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Geraldine Chaplin was so believable. It made such an impact on me that I can still remember it. Especially wonderful for me was the background music and singing of Alberta Hunter. It was not a movie of violent revenge. It was sweet revenge. Sure, it would be called stalking today, but she was just checking out that ratty ex-husband.

I suppose the main criticism you can level against a film like REMEMBER MY NAME is that it has a distinctly tame, quiet, television-movie style feel to it, so that the drama feels oddly muted for a movie made for the cinemas. It's a late '70s stalker story along the lines of PLAY MISTY FOR ME, although not quite as good as the Eastwood movie.

What REMEMBER MY NAME does have going for it is an excellent cast of past and future stars who enliven an otherwise ordinary tale. The story involves a seemingly happily married couple who are disturbed by the arrival of the husband's old flame who seems obsessed with resuming their relationship. What follows is quietly gripping in places, although the film as a whole is let down by a non-existent ending and a definite lack of incident.

Anthony Perkins is excellent at playing these mild-mannered characters hiding dark secrets but the real acting honours go to Geraldine Chaplin, who invests her disturbed character with real authenticity; she's absolutely frightening in the part. The supporting cast includes plenty of faces who would go on to become famous in the future: Tim Thomerson, Dennis Franz, and best of all a skinny Jeff Goldblum. Blaxploitation actor Moses Gunn also has a role.

You need not have to wade through any over-intellectualized reviews of this film! Breaking it down into basics: (1) it is a low-budget indie; (2)you can figure it out by at least midway through for those with above a lukewarm IQ; (3) some very wasted time; (4) not quite as satisfying as it could have/should have been, since the predator who is really a victim is completely unsympathetic Skip it unless you really enjoy slogging through old B&W B-movies which offer little more than simple revenge as character motivation.

Geraldine Chaplin's character has been in prison for years. She murdered her husband's (Tony Perkins') lover. She leaves prison institutionalized and inept and full of vengeance. She begin to stalk the ex- and his wife, damaging property and actually invading the home and confronting her. Of course, she has reason for anger in the most unbalanced of ways. Geraldine Chaplin does a great job in what is mostly a plodding film. We have to feel sorry for her in a way because she has been robbed of the tools to integrate into society and, instead, keeps the tunnel vision going. Perkins is, as usual, pretty weird, and still seems to have some feelings toward here. It's an intense, uncomfortable film, with a very good soundtrack.

An interesting and well-acted psychological drama about an unhappily married man (Perkins) who finds himself stalked by his first wife (Chaplin), a mentally unbalanced woman who spent the last 12 years in prison for murder. You've seen this kind of insane-female-admirer plot before, but here it's handled more intelligently and tastefully than usual. It remains refreshingly unpredictable all the way through.

Chaplin is particularly impressive, managing to exude fragility, menace, and just plain craziness all at once. It's a solid performance if you're willing to overlook her ever-changing accent (is her character supposed to be American or English?). The film also features an overbearing blues soundtrack that, while decent enough in itself, sounds like it belongs in another film. Still, it's a good movie, probably worth viewing more than once.