Although she is well remembered today, Miriam Hopkins was never what you would call a superstar. The height of her fame was in pre-code, with some success in the screwball comedy era. Most of her career was spent as a character actress, but her apparently huge ego never allowed her to move past those golden years, hense her addition to the stars of the 1930's and 1940's who participated in that notorious genre years later crudely referred to as "hag horror".

I doubt anybody ever went on the Hollywood stars tour to see where she lived, but her Norma Desmond like movie star here is a major stop on that bus ride through Beverly Hills and Bel Aire. She's a delusional lush, injured after a drunken fall down the stairs, and nurse David Garfield is hired by her officious assistant (a tired looking Gale Sondergaard). Before long, Garfield (an obvious drug addict) has taken over Hopkins' life, and by the time she becomes aware of his dangerous personality, it's too late. The body count begins, and the murders are pretty...pretty gruesome that is.

This has no real point other than to give a few visual shocks, some absolutely disgusting. Hopkins continues to chew up the scenery, just as she had done when paired opposite Bette Davis. Garfield doesn't have the spark of his more famous father (John),but Sondergaard gives a wise, almost knowing performance, as if she knew she was the key in preventing this from becoming total trash. The acid trip dreams are fascinating, both visually and as a warning against drug use, but this ranks as an embarrassing Z grade mix of grindhouse slasher horror and the desperation of a delusional diva to keep her name alive, no matter how repulsive the film she's in is.

Cunning and charismatic, but mentally unbalanced and hence dangerous psycho opportunist Vic Valance (a spot-on creepy and credible portrayal by David Garfield) lands a job as a male nurse taking care of aging and faded alcoholic former big-time Old Hollywood star Katharine Packard (superbly played with tremendous class and gusto by Miriam Hopkins). Pretty soon Vic is hatching an evil plot to take over Katharine's large palatial estate.

Writer/director Donald Wolfe relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, nicely captures a seedy downbeat atmosphere that's rife with despair and decay, and tosses in a few gnarly bits of splashy gore for grisly good measure. This film further benefits from sound supporting contributions from Gale Sondergaard as shrewd and suspicious personal assistant Leslie, Virginia Wing as spunky and charming servant Greta, and Florence Lake as feisty housekeeper Mildred. Joe Besser pops up in a small part as a tour bus driver. John Arthur Morrill's vibrant color cinematography boasts several snazzy psychedelic visual flourishes. The whole underlying theme of a mean, crass, and selfish young Hollywood exploiting and destroying the dying glamour of Old Hollywood gives this picture some meaty extra substance. A shamefully neglected entry in the horror hag subgenre.

When I typed Savage Intruder into the IMDb's search engine one of the options it came up with was Savage Garden: International Video Collection: The Story so Far (1999),the only reason I mention this is because I'm a huge Savage Garden fan & you should do yourself a favour & check some of their music out like Affirmation or To the Moon and Back rather than bother with this average pot-boiler, sorry I just wanted to say that. Anyway, Savage Intruder starts with a bizarre montage of what looks like MGM musical & premiere footage & a few spinning portraits which have no meaning whatsoever in the long run. It's late 60's Hollywood & amid the glitz & glamour a serial killer is at work selecting ageing actresses, killing them & dismembering their bodies. A young man named Vic Valance (David Garfield as John David Garfield) hops off a tour bus looking for employment when it stops at the house of a now retired actress, Katharine Parker (Miriam Hopkins) who was 'one of the biggest stars of the motion picture' but now lives in a big house with an elderly housekeeper named Mildred (Florence Lake),a personal secretary Leslie Blair (Gale Sondergaard) & a young maid named Geta (Virginia Wing). Katharine has recently broken her foot & needs a personal assistant & gives Vic the job. Slowly Vic charms his way into Katharine's affections & more importantly her large wallet. Vic starts to turn Katharine against the other employees, but Vic isn't what he seems. Vic is a drug addicted loon who gets Greta pregnant while still having sex with Katharine. Greta threatens to tell Katharine & spoil Vic's devious plans but she has a close encounter with an axe, no one in the house is safe as Vic brings drugs, sex, rock 'n' roll party's & gardening to the Parker mansion while his sinister plan starts to become more & more apparent...

Written, produced & directed by Donald Wolfe I thought Savage Intruder was a bit of a mess but a mildly entertaining one at the same time. The script is all over the place & it can't really decide what it wants to be, Savage Intruder suffers from an identity crisis! The film starts with the discovery of a severed head & limbs, straight after another woman (Dorothy Kingston) is killed by a mysterious unidentified figure but then it completely ditches the slasher film elements that it has just built up never going back to them. Savage Intruder then becomes a sort of feel good film as Vic befriends Katharine & shows her how to enjoy life again & having an implied sexual relationship with her, it's actually disgusting to think about as she's old enough to be his Grandmother. Katharine stops living the life of a recluse & gives up the alcohol as Vic appears to make her happy as they go to party's together & hold banquets for Katharine's friend like she used too. This part of Savage Intruder wouldn't look out of place in a Disney film! Every so often the tedium of the feel good stuff is interrupted by Vic shooting up & having silly hallucinations about his Mother (Sybelle Guardino) & chopping her hand off with an axe, he has sex with Great at one point as well. Then, after Greta has been murdered, Savage Intruder becomes a bizarre horror film as Vic is revealed for the loony that he is. Savage Intruder just doesn't flow properly as a film in my opinion as it mixes various genres with little success. Similarly the murder mystery elements don't work & are frankly a bit of a puzzle, why go to great lengths to conceal the killers identity during the murder scenes but then make it perfectly clear who is committing them throughout the rest of the film anyway? Vic as a character didn't work for me either, one moment he's a cool, calm, clever & devious con man & then next he's a stark raving loony! Why kill all his other victims but with Katharine try to con her? What makes her so different? If it is because she has money why not go after her to start with? So many questions & so few answers... Some of the 60's dialogue is pretty funny to listen to these days like when Vic offers Greta a painkiller, in reality hard drugs, & Greta says "what do I need a painkiller for?", Vic helpfully replies "because your a pain" wow this guy knows how to charm the ladies! Or when Katharine suggests that Vic do some gardening & ask's "do you have green fingers?" he replies "no, but I'm good at grass!" There isn't much gore in Savage Intruder, some severed limbs & a couple of decapitated heads. There is also a fairly impressive shot when someone has their hand cut off with an axe which is probably why it's repeated three or four times. The silly looking drug hallucination scenes need to be seen to be believed. Technically Savage Intruder is OK, the location filming in the grandiose mansion & Hollywood hills probably give it a better look than it deserves, the acting is average as is the rest of the production. Overall I'd say Savage Intruder feels like it tries to be a murder mystery that unfortunately gives the killer away & as a result just doesn't work. It's a mildly entertaining one-time-watch at best & a complete mess of a film at worse, you decide which!