The Legacy (1979 film)
| The Legacy | |
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Theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Richard Marquand |
| Produced by | David Foster |
| Written by | |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Michael J. Lewis |
| Cinematography | |
| Edited by | Anne V. Coates |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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96 min. |
| Country |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | $2,500,000 (estimated) |
| Box office | $11,364,985 |
The Legacy is a 1978 British-American horror film directed by Richard Marquand and starring Katharine Ross, Sam Elliott, and The Who's Roger Daltrey.
The film earned an estimated $4.2 million in rentals during its initial release.
Maggie Walsh (Ross) and her boyfriend Pete Danner (Elliott) are interior decorators from California. They are retained by an anonymous British client. Their reluctance to abandon their current client in Los Angeles is alleviated when that client dies suddenly in mysterious circumstances. Taking advantage of their pre-paid airfare, they travel to England and are immediately involved in a traffic collision with a limousine. The passenger reveals himself as their mysterious benefactor, Jason Mountolive (John Standing), who invites them to his rambling estate, Ravenhurst.
They arrive to find that Mountolive has also invited the five beneficiaries of his estate, all public figures with notorious reputations. The other guests explain that they have been summoned because Jason is dying, "wasting away" above stairs. Maggie is astonished to hear this because Jason seemed vigorous just minutes earlier.
Jason receives his guests in his bedroom, a sterile chrome and glass environment where he lies connected to a life support system. His bed is shrouded by white curtains that obscure his appearance. He calls Maggie to the bedside, where a monstrous hand reaches out of the curtains and places a signet ring with the Mountolive family crest on her finger. The other guests already wear identical rings. Maggie tries to remove the ring, but it has grafted itself to her finger.
Shortly afterwards, the other guests die by mysterious and gruesome means: Maria, despite being an excellent swimmer, becomes trapped under the surface of Jason's indoor pool and drowns; Clive Jackson (Daltrey) gets a chicken bone lodged in his throat during dinner (although he wasn't eating chicken at the time) and perishes during a botched tracheotomy; Karl Liebnecht (Gray) is incinerated by a massive burst of flame from a fireplace that leaves the rest of the room untouched. A mirror in Barbara's bedroom explodes, piercing her with glass shards, then restores itself without a crack. Jacques suspects Maggie and Pete of engineering these inexplicable deaths, and chases them onto the roof with a shotgun. The weapon jams and explodes in his face, knocking him off the roof to his death.
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Wikipedia