MUMSY, NANNY, SONNY & GIRLY

Howard Trevor, Vanessa Howard, Pat Heywood, Ursula Howells

MUMSY, NANNY, SONNY & GIRLY (aka Girly/1970). Director: Freddie Francis. 

On an isolated if beautiful estate with a sprawling mansion, a weird family -- consisting of mother Mumsy (Ursula Howells), daughter Girly (Vanessa Howard of The Blood Beast Terror), her brother Sonny (Howard Trevor), and their cheerful nanny (Pat Heywood of 10 Rillington Place) -- collect people and keep them prisoner for bizarre fun and games. If they don't obey the rules they are "sent to the angels." Their latest victim is the "New Friend" (Michael Bryant of The Ruling Class), who after a period of adjustment, so to speak, begins "servicing" Mumsy and Girly, with a jealous Nanny and Sonny becoming more and more agitated. Whose head will wind up boiled in a big pot on the kitchen stove?

Michael Bryant with Howells

Based on a play ("Happy Family") which utilized only the characters but not the rest of the plot, Mumsy is a weird -- too weird -- black comedy that is, unfortunately, devoid of laughs aside from one or two moments (one of which might be the boiling pot, although it's a wonder that nobody smells anything). Although the actors are very, very good, handling these oddball, irritating roles with aplomb, it's hard to take any of them, especially the brother and sister, almost from the start. Things begin to get more interesting towards the end, when the quartet turn against each other, but by then it's too late. These psychos never come off remotely like real people. Freddie Francis only made the picture because he'd always wanted to film inside the impressive setting, Oakley Court. 

Verdict: Proof positive that even homicidal weirdos can be dull. *1/2. 

THE FIFTH CORD

Franco Nero and Pamela Tiffin

THE FIFTH CORD (aka Giornata nera per l'ariete/aka Evil Fingers/1971). Director: Luigi Bazzoni.

After a New Year's Eve party, a young man named John Lubbock (Maurizio Bonuglia) is attacked in a tunnel by an unknown person and nearly killed. Investigating the case is reporter Andrea Bild (Franco Nero of Killer Mermaid), who has an ex-wife, Helene (Silvia Monti), a little boy, Tonio, and a girlfriend named Lu (Pamela Tiffin of The Pleasure Seekers), and who drinks way too much for his own good. Then there is a series of murders, with a doctor's wife being the first victim (in a well-handled sequence), as we hear an unidentified person on the soundtrack talking about how much he likes to kill people. The Fifth Cord is a non-bloody giallo film that has a nice look (thanks to cinematographer Vittorio Storaro) but which doesn't compare to the best of Dario Argento. The story is completely confusing (Nero's thick accent doesn't help), and the motivations of the killer seem ridiculous (and homoerotic in a strictly old-fashioned sense). There is one very creepy and suspenseful scene when the little boy winds up alone in a house with the lights out and is stalked by the killer. Wolfgang Preiss plays the inspector on the case and Edmund Purdom is a minor character. Nero began a long relationship with Vanessa Redgrave when they worked on Camelot; they married in 2006.

Verdict: Second-rate giallo with some interesting aspects. **1/2.

BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA

Giancarlo Giannini

BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA (aka La tarantola dal ventre nero/1971). Director: Paolo Cavara.

Inspector Tellini (Giancarlo Giannini) investigates a series of murders in which people are paralyzed with a drug and then are stabbed in the belly, in much the way a wasp kills a tarantula (to explain the title and little else). Black Belly of the Tarantula is a very confusing picture with an awful score by Ennio Morricone, who was clearly not much inspired by the material. Stefania Sandrelli plays Anna, Tellini's wife, who figures in the moderately tense finale, and also in the cast are Barbara Bach, Barbara Bouchet, and Claudine Auger [Twitch of the Death Nerve] as women connected to s spa and modeling agency. Gianinni, who went on to much, much better things in a long career, gives an okay if somewhat disinterested performance as a cop who wants to get out of the business (even as the actor probably wanted to get out of the movie). Black Belly is not an especially intriguing nor admirable example of the Italian giallo film. In fact, one could rightly state that the best thing about the movie is its title. A much, much better horror flick for Giannini was Mimic. 

