I WILL BRING THE WHOLE EDIFICE DOWN ON THEIR UNWORTHY HEADS!

totally excellent film

i love richards voice

Richard Burton is a man who can create catastrophes, or at least that's what he thinks until someone bashes his head in with a statue leaving him barely breathing. A french detective is assigned to find the attacker and discovers more than he bargained for.

My early complaints of the film turned out to be what I enjoyed the most:

-The pacing is way too slow, but when it reaches the climax it's fucking amazing. The last 20 minutes of the film are incredible.
-Richard Burton is clearly just collecting a quick buck and is barely onscreen, however he is a pretty convincingly creepy motherfucker.
-There are a lot of unexplained details that annoyed me, but on second thought leave a lot of room for interesting interpretations.

The film redeems itself with the ending. And boy, what an ending.

Richard Burton plays John Morlar, a man whose life is shown in flashbacks as he fights for his life after someone has tried to kill him. The detective investigating this attempted murder discovers that Burton's character believed he could cause catastrophic tragedies and had caused many deaths, just by using the power of his mind. A nicely ambiguous story of malevolence, only spoilt by a very poorly shot and thus unconvincing catastrophe.

Not horrible, but not worth watching. Burton seems like he's hardly in it at all and when he is he's just ranting for a bit or glaring which ins't very satisfying. Bit silly in the end.

Richard Burton is a man who can create catastrophes, or at least that's what he thinks until someone bashes his head in with a statue leaving him barely breathing. A french detective is assigned to find the attacker and discovers more than he bargained for.

My early complaints of the film turned out to be what I enjoyed the most:

-The pacing is way too slow, but when it reaches the climax it's fucking amazing. The last 20 minutes of the film are incredible.
-Richard Burton is clearly just collecting a quick buck and is barely onscreen, however he is a pretty convincingly creepy motherfucker.
-There are a lot of unexplained details that annoyed me, but on second thought leave a lot of room for interesting interpretations.

The film redeems itself with the ending. And boy, what an ending.

Another sterling Jack Gold film, another sterling Jack Gold dummy-death (backing up the promise of densely contextualized plasticide established in the director's previous ACES HIGH). Another plummet - on rocky shoals, this time. Acid black comedy/thriller makes me really miss the days of the Sir Lew Grade international co-production.

I WILL BRING THE WHOLE EDIFICE DOWN ON THEIR UNWORTHY HEADS!

totally excellent film

i love richards voice

Richard Burton plays John Morlar, a man whose life is shown in flashbacks as he fights for his life after someone has tried to kill him. The detective investigating this attempted murder discovers that Burton's character believed he could cause catastrophic tragedies and had caused many deaths, just by using the power of his mind. A nicely ambiguous story of malevolence, only spoilt by a very poorly shot and thus unconvincing catastrophe.

Fairly obviously adapted from a pulpy novel, this telekinesis thriller is full of chewy dialogue and bulky flashbacks. Richard Burton stars as an eccentric novelist who's beaten almost to death in his London home. Grizzled French detective Lino Ventura, on secondment to Scotland Yard, investigates and finds that Burton believed he could cause people's deaths by the power of thought alone, from his noisy neighbour to 3 astronauts on the Moon by way of over 700 others in a devastating plane crash. And Lee Remick joins in the fun as Burton's shrink, who seems to have all the answers. With most of the action taking place in flashback while Burton lays unconscious, the film does lack immediacy, urgency and danger... after all, what chaos can Burton possibly wreak from his coma? Something even more spectacular than that plane crash, that's what!

When famous writer John Morlar is brutally assaulted in his own home, a detective starts examining the comatose man's life in search for a possible motive. Especially his interviews with Morlar's psychiatrist turn out to be revealing, as they form the image of a man whose past is riddled with inexplicable tragedies, mysterious accidents and suicides. (On a side note, doctor-patient confidentiality seems to be a non-issue here...)

Still a very solid crime story with supernatural elements, The Medusa Touch didn't quite captivate me as it did when I first saw it 20 years ago. However, it still managed to keep me intrigued throughout - partly owing to the prominent, but not overly obvious foreshadowing.

This is a well-constructed portrait of a man who is, in every conceivable way, a menace to society. Richard Burton is putting up a great performance.

A enjoyable enough romp. Richard Burton has the Medusa touch of the title we see as we flash back to his curse which puts in place the death of people he tends to disagree with, from his parents to judges, currently hes in a coma and in a unsolved case as to who put him there, but it soon becomes clear, more is still to come. Burton is brooding when on screen and this film seems to be typical of this time, the late 70s, its no classic but it holds together well enough to warrant a watch.

Unfairly dismissed by critics on its release, Jack Gold's tale of a man with 'a gift for disaster' is a cracking mix of a horror, crime and disaster movie. Richard Burton oozes malevolence.