The Sadist (1963) 92m.
In the midst of the piffle produced by the low-budget exploitation trio of
James Landis (director), Arch Hall Jr (actor and wannabe pop singer) and
Arch Hall Snr (producer and nepotist) appeared this surprisingly efficient
suspense flick. The key to its success is the decision by Arch Hall (both
of them) to take time out from Junior's grooming as a movie matinee idol and
cast him as a sniveling creep. Apart from a little racooning around the
eyes, Hall Jr doesn't appear much different here than from his other guises
as ladies' man or rock star in his Dad's other movies, which proves all the
more that he should have made the switch to character acting, even if he
would have ended up playing heavies for most of his career. If you see Hall
for the first time in this movie, you'll see what I mean: even though his
broad nose and monobrow – classic hallmarks of the b-movie thug – are at
odds with his pampered bouffant of blond hair, he is a memorable villain,
mugging furiously throughout, grinding his teeth, leering, squinting,
scrunching up his nose, giggling, talking in a sing-song voice, walking as
if he's constipated and giving a performance that would be terrible if we
didn't believe that the character he plays was immature enough to behave in
such a manner in the first place.
The story is a simple one – really it's just a situation: three people on
their way to a ball game become stranded in an auto yard in the desert, soon
to discover that a young psychopath and his girlfriend are have gotten there
first. The first moment Hall appears we see only his gun filling most of
the screen: it's clear that he needs this prop to give him authority, and
behind its safety he sneers to the other (older) males in the film as 'big
talkers' and 'big men'. As Charlie Tibbs (inspired by 50s thrill killer
Charlie Starkweather) Hall is just a big kid who drinks Cokes, necks with
his girlfriend (a simple-minded babyface who never speaks), rejects his
parents, hates school and fears cops (the only adults in the small cast are
teachers and policemen). This guy is the playground bully of your worst
dreams. The acting at the beginning of the picture is stilted (the heroine
Helen Hovey keeps bleating out leading questions to inform us just how nasty
Hall is, and potential victim Richard Alden's idea of avoiding a casual
execution is to declare `Surely blowing my head off can't give you a
thrill') but becomes less noticeable as the story starts knuckling down.
The tension of THE SADIST is maintained because (1) we can't see anything
changing or developing, (2) the good guys spend nearly the whole movie being
held at bay by the point of a gun, and (3) the restrictive atmosphere of the
auto yard (encircled by wrecked cars) keeps reminding us that these people
are going nowhere. What's more, this suspense is justified by some
surprising moments that most other movies wouldn't even consider.
Landis shows skill with his limited budget, proving his dexterity with both
dramatic and action scenes. If THE SADIST had crossed over from the
exploitation circuit and into the mainstream, he may well have ended up with
a studio contract. As it turned out, he was soon back with his old cronies
making the decidedly unenthusiastic NASTY RABBIT instead. Ironically the
only member of the cast and crew to break into a Hollywood career was
cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, who started out with this movie and stayed
in B-Grade limbo until he struck gold with McCABE AND MRS MILLER.
sburridge@hotmail.com
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