The Medusa Touch – 1978 | 105 mins | Thriller, Drama | Colour

Plot Synopsis

This lavishly-produced implausible chiller from the novel by Peter Van Greenaway is told mostly in flashback. Director Jack Gold controls all the angles of this improbable story competently and the climatic scene as s London cathedral caves in, with many victims trapped underneath the rubble is realistically treated and technically good. Richard Burton has some very effective moments in portraying the complex Morlar and is ably supported by the regular imported US star for a Lew Grade ITC production – in this case Lee Remick. Italian Lino Ventura’s participation came at the behest of the films Italian backers and an exchange detective being handed such a far-reaching case stretches credibility.

Successful novelist John Morlar (Richard Burton) is viciously assaulted and left for dead by an unknown intruder in his home. Why? The man didn’t seem to have a single enemy. French Inspector Brunel (Lino Ventura) is puzzled but eventually discovers a clue leading to psychiatrist Doctor Zonfeld (Lee Remick), who had treated Morlar for reasons unknown. It turns out that Morlar is not dead at all, and as he lies in intensive care with nothing working but his brain his mind is fighting a desperate battle to survive. Even as a child, Morlar proved a very odd number indeed. His files relate to a vast series of disasters and apparently unsolved mysteries that Morlar believes he engineered through unconscious telekinesis. Brunel comes to understand that despite being in a coma, Morlar’s brain is working overtime to telekinetically cause a disaster – which the Inspector assumes is to bring down Westminster Abbey on the great and good.