Mystery

The Other (Robert Mulligan, 1972) RePoPo

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The Other (Robert Mulligan, 1972)
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General Information
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Type.................: Movie
Container file.......: AVI
Video Format.........: XviD
Total Bitrate........: 2038Kbps (Video: VBR 1854Kbps, audio: VBR 171Kbps)
Audio format.........: MP3
Audio Languages......: English
Subtitles Ripped.....: Spanish
Resolution...........: 688x368
Aspect Ratio.........: 1.85:1
Original Format......: 1.85:1
Color................: Color
FPS..................: 25.000
Source...............: Anamorphic PAL DVD
Duration.............: 01:35:48
Genre................: Suspense
IMDb Rating..........: 7.0
Movie Information....: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069050/
Filmaffinity.........: http://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film320626.html
Allmovie.............: http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:36710

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General Information
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Chilling and eerie, this supernatural tale of good versus evil coils
around twin brothers living with their grandmother in a sleepy rural area during
the summer of 1935. After his grandmother encourages Niles to develop what seem
to be psychic gifts, Niles starts to suspect that his twin may be involved in
recent fatal accidents. Surprising twist after twist heightens the sense that a
horrifying climax lurks at the edge of the viewer’s vision--and the stark finale
will have suspense and thriller lovers starting the film again to savor its
intricate, disturbingly memorable moments.

CREW:
Robert Mulligan - Director / Producer
Thomas Tryon - Screenwriter / Executive Producer / Book Author
Robert Surtees - Cinematographer
Jerry Goldsmith - Composer (Music Score)
Folmar Blangsted - Editor
O. Nicholas Brown - Editor
Albert Brenner - Production Designer
Tom Tryon - Executive Producer
Ruby Levitt - Set Designer
Joanne Haas - Costume Designer
Tommy Welsh - Costume Designer
Don Bassman - Sound/Sound Designer
Jack Solomon - Sound/Sound Designer
Joseph di Bella - Makeup
Don Kranze - First Assistant Director

CAST:
Uta Hagen - Ada, Grandmother
Diana Muldaur - Alexandra
Chris Udvarnoky - Niles Perry
Martin Udvarnoky - Holland Perry
Norma Connolly - Aunt Vee
Victor French - Angelini
Ed Bakey - Chan-yu
Jack Collins - Mr. P.C. Pretty
Christopher Connelly
Clarence Crow - Cousin Russell
Lou Frizzell - Uncle George
Loretta Leversee - Winnie
Portia Nelson - Mrs. Rowe
Francisco Rabal
John Ritter - Rider
Jenny Sullivan - Torrie


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SOME REVIEWS (May contain spoilers)
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Some horror films leave such a chilling impression that they become impossible
to forget. The Other is one of these. Adapted by Thomas Tryon from his novel and
directed by Robert Mulligan, The Other is a dark, eerie minor masterpiece that
is filled with lasting images: a finger wrapped up in a handkerchief, a boy
leaping into a pile of hay with a pitchfork in it, the corpse of a baby drowned
in a wine barrel. The film focuses on twin brothers living on a New England farm
in 1935. Peeling away in layers, the tale reveals a family fraught with tragic
accidents that don't appear so accidental. Tryon's three-act script nicely
builds up the suspense revealing the evil that resides within one of the boys.
However, a disturbing twist at the close of the second act abruptly shifts the
direction of the plot and sends the film into a frightening spiral in which all
of the truths are finally exposed. As he did with Summer of '42, director
Mulligan perfectly captures the time period as well as the essence of childhood.
Young stars Chris Udvarnoky and Martin Udvarnoky do an excellent job playing
these devious children, but it is Uta Hagen who steals the show as their
all-knowing grandmother. Jerry Goldsmith's score is purposely low-key and in
keeping with the picture's ominous, downbeat tone. The network television
version added a voice-over to the film's final shot.

(Patrick Legare, Allmovie)

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It is a summer when bad luck just seems to come in waves. Maybe they should have
taken warning last spring, when Father was killed by a trapdoor that fell on him
in the barn. Now things are really getting bad. Mother has been paralyzed in a
fall down the stairs, and Marshall landed on a pitchfork in the hay, and Aunt
Vee must have had a heart attack or something and her body wasn't found for
days. And the baby . . .

Well, it's like they say. Things gotta get worse before they get any better.
Niles, a chubby little boy with the face of an angel, plays around the farm and
tries to stay out of trouble. Somehow, he's the only one who never gets
paralyzed or skewered or anything. But he has his own cross to bear: His twin
brother Holland departed this earth some months ago after a strange illness.

Well, maybe Holland departed and maybe he didn't. Everyone else in the family is
under the impression that Holland is dead and buried, but Niles sees him clear
as day, and talks with him, and they play together out in the woods. Holland
keeps getting Niles in trouble. And when Niles gets in trouble, everybody's in
trouble. Just ask Father, or Mother, or Russell, or Aunt Vee. Or the baby . . .

Robert Mulligan's "The Other" is a movie that is maybe about the supernatural
and maybe not. It all depends on whether Niles is schizo, or whether Holland
really has returned from the dead, possessed his twin brother's soul, and is
stage-managing the troubles. My notion is that Niles is cuckoo. But Mulligan
plays, a cagey game with his camera, always showing us Holland from Niles point
of view, but never showing us Niles as Holland would see him (if Holland were
there). Also, nobody else sees Holland.

