Dead of Winter

Dead of Winter
For the short story by Stephen Dedman, see Dead of Winter (short story).
Dead of Winter

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Arthur Penn
Produced by John Bloomgarden
Marc Shmuger
Written by Anthony Gilbert
Marc Shmuger
Mark Malone
Starring Mary Steenburgen
Roddy McDowall
Jan Rubeš
Music by Richard Einhorn
Cinematography Jan Weincke
Editing by Rick Shaine
Studio MGM
Distributed by United Artists
Release date(s) January 1987 (1987-01) (Avoriaz)
February 6, 1987 (1987-02-06) (United States)
Running time 100 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $2,413,427 (USA)

Dead of Winter is a thriller film made in 1987 It was directed by Arthur Penn and is a remake of the 1945 film My Name Is Julia Ross and stars Mary Steenburgen who plays three roles in the film.

Contents

Plot

During the opening credits, a woman drives to a train station on New Year's Eve to retrieve a satchel full of cash. Later that night, she is strangled, and her left ring finger is removed.

In New York, struggling actress Katie McGovern (Mary Steenburgen) lives with her husband Rob Sweeney (William Russ) and her brother Roland (Mark Malone). At an audition, Mr. Murray (Roddy McDowall) hires her immediately.

The pair drive upstate into the teeth of a raging snow storm. When they arrive at the home of Dr. Joseph Lewis (Jan Rubeš), he graciously greets Katie from his wheelchair. He gives her a tour of the house, which features a number of trophies from his hunting days, including two massive stuffed polar bears. Katie asks to use the phone to call Rob but finds it has no dial tone. Dr. Lewis explains that the storm must have downed the lines and that Mr. Murray would drive her into town in the morning to make her call if they were still down.

Over dinner, Dr. Lewis explains that Katie has been hired to replace Julia Ross, an actress who had a nervous breakdown during a film shoot. Katie is stunned to see photos of Julia, exclaiming, "I could be her sister!" Dr. Lewis explains that they will shoot a test reel on videotape tomorrow, which the director will view when he arrives.

The following day, Mr. Murray tries to drive Katie into town to make her phone call, but his car will not start. Mr. Murray then cuts and dyes Katie's hair to match the photos of Julia. Katie asks him how he met Dr. Lewis. Mr. Murray explains that Dr. Lewis was his psychiatrist. The shoot goes well. Katie's lines are all about the attack seen at the beginning of the film.

That evening, Mr. Murray sneaks out of the house and reconnects the car's ignition. He drives to another house nearby where a woman, whose face is never shown, watches him from her window. He slips the videotape into her mail slot, and she watches the video of Katie. After the test reel footage, Dr. Lewis appears on the video to tell the viewer that they need to meet.

The next morning, as Katie looks for Dr. Lewis she stumbles on a notebook with Polaroids of Julia's corpse. Horrified, she confronts Dr. Lewis with the evidence. He explains that Julia's nervous breakdown ended with her suicide and apologizes for leaving out that detail. Later that day in the parlor, Katie is startled by a pop in the fireplace, where she sees her driver's license burning. Unable to retrieve it, she rushes to her room and sees that all of her ID is missing from her wallet. As night falls, Katie sneaks out of the house without a coat. She tries to steal the car, but it is locked. The weather is so ferocious that she ends up crawling to the top of a hill where, to her horror, Mr. Murray is waiting for her.

Back at the house, she demands to know what is going on. Dr. Lewis pretends her imagination is running wild. Katie realizes that Mr. Murray has drugged her hot chocolate, and she returns to her room, barricading the door with a mound of furniture before she passes out. As she sleeps, Mr. Murray enters her room from behind her full-length mirror. Katie wakes up in a fresh sleeping gown with a bandaged hand. She peels off the bandages to find that her left ring finger has been removed. Seeing that her barricade is undisturbed, Katie quickly finds the door behind the mirror and sees a staircase to the attic, which has a working phone. She calls Rob and explains that they are going to kill her. Rob asks where she is, but Katie can only remember vague landmarks about the drive upstate. Rob orders her to hang up the phone and call the police, which she does. As she collapses on a sofa, she sees the body of Julia Ross being eaten by a rat. Mr. Murray arrives and rips the handset out of the phone, taking her back downstairs to Dr. Lewis.

