The Medusa Touch is a 1978 British supernatural thriller film directed by Jack Gold. It starred Richard Burton, Lino Ventura, Lee Remick and Harry Andrews, with cameos by Alan Badel, Derek Jacobi, Gordon Jackson, Jeremy Brett and Michael Hordern. The screenplay was by John Briley, based on the novel The Medusa Touch by Peter Van Greenaway.
Plot summary
Brunel, a French detective on an exchange scheme in London, is assigned to investigate the murder of novelist John Morlar. As they examine the crime scene, Brunel discovers the victim is still alive in spite of his severe injuries and has him rushed to hospital.
With the help of Morlar's journals and Dr. Zonfeld, a psychiatrist Morlar was seeing, Brunel reconstructs Morlar's past life. Seen in flashback, it is filled with inexplicable catastrophes and the sudden deaths of people he disliked or who offended him. Morlar was even more convinced when a supposed psychic examines his hands, becomes ill, and refunds Morlar's fee and excuses himself. Dr. Zonfeld scoffs at this explanation, asking Morlar if he seriously believes in palmistry as a means to predict the future.
As flashbacks continue, it becomes shown that Morlar is a psychic with powerful telekinetic abilities. Disgusted at the world, Morlar has caused two recent disasters: an airliner crash into a London office tower and the loss of a manned spacecraft. Dr. Zonfeld, who came to see Morlar at his home, tries to stop him from killing the astronauts in the spacecraft, bashes his skull in with a blunt object.
Brunel eventually figures out that Zonfeld attempted to kill Morlar, and confronts her over it. She admits that it was her, but Brunei does not arrest her right away, as he doesn't really have enough evidence to prove it. Later, Brunel returns to Dr. Zonfeld's office, discovering her body where she had committed suicide, leaving a note where she admits the realization that she can't live in a world where Morlar is also, apologizing to Brunel for leaving the mess for him to deal with. In the mean time, Brunel discovers Morlar mentioned in one of his journals about a cathedral being built and how he will punish the hypocrisy of those praying there to God but caring nothing about the suffering He inflicts. From his hospital bed, Morlar manages to bring down the cathedral on the "unworthy heads" of a VIP congregation attending the fund raising event for the crumbling building's restoration. Morlar seems able to keep himself alive by sheer willpower. An enraged Brunel runs from the collapsing cathedral to the hospital, where he tries to kill Morlar to end the destruction, just as Zonfeld had tried to kill Morlar to stop him from killing the astronauts, but is also unsuccessful in stopping him. Morlar writes on a pad the name of his next target: the nuclear power station at Windscale (now Sellafield).
Production notes
That Morlar is disgusted with the world is cited in Kim Newman's 1988 book Nightmare Movies, wherein Newman describes Morlar's dialogue as "incredibly misanthropic."
Film and novel
The film follows the plot of Van Greenaway's novel fairly closely, but changes several details.
- In the novel, the detective is not a Frenchman but an English character named Inspector Cherry, who appears in several other Van Greenaway books.
- In the novel Zonfeld is male and is a Holocaust survivor whose experience of Sachsenhausen concentration camp contributes to his eventual suicide.
- At the end of the book, Morlar's hand does not scrawl Windscale but Holy Loch, the site of an American nuclear submarine base.
Minster Cathedral
Bristol Cathedral was used as the location for the fictional London place of worship, called Minster Cathedral in the film.
Kent Locations
The Reculver Towers near Herne Bay were used for the scene where young John and his parents are having a picnic whilst on holiday. John wills the car to move towards his parents, which causes them and the car to fall over the cliff. Herne Bay was also used for the scene where a young John Morlar (Adam Bridges) stays with his parents and is out on the seafront. The hotel is now residential properties.
Cast
- Richard Burton as John Morlar
- Lino Ventura as Brunel
- Lee Remick as Doctor Zonfeld
- Harry Andrews as Assistant Commissioner
- Alan Badel as Barrister
- Marie-Christine Barrault as Patricia
- Jeremy Brett as Edward Parrish
- Michael Hordern as Atropos - Fortune Teller
- Gordon Jackson as Doctor Johnson
- Michael Byrne as Duff
- Derek Jacobi as Townley - Publisher
- Robert Lang as Pennington
- Avril Elgar as Mrs. Pennington
- John Normington as Schoolmaster
- Robert Flemyng as Judge McKinley
- Philip Stone as Dean
- Malcolm Tierney as Deacon
- Norman Bird as Father
- Jennifer Jayne as Mother
- James Hazeldine as Lovelass
Cultural references
A sample from the film (Richard Burton's line "I will bring the whole edifice down on their unworthy heads") was used in the Manic Street Preachers' 1998 song "Ready for Drowning". The 2005 Manic Street Preachers song "Leviathan" includes the lyric "Baader Meinhof and Medusa Touch".
References
External links
- The Medusa Touch at the Internet Movie Database
- The Medusa Touch at AllMovie
- The Medusa Touch at Rotten Tomatoes