Le souffle de la peur

Sondra Locke stars in this obscure gem as Marguerite, an odd, but very intellectual teenage girl who is kept isolated by her vindictive mother and grandmother. When her father comes to visit with his new fiancée, a perverted love triangle develops with Marguerite as the other woman.

Directed by famed cinematographer William A. Fraker, this is a solid psychological horror film with an ending that took me by surprise and adds a whole new layer to everything seen prior. The relationship between Marguerite and her dad, played by Robert Shaw, is quite uncomfortable, especially when he does nothing to discourage her attempts to court him right in front of his fiancée. Marguerite, clearly unhinged from being raised by her man-hating mother, also has hateful conversations with one of her dolls, believing it to be a real person. This, along with Marguerite's fears of being left in her hell, of her father abandoning her again, eventually leads to a murder mystery.

There's strong acting across the board, especially from Locke, who I just saw recently in a similarly off-kilter role in "The Shadow of Chikara". She definitely had a knack for playing creepy. As for the aforementioned ending, it's definitely a stunner. I can think of at least two later slashers that may have been inspired by it.

The film was apparently edited by the studio for no apparent reason, and this shows in the latter half, as scenes seem to end before they've really even begun. It can be a little confusing, and one hopes that the cut bits will be restored some day.

Weird! This is one of the most bizarre horror flicks I've ever seen. But weird can be good, and in this case, it's definitely good! The beautiful and sexy Sondra Locke is at her very best as the tormented teen. Mary Ure and Signe Hasso are appropriately sinister as Locke's overprotective mother and grandmother. Robert Shaw is the disturbed young girl's estranged father who returns home to announce he's going to marry lovely Sally Kellerman. Naturally, several strange and dastardly deeds occur before this event can take place. The film is by all means an effective suspense story(all right, so it borrowed here and there from PSYCHO), but does have its shortcomings. The movie was very severely cut to avoid an R rating and slide by with a PG. Bad editing makes it all too obvious where the missing footage should be. But, it's still a worthwhile thriller with genuine scares and great acting.

I recently had the privilege to see a brand new (from the camera negative) 35mm print of this film at the American Cinematheque here in Los Angeles. It was a Friday night, there were probably only about 20 people in the theatre. Bill Fraker and Sondra Locke were there to talk about it. I really admire this film on many levels, visually it is quite amazing, filled with haunting pastel images and eerie dark shadowy lighting. It had look and feel [and content] of a film made around the 1970-71 period as opposed to '73, and sure enough that was indeed the case. (the film was shelved for 2 years before the studio did something with it) This is yet another interesting example of the kind of strange and bold and brilliant and unconventional film that could have ONLY been made in that time. (and surely the filmmakers of the time were not aware of it--as this was just the reality of the era)

In the same kind of haunting and lonely ambience this film created, I felt depressed that these works are still so overlooked. Even now, (as of late March 2003) there is only one other comment here on the IMDB. And this person (verna55) happens to a friend of mine I've corresponded with. It seems only too apparent there is simply no audience for movies like this, except for rare, intelligent, aware people like me. On one level I'm glad to know about and connect with films like this, on another it makes me morose with utter hopelessness knowing there is simply no market for films like this. Or chance anything like it could ever be made again, especially given the way people tend to overlook and ignore the most brilliant things. But gee, thats nothing new isn't it? I hold little hope for the future of humankind, and you know what? frankly I think some kind of armageddon would be the best thing that could happen to planet earth right now. (--D. Packard, director of "Reflections of Evil")

Haunting Gothic psychodrama (adapted by Lewis John Carlino whose THE SAILOR WHO FELL FROM GRACE WITH THE SEA covers similarly torrid terrain) which, whilst undeniably owing a shade too much of a debt to PSYCHO (as previously noted by another IMDb commentator), whips up an unsettling and uneasy atmosphere of dread, not all of which is dissipated by apparently heavy censorship cuts made to secure a 'PG' for its original U.S. theatrical release in the early 70s. In fact, these often noticeable edits (scenes cut away before they've barely begun) lends the whole enterprise a greater sense of ambiguity by suggesting, rather than showing, the barely suppressed corruption and perversion. Possibly too low-key for popular tastes (which makes it all the more surprising that this was distributed by a major studio and roped in the likes of Robert Shaw) and, although I don't really go a bundle on films which seem to be bending over backwards to conceal their surprise ending (and, yes, I did see this one coming a mile off), this is still a one-off melodramatic curio worth seeking out and which certainly lingers in the mind. Now, how about a nice DVD transfer (my UK video copy is a nasty full-frame RCA Columbia release from the early 80s which doesn't do justice to what looks like impressive cinematography)?...

Despite getting top billing, for much of the time you're hardly aware that Robert Shaw is even in this murky psychodrama, the story so dominated by the female contingent (including Sondra Locke's imaginary friend who who looks and sounds like a grotesque parody of Hugo in 'Dead of Night').

The film is actually shown through the large hungry eyes of Sondra Locke who plays his daughter dressed as Shaw observes "like some precocious doll".

The casting of Shaw's wife Mary Ure as Shaw's estranged wife seeking a divorce is sadly ironic since her untimely death was one of the defining tragedies of his life.