''Della'' is a 1964 American

made-for-television A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

starring

Joan Crawford Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...

, Paul Burke,

Charles Bickford Charles Ambrose Bickford (January 1, 1891 – November 9, 1967) was an American actor known for supporting roles. He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for '' The Song of Bernadette'' (1943), '' The ...

and

Diane Baker Diane Carol Baker is an American actress, producer and educator who has appeared in motion pictures and on television since 1959. Early life Baker was born in 1938 at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California a ...

. Directed by

Robert Gist Robert Marion Gist (October 1, 1917 – May 21, 1998) was an American actor and film director. Life and career Gist was reared around the stockyards of Chicago, Illinois, during the Great Depression. Reform school-bound after injuring an ...

, the film was originally produced by

Four Star Television Four Star Television, also called Four Star International, was an American television production company. Founded in 1952 as Four Star Productions by prominent Hollywood actors Dick Powell, David Niven, Charles Boyer, and Joel McCrea, it was insp ...

as a

television pilot A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

for a proposed

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

series named ''Royal Bay'' which was to star Burke as a lawyer and Bickford as his cantankerous, righteous father. Following the successful film-to-television progressions of movie stars such as

Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden ...

and

Barbara Stanwyck Barbara Stanwyck (; born Ruby Catherine Stevens; July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress, model and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career she was known for her strong, realistic sc ...

, Crawford attempted the same maneuver with ''Royal Bay'', a soap opera in a fictional seaside town where she was the wealthy matriarch and daughter of the town's founder. However, the pilot centered on the two characters that would most likely not reprise their role for the series, mother and daughter Della and Jenny Chappell. This may have been one of the reasons the pilot was released as a

standalone film A standalone film is a film that does not have any relation with other films. In the late 1990s, it was typical to create standalone films with no plans for sequels. The term "standalone film" appeared when sequels, spin-offs, and franchises bec ...

instead of the start of a series."Della"

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...

. Retrieved February 7, 2014.

Plot

Della Chappell (

) is a

reclusive A recluse is a person who lives in voluntary seclusion from the public and society. The word is from the Latin ''recludere'', which means "shut up" or "sequester". Historically, the word referred to a Christian hermit's total isolation from th ...

wealthy woman, consumed by power and dedicated to protecting the future of her daughter Jenny (

). Her father founded the town of Royal Bay and she still owns most of it. An outside company wants to buy parts of the town for development but Della refuses to consider the option. Barney Stafford ( Paul Burke), a lawyer representing the developers' interests, butts heads with Della frequently. She invites him to her home for a meeting at 2:00 AM. Barney, eager to settle the matter, heads over to Della's estate and instead he meets Jenny. Barney notices strange happenings at the house, such as everyone sleeping during the day and all business is conducted in the middle of the night. He comes to learn that Jenny has a skin condition that prevents her from being in the light and keeps her inside the home at all times. At a particularly tense meeting, Della attempts to employ Barney in a veiled attempt to buy his company for Jenny. After a discussion with his father, Barney goes to apologize to Della. After all is revealed (why Jenny must never leave) Barney leaves, presumably for good. Angry and upset, Jenny then leaves the house and ultimately crashes her car because she is disoriented and is killed.

Cast

as Della Chappell * Paul Burke as Barney Stafford *

as Hugh Stafford *

as Jenny Chappell * Richard Carlson as David Stafford *

Robert Sampson Robert Sampson (March 4, 1925 – December 3, 2006) was a vice president at United Airlines. He was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy at age 5, and used a wheelchair for most of his life. Sampson, a lawyer, was an advocate for disabled persons. ...

as Joel Stafford *

Otto Kruger Otto Kruger (September 6, 1885 – September 6, 1974) was an American actor, originally a Broadway matinee idol, who established a niche as a charming villain in films, such as Hitchcock's ''Saboteur''. He also appeared in CBS's ''Perry Mason'' a ...

as Walter Garrick * James Noah as Chris Stafford * Marianna Case as Addie Stafford * Sara Taft as Mrs. Kyle *

Walter Woolf King Walter Woolf King (November 2, 1899 – October 24, 1984) was an American film, television and stage actor and singer. Born in San Francisco, California in 1899, King started singing for a living at a young age and performed mostly in chur ...

as Sam Jordon *

Barney Phillips Bernard Philip Ofner (October 20, 1913 – August 17, 1982), better known by his stage name Barney Phillips, was an American film, television, and radio actor. His most prominent roles include that of Sgt. Ed Jacobs on the 1950s '' Dragnet' ...

as Eric Kline * Voltaire Perkins as Herb Foster * Richard Bull as Mark Nodella *

Jan Shepard Jan Shepard (born Josephine Angela Sorbello) is a retired American actress. Early years Josephine Angela Sorbello was born in Quakertown, Pennsylvania in 1928 to parents of Sicilian descent, Mr. and Mrs. Sam Sorbello. She was valedictorian of h ...

as Secretary

Notes

Joan Crawford and Diane Baker played mother and daughter for the second time in only a few months, following the horror classic, ''

Strait-Jacket ''Strait-Jacket'' is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by William Castle, written by Robert Bloch and starring Joan Crawford. Its plot follows a woman who, having murdered her husband and his lover decades prior, ...

'' earlier that year.

Home video releases

Following years of obscurity, the film was finally released on

videocassette Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassette ...

under the title ''Fatal Confinement'' by a company called International Film Forum in 1988. On January 31, 2012, ''Della'' was released as an exclusive manufacture-on-demand

DVD-R DVD recordable and DVD rewritable are optical disc recording technologies. Both terms describe DVD optical discs that can be written to by a DVD recorder, whereas only 'rewritable' discs are able to erase and rewrite data. Data is written ('burne ...

through the TCM Shop.''Della'' DVD
at TCM.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Della 1964 films 1964 drama films American drama television films 1960s English-language films Television films as pilots Television pilots not picked up as a series 1960s American films