The Medusa Touch

Inspector Brunel (Lino Ventura), a French detective on a job swap in London, is called in to investigate the attempted murder of novelist John Morlar (Richard Burton) a man who, according to psychiatrist Dr Zonfeld (Lee Remick), had described himself as having "A gift for disaster."

Morlar, it transpires, is a powerful psychokinetic with a pathological hatred of humanity, a great line in wonderfully misanthropic and nihilistic dialogue, 

"And Mother was much like the hotels; a decade past her prime, a lot of paint covering the worst cracks, a pathetic pretence of being better than she was." 

and a building desire to destroy the society he hates, 

"I’ve found a way to do God’s dirty work for him. The Royal Chieftain, the parasites, and the whole gang of international rabble rousers, are going to bleat to the Almighty Nothing in his great Temple, to give praise for three million pounds. I promise you, the moment they kneel to pray, I will bring the whole edifice down on their unworthy heads."

Over time 'The Medusa Touch' has been derided for some patchy effects particularly during the climactic set piece but such things are mostly irrelevant to me especially when they are surrounded by a tightly plotted and solid story and strong performances which director Jack Gold (The Naked Civil Servant (UK / US)) teases out of a uniformly excellent cast.

Burton, whose star was in terminal decline by 1977, is almost a peripheral figure in a movie that has his name at the top of the billing and revolves around his character but he still dominates the screen whenever he appears.  Ventura has a lovely light touch and a shabby Columbo like air in what is essentially the starring role, Remick is as rock solid and reliable a presence as ever and the rest of the cast is littered with familiar faces like Gordon Jackson, Harry Andrews, Jeremy Brett, Derek Jacobi, Michael Hordern and James Hazeldine. 

I first saw 'The Medusa Touch' as a young lad and the ending was one of the few things that ever freaked me out and as such it has remained in my head ever since but it wasn't a film I ever had the opportunity to return to so it was a wonderful surprise when writing this to discover that my memory hadn't rose tinted it and I enjoyed it just as much some 40 years later.

Buy it here - UK / US.



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