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6
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6 |
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10
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Guest
Review by Troy
Howarth |
A
pop star (Jack Jones) looking to make a comeback
fears that somebody is trying to kill him... but
could he be losing his mind?
In essence
a variation on Henri-Georges Clouzot's venerable
sting-in-the-tail classic Les
Diaboliques, The
Comeback is a comparatively low key Pete
Walker film. Built around the novelty of beefy
pop star Jack Jones being put through the kind
of routine normally designated for large-breasted
starlets, the film offers further evidence of
Walker's growth as a stylist.
The
film marks a departure from Walker's earlier horror
pictures in that the concept is an innocuous one
— whereas his earlier
works sought to be as controversial as possible,
offering up savage critiques of everything from
law and order (House
of Whipcord) to the clergy (The
Confessional), this one is more content to
adhere to the tried and true conventions of previous
suspense films. Using Les
Diaboliques as his model, Walker ensures
that surprises will be few and far between, but
he has a lot of fun putting Jones through the
motions, inverting the usual damsel in distress
clichés to good effect. Naturally Walker can't
resist working in a few shocks, however, with
some of them ranking among the best of his filmography
— gore buffs will
appreciate some of the wetter imagery, for sure.
The film's success really hinges
on the central performance by Jack Jones, and
fortunately for Walker the singer-turned-actor
proves to be a likable and credible leading man.
Essentially playing a variation on himself, Jones
moves believably from macho man to quivering emotional
wreck without overdoing the histrionics. It's
to Walker's credit that he decided to explore
the idea of inverting the classic terror film
image of the damsel in distress to fit a swaggering
male, but Jones' contribution should not be underestimated
— a relatively inexperienced actor, Jones rises
to the dramatic needs of the material and gives
the film a much needed human focal point. Pamela
Stephenson, better known as a comedienne on British
TV (she also appeared with Vincent Price in the
unfortunate spoof Bloodbath
at the House of Death, 1983), makes for
an attractive love interest for Jones, but the
real thesping meat is to be found in the gallery
of character actors: David Doyle, best known for
his role as Bosley on TV's Charlie's Angels,
has an unusual role as Jones' cross-dressing agent;
Richard Johnson (Zombie,
The Haunting) makes
a welcome cameo as a psychiatrist; and Walker
mainstay Sheila Keith adds another notch to her
gallery of eccentrics as the seemingly sweet old
housekeeper. Jack Palance's daughter, Holly (best
known for hanging herself in The
Omen, 1976), has a small role, as well.
Walker's
direction is sure-footed throughout. Never the
most inspired of stylists, he nevertheless shows
tremendous competence at this stage of his career
and he manages to engineer a few nicely timed
shocks. Technical credits are solid, as well.
Peter Jessop's cinematography is appropriately
moody, especially in the interiors, but there
is a general drabness to the photography that
typifies his work for Walker. In terms of the
camerawork and composition, however, the film
is considerably slicker than his earlier films.
The pacing is nicely controlled —
while the film never exactly zips along, Walker
avoids burdening the film with too much padding
or filler. If the film has a problem it's simply
that the setup is too familiar at this point.
Walker gets some added mileage out of the central
gimmick, but a few more surprises in the story
would have gone a long way towards making this
a more effective thriller. Taken on its own terms,
however, it's a reasonably entertaining example
of its genre.
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Shriek Show's release of
The Comeback, as
part of their Pete Walker Collection, again
offers the same transfer and extras present in
the Anchor Bay U.K. (Region
2) disc. The back
of the box indicates that the film is 1.85/16x9,
but the film is identical to the fullframe, anamorphic
U.K. release. Print quality is very good, with
decent color and detail, but the transfer again
loses some points for being downgraded from PAL
to NTSC. The compositions look fine in the 1.33
ratio, suggesting the film might have been shot
open matte with TV sales in mind. Even so, the
image is acceptable and should certainly suffice
for R1 viewers. Soundtrack options include the
original mono, as well as a pointless 5.1 remix.
The mono track is clean and clear —
there is no background noise to report, and dialogue,
music and sound effects come through very well.
Extras include a trailer, talent bios and an audio
commentary featuring Walker. It's a good track,
with Walker again proving to be a solid, unpretentious
craftsman at ease discussing his work.
4/26/06
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