Other, the

Twins Chris and Martin Udvarnoky were perfectly cast as twins Niles and Holland Perry. They had been discovered doing plays for Herbert Berghof, who just happened to be married to Uta Hagen. This movie was the only film work the twins ever did. They just seemed to drop out of sight afterward, heightening the reality of their performances. When I first saw this film in a theatre in 1972, I bought the extant twins premise. It was skillfully handled visually by Mulligan. I was strung along until midway when Uta Hagen, as the grandmother Ada Perry, revealed to the young Niles that his "bad" brother, Holland, had been dead for a year.

The movie worked on two levels successfully. There was a sun-kissed rural 1930's heartland, a kid's woodland paradise, on the one hand; great spans of forest and field, old barns, and dark mysterious cellars. Juxtaposed to that, overlapping and intermeshing with that, we discovered a Gothic plot; complete with a doomed family haunted by dark psychic powers, whose family crest was a peregrine falcon, for their name Perry, emblazoned on an heirloom ring, and on the creaking weathervane high atop the Victorian style house. Murder stalked the Perry farm, and spread out to the neighbors; murder disguised as accident.

Mulligan orchestrated wonderful touching moments between Uta Hagen and young Chris as Niles...loving moments whereby a blue-eyed angelic tow-headed child adored his wise and spirtually advanced grandmother. Much was made of the special psychic games they played, with Niles projecting his mind, and perhaps even his essence, into things and others; guessing the sex of his sister's unborn child, and even projecting into a crow, able to cognizantly fly freely over the farmlands cawing greetings to all it recognized. This was a game that Niles was so adept at, had perfected so well, that he had no difficulty dealing with his own split personality, and embracing a form of complete denial at to his brother's actual death, and further denial as to his own responsiblity for conducting divers heinous acts in the guise of, or as Holland. So Niles never had to be alone, would not accept being alone.

Diana Muldaur, as the mother Alexandra, was simply wonderful as the archetypical Gothic doomed heroine; beautiful, vulnerable, descending into madness and darkness and near catatonia. Her meager attempts to regain some emotional balance, to recapture the light, were soon dashed by the evil actions and reactions of Niles, who seemed to love her and loathe her, and definitely wished her harm.

Uta Hagen, a great actress of the Theatre, completed only three films, and a slew of television roles. In this one, she was very effective as a kind of Maria Ouspenskaya mid-European matriarch, with some kind of a dark past, and considerable psychic abilities. She radiated love for her entire doomed family, and riddled with guilt for her part in the machinations of plot, she was willing to sacrifice, to martyr herself in order to stop the killings. It was a kinky and delicious twist that her sacrifice was to no avail.

Victor French gave a fine performance in the small role of the farm handyman, Mr. Angelini [nice symbolism]. He did well with is brief scenes, illustrating the frustration and lonliness of an emigrant in America during the Depression; a man descended into drunkeness as a panacea or refuge; only to find himself dragged from his enebriated sweaty slumber and accused of murdering an infant; ala the Lindburgh case of that era. We witnessed racial prejudice and insane mob rule as the family and the authorities leaped headlong to incorrect conclusions. John Ritter was adequate in the likewise small role of Rider, the son-in-law living in the Perry household. It was a tiny part, but it hinted at Ritter's future talents.

The ironic ending reasonated with all the significant chords of a horror contata. At the fade, one wondered who would be next on the adolescent death list? Mulligan struck gold mining Tryon's dark tale.