{"id":7602,"date":"2014-02-10T13:40:51","date_gmt":"2014-02-10T18:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7602"},"modified":"2014-09-05T14:06:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T18:06:00","slug":"br-other-the-1972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7602","title":{"rendered":"BR: Other, The (1972)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Film: Very Good \/ BR Transfer: Excellent\/ BR Extras: Good<\/p>\n

Label: Twilight Time \/ Region: All \/\u00a0Released: October 8, 2013<\/p>\n

Genre: Supernatural Horror<\/p>\n

Synopsis: Strange accidents pepper what should be an otherwise banal summer for a pair of twins in 1935.<\/p>\n

Special Features: Isolated stereo music track \/ Theatrical Trailer \/ 8-page colour booklet with liner notes by Film Historian Julie Kirgo \/ Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

After a healthy career starring in TV and feature films (notably Otto Preminger\u2019s underrated The Cardinal<\/a><\/strong>), Tom Tryon shifted gears to write novels, making a splashy debut as the author of the best-selling shocker The Other<\/strong>, and its feature film adaptation.<\/p>\n

Set in an idyllic rural community just after the Lindberg baby kidnapping made headlines in 1935, Tryon\u2019s story is initially about two morally differing twins \u2013 empathetic Niles and mischievous Holland (perfectly played by one-time actors Chris and Martin Udvarnoky) \u2013 whose fantasy games begin to cause strange deaths in the immediate vicinity. Holland\u2019s cruelty extends to animals and taunting a mother (Diana Muldaur) still reeling after the \u2018accidental\u2019 death of their father, whereas Niles\u2019 Russian grandmother Ada (Uta Hagen) may have over-indulged her grandson\u2019s imagination through something called The Great Game \u2013 forcing Niles to place himself in the position of a flying bird for fun, or empathizing with an interred cadaver to confront a grievous reality.<\/p>\n

Whether Niles has an overworked imagination, genuine supernatural abilities, and possible murderous tendencies (he keeps a tin with his father\u2019s ring and a severed finger perpetually under his shirt) is kept vague by director Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird<\/strong>, The Summer of \u201942<\/strong>, The Man in the Moon<\/strong>), who clearly bonded with the story\u2019s period setting and child characters. The film\u2019s optics are locked to the boys\u2019 perspectives \u00a0– Mullgan sticks the camera at their eye-level, uses claustrophobic close-ups, and roving & zooming camera moves stitched together with arresting editing.<\/p>\n

Tryon was reportedly not pleased with Mulligan\u2019s editorial style \u2013 there is a sense slow moments and nuances were trimmed both for pacing, removing redundancies, and establishing a grasp of reality that\u2019s as jumpy as the boys\u2019 \u2013 but the editing does plow through material that could\u2019ve further tested the limits of audience attention.<\/p>\n

The Other<\/strong>\u2019s \u00a0a great technical exercise that almost compensates for the rather deadly pacing in the first hour. A little too much time is spent on watching the boys run around and plot something vague in the barn\u2019s dim cellar\u2026 but it all leads to a great twist, and a revelation which clearly influenced one of the late nineties\u2019 biggest horror hits. (Like that now classic film, to reveal further details would also blow The Other<\/strong>\u2019s second act. Perhaps to make the film more palatable to TV audiences, the ending was altered by CBS in a fashion not retained for any home video releases, including this Blu-ray.)<\/p>\n

The period d\u00e9cor and rural setting are first-rate, and Mulligan manages to extract compelling performances from his young leads who manage to carry a very difficult films; had they been weak in any scene, the mystery of their \u2018games\u2019 would\u2019ve wobbled and likely collapsed. It also helps that the boys are supported by an excellent cast not necessarily known for heavy film work. Uta Hagen (The Boys from Brazil<\/strong>) is a bit heavy but often gripping as the grandmother, and TV actors Muldauer and Victor French (Little House on the Prairie<\/strong>) are excellent as the mother and the family\u2019s handyman, respectively. A pre-Three\u2019s Company<\/strong> John Ritter is also strong in a small role as the boy\u2019s married brother-in-law.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s creepy mood is sustained by Jerry Goldsmith\u2019s restrained score – a child\u2019s loose whistling of the main theme is especially unsettling \u2013 which is isolated in stereo on Twilight Time\u2019s cleanly mastered Blu-ray.<\/p>\n

Tryon\u2019s filmed works include The Other<\/strong> (1972), The Dark Secret of Harvest Home<\/strong> (1978) TV movies, and the store for Billy Wilder\u2019s Fedora<\/strong> (1978).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2013; revised 2014 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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

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

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Vendor Search Links:<\/em><\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a>\"\" \"\"—New movie releases on iTunes<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film: Very Good \/ BR Transfer: Excellent\/ BR Extras: Good Label: Twilight Time \/ Region: All \/\u00a0Released: October 8, 2013 Genre: Supernatural Horror Synopsis: Strange accidents pepper what should be an otherwise banal summer for a pair of twins in 1935. Special Features: Isolated stereo music track \/ Theatrical Trailer \/ 8-page colour booklet with […]<\/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":[545,2509,2508,2510],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1YC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7602"}],"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=7602"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9613,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7602\/revisions\/9613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}