WHAT THE PEEPER SAW (1972)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

First, I've yet to find any data on the genesis of this international project, whose primary creative personnel included one Italian writer (Andrea Bianchi), one German writer (Erich Krohnke), and a British director (James Kelley), while the principal stars were British, Swedish, and German. 

Second, I've seen more than a few online reviews comparing this "evil child" film with the 1956 BAD SEED. But while the kid-psycho there is as ruthless as Marcus Bezant (Mark Lester), the twelve-year old killer of  PEEPER is motivated by extreme intellectual distance, which makes it possible for him to covertly arrange the murder of his mother, apparently just to see if he can bring it off. (At one point, his stepmother-turned-adversary sees him reading, and asks him if the book is by DeSade.) In many ways Marcus is closer to the intellectual killers of Hitchcock's ROPE, who murder just to see if they can get away with traducing moral laws.

The film begins two years after Marcus has made his mother Sarah's death look like a bathing accident. The viewer never knows how Marcus's forty-something father Paul (Hardy Kruger) meets his twenty-something second wife Elise (Britt Ekland), but in the course of the narrative it's suggested a couple of times that she resembles the late Sarah, both in looks and demeanor. Were this a more metaphysical film, it would be possible to assert that she's the reincarnation of the dead mother, come back to render vengeance.

For some reason, Paul is tied up elsewhere when Elise journeys alone to her new husband's Spanish mansion to meet Marcus. The twenty-something stepmother, while not unintelligent, seems most characterized as a "free spirit" with a loopy sense of humor. (In one of her first exchanges with Marcus before she realizes what a monster he is, she locks gazes with him, her own eyes protected by sunglasses, and says, "I can see your eyes but you can't see mine.") In contrast, Marcus comes back his intellectual hauteur honestly, since Paul displays a similar attitude of smugness about his knowledge of abstruse subjects, and he's somewhat less than sympathetic when Elise becomes disturbed her stepson's peculiarities. But whereas Marcus has a Sadean assurance about his priorities, Paul chooses not to acknowledge his son's abnormality. Some time before Paul married Elise, Marcus was expelled from a boarding school, being accused of voyeurism and animal cruelty, but Paul seems aloof to this testimony, doing nothing but to have Marcus examined by a psychiatrist (Lilli Palmer in a very small role). But Smarty-Pants Marcus plays the psychiatrist like a violin, and later uses her to put Elise in her place.

Marcus's first declaration of hostilities is minor, but Elise's warning bells go off. She learns that Marcus has used peep-holes (hence, "the Peeper") to spy on Elise and Paul having sex. But every time Elise tries to make her new husband aware of Marcus's strange habits, Marcus covers things up, and Elise looks stupid. Paul takes Elise to a party at the house formerly owned by himself and his wife, and though Elise thinks of the party-goers as "zombies" (including an old geezer who hits on her), the new owner of the house, a former friend of Sarah, informs Elise of some irregularities about Sarah's death (which is the only "bizarre crime" in the movie, BTW). From then on, it's war between good stepmother and evil stepson, as Elise learns of the boarding school incidents and tries to get Paul to step up his parenting game.

At almost every turn, though, Marcus out-thinks Elise. Though the preteen never displays overt lust, Elise gets sucked into his mind-games and commits a faux pas that Marcus later uses against her, getting the dimwitted psychiatrist to have Elise spend time in some sort of mental hospital. During that time, Elise has intense fantasies about killing Marcus-- smothering him, drowning him-- but also some erotic fantasies, arguing that she's been drawn into Marcus's transgressive mentality to some extent. But just when it seems that she's been defeated, Elise figures out how to strike back, finding a way to make her opponent's juvenile nature his Achilles Heel.

Online reviews of a PEEPER are generally positive about Lester's performance, and not so much about Ekland's. I found Ekland quite as good as Lester if one understands the type of character she's playing, given that she's a bit of a child-bride herself, being closer in age to her stepson than to her husband (as Marcus naturally points out). I will admit that Ekland's repetoire is dominated by "sex kitten" types, but PEEPER is a cut above, right alongside her underrated perf in THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED MINSKY'S.