Touches You

Load of rubbish!!

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This movie is a collosal disappointment. I've read Fred Mustard Stewart's terrific novel. And although the movie (to it's credit) stays very faithful to the source material, the casting, and an incredibly poor script, deal a death blow to the film adaptation.The plot revolves around Myles Clarkson (Alan Alda), a failed musician-turned-journalist, who, still longing for his piano playing days, lands an interview with famous pianist Duncan Ely (Curd Jurgens) who at first is very hostile til he notices Myles hands.This is an important detail. One the audience needs to keep in mind...Because once this detail is noticed, Ely does a complete one eighty, and along with his daughter Roxanne (Barbara Parkins), proceeds to woo Myles with dinners, presents, offers of friendship. And, of course, free use of his piano.Myles is swept up. Overwhelmed. Completely lost in their glamorous thrall.His wife Paula (Jacqueline Bisset) is suspicious, and has every right to be. There's something not quite right about this couple.And as the plot progresses, we learn what it is. And when we do, we're not really all that shocked.Is it any surprise that Ely and Roxanne have been having an incestous affair? Is it any surprise that they're Satanists? Is it any surprise that Myles has been seduced completely?The story really is terrific. With an ending that's as disturbing as Paula's insane love for her husband which causes her to overlook the fact that he murdered their daughter as part of a deal with Satan and Ely.All of this, the novel conveys brilliantly. The problem is the movie doesn't at all.Not only does fail to onvey Paula's enamourment with Myles, it also grossly miscasts the characters. Paula's obsession with Miles is never conveyed well in the script. Roxanne (a femme fatale in the novel) has been reduced here, to a weak, trembling waiffe. And Alan Alda is a good actor. He's just not good for this. Making it ridiculous that women like Paula and Roxanne are getting into a cat fight over him.It's a little bit like them getting into a cat fight over Woody Allen... only worse: With Woody Allen it's hysterical; with Alan Alda, it's just plain stupid.

Anyone who compares this film to Rosemary's Baby apparently never saw the latter. While RB is a great classic, this looks like a cheap movie-of-the-week, complete with a bad acting, a confusing plot, a loud, intrusive score, bad lighting, and a few naughty bits to entice customers in. There were good actors in this who did better movies and I'll bet few of them included this laughable turkey on their resume.

Given its reputation, the overlong and badly dated "Mephisto Waltz" disappoints in spades. I've read about this alleged "horror classic" for decades. Sadly, it wasn't worth the wait.Blame leaden direction from veteran TV and "Gidget" film series director Paul Wendkos, and wooden acting from nearly the entire ensemble. The sole exception is future 007 villain Curt Jurgens' convincing turn as a master pianist with a fractured moral compass.On a positive note, the ending is legitimately original, and Bisset is fun to look at. The film also offers a look at a young Alan Alda the year before before beginning his long residency on the MASH TV series.Unfortunately, we never for a moment buy the two leads as parents of a young daughter. Outlandish plot aside, its pervasive pattern of implausibility on a human level sink this ship before it even leaves the harbor.

Too bad this neglected horror film got lost in the wake of the similarly themed Rosemany's Baby. Modestly successful journalist Alan Alda suddenly becomes a successful concert pianist following a chance meeting with piano virtuoso Duncan Ely (Curt Jergens) and his darkly seductive daughter, Roxanne (Barbara Parkins). His growing involvement with the wealthy family and their strange friends eventually comes between Alda and his loving wife, Paula (Jackie Bissett). As sinister events unravel, Paula is drawn deeper into a web of diabolic happenings until the threads come together in a surprising and oddly gratifying climax.The script is tight and well-thought out, with the exception of Dillman's role as Roxanne's ex-husband. After all, if the diabolists are so sexually compelling, how could he divorce her. And though director Paul Wendkos occasionally goes overboard with the camera tricks, the scenes are stylishly done, especially the banquet with its snatches of pretentious banter, and the New Years party with its erotic grotesqueries bound to end in an orgy. And underneath it all lies an undercurrent of evil, even during the brightest splashes of sunlight.Though Alda gets star billing, it's actually Bissett's movie, which she carries off in finely shaded fashion. Her scenes with the ominously silent Roxanne (just count Parkins' few lines) amount to an exquisite model of civilized contempt, minus the fisticuffs. Alda too, shines, as he acts out Ely's imperious manner at just the right moments, proving in those pre-MASH days that he was more than the humorously caustic Hawkeye Pierce.As good as the movie is, I can't help wondering if it might have been even better had the mystery not been exposed as early as it is. Suppose the script had skipped the transference ritual and simply had Alda take on Ely's characteristics without explanation, such that the audience would have to ponder what's going on, instead of having it handed to them. There may have been good reasons for not taking this mystery route, but at least it's worth considering.Still and all, Waltz remains a fine example of movie horror done in both color and sunny surroundings, and with a lot of style and conviction. Too bad, it's slipped into movieland's version of yester-year oblivion. It deserves better. And, if nothing else, the script raises the scary question of whether dogs really are man's (woman's) best friend.