THE MEMORY OF EVA RYKER

US, 1980, 144 minutes, Colour.
Natalie Wood, Jean- Pierre Aumont, Ralph Bellamy, Bradford Dilman, Robert Foxworth, Peter Graves, Mel Ferrer, Morgan Fairchild, Roddy Mc Dowell.
Directed by Walter Grauman.

The Memory of Eva Ryker is an entertaining, if long, telemovie. It has the elements of thriller and soap opera - psychological background, flashbacks to the '30s from the affluent '70s. It has a star cast and was one of Natalie
Wood's last films. The film improves as it goes on. It is quite complex at first but then the strands are unwound and the plot moves towards more straightforward resolution.

1. The impact and enjoyment of the combination of thriller techniques, soap opera characters and situations, psychological investigation and therapy, pictures of wealthy society in the present and in the past, murder mystery?

2. The impact of the film as a telemovie: length, introduction of characters, complexity of plot, audience involvement? Lavish production values? Star cast? Musical score?

3. The structure of the film: the picturing of the initial murders and the involvement of Norman? Norman as hero? The encounter with Ryker and Eva? The elaboration of memories - detective and psychological investigation? The pieces and the puzzle? The long flashbacks? Explanations? Resolutions? A satisfactory story?

4. At what level did the film work? Atmosphere of authenticity and reality? Contrived and artificial story? The understanding of the problems? The exploration of values?

5. Norman as hero: his role as a writer, his experience of the killings and his revulsion at the violence? His living in Paris, connections with the Surete? His involvement with Ryker? The dangers for his life ? especially the helicopter crash? Travelling ? even to Australia? The growing friendship with Eva? His motivation? His elaboration of the picture, his writer's insight? The importance of the flashbacks? The dangers in Australia and the encounter with MacFarlane? Halifax and the retrieving of the camera? The crash and his injuries? Ryker's anger? The encounter with Eva and the traumatic chase along the beach? Eva's hypnosis? His burgling Ryker's files? The final exploration and the capture of the criminals? A romantic hero?

6. Natalie Wood as heroine - her dual role? Eva and her wealth, relationship with her father, love, trauma? Involvement in the mystery? Her memory blocks and fears? Her friendship with Norman? The hypnosis? The trauma of the chase along the beach and her blocking reality off? The memories of her mother? The glimpses of the voyage? Natalie Wood playing her own mother? The memories of Eddington? The growing reality of Jason and his menace? Her experience in the ship, her mother's death, the ship going down, her being rescued? Her facing the reality of the incident? Psychological freedom? The doll and the irony of the jewels in the doll? Her sadness at her father's death and her bitterness at his having used her as a child? Her setting the trap for Jason and his wife?

7. Ryker and the sketch of the hard, ambitious businessman, his relationship with his wife, using his daughter for jewel-smuggling, his hiring Norman, his continued interventions, his death? The sketch of his assistants and their tough measures?

8. Jason and his wife as villains? The mystery of their identity and their changing identity and their changing identities? Their deaths and the irony of the unravelling of the mystery? Their presence on the ship, their seduction of Eva's mother and her companion, the murders? The escape from the ship? Jason's prejudice towards negroes and the irony of his assuming their names? The staging of the deaths? The ending and the greed and cruelty?

9. MacFarlane? and his presence in Australia, his presence on the ship, rescuing Eva? His role with the police on landing? His death?

10. The sketch on Eva's mother and her companion - the soap opera background of the '30s voyage, the seduction, the murders, the sinking of the ship?

11. The salvage from the ship, the screening of the home movies, the finding of the doll? The number of deaths associated with the investigation and the salvage?

12. The policeman from the Surete, his investigation - the sub-plot on Norman and the recommendation of wines?

13. The sequences in the doctor's surgery, hypnosis, the treatment of Eva and the discovery of the truth?

14. The techniques of flashback for the resolution - visualising Eva's gaining of memory? The final confrontation with the criminals and their arrest?

15. Techniques for sustaining audience interest? Complex plot, melodramatic situations, sympathetic characters - and all coming right at the end?