Escape From Alcatraz (1979)

Alcatraz is not like any other prison in the United States. 1960. Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) a criminal who has absconded from other facilities, arrives at the maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island near San Francisco, California. It’s unique within the US prison system for its high level of security and no inmate has ever escaped. The day of his arrival, Morris steals a nail clipper from the Warden’s (Patrick McGoohan) desk after the man gives him an introduction to the regime and notes on his file about Morris that the prisoner has a superior IQ.Over the next days, Morris makes acquaintances with some inmates: the eccentric Litmus (Frank Ronzio) an older man who is fond of desserts and keeps a mouse beside him at all times; English (Paul Benjamin) a black inmate serving two life sentences for killing two white men in self-defence who runs the library; and the elderly Chester ‘Doc’ Dalton (Roberts Blossom), who paints portraits and once grew chrysanthemums at Alcatraz. Doc’s portraits contain chrysanthemums as a symbol of human spirit and freedom. He makes a gift of one of the blossom heads to Morris. Morris also makes an enemy of Wolf (Bruce ‘Bear’ Fischer), a lewd rapist who harasses him in the showers and later attacks him in the prison yard with a knife. Both men are imprisoned in isolation in the hole. Morris is released while Wolf stays for 6 months. The Warden discovers that Doc has painted a portrait of him, as well as other guards. The guards’ paintings are flattering, recognising their humanity but the Warden’s painting, which has been kept out of view, seems to capture the ugliness of his cruelty. Enraged, the Warden removes Doc’s painting privileges. Doc is depressed and in the prison workshop hacks off several fingers of his right hand with a hatchet before being led away. Later, Morris encounters two bank robbers and brothers John (Fred Ward) and Clarence Anglin (Jack Thibeau) his old friends from another prison and he links up with prisoner Charley Butts (Larry Hankin) who’s in the next cell to his. Morris notices that the concrete around the grille in his cell is weak and can be chipped away, which evolves into an escape plan. Over the next months, Morris, the Anglins, and Butts dig through the walls of their cells with spoons soldered into makeshift shovel,, make papier-mache dummies to act as decoys and construct a raft out of raincoats that John squirrels away from his job doing inventory. During mealtime Morris places a chrysanthemum at the table in honour of Doc but the Warden stops by and crushes it, causing an outraged Litmus to suffer a heart attack. The Warden orders an inspection of Morris’ cell but finds nothing unusual. Despite this he issues orders for Morris to be relocated to a different cell as soon as possible. Wolf is released from solitary confinement and prepares to attack Morris again but English manages to intercept him and takes his knife while implying that his gang will beat up Wolf. That night, Morris and his fellow escapers decide they are now ready to leave … We don’t make good citizens but we make good prisoners. Adapted by Richard Tuggle from the 1963 fact-based account written by J. Campbell Bruce, this takes its inspiration from a real 1962 escape and marks the fifth and final collaboration between star Eastwood and director Don Siegel. Renowned for his economical aesthetic, Siegel’s customary approach yields pleasing dividends in the most austere setting imaginable. Lit up by a spare and shrewd performance by the star with capable satellites in the ensemble, this is ultimately structured around the major event, with some scenes reminiscent of The Great Escape (dumping the scooped-out cement dust in the yard) and intermittent scene-sequences of intimidation, violence and boredom. I always wanted to see San Francisco. I never thought it would be like this. McGoohan as the sadistic warden gets the lion’s share of the sharp dialogue but his position as the emblematic Man is confined to four scenes and although this takes place over two years, there is no clear passing of time, indicative of the experience of imprisonment in which no markers can be expressed and one day dissolves into the next. Some men are destined never to leave Alcatraz – alive. The sheer banality of life within these walls where only those sporadic acts of violence offer a change of pace to the psychological tedium is paradoxically thrillingly evoked with the execution of the plan proving an excellent procedural narrative scheme. The fact that this is more or less true and the final outcome remains a mystery just adds to the enjoyment. A great minimalist film. No one has ever escaped from Alcatraz and no one ever will

The Amityville Horror (1979)

