Manitou - O Espírito do Mal

How can I begin to describe this amazing film? Random images pop into my head from memory... Tony Curtis as a dashing fortune-teller and huckster, prancing around his San Francisco bachelor pad wearing a sorcerer's outfit... one of his elderly female clients being possessed by an Indian spirit and being tossed down a flight of stairs... (you don't even need the pause button to see that the stunt "double" going down the stairs is a big dude in a dress and wig!!)... Burgess Meredith muddling through one of his last film roles, playing a senile old coot with amazing realism, to no one's surprise... an Indian shaman with a Yiddish-sounding New York City accent and a penchant for stale one-liners... a naked midget dressed up like an evil reincarnated Indian fetus covered with goo... a topless Susan Strassberg hovering in the fourth dimension and firing lightning bolts at the evil spirit using electrical energy from a huge 70's-model computer... YOU MUST SEE THIS FILM!!

The 70s churned out a lot of films like this one. There's The Manitou, The Sentinel, The Prophecy, etc. All bear a resemblance in that they could have been classics of the genre but instead fall a little too far into the realm of hokum. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy all of them. They just aren't really all that good is all.

Based on a novel by Graham Masterson, The Manitou is about a woman who believes that she has a tumor growing on her neck. When she goes into the hospital to have it removed, they discover that it is in fact a fetus and that it is growing. I really can't say how close any of this is to the source novel as I haven't read it.

Tony Curtis plays the ex of the young woman. He's a charlatan psychic who finds himself up against a real supernatural threat. Susan Strasberg is the woman with the growth and Burgess Meredith pops up as a professor who knows about the legend of the manitou.

The whole thing is rooted in native American legend. A manitou is a spirit that can be born on a man, woman or animal. A manitou can also be reborn many times until it reaches a level of rebirth and is accepted by the spirits as one of them. Don't quote me on that, I may have it wrong but it goes something like that.

The acting is passable, with no real standouts in the cast. The writing again is passable. The special makeup effects are impressive when they do show up. What really stands out for me in the film is the vertically challenged Indian who emerges from Strasberg's back. He is creepier than hell and used to good effect as the titular villain.

So here it is: The Manitou is a film that could have been really good and stood the test of time. As it is, it remains a solid flick, but completely forgettable.

While I must agree with many of the reveiewers of this film that say it is preposterous, silly, laughable, and the like, I must also add that watching the film is an entertaining experience. Yes, the story about a fetus growing on a woman's back and then becoming a four foot Indian ripping his way out of a tumor the size of basketball stretches the line of credibility. This pint-sized spirit has amazing powers as he can literally freeze an entire hospital ward, call forth the devil himself, and take the skin off of people's bodies through his mind. The most ridiculous aspects of the film, however, are the explanation and execution of how to fight the manitou. Apparently all things in life have their own manitou, so we see this incredibly powerful spirit temporarily beaten when Tony Curtis throws a typewriter at him. We are to believe the spirit of the machine harmed this powerful spirit. Yeah, okay. The special effects are very outdated and some of those will just make you burst out laughing. The scene where Tony Curtis(the former boyfriend of the girl with the shoulder-weilding fetus/pint-sized Indian spirit) and Michael Ansara(playing John Singing Rock or something like that who just happens to be an Indian medicine man ready, able, and willing to do battle with the most powerful Indian medicine man's spirit that ever lived...and this one apparently has ripped through the shoulders or bellies of five previous people) walk into the hospital room and see what I guess is suppose to be space will have you slapping your knee. But the very worst scene has to be the finale which I will not explain in great detail. Suffice it to say that Susan Strasberg(the poor woman aforementioned) is sitting up on a bed topless..., yes, you heard me, TOPLESS, throwing ele trical current from her fingers as she battles the manitou. It has to be seen to be believed. The acting in the film is not very good, but again very likable. Curtis plays a mystic and some of his scenes are good in the beginning. Ansara is ok, and Burgess Meredith gives the best performance in his five minute cameo. The little Indian who could was played much of the time by Felix Silla, the same fella that played Cousin It on The Addams Family and has appeared in countless horr/science fiction films.

Based on the novel by Graham Masterton, "The Manitou" is another of those absolutely wacky movies that one simply has to see to believe. It's bizarre, it's fanciful, it's often very (intentionally?) funny, and it features an amazing ensemble of veteran talent that plays everything with incredible sincerity. It marked the filmmaking swan song for the late, great B movie director William Girdler, who'd given us such classics as "Grizzly" and "Day of the Animals", who died in a helicopter crash while scouting locations for a follow-up flick. Girdler really outdoes himself here what with the level of cheese and sleaze.

An engaging Tony Curtis plays phony psychic Harry Erskine, whose good friend Karen Tandy (Susan Strasberg) is suffering through one hell of a problem: a hump growing (and growing) on her back is not a tumor as doctors initially believe but an honest to God fetus, the reincarnation of a 400 year old, all powerful Indian medicine man named Misquamacus. The doctors, faced with the knowledge that their attempts to operate on Karen have met with disaster, are forced to acknowledge that things out of their field of expertise are going on. So a determined medicine man named John Singing Rock (Michael Ansara) is called in.

In addition to the aforementioned actors, Stella Stevens, Ann Sothern, and Burgess Meredith turn up, and while some film lovers may be dismayed to see so many fine actors slumming away, the truth is these performers play this material for all that it's worth. Also appearing are Paul Mantee, Jeanette Nolan, Girdler regular Charles Kissinger, and Felix Silla. Co-written by Girdler and co-star Jon Cedar (who plays one of the doctors) with Thomas Pope, this production treats us to scenes such as an old lady (Lurene Tuttle) levitating, the appearance of a lizard like demon, the floor of a hospital turning into a walk in freezer, and a priceless, amazing finale featuring a topless Strasberg and lots of irresistible "special" effects.

This is certainly slick looking stuff, with good widescreen cinematography by Michel Hugo, and thunderous music by Lalo Schifrin. Basically, everything *and* the kitchen sink are thrown into this mix for the sake of an entertaining show, and fans of the actors and the genre are sure to be endlessly amused. Movies like this don't come along that often, so we have to appreciate them when they do turn up.

Eight out of 10.

I found The Manitou to be quite an interesting, if not cheesy film. It starts off quite well and the pace moves along nicely as the story draws you in. The first half is dedicated to the story and what happens before the demon is born. The second half deals with what occurs after he is born and climaxes with a cheesy sci-fi ending. The acting is very solid throughout and the characters believable. The highlight of the film is supposedly when the demon is born, as he breaks out of the "fetus" attached to the woman's back. I didn't find it particularly impressive though. I did however enjoy the story about the Indian spirit and how this would be his fourth or fifth incarnation. I've always had a soft spot for mythology and "demon births", probably from watching too many Xena: Warrior Princess episodes.

The film is spoilt mainly by the ultra cheesy ending, that looks like something out of an old Star Trek episode. Up until that point I thought the story worked well as a serious film, but the ending brought it into cheese territory and ruined it for me. It's not that I don't like cheese, but you can't just introduce it in the last 10 minutes of a film and get away with it!