The Legend of Lizzie Boeden

Lizzie who ?

Lezzy

R1 thank you for catching that.

Lizzy BORDEN

I wonder if they were related to Borden dairy people.

Lizzie knew how to set boundaries.

Elizabeth Montgomery did make a very pretty Lizzie.

"The Legend of Lizzie Borden" scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. The severe high-necked black dress, the crazy look in Montgomery's eyes, the axe, the nursery rhyme. Eek!

If the real Lizzie Borden looked like Elizabeth Montgomery and was straight she would gave married out of that house and away from Andrew and Abby and would not have had to go to the trouble of axing two people to death in order to get her hands on some money.

*

Lizzie used a hatchet, r5.

The Christina Ricci mini-series was much better.

I have not seen the Elizabeth Montgomery movie, but I LOVED Christina Ricci's version.

Lizzie did not commit the murders.

Lizzie had the talking stick. They should have followed the rules.

This movie was the sensation of my Catholic high school when it was shown. Samantha Stevens going nude to kill her parents, with hints of incest and necrophilia, was too much for a teenager of my time to accept. Elizabeth Montgomery was so wonderful, and let's not forget Fionnula Flanagan, who was later so great in 'The Others'. I re-watched the entire movie from OP's link, so thank you.

So good, I remember watching it on ABC when it first aired.

It was the talk of the playground 🛝 at my elementary school 🏫. I believe the consensus was that it was “neat-o!”

This was shot to be a regular movie to be shown in theaters… but the producers knew it wouldn’t make its money back and cut their losses by selling it to TV.

It was shown in theaters overseas, I believe with some more nudity. I don’t know how it did.

Watched it when I was 11 - it was creepy, but not as scary as “Frankenstein The True Story” with Michael Sarrazin.

I was convinced the resurrected, amputated arm was lurking at the foot of my bed, and slept in a fetal position so it couldn’t “get m”e for a few weeks.

Montgomery and Katherine Helmond each deserved an Emmy for their performances. But the Television Academy couldn't figure that out.

BTW, these days the house is still intact, run as a very expensive B&B in a city which has seen better days. Don't expect the cozy 'New England neighborhood' if you should decide to vacation there - across the street from the house is the back of the bus station, and a lot of vagrants hang around outside the terminal.

[quote]r17 the house is still intact, run as a very expensive B&B … across the street from the house is the back of the bus station, and a lot of vagrants hang around outside the terminal.

“Touched by a Hobo” opportunities!

This movie and the V movie are the most talked about at school the next day movies that I remember.

Gloria Stuart from TITANIC has a line of dialogue in this.

She sees Lizzie steal an axe from the general store.

Is it pretty much taken for granted now that she did it?

R10 Lizzie had the motive and the opportunity.

I was molested.

Tell me about it.

There was a documentary on I think TLC that refuted many things about the case. The Bordens were very well off and they gave their daughters a lot of money. The stepmother, considered a wicked stepmother according to folklore, tried very hard to become close to the girls, but they simply gave her the cold shoulder. The maid Bridgette almost certainly did not have a lesbian relationship with Lizzie. Lizzie was also said to have had a history of killing pets as a young girl.

At my school, Trilogy of Terror got a lot of buzz as well. We weren't intellectual philistines, however. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman had everyone toddling to the drinking fountain the next day in commemoration of Cicely Tyson's powerful triumph over segregation.

I remember watching this as a kid. It freaked me the hell out to see that cute witch house wife turn into a violent axe murderer.

I stole the door knobs from the courthouse.

[quote]R21 Is it pretty much taken for granted now that she did it?

Not completely. But one can make a good argument.

I like this podcast, which interviews different true crime authors:

Everyone suspected the success of this movie (I believe it was the #1 television movie of the 1974-75 Season) and the praise Montgomery got for her dramatic performance convinced Montgomery she would never do comedy again - and she never did. She was taken seriously as a dramatic actress, and continued with the praise and ratings success for the nexttwo decades (though she took much of the 80s off due to her first diagnosis / treatment of colon cancer).

She went from a 60's novelty TV comedy to a serious dramatic actress with great ease - something not many actors can do. (Though Sally Field followed suit shortly after).

I still dream about what Dynasty would have been if she had accepted the role of Krystal Carrington.

Can't you just see her going head-to-head with Joan Collins as 'Alexis' in her 'Lizzie Borden' character ? It would have been delicious.

