Dreams Are What Le Cinema Is For: Night Watch - 1973

NIGHT WATCH 1973lecinemadreams.blogspot.com/2012/12/night-watch-1973.html

Late in the summer of 1973, just around the time I and most of America were in the throes of a pop-cultural maniasparked by the powerhouse release of The Exorcist, the delectably tense drawing-room thriller Night Watch, wassneaked into Bay Area theaters without benefit of fanfare or much in the way of advance publicity.

This was at the height of Elizabeth Taylor’s and Richard Burton’s waning relevance as both movie stars and tabloiddarlings, theirs having been a ten-year reign of bad publicity, bad behavior, and bad films together —thesublime Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? notwithstanding—culminating in a final tandem screen appearance in the1973 two-part TV-movie “Special Event” prophetically titled: Divorce His – Divorce Hers (their 10-year marriagewould end the following year). Like most everyone else at the time, I had grown pretty tired of hearing about theubiquitous “Liz & Dick”—Hollywood’s answer to Orthrus, the mythological two-headed beast—whose conspicuousprivate life excesses had long overshadowed any merit I once accorded their professional talents. Off my personalradar for some time, I hadn't seen Elizabeth Taylor in a movie since 1968’s Secret Ceremony (which I loved), butwhen I saw the newspaper ad for Night Watch, I knew I HAD to see this movie.

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I'm sorry, but how was it possible for anybody to resist this image ofa windswept, heavily-mascaraed, Liz Taylor melodramatically clutching her head whilelightning flashed overhead and two shadowy figures appear in spooky silhouette in the

windows of a creepy Gothic mansion? OMG! This is marketing perfection!I practically camped out in front of the theater waiting for it to open.

Based on playwright Lucille Fletcher’s (Sorry, Wrong Number) moderately successful 1972 Broadway play starringJoan Hackett and future Taylor co-star Len Cariou (A Little Night Music - 1977), Night Watch, on the surface, treadsterritory familiar to those acquainted with George Cukor’s Gaslight (1944) or any of those “Is she crazy or is shebeing driven crazy?” thrillers like Midnight Lace (1960), Diabolique (1955), and Sudden Fear (1952).

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Elizabeth Taylor as Ellen Wheeler

Laurence Harvey as John Wheeler

Billie Whitelaw as Sarah Cooke

Idle and wealthy Ellen Wheeler (Taylor), the neglected wife of loving but desperate-to-prove-he’s-not-living-off-her,workaholic husband, John (Harvey), is still, after eight years, haunted by memories of her first husband’s death: aviolent automobile crash that also took the life of his 20-year-old mistress. After suffering a crippling breakdown,Ellen has since been plagued by nightly bouts of insomnia, and subtly treated as a mentally fragile time-bomb byboth her husband and her visiting girlhood friend, Sarah (Whitelaw). On one particularly stormy night vigil, with toolittle sleep and too many inner demons to battle (and there are a LOT of rain storms in this London-based thriller),Ellen glances out the window to the abandoned house across the courtyard and sees, in a flash of lightning and

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flurry of storm-tossed shutters, the horrifying image of a man with a slashed throat propped grotesquely in a wing-back chair situated close to the window. When a police search of the old dark house fails to unearth even a trace ofhabitation, let alone evidence of foul play, John and Sarah’s concern for Ellen’s mental state intensify. Meanwhile,Ellen herself grows ever more convinced that what she saw was real.

I don’t tend to think of myself as someone drawn to a particular type of film, but truth be told, I confess to having adecided weakness for suspense thrillers. Unfortunately, the flip side of being a film fan any length of time is agrowing over-familiarity with certain narrative tropes and plot devices. A too-steady diet of suspense thrillers canwreak havoc with the ability to find a film you can't second guess or stay one step ahead of. As movie genres go, thesuspense thriller (and its attendant sub-categories: the psychological thriller, the mystery, the whodunit, the eroticthriller, the sci-fi chiller) is one of the last strongholds of cinema amazement. Thus I really relish it when, as is thecase of Night Watch, a movie so narratively conventional on the surface can still have so many sinister surprises upits sleeve.

"That's what the watchers of the night are for. Things that in daytime areunknown and unremembered."

WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS FILMAs a lifelong insomniac familiar with the kind of subtle disquiet that can creep into the soul in the wee small hours ofthe morning, I have to say first and foremost I love the film’s title. To “Night Watch” is a perfect description of what itfeels like to be wide awake when the vast majority of those around you are asleep. It feels like you’re standingmetaphysical guard against your id playing havoc with all those subterranean thoughts and repressed terrors yourego holds so reliably in check during the daylight hours. Secondly, I found myself totally caught up in the way NightWatch uses the conventions of the Modern Gothic to construct a persuasively suspense-filled thriller built around the

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uncertainty of perception. This film is full of games of truth and illusion more deceptive (and far deadlier) than any ofthose employed by Albee’s George and Martha.

"If the mind is obsessed enough with something it can actually produce animage on the retina.

It has a name...it's called an 'eidetic image'."

