User reviews

In between his iconic small screen and big screen STAR TREK career, Leonard Nimoy headlined this television movie that was really an intended pilot for a British series co-starring sophisticated blonde beauty Susan Hamphire: an ESP expert aiding Nimoy's famous race car driver to channel visions of a veteran actress murdered in a castle where he, reluctantly at first, takes on the case...

BAFFLED! has all the elements of a good mystery but without enough doomed tension. And yet it works from the affable chemistry between Nimoy and Hampshire, brightening up the surrounding ensemble of Agatha Christie-like suspects including a tempestuous Rachel Roberts; Vera Miles as the possibly doomed starlet; and scene-stealing Jewel Blanch as a childlike pre-teen whose personality morphs into a creepy, possessed teenager...

Making the best scenes a "Spock verses THE EXORCIST" kind of thing, and a year earlier. But it's really Susan Hampshire's ride. She energetically tackles the part as if it were truly the beginning of an assured series. In fact this "movie" ends with their next case shaping up. Sadly, it was her show to lose.

Learning that this was intended as a pilot for a tv series actually helps sum up how this movie felt to me. There were hints throughout that the main characters, Spock and his lady interest, either had a prior relationship or were building toward a more involved future one. There are no big surprises here and there is definitely plenty of 70s cheese. But I found myself watching the entire movie and enjoying it. Worth a look if you come across it.

BAFFLED is a mystery whodunit in which the twist is that "it" has not been done yet: due to clairvoyant episodes of the protagonist played by Leonard Nimoy, who then promptly teams up with a psychic expert to prevent "it" from happening, the story takes place before "it" is done.

This is a light entertaining film which was apparently filmed as a pilot to a series that never got off the ground. Though much of it plays like a cinematic movie, the credit sequence and ending allow one to guess as much.

The thing that struck me most about this film was the choice of Leonard Nimoy as the lead character in a role that would have been a much more obvious fit with someone like (ideally) Rock Hudson. Nimoy already has quite a serious face, and his close identification with his role as the ultra-serious Mr Spock in the STAR TREK franchise would not naturally suggest him in scenes of lighthearted banter.

However, he does lighten up in the movie, we see him smile frequently, and the initial feeling of the oddness of the choice of the lead does subside eventually. Who knows, had the series got off the ground, his aura of seriousness might even have faded.

The film has some editing issues (perhaps due to time constraints?), there is a car chase which is pretty lame by today's standards (though FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) and its phenomenal car chase scene were filmed the year prior, so we know people could do better even back then), and the supernatural shtick got a bit much for my taste, but nonetheless it keeps the audience guessing with various red herrings while doing a good job of only gradually revealing the mystery.

This is especially for people who want to see Mr. Spock like they've never seen him before, but fans of old-fashioned light mystery films might also enjoy this.

The idea of a race car driver turned ESP detective with his spunky female side kick is an odd one to cast Leonard Nimoy in. He plays the part as if he were a William Shatner type playboy. Though it's fun to see Nimoy play a girl chasing devil-may-care part, it doesn't play into his strengths. He also is forced to wear a horrible array of bad clothing-- witness the pink turtle neck sweater that would be something he'd steal out of his grandmother's closet, or the array of safari type leisure suit jackets he's forced to wear. But this aside, if you can look past these poor and distracting choices what you have is still rather odd sometimes in a good way but often in doesn't-really-work way.

The opening pre-credit sequence is well done--despite poor rear screen car footage--these first precognition flashes to images as he's driving are well done, setting up a "what the hell is going on here?" feeling. Then you have a really awful title sequence with some awkward freeze frames of actors smirking in what seems like it should be tense situations and some terrible Brit sounding jazz pop music behind it all.

So at that point you have pretty much seen the best and worst the movie has to offer, but now the story begins. The lead character doesn't seem all that deeply baffled by his ability to see into what turns out to be the future, more or less. He almost seems to say "Hey man, I guess I have visions now, groovy, so let's have some lunch and hang out."

He heads off to U.K. with spunky gal sidekick and then proceeds to mostly just hang out at a sort of B and B where he meets various but not too compelling or in-jeopardy characters. Nothing much seems to be going on until it seems there is a character who has returned from he dead. This seems like the moment tension will start to build but it seems to have no impact on most of what's going on for a very long time afterwords. It's like the film has no interest in the one really interesting thing that's happened since the pre credit sequence.

There are other occasional flashes of him recognizing elements he saw at the start of the show, and or seeing new things. There is one very nice false lead he gets that's quite clever. It's very late in the show before he and his sidekick sit down to talk about possible suspects, which is a good thing as up to that point it doesn't seem like they are paying much attention to whatever little is going on.

