Haunts of the Very Rich 1972

A group of wealthy tourists and businesspeople flock to a mysterious tropical retreat, the Portals of Eden, hosted by Moses Gunn as Seacrist. There, they spend their days lounging in luxury and enjoying pampered comforts, savoring the sense of paradise that the resort promises.

Yet their idyll is shattered after a powerful storm wakes them from their first night. They find themselves completely alone, with dwindling food and water, cut off from the outside world, and abruptly abandoned by the resort staff. As isolation sets in, the guests discover that each of them has recently faced a brush with death: Dave Woodrough, Lloyd Bridges, survived a heart attack; Ellen Blunt, Cloris Leachman, suffered a fatal reaction to a rabies vaccine; Annette Larrier, Anne Francis, was given unfamiliar sleeping pills by her husband; Lyle and Laurie, together, had been in a car accident; Reverend John Fellows, Robert Reed, drowned; and Al Hunsicker, Ed Asner, wonders if he may have fallen down stairs while intoxicated. As tension mounts, the group grapples with the unsettling possibility that they are not merely stranded, but in a place that tests the limits of reality and morality.

As days pass, conditions deteriorate and some among them begin to believe they might be in Hell, a theory that lingers in every hushed conversation and anxious glance. The remaining guests hunt for answers, hoping for clues about their fate. Then a glimmer of help appears: a seaplane lands to answer their distress call. The pilot, Michael Lembeck as Johnny Delmonico, promises to send assistance, though he cannot carry them to safety at once. The moment is a rare spark of relief, and Laurie’s mood sours with a chilling recognition: the pilot is the very Johnny Delmonico who had been reported dead in a plane crash.

A second seaplane arrives later, and this time the pilot explains that the storm was a hurricane and that he had been delayed by urgent relief work. The guests eagerly pack their bags, hopeful at last, only to return to find the plane vanished—without any sound of engine or movement. They confront the grim truth that in this strange place, hope is offered again and again, only to be taken away just as quickly.

Amid the increasingly fraught tension, one troubling development crystallizes: Dave’s own narrow path to a life with Ellen seems to crumble when a mysterious, clingy wife appears, ultimately revealing herself in tragedy—she appears to have taken her own life, leaving Dave to confront the possibility that he cannot escape the cycles of hope and loss that haunt them all.