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 Body
Double (1984)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Sony Pictures / 1998
Directed by Brian De Palma
Written by Brian De Palma & Robert J. Avrech
Cast: Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, Deborah Shelton &
Gregg Henry
Review by James Garfield
Jake Scully (Craig Wasson, who amusingly resembles Bill
Maher) is a struggling, claustrophobic actor who, kicked out
one day by his unfaithful girlfriend (Barbara Crampton, in
her film debut), jumps at the chance to housesit for a new
acquaintance. The acquaintance points out to him that a
neighboring woman does a nightly dance/strip in full view
from Jake’s new lodgings. Jake watches every night, noting
that the woman (Deborah Shelton) has a hostile male visitor.
Jake’s suspicions that the woman is in danger are tragically
confirmed when he watches helplessly as an intruder murders
her with an enormous power drill. With the police being of
no help, Jake despondently drinks and watches porno on
TV—where he notices that one of the actresses (Melanie
Griffith) dances in exactly the same way as the woman he
watched in real life. What is her connection to the murder?
Body Double was slammed by many critics who saw it as the
apex of Brian De Palma’s tendencies towards misogyny,
“homage” that shades over into plagiarism, and style over
substance. De Palma’s films could hardly be mistaken for
feminist tracts, true, but here he seems to be mocking the
critics by including an over-the-top Slumber Party
Massacre-type phallic power drill murder. The plot is a
blatant mixture of elements from Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear
Window and Vertigo, but with this film De Palma delights in
throwing in elements of sleaze unacceptable in Hitchcock’s
more genteel heyday. As for style over substance, it’s not
as if Body Double is any less profound or substantial than
most films in the thriller genre. The plot was sufficient to
draw me in (which is really all one needs to ask for from a
mystery/suspense film), and protagonist Jake Scully is a
great figure of identification for neurotics like me. Many
of us know what it’s like to be so enchanted with someone
that we follow him/her around for awhile, as Scully does
with Shelton’s character (I know: Oooh! Creepy!), and we can
all substitute our own phobia for Scully’s fear of
enclosure. |