PERFORMANCESWith but a few exceptions, most of my favorite actresses have tried their hand at the suspense thriller. Meryl Streep– Still of the Night; Audrey Hepburn – Wait Until Dark; Sandy Dennis – That Cold Day in the Park; Julie Christie –Don't Look Now; Jane Fonda – Klute; Lauren Bacall – The Fan; Susannah York – Images; Faye Dunaway - Eyes ofLaura Mars; …even such unlikely candidates as Goldie Hawn ( Deceived) and Twiggy (W). In this, her sole foray intothe world of scream queens, daggers, and red herrings, Elizabeth Taylor is to the manner born. Movies like this tendto fall apart if the audience is unable to identify with or relate to a character's dilemma. Elizabeth Taylor, an actressof fragile appearance masking a steely core, brings a considerable amount of verisimilitude to her character,making Ellen's deteriorating mental state both believable and compelling. She is given solid support by thetalented, exclusively British, cast, but Taylor holds the whole thing together by making her terrorseem debilitatingly real. Perhaps this is due to Taylor, an actress who has played characters created by TennesseeWilliams, Edward Albee, and Carson McCullers; not being an individual we consider to be a stranger to hysterics.

Cracking Up

Reunited with her Butterfield 8 co-star, Laurence Harvey (only 45-years-old at the time, but exhibiting the wastingeffects of the stomach cancer that would take his life only four months after the film’s release), Taylor is simplyterrific as the high-strung witness to a possible murder no one believes really happened. Like late-career Bette Davis

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and Joan Crawford, late-career Elizabeth Taylor is often a matter of taste. Those having a problem with herimpossible-to-ignore star persona, fluctuating weight gain (sometimes mid-film), designer caftans and unique vocalstyle (she’ll insert pauses and stress emphasis in the most unexpected places) are not likely to be persuaded by herwork here. Me, I think she’s the tops, and in Night Watch she gives a spellbindingly intense performance that'srevealed to be even sharper and subtler upon repeat viewings.

The icy reserve of Billie Whitelaw (who would later terrify as the menacingnanny,

Mrs. Baylock, in The Omen) contrasts effectively with Taylor's more earthyvulnerability.

Suspiciously conciliatory neighbor Mr. Appleby (Robert Lang) directs Ellen'sattention

to something in the window of the abandoned house next door.

THE STUFF OF FANTASYAt first glance, Night Watch looks like a derivative catalog of hoary horror film clichés. And, well…it is. There’s thewoman in distress; the incessant thunder storms with well-timed lighting flashes; the old dark house; the ludicrouslyskeptical friends and annoyingly unhelpful police; the red herring assortment of suspicious characters with dubiousmotives; the non-stop entreaties to “calm down” or “get some sleep” - they’re all there.

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Bill Dean as Inspector Walker

It’s only later, when you start to realize how much your expectations have been intentionally manipulated, does itbegin to sink in how cleverly Night Watch works audience familiarity with the conventions of the genre to it itsadvantage. It's a tight, well-paced thriller that deftly builds its suspense by playing with the audience's mind ascleverly as it plays with that of Taylor's character.

Things That Make You Go HmmmWhy would someone be digging a hole in the garden in the middle of the night?

Night Watch takesfiendish delight in throwing traditional horror film elements into the mix of a

suspense thriller.

THE STUFF OF DREAMSI was 15-years-old when I saw Night Watch, and even after the nerve-wracking horror of The Exorcist, the PG-ratedNight Watch scared the hell out of me. Seeing it now some 30 years later, not only does it really hold up as acrackerjack thriller that plays fair with its surprises and twists (it’s one of those rare thrillers – like Hitchcock’s – thatkeeps paying dividends the more you see it), but there’s the added bonus of the whole '70s feel of it.

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La Liz, not having an easy go of it

For those uninterested in taking either Elizabeth Taylor or the film seriously, Night Watch has much to recommend itin camp appeal for the terrifically glossy '70s look of the whole thing. There's Taylor at her 1973 divabest, photographed flatteringly and sporting a host of conceal/reveal '70s finery. There is much to take in visually,from big hairstyles, glam makeup, bulky jewelry, turtlenecks, positively enormous sideburns, wide ties, and even anascot.Though rarely referenced and seen by very few, Night Watch is one of my favorite thrillers. I'd recommend it toanyone with a fondness for the magnificent Elizabeth Taylor, or for anyone interested in atypical curios from thisfavored actress's career.

Happily, the Warners Archive Collection DVD has been beautifully remastered and is a huge improvement over theexceedingly dark, pan and scan VHS release from several years back. Scenes once taking place in near totaldarkness (those who've seen the film know what I mean) are startlingly clear. Also, and I might be mis-rememberinghere, but I thought there was once a terrible George Barrie / Sammy Cahn theme song played over the end creditsthat has since been removed (hooray!). I see the song exists in the IMDB credits (title: "The Night Has Many Eyes")and I seem to recall it being sung by a Tom Jones sound-alike. In any event, my recollection of it was that it was100% not the kind of MOR Sinatra-esque ditty you wanted to be played after the jolting finale of this thriller. It putsme to mind of Henry Mancini's equally mood-killing and inappropriate "love theme" from Wait Until Dark.

Night Watch reunited Taylor with her Butterfield 8 (1960) co-star, Laurence Harvey.

Note: I usually try to mix up the kind of films I write about each month, but in looking over my posts for December, I'mpretty sure the preponderance of thriller/suspense films represented this month (Carrie, Eye of the Cat, Night

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Watch) is in direct response to all that sugary, family-oriented programming one is subjected to on television duringthe holiday season. However, the highlighting of two Elizabeth Taylor films (A Little Night Music and Night Watch) iswithout a doubt an attempt on my part to divest myself of the memory of that Lindsay Lohan "Liz & Dick" TV-moviewhich aired on Lifetime last month. Boy, talk about your horror films!

They cast WHO to portray me?

Copyright © Ken Anderson

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