ecl@ahuta.UUCP (ecl) (12/09/84)
THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
I suppose I have always been a little curious to see this film. This
was intended to be 20th Century Fox's big grossing film of 1977. Even
though the deal was illegal, rumor had it that if exhibitors wanted to show
THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT, they would have to book Fox's summer children's
film, STAR WARS. The two came as a package: you couldn't rent one without
renting the other. A week or so after STAR WARS's release, the distributor
decided that the Lucas film could make it on its own without being boosted
by THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT. By the end of the summer, however, the two
films were again linked as a package deal; the package was just expressed a
little differently this time.
So in a sense THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT is a sort of a STAR WARS
curio. Reports were that it was really a terrible film, and those reports
were not far from the truth. In actual fact, THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT
looks and feels like a TV mini-series. By that, I guess I mean that it has
a more complex plot spanning more years than do most films. Usually network
TV will take a story of this sort and stretch it out to four hours or more
and stretch it out over a number of nights. The basic plot involves a
French girl who was seduced and abandoned by an American pilot in the early
days of WWII. It follows their lives after that as the girl, who had been
led to the path of sin by the flyer, becomes an international star and
eventually the wife of a fabulously wealthy Greek tycoon. As one of the
richest women in the world, she has the power to exact her revenge on the
pilot. The style of the film is polished but uninteresting.
The lead actors, Marie-France Pisier and John Beck, are a bit flat and
are easily outshown by Susan Sarandon and Raf Vallone as their respective
spouses. Sarandon had earlier played in Fox's ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW,
incidentally, and I am reasonably sure her outgoing nature in that film
helped her get this role. There is one sex scene that is a good deal more
explicit than one usually sees in a major film, which is probably why Fox
expected this film to be a winner. The only really good thing about the
film is a nice ironic plot twist toward the end. I think the same story
would have made an engaging half hour on the old ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS
program. It is not clever enough, however, to make a 166-minute film
worthwhile, however. This one is for film devotees only.
(Evelyn C. Leeper for)
Mark R. Leeper
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