BAFFLED

UK/US, 1973, 90 minutes, Colour.
Leonard Nimoy, Susan Hampshire, Rachel Roberts, Vera Miles
Directed by Philip Leacock.

Baffled started life as a pilot for a television series. However, the series was never made.

Leonard Nimoy is a racing driver who has psychic experiences. Susan Hampshire appears as a woman with skills in ESP who tries to guide the driver. They fall in love. While the film has an American origin, the setting is Devon and takes advantage of the English countryside and stately mansions. The supporting cast is strong including Rachel Roberts as the proprietor of the hotel and Vera Miles as a film star waiting for a reunion with her former husband.

The film dramatises dreams, ESP experiences, psychic phenomena – and a touch of Satanism. It was directed by Philip Laycock who began his career as a director in England with The Kidnappers and moved to the United States where he worked mainly for television movies.

1. How enjoyable this film, its quality, its being a British film, made for American television? Television conventions and techniques?

2. Its presumption of audience interest In the supernatural? The occult, the mysterious? Indications of the title?

3. The American and then the English atmosphere? The settings, especially the roads and the house and the sea? The American and the English stars?

4. The baffling nature of the opening and audience involvement? Tom as a character, an interesting person, empathy with his problem? His driving, TV Interview? The invitation to share his puzzle? His involvement in the puzzle, growing danger, solving the problem?

5. How attractive was Michelle? credible character, her interest in the occult, her wanting to share the puzzle with Tom, the nature of her help, the relationship between the two?

6. The focus on Mrs Faraday? her very Englishness, the way that she ran her boarding house, the fact that she was a villain, the ambiguity of her behaviour, the way that she presented in poses, the mystery of her getting younger? was this credible?

7. The focus on Andrea and Jennifer: Andrea being the woman of the dream? A threatened heroine, her involvement in the puzzle, her daughter's hostility, her daughter's ageing? The problems of her ex-husband and his friend? The expatiation as referring to the family?

8. The mystery of Louise and Parish? the revelation of the truth credible?

9. The mystery of its ending and its opening up towards further bafflement?

10. Was this film anything more than entertaining?