I was surprised by the amount of graphic blood in the film and I guess I'd been unaware that it was a slasher/horror genre... The basic plot: Bacall plays a film actress who got her start in Old Hollywood and is now rehearsing for her first musical on Broadway many years later. But her world and the world of those around her is shaken up when letters from an obsessed fan change from creepy to threatening and the words leave the page to turn into stalking, violence and murder. The stalker is played by Michael Biehn and he did such a good job playing disturbed and disturbing that I didn't recognize him as being from anything else until an IMDB search later - he was Kyle Reese in Terminator. (The character "Pop" did look familiar to me while watching, and IMDB also revealed that he was Bobo in Moonstruck! "Bobo, take the cart away...")
All in all I thought the movie was decent, well-worth a watch - but I'll admit I probably wouldn't have watched without Lauren Bacall in the lead. As someone who is following her career off screen as much as on, I got the feelings of autobiographical deja-vu while watching her performance. First of all, pictures of her from the 30s and 40s are used all throughout as part of the canvas of the film - it's easy to cast her as an "aging" Old Hollywood dame, because she was the dame. (I'm reminded of her song in Applause, "Who's That Girl" when, as actress Margo Channing, she sings reflections on her past while watching one of her old movies on the late late show. I often wonder if they used To Have & Have Not or The Big Sleep in either the stage or TV movie of Applause).
Sally Ross (Bacall's character) is also an actress alone - James Garner plays her ex-husband, Jake Berman, who she still loves but is no longer with her. Again, hints of Bacall - her autobiography is titled "By Myself" because she has lived much of her life alone after Bogie died and she and Jason Robards divorced. Ross is also an actress gearing up for her first musical, something else Bacall was no stranger to as she'd done the same thing about a decade before with Applause.
All of these basic plot points notwithstanding, Bacall also portrays Sally Ross in ways we as an audience imagine her to be in real life. Independent, tough, classy...and vulnerable. As Douglas's words become actions and he begins to attack the people close to her, we begin to see Sally's vulnerability through her fear and aloneness. After Douglas has broken into her apartment, ransacked it and killed her maid, she flees town and goes to a remote beach house. There's a great scene when, alone on the sofa, Sally hears a car approach and not knowing who it is, is terrified. Yet all throughout, despite of her fear, she doesn't let it dominate her. At one point she tells Berman to leave her alone and go back to his girlfriend Heidi because "I have so much more to give to someone than just my troubles." She doesn't relish being alone and would like him to be there for her - but she doesn't want it to be just out of pity and concern for her well being. Instead, she makes friends with the police inspector, played by Hector Elizondo, because he makes her feel safe without strings of romance. All of this made me identify with Bacall's portrayal of the character and that was part of why I was able to get into the story and fear for her. It contributed a great deal to the feelings of suspense, for me.
Before, I'd only seen a couple strung together clips on YouTube of the end of the film when Bacall is singing on stage - and it's funny because not knowing any backstory of the storyline, I'd thought from watching that that Douglas was a younger-than-her lover. Haha. I guess this says something for Biehn's acting, that he effectively displayed the admiration for the actress that pushed him over the edge. I love the musical numbers (Marvin Hamlisch and Tim Rice) because despite the cheesiness I love Bacall's singing. (I wonder what the storyline was for the musical in the movie!)
The very last scene was both fulfilling and unfulfilling. I'm glad that Sally was finally able to confront Douglas and that in the end, she got the power back that he'd taken from her. But the final moment, Douglas stabbed in the neck and sitting in the audience, leaves something to be desired. I wanted one more scene. Also, I get what they were trying to do with the last image of Douglas - the demented fan/stalker, killed for his obsession with an actress - dead in the audience, eyes left open "watching" the stage... But I couldn't get over the fact that in the shot immediately prior, when Sally had stabbed him in the neck, they were standing and he'd had her pinned against the stage... An oops, oversight or screw-continuity-I-want-the-image moment by the director? Who knows...
Two other interesting things I noticed while watching... The use of mirrors & reflections were used a lot - more canvassing that gave the feeling of fame, vanity etc. Also, the use of wide angle shots of door frames and door ways - like in Rosemary's Baby - that give a feel of voyeurism (what we all really are as audience members and celeb watchers) and also a feeling of "what's around that corner???"
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