May 22, 2009 It's the return of the "Unjustly Forgotten Horror Movie of the Day", our semi-daily feature spotlighting what the title says -- out of print, forgotten horror films that deserve to be seen and heard! This 1975 title is truly forgotten -- a long gone gem.

One of the best horror TV movies of all time -- likely the best true crime TV movie of all time -- "The Legend of Lizzie Borden" has never received a DVD release, much less a VHS release. It's an incredibly difficult movie to find. And there's no sign it will get any easier to locate anytime soon.



It never shows up on TV anymore. It had a VHS release way back when. No DVD release in sight. The fact that it was shot full frame probably doesn't help its chances.

But it's by far the best Lizzie Borden movie ever made. It's a surprise the Lizzie Borden legend actually hasn't been exploited much more.

Who was Lizzie Borden?

Borden was a New England spinster and the only suspect for the hatchet murders of her father and stepmother on August 4, 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts. The media frenzy around her trial rivaled the OJ insanity.

If Freddy Krueger needed a nursery rhyme to be written for him by director Wes Craven, Lizzie Borden already had one invented for her by children:

Lizzie Borden had an axe,
And gave her mother forty wacks,
And when she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one

This nursery rhyme serves as the basis for director Paul Wendkos' "The Legend of Lizzie Borden," a movie that pulled Elizabeth Montgomery way, way out of the "Bewitched" comedy role for which she became so famous and into the role of the most infamous (alleged) female killer of all time. Director Wendkos is best known for all his TV movies, including "The Ordeal of Patty Hearst" way back in '79. "Borden" is probably the best thing he ever made.

From the dead-on performances (which include Fritz Weaver as Borden's father), to the photography, to the costumes, to the editing, which features flashbacks to the alleged crime, Wendkos film is theatrical quality and delivers a profound sense of dread as it climaxes with a flashback to what the actual murder was probably like.

It should be noted that Borden was not convicted of murder, so no one can be completely certain what exactly happened to her parents. But the depiction of what probably happened is so chilling that Wendkos' film transcends the true crime drama and easily enters the realm of horror.

In fact, this movie used to play on Creature Features on KTVU in the 1970s, if memory serves me correctly. It was and is scary stuff. So where is it?



Paramount Pictures apparently owns the rights, but doesn't feel terribly inspired to release it. So a petition has been online for several years begging Paramount to release the movie. Maybe they will someday if enough people speak up.


Talk about this story on ESplatter's Message Board


Gotta scoop? Drop a line to Lucius Gore, editor