4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS
Craig Wasson plays Jake Scully, a likable, struggling actor – and voyeur -- who crashes at a house with a striking view of the Hollywood Hills and a woman who puts on a nightly striptease in the picture window of a mansion down below.
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“BODY DOUBLE: 40th ANNIVERSARY STEELBOOK”
4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray, 1984, R for violence, pervasive nudity, sexuality and language; Digital copy via Amazon Video (4K), Apple TV (4K), Fandango Home (4K), Movies Anywhere (4K), YouTube (4K)
Best extra: Nothing to see here.
LET’S PLAY “Jeopardy.”
Category: Idle Time
Clue: Rearrange your sock drawer. Switch labels on your canned goods. Anything else.
Give up?
Answer: What are better things to do than watch “Body Double”?
OK, maybe that’s a little harsh. But only a little. Working from the same template as 1980’s tedious “Dressed to Kill,” director/writer Brian De Palma (“Carrie,” “The Untouchables”) piles on the violence, gratuitous nudity and – despite insisting in an interview included on this Columbia Pictures release that he loves women and loves working with them – misogyny.
That’s not all. Like “Dressed,” the characters are stereotypes, and if you can’t see the big reveal coming, you better see your optician.
This being a Brian De Palma movie, it favors style over substance, too. That’s not a bad thing. Working again in Hitchcock mode, “Body Double” takes its lead from the master’s 1954 classic “Rear Window,” where “Dressed to Kill” screamed “Psycho” (1960). The camera moves fluidly, angles are exact, and the best sequences unreel visually. It also owes a debt to the Italian giallo films of Mario Bava (“Blood and Black Lace”) and Dario Argento (“The Bird with the Crystal Plumage”), psychological thrillers that trade in crime and sexploitation.
And give credit where it’s due. All the pieces in the carefully constructed plot fall neatly – maybe a little too neatly – into place.
(1-3) When the movie opens, Jake is filming a vampire flick but is sent home by the film’s director (Dennis Franz) when he’s overcome by acute claustrophobia. (4&5) He heads to a bar after he catches his girlfriend in bed with another guy. And, during an acting class, his claustrophobia reappears.
Craig Wasson (“Four Friends”) plays Jake Scully, a likable, struggling actor who needs a place to crash after catching his gal bumping uglies with another dude. He’s befriended by Sam Bouchard (Gregg Henry, “Guardians of the Galaxy”), also an actor who offers him the bachelor pad high over Hollywood that he’s been housesitting. Before leaving for a gig in Seattle, Sam points Jake to a telescope aimed at the picture window of a manse down below, where Gloria Revelle (Miss USA 1970 Deborah Shelton, TV’s “Dallas”) puts on a striptease every night for anyone to see. As it turns out, Jake is a voyeur.
Who’d have guessed?
Anyhoo, Peeping Jake is watching when Gloria is murdered with the business end of a drill by another peeper who Jake spotted watching her show the night before. Got that? Before Gloria leaves this mortal coil, Jake becomes obsessed with protecting her and tails her around an upscale mall. The tense, dialogue-free, perfectly edited sequence that follows is the best in the movie, rivaling Angie Dickinson’s museum seduction in “Dressed to Kill.”
But Jake’s not done. He smells something rotten about Gloria’s demise, leading him to porn superstar Holly Body (Melanie Griffith, “Something Wild,” “Working Girl”), who, as it turns out, is the key to solving the mystery.
Who’d have guessed?
(1-3) Fellow actor Sam Bouchard (Gregg Henry) points Jake to the evening peep show. (4-7) Jake tails comely Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton) to a mall and the beach when he realizes she might be in danger, then tries to catch a purse snatcher, only to freeze up when the chase leads into a pedestrian tunnel.
VIDEO/AUDIO
Columbia gave “Body Double” (1.85: 1 aspect ratio) a 4K makeover in Dolby Vision and HDR10 that, after some mushy opening frames, delivers the goods as the story shifts from the ominous shadows to the sunny beaches. Colors are vivid and, as another review noted, “the film embraces its filmic style and ‘80s roots by offering a nice grain structure that’s complemented by notable detail … from the penthouse to the mall and the various outdoor locations, while characters, vehicles and other elements all look solid.”
The peak HDR10 brightness hits 2242 nits, but only averages 130, while everything was encoded onto 100 GB disc.
The disc offers a smorgasbord of audio options: Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 surround sound. The tracks are wide and deep and nothing goes unnoticed.
EXTRAS
Columbia didn’t exactly open its wallet here, opting, with one exception, for a package of so-so archival bonuses. They include the usual trailer and stills gallery, plus four short features that barely scratch the surface of the production. In “The Seduction,” De Palma discusses his research and casting. “The Setup” looks at the Hitchcock influence. “The Mystery” brings in De Palma and the cast to talk about the film’s adult footage. And “The Controversy” looks at the film’s reception. (The reviews weren’t exactly glowing.)
The only new extra is archival, too. The “EPK Interviews,” which clock in at all of 10 minutes, convene De Palma, Wasson and Griffith to rehash what they talked about in the short features. By the way, EPK means Electronic Press Kit, which means De Palma and Co. were hardly on the hotseat during these made-to-order, softball “interviews.”
Who’d have guessed?
-- Craig Shapiro
(1-4) Jake rushes to Gloria’s aid when she’s attacked and murdered with the business end of a drill. (5) He’s questioned by Detective Jim McLean (Guy Boyd), who has his doubts about Jake’s account. (6) Suspecting that something isn’t kosher about Gloria’s murder, Jake decides to investigate for himself, leading him to porn star Holly Body (Melanie Griffith).
Sorry, more glorification of ugliness the world doesn't need.