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.