Verdict: Blah dubbed thriller which wastes everyone's talents. **.  

THE RED QUEEN KILLS SEVEN TIMES

Barbara Bouchet

THE RED QUEEN KILLS SEVEN TIMES (aka La dama rossa uccide sette volte/1972). Director: Emilio Miraglia.

The inhabitants of Wildenbrook Castle are supposedly under a legendary curse where every hundred years a bad sister murders the good sister and several others. Speculation about this curse was started by a very old painting depicting a "red queen" murdering another queen dressed in black. When their grandfather dies, it precipitates a series of vicious murders centering around three sisters: Kitty (Barbara Bouchet of Casino Royale), Franziska (Marina Malfatti), and Evelyn, who has supposedly gone to America. We learn early on that Evelyn is dead, but who is that who is dressing up like the Red Queen and killing people she encounters, especially those associated with a fashion house where Kitty works? A police inspector (Marino Mase) works the case and his suspects include Martin (Ugo Paglial), who takes over when the original managing director is stabbed to death; model Lulu (Sybil Danning); Martin's crazy wife, Elizabeth (Carla Mancini); and others. A couple of the murders are fairly inventive, but the picture has no style whatsoever, although it does have some suspense and holds the attention if you're in the mood for a second-rate giallo. An Italian-West German co-production. Miraglia also directed The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, which was better.

Verdict: Beware those cackling queens! **1/2.

THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS

Franco Agostini and Giampiero Albertino

THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS (aka Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?/1972). Director: Giuliano Carnimeo (Anthony Ascott).

A performer named Mizar (Carla Brait) finds a woman's body in the elevator of her building. Not much later Mizar herself is forcibly drowned in her apartment's bathtub by an unseen killer. In spite of this Jennifer (Edwige Fenech) and her friend, Marilyn (Paola Quattrini), move into the murdered woman's flat. One of the chief suspects for the murders is Andrea Barto (George Hilton), who is manager for this and other apartment houses. Jennifer is befriended by a neighbor named Sheila (Annabella Incontrera), who lives with her elderly father, a violinist (George Riguad). (It is made clear that Sheila is a lesbian who is attracted to Jennifer, but she is not exactly "predatory" as she has been described in write-ups of the film.) The masked killer breaks into Jennifer and Marilyn's apartment, but doesn't manage to kill them just yet. Most sensible people would move out of the apartment as fast as possible, but Jennifer needs to stay there so that the rest of the plot can be played out. The Case of the Bloody Iris holds the attention, but the murders will not be gruesome enough for some viewers. Fenech [The Sins of Madame Bovary] has a mostly European following, and seems competent enough as Jennifer, although Gampiero Albertino and Franco Agostini perhaps offer more flavorful performances as Police Commissioner Enci and his assistant, Redi.

Verdict: Acceptable giallo film, **1/2.

THE BLOODSTAINED SHADOW

Craig Hill and Lino Capolicchio

THE BLOODSTAINED SHADOW (aka Solamente nero/1978). Director: Antonio Bido.

Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) comes to Venice to visit his brother, the priest Don Paolo (Craig Hill), who lives in a small town on an island near the city. Haunted by an incident where a young woman was murdered years ago, Stefamo's memories are awakened by a series of new murders. Stefano begins an relationship with Sandra (Stefania Casini of Suspiria), whose own stepmother (Laura Nucci) becomes one of the victims of a fiendish killer. The Bloodstained Shadow is a reasonably intriguing Italian thriller/giallo film whose murders are not quite as gory as in similar films, but we do have the sequence when a woman's head is thrust into a fireplace and is engulfed in flames. Other characters, suspects, and victims include a midwife, Signora Nardi (Juliette Maynial); Count Pedrazzi (Massimo Serato), a music teacher whom Don Paolo accuses of fiddling with his young male students (a sequence which given recent events in the Catholic church may raise some eyebrows); and  Dr. Aloisi (Sergio Mioni), among others. After a few red herrings and twists, a satisfying conclusion unmasks the killer and also provides a mostly believable motivation. The film's production is greatly enhanced by location filming and the brooding shots of mysterious Venice and environs. Craig Hill [Detective Story] was a B movie leading man and TV performer in the fifties and sixties who later did much work in Italy. Juliette Maynial was most famous for Eyes Without a Face. 

