Tom Kovack (Leonard Nimoy) is a race car driver with a bit of a superiority complex. During a race he sees a vision of a stately English manor house, a woman screaming and a girl. He then hears the words Wyndham on Devon. The event causes him to crash his racecar. Later he relates the incident during a television interview.
Listening to the broadcast is Michele Brent (Susan Hampshire). Michele is a rare book dealer and researcher of the occult and ESP. She is convinced that Kovack has special powers and that his psychic visions are a portent to danger. She tries to convince him to go to England to help the woman in his visions. Kovack, of course, declines. It’s not until he has another vision where he falls into the ocean at Wyndham that he decides there is something to his visions. When he recovers from his fugue state, he is soaking wet from salt water.
Michele discovers that Wyndham, run by Mrs. Farraday (Rachel Roberts), takes guests during the summer. When they arrive, they meet Andrea Glenn (Vera Miles) and her daughter Jennifer (Jewel Blanch). Kovack confirms that they are the people from his vision. Andrea is at the mansion to see her estranged husband who hasn’t shown up. The reservations for the mansion were made by a distant cousin, Louise Sanford (Valerie Taylor), who lives in town. The other guests include newlyweds, George Tracewell (Ray Brooks) and his wife Peggy (Angharad Rees) and a man named Verelli (Christopher Benjamin) who claims to be an architect.
Jennifer begins to act strange and seems to have blossomed overnight. Her attitude toward her mother markedly changes. While Jennifer is getting older, Mrs. Farraday appears to be getting younger. Soon Kovack and Michele begin to realize that there is more going on than just paranormal activity.
“Baffled!” was released in 1972 and was directed by Philip Leacock. It is an unsold pilot mystery thriller, the basis of which revolved around occult activity. The pilot was released as a second billed feature film in Great Britain.
Fine cinema it is not, but as a made-for-TV movie it was decent. I doubt that there would be enough interesting scripts to keep it going as a series but as a one off it held its own. It is a little long for a pilot, but it is an origin story for the characters played by Nimoy and Hampshire, so the length of the film is understandable. It is 70’s fluff with bellbottoms.
Leonard Nimoy fans will find it a treat.
Taplow Court in Buckinghamshire was used as the exterior shots of Wyndham manor. It was built in 1610 and then burnt down in 1616. Since then, there have been several restorations and many owners. It is currently owned by Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist society.