The Mad Room (1969)

A young woman (Stella Stevens) works as a companion to her fiance's (Skip Ward) disapproving stepmother (Shelley Winters). When her brother (Michael Burns) and sister (Barbara Sammeth) are released from a mental institution, she brings them to live in the house. What she doesn't tell her fiance and stepmother is that they were incarcerated for murdering their parents at the ages of 4 and 6. Very loosely based on the 1941 film LADIES IN RETIREMENT, this is a middling effort at best. Its "surprise" ending is no surprise at all as it's fairly obvious and the film is hampered by poor performances by Burns and Sammeth. The director Bernard Girard can't seem to create a sense of suspense which a film like this demands if it's going to work at all. While Winters is surprisingly restrained, poor Stevens is sabotaged by Moss Mabry's hideous ruffles and bows costumes and the ugly more is less hairstyles of Virginia Jones. The score by Dave Grusin (ON GOLDEN POND) is a mixed blessing, some nice pastoral moments but some generic thriller cues. With Beverly Garland, Severn Darden and Carole Cole.