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Sunday, April 19, 2020

THE CHANGELING (1980)

Just as Bette Davis & Joan Crawford’s WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE/’62 made Grand Guignol a commercial option for Oscar’d gals of a certain age; so too Gregory Peck in the posh schlock horror of THE OMEN/’76 for leading Oscar’d men. Hence George C. Scott making this slick, aimlessly structured Haunted House pic. Great to look at (Peter Medak’s smooth megging; John Coquillon rich saturated lensing), the story misses a unifying principle to embed a tragic prologue into the main Cold Case child swap/murder fable. (The idea that Scott’s open to believe in voices from the dead after losing his wife & child not much advanced.) A few nice frights from the usual creepy sound effects & ghostly chases, but the standout scares come from a seance with an alarmingly possessed medium and in some early scenes showing Scott displaying uncharacteristic hyper-charged bonhomie. Scott laying on the charm a truly frightening sight!* Scott’s real-life wife, Trish Van Devere, is fine as the real estate agent who gets involved in the mystery, but its old Melvyn Douglas who steals all his scenes as a powerful Senator trying to keep the past at bay. And if you thought the end would tie back in to the tragic loss of the prologue, think again. No wonder Russell Hunter who came up with the original story never earned another credit.

DOUBLE-BILL: Though missing the surprise element, DAMIEN: OMEN II did get William Holden as the Oscar’d guy to follow Greg Peck in the horror racket as well as slightly less faceless direction with journeyman Don Taylor taking over from journeyman Richard Donner.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Actually, Scott could do bonhomie on stage as seen in plays by Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, even Noël Coward in a well received PRESENT LAUGHTER.

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