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Baffled!
R2 - United Kingdom - Network Review written by and copyright: Paul Lewis (18th May 2010). |
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The Film
 Baffled! (Philip Leacock, 1973) 
Originally intended as a pilot for a television series (see Nimoy, 1995: 129), Baffled! features Leonard Nimoy as Tom Kovack, a professional racecar driver. During a race in Pennsylvania, Kovack suffers what seems to be a hallucination which causes him to crash. Later, interviewed on television after recovering from the crash (which left Kovack technically dead for a few moments), Kovack is asked about the hallucination he suffered during the race. He tells the interviewer that he perceived himself driving towards a large, isolated country house before, as his car crashed, experiencing a montage of disconnected mages: Kovack’s face, crying out as he falls from a great height; a woman (Vera Miles) screaming; and a younger woman (Jewel Blanche) descending a staircase. Following the television interview, Kovack is approached by Michelle Brent (Susan Hampshire), a psychic who attempts to convince Kovack that his hallucination was in fact a psychic vision, and that the woman that Kovack saw may be in danger. Kovack reveals to Brent that the vision was accompanied by a whispered declaration, ‘Wyndham, in Devon’. After Brent has left, Kovack has another vision of the house, visualizing himself falling from a seaward balcony into the raging sea below. After the vision subsides, Kovack finds himself standing in his apartment, covered in seawater. The vision convinces him to take Brent’s claims seriously, and after research, Brent and Kovack identify the house in Kovack’s vision, and make plans to travel to Wyndham. 
When Kovack and Brent arrive in Wyndham, they meet Mrs Sandford (Vera Miles), a famous film actress, and her young daughter Jennifer (Blanche), who have traveled to Devon and are staying in the house Kovack saw in his vision. (The other guest in the house is a Milanese engineer named Varelli, played by Christopher Benjamin.) Sandford is separated from her husband, Duncan, who lives in Devon; Jennifer has apparently never met her father and is hoping to meet him for the first time. Duncan seems to have disappeared, but at night Jenny sneaks out of the building and meets with a man who claims to be her father. ‘Duncan’ seems to be hiding out, and over time appears to be using Jenny as an agent of his will. Duncan gives Jenny a mysterious locket, and overnight she transforms from an amiable young girl into a surly, mini-skirted adolescent. Kovack has a vision which leads him to conclude that Jenny is attempting to poison her mother, and later Jenny lures Kovack onto the cliffs where he falls into the raging sea below - but luckily survives. Brent and Kovack conclude that Jenny is being controlled by sorcery, and together they try to uncover the reasons why Jenny is being used to make an attempt on her mother’s life. Baffled! weaves the occult elements into its narrative quite well: Kovack’s visions give an intimation of events that are to happen later in the narrative (a form of prolepsis) but never reveal so much information as to negate the suspense. 
The film is in some ways similar to Roger Marshall and Jacqueline Davis’ series Zodiac (Thames, 1974), recently released on DVD by Network, in its bolting of occult elements onto what is essentially a thriller framework. Like Zodiac (and later series such as The X Files; Fox, 1993-2002), Baffled! teams a ‘believer’ (in this case, Brent, who claims to be psychic) with a sceptic (Kovack): the irony is that although Brent claims to be a psychic, she has none of Kovack’s sensitivity. Kovack’s decision to trust Brent comes a little too quickly though, and the narrative mechanism by which Kovack’s turnaround is instigated (the vision he experiences of falling into the sea, from which he awakens covered with seawater) is arguably a little too deus ex machina. There is a touch of Whistle Down the Wind (Bryan Forbes, 1963) in Jenny’s nightly liaisons with Duncan. Meanwhile, Jenny’s transformation from young girl into surly adolescent brings to mind the Harry Enfield and Chums (BBC, 1990-8) sketch in which, as the clock strikes midnight on his thirteenth birthday, Kevin (Harry Enfield) rapidly transforms into a stroppy teenager. (‘He’s losing the power of rational thought, and the use of his arms. He’s become… a teenager’.) The film’s paranoia surrounding Jenny’s journey into adolescence (and the concomitant subjugation of her will to Duncan’s sorcery) allies Baffled! with other contemporaneous narratives which displayed paranoia about possessed or demonic adolescents, especially young women on the cusp of adulthood: for example, Blood on Satan’s Claw (Piers Haggard, 1971), Twins of Evil (John Hough, 1971) and, most famously, The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973). 
Leonard Nimoy gives a strong performance as Kovack, a grounded man who is willing to tempt fate, his status as a risk taker signified through his job as a racecar driver: 'As a matter of fact, every once in a while I get my kicks from walking under a ladder', he tells Brent. Nimoy and Susan Hampshire share a genuine rapport, with Hampshire acting as an ideal foil for Nimoy’s characteristically sardonic delivery. (In one sequence, Kovack and Brent are trapped behind a locked door, and Brent tries to persuade Kovack to practise telekinesis in order to open the bolt. ‘Open sesame’, declares Kovack dryly. ‘Now, what was that for?’ Brent asks. ‘Candour’, Kovack tells her.) 
The narrative builds towards a twist ending which is not completely satisfactory and leaves a number of loose ends. Nevertheless, it is a shame that a series was not produced from this pilot, as Nimoy and Hampshire’s rapport could have been sustained through a number of adventures. The film runs for 85:14 mins (PAL) and is uncut. 
Video
Shot on 35mm film and presented in its original broadcast screen ratio of 4:3, Baffled! looks good on this DVD release. The colours are strong, and contrast levels are solid. There is some intermittent film damage but nothing that would impair one’s enjoyment of the film. 
Audio
Audio is presented by a functional, and problem-free, two-channel mono track. There are no subtitles.
Extras
The disc contains and Image Gallery (4:25) and two flyers, available as ‘PDF’ files.
Overall
Baffled! is an enjoyable supernatural thriller, although there is nothing ground-breaking here and the formula is incredibly familiar (largely thanks to the dozens of television series that have followed a similar formula since the 1970s, from the aforementioned Zodiac to The X Files). The film raises some interesting themes that make it very much of its time (for example, the paranoia surrounding adolescence), and the cast give uniformly strong performances – although as noted above, Jenny’s transformation into a stereotypically surly adolescent has something of Harry Enfield’s Kevin to it. Baffled! is an entertaining, if lightweight, example of a supernatural thriller, and there should be enough here for fans of occult-tinged mysteries to enjoy. References: Nimoy, Leonard, 1995: I Am Spock! London: Hyperion Baffled! is available exclusively from Network’s website.
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