(letterboxd.com)MARKHEIM-1974-Short film produced by Scottish TV and based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson. A down on his luck man (Derek Jacobi) visits an antique dealer (Paul Curran), who he eventually kills and wants to rob but things don't go according to his plan when he meets a mysterious character (Julian Glover). Interesting adaptation directed by Tina Wakerell.
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(themoviedb.org)
THE MEDUSA TOUCH-1978-A French police inspector Brunel (Lino Ventura; A PAIN IN THE ASS (1973)) investigates the burgeoning almost death of a famous writer, John Morlar (Richard Burton). Brunel tries to put together a motive. Morlar's psychiatrist (Lee Remick) says Morlar was a paranoiac who said he killed an evil nanny and his unloving parents. An assistant commissioner (Harry Andrews) puts pressure on Brunel to find the culprit. Morlar's publisher (Derek Jacobi) relates a flashback involving a tramp. In fact, most of this film is told in flashback by people who knew him. It seems everyone who wronged him dies. A lawyer (Alan Badel), a fortune teller (Michael Hordern), a judge (THE HORRIBLE DR. HITCHCOCK's Robert Flemyng), his wife Patricia (Marie-Christine Barrault) and her lover (Jeremy Brett). According to his cynical doctor (Gordon Jackson), Morlar's own mind is keeping him alive.
Great disastrous climax with a twist ending. Unheralded all-star horror mystery directed by Jack Gold (THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT (1975)). The year before this, Burton had made the almost unwatchable THE EXORCIST 2 but was also nominated for a best actor Oscar for EQUUS.
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