"How Awful About Allan" has some atmosphere, and occasionally makes good use of the "half-blindness" gimmick (like in one scene where Anthony Perkins mistakenly thinks that some college students are laughing at him), but the plot is both obvious (you'll know who the "roomer" is right from the start) and repetitive (how many scenes of Perkins wandering around in his house in the middle of the night while a voice keeps whispering "Allan! Allan! Allan! Allan!" can a 73-minute movie have?). Perkins was already typecast in this type of "mentally disturbed" characters by that point (one of the alternate titles of this movie was "Psycho II"!!), but he does play them well, and he receives good support here from Julie Harris and Joan Hackett. Just don't expect to be shocked when the person who's manipulating Perkins is unmasked. ** out of 4.
Review of How Awful About Allan
How Awful About Allan
(1970 TV Movie)
Middling psychological thriller
22 January 2013
Warning: Spoilers