Body Double

Plot synopsis:
The film begins and ends with the protagonist, Jake Scully (Craig Wasson), playing the part of a vampire on the set of a low-budget horror film. After he ruins a take by being unable to rise from a coffin due to claustrophobia, a fire breaks out on the set and he is sent home by the director Rubin (Dennis Franz).Scully arrives home early and catches his girlfriend having sex with another man. Since it is the girl's apartment, he must leave, so without a place to stay he heads to an acting workshop, where he makes a new friend, Sam.Sam offers him a house-sitting arrangement at an opulent Modernist bachelor residence high atop the Hollywood Hills. He also points out a sexy female neighbor, Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton), whose seemingly exhibitionistic antics can be viewed by telescope; she is a wealthy and beautiful woman who evidently performs a remarkable erotic dance at her window, nightly according to Sam, "just like clockwork."Scully's nightly observations of this woman quickly lead him into a murder mystery. He follows Gloria one day and attempts to warn her that she's being stalked by an Indian with a disfigured face who could be a thief or worse. The mysterious Indian snatches Gloria's purse at the beach, is chased by Scully into a tunnel, and steals what is later discovered to be a card key to Gloria's house. In an ironic twist, Gloria "rescues" Scully by leading him from the tunnel in which he had frozen in a claustrophobic seizure during the pursuit. They briefly embrace, make out, and grope each other as the camera revolves in a continuous 360-degree arc, until Scully kisses her neck and Gloria comes to her senses, apologizes and pushes him away, adjusts her bra and blouse, and departs hastily.Back at the home he's using, Scully then becomes an eyewitness through the telescope as the young woman is brutally attacked and killed by the Indian, who pins her down and runs an electric drill the size of a jackhammer through her body - the auguring bit repeatedly emerges from the ceiling of the room below in a torrent of blood - after she catches him removing items from a wall safe.(That a purported thief would have and use with extreme deadly force such an implement leads viewers to suspect that perhaps the murder was of a personal nature as opposed to merely a bungled burglary.)Investigating on his own, Scully pursues a porn queen, Holly Body (Melanie Griffith), whose "signature" dance - "a routine that's a sure ten on the peter meter" according to her - he recognized on a 24-hour porn channel. A descent into her sordid world follows, in which he lands a role in an adult film in order to meet her and then pretends to be a skilled porn director who wants to hire her. He takes credit for a mirror (which inadvertently reflects the camera and crew as the door on which it is hung swings open during the scene).Their trail takes them back to the bachelor pad, where Scully confesses that he is not a porn producer and does not want to cast her in a film, but instead points out the Revelle house and asks her if she was the woman he had observed doing the erotic dance routines in the window. During a brief telephone call from Sam to Scully, Holly identifies the voice of Sam as the man who had hired her to perform specifically for the supposedly voyeuristic Scully. She storms out in a blustery huff and is picked up while hitchhiking by the Indian, who knocks her out with a tire iron.Scully follows them on foot, scaling a gate through which the pair was purported to have just passed (but which is curiously locked with a double chain), and arrives at an open grave adjacent to the Owens Aqueduct that the Indian has just finished digging. (It is not explained how the grave was dug so quickly.) During the confrontation between Scully and the Indian that follows, Scully grabs at the Indian's face, inadvertently removing what is actually a makeup facial cast, revealing that the Indian is actually Sam. Sam then overpowers Scully, tossing him into the grave. When Scully is again frozen from his claustrophobia, Sam begins to bury him as he confesses his scheme, which was to set Scully up as a witness to Gloria's murder by the "Indian" and give Sam an alibi.The film then cuts to the set of the vampire movie, where Scully (wearing the dirt-caked leather jacket from the aqueduct grave scene instead of the vampire costume and heavy makeup as before) again freezes during the coffin scene and ruins the take. This time, however, he convinces Rubin to let him try it again.Cutting back to the grave, we see Scully overcome his claustrophobia and attack Sam, who is knocked into the aqueduct when his dog charges at Scully and misses. The film ends with Scully, back on the set and in his vampire costume, filming a shower sequence in which a body double of his next victim is being carefully inserted into the scene, while Holly watches with the film crew.

