Showing posts with label 1976. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1976. Show all posts
Samantha (Lynne Frederick of No Blade of Grass) is engaged to be married to Alan Falconer (John Leyton), but she can't shake a feeling of doom or the fear that she is being stalked by her crazy "stepfather," Haskin (Jack Watson of Tower of Evil). Sam seeks advice and comfort from her friend Beth (Stephanie Beacham of Inseminoid) and another friend, Leonard (John Fraser) who happens to be a handy psychiatrist. There's also a young psychic lady named Joy (Trisha Mortimer) who tries to give Samantha a desperate warning. Then bodies start dropping all around Sam ... Schizo is, if nothing else, suspenseful as it drops in its red herrings and clues as to the true identity of the maniac, but it's not especially memorable. Walker also directed The Comeback and House of Whipcord. His movies always just seem to miss.
Verdict: Half entertaining. **1/2.
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| Ralph and Ed Norton do drag! |
THE HONEYMOONERS SPECIALS
"Just what I always suspected! I'm calling Anita Bryant in the morning!" -- Alice's mother after seeing Ralph rubbing Ed's back.
"The Honeymooners: Second Honeymoon" (1976). Director: Jackie Gleason.
"The Honeymooners Christmas Special" (1978). Director: Jackie Gleason.
"The Honeymooners Valentine Special" (1978). Director: Jackie Gleason.
Jackie Gleason brought back most of the cast of the original Honeymooners -- Jane Kean of the Color Honeymooners replaced Joyce Randolph -- for four reunion specials in the late seventies, three of which are available on DVD. In "Second Honeymoon" Ralph (Jackie Gleason) and Alice (Audrey Meadows) are going to renew their vows at the raccoon lodge when Ralph gets the mistaken impression that Alice is pregnant. In the Christmas special, Ralph gets another hare-brained idea and uses his savings, his mother-in-law's social security check, and Norton's Xmas bonus to buy hundreds of lottery tickets. In the Valentine special, the funniest of the three, Ralph is convinced that Alice is plotting to murder him due to a gigolo she's met, and he and Ed (Art Carney) dress in drag to trap this other man. Some of the routines in these are over-familiar, the apartment looks especially stark on a large stage and in color, and Ralph and Alice still don't have a phone or most modern conveniences, but the cast's timing is still impeccable and there are a lot of laughs. Eileen Heckart [The Bad Seed; Miracle in the Rain] plays Ralph's mother-in-law in the Valentine special, and while she's a fine actress, she's not really suitable for the role. Templeton Fox is a little more on the mark, but neither of them can compare to Ethel Owen, who really nailed the role in the original series in the fifties. The fourth special had Ralph putting on "A Christmas Carol" for the Raccoon lodge, but this has not yet been released on DVD. Jane Kean was in the right time and place when these reunions were announced and got the part of Trixie again, but in all fairness it should have gone to Joyce Randolph, the original Trixie, as these were "reunions."
Verdict: Everyone's a little grayer, but the magic is still there. ***.
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| Linda Miller and Paula Sheppard |
On the day of her first communion, little Karen Spages (Brook Shields) is murdered and her body set on fire in the back of the Catholic church. The main suspect is her jealous older sister, Alice (Paula Sheppard), who is identified as the assailant when her aunt Annie (Jame Lowry) is attacked on the staircase with a butcher knife -- a very good scene -- even though the perpetrator wears a mask. Her mother, Catherine (Linda Miller) and father, Dom (Niles McMaster), who is divorced from Catherine, can't believe their daughter could be capable of such acts despite her troubles, and they may be right. But who is the maniac in the mask and yellow slicker who is turning all of their lives into a nightmare? Communion is a tasty little thriller that triumphs over some amateurish moments and one weak key performance and emerges as one of the most entertaining and unusual psycho-shockers of the period or after. Although none of the principal actors seem able to quite get across the shock and numbness their characters would be feeling after Karen's horrible murder, on other levels they are more than capable, with Sheppard quite good as the feisty, disturbed Alice, Miller effective as her mother, and Mildred Clinton positively walking off with the movie in the significant role of Mrs. Tredoni, the housekeeper for the rectory. Rudolph Willrich is also good as Father Tom, the parish priest, and a very young Brooke Shields scores as the tragic Karen; Niles McMaster is barely adequate as Karen's father, however. The worst performance, though, comes from Jane Lowry, who overacts as the Aunt as if she thought she were cast in a black comedy, badly throwing off the tone of certain sequences. An unusual cast member, even if she only appears for a minute or so, is former songstress Lillian Roth, whose life was chronicled in I'll Cry Tomorrow with Susan Hayward. Then there's the amazing Alphonso DeNoble, who plays the morbidly obese, pedophile landlord with a pee stain on his gigantic trousers. Of all the actors Willrich amassed the most credits. Filmed in dreary Paterson, New Jersey, where the story takes place, Communion has decided atmosphere, and undertones of the perverse pathology of Catholicism are pervasive. Stephen Lawrence contributed the haunting theme. Unfortunately, Alfred Sole never followed up on his promise as director, having only a couple of other directorial credits; most of his work since has been in production design. The movie was also released in theaters as Alice, Sweet Alice and re-released as Holy Terror after Brooke Shields became famous.
Verdict: Imperfect, perhaps, but fascinating and memorable. ***.
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| William Katt and Sissy Spacek |
Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is a shy, tormented high school student in a small town who has a child-abusing, religious fanatic mother (Piper Laurie). Her telekinetic abilities start to reveal themselves along with her awakening womanhood. As penance for her role in making fun of Carrie in a cruel fashion, Sue Snell (Amy Irving of Hide and Seek) importunes her boyfriend, Tommy (William Katt) to take Carrie to the prom in her place. Unfortunately Sue's bitchy friend Chris (Nancy Allen) -- the ultimate "mean girl" -- and her boyfriend Billy (John Travolta) have diabolical plans for Carrie, who responds in a powerful fashion of her own ... Lawrence D. Cohen's screenplay improves upon Stephen King's potboiler novel, and the film is extremely well-directed by De Palma [The Black Dahlia], one of the very few directors who can make effective use of slow-motion and split screens. Adding to the strength of the movie are the performances, especially by Spacek, who creates deep sympathy for her character without ever becoming cloying. It could be argued that Laurie [Trauma] is a little over-the-top. but she's effective and interesting (which is more than you can say for the actresses who tackled the role in the two remakes). Katt, Irving, Allen and Travolta are all perfect, as is Betty Buckley as the compassionate gym teacher, Miss Collins. The contribution played by Pino Donaggio's excellent score can not be underestimated (he employs Psycho strings on occasion but can he forgiven for that). The songs at the prom are memorable and evocative as well.
Verdict: A classic and by far the best version of this compelling story. ***1/2.