NIGHT WATCH (1973)

The set-up for this psychological thriller, some of which we learn as exposition throughout the film, is as follows: The wealthy Ellen Wheeler lives with her second husband John in a London townhouse whose back windows look out over the back of a dilapidated house. Next door lives Mr. Appleby, a retired businessman who spends a lot of time in his garden and seems a bit wistful about the fact that the Wheelers' house used to be owned by his family. Staying with the Wheelers is Ellen's college friend Sarah who will be heading to Glasgow in a few days to take a new job. In the meantime, Sarah is carrying on a lunchtime affair with a married man named Barry—and all we see of him is his bare ass in a bathroom scene. Ellen's first husband Carl died in a car crash which also took the life of his young mistress, an event that drove Ellen to a nervous breakdown, and John thinks she’s still emotionally fragile as she suffers from visions and nightmares about the crash. One night during a storm, Ellen looks out the window and between lightning flashes sees, across the yard through a shuttered window, a man with his throat cut propped up in a wingback chair. Almost hysterical, she calls the police but they find no one. The next morning, Ellen discovers that, during the night, Appleby has planted some trees in his yard in a plot that's big enough to bury a body in (Rear Window, anyone?). Ellen sees a light in the house out back and eventually sees another dead body, this time of a woman. She hounds the police, even getting them to dig up Appleby's trees (with no body underneath), but her deteriorating mental state soon leads Inspector Walker to start ignoring her calls. Then she finds the possessions of Carl, which she had picked up at the morgue, in her desk drawer. Is someone trying to drive Ellen permanently crazy? She agrees to see Tony, a psychiatrist friend of John's, and he recommends a trip to a Swiss institution for a therapeutic rest. Ellen agrees but seems to think that something is not right about the situation. She's proven correct, but what it is that's not right may not be what we think is not right.

Some sources refer to this as Elizabeth Taylor's only horror movie (she plays Ellen); it's not really horror but instead a Gothic thriller with echoes of GASLIGHT and the underrated 1967 GAMES. It's atmospheric and fun with a twisty plot that, even when you think you've figured it out fairly early on, has another twist or two in store. Taylor, stuck in a long rut of rather small-scale movies that were box office flops, is quite good, though some may think she chews a bit too much scenery in her moments of hysteria. Many critics find Laurence Harvey in general to be a cold and ineffective actor (I've only really liked him in The Manchurian Candidate) and he's both of those things here; his coldness works for the character, but he delivers a low-energy performance. To be fair, Harvey had an operation for stomach cancer during production and died a year later, but physically he looks in fine shape—occasionally he looks like Leonard Nimoy. Perhaps he's deliberately underplaying to balance out Taylor's occasional overplaying, but I think it hurts the character. Supposedly, George Maharis was originally cast as John and I think he would have been a better choice. Billie Whitelaw is excellent as Sarah, a tricky role which she plays at just the right pitch. The movie is really a three-hander, though Bill Dean is nicely rumpled and peeved as the inspector, and Robert Lang makes the most of his small role as Appleby. We know almost nothing about the background of the characters of John and Sarah and that feels like a weakness. Actually, even Ellen’s background doesn’t get much filling out beyond the loss of Carl. There are some plotholes, and I think the movie even pulls a visual cheat or two on us to keep its final twists hidden. The finale is literally full of blood and thunder. Visually it's an ugly movie, murky at times, but overall this is a fairly enjoyable thriller. [TCM]