Mia Farrow grapples with ghosts and dating a Russian double agent in the following double feature:
Richard Loncraine’s The Haunting of Julia (US) / Full Circle (UK) (1977)
To anyone who’s ever spent the runtime of a movie silently wishing the heroine would leave her husband, there’s nothing more satisfying than watching Julia (Farrow) not even give her husband, Magnus (Kier Dullea), a chance to change her mind early into The Haunting of Julia. It’s for the worst reason, however, that Julia is able to walk away (their daughter, Kate (Sophie Ward), fatally chokes in the film’s opening minutes) and, rather than be able to take sanctuary in her new home, the film spoils that power move by revealing that the house is haunted.
So yeah, Julia does the brave thing and walks away but immediately has to pay for that decision even though (going by how her husband reacts) there’s no question she made the right call. In her video essay for Imprint’s Blu-ray release, film historian, Kat Ellinger, talks about the “consuming house trope” in relation to The Haunting of Julia and that’s one of the most interesting aspects of the film. Just the fact that Julia can afford such a nice home without getting a job makes her situation unique and in his booklet essay critic, Sean Hogan, brings up that Henry James (who created one of the scariest houses in Bly Manor) was a major inspiration for Peter Straub (who wrote the source novel, Julia). The film’s downfall comes when it tries to make like The Omen and instigate a killing spree without establishing any rules for how the supernatural forces in this movie work (if they are, indeed, supernatural). There’s nothing scarier than a haunted house but when the deaths start happening anywhere suddenly there are no restrictions to give the victims a fighting chance. It would’ve been a lot more effective if the house had remained the only source of evil in the movie.
Imprint’s Blu-ray comes with two commentaries. The first pairs up the director with film historian, Simon Fitzjohn, who was a major proponent behind the film getting released and restored. Loncraine has no problem acknowledging the film’s flaws, especially when it comes to the plot, but what makes their pairing charming is hearing the explanations Fitzjohn has come up with to try and square away some of screenplay’s more dubious developments (Harry Bromley Davenport wrote the original draft, Dave Humphries did rewrites, and Andrew Birkin’s work was uncredited). Fitzjohn also points out some changes that were made to the film after it screened at Cannes (Magnus’ fate being one of them).
In the second commentary authors, Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons, talk about the cast and expand on some of the differences Fitzjohn brought up in his commentary between Straub’s book and the screenplay. There are definitely enough differences between the two commentaries to warrant both, but Loncraine and Fitzjohn’s has the edge.
Imprint’s Blu-ray also includes new interviews with composer, Colin Towns, cinematographer, Peter Hannan, and associate producer, Hugh Harlow, as well as a separate CD of Towns’ score (which was written before anything was shot) that includes two previously unreleased tracks not used in the film.
Anthony Mann’s A Dandy in Aspic (1968)
A Dandy in Aspic has the unfortunate distinction of being Mann’s last film (after Mann died, Laurence Harvey took over directing). It’s also an extremely enjoyable spy thriller starring Harvey as Eberlin, the dandy of the title, who is supposed to be working for the British but is actually the Russian double agent they’ve been looking for. When Eberlin gets assigned to essentially kill himself (the British don’t know he’s Krasnevin), Eberlin realizes it’s time to go home but his Russians handlers won’t let him. The rest of the film involves Eberlin trying to sell the British on a fake Krasnevin while Tom Courtney (in perfect priggish mode) is breathing down his neck as Agent Gatiss.
A Dandy in Aspic isn’t without its problems, the main one being the romantic subplot between Eberlin and Farrow’s Caroline. If (like me) you’re used to seeing Farrow in horror films, the role actually makes for a nice change of pace. Namely, because she’s not in terror or being preyed upon, the character gets to be a lot more assertive and light, while the fashions feel very Twiggy-inspired, but Caroline never becomes an integral part of the story. If anything, she’s a distraction or a red herring, with her habit of showing up wherever Eberlin’s supposed to be. Berlin is not that small a city. There shouldn’t be that many coincidences, yet the film does nothing with the suspicions raised by her behavior. As for Eberlin, the stakes are too high for him to be wasting so much time on a woman he barely knows. Gatiss may be loathsome, but he’s not wrong about Eberlin’s lousy work ethic.
For the same reason that the scenes between Harvey and Farrow don’t work, the scenes between Eberlin and his Russian contact, Pavel (Per Oscarsson), are extremely gripping. Their history together makes everything complicated, even though (as spies) they’re supposed to put country first. That their loyalty is torn speaks to how tired they are of the whole spy business.
Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray comes with three featurettes carried over from Indicator’s Region 2 release of the film – one with members of the crew, one with titles designer, Michael Graham Smith, and puppeteer, Ronnie Le Drew, and one on the movie by film critic, Richard Combs.
The Haunting of Julia is available on all-region Blu-ray from Imprint Films. A Dandy in Aspic is available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.
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