Blast from the Past: Robert Wise Revisited
The shadow of Fredkin’s 1973 masterful horror The Exorcist looms large over Audrey Rose, a schlocky, over-the-top psychological horror drama, poorly directed by Robert Wise towards the end of his long and fruitful career.
Based on the 1975 novel by Frank De Felitta, who also adapted the screenplay, the film stars Marsha Mason, Anthony Hopkins, and John Beck.
Grade: C (*11/2* out of *****)
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Theatrical release poster
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Premise:
A New York City couple is followed by a stranger who believes that their daughter is a reincarnation of his deceased one.
Bill and Janice Templeton live a privileged life in Manhattan’s Upper West Side with their daughter Ivy, who’s 11. A stranger follows them in public places, then reaches out to then by phone, revealing himself as Elliot Hoover, a widower who had lost his wife and daughter, Audrey Rose, in car accident in Pittsburgh.
He believes that Ivy is a reincarnation of Audrey, and as psychic evidence, he notes that Ivy was born only minutes after Audrey died. Soon Ivy begins to experience all kinds of panics and night terrors, which only Elliot can control by comforting the hysterical girl, thrashes around violently.
Elliot then locks the couple out and disappears with Ivy through a service exit. The police discover him and Ivy in the apartment and charge him with child abduction. A trial ensues, and Elliot attempts to persuade the jury that his actions were necessary to grant peace to Audrey’s spirit.
The trial becomes an international news story, with a Hindu holy man testifying about his religious belief in reincarnation. The judge grants a recess in the trial, and Janice and Bill are informed that Ivy has injured herself at school by crawling toward a fire pit during Christmas celebration.
While the plot’s first half is semi-engaging, the second is preposerous, relying in a silly legal melodrama, replete with obviousn cross-examinations and even a hypnotized key witness.
Far too literal, Audrey Rose denies the the joy of watching a spooky, titillating mystery–it is marred by slow-paced melodrama that gives the audiemce too much time to realize how dumb, sluggish, and inept the whole thing is.
At the end, an intertitle quotes the Bhagavad-Gita: “There is no end. For the soul there is never birth nor death. It is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval…”
Panned by most critics, Audrey Rose was a box-office failure, even failing to recoup its budget.
Cast
Marsha Mason as Janice Templeton
Anthony Hopkins as Elliot Hoover
John Beck as Bill Templeton
Susan Swift as Ivy Templeton / Audrey Rose
Norman Lloyd as Dr. Steven Lipscomb
John Hillerman as Prosecutor Scott Velie
Ivy Jones as Mary Lou Sides
Robert Walden as Brice Mack
Stephen Pearlman as Russ Rothman
Aly Wassil as Maharishi Gupta Pradesh
Credits:
Directed by Robert Wise
Screenplay by Frank De Felitta, based on his 1975 novel of the same name
Produced by De Felitta, Joe Wizan
Cinematography Victor J. Kemper
Edited by Carl Kress
Music by Michael Small
Distributed by United Artists
Release date: April 6, 1977
Running time: 113 minutes
Budget $4 million
Box office $2 million
