California wine heir Bruce Khan (Behrouz Vossoughi, the Marlon Brando of Iran) returns home from a mental ward to a wealthy family estate under siege by greed and suspicion. He immediately clashes with his new, much younger stepmother Susan (Sybil Danning)—his mother’s former nurse—whom Bruce suspects of having a hand in his mother’s death. Susan has wasted no time scheming with her lover, the family chauffeur Ralph (Mel Novak), to take over the estate and push out the patriarch, Rachid Khan (Frank DeKova). To complicate matters further, Bruce is fiercely protected by his loyal feline companion, Sampson, setting off a wild narrative spiral involving boat murders, secret siblings, softcore trysts, treacherous servants, a masked killer and a lengthy shootout at a rather shoddy corral. Also: Colleen Camp, who also sings the theme song!
Director Tony Zarindast also made Werewolf (1995), which achieved legendary status through Mystery Science Theater 3000. But for a low-budget 1978 thriller, he did assemble quite an international cast, merging Hollywood icons like Sybil Danning and Colleen Camp with Iranian cinematic royalty like Vossoughi. Sampson the cat is a key player in the early acts, though movie magic was definitely working overtime on set. Most of the cat’s aggressive lunges were achieved by dangling strings just off-camera, paired with hilariously exaggerated, high-pitched screeching sound effects added in post-production.
Nathan Roth, who plays Dr. Parrish, is the father of David Lee Roth and owned the mansion where this was made.
Kinda, sorta a giallo; also kinda, sorta a soap opera. I watched it for Camp and Danning, a choice I don’t regret.
You can watch this on Tubi.
