Caught this gem the other night on the Fox Movie Channel. I do like watching 70’s movies I haven’t seen before. Some of them are quite good. This one seemed to have promise. It starred Kirk Douglas and John Cassavetes and a young Amy Irving. It even started out well, Douglas and Cassavetes are agents for an unamed American spy organization. Douglas’ kid gets kidnapped and Douglas left for dead. The acting and the writing during the first half of the movie is even half-way decent…but the last 45 minutes…this thing jumps the shark about 6 times. It devolves into a cheesy supernatural horror film with even bad special effects for 1978. It’s a wonder Brian De Palma got work ever again after this stinker. I laughed out loud several times during the final scenes.
Anybody else ever see this?
I just remembered this film also had what may have been the first appearances by Darryl Hannah and Dennis Franz.
I may nominate this film for the “Everybody says it’s shit, but I can’t get enough of it” thread.
Roger Ebert gives it three stars. I just might have to put this one in my Netflix queue.
Maybe not a classic, but I saw it on its original theatrical run and thought it was pretty good, although IIRC the critics dumped on it. But hey, Kirk Douglas and John Cassavetes! Hell, it’s worth a look for that alone.
This was De Palma’s first film folllowing the huge box office success of Carrie and, as I recall, was something of a vanity project. It also pre-dated David Cronenberg’s breakout hit Scanners, which bears (again IIRC) more than a few similarities.
For whatever reason, it seems never to show up on TV any more. I wouldn’t mind catching it again.