This prestige U.S.-French production is surprisingly obscure given its well-respected cast, substantial budget, and major quotability. It also deploys Richard Burton as its not-too-secret weapon.
Tagline: “What happens when a man possesses the power to cause catastrophe at will?”
WTF Factor: ***
Notable Dialogue:
- Morlar [his first meeting with Zonfeld]: “I have a “gift” for disaster.”
- Zonfeld: “You seem to have survived it.”
- Morlar: “I don’t mean for me, I mean for others.”
Trigger Warning: One of the major set pieces of the movie is a plane flying into an office building.
Synopsis: We scan past a cluttered room with a shelf of books authored by John Morlar. The television is tuned into news about the Achilles 6 moon landing attempt, which is not going well. Someone comes in and thoroughly bludgeons Richard Burton. We pan past a wall hanging of Medusa [and that appears to be the justification of the movie title].
Burton is playing John Morlar, whose beating death is being investigated by inexplicably French Detective-Inspector Brunel (Lino Ventura) [we eventually find out that he’s part of an exchange program] and his junior partner Sergeant Duff (Michael Byrne). The apartment is a bloodbath.
Duff: “Oh, Jesus. Talk about beating somebody’s brains out.”
Brunel finds a neatly written journal of the desk. The words “Zonfeld” and “West Front” are prominent. He interrogates the next door neighbor, but then Morlar’s “corpse” takes a breath.
At the hospital, which is busy due to a jumbo jet crash, Morlar is hooked up to a ventilator. We cut to the horrific crash site; the jet apparently flew into a building.
Brunel goes to meet psychiatrist Dr. Zonfeld, who turns out to be Lee Remick.
Brunel: “Oh, I, uh, expected a man.”
Zonfeld: “Well, I’m sorry. I had no way of knowing.”
Morlar was Zonfeld’s patient. Brunel tells her that Morlar knew his attacker and he’s hoping Zonfeld can give him some leads.
Zonfeld (in response to questioning): “He had delusions. Most patients come because they feel the world is too much for them. Mr. Morlar felt he was too much for the world.”
We begin a series of flashback scenes portraying Morlar’s sessions with Zonfeld. Morlar tells Zonfeld that he began to feel that he had a “gift for disaster” when a hated nanny died of measles that he gave her. His suspicion was reinforced when his cartoonish parents, who he despised, were run off a cliff by their car as he watched.
Morlar felt that their deaths were “inevitable,” and there were other inevitable occurrences. Brunel suggests that Morlar might have convinced the killer of his ability, but Zonfeld is skeptical.
Morlar’s physician Dr. Johnson (Gordon Jackson) says his case is hopeless and they would like the bed back. However, Morlar does have brainwaves that should not be possible in his condition. Brunel is hoping he will say something before he dies, or at least write something. Later Brunel is pulled aside by the Assistant Commissioner (Harry Andrews), who wants Brunel to concentrate on the Morlar case.
Brunel visits Morlar’s publisher, who describes Morlar’s work as philosophical, tying evil and power together. His work is anti-religion and anti-authority. Later, Brunel reads Morlar’s rather grandiose journal at Morlar’s desk. The music tries to convince us that someone is sneaking up behind Brunel, but it’s only Duff. Brunel shows Duff Morlar’s collection of newspaper clippings about disasters of all kinds.
Brunel questions Zonfeld again, asking to hear about more examples of Morlar’s “power.”
Zonfeld describes another incident at Morlar’s boarding school, where Morlar stared down a master who tormented him, and then left the furnace door open so that the school burned down, killing the master and four boys.
Later Brunel wonders if someone related to the boys might blame Morlar, who said he didn’t deliberately set the fire. Morlar’s journal contains a notation about the upcoming moon voyage and mentions ”cracks in the West Front,” with a notation of “Telekinesis.”
Duff finds out that the neighbor Pennington blamed Morlar for Mrs. Pennington’s suicide. Pennington and his cartoonish wife were having a loud argument over a fish, disturbing Morlar through the thin walls.
Wife: “I’ve a good mind to jump and end it all!”
Morlar: “For God’s sake, woman, jump!”
And so she does.
Brunel questions Morlar’s former law mentor, who says Morlar was married unhappily to someone wealthy. Morlar left law after a courtroom session where he waxed aggressively philosophical about the horrors of war and the Establishment, alienating the judge and audience. This does not help the defendant, who gets a maximum sentence. Morlar stared down the judge, who died of a heart attack an hour later.