But there is no growing sense of danger to the show and the suspense and style of ESP bits take up very little screen time. The Director does a good job with those ESP bits but the rest of the show is flatly directed and though the music score is bad there is also almost no music to give real context for the seeming random conversations between people that take up much of the running time. And for something intended for commercial television there doesn't seem to any interest in holding the viewer through the occasional fade to blacks where the commercials would have been.

Then there is a decent wrap up to it all, followed by kind of cheesy set up for it to go into series form which it never did.

I watched the recent DVD release and watched the longer of the two versions on there--it certainly felt too long, but I didn't watch the ten minute shorter version mostly because it is a stretched and distorted version of the 4:3 aspect ratio version I had just watched. I hope this is just a manufacturing mistake and they didn't think you'd be fooled into thinking this was truly a widescreen version of the film.

So there you have it, I guess I was satisfied to see it as I had long heard of it, but if you aren't a die hard Nimoy fan you could well be baffled and bored into wondering why you bothered. Nimoy and the girl do have some chemistry but without a consistently involving story it doesn't matter much, especially in a one off movie as it exists now.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed and Produced by Philip Leacock at Pinewood Studios for Arena Productions and ITC. A British-U. S. Telefilm co-production broadcast by NBC. Screenplay by Theodore Apstein; Photography by Ken Hodges; Edited by Bill Blunden; Music by Richard Hill. Starring: Leonard Nimoy, Susan Hampshire, Rachel Roberts, Vera Miles, Jewel Blanche, Angharad Rees, Val Taylor, Mike Murray and Al Mancini.

Slick TV pilot pegged on prescience with dozens of red herrings and preposterous antics as Rachel dabbles in supernatural regaining her youth at the expense of aging young Miss Blanche. Fine cast and Hodges' lensing redeem this turkey.

Doctor Spock!! by 1972, Nimoy had already finished the original Star Trek, and Mission Impossible. Here, he's Kovac, a race car driver, who keeps having visions that get in the way of his racing. Susan Hampshire is Michele, a self declared "expert" in the occult, and wants to get to the bottom of his visions. Rachel Roberts and Vera Miles co-star in this faux-horror; Roberts was actually nominated for an oscar for Sporting Life, ten years prior; that's about as close as anyone gets to an oscar in this cast. and of course, Rachel Roberts was awesome in "Foul Play", for those old enough to remember. Here, in the usual horror formula (agatha christie style ?) the people all gather at one location (England), then strange things start to happen. more visions. pretty lame script, iffy acting. people putting fingerprints on top of other fingerprints without thinking. silliness. it's up to the viewer to try to guess what's going on, but we're not really given any clues, so it pretty much just unfolds near the end. it's okay. interesting to see Leonard Nimoy in a very different role from star trek. and Rachel Roberts. Directed by Philip Leacock, British director, where this was filmed. the trivia says this was to be a pilot for a tv series, as we can tell from the very end.. it's a teaser about solving another mystery. which apparently never happens.

Only less intelligent and with worse acting. Nimoy is famous for playing Spork on Star Trek but here is illogical and corny. Everyone else is British except that chick from Psycho and they all act like dorks. Baffling.

Leonard Nimoy stars in this TV movie as race car driver Tom Kovack, who has a baffling vision of an English country house at a most inopportune time(as he's in a race!) and has a crash out. An ESP expert(played by Susan Hampshire) contacts him, and they go off together to stay at a manor house where she suspects his vision originated from. Turns out she's right, as an American actress(played by Vera Miles) and her daughter are also staying, and they become the target of a nefarious occult plot... Nimoy and Hampshire work well together, and on location filming helps, but story is mostly uninvolving and muddled, with a most predictable and silly resolution, though a bright closing scene sets up a possible TV series that never materialized.

Mr. Nimoy would have greater success with ESP on his hosting duties with "In Search Of..."

This non_classic, remembered fondly by some, forgotten by most, is likely to be enjoyed the most by fans of 1970s made-for-tv genre movies, Leonard Nimoy or Vera Miles completists, or avid fans of all things psychic. It is in the same vein as The Sixth Sense tv series, AKA Circle of Fear, with Gary Collins, except that where the latter was quite earnest, Baffled is relatively light-hearted and decidedly unintense. It consists largely of Leonard Nimoy driving around a rear-projection landscape, mannequins being tossed off of cliffs, and cheeky flirtation among certain of the adult leads. Baffled is a mellow easy chair in which you might sit as you fold your laundry.

Leonard Nimoy stars as a race car driver with psychic visions in "Baffled!" also starring Susan Hampshire, Vera Miles, Rachel Roberts, and Jewel Blanch. After the Nimoy character reports on television that he had a vision that caused him to lose control of his race car during a competition, he is visited by Susan Hampshire. She is a student of psychic phenomenon and believes he should follow up on what he saw - a manor house in England, the phrase "It's Wyndham in Devon, dear," and a familiar-looking woman who is need of help.