Tags: neo noir, murder, violence, atmospheric, flashback, suspenseful

Review:
To my enjoyment, I had a few smiles, even laughters, intensity, involving to the storyline, getting that suspense that is needed.This movie is a perfect example to pull of what Hitchcock has done best in "Rear Window" and "Vertigo".
With Body Double, Brian De Palma has another of his "Hitchcock rip-offs", but in quotes as it's the easy critical thing that's already been said by others.
De Palma also intentionally casts to type with both women and the villains, one for each being more deceptive (i.e. Henry's Brouchard and Shelton's Gloria, who are very much like "movie" caricatures from the craftiest and most seductive of film-noir), and with one 'villain' called the Indian, donning a face that's a riot just to look at, who at one point engages in a murder including the most blatant phallic imagery in any murder scene from the filmmaker.
As cheesily 80's as it is, I loved the whole music video Relax, where occasionally as De Palma almost makes us forget that a movie is being shot within this scene, the camera shooting Wasson and Griffith comes into view in a mirror.
Body Double moves forward with a straight face but, as evidenced by the Frankie Goes to Hollywood video somehow slipped into this film and an awful rubber mask, De Palma's tongue is so firmly in his cheek it's liable to break through the skin.
No. Oh, and for you scenesters out there, QT may have found inspiration for his first film's title in Body Double's final scene which, you guessed it, contains both a reservoir and dogs.And yet, although the movie on some level parodies the preposterous suspense thrillers of yore, it also never condescends to them.
I liked a lot every De Palma's film I've seen: The Black Dahlia (2006), Femme Fatale (2002), Snake Eyes (1998), Mission: Impossible (1996), Carlito's Way (1993), The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), Casualties of War (1989), The Untouchables (1987), Scarface (1983), Dressed to Kill (1980), and Carrie (1976).As with all his films, you either love "Body Double" and let its typical De Palma's over-the-top charm, his mesmerizing beautiful camera movements, his 20 minutes long, dialog-free pursuit sequence, his intense interest in exploration of sexual "dysfunction," his constantly present obsession with voyeurism, his satire on making cheap horror and adult movies, and his loving yet humorous homage to several Alfred Hitchcock's films overwhelm you or you just dismiss it scornfully for its most impossible and unbelievable story, for the plentiful coincidences and the holes in the plot, for the excessive violence, and for its sensationalism and exploitation.
I believe that De Palma himself has provided the keys to better understanding and enjoying his films when he said, "My films deal with a stylized, expressionistic world that has a kind of grotesque beauty about it." All we have to do - to recognize the beauty behind the grotesque.P.S. Melanie Griffith gave her best performance and stole all her scenes as a hot blond smart porn star with "a head for business and a bod for sin" who might help Jack to solve the mystery of the brutal murder he had witnessed.P.P.S. After I finished watching "Body Double", I added to my rental list "Blow Out" (1981) and "Sisters" (1973).
That's director Brian De Palma, for you: intriguing visuals, with Alfred Hitchcock- type camera angles, a lot of twists and sometimes a great movie and sometimes a very bad one.
More often, sad to say, a bad movie.I'd have to rank this closer to "bad" than "good." I'd like to rank it higher but Craig Wasson's character, "Jake Scully," (he's the lead) was so stupid at times that I almost stopped the tape.
Not knowing that he's being set up to be a witness, he watches her with a telescope each night.Holly (Malany Griffith) supposedly is Gloria (Deborah Shelton)'s body double in this movie, but what's not clear is where was Gloria when Holly was dancing away in her room each night.
And with his box of cinematic tricks still impressive before he became over reliant on them, Body Double is a fascinatingly lurid viewing experience.That it's Vertigo and Rear Window spliced together is a given, but that doesn't make it a bad film, besides which it bears the De Palma stamp as well, undeniably so.