I would have rather seen her have a shot at playing Alexis though

Liz was offered the Colbys too. Either Frankie or Sable. She would’ve made a hell of a Sable. Liz excelled at playing good AND bad witches lol. But she didn’t want to commit to another series. She was also rumored to have been offered a 10 episode arc on Falcon Crest that never came to pass.

it's no Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte

[quote]She was also rumored to have been offered a 10 episode arc on Falcon Crest that never came to pass.

It ALMOST came to pass - Montgomery was working with the writers and producers on creating the character for her; if the ratings were good enough she would return as a regular the following season. Her story was to start during February sweeps in 1987.

Unfortunately, that was when she got her first colon cancer diagnosis, and the producers of FC had to switch gears - Montgomery wasn't going to be joining after all. And that is when her partner, Robert Foxworth, asked the producers of FC to let him out of his contract at the end of the 1986-87 season, so he could take care of Montgomery while she was battling the illness. They obliged - he was killed off (the series ran another four years). Montogmery did beat it (temporarily) and returned to TV movies by the end of the decade. The cancer returned in March, 1995 - and she died two months later.

Montgomery was never going to go back to the grind of a weekly series. Especially an hour long drama where she was arguably the lead character. The only thing she did wrong was stinging along the network and producers for so long acting like she was truly considering and would probably do it and creating some hard feelings.

Isn't "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" the most awkward movie title to pronounce? Only bested by "The Rural Juror."

She wasn't going to be the lead character (Jane Wyman was at the time) and she did want to work with Foxworth if they created the right character for her. She wasn't going to carry the show (as she did with 'Bewitched') so working on a weekly show was going to be different than the last time.

I was talking about her starring in Dynasty.

Just about anyone other than that drippy Linda Evans would have made a better Krystal.

R38 I see no problem!

r21 No

Lizzy Borden took an ax and gave her father 40 whacks.

When she saw what she had done, she gave her mother 41.

If I were not a LADY, MRS. Borden, I'd twist your arm right out of its Socket!

Ha! Ha! I remember watching this with my mom when I was a little girl. My mom looked liked Elizabeth Montgomery, too. Lol, we were both shocked when she killed her parents while naked! I watched it on YouTube about 2 years ago, and still liked it. She was good as Lizzie Borden. Her poor sister, though. Omg, what a movie for that time.

I've only ever seen the edited version where Elizabeth's nudity is suggested and not shown.

With all the viewing choices today it's hard to explain to younger people the hype a good program could get. Shitty ones too. This TV movie was really the first one I remember as a shared experience with just about everyone.

Elizabeth Montgomery and Lizzie Borden were 6th cousins, once removed. Liz never knew this; it was revealed after she died.

R49 That explains why Montgomery was so uncanny in the role.

I watched this last night and really enjoyed it. It had more of a made-for-TV feel to me as opposed to cinematic. But very high-quality, along the lines of what the BBC would have produced around the same time. I loved all the painstaking attention to period details, like the piping that lead to the gaslight in Lizzie's prison cell, and the lack of curbing along the roads in the village, it really transports you back in time to that era.

R50 It had a made-for-TV feel because it was made for TV.

R51 - R15 posted otherwise and I suspect R50 was commenting on that.

R44 you have it assbackward. Her mother got 40, then her father got 41.

Don’t they teach anything on the playground anymore?

Her performance is the best one among the others. It’s the most memorable, as well.

I always thought Kate Winslet should play Lizzie.

She’s no Liz Montgomery.

I were able to recreate the interior of the house on sound stages, however the house outside looked nothing like the real house. Liz was way too pretty to look like Lizzie Borden but she did a good job. Still the premise that she could kill her father while nude and covered with blood (including her hair) and just rinse herself off, get dressed and appear like nothing happened in 10 minutes is a bit far-fetched.

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They, R38?

Love this one!

R57 - As a kid I thought the nude-murder-sponge-bath modus was pretty ingenious. And it well certainly startle your victim enough to get those first chops in!

Does anybody know if this is how they proposed the real Lizzie carried out the crime?

Yes—

We know that we don’t know.

Lezzy

Also searching for remake of Dark Victory with Liz and Anthony Hopkins circa 1970’s

R60, not at the trial. There was testimony about how the killings could have occurred without the murderer getting spattered with blood. And then there is the matter of the dress Lizzie burned the day after the murders. No one, even, the rich, discarded clothes that way. She was destroying evidence. Finally, a random internet blogger pointed out something that I think is usually overlooked: underneath Andrew Borden’s head, on top of a sofa pillow, was a very expensive overcoat. It was hot, so Borden wouldn’t have been wearing the coat that day, and he also wouldn’t have gone to a closet to get it to use it as a pillow, since the room was full of pillows. Why was it there under his corpse, soaked with blood? Lizzie could have committed the murders while wearing the coat over the soon-to- be-burned dress.

