THE VISITOR
Italy, 1979, 92 minutes, Colour.
Mel Ferrer, Glenn Ford, John Huston, Shelley Winters, Joanne Nail, Lance Henriksen, Sam Peckinpah.
Directed by Giulio Paradisi.
The Visitor must be one of the oddest films of the 1970s. It is an American- Italian Co-production. The synopsis and the advertising put out some very serious themes. However, as one sits through the film, one wonders about the origins of the plot, the seriousness of the presentation and the company having its audience on.
There is quite a good star line-up, doing satiric turns of characters they have performed in many other films. The plot is far-fetched and done with such a variety of styles, including parodies of many occult films and science-fiction like close encounters of the third kind, but one wonders about the intentions.
Clearly the film is in the tradition of so many of the occult films of the 1970s. But it also looks like the humorous, exaggerated satires, for example, Mario Bava’s House of Exorcism where Telly Savalas is the central star, even with his Kojak lollipops.
A curiosity item of a rather lavish kind.
1. The nineteen seventies and the popularity of occult films? The appeal, themes? The familiarity by the end of the seventies with the conventions of the genre? The possibilities for taking them seriously? Satirically? The basic themes of evil babies, other-worldly powers, the presence of evil within the ordinary world? The clash between good and evil? How seriously, humorously were these conventions used? The stars and their typical roles: John Huston as the grizzled old man, Mel Ferrer as the suave villain, Glenn Ford as a very American detective and his seeming lack of relatedness to the rest of the film, only to be killed in a parody of The Birds, Shelley Winters as the talkative but sinister maid? The guest appearance of Sam Peckinpah?
2. The production values of the film, large budget? American locations? Italian finance? The styles of the film and their variations, the other world and celestial background of the beginning, America and business, Atlanta? American homes? Special effects, especially at the beginning, the attack of the birds?
3. How easy was it to tell whether the film was serious or comic? Tone, characterization, plot, themes, dialogue?
4. The initial encounter with Jerzy? An other-worldly character? The appearance of Katy? the universe and space? The build-up to the cosmic battle? The children and their listening to Fy and Franco Nero in an uncredited role? Fy as a seeming Christ-figure, gentle preaching? Overtones of the film, Superman?
5. Good children and evil children and the background of Rosemary’s Baby? That cloaked figure of Katy in the wind and the swirling snow? Her confrontation with Jerzy, and overtones of the omen?
6. Jerzy as the visitor? His coming to earth, his role in the household, the confrontations with Katy, the final battles? The importance of Jane and her presence in the house? The sinister maid? The good maid? The protection of Barbara, the confrontation with Katy?
7. The background explanation of mothers able to give birth to mutant and evil children? Barbara and her capacity? Katy and her presence to make sure the child was born? Barbara as an ordinary character, divorcee, ex-husband, her relationship with Raymond? Her care for her daughter? The friendship with Dr. Walker? The various threats on her life and their exaggerated violence? Her surviving all these attempts?
8. Katy and her attitudes towards her mother, her mother’s love for her daughter but yet suspicions? The build-up to the close encounter and the impregnation of Barbara? Her horror at her pregnancy, the discussions about the abortion, the hospital sequence, Dr. Walker, the protecting of the unborn child?
9. Dr. Walker and his suave but sinister presence? Raymond and his love for Barbara and his being part of the conspiracy? Reality and appearances? The romantic ingredients of the film?
10. The final confrontation, Barbara and all that she had gone through and revived from? Katy and her becoming a monster and attacking her mother, that torture and murder of Barbara with Raymond? Jerzy and his arrival, the contact with the extra-terrestrial forces, the specks of light in the night, the speeding towards Earth, the flock of birds and the crashing through the skylight, the saving of Barbara, the attacking of Raymond and, Dr. Walker and his death? The return to Fy and his class, and the irony of sweet Katy’s presence, her being exorcised? The
11. To what purpose this kind of film, entertaining in itself if taken straightforwardly, the strong satirising of the film genres of the seventies, the parodies, the mocking of the audience and enjoying this kind of film?
