How Awful About Allan
| How Awful About Allan | |
|---|---|
| Based on | How Awful About Allan novel by Henry Farrell |
| Written by | Henry Farrell |
| Directed by | Curtis Harrington |
| Starring |
Anthony Perkins Julie Harris Joan Hackett |
| Music by | Laurence Rosenthal |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Aaron Spelling |
| Producer(s) | George Edwards |
| Cinematography | Fleet Southcott |
| Editor(s) | Richard Farrell |
| Running time | 73 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Aaron Spelling Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | September 22, 1970 |
How Awful About Allan is a 1970 American made-for-television psychological thriller film, directed by Curtis Harrington, the first of two collaborations with writer Henry Farrell (the other was What's the Matter with Helen?), and starring Anthony Perkins and Julie Harris. It premiered as the ABC Movie of the Week on September 22, 1970 and was produced by prolific television producer Aaron Spelling.
Allan (Perkins) is suffering from hysterical blindness following a fire that killed his father, a renowned academic who punished Allan as a child. The fire also facially scarred Allan's sister Katherine (Harris). Allan had accidentally left some cans of paint thinner near a heater which caught fire.
Returning home partly cured after months in a hospital, Allan tries to adjust to his life back at home. Katherine has an ex-boyfriend who has gone away but who phones the house after Allan's return. She also takes in an odd boarder who she says has a throat injury and hence can only speak in a whisper. Allan is suspicious and afraid of the new boarder and when he begins to hear his name being whispered and partially sees a dark figure coming to get him, wonders whether he is crazy or whether someone is really out to get him. He records his suspicions on a reel-to-reel tape recorder in his bedroom.
Olive, Allan's fiancee before his father died in the fire, tries to renew contact with Allan. He is at first reluctant but gradually is persuaded to see her again. He asks her to keep an eye out for the mysterious lodger so she can describe the lodger to him. Olive persuades him to take a trip into town in her car. While she drops books back at the university library, she leaves Allan alone in the car and he thinks he hears whispering again. He tries to drive the car away, only to crash it.
After further incidents with the blurry, whispering figure - and Allan cutting himself with a knife upon being startled by a delivery boy at the kitchen window - Katherine tries to persuade him to see the psychiatrist again. Meanwhile, Olive claims to have seen Katherine's boyfriend in the town. Katherine denies that he has returned but Allan feels she is hiding something and suspects she wants to have him sent back to hospital. Allan experiences various nightmares. In one he relives his punishment by his father, during which he hid in a dark cupboard. In another episode, the whispering voice lures him to a room which seems burnt and where the ceiling timbers fall in. The next morning, he is convinced that the room was real. This belief is reinforced by his finding a piece of burnt wood in the house.
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