Plot finds Jake Scully (Wasson), a struggling actor with claustrophobia, thrust into a world of murder, obsession, deceit and paranoia, for when he house sits for a newly acquired friend, he spies a sexy lady through the telescope apparently being stalked by an odd looking Native American.
Cast are appropriately cartoonish or animated, the twists fun if not hard to see coming, and with De Palma's visual panache cosying up nicely with Donaggio's musical score, Body Double is fine entertainment brought to us by a director with a glint in his eye.
The story, which basically riffs VERTIGO and REAR WINDOW, has a B-movie actor named Jake Scully (Bill Maher look-alike Craig Wasson) who has a very bad day when first he gets fired from his only B-movie gig and later sees her girlfriend in bed with another man.
Discouraged, he bumps into a friend named Sam Bouchard (Gregg Henry, the most noticeable "Hey, isn't he that guy?" character actor appearing in De Palma's films) who invites him to watch over his place; a campy-looking tower mansion that looks like it came out of an episode of LOST IN SPACE.
Every night, Jake would watch Gloria doing her routine like clockwork through a telescope, which is harmless perverted fun until he realizes that her life may be in danger; danger in the form of a weird-looking Indian(!) who's spying on her too.It may take a lot of suspension of disbelief to understand the plot of BODY DOUBLE as it goes to even crazier heights.
At first, it looks like the usual De Palma-as-Hitchcock thriller with some terrific sequences, then it turns into something out of a slasher film, then enters the sleazy world of 80's pornography where a young Melanie Griffith plays Holly Body, a porn star who may be a key to solving the crime.
As usual, De Palma demonstrates his talents with staging mise-en-scene in sequences like when Jake stalks Gloria who is being stalked by the Indian (which is obviously borrowed from VERTIGO but is actually a little more voyeuristic in nature here) and there's the REAR WINDOW-inspired scene where Jake spies on Gloria while she's doing her striptease routine, backed up by a catchy score by Pino Donaggio.Overall, it's not meant to be taken seriously.
Jake becomes extremely obsessed with the woman and he gets caught up in a seedy web of intrigue when he witness the woman being killed.De Palma goes all out on this occasion with his obsession with Hitchcock and the master's films that are under the spotlight in this voyeuristic thriller are "Rear Window" and "Vertigo".
Brian De Palma's "Body Double" is one of my favourite films made in early 80's.This memorable thriller obviously borrows some elements from Alfred Hitchcock's "Verigo" and "Rear Window",but it's still entertaining and delightfully sleazy.There are some wonderful moments of style-particularly the Indian's attack on stunningly beautiful Deborah Shelton seen through the binoculars.This scene is truly nerve-wracking and gruesome.The acting is excellent and the score by Pino Donaggio is great."Body Double" carries the audience through a convoluted plot,making the story quite believable and captivating.It's surely not as good as De Palma's earlier releases like "Sisters","Carrie" or "Dressed to Kill",but I wasn't disappointed.Check it out,if you're a fan of murder mysteries..
There are some beautiful sequences but I always felt like I was watching someone imitating Hitchcock...DePalma never put his own style into films until later.
Brian De Palma hit the mark with DRESSED TO KILL (1980), a contemporary take on PSYCHO, but is less successful with this Hitchcock copy, which steals most of it's ideas from REAR WINDOW and VERTIGO.Craig Wasson stars as a claustrophobic actor who's fired from a vampire film, catches his wife (Barbara Crampton) cheating on him and ends up housesitting for a guy he doesn't even know (Gregg Henry).
There he witnesses his beautiful neighbor (former Miss USA Deborah Shelton)getting power-drilled by a creepy, facially-scarred Indian, and ends up in the middle of a complex murder plot, which also leads him into the adult film underworld!The plotting stretches credibility to the limit, Wasson's idiotic and gullible character elicits no sympathy and the ending is terrible, but some of the porn scenes are well done (and funny!) and Melanie Griffith is great as porn star Holly Body, who is unknowingly tied into the murder.
