bodydouble

AC/N 1984 114m Eng 10m
SL/SV

CAST: Craig Wasson, Gregg Henry, Melanie Griffith, Deborah Shelton, Dennis Franz, Guy Boyd, Al Israel & Monty Landis

CREDITS: Director/Producer: Brian De Palma; Screenwriters: Robert J. Avrech/Brian De Palma, based on a story by Brian De Palma; Director of Photography: Stephen H. Burum; Production Designer: Ida Random; Editors: Jerry Greenberg/Bill Pankow; Costume Designer: Gloria Gresham; Music: Pino Donaggio

THE SYNOPSIS

Jake Scully (Wasson) is an actor who’s been fired from his recent, horror film gig (thanks to some wicked claustro-phobia issues). Wait--it gets worse: he comes home to find his girlfriend having sex with another guy.

Unemployed, and forcibly-ejected from his home, Jake hits the bar and then hits auditions. In acting class, he meets another thespian, Sam Bouchard (Henry), who’s on his way to an acting gig in Europe for a few weeks and needs someone to house-sit for him.

A night later, Jake is staying at a modernistic, octagonal-shaped glass house up in the San Fernando Valley. Sam points out that he has a sexy neighbor who does a strip-dance on a nightly basis. Jake gets his cheap thrills viewing her though a high-powered telescope.

Trouble comes when a creepy Native American-looking dude begins to stalk her and Jake sees this through the telescope. He begins following the lovely woman, Gloria Revelle (Shelton), in the hopes of protecting her from the interloper. Well, that and he’s also lusting after her.

One tragic night, the creep enters her home and drills her to death with a power drill! Powerless to stop it, Jake witnesses it all from up the canyon. The cops later suspect him, but he’s turned loose. Wait: it gets weirder...

Watching some porn one night, he notices an actress who performs the exact same dance routine as the late Gloria Revelle. Her name is Holly Body (Griffith). Good old Jake becomes Sam Spade and does some detective work by going undercover as a porn producer who wants to hire her for a fake movie.

The psychotic creep is not too far behind, as he sets his lethal eyes on killing Jake and Holly. Turns out the creep is really Sam Bouchard--and Gloria Revelle was his wife. In a cunning plot, he has Jake witness a murder that would basically exonerate Sam.

That worked...now to kill Jake and Holly--who, by the way, was hired by Sam to portray his wife in a wig and lingerie. Hey, a gig’s a gig...right? That Sam is a crafty bastard, but Jake and Holly manage to beat him at his own game for that happy ending!

THE CRITIQUE

BODY DOUBLE is a filthy, violent, perverted movie...and I loved every, freakin’ minute of it!

I remember this movie being on HBO back in the halcyon days of the mid-1980s. Sneaking down into the basement when the parental units were asleep, yours truly got to see many, many interesting pictures. This was one of them. Man, do I miss the old HBO! (And just for the record, I used to work for the network.)

BODY DOUBLE boasts a solid cast, with everyman actor Craig Wasson headlining right alongside a young, sexy Melanie Griffith (nominated for a Golden-Globe© for this meaty role)--by the way, she gets the best lines in the movie; most of them not repeatable in a family-oriented website like this one...yeah, right...

Gregg Henry makes for a good villain--hey, he just looks creepy! (But to boot, not only is Henry a good actor, but also an accomplished musician & singer.) The rest of the cast is perfected by an assortment of interesting character actors (like Al Israel, Monty Landis & Guy Boyd) and a sexy, smoky-voiced actress in Deborah Shelton--who was Miss USA 1970, by the way.

Say what you will about director Brian De Palma--Hitchcock copycat, perverted filmmaker, misogynist, yada yada yada--the man knows how to titillate his viewers! Co-written by the De Palma, BODY DOUBLE takes us on a trip to the seedy, voyeuristic side of human nature. It’s a combination of some of The Master’s (Hitchcock) greatest pictures-- Rear Window (1954) and Vertigo (1958), with a bit of Paul Schrader’s disturbing Hardcore (1979) thrown in for good measure.

Though not the best script, the machinations behind it do bring up many questions about human nature: do we like to watch? Are we attracted to sex and violence? Why can’t we turn away? If you enjoyed this movie (as I did), then the answer is YES to all of the aforementioned. Let’s not deny it, folks. We are human...and De Palma knows it!

Visually, the $10,000,000-budgeted BODY DOUBLE is a subtly-dynamic motion picture. Brilliantly-designed by De Palma, it exhibits a glossy, yet shadowy palette--courtesy of some terrific lensing by veteran cinematographer and De Palma stalwart, Stephen H. Burum (The Untouchables/Carlito’s Way/Snake Eyes). The visual menu is replete with Steadicam shots, crane shots and tilted angles--all of which contribute to the surrealism of the plot. Great stuff, man!

The cutting also gets some worthy mention. Attributed to veterans Jerry Greenberg (Oscar©-winner for 1971’s The French Connection) & Bill Pankow (De Palma’s editor for such movies as The Black Dahlia & Snake Eyes), the pace is swift and the cuts quite effective.

The facet of BODY DOUBLE I really liked is prolific Italian composer Pino Donaggio’s evocative score. Hypnotic, manipulative and downright surreal, Donaggio’s music is reminiscent of that other Italo-composer Giorgio Moroder (who composed De Palma’s Scarface, by the way).

Finally, I have to touch upon some terrific production design by veteran Ida Random (The Big Chill/Rain Man/Hoffa/The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift). Using the famed Chemosphere Residence in the Hollywood Hills as a major character in the movie was a brilliant touch. Location shooting in Los Angeles gives the overall production that sunny California feel.

Hey, the movie has its detractors and its fans. I understand the negative mojo that BODY DOUBLE has generated over the years--but at the same time, it has a hypnotic effect on me. I enjoyed it because I don’t take any of it seriously (of course, not counting the cinematic artisanship behind it all--which I admire wholeheartedly).

For those detractors, all I can say is: don’t be afraid to be human! It’s okay to watch...and like...

THE BOTTOM LINE

Hands down, it’s a De Palma movie...what’s more to say? Plenty of sex, plenty of violence, plenty of voyeurism. Not one of his greatest--but probably one of his more entertaining entries. Gotta love the seedy, gratuitous nature of BODY DOUBLE. OK, I admit it: this movie’s a guilty pleasure all the way!