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godofwiddly
Reviews
Someone's Watching Me! (1978)
I think some people are missing the most obvious reference...
Actually, although all the films mentioned above (REAR WINDOW, DEEP RED etc) may have influenced this movie, the most obvious reference point is the British chiller IF IT'S A MAN, HANG UP!!- the only episode of Brian Clemens' legendary 70s TV series THRILLER that was broadcast in US cinemas as well as on television. It has practically the same plot (with a few more characters and a few more red herrings) and Carpenter's heroine (Lauren Hutton) bears an astonishing resemblance to this production's Carol Lynley.
There are differences, and the final few minutes of both films are very unalike indeed, and Hutton is lonely and cautious whereas Lynley's character is promiscuous- but the principle remains intrinsically the same. Carpenter, like Hooper, is a known Anglophile, and it's not the first time these similarities have been noted either- ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, while mainly compared to NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, is also a direct descendant of early Brit crime B-movies such as ESCAPE BY NIGHT and LIFE IN DANGER, while HALLOWEEN takes much of its basis from Peter Collinson's FRIGHT (1972). That doesn't make them any less great as films, of course, but these things should be pointed out. And of course, both he AND Brian Clemens love Hitchcock, as do most people.
Sleuth (1972)
Just a short question.....
I may be being daft here, but could someone explain who these other people in the cast are? As far as I could see there were only Caine and Olivier...unless the director credited people for appearing in photographs!! Unless we are supposed to believe that there is really an actor playing Inspector Doppler, but come on, anyone can see it's Caine just by looking at and listening to him? Like we'd be fooled by that. I even wondered at this point if Olivier's character was deliberately playing along with it. You'd have to be a bit daft not to notice, methinks....so incidentally you couldn't call this comment a spoiler. Not unless a special edition for thick people had been released...