He was still paying homage to Hitchcock, (in this case both "Rear Window" and "Vertigo") and he still tended to use actors who were somewhat limited in their abilities, (the exception being the extraordinary Melanie Griffith who won the National Society of Film Critics Best Supporting Actress prize), but the set pieces are sublime and the suspense sequences are beautifully handled.
I caught the last half hour of this on the BBC a few years and was intrigued.Last week I got the chance to see the entire thing.This is a classic film.I love all the wee,subtle touches lifted from Hitchcock especially the cheapo back projection when Jake Scully is in his car.Craig Wasson who plays the central character is note perfect as the weak-willed everyman character.Wouldn't we all be as dumb as him in this situation.
And now watching it fully realizing it's a De Plama movie, I can see what a huge fan of Hitchcock De Plama is, which makes it so much cooler.This movie feels like Vertigo, Strangers in a Train, Rear Window, all combine.Craig Wesson was a perfect leading man in this, playing a young actor trying to get out of his shell, but it's funny, every time I see Wesson I keep thinking Bill Maher (He was the guy in Amazon Women on the Moon).
His life is on a downward spiral, until he meets a fellow struggling actor who cuts him a break allowing him to house sit, it's here where he begins spying on his next store neighbor that gets him tied up in a mystery, when someone else has taking interest in her It has some great visuals that you would expect from a De Plama picture, but more than anything it's a great homage to Alfred Hitchcock, just combining some of his best films into one.
Taking place at the end of the Golden Age of Porn, it was cool looking at how the industry worked when porn was more of a movie industry.Body Double has always been a movie worth watching, whenever I caught it, but now its even better knowing it's a Brian De Plama (channeling Hitchcock) film.http://cinemagardens.com.
Controversial movies like this always result in a lot of contradictory feedbacks.The plot revolves around a failing actor (who could use some serious couch time, if you know what I mean), who becomes obsessed with "the girl next door" - a sexy neighbor whose 'jones' for late-night dancing in the "all-together" and abhorrence for window blinds makes house-sitting worth the lousy pay.
In the case of Body Double, the characters (especially Jack), that wonderfully captured Hollywood feel and scenery, the nothing-is-as-it-seems symbolism right from the opening credits and that desert shot that turns into a backdrop, the "Relax" orchestration, and music generally, all stay with you vividly after -- for this reason alone it rates as a very good, successful film.
Brian DePalma knows how to make some movies and is no rip-off director to the great Hitchcock, infact he's just adding more style to the scenes that he recreates VERY WELL..
As a superior director of these suspense pictures DePalma was criticized savagely and you can see some of his reaction in Body Double after which he proved his versatility with crime (Scarface, The Untouchables) and drama pictures (Casualties Of War).Using elements of Rear Window (Craig Wasson sees a murder being committed but is powerless to stop it) and Vertigo (he fears confined spaces), DePalma weaves a suspenseful plot.
The acting is headed by Melanie Griffith's breakthrough performance in which she manages to combine a weary knowledge of the world with a sweet innocence.Placing his main character as an actor in horror films, he is able to take some potshots at the voyeuristic audience (what all movie lovers are) in that we crave sex & violence (the film's final scene symbolizes this) but in effect this is what life and death is all about..
The cast ranges from adequate (Wasson) to intriguing (Deborah Shelton) to extremely good (Melanie Griffith in a star-making role), and De Palma demonstrates considerable wit and not a little style.
Brian De Palma has mentioned his affinity towards Alfred Hitchcock and Body Double could be his most direct homage to the master of suspense.
Brian De Palma has mentioned his affinity towards Alfred Hitchcock and Body Double could be his most direct homage to the master of suspense.
Brian De Palma has mentioned his affinity towards Alfred Hitchcock and Body Double could be his most direct homage to the master of suspense.
While Brian De Palma's BODY DOUBLE taps adeptly into its hetero-normative erotic thrust, in post-mortem, its central plot fits right into a cracking-a-nut-with-a-sledgehammer case that if the nefarious perpetrator simply needs an eye-witness for his purported burglary-turned-murder skulduggery, he really wouldn't have concocted such an involute set-up to pull the wool over the eyes of our protagonist, Jack Scully (Wasson), a struggling actor in Hollywood afflicted by claustrophobia.
