Mail 0. Review: Alice, Sweet Alice T he story of a 12-year-old girl, Alice (Paula E. Sheppard), who may have killed her younger sister (Brooke Shields), Alice, Sweet Alice conflates the angst of adolescent sexual development with the fury of Catholic retribution, … 'Alice, Sweet Alice' is a movie that swings received notions of guilt and innocence and moral corruption around like a dead cat in a tornado-set game of Blind Man's Bluff where the tornado is made of knives and the dead cat is what is left of audience expectation. Director Alfred Sole crafts a terrific film that delivers effective shock and will most likely make you feel uncomfortable. [27] Sole recalled that Shields's mother "bent over backwards to help me out. Behind The Glass video was released in June, and Fangs video on October 31st! [24] Because of the repeated starts and stops, the production had to recurrently hire new cameramen; Sole estimated that a total of six different cameramen worked on the film. "[85] Time Out, London praised the film for constructing "a running commentary on the themes of Alfred Hitchcock: against a carefully evoked background of Catholicism emerge twin themes of repression and guilt. In 1961, a divorced catholic couple's life is turned upside down when one of their two adolescent daughters is suspected of her younger sister's brutal murder during her First Communion, and a series of subsequent stabbings. Simultaneously, Mr. Alphonso wakes up screaming, as Alice had mischievously placed a jar of cockroaches on him while he slept. Filming took place throughout the summer of 1975 in Paterson and Newark. Why did Father Tom refuse to give Mrs. Tredoni communion. [22] Nonetheless, the film's incorporation of subtle dark humor and its unsympathetic portrayal of religion — both motifs of giallo thrillers — led to the film's reputation as the most "gialloesque" American film in history. We’re open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Sunday. "[12] Hogan views the film as an extension of such features as What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? "[72] William Whitaker of the Abilene Reporter-News similarly criticized the film's violence as "a little too much after awhile," but conceded that the "script has enough imagination and the direction enough insight to make it passable fare as far as these kind of films go. Sheila O'Malley of Film Comment notes that: "From one scene to the next, religious iconography overwhelms the screen: paintings of Mary and Christ, marble statues, crosses on every wall, religion leering at the characters from behind. The set features twelve films in all. Her body is stuffed into a bench compartment near the confessionals, which is set on fire with a candle, but not before her crucifix is ripped from her neck. During their Christmas break, a group of sorority girls are stalked by a stranger. [15], Sole was inspired to make the film after seeing Nicolas Roeg's 1973 psychological thriller, Don't Look Now, based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier. [13], Director Alfred Sole began writing the film in 1974, collaborating with co-writer Rosemary Ritvo on the script. "[9] Despite this, Bowen asserts that the film is not "exactly an indictment of the church," but rather a "febrile portrait...  of how society enables dysfunction on multiple fronts, from the domestic to the religious to the psychiatric. An unknown killer, clad in World War II U.S. Army fatigues, stalks a small New Jersey town bent on reliving a 35 year-old double murder by focusing on a group of college kids holding an annual graduation dance. Alice Sweet Alice is an underappreciated slasher that has relevant themes and weird story lines. Karen is an insufferable child prone to tantrums, whining, and histrionics. She points at Catherine, screams that he gave communion to a whore, and stabs the priest in the throat as the police rush in. (1976). After Dominick bites Karen's crucifix off her neck, Mrs. Tredoni beats him with her shoe and pushes him out a window to his death. Religion is not a refuge in Alice, Sweet Alice. "[9], Bowen notes familial dissolution as a theme in Alice, Sweet Alice, citing the backstory involving the Spages and Dominick's separation from Catherine: "Sole allows these reverberations, particularly the parallel bitterness existing between Catherine and Annie and Karen and Alice, both of which have been intensified by religion, to gradually assert themselves into our minds...  Catherine and Dom’s splintered relationship is also portrayed as a gateway to chaos, primarily for Catherine’s distracted nature and unwillingness to face the truth of her family."