Death comes twice
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Death comes twice |
| Original title | Body double |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1984 |
| length | 109 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 (VHS 16) |
| Rod | |
| Director | Brian De Palma |
| script | Brian De Palma, Robert J. Avrech |
| production | Brian De Palma, Howard Gottfried |
| music | Pino Donaggio |
| camera | Stephen H. Burum |
| cut |
Gerald B. Greenberg , Bill Pankow |
| occupation | |
| |
Death Comes Twice (Original Title: Body Double ) is an American thriller from 1984 . The director is Brian De Palma , who also wrote the script with Robert J. Avrech . The main role is played by Craig Wasson , with Melanie Griffith in one of the supporting roles .
action
Jake Scully appears as an actor in B-Movies . When he is supposed to play a vampire in a horror film and suffers an attack of claustrophobia while filming in a crypt , the producer sends him home. When he got home, he caught his girlfriend in bed with another man in red. A little later he learns from his agent that he has been removed from the horror film.
Since Jake now has no more accommodation, he asks a fellow actor, in vain, for help. However, his friend Sam Bouchard overhears the call for help and offers Jake an exclusive place to stay for a friend, which Sam is supposed to take care of, but who has to travel: a futuristic house with a view of the Hollywood Hills . To make his stay even more pleasant, Sam shows Jake through a telescope a neighbor who undresses at the same time every day. When Jake looks through the telescope again the next day, this is confirmed. However, he also notices an Indian who is also watching the woman.
The next day, Jake sees the Indian following the woman as she leaves her apartment. Jake, in turn, takes up the chase and watches the two of them. In the city, however, he cannot prevent the woman from being robbed of her handbag. When the perpetrator escapes into a tunnel, Jake is forced to give up his pursuit due to his claustrophobia. The thief only takes a card from the purse and leaves the rest behind. The stolen, who introduces herself as Gloria Revelle, leads Jake out of the tunnel. In a romantic moment, the two of them share a passionate kiss.
When Gloria is escorted home by a policeman that evening, Jake sees a burglar, apparently the Indian, in her apartment. He tries in vain to warn Gloria by phone because the Indian tries to strangle her at the same time with the phone cord. Jake runs out of the house and rushes to Gloria. He asks two joggers who meet him on the way to follow him without further ado. Jake doesn't manage to get to Gloria in time and save her; he has to watch how she is brutally murdered with a big drill.
Detective Jim McLean, who is investigating the case, has suspected the wealthy Gloria husband from the start. However, based on Jake's testimony to have seen an Indian murder, he cannot prove anything about the husband. When Jake happened to see an excerpt from a porn film on television at night, he noticed that the leading actress Holly Body undressed in the same way as the neighbor he was watching through the telescope. He then went to a casting at her production company and was given a role in a film with her. When they get closer to each other outside of the film set, he learns from her that she has been engaged for two evenings for the striptease he has observed. Jake adds one and one together, and when he happens to have Sam on the phone, he lets Holly identify him as the one who commissioned her to do the striptease.
After an argument, Holly leaves Jake and is picked up by the Indian on the street. This knocks them down and throws them into a grave hole that has already been dug near a canal. Jake saw this by chance and wants to catch the Indian, but is also overwhelmed by him. Startled by the fight, a large dog strikes in the Indian's car. In the battle, Jake succeeds in tearing off a face mask from the Indian and recognizes Sam in his opponent. Jake ends up defeated next to Holly in the pit, whereupon his claustrophobia is noticeable again, but this time he can overcome it and manages to get out of the pit without help. Meanwhile, the now wild dog has freed himself from the car and caught Sam in an attack jump, who fell into the canal due to the impact.
It turns out that the supposedly out of town Sam, who really paid Holly, is the owner of the house that Jake was watching. Sam is Gloria's husband and wanted to make sure with the erotic strip that Jake sees the murder and leads the police on the wrong track of the Indian.
In the last scene of the film, you see Jake, who has since got back the role of the vampire in the horror film, playing a shower scene with an actress while she is being replaced by a body double. Holly appears to be his girlfriend now.
Reviews
Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times of January 1, 1984 that the film was a thriller in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock , which was "cleverly constructed" and would make it possible to identify completely with the threatened main character. He praised the script as precise (“clockwork plot”) and the director as “brave”.
Awards
Melanie Griffith was established in 1985 for the film awards Golden Globe Award and New York Film Critics Circle Award nominations (Best Supporting Actress), she won the National Society of Film Critics Award in the category. Brian De Palma was nominated for the Golden Raspberry as worst director .
backgrounds
The film showed the real existing Chemosphere house built by John Lautner in 1960 in the San Fernando Valley . Production costs were estimated at 10 million US dollars . The film grossed approximately $ 8.8 million in US cinemas; in German cinemas it was around 1.2 million US dollars.
The pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood plays their hit Relax in one scene of the film .
literature
- Susan Dworkin: Carrie. Dressed to kill. Scarface. And now: death comes twice. Brian de Palma or how to make a thriller. A background report from the witch's kitchen of the "new Hitchcock" Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1985, ISBN 3-404-13021-9
Web links
- Body Double in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Body Double atRotten Tomatoes(English)