THROUGH NAKED EYES
US, 1983, 91 minutes, Colour.
David Soul, Pam Dawber, William Schallert, Fionnula Flanagan, Dick Anthony Williams.
Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey.
Through Naked Eyes is an entertaining, if obvious, crime telerlovie. it works entertainingly as a murder mystery. Its title indicates a voyeur therne - and this is followed through with the use of binoculars, telescopes, photography.
The film is directed by John Llewellyn Moxey, an English director who made.a number of horror films in England before moving to the United States and working extensively with telemovies and series. The film is glossy, is set in a hot Chicago, has David Soul as a concert flute-player, Pam Dawber as a National Geographic writer. There are some interesting supporting characters including William Schallert as Soul's father.
There is a series of murders, the police react unsympathetically towards Soul, there is a vigilante group in an apartment block - and a finale which indicates that the moralising vigilante is repressed and violent and the murderer.
There is quite an amount of suspense - though the final outcome of the film is seldom in doubt.
1. Entertaining telemovie? Thriller? Murder mystery? Portrayal of interesting characters? Insights into character?
2. The atmosphere of Chicago, location photography, apartment blocks, the streets, the lake and the background scenery, police precincts, concert halls? The contribution of the musical score - especially the flute music and its part in the screenplay?
3. The title and the voyeur themes: people watching one another, sexual undertones? The use of binoculars and telescopes? William and Anne looking at each other? Ance and her guided tours and the giant telescope? The murderer and his binoculars, photography? The audience sharing this voyeur experience? Legitimate? Made to seem prurient by the police? Abused by the murderer? The complexity of observation and prurient curiosity? Invasion of privacy?
4. The portrait of William: the middle-aged bachelor, living alone, binoculars, fascinated by Anne, his flute rehearsals, concert performances and reputation? The meeting with Anne? Falling in love? An affair? His being accused of the murders? Trying to clear his name? The visits of his father, their clash, the attempt to understand each other, the father listening to his records, his being disturbed about Anne?
5. Police victimisation? His concern at the vigilante in her apartment, the phone calls, running, outstripping the police, the death of the murderer? The reconciliation with Anne?
6. Anne in her apartment, being watched, her work in the museum, her writing, the relationship with her agent? Meeting William? The relationship? The situation of the murders? Her support of William? The suspicion - the information from the police? Her turning against him? The vigilante, the threat in her room, the rescue by William? The melodramatics for a heroine? The character study of a woman, her watching William, infatuated by his music, meeting him, the affair?
7. William's father, the background of their hostility, his not listening to his son's music, William's hostility towards him? His visit? Their clash? His return, arguing things out, his willingness to listen to his son's music? William being more sympathetic? The interrogation by the police?
8. The police and their investigations, individual policemen, their hostility towards William, antagonism to him because of his being a musician? The holding of hirri, interrogations? His outwitting them and getting to Anne's apartment?
9. The vigilante, his organising of the people in the apartment block, their antagonism towards the killer? The psychologist's comment about the nature violence? The going up to the killer and his sexual problems, suppressed revelation that the moralising man was the killer? Anne's apartment, the attack, his death?
10 . The presentation of the police and their routine investigations? The contrast with the unaerstanding of the police psychologist?
11. The contrast between the atmosphere of music rehearsals, concerts, writing for the National Geographic, museums and the squalidness of the atmosphere of the sex murderer?
12. An interesting, if predictable, telemovie thriller?
