Actually, EL SUR is only half a film. The producers threw the second half away in order to get it down to 90 minutes. Erice never really recovered from the shock, but even the critics who don't know that we're only seeing part of a film (or ESPECIALLY the critics who don't know we're only seeing part of a film) unanimously call EL SUR "brilliant". So who am I to say it's "crap"? Let's just say it didn't... resonate with me.

Snippets of classical music pepper the soundtrack, reinforcing the fact that we're watching something important.

EL SUR (THE SOUTH) (Spain/France 1983)

Directed by Victor Erice
Screenplay by Jose Luis López Linares, from a story by Adelaida García Morales
Photography by Jose Luis Alcaine

Main Cast: Omero Antonutti, Lola Cardona, Aurore Clement, Sonsoles Aranguren, Iciar Bollain

No, UNCOVERED is horrendously misguided, virtually insufferable. Amongst all the old art luvvies (John Wood, James Villiers, Michael Gough), Kate Beckinsale takes the lead role. Quite a good bit of posh tart, and she does get them out briefly, but her acting's pretty hopeles, really unconvincing in her wooden delivery of the lines she's given. She's partnered here by annoying Irish hippie gypsy, Jon Bon Jovi-haired Paudge Behan.

UNCOVERED is light and irritating, but okay for a boring Sunday afternoon at the in-laws', where you can all speculate together about whodunnit.

The film gets no help at all from Philippe Sarde's scoring. A mixture of Pino Donaggio-esque suspense, Stephane Grappelli-type violin, soprano sax, and light reggae (!), this is surely the considerably talented Monsieur Sarde at his most uninspired.

UNCOVERED (Spain 1994)

Directed by Jim McBride
Screenplay by Jim McBride, Michael Hirst and Jack Baran, from the novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Photography by Alfonso Beato
Music by Philippe Sarde

Highly recommended, and I repeat visually amazing.

Operation CIA--A 1965 film directed by Christian Nyby, co-director of The Thing. Very routine stuff, although it's interesting for its star (Burt Reynolds), score (Paul Dunlap), and locale (Saigon during the Vietnam War).

1984--British version of Orwell novel directed by Michael Anderson with Edmond O'Brien, the hot Jan Sterling, and Michael Redgrave. Neat futuristic sets. Good, but not great. The oppressive atmosphere and nasty government brainwashing do come across though. The score by Malcolm Arnold is mostly military marches representing the power of the government, a brief moment of sweetness in the strings for the doomed lovers, but nothing that can be appreciated as music in the context of the film.

The title change was an attempt at capitalizing on Vincent Price's association with AIP "Poe series". I read that an opening and closing narration was added in the manner of the Corman pictures.

I tend to agree with those who hailed Price's chilling, cold and restrained performance as (one of) his best ever - as you may know, Price didn't get along at all with Reeves; only to apologize later once he'd had an opportunity to watch the finished movie.

Gae

Onto other things: I enjoyed Sir Alf's final film FAMILY PLOT very much, though it's not without its flaws - it's slightly too talky, and Bruce Dern's climactic rescue of Barbara Harris is a damp squib. However, despite the lack of tautness, it's still recognizably Hitch, with echoes of many earlier works and all the old obsessions (blondes becoming brunettes etc) in place. Even the way the big cars are filmed gliding by or doing a U-turn on the road or stopping for petrol could be straight out of VERTIGO or PSYCHO. And it's still Hitch despite the lack of memorable set-pices (there is one - the very funny NORTH BY NORTHWESTish car-going-downhill-with-no-brakes sequence).

So, FAMILY PLOT is a trifle bland, but the master's hand is still very much in control. I can imagine him having a good chortle to himself at it all, especially since the plot takes us, once more, on a wild goose chase.

John Williams' score incorporates choral ooh-ing and aah-ing for the seance sequences (very CE3K), but the bulk of it is based around a wry harpsichord theme in the line of John Addison's SLEUTH, with shades of Billy Goldenberg's 70s TV work - that can't be a bad thing.

FAMILY PLOT (USA 1976)

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay by Ernest Lehman, from the novel by Victor Canning
Photography by Leonard J. Smith
Music by John Williams

Main Cast: Barbara Harris, Bruce Dern, Karen Black, William Devane, Ed Lauter, Cathleen Nesbitt

In his efforts he enlists the help of Countess Norma Shearer.

The movie displays Mervin LeRoy's polished professionalism, though it lacks the bite of his earlier Warner pictures.

It boasts a truly chilling scene when Nazinova's body - plunged into drug-induced near death - is carried in a rudimentary coffin under the scrutiny of two gestapo officers.

Certainly too glossy for its subject matter, the production benefits vastly from the presence of the great Conrad Veidt - as the Countess' suitor - and Shearer herself.

"Lou, from what I have read, several cuts were made in the US version, and Paul Ferris' original orchestral score was replaced by synths music."

From Horror-wood.com.....

"An opening and closing narration by Price were added, and several scenes of tavern wenches in various states of undress were cut. Paul Ferris' haunting orchestral score was scrapped on the MGM Midnight Movies VHS of The Conqueror Worm, released in 2001. To avoid paying royalties, MGM (which purchased the AIP catalogue) substituted uninvolving moog synthesizer stylings by Kendall Schmidt. The Metrodome Special Edition DVD of Witchfinder General (released in February 2003) features Ferris' original score"

Lou, Michael Reeves became very reclusive after "Witchfinder General" and took an overdose of sleeping pills in his London flat at the age of 25. Some people said it was an accident, while others believed that he had emotional problems that came back to haunt him. Also, he believed that as a director, he wouldn't be able to improve on "Witchfinder General" and this may have been a contributing factor to his depression. You can read part one and two of an article "The Mystery of Michael Reeves at Horror-Wood.com

Gae