Verdict: Has its flaws, and it's not especially stylish, but it's one of the better giallo films. ***. 

A BLADE IN THE DARK

Anny Papa and Andrea Occhipinti

A BLADE IN THE DARK aka La casa con la scala nel buoi/1983). Director: Lamberto Bava.

Bruno (Andrea Occhipinti) is working on a score for a horror film directed by Sandra (Anny Papa). His friend, Tony (Michele Soavi), lets him stay in a large and beautiful villa that he manages, and Bruno quickly encounters two women, Katia (Valeria Cavalli) and Angela (Fabiola Toledo), both of whom are horribly murdered on the estate. Bruno also has a girlfriend named Julia (Lara Lamberti), about whom he becomes suspicious. Investigating, Bruno discovers that their deaths may have something to do with the picture that Sandra is working on. A Blade in the Dark boasts a highly tense and suspenseful approach, although most viewers will see the ending a mile away. The murder sequences are sadistic and gruesome. The music by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis is very reminiscent-- in fact, downright imitative --  of the scores by Goblin for such Dario Argento films as Deep Red. A Blade in the Dark imitates Argento's films with its half giggling-half crying maniac and the convoluted plotline, but it's not in the same league as that director's work. Nevertheless, Bava, the son of Mario Bava, manages to hold the viewer's attention and keep him riveted during key sequences. In this picture, at least, Bava is clearly influenced by his father, Argento, and even Brian De Palma. Actor Michele Soavi also directed horror films such as Stagefright (1987).

Verdict: Real creepy movie with several very bloody sequences. ***.

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Lawyer and client: Brooke Shields and Scott Glenn

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN (2005 telefilm/mini-series). Director: Armand Mastroianni.

Defense attorney Betsy Tannenbaum (Brooke Shields of Communion) receives a large retainer from wealthy developer Martin Darius (Scott Glenn), who tells her he may at sometime be needing her services. He sure does -- when he's arrested for the serial murders of several women. Prosecutor Alan Page (Lou Diamond Phillips) is contacted by a lady cop named Nancy Gordon (Marilu Henner) who tells him that Darius, under another name,  managed to get away with several murders in another town ten years earlier -- his own wife and child were among the victims. Apparently there was a cover up in the other case, and Betsy must not only learn what happened a decade earlier, but figure out if her client is guilty of these new murders as well as the older ones. Based on an absorbing bestseller by Phillip Margolin, Gone But Not Forgotten is a suspenseful and entertaining telefilm, and the satisfying ending actually improves upon the novel. Shields makes a more than capable leading lady. Glenn underplays a bit too much to come off like the dynamic figure of the book, but the other performances are good, especially Robin Riker in the supporting role of a reporter doing a story on Betsy. Mastroianni also directed Grave Misconduct.

Verdict: Creepy cable movie with interesting, if far-fetched, twists. ***.

SCREAM PRETTY PEGGY

Bette Davis

SCREAM PRETTY PEGGY (1973 telefilm). Director: Gordon Hessler. An ABC Movie of the Week.

Peggy Johns (Sian Barbara Allen) is a college student who takes a part-time job as a housekeeper for the aged, tippling Mrs. Elliott (Bette Davis) and her sculptor son, Jeffrey (Ted Bessell). Jeffrey tells the very curious -- indeed nosy and rather pushy -- Peggy that his sister, Jennifer, is insane and living in an apartment above the garage. A barely-seen female sneaks out at night to puncture people with a knife. George Thornton (Charles Drake of The Pretender) comes looking for his missing daughter and also encounters "Jennifer." Very aggressive Peggy makes up her mind to find out what's going on even though she hasn't got a clue. Scream Pretty Peggy, co-written by Jimmy Sangster, has some interesting, if unoriginal, macabre elements to it, but the ending is painfully obvious almost from the start, and Bessell [Billie] is given the most embarrassing role of his career, although his performance is better than you might expect. Allen is overly perky, but competent, and Davis phones in her performance aside from her well-delivered final speech. A far cry from Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte indeed. Hessler's direction provides little help although the pic is entertaining enough.

