The Science 07!?: All the Kind Strangers (1974)

Photographer Jimmy Wheeler (Stacy Keach) drives through the American countryside. On his way he meets a little boy struggling with a paper bag of groceries. Since Jimmy is a nice guy, he promises the boy Gilbert (Tim Parkinson) to take him home. "Home" turns out to be a big house far off the main roads and six more children, as well as a woman the children call their mother (Samantha Eggar). Jimmy soon realizes that she isn't her mother, but a friendly soul like himself who wanted to help a child and is now held prisoner by the little psychos. And, since Jimmy is such a nice man, he'll surely have no problem with being their new Dad. If not, he will probably learn what happened to his predecessors as head of family.
All the Kind Strangers turns out to be a very competent and effective little film. It looks surprisingly good for a TV production of the time, probably thanks to director and old workhorse Burt Kennedy, who knew how to make things work on a budget. The basic idea of the movie is weird enough to charm every friend of the American Gothic.
The acting is fine, even the child actors don't annoy. The script is comfortably simple and uses the always effective technique of hinting at certain things more than showing them.
A slight feeling of wrongness runs through many of the scenes, hinting at country life as claustrophobic and not too helpful for one's state of mind.
I can even overlook the much too friendly ending. It still is a TV movie, after all.