O Vidente Misterioso

Frank Perry's "Man on a Swing" is one of the most haunting movies that you'll ever see. Cliff Robertson plays a police detective investigating a murder who enlists the help of a man (Joel Grey) who claims to be clairvoyant. During his trances this man describes things that he couldn't have learned from the media...but is it real clairvoyance?

There are a couple of focuses. There's the investigation, but also the presumed psychic's trances that make you wonder if he's about to do something sinister. And then there are the strange things that start happening to the detective and his wife. Is it the presumed psychic or is something else going on?

The most haunting thing is that this movie is based on a true story that was still unsolved at the time of the movie's release (I don't know whether they solved it afterwards). Joel Grey puts on what must be the most impressive role of his career. Far from the jolly emcee in "Cabaret", his character here makes you feel as if you're walking on eggshells. It's one of those movies that keeps you guessing every step of the way. I recommend it.

The rest of the cast includes Peter Masterson (the husband in the original "Stepford Wives"), Lane Smith (the DA in "My Cousin Vinny"), Josef Sommer (Harrison Ford's superior in "Witness") and Penelope Milford (Jane Fonda's friend in "Coming Home").

"Man on a Swing" is a movie based on a book which was about some actual murders that occurred near Dayton, Ohio. However, I couldn't find any information about the actual crimes, so I have no idea how close to the truth the movie actually is.

Cliff Robertson plays a sheriff in Laurel County who is in charge of investigating the murder of a woman found in a parking lot...stuffed in the floorboards of her VW. There aren't many clues and out of the blue, a man proclaiming he's psychic (Joel Grey) offers to help the police in the investigation. However, over time two unexpected things happen...another body turns up and the psychic seems to know too many details about the crime for him to not be a suspect as well.

The film was interesting and the acting pretty good (aside from a bit of overacting by Grey when he has his trances). But the film also felt a bit anticlimactic at the end...and wasn't a bad film but a slightly disappointing one.

Director Frank Perry( David and Lisa, Diary of a Mad Housewife)took a true story and turns it in to a very suspenseful film. Starring Oscar winners Cliff Robertson and Joel Grey, the film concerns a murder of a young girl in a small Connecticut town and the police chief(Robertson) who tries to solve the killing. Enter one clairvoyant(Grey) who claims to have visions of the killing and offers to help the police solve the crime.Director Perry keeps the viewer guessing the whole movie as to whether Grey is legitimate or not. Robertson is wary of Grey but keeps him around just by chance he is what he says he is. The ending has a bizarre twist and I wont reveal it here but remember, it was based on a true story and the film is well worth 90 some minutes of your time.

I've been curious to see this since it came out (I was too young then), as it sounded interesting. But no one has ever really claimed this as some underrated classic, and while many idiosyncratic suspense films and cop thrillers of the 1970s have since gotten some of the appreciation they didn't get then, "Man on a Swing" is still a misfire--a movie whose intriguing elements never really turn into "something," or "go anywhere." Even the ambiguity of providing no conventional resolution (because the real-life case didn't have one) doesn't really work, because Perry's direction doesn't make a central virtue of paranoia and ambiguity, unlike better films such as the same year's "The Conversation" or "The Parallax View."

So what we get is a long, somewhat plodding murder mystery with a glum Cliff Robertson not making enough of his role, a host of good supporting actors not really given the chance to do much with theirs, and Joel Grey simply making too much of his part as the clairvoyant. He certainly livens up the film, but as the movie is primarily naturalistic in tone and cinematic style, his very showy, theatrical performance is kind of like placing a snow leopard in a pen of domestic cats and expecting us to think "Yeah, I suppose that makes sense." There are moments when the mixture approaches a kind of chill uncanniness that would have made a bolder film truly haunting. But this one doesn't commit to any path enough to make an impression more than of strong but elusive potential frustratingly unfulfilled.

The completely serious film (Man on a Swing) opens with a one minute-20 second scene shot with a camera mounted on the police car roof about a foot behind the flashing light bar. While I am sure it seemed dramatic in 1974, it's impossible to view now without remembering the comedic rendition of the same viewpoint that forms the opening of "The Naked Gun". While I can't be sure this was the only "cop movie" that had a similar opening sequence, it's pretty clear to me that this film alone would have been sufficient to inspire the Naked Gun spoof scene.