THE SEDUCTION
US, 1982, 104 minutes, Colour.
Morgan Fairchild, Michael Sarrazin, Andrew Stevens, Vince Edwards, Colleen Camp.
Directed by David Schmoeller.
The title might lead audiences to expect soft core pornography. This is not the case. Rather this is a reworking of the Lauren Bacall film The Fan, in which a demented fan stalks a celebrity. Clearly the themes are sexual and violent, but the emphasis is on the terrorising of the heroine, her coping with the situation and overcoming the invader of her
privacy. Echoes here are of Death Wish. The film has an effective cast - television actress Morgan Fairchild as a glamorous television reporter, Andrew Stevens as the crazed fan and Michael Sarazzin as the lover. Glossy, but reasonably effective of its kind.
1. An entertaining thriller? Psychological drama? Violent drama? Echoing the themes of the 80s?
2. Los Angeles background, location photography, the city, affluent homes? Interiors and exteriors? The blend of the claustrophobic and the open? Television studios? Surveillance and prying? The audience becoming a voyeur? Musical score? Song and lyrics?
3. How authentic the plot? Credible? People, interaction? Sanity and madness? Violence?
4. The opening with Julle and her swimming, relationship with Brandon? Her work and her being a celebrity? Style, glamour. friends? The phone calls from Derek. gifts, visit? Her caution? Antagonism? Determination and fear? Her visits to her friend and support? Brandon and his action? The police? The recurring intrusions by Derek? His presence in the shop? Changing the television cards? The madness going to violence with Brandon's death? Her decision to take action and lure him? Seduction as in the title? Her tormenting Derek and tricking him? The violent reaction and her threatening him - his cowering and her gaining the upper hand? How credible as a character, experiencing real threats to women? Behaviour? Sanity? Self-protection and the law? Love. fear, hatred?
5. The character of Derek? Seeing him prying? The spy and the voyeur? Mental sickness? His watching Julie at how, at work? His seeming ordinariness at work? The ring, gifts, the visits to the studio, shopping? The clash with Brandon? His changing the TV cues? Julie's love for him and his rejecting her? Reaction to the police? The murder of Brandon? The seduction, the phone call, his being tormented, lured into the house, the clash with gun and knife, the sex taunt and his fear? His death? obsessive madness? The fan gone mad? Portrait of a psychotic - with how much understanding?
6. Brandon and his relationship, work, tough, concerned, relying on the police? Violent protection? His death?
7. Julie and her love for Derek, the ordinary girl. work, visiting, hoping to be engaged? The truth and her notifying the police? Watching the finale? The final killing?
8. The picture of the police and their overwork, reaction to celebrities? The violent attitude of the police chief and his wanting Derek killed? Complaints? Visits?
9. The sketch of the television people? Reaction to the heroine, flirting etc? Co-operation? Running of the TV stabion? The cover-up?
10. The heroine and her being a TV celebrity, news reports? The kind of society that produced Derek and violence?
11. Themes of law and order and the right to vigilante violence?
12. A satisfying blend of thriller and psychological study?