Some dumb comments on here...this was a TV MOVIE! And, you never saw a totally nude, full frontal Lizzie, it was all implied. Though for the mid 70s, it was pretty shocking by TV standards to have our beloved Samantha Stephens runninng around nekkid slaughtering people with an axe! Pretty sure they had "Parental warnings" for when it originally aired.

Krystal isn't THE lead in Dynasty...she's ONE of the leads in a soap opera with multiple storylines. I don't think anyone on Dynasty had a particularly grueling schedule since most episodes would have at least 3 storylines going.

R66 it wasn’t all implied. Even the YouTube version has a fleeting glimpse of Montgomerys tit. Plus the camera angles with her naked body were such that it made it more powerful when she did the hackings. Tame by today standards but still.

As far as Dynasty, John, Joan and Linda had the most storylines and with the women, with makeup, hair and costume fittings, it’s a sunrise to sunset job five days a week. Even for the supporting players on the show. It’s not dictated by cast size how much someone works. A series requires an army of workers to pull it off. Plus many from the show did off the set promotions for the show. Linda quit in 1989 mainly due to the grind of filming the show. Liz made a mint from part ownership of Bewitched, so she was content working every year or two on tv movies.

Fall River Legend

I saw this at City Opera...

The big thing I remember is when they said "mentrual blood" in reference to the supposed reason for burning the dress.

The burning of the dress is a confusing plot point. She says she intends to burn it and the others say don't and then after it is burning Lizzie says. Why did you let me do it?! Were they supposed to wrestle it away from her?

R71, that scene is a good example of how Lizzie, in the movie (and probably in real life) was both disassociated and calculating. "Look at me, I'm going to do something wrong, but it's everyone else's fault, isn't it?"

Plus why burn the dress in front of people when she could’ve done anything with it to make it disappear.

The film is dull and Montgomery looking like a poor man's Jane Fonda is one-note and not convincingly period. It looks like it was filmed on the same backlot as Bewitched.

Great film, Elizabeth looked so beautiful.

What was great about it R75? I watched it and found it dull.

Lizzie Borden should have been dealt with before she turned nine.

r76 What was dull about it? I watched it and found it great.

R78 Probably not enough car crashes and exploding heads for R76.

R79 Maybe 50 years ago this TV movie seemed good, but it feels by the numbers with no memorable scenes or characters. It wasn't compelling. Ever seen In Cold Blood (1967), The Battle of Algiers (1965), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Zone of Interest (2023), Sunset Boulevard (1950)? I subscribe to the Criterion Channel which has a lot of wonderful, interesting films. Just because someone doesn't like some mediocre tv movie doesn't mean that they like car crashes and exploding heads. You have a very limited purview.

R80 Ooooooh!!!! Get "Miss I Subscribe To The Criterion Channel" has BIG, fancy vocabulary!!!! PURVIEW!!!!! Smell HER and her big words and inability to be able to discern people's affection for a popular TV movie from 50 years starring a beloved TV icon from major films from a variety of genres and time periods!!!!

Bitch, please. It was a creepy and well done TV film with a budget 1/100th of most of those films you listed. It's fine if you didn't care for it but I don't really see any reason to come on here and snipe about it in a cunty way and insist people prove to you why it's not "boring".

It was no Star Wars.

It’s’ classic tv like ‘’When Michael Calls’’ It was a big deal at the time but had a tv budget.

I take it by now somebody's made fun of the spelling in the thread title?

Liz always made classy good quality telefilms.

Can’t believe Liz was married to Gig Young for 7 years!

And then he died.

She couldn’t deal with his alcoholism. Plus, his marriage to Liz pitted her against her parents, especially her asshole of a father, actor Robert Montgomery.

Lizzie had a motive: Maplecroft. She always wanted to live in the best part of town and once acquitted, did until she died 97 years ago. Despite the ostracism, she never left Fall River.

[Quote] Bitch, please. It was a creepy and well done TV film with a budget 1/100th of most of those films you listed. It's fine if you didn't care for it but I don't really see any reason to come on here and snipe about it in a cunty way and insist people prove to you why it's not "boring".

R81 Miss Interpretaion I asked why it was great not to prove it wasn't boring even if it was dull to me. And maybe it was good compared to other TV movies but that's not saying much and maybe the budget was low but it's the result that matters to me. And Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It was done on a low budget and was funny and original.

PS R81