Louisiana farmhouse, neglecting to inform them of its horrific, blood-spattered past. As bizarre events begin to plague the couple, their suspicions that the place may be haunted slowly give way to the notion that someone is trying to scare them silly. Unfortunately, viewers will have little difficulty solving the mystery, as writer-director Charles B. Pierce tends to be all thumbs in the suspense department (despite a few decent shocks toward the end). The pseudo-documentary tone (the film is supposedly based on a true story) only manages to cheapen the overall look, and is far short of convincing. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide