It Happened at Lakewood Manor

• Director: Robert Scheerer
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Horror
• Movie Type: Natural Horror
• Main Cast: Suzanne Somers
• Release Year: 1977
• Country: US
• Run Time: 100 minutes

Plot

Just prior to her Three's Company superstardom, Suzanne Somers played the lead in the made-for-TV meller It Happened at Lakewood Manor. Boiled down to basics, this is a rehash of Jaws, with ants (!) substituting for sharks (the film's video release title, in fact, was Ants). A summer resort full of special-guest-star tourists is besieged by battalions of killer ants. Robert Foxworth, Myrna Loy, Lynda Day George, Bernie Casey, Barry Van Dyke and Brian Dennehy are among those on the little critters' menu. First telecast December 2, 1977, It Happened at Lakewood Manor was subsequently retitled Panic at Lakewood Manor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Review

This silly but fun made-for-TV movie involves swarms of ants laying waste to a buffet of Love Boat guest-stars at a chi-chi lakeside resort. It seems an overabundance of environmentally unsafe chemicals have goaded the little fellas into staging a massive, organized uprising against bipedal polluters ... granted, a similar animals-vs-man premise was already tackled in the far superior Frogs, but that film didn't offer viewers the singular joy of seeing a pre-Three's Company Suzanne Somers shrieking her head off as stagehands pelt her with what looks like thousands of raisins. Poor acting and badly-mounted suspense make for a premise slightly less horrifying than a plundered picnic basket. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Cast

Barbara Brownell - Marjorie; Bernie Casey - Vince; Brian Dennehy - Fire Chief; Moosie Drier; Rene Enriquez - Luis; Robert Foxworth - Mike Carr; Steve Franken - White; Bruce French - Tom; Lynda Day George - Valerie Adams; Anita Gillette - Peggy Kenter; Gerald Gordon - Tony Fleming; Karen Lamm - Linda Howard; Myrna Loy - Ethel Adams; Suzanne Somers - Gloria Henderson; James Storm; Barry Van Dyke - Richard Cyril; Vincent Cobb - Peter; Stacy Keach Sr. - Doc

Credit

Ray Beal - Art Director, Robert Scheerer - Director, George Folsey, Jr. - Editor, Alan Landsburg - Executive Producer, Ken Richmond - Composer (Music Score), Bernie Abramson - Cinematographer, Peter Nelson - Producer, Guerdon Trueblood - Screenwriter

Similar Movies

Empire of the Ants; Attack of the Crab Monsters

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)