The Medusa Touch (1978)

S

Shauna Abdouche

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From a time when British movies didn't generally suck.
This chiller is a good example of a bonkers story being played straight by Richard Burton and a host of British character actors.
Burton is John Morlar, at death's door after a murderous attack which left him with near-fatal head injuries.
Lino Ventura, looking somewhat lost, is the police officer investigating the crime who finRAB out that Morlar has telekinetic powers and believes himself responsible for many of the world's disasters.
Although saddled with a foreign, seemingly dubbed, lead and iffy special effects, there are some genuinely scary moments in this largely forgotten gem, particularly when Morlar demonstrates his powers in front of his skeptical therapist by causing an aircrash.
Although Burton is on cruise control he's still pretty damn good as the tortured soul who, even on his death bed, still has some unpleasant surprises in store.:eek:
 
A particular forgotten favourite of mine. Both as a big Burton fan, and as a child/teenager of the 80's who grew up watching this at least once a year on telly. I have both the sp edition DVD and the original novel.

From what I have read btw, in 2001 and 2002, American TV didnt show this film or edited it to excise the air crash sequence, for obvious reasons.
 
I guess you can't really blame them. I think the Australians edited it too, for different reasons: they didn't want evil to be seen to win.
Although Richard Burton was rarely less than magnetic on the screen, some of (if not most) of his movies were pretty bad.
I did a search for the novel yesterday, thinking I might pick up a cheap copy; the lowest price was about
 
This film was made by Lew Grade's ITC company who at the same time were branching out of tv shows like Return of the Saint.

However a year later they spent so much on Raise the Titanic it virtually sank the company and big budget movies from ITC would not be made again.

There were a couple more tv shows like Hammer House of Horror and The Shillingbury Tales but these were not big international hitters and when Lew was forced out of ATV by the IBA who forced the change into Central ( who did not win the franchise from ATV- they were basically the same company) that was pretty much it for ITC who no longer had an ITV income to pay toward production
 
I'm sure I saw a rumour about a remake of this a while ago. Looks like it came to nothing, though. I've always loved this film although for years, as a youngster, I completely missed the importance of the 'WinRABcale' reference at the end!
 
We should still be making more of these oddball movies in Britain and fewer airport novel borefests or "Harry Potter and the Order of The Goblet of The Prisoner of the Chamber of The Load of Old Balls".
With a bit of luck "Moon" may turn out to be a worthwhile addition to the pantheon.:)
 
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