I read on Wednesday night that Peter Medak had died, and since I was already thinking of watching his 1980 film The Changeling for my October viewing anyway, that news kind of settled what I’d be watching tonight. As I’ve said, I’ve been limiting myself this month to first-time watches, and trying to finally see some films I really should’ve seen years ago. This was one of those films; I REALLY should’ve seen this long before now. The Changeling tells the story of composer John Russell, who’s just lost his wife and child in an appalling accident, and he finds himself somewhere else to live. Unfortunately for him, one of the previous residents of the house hasn’t quite left it… or at least they didn’t leave it under normal circumstances. If the film has one major problem, it’s the music; not that it’s bad or anything (a lot of it is very good), it’s just that I felt the film leaned a little too heavily on it to announce “this is some spooky shit, folks”, as if it didn’t quite trust the audience to get it. Pacing could maybe have been tighter too, though it gets better in the second half and builds to a really great conclusion. But The Changeling is very much carried by George C. Scott in the lead role; it’s the sort of film that needs a really good main performance, and Scott delivers, alongside Trish Van Devere as the female co-lead, who was his wife at that time (so you’d hope there would be something between the two). Peter Medak’s career had almost been destroyed a few years earlier by Peter Sellers when the latter worked with him and Spike Milligan on a production that became a nightmare; I’m pleased that he eventually overcame that debacle to produce this very fine bit of work.
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