Another fake jump scare from Duff nets Brunel a videotape about successful telekinesis experiments.
Brunel meets with the Assistant Commissioner, who says that “interested parties” want Morlar’s journals. It seems he knew too much about political matters. Brunel returns to Zonfeld, who suspects that Brunel is starting to drink the Kool-Aid. We flash back to another session with Morlar, who is frustrated that Zonfeld considers his experiences “coincidence.”
He tells Zonfeld that he and his wife had a deformed baby that only lived an hour. After his baby died, Morlar went to a fortuneteller, who freaked out when he looked into Morlar’s eyes and refused to tell his fortune. Zonfeld asked Morlar to talk more about his wife, Christine (Marie-Christine Barrault). Morlar confronted her with her lover, Edward Parrish (Jeremy Brett, my favorite Sherlock Holmes!!), and made a scene. Needless to say Christine and Edward were killed in a car crash shortly thereafter. Morlar says this was the first time that he knew he made it happen, rather than just predicting it would happen.
Zonfeld tells Brunel that Morlar never returned after that session. Brunel leaves [and there’s another fake jump scare from Duff], but goes back after Duff mentions that Dr. Johnson wants to see him. Brunel insists that Zonfeld accompany him to the hospital. Johnson points out that Morlar’s brain has started to function, growing stronger every hour.
Johnson: “All I can tell you is, you’re looking at a mind determined not to die.”
Brunel gives Duff an unsuccessful cooking lesson as he watches a news story about a protest at the Windscale nuclear power plant, then another story about the Queen and Cabinet attending a Thanksgiving service at Minster Cathedral to celebrate the funding for repairs to the cathedral’s west front. Zonfeld then shows up; she admits that she did see Morlar again. He called her to his place to say that he knew now that he made all the events happen. He seemed to be heading off the deep end.
Zonfeld tried to blow him off but Morlar’s not having it. We hear a plane fly overhead and Morlar goes to the window, staring at it. Suddenly things go haywire on the plane, which flies into an office block as Zonfeld watches in horror.
Morlar wonders why his power is always destructive. He begs Zonfeld to help him.
Zonfeld tells Brunel that she believed Morlar that night, although she had second thoughts. After she leaves, Duff, who listened in, figures she’s crazy. Brunel tells him that Morlar hasn’t finished yet and Duff deduces that Brunel suspects Zonfeld of trying to kill Morlar.
Brunel reports his suspicion to the Assistant Commissioner, speculating that she suspected Morlar was going to do something worse that the plane crash. Brunel suddenly wonders what is going on at Minster Cathedral. A priest tells him the Cathedral has a cracked wall in the west front. Uh oh. Brunel rushes to Zonfeld’s office and confronts her with her guilt. She tells him that Morlar called her after the crash and told her that the moon mission was doomed. He then said he would bring down the cathedral because of the hypocrisy of society.
Zonfeld rushed to his flat, where he was intently watching the moon mission fail. She bludgeoned Morlar, hoping that would stop him.
Brunel confesses that he believes her story and he is going to try to warn people about the cathedral.
Zonfeld: “You’re not arresting me?”
Brunel: “It’s a question of priorities.”
The Assistant Commissioner is not buying Brunel’s story, although he’s coming around. Brunel suggests that Morlar has survived to take on the establishment, hence the cathedral. He asks that the AC arrange to cancel the Thanksgiving ceremony. They go to the Dean of the cathedral, who isn’t buying the story either, but offers to pray for Morlar.
Morlar’s brain waves go bananas as Zonfeld strides to his room. She disguises herself as a doctor and goes in, as Morlar opens his eyes. We cut to Zonfeld, dead at her desk from a self-injection. She left a tape recording for Brunel, explaining that she went to the hospital to kill Morlar but couldn’t do it.
Brunel goes back to the cathedral the next morning. The AC joins him, after trying and failing to get the higher-ups to listen.
Assistant Commissioner: “I don’t know. There are times I know you’re right and others when I know it just can’t be. Frankly, I don’t know what to do.”
Brunel: “Watch…wait…hope we are insane.”
