Ooh-Ooh!
Yesterday afternoon, I watched two movies procured through Warner Archives.
One was "Eye of the Devil", a Martin Ranshohoff film originally titled "13." It was the film debut of Sharon Tate. It featured David Hemmings ("That 'Blow-Up' guy" as the ads promoted him). They were a brother and sister who had hunting rights on an ancient estate...she was a witch and he was a mystical archer who shot doves all over the place. Neither contributed anything to the film, IMO, except young blondeness and sultry leers on their faces...and she was obnoxiously photographed throughout the film as though she were vital to the proceedings, but she never was at all. It was never explained why they had the run of the chateau or why they could come and go as they pleased saying whatever they pleased. They were both awful.
I felt terrible for Deborah Kerr, David Niven and Flora Robson. David Mulhare probably should have known better, too. It had an interesting score by Gary McFarland, but it was not enough to save the proceedings. The movie is a bleednig bore. To me.
The other was even worse, IMO: "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" with Kim Darby and Jim Hutton. Hutton was -- frankly -- mindnumbingly bad. He looks pissed off throughout the film, and he never evidences any sort of affection for his wife played by Darby as a somnambulistic hausfrau. It is filled with male chauvinist pig dialogue on Hutton's behalf...and even on the behalf of William Demarest playing a very bossy handyman who gives Darby orders. The film moves along at a snail's pace and never develops any terror.
Warner Archives indicated it was a cult classic. Oh, dear.
Then again, maybe it was the painkillers that made the films seem the gigantic waste of time I felt they were.