Verdict: Fun to see Davis but this is a bit of a "drag." **1/2.

WATCH OUT FOR THOSE SLASHERS!

Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger

WATCH OUT FOR THOSE SLASHERS!

While it's not exactly what one could call perfect holiday fare, this week we're looking at that sick, sick, sub-genre, the mad slasher, or stalk-and-slash film. One could hardly say that any of these movies are in good taste, but horror in general has never been the most tasteful genre. Although Halloween is generally considered the first modern-day slasher film after Psycho, I think Friday the 13th, which came out two years later, was much more influential. Before you knew it there was movie after movie in which young people -- high schoolers, college kids, camp counselors, teens or twenty-somethings, people at the very start of life -- are sliced and diced in often horrendous ways by some anti-social maniac. The most famous of these is Jason Voorhees of the Friday the 13th franchise, although Freddy Krueger was the more imaginative and diabolical sociopath -- Jason was mostly just a killing machine. Some of the maniacs in these films had motives, however specious or outlandish, generally focusing on revenge for a misdeed in the past, or romantic/sexual obsession, or just a jealous hatred of one's peers. Some murderers were serial killers; others' identities were never revealed even at the film's conclusion. So this week we've got a whole slew of slasher movies, including one Nightmare, one Friday the 13th, and several others of varying quality, not to mention a whole book on slasher films. Don't eat on a full stomach! NOTE: Although there have certainly been a few very effective slasher films, the only real "slasher" masterpiece is Psycho, and likely to remain so.

William Schoell is the author of Stay Out of the Shower: 25 Years of Shocker Films Beginning with "Psycho" and The Nightmare Never Ends: Freddy Krueger and the Nightmare on Elm Street Films (with James Spencer).

SPASMO

Suzy Kendall and Robert Hoffman

SPASMO (1974). Director: Umberto Lenzi.

A young couple see a woman hanging from a tree but it turns out to be a life-size rubber doll. Then Christian (Robert Hoffman) and a lady friend spot what they think is a woman's corpse on the beach, but she turns out to be the very alive Barbara (Suzy Kendall), who agrees to have a drink and then disappears. Christian next spots her at a boat party he crashes, and winds up in her motel room, where a strange man breaks into the bathroom, threatens him with a gun, and gets shot in self-defense; later the body disappears. Barbara takes Christian to a friend's cliffside tower house, where they encounter an older man named Malcolm (Guido Alberti) and his younger companion, Clorinda (Monica Monet), both of whom seem to be keeping secrets. The trouble with Spasmo is that in trying to keep secrets from the audience, it leave us in the dark for too long, making the whole thing seem pretty nonsensical. [In truth, even after the revelations, the movie still doesn't make a lot of sense.] At one point Barbara, who throughout the movie says things like "I don't understand anything" and "I can't take any more" asks Christian "doesn't it seem terribly absurd to you?" at about the same time all the members of the audience are asking each other the very same question. Meanwhile, someone is leaving "murdered" mannikins all over the place. There's a wealthy man named Alex (Mario Erpichini) who seems obsessed with Barbara, and Christian's brother, Fritz (Ivan Rassimov), who may or may not be involved in what ever's going on. The acting isn't bad, with pretty Kendall, who also appeared in Torso, acquitting herself nicely, and Austrian actor Hoffman -- this Italian production has a truly international cast -- making a more than competent and very attractive leading man. The darn thing holds your attention because it's not only unpredictable for the most part, but you keep watching it for no other reason than to find out what the hell is going on; there's at least one good twist as well.

SPOILER ALERT. Spasmo  has been classified as an Italian giallo film but it's actually more of a suspense film than a horror movie or shocker. However, it does feature two brothers, one of whom is a serial killer of women, and another who stabs and strangles mannikins instead of real people.

Verdict: One of the weirdest movies ever. **1/2.

WHITECHAPEL Series 3

Davis, Penry-Jones and Pemberton

WHITECHAPEL Series 3. 2012.