So what De Palma blatantly exploits down pat is the libidinous bent and voyeuristic tantalization mostly derived from the straight male demography, plundering Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW and VERTIGO no end, BODY DOUBLE's misbegotten plot is at first a thoroughgoing manifestation of female objectification through man's wish-fulfillment, as if in real world, a luscious woman really enjoys putting on such a show for no one's gratification but herself, also the camp choice from a telephone cord to an electric drill in terms of the murder weapon in the archly designed gore climax does writ large a wicked sign of its times and De Palma's thinly-veiled mean-spiritness.
1984's "Body Double" isn't the best film of Brian De Palma still it's a tease of mystery and suspense all blended with sex and a creep tease to make it a watch even if it does seem like a parody of the Hitchcock films.You have Jake(Craig Wasson)a real Bill Maher look a like!
Across the way is a mansion inhabited by a stunningly beautiful woman (Deborah Shelton) — Scully is able to watch her undress as his friend has equipped a telescope overlooking the balcony.If you've had a filling serving of Alfred Hitchcock movies, I'm sure you can only guess where the film is going.
Yet not despite but because of these things, as well as director Brian De Palma working at his visual apex, "Body Double" sneaks up on you to become an inventive, highly rewatchable comedy suspense film.Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) is having a bad day.
It's also one of De Palma's most obvious nods at the films of Alfred Hitchcock, specifically "Vertigo" and "Rear Window," whose plots get almost conflated here.All this might seem a bad idea; imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery yet on its own it can't help but feel like a weak artistic premise.
"Body Double," like "Rear Window" and "Vertigo," works as an exercise in pure cinema, playing the viewer the same way Hitchcock did, as a kind of partner in voyeurism with the down-on-his-heel protagonist.Wasson doesn't leave a big impression in this movie, and he didn't have a big career after, but he proves the right man for this part.
I had liked the film to start with, but my first-hand experience of censorship during the Draconian '80s only made me like it even more!Director Brian DePalma's 'inspiration' for this trashy, nonsensical but irresistible murder mystery is, once again, the work of Alfred Hitchcock, most notably Vertigo, Rear Window and Psycho, the protagonist suffering from an irrational fear (claustrophobia) and partaking in voyeurism, with the seemingly central female character meeting a grisly fate well into the film.
But while originality is definitely not Body Double's strong point, the film is simply too crazy not to enjoy.Craig Wasson stars as struggling actor Jake Scully, who finds himself suddenly homeless after discovering his girlfriend carol (played by 80s scream queen Barbara Crampton) in bed with another man.
However, Jake decides to do a little investigation of his own after he notices Hollywood porn star Holly Body (Melanie Griffith) performing a routine uncannily similar to that of the now dead woman and begins to believe that she is somehow involved in the mystery.What follows is preposterous in the extreme, with Jake following Holly into the world of porn to find answers, even becoming a performer himself (in a riotous scene that starts with a ridiculous musical number from Frankie Goes to Hollywood); as Jake gets nearer to uncovering the truth, the film gets more and more unbelievable, but DePalma's impressive style, the spirited performances, lush Pino Donaggio score, frequent nudity (Griffith getting near naked for her role), shocking violence, and audacious finalé all add up to a whole heap of fun..
Director De Palma also pokes fun at Hollywood, Himself, Horror Movies and the film at times is tongue in cheek.
Of course there is a resemblance between Brian DePalma's direction of Body Double and of Hitchcock's works like Rear Window for example.
This film has a great ending, good acting, and a wonderful plot--another fun night with a movie from de Palma.
De Palma like to emulate Hitchcock, and I kind of relate this movie to a modern version of one of my all time favorites, Rear Window.
Melanie Griffith plays a porn actress and isn't afraid to show her body, but this movie also shows she can act well.Brian De Palma makes the best thrillers..
Actually, Body Double makes the most sense of all his films.Third, DePalma's choice of Craig Wasson in the leading role was heavily criticized.