BARBARA EDEN & LARRY HAGMAN IN 'A HOWLING IN THE WOODS'

Great font for A Howling in the Woods YEAR: 1971

Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman definitely didn't end things on a sour note after I DREAM OF JEANNIE as the next year they starred as a married couple in a mystery-thriller that sounds like a werewolf-horror, the made-for-television A HOWLING IN THE WOODS. Then again, they're hardly on screen together at all. It's mostly Eden's ride, beginning three decades of TV movies...

Centers on a rich woman who returns to a woodsy small town where she's given the silent treatment by the locals. Expository from her mother-in-law Vera Miles's wimpy secret lover John Rubinstein teaches us the town's been broke since her currently out-of-town father sold a factory, and only he and his family got rich. Although Eden's character is no spoiled brat since she made her own money as a fashion designer in New York fashion designer while Hagman, a photographer of naked women, wants her to return home via random phone calls...

Larry Hagman with Barbara Eden together again RATING: ***

The townspeople want her gone too, which is most of the mystery involved without that many thrills. Eden, sans her cute smile, broods most of the time, trying to figure things out after the initial long-stretched shun...

Which is also the most entertaining aspect as she and the audience remains in the dark while various characters come out of the woodwork...

These include Ruta Lee as a sassy diner waitress; Ford Rainey as the sheriff; Lisa Gerritsen as an abused little girl; and Tyne Daley as the only person willing to eventually speak up. After which Hagman earns half his paycheck and... almost helps out. At one point near the end, wanting to join her quest for the truth, his wife tells him, "You stay here... I'm better off alone."  Perhaps Eden was predicting her own solo TV-movie future following what would always be her signature role as the friendly Astronaut's gorgeous Jeannie. Meanwhile, Larry Hagman's lucrative television future hadn't yet begun: From this point it was no more Mr. Nice Guy.

A rarely smiling (and adorable when she does) Barbara Eden w/ Vera Miles in A HOWLING IN THE WOODS

Barbara Eden with a reflection of Vera Miles in A HOWLING IN THE WOODS

Barbara Eden in A HOWLING IN THE WOODS

Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman in A HOWLING IN THE WOODS

Larry Hagman in A HOWLING IN THE WOODS

Barbara Eden in A HOWLING IN THE WOODS with Larry Hagman

Tyne Daley in A HOWLING IN THE WOODS

Barbara Eden in A HOWLING IN THE WOODS

Barbara Eden phoning Larry Hagman in A HOWLING IN THE WOODS

Child starlet Lisa Gerritsen in A HOWLING IN THE WOODS

Barbara Eden in A HOWLING IN THE WOODS

Barbara Eden in A HOWLING IN THE WOODS