Houses don’t have memories. Amityville, New York. In the early morning hours on November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. murders his entire family with a rifle at their home at 112 Ocean Avenue. One year later, newlyweds George Lutz (James Brolin) and his wife Kathy (Margot Kidder) move into the house with Kathy’s three children from a prior marriage: Greg (K.C. Martel) , Matt (Meeno Peluce) and Amy (Natasha Ryan). It’s a big deal for Kathy, who comes from a family of renters. Despite George’s lack of religion, Kathy, a nominal Catholic, requests Jesuit priest Father Delaney (Rod Steiger) to bless their new family home. Delaney arrives while the family is out boating on Long Island Sound. Upon entering the house, Delaney is swarmed by flies in an upstairs room and hears a hostile voice ordering him to get out causing him to flee. The next day, Kathy’s aunt Helena (Irene Dailey) a nun visits the house but immediately senses evil within, becomes violently ill and leaves abruptly, confounding Kathy. The Lutzes’ domestic life begins a sharp decline over the ensuing weeks: George becomes uncharacteristically volatile and abusive, and obsesses over keeping the home warm with firewood, despite Kathy’s insistence that it is not cold. George recurrently awakens at 3:15 a.m. – when the DeFeos were murdered – while Kathy suffers disturbing nightmares. Before Kathy’s brother Jimmy’s (Marc Vahanian) engagement party one night, $1,500 cash to be paid to the caterer inexplicably goes missing in the house. Meanwhile, the babysitter Jackie (Amy Wright) watching Amy for the evening is locked inside a bedroom closet by an unseen force. Amy simply says her invisible friend ‘Jody’ told her not to let her out. Further unexplained incidents occur – Greg suffers a crushed hand when a sash window falls on it. Kathy realises that Amy’s imaginary friend has a malevolent nature. One night, Kathy glimpses two red, pig-like eyes outside Amy’s second-storey bedroom window. Delaney makes several attempts to intervene that seem to be thwarted by unusual accidents and occurrences: His phone calls to the home are frequently experienced by Kathy as static noise and on one occasion his car malfunctions en-route to the house, nearly causing a fatal crash. Convinced there are demonic forces at work, Delaney grows frustrated by the lack of support from his superiors in the diocese. Meanwhile, George’s land surveying business begins to suffer due to his lack of attendance, concerning his business partner, Jeff (Michael Sacks). Jeff’s wife, Carolyn (Helen Shaver) who has psychic abilities is both repulsed by and drawn to the things she feels when at the house. In the home’s basement, Carolyn notices a brick wall that the family dog, Harry, has repeatedly scratched at and she begins dismantling it with a hammer. Discovering the damage, George takes down the rest of the wall, uncovering a small room with red walls. Carolyn, in terror, shrieks that they have found the passage… to Hell!, her voice resembling Father Delaney’s. Later that night, Delaney prays passionately at his pulpit for God to save the Lutz family before he inexplicably loses his sight and becomes catatonic. Kathy visits the library to research the property’s history, where she finds county records suggesting that the house is built atop a Shinnecock burial ground and a Satanic worshipper had once lived on the land. She also discovers newspaper clippings about the DeFeo murders and notices Ronald DeFeo’s astonishing resemblance to George … Jody doesn’t like George. Adapted from Jay Anson’s true-ish fact-based 1977 bestseller this is really the tale of a money pit – what happens when a blended family moves into a fixer-upper and sinks under the weight of impending debt, personal dislikes and the little issue of the previous owners being murdered en masse by their own son. The screenplay by Sandor Stern was originally proposed as a TVM written by Anson himself to be produced by American International under Samuel Z. Arkoff, presumably sniffing at the box office from The Exorcist, which had so many films follow in its wake. Brolin’s portrayal of a man dissipating under pressure, incessantly chopping logs, regularly losing his rag and exhibiting signs of psychosis could be straight out of The Shining (the film adaptation was still a year from release). I believe we create our own demons in our own minds. Kidder has to cope with an intuitive grasp of the problems within the house in a more physically obvious fashion and we infer that this might be due to her Catholicism ie a deeper spiritual connection to the ineffable. Steiger’s entire performance is separate from the leads, many of his scenes being in the company of his curate Fr Bolen (Don Stroud) and his hamminess earned criticism at the time. The structure over twenty days lends credence to the premise that this is a document of real incidents, establishing a timeline in which day to day actuality is recorded with no particular buildup to any terror, day or night. This failure to unite the storylines might be true to life as it is proposed here but it presents a screenwriting problem. The experience of the house is quite separate depending on the personality and there is no big moment with the priest which includes the family. The entirety of the communication is static on the phone line. The other issue is that the scares aren’t particularly scary – it seems so much more obvious that the mortgage repayments are the biggest terror and only the flashbacks to the DeFeo rampage are unpleasant. That and the rocking chair that moves with invisible Jody in the seat. And the eyes outside the window. And … ! It’s also odd that with the change of location (this was shot in New Jersey) that more wasn’t made of the waterside situation. With a lilting score for strings by Lalo Schifrin, a house that in no way resembles the original at 112 Ocean Avenue (which had a terrifying Alsatian guarding the gates when we visited) and no mention of Ronnie DeFeo’s likely acid trip motivation for massacring his own family, this is probably more about financial than supernatural horrors and was allegedly mostly a hoax dreamt up over a few bottles of wine. Many lawsuits ensued concerning the original story and the several publications and film sequels. Like most domestic trouble, the answer is simple – move. We’re still packing a crucifix, however. Directed by Stuart Rosenberg.  I checked into the murders. And I checked into the twenty year old boy who killed his parents, and his four brothers and sisters. And when he was at trial, he testified that he heard voices in the house. He heard voices in the house and the voices told him to do it! Now, I was in the house and I heard the voices, too! And I also felt their presence in the house! I’m telling you, there was a presence in that house!