He agrees to join her after he has another vision which is much stronger -- and scarier - than the previous one. The two of them end up at a manor house which has been turned into a sort of resort hotel. There, they meet the woman of the vision - an American film star who is waiting for her ex-husband, her young daughter, and some rather strange characters.

Judging by what happens at the end of this entertaining movie, "Baffled" seems to have been a pilot for a TV series. The stars - Hampshire and Nimoy - are delightful, and the story is an interesting one that manages to tie in not only psychic phenomenon but a satanic element as well. Vera Miles does an effective job as a woman anticipating a reunion with her ex, Rachel Roberts is terrific as the owner of Wyndham, and Jewel Blanch is very good as Miles' daughter.

This intriguing story will hold the viewer's interest, and it is immensely helped by the likability of the main characters.

Tom : Leonard Nimoy is a competition pilot who's driving in a car race when suddenly happens him a vision about assassinated people at a manor house, resulting in a violent crash. After suffering from visions and healing at hospital, Tom meets a psychic expert : Susan Humshire who believes these visions will really happen and then both of whom head to England where encounter the strange mansion. They stand in the Wyndham Bed and Breakfast run by Rachel Roberts, where remain also some peculiar characters .

So-so thriller that turns out to be the pilot of a failed TV series, including supernatural elements, suspense, rare amulets, satanic worship, twists and turns. The picture has a twisted intrigue with various subplots, some weird happenings, but it results to be really disjointed and with no much sense. As fantastic and bizarre events occuring here and there, but they're usually silly and absurd, thanks to a regular script by Theodore Apstein. Mediocre interpretation abound. As Leonard Nimoy is passable as the car driver who starts seeing visions losing his control and wrecks, while the attractive Susan Hamshire is better as the paranormal expert who helps him to solve the enigmatic case. Support cast is acceptable by playing dodgy roles, as Vera Miles acting a veteran actress, Jewel Blanch as her daughter, Rachel Roberts as the innkeeper, Ray Brooks, Shane Rimmer, Angharad Rees, Valerie Taylor, among others.

The motion picture was regularly directed by Philip Leacock. He was a fine artisan who directed a lot of films about all kinds of genres, such as : Appointment in London, Escapade, The War Lover, Hand in hand, High tide noon, Take a giant step, The rabbit trap, Innocent sinners, The Brave don't cry, Reach for glory, The Kidnappers, The Spanish gardener, Riders of new forest, Let no man write my epitaph. Subsequently , he changed to Television, directing several Telefilms and episodes of famous series as The Defenders, Bonanza, Cannon, Route 66, Fantasy Island, The Walton, Gunsmoke, American Playhouse, Marcus Welby, The Great Adventure, Alfred Hitchcock presents , Murder she wrote, Falcon Crest, FBI, and several others. Rating : 4.5/10. Only for Leonard Nimoy fans.

BAFFLED! features Leonard Nimoy as race car driver, Tom Kovack. When bizarre visions almost get him killed in a crash, Kovack is at a loss to explain what he saw, or how he survived the accident. Soon, he is joined by occult enthusiast, Michele Brent (Susan Hampshire), who is convinced that his experience was authentic, and could be important.

Meanwhile, in England, Andrea Glenn (Vera Miles) has just arrived at Windham House with her young daughter, Jennifer (Jewel Blanch). These are the very people at the very house that Kovack witnessed in his vision! Soon, more paranormal sightings occur. Unsurprisingly, Kovack and Brent take a trip to jolly old England to see what's going on at Windham House.

A pilot episode for a TV show that was never made, BAFFLED! has a great deal in common with another psychic series, THE SIXTH SENSE, that was being broadcast at the time. Nimoy plays the Gary Collins-type role, sleuthing with his ESP. He's good, and makes one wonder what the series might have been like. As a movie, this is great fun, full of "OLD DARK HOUSE" mystery, skullduggery, and twists. Lovers of this genre should also seek out SWEET, SWEET RACHEL, the pilot for that OTHER paranormal show!...

Why was a decently talented actor like Leonard Nimoy entombed into one role? Perhaps because he did utter garbage like this. Or maybe because he was typecast as Spock he was forced to do this kind of shlock. However it worked exactly, it's a vicious and unfortunate cycle that produced absolute garbage like Baffled!.

It is a light drama on the line of 'The Hardy Boys' and 'Nancy Drew'. I enjoyed it for the better part but I do not like that it portrayed witchcraft & the occult as real with both good and bad. I never like portraying paganism and heathenism as 'good' in any manner. The great deceiver is always any avenue to win the ongoing battle of Spiritual Warfare.

The oddball "Baffled!" got intended as a pilot for a TV show but never got picked up. I don't know whether or not the story would've worked as a series, but as a standalone movie it's fun. Leonard Nimoy (in a role very unlike his most famous one) plays a racecar driver who has strange visions of an estate and decides to find out what it is. Sure enough, some other people have a connection to this place.

