The Medusa Touch (1978)
An odd concoction, for sure. A British-French co-production filmed entirely in England with two distinctive French actors, Lino Ventura and Marie Christine Barrault, joining the otherwise all Brit cast.
Even more star power too.....Richard Burton, once again looking hungover and a subdued Lee Remick. Neither of them are at their best here and the film doesn't give them much good material to chew on anyway. (Other than letting Burton practice his barely-contained-rage glares.)
But the premise is a doozy, with a couple of startling sequences using practical special effects by Brian Johnson (Alien, Dragonslayer).
Burton's misanthropic John Morlar possesses telekinesis that's off the charts. By the sheer force of his mind, he can manipulate objects and people on a vast scale.....everything from arranging the deaths of his horrid parents to catastrophic plane crashes and crumbling cathedrals.
To put it simply, this scary guy's mind power makes Stephen King's Carrie look like a Disney princess.....
He's certainly pissed off somebody, since the beginning of the film starts with an unseen assailant bashing his head to jelly. But you can't keep an evil brain down and to everyone's amazement, he ends up still breathing and now hooked up to ICU monitors that clearly show he's still pumpin' out thoughts....none of them good.
Trying to sort all this out is rumpled French detective Bruel (Ventura) who's part of a police staff swap between Britian and France. In flashbacks Morlar's strange, horrific life gets pieced together for Bruel by brain-boy's psychiatrist Dr. Zonfeld (Lee Remick). At first she didn't believe Morlar's account of his power, but the collection of violent deaths in his wake serve to bring her around as well as Detective Brunel.
The quietly simmering Morlar, who generally holds the entire world in contempt, convinced Zonfeld of his near God-like ability by willing a jumbo jet to slam into a high rise building. With memories of 9/11 forever solidified in our minds, we honestly cringed watching this 1978 remarkably effective depiction of the exact same kind of disaster.
With Morlar's ruined but still lively brain blipping like mad on the ICU screens, Brunel figures out the madman's next target - a massive charity event to restore a cathedral that will gather crowds of onlookers, politicos and royalty. (And the place is already starting to crack apart even without Brunel's telekinetic final push.) Uh oh....
Jack Gold's pedestrian direction of all these grim happenings fails to supply the film with the in-you-face horrifying immediacy this story would demand. (As better examples, we'd direct your attention to Brian DePalma's "Carrie" and especially "The Fury" his Grand Opera of telekinesis mayhem. )
Some pluses, though. A solid British cast loaded with familiar faces - Harry Andrews, Gordon Jackson, Alan Badel, Robert Flemyng Jeremy Brett, Michael Hordern, Philip Stone, Derek Jacobi, Michael Byrne. And after the plane crash, Brian Johnson and his effects team deliver an equally spectacular, horrendously realistic sequence to close out the film.
Plot-wise, we have little doubt you'll figure out who initially conked Morlar in the opening scene.....and long before the film reveals it to you.
Not altogether bad, but a more talented visualist director could've turned this into a genuine gripper.
2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2)
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