It Happened at Lakewood Manor

It Happened at Lakewood Manor (also known by the titles Ants and Panic at Lakewood Manor) is a 1977 American made-for-television horror film starring Lynda Day George, Suzanne Somers, Myrna Loy, Brian Dennehy and Bernie Casey. It was directed by Robert Scheerer and premiered December 2, 1977, on ABC.

Plot
During construction at the old, hard-pressed Lakewood Hotel, two workers stumble upon a swarm of ants in a closed section of the building. After discovering the ants to be unusually aggressive and dangerous, the workers attempt to get the warning out, but are accidentally buried alive.

Shortly after, the unscrupulous real estate magnate Anthony Fleming (Gerald Gordon) and his partner and mistress Gloria (Suzanne Somers) arrive at the hotel, there to haggle with the elderly proprietor, Ethel Adams (Myrna Loy) and her daughter Valerie (Lynda Day George) as they pursue plans to convert Lakewood into a casino. In the meantime, foreman Mike Carr (Robert Foxworth), who is in a relationship with Valerie, and his co-worker and friend Vince (Bernie Casey) find the two missing workers, dead from poisoning. The ants begin to emerge, attacking a boy, then killing a hotel cook, and nearly killing Vince as he and Mike investigate the pit in which their men were buried.

Peggy Kenter (Anita Gillette), a Board of Health (BOH) inspector and an acquaintance of Carr's, decides to quarantine the hotel, thinking a virus is at work. Mike soon discovers that there is an immense ant nest in the pit, and concludes that these insects are responsible for the attacks. Tom (Bruce French), a BOH researcher, finally discovers that the ants are highly venomous and resistant to insecticides.

By that time, the ants are swarming the hotel by the millions, killing Gloria and Peggy's assistant White (Steve Franken) and driving Carr, Valerie, Ethel, Fleming, hotel employee Richard (Barry Van Dyke) and his girlfriend Linda (Karen Lamm) upstairs. Vince alerts the authorities, who attempt to contain the ants with a trench - filled first with water, then with burning gasoline after Tom points out that army ants cross streams on bridges built from ant corpses - and rescue most of the people trapped inside the hotel. Carr, Valerie and Fleming, the only people remaining, are eventually cornered by the ants; Tom tells them not to move, in order to give the ants no reason to attack them. As the ants begin crawling all over them, Fleming panickedly launches himself from the room's balcony to the swimming pool below in a desperate attempt to escape, but misses the jump and dies in the fall. Shortly afterwards, two suited-up rescuers arrive and take Carr and Valerie to safety.

When they are taken away by the ambulance, Tom assures Carr that such a case will not likely be recurring, as the unique environmental conditions at the hotel estate were vital for the existence of the ants' nest.

Cast

 * Robert Foxworth as Mike Carr
 * Lynda Day George as Valerie Adams
 * Gerald Gordon as Anthony Fleming
 * Bernie Casey as Vince
 * Barry Van Dyke as Richard Cyril
 * Karen Lamm as Linda Howard
 * Myrna Loy as Ethel Adams
 * Anita Gillette as Peggy Kenter
 * Steve Franken as Lionel White
 * Brian Dennehy as Fire Chief
 * Suzanne Somers as Gloria Henderson
 * Bruce French as Tom
 * Barbara Brownell as Marjorie
 * Stacy Keach Sr. as Doc
 * René Enríquez as Luis
 * Moosie Drier as Tommy
 * Vincent Cobb as Peter
 * Jim Storm as Attendant

Production
The location for Lakewood Manor was The College Inn in Qualicum Beach BC, Canada.

Stuntman Conrad Palmisano was buried alive for the film (with a garden hose supplying him air); he would later become chairman of the Screen Actors Guild's stunt and safety committee.

Release
It Happened at Lakewood Manor was released as Ants on DVD on February 9, 2014. It was released on blu-ray by Kino Lorber as Ants! in 2022 with a commentary track by film historian Lee Gambin.