{"id":2914,"date":"2011-05-18T23:12:57","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T03:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2914"},"modified":"2017-01-14T16:35:32","modified_gmt":"2017-01-14T21:35:32","slug":"dvd-dead-of-winter-1987","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=2914","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Dead of Winter (1987)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Film: Very Good<\/p>\n

DVD Transfer: Very Good<\/p>\n

DVD Extras: Standard<\/p>\n

Label: MGM<\/p>\n

Region: 1 (NTSC)<\/p>\n

Released: December 3, 2002<\/p>\n

Genre: Mystery \/ Thriller \/ Horror \/ Grand Guignol<\/p>\n

Synopsis: An acting job turns into a nightmare when a woman is forced to play a role to the death!<\/p>\n

Special Features: Theatrical trailer \/ B-side: Full screen version<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/p>\n

Released quietly to theatres in 1987, and not soon afterwards doing rotations on pay TV, Arthur Penn\u2019s Dead of Winter<\/strong> was and remains a misunderstood genre riff \u2013 not of a mystery suspense thriller or gothic horror entry, but a Grand Guignol<\/a> shocker that begins with a simple, innocent hook.<\/p>\n

Mary Steenburgen plays Katie McGovern, an aspiring NYC actress who accepts a job to cover a role from a production kept in stasis, after its star has suffered a serious breakdown. When she arrives at the house of the film\u2019s producer in Canada, she has no idea she\u2019s to become part of a human chess game, played between a celebrity doctor named Joseph Lewis (Jan Rubes), his loyal servant \/ ex-mental patient Mr. Murray (Roddy McDowall), and the mysterious Evelyn who\u2019s after a big satchel of money. Or so it seems.<\/p>\n

MGM\u2019s theatrical trailer (archived on the DVD) was programmatic to the point where it blew every single twist by intercutting shots of major plot points, so that\u2019s one promo element that must be avoided<\/em> at all costs, because while the story isn\u2019t brilliantly clever, it ever so gradually eases into a strange mood that has everyone playing some kind of role, like a chamber mystery.<\/p>\n

Dr. Lewis is known and respected within the insular community, but one soon suspects he isn\u2019t a genial old gentleman, maneuvering around the house in an electric wheelchair with a big warm smile. At one point, his position as a celebrity shrink becomes suspect when he signs a congratulatory message to himself from \u201cMalcolm\u201d on what\u2019s unsubtly camouflaged as a head shot of actor Malcolm McDowell \u2013 ready to be framed and nailed to the wall in the drawing room with the other fakes.<\/p>\n

Mr. Murray is an able cook, mouse trapper, butler, driver, and assistant producer of sorts, but he\u2019s only mentally stable as long as he follows Dr. Lewis\u2019 directions. Katie never finds it odd that Murray auditions her in NYC, drives her personally to the northern location, and becomes a butler once they arrive at the doc\u2019s stately wood-paneled home. She also doesn\u2019t question the first lie she\u2019s told by the doc: that the director to arrive the next morning is in fact the good doctor. By the end of the film, poor Katie must use her talent to play a different role in order to escape the doc\u2019s very dangerous game.<\/p>\n

Marc Shmuger and Mark Malone\u2019s script (an uncredited adaptation of Anthony Gilbert\u2019s novel \u201cThe Woman in Red,\u201d previously filmed in 1945 as My Name is Julia<\/strong>) has a few big holes, but director Arthur Penn gets around those issues by making sure his cast is strong, compelling, a bit wry, and certainly with Lewis and Murray, enjoying and exchanging side comments on what\u2019s an amusing experience. At least in the early stages, neither seems to worry whether their plan will go wrong, and that\u2019s partly due the stakes still being low in the first act.<\/p>\n

McDowall\u2019s inherent ticks and weird dialogue delivery suits Murray\u2019s undercurrent of lurking maniacal violence, and Rubes \u2013 best-known as an opera singer, and host of a beloved kid\u2019s show in Ontario \u2013 clearly relished his character\u2019s dual personality of being a Socratic, smiley force of mental good, and a hunter thriving on the stalking, cornering, and killing of a human target.<\/p>\n

