Haunted

With Brooke Adams in fine form as the young woman fleeing an unhappy marriage and taking refuge with a family in a more drastic state of disintegration than her own, this out-and-out melodrama sees her confronting as heavy a mix of cruelty, confusion and incipient insanity as Barbara Stanwyck ever had to face in the '50s. Far darker than the likes of Dallas and Dynasty (since it avoids their drossy gloss and plasticky plotting), it impresses due to a careful script, superb naturalistic performances, and - perhaps most importantly - a profound and rare awareness that upset/unbalanced people sorely in need of help are very often a total pain in the ass.