Review of Dementia 13 (1963) by Stephen M — 21 Sep 2008

I think Coppola's big mistake here, perhaps inspired by "Psycho", released only three years before, is to kill off Luana Anders just as she is shaping up to be a great bitchy villainess. Whereas Hitchcock steered an interesting embezzlement story close to an apparently mundane conclusion before confounding our expectations (Marion Crane's decision to give the stolen money back, prior to taking that fatal shower), Coppola waits until things are just nicely coming to the boil (Louise's greedy manipulation of her emotionally unstable mother-in-law) then disappointingly ditches all plot in favour of the proto-slasher-movie format of the second half.

A ham with a uniquely irritating voice (see "A Clockwork Orange"), unless he's wearing a monkey suit and going up in flames (Roger Corman's "Masque of the Red Death") I don't usually have much time for Patrick Magee, though he manages to be quirky with relative restraint here and, besides Anders', his is the only other memorable character.