Once their rival enters the picture, things become particularly grisly, and Penn has fun constructing canted sequences to enhance Katie\u2019s grim situations, not to mention exploiting the house\u2019s art and d\u00e9cor to foreshadow concluding mayhem. Dead of Night<\/strong> is a beautiful production: the locations, set d\u00e9cor, and Jan Weincke\u2019s cinematography are superb, and Penn opted for a cool colour scheme that reflects the chilly snowy winter conditions without draining the film\u2019s colour saturation.<\/p>\n

The director and cinematographer also seem to have selected a high grain film stock for capturing both low light situations, and giving scenes tactile grit, as though snow were bleeding into the image from the howling exteriors.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the strongest glue that holds the drama together and reinforces Katie\u2019s own emotional fragility \u2013 which is why her escape attempts are rather feeble \u2013 is Richard Einhorn\u2019s score, beautifully performed by a small chamber orchestra, and based around a simple two-note motif that establishes Katie\u2019s character long before she\u2019s introduced into the story.<\/p>\n

Arthur Penn would make one more theatrical film, the comedy Penn & Teller Get Killed<\/strong> (1989) before disappearing into TV and cinematic obscurity. Whereas co-writer Malone (who also plays Katie\u2019s idiot brother) would write a handful of scripts, Shmuger became a studio executive at Columbia and Universal.<\/p>\n

Rubes, best-known for the TVO kiddie series Guess What?<\/a><\/strong> (1975-1983) and the moral Eli in Witness<\/strong> (1985), parlayed his benevolent psycho performance in the similarly warped (and quite sick) Blood Relations<\/strong> (1988), and also appeared in the absurd shocker The Kiss<\/strong> (1988). Other thriller work include Blind Fear<\/strong> (1989), The Amityville Curse<\/strong> (1990), and the Damian Harris dud Deceived<\/strong> (1991).<\/p>\n

Supporting actor William Russ, who plays Katie\u2019s husband \/ boyfriend Rob, also appeared in the cult classic Death Bed: The Bed That Eats<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(1977), another U.S. production shot in Ontario.<\/p>\n

Prior to his fine work in classical music and composing the excruciatingly beautiful music for Carl Dreyer\u2019s silent classic Passion of Joan of Arc<\/strong> (1928), Einhorn scored a number of cult horror films: Shockwaves<\/strong> (1977), Don\u2019t Go in the House<\/strong> (1980), Eyes of a Stranger <\/strong>(1981), The Prowler<\/strong> (1981), Blood Rage<\/strong> (1987), and Bill Condon\u2019s directorial debut Sister, Sister<\/strong> (1987).<\/p>\n

Film adaptations of Anthony Gilbert\u2019s work include the anti-Nazi thriller They Met in the Dark<\/strong> (1943), Candles at Nine<\/strong> (1944), My Name is Julia Ross<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(1945), and the Argentinian production La trampa<\/strong> (1949).<\/p>\n

In 2017, Scream Factory released a Blu-ray edition of\u00a0Dead of Winter<\/strong> which includes TV spots and a new interview with actress Mary Steenburgen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 2011 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB<\/a> — Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Soundtrack Review — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Buy from:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.com<\/strong> \u2013 Dead of Winter<\/a><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/strong> – Dead of Winter<\/a><\/p>\n

Amazon.co.uk <\/strong> – Dead of Winter [DVD] [1987] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film: Very Good DVD Transfer: Very Good DVD Extras: Standard Label: MGM Region: 1 (NTSC) Released: December 3, 2002 Genre: Mystery \/ Thriller \/ Horror \/ Grand Guignol Synopsis: An acting job turns into a nightmare when a woman is forced to play a role to the death! Special Features: Theatrical trailer \/ B-side: Full […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-L0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2914"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15172,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions\/15172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}