Die, Die My Darling... no, seriously, DIE!

If you've ever seen the movie "Die, Die My Darling" (or "Fanatic") from 1965, then you know where I'm coming from...

This was the first film I'd watched with Stefanie Powers; I'd recently become interested in seeing her work since a friend of mine was apparently named after her. However, this isn't why I had the movie in my house, I got it as a birthday present along with a lot of other DVDs this past October.

We'll start from the beginning, because a song in movie (I can't stand) once told me its a good place to start. As my wife and I watched the opening credits, it took me a few seconds but I eventually realized what was going on and shouted, "It's a game of cat and mouse!" The opening credits played a piece of music that was very out of place for a horror flick and showed footage of a cat chasing around a mouse. The opening credits, I feel, would have been better suited for a family movie. In the end of the opening credits, the mouse gets away and I shouted, "Oh, no! The mouse got away, this will end up being the entire movie!" Prepare to be spoiled: I was right. And you can't be mad at me, because the opening credits would have given it away anyhow.

On to some good points, though, after the opening credits I began to feel a bit better about this movie. The first scene was with Stefanie Powers and her (what I thought to be sexist) fiance driving. The dialogue was pretty bad, but I took note of some interesting cinematography techniques for the time period. I'm pretty certain they were actually driving in traffic, as opposed to driving in front of a screen. This made me feel better about the film, though at their destination some dialogue ensued that made plenty of sense but would have made Powers's character look much more intelligent if she would have used some real life terms of reasoning, instead of just going, "It's just something I have to do" or whatever. I kept thinking to myself during this dialogue, "Just say it is the only way you can truly resolve the matter and get it over with!" Oh, right... I was suppose to be talking about good points.

In the beginning of the film, the cinematography did some very innovative stuff for the time period and the shot where Powers's character drives up to the crazy, old lady's house for the first time is prime example of this. However, the cinematography soon took on a standard, painful turn and the script kept bombing and Powers's character constantly irritated me, because she was the biggest wuss ever! I mean, come on, in the first scramble of the movie she falls on her own briefcase and is rendered useless. She holds herself, grunting and moaning in pain like she broke her rib on her padded, 60s briefcase. Um, DOUBT IT!

The movie truly saddened me, because the actors were truly talented actors but they were selling out to melodramatic measures for a script with little substance (basically a kind of reverse/retelling of "Psycho"). Not that "Psycho" didn't have substance, but it seemed to steal from it and then didn't deliver much on its own. A young Donald Sutherland was fun to watch (as he always is), turning in probably the only non-melodramatic role in the movie.

There were a few redeeming qualities, like sometimes a fantastic concept for a suspenseful scene would begin and I often found myself getting excited and thinking, "This is like a Hitchcock scene!" But, in the end the scenes just didn't deliver the masterful finish like Hitchcock's scenes do.

Oh, random note, I love how Stefanie Powers changes out of her day outfit into her white gown

for a nap, then into an evening outfit after the nap and then into a red gown for night sleeping. How many outfits can one woman bring on a trip, seriously? And in two briefcases?! And do you really need separate gowns for naps and bedtime at night? Well, they just wanted her in as many outfits as possible before she wore one for the rest of the movie, I guess. Not that she wasn't styling or anything, because she was... it was all very retro and classy, but a little over the top.

In closing, the look Stefanie Powers is making in the picture above is often made in times of violent turmoil. It was like the director told Stefanie Powers (our heroine) she was doing a comedy (so she went for the Jack Sparrow approach to violence) and then the director turned around and told Tallulah Bankhead (our villain) that she was in a horror film. The result: Huh?

(aside) Just as I was about to publish this peachy review, I switched to another browser which still had Tallulah Bankhead's http://www.imdb.com/ profile showing. As I closed the browser, the year 1968 caught my eye and I recognized it being near her date of birth or date of death. Knowing there was no way it was her date of birth, I opened another browser and went back to her profile. Sure enough, Tallulah Bankhead died only three years after this movie was released of pneumonia and influenza. So, now I realize I feel a bit bad spending so much time bashing her second to last film. Her last credit was as Black Widow in two episodes of the original "Batman" series. In light of this, I will say that despite some melodrama in this movie, there is one scene in particular where she truly stood out. Its a strange scene where you see a fantastic glimpse into her character's grief and inner struggle to honor her dead son, keep on the path of what she considers right and not give in to what she considers sin (which most people consider every day norms). I remember being sucked in as she cried and screamed, torn to do wrong and even giving in for a moment. In that one scene, I think she truly shined despite the screenplay's faults. And as I noted earlier about this movie, "the actors were truly talented actors." Indeed, she was. The picture on the right was taken, obviously, from when she was much younger. At death, she was 66 years old.