I was reluctant to see The
Changeling. I knew that it was on the list, so I'd have to watch
it eventually, but I was in absolutely no rush. The main reason was
George C. Scott. I had so much trouble imagining him in the role of
a sensitive, grief-stricken father that I expected the movie to be
laughable, but I was pleasantly surprised by just how well he carried
the film. He showed the appropriate sensitivity, but also gave a
strength and a weight to his character that helped the film
immensely.
Scott plays John Russell, a wealthy
composer whose wife and daughter (Jean Marsh and Michelle Martin) die
in a horrible accident. He decides to move from New York to
Washington State to get away from his old life. He feels that he
needs to force himself to be productive to better deal with his
grief, so he resumes teaching and composing.
Strange noises, and eventually visions,
begin in Russell's house. He discovers that the house is haunted by
a young boy named Joseph Carmichael (Voldi Way). The details of
Joseph's death are one of the most tragic things I've ever seen
portrayed in film. Joseph's mother was a wealthy heiress who passed
away when he was still a child, and Joseph himself was a sickly boy.
This made Joseph the heir to his Grandfather's fortune, but if he
died before the age of 21, the entire estate would pass to charity.
Desperate to keep control of the fortune, Joseph's father drowned him
and had him replaced with a healthy orphan, fleeing to Europe until
the orphan was too old to be easily identified as a fake. (Under the
guise of looking for a “cure” for Joseph).
When dealing with supernatural
presences in film, I always find ghosts to be far more interesting
than demons. A ghost, even if his behavior is irrational, at least
has rational goals. This makes a ghost function as a character we
can relate to. In this particular case, a great deal of the fear
comes from the fact that there can be little, if anything, resembling
justice for the ghost. He's dead, and his father passed without
facing any consequences.
The movie does give in to some
Hollywood cliches which drag it down a bit. The hero must have a
female love interest (Trish Van Devere), to whom he can recite
exposition. I have no strong opinion either way on Van Devere's
performance, but her actual character adds fairly little. Also, the
ghost must, at some point, stop giving people visions and begin
attacking them physically.
I also find John's status as a wealthy
composer to be a bit baffling. He seems to have been given an
arbitrarily large fortune simply because the plot required him to
live in a house previously occupied by the fabulously wealthy. I
could speculate on several reasons why they made this creative choice
instead of just giving him a different job, but it would likely take
up far more space than I'm prepared to devote to it.
While the role is small, Scott's real
co-star is Melvyn Douglas, as (for lack of a name other than “Joseph
Carmichael”) the Changeling. While Douglas doesn't get a lot of
screen time, he does a good job of making the Changeling, now a
Senator, out to be a decent old man, completely oblivious of his
(adoptive) father's crime. His role is tricky, as we have to like
him, even as he must be in conflict with John, denying the entire
allegation.
The ending comes across as just plain
silly to me, and I feel like it's the result of a cop-out with the
writers not being able to think of any other way to appease the
spirit. The Changeling seems to astral-project himself into the
house (rather than, you know, actually going there), and goes to the
room of the original Joseph Carmichael to witness the ghostly
reenactment of his father's crime. Then, the room blows up, and the
Changeling has a heart attack.
I think the idea of the Changeling
dying could have worked well. A 6-year-old's concept of “justice”
is likely quite weak, and presumably he simply wanted to turn his
years of pain onto someone else. However, it should have been done
in a more subtle way, focusing on the emotions, and certainly should
not have involved an explosion.
I do recommend this movie. It's a bit
slow-moving, but it’s entertaining. It's tragic, well-acted, and
has some points of real originality.
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