It's not a masterpiece but still a clever movie. A red herring here and there help keep the end a surprise. It looks like the sort of movie that they had fun filming. Moreover, it was neat to see Nimoy in a role so unlike the one with which he's most associated. And I also liked Vera Miles's role.

American race car driver Tom Kovack (Leonard Nimoy) has a vision which causes him to crash during a televised race. British occult expert Michele Brent (Susan Hampshire) tracks him down and they become a supernatural sleuthing team. They follow his vision to Andrea Glenn (Vera Miles) and her daughter Jennifer in an English countryside mansion. Andrea is a famous actress and she is endangered by a sinister plot.

This is an unsold British TV pilot. I am only watching this for Leonard Nimoy. I can see why it wasn't picked up. It is not that good, but some of it is still interesting. The concept has potential.

I am so disappointed that the lovely Vera Miles was in this horrible horror movie. The worst was the cinematography, for example the "painted scenery" for Nimoy's bathroom before he disrobed and went in. Thankfully, we were spared that as he would have walked through the painted scene and who wants to see Spock naked? The acting was abysmal at best. There is no real, believable connection between any of the characters, it is as if they are sleep walking through their lines. However, that is the fault of the script writers. How did they do this without laughing? I am a Horror-Science Fiction geek and have enjoyed some B movies in the genre and seen some bad movies but this is the worst. Disappointing, except that Vera Miles looked great; even while running into the dark of night in an evening gown and gold slippers to find her daughter.

Race car champion Leonard Nimoy gets into a crash on the track. He starts having visions when vacationing in English. Fortunately, paranormal/ghost investigator Susan Hampshire is around to tell him how to use his powers at the Stately Home which the elderly owner has started taking guests in.

Filled with 1920s Bentleys, cheap-looking jewelry, and very bad wallpaper, this was a TV movie in the US, intended as a pilot for a series. In was released briefly to the theaters in Britain. Philip Leacock directs with a lot of Hitchcock touches, particularly at the end. With Vera Miles, Angharad Rees, and Ray Brooks.

A race car driver suddenly develops a strange psychic ability to detect impending danger. He has a vision involving a woman in peril; a parapsychologist implores him to find her and try to avert whatever danger she is in. He winds up at an English manor house – the one he saw in his vision – where he encounters the woman and a host of other untrustworthy characters.

Leonard Nimoy seems to have been enjoying himself in the title role of this entertaining TV movie. Like others have said, it does have the whiff of a pilot for a TV series about it. It would be quite easy to imagine a male/female psychic/parapsychologist team going around and saving innocent people from bad guys every week. But alas no, there was no series of this. However, that doesn't change the fact that Baffled! is a fair amount of fun. It has a pretty compelling mystery plot to it that combines ESP with the occult. The acting from everyone is good while the production values have that solid made for TV cosiness about them. If I had to make a complaint, it would be a minor one, but it would be that despite the great build it has a slightly overly silly denouncement that would not have looked out of place in a Scooby Doo cartoon. But, no matter, this one is still a lot of fun.

Overall a good tv movie intended as a pilot that we never got to see. Wish we did. This movie is unintentionally funny. Leonard Nimoy is a race car driver with a groovy life who after an accident on the track seen through very mundane footage of a racetrack accident which leaves Mr Nimoy with ESP powers to save the innocent and stop the bad guys through his new found clairvoyance so naturally he and his sexy female champion who convinced him of his powers and knows what these weird slow motion visions are, so he can rescue the innocent. Very high minded stuff and although unconvingingly acted, the cast, particularly Mr Nimoy is having fun with the silly role and at least makes it entertaining but certainly not believable. I still consider this to be an enjoyable and worthwhile 70's movie of the week network broadcast well worth seeing, just to have fun while making a little fun of it.

"Baffled!" is a British-made TV pilot for a series that never materialized....something very common as most pilots never become regular TV shows.

When the film begins, Tom Kovack (Leonard Nimoy) is racing in an auto race and things seem to be just fine. Suddenly, however, without warning Tom begins seeing visions of some manor home...and loses control and wrecks. He's okay but very shaken by these odd images that come and go. He finds a pretty psychic investigator and the pair head to the UK because that seemed to be where the visions were leading him. Miraculously, they easily find this same home...a B&B filled with dodgy characters. Tom begins seeing violent images and thinks someone's life is in danger...but often the images turn out to be dead ends or misleading. Can the pair manage to solve some crime before it occurs?

This film worked because of the writing. Again and again, false trails and confounds occur and the show REALLY keeps you guessing. It's certainly odd and some folks who dislike shows about the occult and psychic stuff (like me) might dislike it (but I didn't)! Well worth your time.