I am once again returning to the well of awful movies that had great soundtracks. This time it’s Brian DePalma’s The Fury which was released in 1978 and is based on a novel by John Farris who also contributed the movie’s screenplay. That may be the problem with the movie in that the author was too close to the material and wanted to include what he thought was important to the story rather than letting a seasoned screen writer tailor the tome. A decent script in the hands of a stylish auteur like De Palma could have been worked into a potential masterpiece. Nope. Outside of a few terrifically arranged action sequences, the movie is a slog to sit through.
What The Fury does have going for it is a terrific score by legendary composer John Williams. As I’ve said before, Williams must have been the hardest working man in show business in the 1970s writing scores for some of the greatest movies ever made, but they all can’t be hits. Such is the case with The Fury.
I was always a movie fiend, but I was probably more so when I was a teenager. Of course, it was the 1970s which was a great era for motion pictures. Back then I would read movie reviews of pretty much everything that came out as well as keeping apprised of what movies were in development. The entertainment sections of the weekend Philadelphia papers were what I went to before anything including the funnies. Troubled productions going over budget always seemed to make the papers back then. Reporters always enjoyed writing about potential disasters or flops more so than hits. I think it was a case of schadenfreude felt by minor entertainment reporters writing for second rate papers in a third rate city. They were never going to be Pauline Kael or Rex Reed so they would bitterly snipe at the output of the Hollywood machine joining in whatever dog pile would form on failed films or flops. They had to settle on being Philly famous. In other words, anonymous.
I remember reading the review of The Fury in one of those Philadelphia newspapers, and it was panned of course. I remember that the guy spoiled every action sequence complaining about the bloody, gratuitous excess. The other big complaint was why it seemed incongruous that Brian De Palma would follow his critically acclaimed hit Carrie (1976) which was a film about a teenager with psychic powers with another film about teenagers with psychic powers. Was it a sequel to Carrie? Stephen King wasn’t a household name at the time, and I was confused as well. Back then, I thought King wrote The Fury, but it was John Farris. Was De Palma in some sort of telekinetic rut? ESP and psychic phenomena were in vogue at the time, but two telekinetic teen movies in a row? It would have been similarly weird if William Friedkin had followed up The Exorcist (1973) with another devil movie.
(Friedkin did follow up The Exorcist with Sorcerer (1977) which dummies thought was another supernatural movie, but it was a remake of Le salaire de la peur (1953) which is a gritty adventure story to put it simply. Sorcerer also has a great soundtrack, but that is a topic for another day.)
Eventually I did see The Fury on cable television, and it was bad. The movie was lavishly mounted, and the young actors playing the telekinetic teens weren’t bad, but the name stars were awful. Kirk Douglas busily chewed up the scenery playing a caricature of himself. John Cassavetes was equally as terrible. He was always upheld as a darling of independent cinema. In this he collects a paycheck to scowl and play a Snidely Whiplash villain. From what I read, DePalma thought Carrie would have done better with a name actor on the marquee so he acquired some for his next project. He didn’t do his name actors any favors with The Fury.
But there’s no denying that Williams score. It stuck with me and I had to have it. I don’t remember where I picked it up. It may have been at a flea market or one of those farmer’s markets that sold a lot of second hand merchandise.
I wish I had a record player.
