The Other (1972) was derived from a best seller horror novel penned by Thomas Tryon, who had previously eked out an acting career as a regulation tall-dark-'n-handsome hunk in the Rock Hudson mold.
After massive torment and humiliation at the hands of director Otto Preminger, who gave Tryon major roles in 'The Cardinal ' and 'In Harm's Way', the actor reinvented himself as a kind of second string Stephen King.......and enjoyed a far more successful, lucrative career as a bookselling spookmaster than he ever did as a generic stud-of-the-month actor.
"The Other", set on a 1930's farm and its surrounding homes, drips with sun dappled, corn fed nostalgia........helped along by a Jerry Goldsmith score that only emerges sporadically due to the film's editing woes in post production.
Stripped of all its nostalgic, Americana trappings, the film's ultimately nothing more than "The Bad Seed" with hayseeds.........a homicidal child arranging accidental deaths for those who cross him.
The film makes a half hearted attempt to duplicate the book's BIG TWIST........but it's one of those "gotcha" tricks that always works better in books and in this case, you could easily guess it after the first few scenes. (And the movie itself gives up on the twist halfway through......)
The casting's wildly uneven.......on the sublime end of the scale, "The Other" does offer the theatrical movie debut of the celebrated, legendary stage actress Uta Hagen. But most or the supporting cast was culled from the usual pool of mediocre TV actors.
The real problem here was the choice of Robert Mulligan as director.......no doubt because of his great skill in depicting a sensitive view of early 20th century childhood in "To Kill A Mockingbird". Mulligan, however, was clearly uneasy and uncomfortable dealing with pitchfork impalements, infanticide and other perverse violence.
To his credit though, Mulligan may have been a wise choice to extract acceptable performances from the film's two principal players, the 12 year old twins Chris and Martin Udvarnoky.(neither of whom ever made another film thereafter.....smart boys)
Once you realize the film's soft pedaling the horror, you start to wonder why it was even made, or why anyone would bother to sit through it.
In that regard the film it most resembles is Disney's watered down 1983 version of "Something Wicked This Way Comes"
Tryon, who wrote the screenplay, was appalled at the final result........with his hefty novel reduced to a skimpy, overly mild 100 minutes, a horror film that barely qualified as horror.
We weren't crazy about it either. 1 & 1/2 stars (*1/2). BQ advises that you look for some Halloween chills elsewhere.......
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