O Toque da Medusa

And he isn't kidding! An unusually rigid, dark and hazy telekinetic crossed disaster driven supernatural-thriller, predictably told and methodically directed, but the spectacle starts out like a cerebral murder-mystery before the bleak, schlocky mayhem bursts from the seams. Once a weary-eyed Richard Burton starts staring into your soul... only means upcoming doom is near. About an hour away... give or take.

The story follows a French detective Brunel (Lino Ventura who's great here) on temporary assignment for Scotland yard, as he investigates the attempted murder of a writer, John Morlar, who now lays comatose in a hospital bed. However there's something strange about this case, and this man. He learns from Morlar's psychiatrist Dr Zonfeld (a really cold Lee Remick), and Morlar's journals, he believed he could predict the future, and eventually cause disasters, or even death.

This leads to a lot of red herrings, where motivations are unravelled through Brunel's consistent digging of the facts, although it's not hard to figure who was the attempted murderer. So when that's finally revealed, everything suddenly changes and the story comes into its own feeling like there's a lot more at stake. The script through flashbacks, interestingly gives an insight into Morlar's decaying mindset, as his psychic ability grows and bitter distain for life (especially for the establishment) festers. Therefore the morbid nature of its bubbling intentions builds and shocks begin to multiply, which always seem to end in tragedy, and once its starts... there's no going back. It's going to end, like it began... Morlar will see to that with an excellent, fitting ending.

Though top billed in this, Richard Burton features but sparingly as a man with a tortured past. His recollections to his psychiatrist "Dr. Zonfeld" (Lee Remick) are relayed to police inspector "Brunel" (Lino Ventura) after he ("Morlar") is found savagely beaten at his London flat. As the investigation expands, it is clear that the normal rules do not apply here. "Morlar" shouldn't even be alive, yet his brain activity coupled with a spate of accidents and with the ever more revealing - but sensational - revelations about his disaster-prone past lead "Brunel" and the Assistant Commissioner (Harry Andrews) to a conclusion that, well, they just cannot believe. Ventura is good in this, as is the understated, but effective Remick. There are plenty of twists that keep the obvious from becoming too obvious, too soon, and when called upon, Burton contributes well in a sort of manic, epitome of evil, manner. It is a bit dialogue heavy at times, but the last twenty minutes are great drama well put together. A good bit of telekinetic terror!

Any modern-day remake of Jack Gold's The Medusa Touch would probably skew much younger in its casting and energy-level, its plot fleshed out by race-against-time set-pieces. If Gold's version works significantly better than seems likely, it's largely because of its world-weariness and sense of crusty experience, allowing its melodramatic contrivances to seem like expressions of shared frustration and common anticipation of doom. Richard Burton is among the stiffest and intemperate of leading men, so it works pretty well to cast him as a man driven by those very qualities, allowed several vituperative rants about societal hypocrisy and the general mediocrity of people individually and collectively: the premise is that he has the capacity to destroy at will, from individuals who cross him, to planes that he pulls from the sky for the hell of it (the retrospective echo of 9/11 is impossible to shut out), or even beyond that, to tamper with the workings of manned space probes. Lino Ventura (his presence on the British police force amusingly attributed to an exchange program with the French) comes in to investigate after Burton's Morlar is attacked in his home and left for dead - the film dramatizes the fruits of his investigation in flashback, interspersed with the growing anxiety as Morlar clings to life against all odds, his malicious capacities and intents possibly intact. The extensive use of other establishment actors in small parts, the alertness to time and place, and the breadth of Morlar's fury (encompassing the family, the education system, the law, the church, etc.) gives the film an unlikely symbolic force, allowing the character to embody whatever undiagnosed or unaddressed ills are slowly poisoning us. At the risk of auteur-seeking excess, it's thus tempting to see the film as a companion piece to Gold's sensational The Reckoning, which dramatizes a very different form of rage-filled triumph over the English establishment.

The manner in which the film was chronographed was somewhat unique. In real time the main character, Morlar, is comatized by severe head trauma. In fact the movie opens with his attempted murder. The unfolding of events in the ensuing investigation are presented with smooth transitions from flashback to present in order to create a sense of fatalistic inevitability. The director takes a very difficult path to achieve this but I think he pulled it off very effectively. Look for little tricks to smooth out the staccato chronological transitions. Small similarities between outgoing and incoming scenes create a more seamless effect.Also, the sounds of a former scene would linger for a couple of seconds after the transition, further uniting past & present to emphasize the inevitable hopelessness of the inspectors situation. It also serves to demonstrate Morlar's indomitable, fatalistic will.

All the characters are well (and cleverly)cast, particularly Richard Burton as Morlar. VonGreenway's book comments on the intensity of Morlar's character and his riveting gaze. Burton was obviously intimately familiar with the text as his rendition of Morlar is, to say the least, riveting.

The apocryphal elements added by the director, the cataclysmic disasters vastly improve the story's big-screen appeal, even if they were a bit of a departure from the text. The director simplifies the text by only indirectly referring to Morlar's political agenda. To follow the text in this would be setting up an entirely different story and would distract from the immediacy of the peril Morlar represents for the inspector and the psychiatrist.

The "tongue in cheek" manner in which these two meet serves to show a comprehensive understanding of the text, it gives clear notice (to those familiar with the book) the text cannot realistically be followed in every way. "I'm sorry I was expecting a man." the inspector explains his reaction to her. "That's alright, I was expecting an English Inspector." She responds. This, of course, was a reference to the characters as they appeared in the book.

This is a well directed film, making sense of a difficult text in an acceptable time frame. Richard Burton was an excellent choice as Morlar, he has a dominating presence that lends well to the character. These things along with an excellent rendition of a sensational, compelling story make the Medusa Touch one of the best suspense films ever.

'The Medusa Touch' fits as one of those films that certainly deserves to be called a masterpiece that became a well kept secret. If you are a fan of the genre and haven't seen it, what a rare find it is! Contributors to threads of a remake of this film are filled with screams against that idea. And deservedly so. Any attempt to remake this classic would be a travesty.

Richard Burton's excellent performance, and surly the role fits Burton's acting style like a well tailored glove. Casting him as an intelligent and well versed author, whose spoken (and written) dialog is scripted to delve deep into a profound command of the English language, is right up Burton's alley. I see much written here about Burton's outstanding performance and they are certainly correct.

It almost seems an oversight however, that the performance given by Lino Ventura (Inspector Brunel) is as fine a work of acting as can be. Officially a 'supporting actor' in the film, one could hardly tell. Cast as a French Exchange Detective who has a suspicious, slightly non-trusting relationship with his English Scotland Yard counterparts, Ventura turns in a nearly flawless role, and makes the idea work exquisitely.

Often while deep in puzzled thought and shock, mere facial expressions from Inspector Brunel are perfect additions to Ventura's role. To many thread do not topic Lino Ventura's excellent acting in this outstanding classic gem of a thriller. Perhaps due to many fans in the English speaking world never having heard of Lino Ventura, and figuring he was a 'small-fame' actor. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ventura was Italian citizenship and birth, while living the majority of his life in France.

Ventura was a hugely acclaimed and decorated actor in France, who played some iconic roles there. Casting Lino Ventura in this film was no stretch, as his timeless performance attests. The filmmakers were fortunate to land him. In many ways, Ventura's performance helped mold this movie into the hidden classic 'The Medusa Touch' will forever be.