Mulligan, whose last film was "Summer of '42" and who gave us another nostalgic
portrait of the past in "To Kill a Mockingbird," places his film in the rural
1930s. It is a time of drowsy summers and half-remembered baseball scores, and a
time for a boy when everything is bigger than life, and scarier. Mulligan also
has given the movie a weird Gothic feel and populated it with grotesques.

Niles goes into town to the circus, for example, and sneaks into the freak show.
All of the people inside look evil and menacing and seductively unhealthy. Niles
decides to hold his own little magic show. At the real sideshow, the magician's
assistant slipped out of the trunk by dropping through a trapdoor, just before
the magician stuck the swords into the trunk. That can put ideas in the head of
a young lad with imagination. There's that trapdoor in the barn, for example -
the one that killed Father. And although there isn't any magician's assistant
handy to disappear, there is always the baby . . .

"The Other," which is based on the novel by former actor Tom Tryon (you saw him
as "The Cardinal"), has been criticized in some quarters because Mulligan made
it too beautiful, they say, and too nostalgic. Not at all. His colors are rich
and deep and dark, chocolatey browns and bloody reds; they aren't beautiful but
perverse and menacing. And the farm isn't seen with a warm nostalgia, but with a
remembrance that it is haunted. The movie isn't scary in the usual horror-film
way, but because Niles is such a creep - the kind of kid who would pull the
wings off a fly and then claim the big boys made him (and get them in trouble,
and go out looking for more flies). Kids like that will stop at nothing.

(Roger Ebert / July 6, 1972)

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I remember seeing The Other when it was first released in 1972 and being
disturbed by the general concept and haunted by a couple of images (that I can't
reveal, lest it give away too much). Similar to Freaks (even including a brief
scene at a carnival freak show) the film has elements of horror, but overall
it's hard to classify under strictly one genre—many parts are rather pastoral,
others have elements of a thriller, yet the overall effect remains one of
horror.

Much of The Other revolves around a few plot twists and devices, so I'll avoid
spoiling key information.

After starring in minor parts in numerous Hollywood films (The Longest Day, The
Cardinal and 18 others) Tom Tryon produced and wrote this disturbing tale, set
in the New England countryside in 1935. The film opens in the woods on a pensive
young boy named Niles, who has an identical twin brother named Holland. The
twins may look alike, but their personalities are completely different—Niles is
the shy, introspective nice child while Holland is the outgoing naughty one.

It seems that the camera is doing elementary tricks on us at the beginning when
it never shows the twins in one frame together. So it appears that they are
using the same kid for both twins until the credits reveal that identical twins
Christopher and Martin Udvarnoky were cast as Niles and Holland respectively.
Using inexperienced child actors to carry the movie has drawbacks (this will be
the boys' only film), but the two perform adequately enough. In fact, they act
like . . . kids, who alternate between being innocent, playful, and crude. Even
more professional child actors wouldn't be able to reveal much more character
than the Udvamoky twins since the script is mostly interested in the boys as
plot devises. Creating the overall ominous atmosphere is far more important than
any potential character study.

The most developed character is the grandmother many of us would love to
have—Ada (Uta Hagen), who is especially close to Niles. She has taught him "The
Game," akin to the way the mythological Merlin instructed King Arthur by
teaching him how "get inside" other creatures to see their point of view, best
illustrated with the scene where Niles sees the area from a crow's eye view. The
soaring camerawork here is very effective. After this sequence, we understand
what the boys mean by playing "The Game" in other circumstances.

From pre-screening clues on the video box and by its usual classification in the
horror section, some creepy things are anticipated and director Robert Mulligan
doesn't disappoint—he builds suspense gradually (some will think far too
slowly), and he'll throw out a number of red herrings. You may be able to guess
"some" of the secret that the movie tag line "Please Don't Reveal the Secret of
The Other" refers to, but you'll be hard pressed to guess all of it. Jerry
Goldsmith's haunting score helps measurably—it's memorable, but not overused.

Despite its age, the film still holds up fairly well but would flop as a new
release in today's film climate. Certain scenes would be shot differently today
to show a lot more blood and gore. I'd love to see what Argento could do with
this psychological horror/thriller, given his track record with Phenomena and
Deep Red. Instead, viewers will see glimpses of various accidents (or are they?)
and will anticipate the coming gore scenes, only to have the camera switch
elsewhere. While Hitchcock proved that such a technique can work magnificently,
Mulligan is no match for the master. The Other is a competent flick that will
prove to be a lot freakier for film fans with active imaginations.

Unfortunately, the film came onto the scene a few years too early and was
quickly buried by the superior Halloween and other teen slasher films that
played off Halloween's success. The Other is now out of print and largely
forgotten, perhaps still stored on some dusty rental shelves or sold on a few
online auction sites. I don't anticipate this relatively low budget flick to be
revived, unless someone can obtain the rights for a remake. But it's certainly
worth a rental if you can get hold of a copy—it was good enough to pop back into
memory when I was trying to think of an overlooked horror film, and there's
certainly a lot bloodier flicks that have long ago been erased from memory.

(John Nesbit, Old School Reviews)

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