INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978)

Leonard Nimoy and Donald Sutherland

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978). Director: Phil Kaufman.

San Francisco health inspector Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) is carrying a torch for his colleague Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams). Elizabeth is convinced that her live-in boyfriend, Geoff (Art Hindle), is not himself, that he's actually become a different person. Matthew's friend, David Kidner (Leonard Nimoy), a pop psychologist and author, says that other people are also claiming their loved ones are not their loved ones. Things take an even darker turn when a weird body turns up in the mud baths operated by Jack (Jeff Goldblum) and Nancy (Veronica Cartwright), a half-finished body that greatly resembles Jack. It seems that virtually everyone in the city has succumbed to this ghastly invasion of space seeds, which destroys humans and replaces them with unemotional duplicates ...  

Veronica Cartwright

On its own terms this remake of the classic fifties film of the same name is entertaining, and if this is one's first introduction to the story -- based on "The Body Snatchers" by Jack Finney -- it will probably give you a bit of the chills. But be forewarned that if you watch it back to back with the original it greatly suffers in comparison. Switching the locale from a small town to a big city does not do too much damage, but a bigger problem is that the film too often resembles a clumsy parody of the first film. Sutherland, Nimoy and Adams are okay, but Goldblum is irritating and Cartwright overacts almost from the first (compare her to a splendid Carolyn Jones in the first film). Some of the chase scenes just seem so stilted. 

Brooke Adams

Aside from the electronic noises during sequences with the pods -- the FX here are quite good -- the musical score only detracts from the film's effectiveness. Some of the other changes in this version are welcome: Elizabeth's "transformation" is handled much better and much more logically than Becky's "conversion" in the first film, and the weird way the aliens point and screech at ordinary humans is acceptably unnerving. A clever bit -- although it doesn't quite work -- has Elizabeth screaming when she sees a dog with a man's head (as opposed to Becky screaming when a dog is nearly run over), but the inclusion of Kevin McCarthy, acting much the way he does at the climax of the original film, while cute, also ruins the mood, coming off more comical than anything else. Director Philip Kaufman tries to create an air of disquiet by putting odd people in the backgrounds -- the aliens beginning to assert themselves, one supposes -- the oddest of whom is Robert Duvall, herein cast as a non-speaking priest on a child's swing. The director of the original, Don Siegel, plays a cab driver.

Verdict: Nice try, but the original is much, much better. **3/4. 

NIGHTMARES

NIGHTMARES (1983). Director: Joseph Sargent.

This horror anthology is unusual because it has no framing sequence. "Terror in Topanga" is the old chestnut about an escaped maniac terrorizing a town. Phil (Joe Lambie of Falcon Crest) tells his wife Lisa (Cristina Raines) not to go out for cigarettes, but she doesn't listen. The ending to this segment is so utterly flat that it's a wonder anyone bothered reading past it in the screenplay. "The Bishop of Battle" is equally forgettable, a silly business about a young man, J. J. (Emilio Estevez of Mission: Impossible), who has a desperate need to reach the highest level of a video game and wishes that he hadn't. 'The Benediction" is a lower-case version of Duel and The Car, with a priest (Lance Henriksen of Damian: Omen 2) who is having a crisis of faith, being pursued on the highway by a demonic van. This is religious twaddle, but the highway scenes are not badly done. The fourth and best episode is "The Night of the Rat," in which a couple (Veronica Cartwright and Richard Masur) discover that their home has been invaded by a giant and rather intelligent "Devil Rat." Some would dismiss this segment as monster schlock, but it is undeniably creepy and suspenseful with some very effective scenes.

Verdict: "Night of the Rat" pretty much saves this otherwise lame horror pic. *** out of 4.

THE CHILDREN'S HOUR

Shirley MacLaine and Audrey Hepburn

THE CHILDREN'S HOUR (1961). Producer/director: William Wyler. Note: some plot points are revealed in this review.

William Wyler had already directed These Three, a sanitized film version of Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour, when he decided it was time to tackle the play and its sub-theme head on. Karen Wright (Audrey Hepburn) and Martha Dobie (Shirley MacLaine) co-own a young girls' boarding school in a small but wealthy community. Karen has held off her marriage to Joe Cardin (James Garner of They Only Kill Their Masters) because she wants to make sure the school is a success before she leaves. With the unwitting aid of Karen's miserable Aunt Lily (Miriam Hopkins), a hateful child named Mary (Karen Balkin) tells a malicious lie about the two women. Her grandmother, Amelia Tilford (Fay Bainter), believes the lie and spreads it around that Karen and Martha are lovers, with the result that all of the parents take their daughters out of school. Does Martha have deeper feelings for Karen than she wants to admit? Hellman's play was certainly ahead of its time, and some of the dialogue that may have seemed "politically correct" in the sixties was actually already in the play, produced about thirty years earlier. Martha goes on about people "who believe in it, who want it, who've chosen it for themselves," but this is something she just can't do. (Of course today it's more accurate to say gay people choose to accept themselves.) The dated, but not unrealistic for the period, line is Martha saying "I feel so sick and dirty I just can't stand it anymore," which is roughly equivalent to "Show me a happy homosexual and I'll show you a gay corpse" from The Boys in the Band. However, I've never felt Children's Hour was as offensive as Boys, because the latter is a mostly negative depiction of acknowledged gay characters while the former not only looks at the devastating results of gossip and innuendo but functions, whether intended or not, as a trenchant study of both external and internalized homophobia. These women's lives are ruined simply because people think they're lesbians, a revelation which Martha only acknowledges at the very end. The suicide in the film may strike modern-viewers as horribly dated but it's also quite moving, as is the conflicted character of Martha. John Michael Hayes' [Rear Window] script is excellent, William Wyler's direction is sensitive and splendid, and the acting from virtually the entire cast is simply incredible. Hepburn and MacLaine are perfection, Bainter and Hopkins come close to stealing the show, James Garner (whom I've never much cared for) gives probably the best performance of his career, and the little girls, including Veronica Cartwright as Rosalie, are so good it's almost scary. Add a lovely score by Alex North, fine cinematography by Franz Planer (who also shot Wyler's The Big Country), and expert editing from Robert Swink and you've got a near-masterpiece.