The noise and trucks going by are exacerbating the crack in the cathedral wall. A gargoyle face barely misses falling on Brunel. He goes back to the Dean, who blandly points out that the falling debris is why they had this fundraiser.
That night the ceremony goes forward. All the fancy people are there, as well as Brunel and the AC. Brunel suggests that they call in a bomb scare to empty the cathedral. Unfortunately, everyone think the scare is a hoax.
Morlar (voiceover): “I will bring the whole edifice down on their unworthy heads.”
Brunel heads to the hospital as the AC tries to clear the cathedral and Duff tries to head off the Queen’s motorcade. Morlar’s brainwaves go crazy as the cathedral starts to collapse on the fleeing visitors. It’s Panic City but the Queen escapes. The Dean and Deacon get squashed as well as the AC.
Brunel storms into Morlar’s hospital room and violently disconnects all of the equipment. Morlar’s brainwaves disappear but Morlar’s hand starts twitching. They hand him a pen and paper and he scrawls “Windscale.” Morlar opens his eyes and his brainwaves resume.
Morlar (voiceover): “I am the man with the power to create catastrophe.”
Indeed he is. The End.
Thoughts: The Medusa Touch is one of those rare prestige (in terms of budget and cast) productions with a horror movie theme. Despite its advantages, it pretty much sank without a trace and is not particularly well known. It was directed by Jack Gold, who was a prolific British film director, although he doesn’t seem to have directed any other movies that are genre-adjacent. The ambitious script, by John Briley, uses an unusual structure, where the focus of the movie, John Morlar, only appears in flashback. The switching of time frames is successfully handled in a way that avoids confusion.
There are more ideas here than the movie can do justice to. As an example, the Assistant Commissioner indicates to Brunel that the powers-that-be are afraid of Morlar, but there is no indication as to why that might be. Surely Morlar’s rather pompous writings about the evil forces of society are not very convincing. His publisher tells Brunel that copies sold but the books were never reviewed or taken seriously. His abrasive personality couldn’t have ingratiated him to many people either. In Morlar’s misanthropic world view, there wouldn’t be much to choose between the protesters and the Windscale administrators when he blows the place up.
The casting for the movie is spot on. Looking at screen time, Brunel is the main character. The police inspector is French because the French investors wanted a French actor in a lead role. That said, Lino Ventura is excellent as the pragmatic yet open-minded Brunel. Even more remarkable, Ventura was dubbed for the English version of the movie (by David de Keyser), but this isn’t particularly noticeable. Ventura did his own dubbing for the French release.
Zonfeld is mostly an exposition engine, providing a framework for the Morlar flashbacks. The part of Zonfeld was originally written for a male actor, but Lee Remick is fine in the underwritten role. There are a number of delightful one-scene cameos, including Michael Hordern as the fortuneteller, Derek Jacobi as the publisher, and Robert Flemyng (The Horrible Dr. Hichcock himself) as the judge.
While Richard Burton dominates the movie, he was only on the set for three weeks (that certainly isn’t him under the bandages). This movie came near the end of Burton’s movie career. The previous year he starred in Equus, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, and The Exorcist II: The Heretic, for which he was not. He was an outstanding choice for Morlar, who is mostly given to quotable pronouncements that would not be nearly as effective from another actor and voice.
The special effects in the movie are of varying quality. I’ve seen complaints about the plane crash set piece, but it is more than realistic enough for my taste. It’s hard to watch in the context of the events of 9/11. The special effects team, led by Brian Johnson, had the use of a large plane model to use for the miniature work.
The collapse of the cathedral would have been more convincing if the fake blocks of stone in the cathedral didn’t get pushed around by the extras, but given the setting, this would have been hard to avoid. Brian Johnson went on to win Academy Awards for his work on Alien (1979) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
The Medusa Touch isn’t quite an undiscovered classic, but it does have a lot going for it, in particular:
There are a lot of intriguing ideas here, and even if most of them are unresolved, the movie sticks with you. It’s well worth checking out when you can find it streaming.
Quick bits:
- The movie is based on a novel of the same name by Peter Van Greenaway.
- Critic Roger Ebert called this the worst movie of 1978, which is hard to understand in the same year as Matilda (the one about the boxing kangaroo), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan.
Suggested double feature: More telekinesis with a political edge: Scanners (1981).
Tagline for Coming Attraction: “How could they stop the devouring death…that lived by sucking on living human bones!”
