Word: mulligan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Directed by ROBERT MULLIGAN Screenplay by THOMAS TRYON
Like The Possession of Joel Delaney, The Other deals in unnatural, even unholy goings on and ominous shades from the psyche. It was Robert Mulligan's notion to flood this nightmarish fancy not so much with dark shadows as with the softly dappled light of a distant time, to evoke terror by the simple expedient of playing against...
...good idea, at least in theory, but it goes wrong here because of Mulligan's persistent habit of sentimentalizing every image, making each look like a picture on an antique candy box. He lavishes as much attention on an old ice wagon or a pitcher of lemonade as he does on a pivotal act of malevolence. The result is rather like trying to read an H.P. Lovecraft story printed inside a lacy valentine...
Suffice it to say that one of the twins (the other?) turns out to be monstrously, homicidally evil, and that Tryon and Mulligan pull off a neat plot twist midway in the action. It's diverting enough, but still essentially a trick. What is badly needed is some reason for the twins' rampaging villainy, some suggestion of why they should be so keen on frightening old ladies to death and carrying human fingers around in a Prince Albert tobacco can. Instead, all we get is a sleight-of-hand...
...Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and an acting teacher of special renown. It is difficult to fathom her reputation judging from her work here. She is flam boyant to the point of grotesquery, as is Miss Muldaur. But the Udvarnoky boys are appallingly convincing as the fey twins. Mulligan's special talent for directing children (Up the Down Stair case, To Kill a Mockingbird) is again splendidly in evidence here...