Verdict: Whatever its flaws, this picture plays. ***1/2.

STRAIGHT-JACKET (2004)

STRAIGHT-JACKET (2004).Writer/director: Richard Day (based on his stage play).

"The main trait that separates my people from yours is that we mean you no harm."

Guy Stone (Matt Lescher) is a major movie star who is gay and in the closet. His agent, Jerry (Veronica Cartwright) and a producer convince Guy to play straight and get married to an adoring secretary, Sally (Carrie Preston). [Rock Hudson and Phyllis Gates, anyone?] But while Guy tries to maintain his usual lifestyle with an inquisitive and horny wife, he meets Rick (Adam Greer), the handsome and angry author whose book is being turned into Stone's latest movie, and the two fall in love. Then a scandal breaks, and Guy has to choose whether he wants the man or his career. This probably was cute enough as a play, where one could relate to the actors right on stage in front of you, but its "queeny" gay humor is a little passe [jokes about Judy Garland and transvestism!] and the only thing that makes you realize this is supposed to take place during the McCarthy era is the occasional hairstyle -- there is absolutely no period atmosphere whatsoever, and the characters talk more as if it were the 21st century than the 1950's -- Day should have done a little research, for Pete's sake. The picture goes completely awry at the end when Guy is questioned as to whether or not he is a "homosexual communist." There are disturbing pot shots at lesbians, one of whom is actually played by a man in drag! While she is miscast, Veronica Cartwright [of Alien] as Guy's agent at least resists playing her character like a butch stereotype. The other actors are all well-cast and on target, however, with Lescher doing a wonderful balancing act between serious and farce, and Greer and Preston equally good. The movie has some amusing bits and some good lines but it's a shame that such an interesting premise had to be turned into what is basically a 90 minute sitcom like the awful Will and Grace. I mean, even today there are plenty of movie stars in the closet.

Verdict: Nice idea; so-so execution, but most of the actors are solid. **1/2.

ALIEN [2003] "DIRECTOR'S CUT"

The crew of the Nostromo make an amazing discovery -- but things get worse.

ALIEN (1979). Director: Ridley Scott.

"This place gives me the creeps."

When Twentieth-Century Fox re-released Alien, they asked director Ridley Scott to prepare a new version incorporating footage that had been excised when the film was first released. Scott complied, but had always liked the original cut, and found the new cut to be too long and lumbering. So he did a final edit and came out with an alternate version that was a minute shorter than the original. But any way, you slice it, this is Alien, and it's good.

The crew of the Nostromo are awakened early by what they assume is a distress signal and land on a foreboding, stormy planet wherein they discover a derelict spaceship with a dead economy-sized navigator [see photo]. In the bowels of the derelict ship they find a mass of strange eggs, one of which unleashes a creature that attaches itself to the faceplate of crewman Kane (John Hurt). Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is concerned about admitting Kane to the ship due to possible contamination -- it turns out she's right to be concerned -- but compassion overrides directives and Kane is taken to the medical center. From then on it's a mounting spiral of horror as the alien creature proves to be deadly and nearly unkillable. Alien admirably sustains tension throughout and works up a beautifully creepy atmosphere. The acting is good, with the ladies Weaver and Veronica Cartwright (who was in The Birds as a child) taking top honors. H. R. Giger's biomechanical alien design is intriguing and the film has superior art direction and scenic design. Dramatic license allows for the sounds of explosions and so on in space even if the ads claimed "In space no one can hear you scream." Jerry Goldsmith's musical score is a plus.

New scenes include one in which Cartwright gives Weaver a smack in the face and calls her a bitch. And one late in the movie when Ripley comes across cocoons containing some of the crew members, and toasts Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt) when he begs her to kill him.

Alien was an influential movie, even as it was itself influenced [in script, incident, and design] by such B movies as It, the Terror from Beyond Space! and Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires. It was followed by Aliens. In 2012 Ridley Scott made a prequel entitled Prometheus.

Verdict: Very well-dressed and absorbing popcorn movie. ***1/2.