The third season of the British crime drama which has cops in Whitechapel solving unusual and gruesome cases consists of six episodes and three separate storylines.  Ripperologist Edward Buchan (Steve Pemberton) gets a job at the police station when Deputy Inspector Joe Chandler (Rupert Penry-Jones) hires him as researcher over the objections of grizzled, pit bull-like Deputy Sergeant Ray Miles (Philip Davis). The first case has to do with multiple murders in homes and businesses where the sole survivor is always a self-absorbed female. The second story has to do with the murder and dismemberment of several women, which may be tied in to a very strange lady who lives in a cluttered, ramshackle house with her husband's preserved body in it. In the third story a "Bogey man" terrorizes the neighborhood and may be an escaped madman who has the only copy of the silent Lon Chaney film London After Midnight*. Miles keeps trying to match Chandler up with women, but it never works out. The performances are excellent, including Hannah Walters as DC Riley. The stories are quite interesting, but this business of a black cop being superstitious and so terrified of a suspect that he lets him out of jail smacks of Stepin Fetchit and is ridiculous. You can read about season one here, and season two here. *[I believe the script refers to this lost silent movie as London After Dark for some reason.]

Verdict: One hopes there will be future seasons of this show/mini-series -- perhaps with some positive black and gay characters. ***. 

THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE

A dramatic moment in Evelyn

THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE (aka La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba/1971). Director: Emilio Miraglia. 

This zesty Italian horror film combines several sub-genres to good if weird effect. First we learn from the very first that the "hero," Lord Alan Cunningham (Anthony Steffen) is a serial killer who brings prostitutes to his mouldering castle so he can slay them. Alan proposes to Gladys (Marina Malfatti) the first night that he meets her, and she winds up ensconced in the newly refurbished manor as Lady Cunningham. Then the movie becomes a ghost story as she and others swear that they see the spectre of Evelyn, Alan's first wife, haunting the castle. If that weren't enough, the picture metamorphoses into a whodunit as someone (other than the obvious suspect, Alan) begins wiping out the rest of the cast one by one. Poor Aunt Agatha (Joan C. Davis), in the film's most vomitous scene, becomes pet food for the family foxes. Suspects and victims include Albert (Roberto Maldera), Evelyn's sleazy brother; George (Enzo Tarascio/Rod Murdock), Alan's cousin; family retainer Farley (Umberto Raho); and the handsome family physician, Dr. Timberlane (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart). While at times Evelyn plays like bad softcore porn, it is quite absorbing, unpredictable, and  suspenseful, although you may still be a bit confused when the movie is over. 

Verdict: Like an Italian verismo opera on uppers. ***.

FRENZY

The rape scene in Frenzy puts paid to the dumb theory that women enjoy being raped. 

FRENZY (1972 )  Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Screenplay by Anthony Shaffer.

Early in this movie of a rape-murderer on the loose in London, and an innocent man accused of the crimes, there is a scene in a bar when a middle-aged bar maid, somewhat anxiously and hopefully, asks a policeman if the killer rapes his victims before he strangles them.  "Every cloud has its silver lining, eh, Maisie," responds the police officer. Intentional or not, this ugly bit of business is contrasted later on with a very graphic and disturbing rape-strangulation scene in which it is quite clear that the terrified victim is in no way, shape or form enjoying the experience, and there is also absolutely nothing even remotely erotic about it -- it is pure sadistic woman-hatred and nothing more. [The sequence always makes me burst into tears, frankly.] That the victim, Brenda Blaney (Barbara Leigh-Hunt), is basically a kind and lovely person [not that this would be okay if she weren't] and that Leigh-Hunt's performance is so intense and skillful, makes it all the more horrible. Some feminists and others were outraged by the sequence, yet I think the scene is necessary to get past the tasteless jokes and show, for once, how awful a crime rape really is. Barry Foster also does a marvelously loathsome job as the murderer.

That being said, Frenzy is an excellent thriller with darkly comic moments. The protagonist, Richard Blaney (Jon Finch), ex-husband of the ill-fated Brenda, is not very sympathetic --  deliberately so, I believe --  and always seems much more concerned about himself than the women he supposedly cares for and who are dying all around him. Of course, as in most Hitchcock movies, the murderer has a lot more charm. Finch is perfectly okay in the part, but the best impressions are made by Foster, Leigh-Hunt, Anna Massey as a bar maid and girlfriend of Blaney's, and Bernard Cribbins as her dyspeptic boss. Also notable are Alec McCowen as the inspector assigned to the case, Vivian Merchant as his wife, who foists dreadful "gourmet" meals on him, and Elsie Randolph as a smirking hotel clerk. Billie Whitelaw and Clive Swift (of Keeping Up Appearances) play a couple who have differing opinions as to the guilt or innocence of Blaney, and Jean Marsh is a bottled-up receptionist [a rather tiresome stereotype].

