Guilty Pleasures: The Fan

1981 Thriller

From Paramount Pictures

Directed by Ed Bianchi

Starring 

Lauren Bacall

James Garner

Maureen Stapleton

Michael Biehn

Hector Elizondo

Anna Maria Horsford

Kurt Johnson

Dear Miss Ross:

I am your greatest fan because unlike the others I want nothing from you.  The only thing that matters to me is your happiness.  I have posters, Playbills and a closet jam-packed with photographs covering every phase of your magnificent career.  Your presence alone makes every one of your films a true cinema classic.  I don't care what time they show on television.  I will gladly stay awake until any hour of the morning.  I bought a gorgeous new Lucite frame for one of your most gorgeous pictures... the one of you singing while President Truman plays the piano.  I despise those desperate, pathetic people who intrude upon your privacy.  Your happiness and peace of mind must be protected.  I know of all the famous men in your life but I adore you as no one ever has or ever will.  Thanks for the inspiration you have given me.  You are the greatest star of all.

Your friend,

Douglas Breen

P.S.  Could you send me your most recent photograph as soon as possible?

And so it begins... as soon as the screen lights up... right after a couple of bars of music to make blood pressure rise.  The makers of the film know what they're doing and why?  They want to scare you.  They probably will.  Listen, I may cry at the drop of a hat during my moviegoing but scaring me means you gotta really know your stuff.  Trust me, I don't scare easily.  And that teen girl stuff deep in the woods with a maniac picking 'em off night after night makes me yawn.  And I found this one really pretty spooky.  

If you do not like movies that scare you, jolt you out of your seat from something or someone unexpected, if slashings are not your thing, absolutely do not see this film.  Frankly, I might even suggest that you quit reading this.  I won't know.  I wouldn't hold it against you if I did.

The opening is sensational.  Douglas types a little then there's a voiceover of what he's written and then it's repeated and repeated.  All the while the camera caresses his room... pencils in a cup, the pounding typewriter keys, a Ross-signed Playbill, numerous pictures of her including one in a little heart-shaped, red frame, a pocketknife, Whiteout, a clock showing 2:05, his full pink lips filling the screen and always that eerie music.

Douglas (Biehn) is a handsome, blond preppy who works at a record store in Manhattan who is obsessed with Broadway star Sally Ross (Bacall) and deluges her with letters, signing his real name and including his address.  

We see Douglas getting madder and madder and his letters getting more and more sinister and threatening when a response comes from Sally's secretary, Belle Goldman (Stapleton) instead of Sally.  I know you'll talk to her, Douglas writes about chastising Belle.  What the hothead doesn't know is that Belle doesn't even show the letters to Sally... a standard occurrence in the land of the famous.

Douglas's sister shows up unexpectedly at his apartment and he is hostile and will not let her in.  This is not a good time... I am entertaining a famous actress.  She tells him that pretending as a child was fine but he's an adult now.  He slams the door on her and we see him at his table, raising a glass to his invisible famous guest.

He writes Sally a new letter...we'll be lovers soon, my darling, and believe me, I have the equipment to make you very, very happy.  Of course, Belle intercepts the letter again and writes to him, telling him to stop writing and says she has no intentions of showing any of his letters to Miss Ross.  Bad decision.

Douglas sits on a park bench outside the Ross apartment building, awaiting Belle's exit.  He follows her to the subway station and finding her alone slashes her face.

By this time Sally's ex-husband Jake (Garner), whom she's still very much in love with, and Police Inspector Andrews (Elizondo) have become Sally allies and protectors.

With Belle in the hospital, Sally sips a highball as she goes through a large stack of mail.  She is horrified to read one from Douglas that says he has taken care of Belle and now he and Sally can be together.  This time he does not include his return address and it's discovered that Belle has saved none of the prior correspondence so he's not going to be easy to track down.

He slashes the stomach of Sally's dance teacher from underwater at a YMCA pool.  The inspector has a policewoman (Horsford) stay with her after Sally gets another letter, this one more threatening than the others.  Douglas realizes things will not work out with Sally and also sees that with all those around to protect her, it will be near impossible to get to her.

Douglas picks up a gay man at a bar and while they are involved against the side of a building, Douglas slashes his throat, sets the corpse on fire and leaves a note saying that he, Douglas, has killed himself.  Everyone relaxes.  Knowing Sally is at rehearsals for her upcoming musical play, he breaks into her apartment, slashes an oil painting of her, ransacks the apartment and kills her maid in one of those horrific jump-out scenes.

Finally the conclusion with three more deaths to come.  Douglas buys himself a ticket and swoons in the audience watching Sally perform.  When it's over, he hides in the darkened theater.  There are four of them present... Sally, tidying herself up in her dressing room, her dresser and a night watchman.  Of the four, only one survives.  Let's consider this is a very tense finale.

