Rene Bond week (August 11 – 17) Rene Bond could brighten up even the most dreary productions, and she was in plenty of them. In the early adult scene she was one of the better actors, particularly when it came to comedy, though she could squeeze into some leather and throw the whips around when the role called for it. Bond appeared in somewhere near 100 films, thanks to her affable professionalism she worked with many filmmakers multiple times and regularly performed with her boyfriend Ric Lutze. Her career received an enhancement when she became one of the first stars to get a boobjob. She retired from film in the late-70s just as the porno chic era was dying down, but before the video era. You can find her in a ton of SWV titles, so take yer pick!

Helen Mercer (Amanda Blake, Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke) is a wealthy widow who had to kill a handyman who menaced her last year. Now, the rest of town calls her “Deadeye” and she doesn’t leave her home. She’s looking for a younger secretary, but really a companion, and finds one in Gretchen Addison (Tisha Sterling, the daughter of Robert Sterling and Ann Sothern). The problem? Gretchen is actually Adele Murphy and she’s on the run with her evil boyfriend Jay (Sam Groom) who keeps killing the elderly women who she works for.

Gretchen ends up finding a mother figure in Helen and doesn’t want to treat her like the rest of their victims. And to tell the truth, Helen isn’t all that easy to kill.

Based on the book Only Couples Need Apply by Doris Miles Disney (who also wrote the book that Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate was inspired by), Gretchen soon finds that she likes Helen’s world, with friends like Judge Harold Porter (Dick Haymes) and the opportunity to do more than just be a criminal constantly going from town to town with her abusive lover. Helen also learns that she can live from the younger girl and doesn’t have to stay inside her large house.

This was directed by Gordon Hessler, who made Scream and Scream Again, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park, Prey for Death, The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver, Cry of the Banshee and more. It was written by James Mitchell Miller, who also was the writer for The Dark Secret of Harvest Home.

I have to share this IMDB review from dedmond509 because, wow:

“I guess that may be a bit of a spoiler. I always thought Tisha Sterling was really pretty. And in this movie, the scene that stands out to me was when her boyfriend viciously punches her in the stomach! I had never seen such a thing – such a pretty girl get so brutally hit in the stomach like that. She goes down immediately, holding her stomach and in pain, unable to breath. The guy grabs her hair and berates her and then leaves her suffering from the stomach punch.

You hardly ever see the attractive girls in movies get hit in the stomach. I was rather young when I saw this and it was so realistic. Tisha’s acting was superb. It made me wonder if this had ever happened to her in real life. In the movie, I could hardly tell it was acting.

Good movie all around, but I’ll never forget the part where Tisha gets punched so hard in the stomach and doubles over onto a ottoman holding her stomach in pain – at length. I had never seen such a thing in real life or on screen before or since then.”

Me, I was noticing Rene Bond playing a waitress as a bit part. Yes, she was in a TV movie the very same year that she was in The Dicktator, The French Love Secret, Country Hooker, Inside Amy, Angel Above – The Devil Below, Flesh Gordon, Five Loose Women, High School Fantasies, The Danish Connection, Panorama Blue, and Teaser.

You can watch this on YouTube.