Years ago, I wanted to check out thrillers of the late 1970s, so for some silly reason, I felt like giving "Eyes of Laura Mars" a try. I know when I was 9, and going to the theater where "Grease" and "Foul Play" were also playing (two much better heralded 1978 hits), that grim poster of "Eyes of Laura Mars" really gave me nightmares, but as I got older, I overcame them.
The good news of this movie was the 1970s fashions and culture, the New York backdrop, the stylish cinematography, and a intriguing murder mystery about a fashion photographer with "visions" of her friends getting killed one by one before the killer gets to her. The bad news was that the murder mystery was played so gruesomely with the type of killings one doesn't want to talk or think about, most of the characters were created so bitterly and hatefully (with the exception of Rene Auberjonois of "Benson" fame, for comic relief, as a cheerfully gay guy,) as in many kinky movies, and the ending was such a mess. "Eyes" would have been a good, silly, fun, even kinky film if everyone just lightened up, didn't take themselves so seriously, or if the killings weren't so ugly. Spoiler alert - just because the killer was so good looking, didn't mean he or she had to be it for the payoff. By now, everyone who has witnessed this movie knows who the killer was.
Oh, here I go again. I'm always blogging back to "Foul Play," but that's my lifelong movie fetish. Yes, "Eyes of Laura Mars" did play exactly next door to "Foul Play" when I saw "Foul Play," and before that, "Grease." I'm glad that my parents took me to see those two. I was much too young, and I would have been too frightened to see "Eyes." I don't think anyone in my family would like "Eyes." But "Eyes" and "Foul Play" do have a few, if any, characteristics in common. The protagonists are damsels in distress, with Faye Dunaway less innocent than Goldie Hawn, falling in love with police lieutenants, Tommy Lee Jones less charming and upbeat than Chevy Chase, while being stalked by villains in big cities - San Francisco for "Foul Play" and New York for "Eyes." Hey, Dudley Moore got the kinky bits, but he was cheerfully kinky. That's all I have to say. And who can imagine a light buffoon like Chevy Chase beating the gritty Tommy Lee Jones to a a pulp, or the giggly, wide-eyed Goldie Hawn doing the same to the tough-as-nails Faye Dunaway? It may sound strange, but it was true, which is why we all loved Goldie and Chevy back in 1978 and they returned to make another movie in 1980, and we chose to forget Faye and Tommy Lee as a duo.
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WarpedRecord
15 years ago
Interesting analysis of Faye and Tommy and Goldie and Chevy (hmmmmm ... that sounds like a movie in itself). While I saw a lot more to like in "Eyes," I'm also glad I didn't drag my parents to it, for I was too young, they would have been shocked, and we all would have been very uncomfortable. Instead, I'd just watch it alone late at night on HBO when they were sleeping.
As for Faye and Tommy's chemistry, certainly they didn't have the charm of Chevy and Goldie, but I saw a certain raw sensuality between the two that I still find appealing. Of course, the relationship almost seems like a metaphor for the dangers of intimacy when you know the ending, much like "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" is seen as a warning against picking up strangers and the dangers that would soon arise from that. Of course, Goldie and Chevy's work wasn't nearly so threatening, which is one reason the public so willingly embraced them. But perhaps I'm reading too much into this.
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puffball97
15 years ago
You got it right. While "Foul Play" is such a cheerful mystery-comedy, it seems to have so many "evil twins." The more serious mystery thrillers set in the big cities with characters who are not so nice and imagery that is so ugly. As I keep saying, "Foul Play" has such beautiful imagery and jolly, jovial characters.
Use the word "sensuality." Faye and Tommy Lee had few romantic scenes, and I didn't find anything sensual about it. Okay, now I'm digressing back to my lifelong fetish and security blanket of Goldie and Chevy. If you want to use the word "sensual," I believe from day one that they are funny and sensual together in every comic and romantic scene in both "Foul Play" and "Seems Like Old Times." That's my sensuality. Chevy added his own sensuality as the playboy in "Caddyshack," but that's a whole other story.
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