Body Double (1984)

 

A struggling actor (Craig Wasson) is house sitting an ultra modern secluded home in the Hollywood Hills. Looking through a telescope, he becomes obsessed with a woman (Deborah Shelton) across the way and when he suspects she may be in danger, he begins to follow her. Directed by Brian De Palma, this is yet another stylish Hitchcock homage. Stylish being the operative word because the film is all style and very little else. Fortunately, the style is so rich that it sustains the film through some very rocky territory. The cuckoo plot depends too much on coincidence and everything falls into place too neatly. You either swallow De Palma's loopy narrative or you don't. If you don't, the film won't work for you on any level. With his ace cinematographer Stephen H. Burum (THE UNTOUCHABLES) and his composer Pino Donaggio (CARRIE) as co-conspirators, he gets the job done. Where he fails big time (with one marvelous exception) is with his actors. De Palma has drawn performances from Sissy Spacek, John Travolta, Angie Dickinson to name just three that rank with their best work. The male leads here (Wasson, Gregg Henry) are just awful and Shelton is used merely for her looks (even her voice is dubbed by another actress). The exception is Melanie Griffith as a porn actress who walks off with the picture and won the supporting actress award from the National Society of Film Critics. With Guy Boyd, Dennis Franz and Barbara Crampton.