Night Visitor

Details down to the last thread
This is a thinking mans movie. Keeps you on the tips of your brain stem. If you liked the TV series "Mission Impossible", because of the technical details, you'll love this movie. Reason is, the man that created those details for TV, also created the escape scenes in this movie. Everything is thought out and shown in major detail, except one. What is that one mistake? You won't hear a peep out of me!

Near perfect thriller
This is an excellent European thriller, with a cast culled from both Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) and England.

Max von Sydow as Salem, the inmate in an asylum for the criminally insane, does a fine job as the lead, (supposedly) unjustly accused and sentenced for a crime he--maybe--didn't commit. Liv Ullmann (who's Norwegian, not Swedish as some people may think) is just as good as his sister, married to a doctor played by Per Oscarsson. The two of them, with the help of a greedy lawyer and a conniving sister, managed to have Salem convicted of the murder of an innocent farmhand. And Trevor Howard plays the investigating inspector who is equally strong--and certain there's more to the case than meets the eye.

Now someone is killing off the people who had Salem committed. Who could it be? Salem himself is locked away in the asylum, surely one of the dingiest and most desolate institutions ever shown on film. But the doctor shows some loopy behavioral tics, so...

Cold suspense on DVD-R
This obscure, Poe-esque revenge picture recalls some of the better Hammer horror in its excellent usage of gothic sets (and in this case, stark locations in Sweden and Denmark) and colorful character parts to create a rich and memorable, if minimalist, atmosphere of suspense. Max von Sydow as the 'innocent' institutionalized murderer and Trevor Howard as the skeptical detective make for formidable, stoical oppononents in a slow-paced (at 106 minutes) but rewarding chess game of wits. Note, however, that the VCI pressing I received (release date 2008) is a DVD-R, which may not be compatible with all players and is prone more readily to data loss than fully mastered DVDs; and although the package specs indicate a 'letterboxed' presentation (1.85:1 aspect ratio), the print appears to be fullscreen. Video quality is decent, audio somewhat variable (exacerbated by heavy overdubbing). Still, a worthwhile chiller in any format. 3 1/2 stars overall.

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