[9]. Sole cast the then-19-year-old as the adolescent Alice Spages in his cult horror film, Alice, Sweet Alice (1976). Suffice to say, Alice, Sweet Alice is not a cheerful film, but it is an effective one. 88 Films then followed up with a UK premiere on Blu-ray on July 9, 2018. "[15] In addition to Paterson, some photography took place in the city of Newark. ALICE, SWEET ALICE is set in 1960s New Jersey and tells the story of the breakdown of the Spages family. In 1997, Anchor Bay Entertainment released the film on VHS in its 108-minute, fully uncut version, with remastering supervised by director Alfred Sole. Price Match Guarantee. Set in 1961 New Jersey, the film focuses on a troubled adolescent girl who becomes a suspect in the brutal murder of her younger sister at her first communion, as well as in a series of unsolved stabbings that follow. Angela Baker, a shy, traumatized young girl, is sent to summer camp with her cousin. Search for "Alice, Sweet Alice" on Amazon.com, Title: You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. After a seemingly innocent prank goes horribly wrong, a group of sorority sisters are stalked and murdered one by one in their sorority house while throwing a party to celebrate their graduation. However, she is mistreated by almost everyone in the film and is constantly compared to her well behaved, angelic older sister who gets everything that she doesn't. Karen gets most of their mother's attention, and Alice is often left out of the spotlight. [44] Among the Paterson locations was the historic Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works building, where several sequences were filmed. Pin it. "[84] Ed Gonzalez of Slant Magazine noted in his 2005 review of the film: "Possibly the closest American relation to an Italian giallo, the film is head-trippingly hilarious (Jane Lowry, as Aunt Annie, may be the nuttiest screamer in the history of cinema) and features some of the more disquieting set pieces you'll ever see in a horror film. The transfer of Alice Sweet Alice is the full-length, restored version, though the quality could be better. After a young girl is brutally murdered during her first communion, her strange and withdrawn older sister becomes the main suspect. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? [38], In the years after the film's release, Sole spoke favorably of Shields and Sheppard, though he recalled that much of the cast were "New York actors who were doing me a favor. Shop Alice, Sweet Alice [Blu-ray] [1976] at Best Buy. "[28] Sole cast Paula Sheppard, then a college student, as 12-year-old Alice, the protagonist suspected of her sister's murder. [17] In developing the character of Alice, Sole and screenwriter Ritvo aspired to create a "child who has been neglected, and who could go either way," dividing the audience in regards to her guilt or innocence in the crimes committed. Catherine's sister Annie moves in to help her through her grief, though Alice and Annie despise each other. [34], Of the supporting cast, Alphonso De Noble, a New Jersey native, was cast as the sleazy landlord after director Sole had seen him impersonating a priest in local cemeteries. [51], The film premiered under the title Communion at the Chicago International Film Festival in the fall of 1976, where it earned a Silver Medal award. Ritvo, an English doctoral student at Fordham University,[14] was Sole's neighbor, and the two often talked about films together. As more people die at the hands of a merciless killer, Alice's family and the police don't know what to believe. This release utilizes a 2k restoration of a 35mm print being the 1981 "Holy Terror" reissue and bearing said title card. [20] The character of Mrs. Tredoni, the villain, was based on a woman who lived at the Catholic rectory next-door to his grandmother's house and looked after the clergy. LinkedIn 0. Simultaneously, a nun who has noticed smoke coming from the transept locates Karen's body. [37] Lillian Roth, a former film actress-turned-Broadway performer, was cast in a minor role as the pathologist, marking her first film role in decades. While not prosecuted for obscenity, the film was seized and confiscated in the UK under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 during the video nasty panic, and was controversial in Ireland due to its apparent anti-Catholic themes. [3], Writer-director Sole's own proclaiming of himself as an "ex-Catholic" supports this interpretation of the film's religious themes and undertones. Later that day, Mrs. Tredoni sneaks into Catherine and Alice's apartment building, unaware they have left for church. Catherine sends Alice to deliver a rent check to their landlord, Mr. Alphonso, and he attempts to fondle and molest her. The first UK release was by Video International on DVD, utilizing a NTSC-PAL converted 4:3 video master with BBFC cuts to the scene where a kitten is aggressively grabbed and thrown around the room (which eventually ended up getting waved with later DVD releases, as it was discovered the cat grabbing shot was a camera angle trick and that a stuffed toy kitten was used for the tossing shots).
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