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| A mysterious, stressful poster for Brian De Palma's The Fury, which hints at the telepathic powers involved in the plot |
Kirk Douglas (A Lovely Way to Die (1968)) plays a father, whose son is kidnapped by a secret governmental department inside the CIA, who want him for his telepathic abilities. With the help of a young woman with a similar talent, Douglas searches for his son.
The Fury is written by John Farris (Dear Dead Delilah (1972)), based on his own same-titled 1976 novel, and directed by great New Jerseyite filmmaker Brian De Palma (Hi, Mom! (1970)), whose 11th feature it is. It is an odd b-film, reminiscent of the better films Carrie (1976), - also by De Palma, - and David Cronenberg's Scanners (1981).
The story wallows in pseudo-science and is weak. John Cassavetes (Machine Gun McCain (1969)) plays a part in The Fury, SPOILER and when he literally explodes in sensational details in the ending, the film attains its tentative third ♥ in my assessment. But The Fury is surely no-one's finest hour.
Related posts:
Brian De Palma: Carlito's Way (1993) - De Palma's best gangster movie
Carrie (1976) or, Don't Bully the Strange Girl!
Watch a short TV teaser for the film here
Cost: 5.5 -7.5 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: Reportedly 24 mil. $
= Box office success - maybe even a big hit (cost returned 3.2 - 4.3 times)
[The Fury was released 10 March (USA) and runs 118 minutes. De Palma cast Douglas, a major star, because he had felt that his previous telekinesis movie Carrie had suffered at the box office for missing a major star. Shooting took place in Israel and in Los Angeles, California and in Illinois, including Chicago, from July - August 1977. The hotel scene was shot in Chicago's Plymouth Hotel, which would also be used in John Landis' masterpiece The Blues Brothers (1980). Later stars Dennis Franz and Daryl Hannah make their movie debuts in The Fury, and Jim Belushi is an extra. SPOILER The first take of Cassavetes' body exploding wasn't successful, and it took nearly a week to prepare a second take. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this one. De Palma returned with Home Movies (1979), again with Douglas, who returned before that in The Villain (1979). Cassavetes returned in Brass Target (1978). The Fury is fresh at 80 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Fury?
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