Henry Mancini wrote an evocative theme for this, but Hitchcock wanted something different, which he got from Ron Goodwin, who delivered a stately opening theme redolent of England, and attractively sinister music for key sequences.Foster and Whitelaw were both in Twisted Nerve four years before.

Verdict: Flawed but compelling shocker from The Master. ***1/2.

GOING TO PIECES: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SLASHER FILM, 1978 - 1986

GOING TO PIECES: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SLASHER FILM, 1978 - 1986. Adam Rockoff. McFarland; 2002.

When such films as Halloween  and Friday the 13th became big money makers, there was a rush to come out with cheap, gory films with psychos on the loose slashing and hacking at everyone in sight. Rockoff intelligently dissects the genre, which he loves, examining the styles of different directors, as well as going behind the scenes of many productions. The book is bolstered by comments from producers and others. A final chapter looks at the revival of the genre with the Scream movies. [It's too bad this came out too early to cover all the recent remakes of famed slasher films such as Friday the 13th, My Bloody Valentine, and others.] Being human, Rockoff does at times tend to be kinder to films made by people who consented to be interviewed as opposed to others, but when he thinks a film is a stinker he isn't shy about saying so. The book is quite well-written as well.

I appreciate that Rockoff mentions my 1985 tome Stay Out of the Shower: 25 Years of Shocker Films Beginning with "Psycho," and acknowledges it as one of the very first books to discuss slasher films (along with other horror films.) However, I can't say that I "loathe" such movies as he claims [I've certainly seen plenty of them, then and now.] I've always enjoyed the original Friday the 13th, among others in the genre, but I confess I do prefer films -- slashers, among them -- that have decent production values, a firm directorial hand, some three-dimensional characters, generous suspense, and a plot with some kind of mystery to it, and most slasher films -- maybe most movies -- don't fit that criteria, more's the pity. So I would say I don't so much loathe slasher films but am disappointed by them.

Verdict: Slasher movie fans will love this. ***.

ANAMORPH

ANAMORPH (2007). Director/co-writer: Henry Miller.

New York City detective Stan Aubray (Willem Dafoe) and his sexy new partner Carl (Scott Speedman) investigate when a serial killer starts using the corpses of his victims as art, painting and posing them in specific, generally grotesque tableaus and then cluing the cops in to where they should stand to get the best "appreciation" of his ghastly projects. This aspect of this fair-to-middling serial killer thriller [with few real thrills] is intriguing, although nowadays it's the sort of thing you see every week on CSI and Criminal Minds. The movie is not badly acted, but it's no great surprise that it was released direct-to-video. James Rebhorn is the police chief, and Deborah Harry, formerly of the rock group Blondie, shows up briefly as an unnamed ":neighbor."

Verdict: Good ideas don't always make great movies. **.

ELSEWHERE

ELSEWHERE (2009). Written and directed by Nathan Hope.

Sarah (Anna Kendrick), a "nice girl" in Goshen, Indiana, is friends with "bad girl" Jillian (Tania Raymonde). When the latter disappears after a leaving a frantic phone message, Sarah is determined to find her with the help of her nerdy friend, Jasper (Chuck Carter). Although there are a couple of good scares in Elsewhere, for the most part it's slow, a bit dull and predictable, and hasn't much style to speak of. The film does boast some good acting, however, from the aforementioned Raymonde and Carter, as well as from Olivia Dawn York as Darla, and Jon Gries as her father, Mr. Tod. The film may hold your attention but it doesn't build to a big enough pay off.

Verdict: Not the nail-biter it should have been. **1/2.

UNTRACEABLE

UNTRACEABLE (2008). Director: Gregory Hoblit.