There has always been controversy surrounding this movie.  I would feel guilty if I left it unaddressed although I generally want to say oh put your big girl pants on and tend to something more deserving of your time.  I also want to acknowledge that I love thrillers.  I am not crazy about the violence but I suffer in silence as my adrenaline junkie true self goes on a fun ride.  I think for what this movie is, it's one of the best.  Slings and arrows accepted.

Brian De Palma, this same year, came out with Dressed to Kill with Michael Caine and Angie Dickinson and we thrill-seekers fell all over ourselves with unrestrained glee.  More, more, more we cried and our requests were answered.  The Fan is but one of them.  A sharp knife also figured in the former but The Fan aced it out in body count.

Here's one of the problems.  While I can't say as I specifically recall this but Manhattan at the same time was having a series of killings, some of which were slashings and most of which were random.  John Lennon was murdered just six months later in front of his apartment building, The Dakota, and I do recall folks being on edge about that.  I have heard-- may not be true-- that Bacall's own apartment in The Dakota was used in the film.  That brought about more uneasiness.

There was also the kvetching about what are superstars like Bacall and Stapleton doing in trashy stuff like this?  Oh please, it's not like they were going to catch something.  Nineteen years earlier they were saying the same things about Crawford and Davis making Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? 

What IS unsettling, however, is how much this feels like it's all happening to Bacall rather than Sally Ross.  It certainly felt that way to me.  To start with there were all those famous Bacall photographs being used as Sally photos.  As stated above, there is talk of Sally's famous photograph of herself and President Truman at the piano when, in fact, that was a famous photo of Bacall and Truman.  Not meant as a criticism but Sally Ross acts like Lauren Bacall.  The actress, while fun-loving and with a generally good sense of humor, was brassy, bossy, self-possessed, not always easy to get along with, lonely and given to saying witty if not snarky things.  Yes, it's all here.  Sally was starring in a big Broadway musical and at the time Bacall was starring in a big Broadway musical (Woman of the Year).

Neither Bacall nor Stapleton mention it in their autobiographies at all

and Garner only mentions it in passing in his although he does say it's the worst movie he ever made.  Bacall said it was not what she signed on for, that it was supposed to be psychological thriller and not a slasher movie.  Director Bianchi confirms this saying that the producer added more graphic scenes after the basic production was completed.  Bacall had not appeared in any of the earlier scenes so she was not particularly aware of how the new ones were filmed.

I don't know that the film ever achieved the status that was hoped for but I don't believe it is seen through quite the same lens today.  Certainly the terror is palpable, aided by some super editing and a pacing that never lets up.  The so-called graphic scenes could have been much worse and are best left to the girls-in-a-cabin-in-the-woods stories.  An effective use of New York locations is a pleasure.  

This was director Ed Bianchi's first film and I think he did a commendable job.  He was, however, still under the thumb of the producer, the studio and Miss Bossypants.  After all, she was the grand dame and he was a newbie.  He would not make another big-screen movie for 10 years and that would be his last.  The remainder of his career has been in television.

By and large there are pitch-perfect performances... Bacall (looking sensational), Biehn and Stapleton cannot be faulted on the acting.  Garner just plays the guy.  You know how many women just play the girl or the wife in roles with little substance or interest?  Well, here turnabout is fair play.  Nonetheless, he and Bacall had great vibes and were close friends (this is the second of their three films together and she guested on a Rockford Files) and their easy camaraderie shows.

Bacall and Stapleton were Broadway buddies and enjoyed one another's company.  Just two old broads, Stapleton said.

Despite these friendships Bacall wasn't happy making the movie and apparently made life difficult for Biehn.  I know she didn't make me happy listening to her croak... I'm sorry, I mean sing several songs.  Her voice hurts my ears and I will never understand how she sang in Broadway musicals.  The main song she sings is called Hearts Not Diamonds and it is as dreadful as her voice.  Hard to believe it was written by Tim Rice and Marvin Hamlisch.  Here's a damned good reason to not like the movie.

I loved Bacall's early films, certainly the ones with Bogart, but others as well.  She, however, apparently thought she was never given the credit she was due so off to Broadway she went and became a legend.  After Broadway and returning to movies, she made, overall, some of the oddest movies imaginable... a lot of them.  There were a few exceptions.  Whether this one would generally be considered an exception is questionable, but it does offer a great Bacall performance.  

Every time I hear of a celebrity being stalked, particularly a woman, I think of this movie.  It would certainly be frightening.  I felt a little guilty enjoying the gratuitous violence but the heart-racing pleasure of seeing a good thriller is just good fun.  Frankly, its dark charms were never lost on me.

Here's an acceptable trailer:

Next posting:

He wanted to be a bigger star