As Dr. Lewis redresses her finger, he explains that Julia was involved in a vicious family feud with her sister, Evelyn. As a radical therapy, Dr. Lewis had convinced her to blackmail her sister, theorizing that it would help her achieve a catharsis. He was pleased with Julia's progress, but did not expect Evelyn to kill her, ordering the hit man to take her finger as proof. During his explanation, the police arrive. Dr. Lewis has just sedated Katie, and the combination of the sedative which confuses Katie and Dr. Lewis' claim that she is his patient convince the police to leave without much of an investigation. Meanwhile, Rob and Roland have begun to drive upstate, using the handful of clues they have to try to locate Katie.

When Katie wakes again, Evelyn is standing over her. Dr. Lewis is displaying Katie to prove that Julia is still alive and continue the blackmail. Katie slowly emerges from the sedative as Mr. Murray returns her to her room. Awake again, she fakes an escape attempt, luring Dr. Lewis and Mr. Murray out of the house. She pleads with Evelyn to help her escape, but Evelyn is convinced she is really Julia and attacks her. Katie kills Evelyn and poses as her to try to escape. When Mr. Murray realizes the ruse, Katie stabs him in the neck. Dr. Lewis is also not fooled by the disguise and lunges out of his wheelchair at Katie. Using a fire poker as a crutch, he follows her upstairs and eventually into the attic, where Katie manages to kill him. Rob and Roland arrive with the police, who they had convinced to revisit the house.

Cast

Critical Reaction

Dead of Winter has a 75% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[1] In Janet Maslin's review for The New York Times, she wrote, "When a director approaches Gothic horror with this much enthusiasm, the results are bound to be as merry as they are frightening. So audiences for Arthur Penn's Dead of Winter are in for a hair-raising treat."[2] Roger Ebert concluded that, "The movie itself is finally just an exercise in silliness - great effort to little avail - but the actors have fun with it, the sets work and there are one or two moments with perfect surprises."[3]

Writing for The Washington Post, Paul Attanasio asserts that Steenburgen "manages with e'lan an assignment that has her playing three parts". He faulted the lengthy build up to the final confrontation, "An hour's worth of exposition is a long wait, and if the payoff isn't quite worth it, it is fun. After nine yards of soggy oatmeal, you're reintroduced to the pleasures of an old-fashioned haunted house."[4] The staff review of the film in Variety found Rubeš to be lacking as the villain, "Steenburgen and McDowall are the adversaries to follow, even though it would seem more likely that the wheel-chair bound doctor (Jan Rubes) should be the one to watch. Rubes is simply not sinister enough to be the mastermind behind this scheme."[5]

References

  1. ^ Rotten Tomatoes
  2. ^ Maslin, Janet (February 6, 1987). 'Dead of Winter' A Gothic Horror Tale', The New York Times.
  3. ^ Ebert, Roger (February 6, 1987). Dead of Winter.
  4. ^ Attanasio, Paul (February 6, 1987). "Dead of Winter" The Washington Post.
  5. ^ Staff (December 31, 1986) "Dead of Winter" Variety.

External links

v · d · eFilms directed by Arthur Penn
1950s
1960s
The Miracle Worker (1962) · Mickey One (1965) · The Chase (1966) · Bonnie and Clyde (1967) · Alice's Restaurant (1969)
1970s
Little Big Man (1970) · Night Moves (1975) · The Missouri Breaks (1976)
1980s
Four Friends (1981) · Target (1985) · Dead of Winter (1987) · Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989)

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