Review of Body Double (1984) by Melanie R — 22 Feb 2014

What happens when you mix together Vertigo, Rear Window, and add a healthy dose of noir and sleaze to the mix? You get Body Double. The acting from Craig Wasson and Greg Henry is great (Guy Boyd is also great as a detective who looks and acts like he's stepped right out of the 60's), and the story is a nice maze of twists turns, mystery, and intrigue.

In Body Double, Jake Scully is an actor suffering from severe claustrophobia. When he catches his wife cheating he is invited to shack up at a fancy apartment that overlooks Hollywood by friendly stranger Sam Bouchard.

It's not long before sexy neighbor Gloria catches Jake's eye with her nightly undressing routine. When Jake starts to suspect that Gloria may be the target of a mysterious stranger with nefarious intentions he investigates, hoping to prevent the worst.

That's the basic plot, and I'm not going to give much else away. Brian De Palma pays homage to two of Hitchcock's greatest, without completely re-making either film. Body Doubles exists in a strange universe where the worlds of vertigo and Rear Window combine with a pulpy detective novel.

It's a fun, original, and naughty film that I highly enjoyed watching and would gladly recommend to any fan of Hitchcock, pulpy novels, or film in general. Body Doubles is a great surprise treat.