Post by Brad Nelson on Jul 26, 2021 7:45:12 GMT -8
1971’s The Night Visitor is a medium-quality thriller starring Max von Sydow, Liv Ullman, Trevor Howard, and Per Oscarsson.
I watched this on the free Movieland TV channel. The quality of the print was a bit rough but more than watchable.
Salem (Max von Sydow) is in an institute for the criminally insane. The movie unfolds in a what-is-going-on? fashion so I shouldn’t say much more. Trevor Howard plays a police inspector who’s been around the block a time or two. Per Oscarsson plays the slightly unstable Dr. Anton Jenks. Go ahead and watch it fresh before reading ahead.
If you want a bit of a spoiler, here’s the storyline from IMDB:
Although I wouldn’t judge this movie as first-rate, it does have the quality of being unlike anything I’ve seen before. And the plot keeps moving along so you never get to the point (as I do with so many movies) where I keep checking the time to see when it will be over.
One reviewer nails it: “Hokey but entertaining.” His review (with spoilers) hits on some obvious holes in the plot that bothered me as well and kept this movie from achieving first-rate status:
I watched this on the free Movieland TV channel. The quality of the print was a bit rough but more than watchable.
Salem (Max von Sydow) is in an institute for the criminally insane. The movie unfolds in a what-is-going-on? fashion so I shouldn’t say much more. Trevor Howard plays a police inspector who’s been around the block a time or two. Per Oscarsson plays the slightly unstable Dr. Anton Jenks. Go ahead and watch it fresh before reading ahead.
If you want a bit of a spoiler, here’s the storyline from IMDB:
A man named Salem escapes from an insane asylum where he was confined for an axe-murder. Falsely convicted under a plea of "guilty due to insanity", he does not plan to let his sister and her husband forget that they were responsible for the murder of a farmhand and for his cruel imprisonment in the asylum.
Although I wouldn’t judge this movie as first-rate, it does have the quality of being unlike anything I’ve seen before. And the plot keeps moving along so you never get to the point (as I do with so many movies) where I keep checking the time to see when it will be over.
One reviewer nails it: “Hokey but entertaining.” His review (with spoilers) hits on some obvious holes in the plot that bothered me as well and kept this movie from achieving first-rate status:
This movie has plot holes large enough to fly a 747 through. For one example, The Flash could not run as fast and as far as Max von Sydow apparently can, in freezing cold and wind, wearing only his skivvies. Exactly how far is it supposed to be from the asylum to the farm to the town?! For another, Trevor Howard, who is portrayed as a Lt. Columbo but is about as competent as Inspector Clouseau, never thinks to check for footprints in the snow. But it's fast paced and the acting is very good, although how the actors managed to keep straight faces is beyond me.