The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud

1975, Movie, R, 104 mins

starstarstarstar
This picture is, in some ways, similar to another reincarnation film made three years before, THE POSSESSION OF JOEL DELANEY. Max Ehrlich's best-seller was adapted by the author for the screen and manages to spend more time on character development than most of these occult stories, which is a plus. Sarrazin, a bright young professor, realizes he harbors a ghost inside him when his dreams take a strange, bizarre turn. To track down the source of these nightmares he goes to a small New England town where he learns that Kidder (who is wonderful in her role and plays it in two time frames, then and now) murdered her cheating husband, Stephano, whose spirit now haunts Sarrazin. Kidder is frustrated and filled with remorse, and she both loves and hates the memory of the man she killed. When she meets Sarrazin she realizes he is the reincarnation of Stephano, but another complication arises as Kidder's daughter, O'Neill, falls in love with Sarrazin, although she is, after a fashion, his own daughter. Sarrazin's girl friend, Sharpe, can only watch as matters begin to entangle. Throughout these events Hecht, a parapsychologist, is monitoring Sarrazin. Finally, the surprise ending cheats a bit and weakens the film as a whole. The plot gets mired in its own complications at times and you have to concentrate on what's happening or lose the thread. Ehrlich, the writer, was about as mild-mannered a man as ever sat at a typewriter, yet he wrote several superior sci-fi and terror pieces as well as First Train to Babylon, which became THE NAKED EDGE. Some eerie sequences and a sexually explicit scene with Kidder in the bathtub make this a poor picture for the youngsters. leave a comment
Are You Watching?
The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud
Loading ...
Advertisement

Advertisement