Interesting premise: Agent Marsh (Diane Lane) and Detective Eric Box (Billy Burke) team up to track down a killer who's behind a very sinister web site: killwithme.com. This unknown person captures people and puts them in death traps: the more people who check out the web site the faster the victim dies. One of Marsh's colleagues winds up in a tub of carbolic acid in the film's most "memorable" sequence. Unfortunately Untraceable simply isn't special enough to overcome that sense that you've seen it all before, reminding one of an episode of Criminal Minds and obviously influenced by the Saw movies. The performances aren't bad although star Lane isn't very distinctive. The killer's motive is intriguing, as are certain aspects of the script, but the movie just doesn't sock it home with any great aplomb.

Verdict: Acceptable horror-crime-thriller. **1/2.

SCREAM 4 IN PRODUCTION

It has beeen announced that Scream 4 --- also known as Scre4m -- is in production for a 2011 release. Scream, Scream 2 and Scream 3 all came out a decade ago.

Wes Craven, who directed the original trilogy, has been signed as director, with Kevin Williamson, who scripted the first two films, as writer.

Ten years have passed and Sidney Prescott, again played by Neve Campbell (pictured), has found catharthis over the terrible events in the Scream movies through her writing. But there's a new killer, called Ghostface, on the loose.

Other returning cast members include David Arquette and Courteney Cox. Just as the two got married in real life, their characters will be married in this Scream installment.

With other horror franchises such as the Saw films coming out on a regular basis, it's a question if this new Scream will get the attention and business that the three original films did, but chances are that good word of mouth will make it a sure money-maker.

THE GIRL IN ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S SHOWER

THE GIRL IN ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S SHOWER. Robert Graysmith. Berkley Books; 2010.

Because of carelessness and the fact that she wasn't aware of what people were saying about her, Marli Renfro, the body double for Janet Leigh in the shower scene in Psycho, was reported murdered -- there was even a book about it. However it turns out the real victim was Myra Davis, a supposed stand-in for Leigh who did not take her clothes off and therefore did not "stand-in" in the shower. [People thought that "Marli Renfro" was Davis' stage name.] It was irresistible, of course: the body double in the shower in Psycho winds up being murdered by a psycho herself. Only it didn't really happen.

The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock's Shower purports to be a biography of the very-much-alive Marli Renfro, but author Graysmith doesn't seem to know if he wants to write a bio about a pin-up queen [with a great body but not a great beauty] that he idolized in college [time to grow up, maybe?]; a book about the making of Psycho; or a true-crime tome about "Sonny" Busch, who was strangling women around the time that Psycho was being made. And boy does this book suffer because of it!

Just as the story of Sonny Busch reaches fever pitch and you're anxious to know what happens next, Graysmith suddenly switches to a chapter about Renfro and her negligible "career" in men's magazines and in sex comedies. This happens again and again. You're anxious to find out how Sonny is going to get caught, and Graysmith expects you to give a shit about some old movie with Marli because Francis Ford Coppola was supposedly involved with it. Marli Renfro's life and career might have been worth an article, but a book? It's almost as if all the stuff about Hitchcock and Psycho and Sonny Busch on his murdering spree is padding for the life story of Marli Renfro! Who cares? The real story is Sonny Busch and his murder spree, but Graysmith keeps pulling away from it to concentrate on the tedious adventures of Marli, even dragging in Hugh Hefner and others for some added name-dropping. I suspect Graysmith was trying to create a book that was a big tapestry containing several elements, but it doesn't work -- the separate elements simply don't jell.

Worse, there seems to be only a couple of paragraphs about the actual murdered woman. We learn virtually nothing about her! The other victims are pretty much given short shrift as well.

While some parts of The Girl in Alfred Hitchcock's Shower are readable, the fact remains that this is a disjointed and ill-conceived project cobbled together for the 50th anniversary of Hitchcock's film. If Graysmith had wanted to write about Renfro and the world of men's magazines and cheap sex films of the sixties, he should have stuck to that. It seems to me that a book about Sonny Busch -- a psycho on the loose who even murdered two victims after seeing the film -- would have not only included the Psycho connection but made a far more interesting tome.

Verdict: Half of this book should have been left on the cutting room floor. **.