A Name for Evil (1973)

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This is probably one of the strangest films I have ever seen. Strange does not necessarily equal good, but I doubt I will ever see anything else like it.

Successful architect John Blake (Robert Culp) decides to quit the rat race and take his emotionally cold wife Joanna (Samantha Eggar) back to nature. He wants to rebuild his great-grandfather's, known as the Major's, old decrepit house. John also has a very rich fantasy life- his thoughts are full of topless belly dancers, and Joanna being the loving mate he once knew. The couple bicker and argue out to the house, and find it in a worse state than they expected. The tenant died a year before, and some rooms have not been opened since the Major lived there. Another problem, the Major is still roaming around the old homestead. The spirits of him and his horse keep claiming the house as his, and insist his descendant leave. A sealed room is opened after fifty years and Joanna has a change of heart- rubbing the room's molding seductively, and having her hands kissed by a shadowy figure who is neither John or the local carpenters hired to bring the house back. John's fantasy life and real life begin to blur together, and a surprising ending finds the death of a major character played against the image of John throwing his television out of the window from the opening minutes of the film.

The plot seems weak because the film is only seventy four minutes long, and plays with imagery more than propelling the events forward. The house picked for the film looks abandoned, and Girard's shots of shadowy figures wandering in the wreckage is terrifying. It always happens out of the corner of Culp's, and the viewer's eye, and is very effective. The problem is the director/screenwriter makes no mystery of who is haunting the house, and suspense is lost. The film starts out as a good, old-fashioned creaky house thriller, but then gets sidetracked by a sexual subplot that does not involve the afterlife. Culp takes on a revealing role, and acts appropriately puzzled when need be, but I did not know where Girard planned to go. He has a sex scene between John and Luanna (Sheila Sullivan) shot through clear water but I kept thinking he should get back to the scary stuff and leave the softcore to other films. Eggar is good as the real wife and the fantasy wife, but I think she seemed a little lost in the conclusion.

None of some major plot questions are fully answered, only touched upon. The hippie subplot is also dated; an orgy-like scene is quaint. "A Name for Evil" is not great, nor good, but something that I would watch again just to figure out what was happening if the film wasn't so difficult to find; I'm hoping a boutique physical media label out there will take it up and give it a proper release? Culp was one of my favorite underused actors, and this role is one few other actors would dare take. This is known under a couple of alternate titles, and based on a novel.

Stats:
(1973) 74 min. (* * 1/2) out of five stars
-Directed by Bernard Girard
-Screenplay by Bernard Girard based on the novel by Andrew Lytle
-Cast: Robert Culp, Samantha Eggar, Sheila Sullivan, Mike Lane, Sue Hathaway, Edward Greenhalgh, Clarence 'Big' Miller, Barbara Tremain, Reg McReynolds, Walter Marsh, D. Goldrick, Rene Bond, Cameron MacDonald
(R)