Harlequin 4K 1980 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

Senator Nick Rust's young son is sick with leukemia and has only days to live. Suddenly Gregory Wolfe, who has paranormal powers, appears in the house and the boy miraculously recovers. The child's shocked mother is ready to pray for the savior, but the senator, who is running for governor, is sure that the mysterious healer can interfere with his political career, which means that it is necessary to get rid of him.

Review 4K Movie

Australian director Simon Winser, familiar to the average Russian viewer for such films as “Free Willie” and “Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Cowboy”, began his career by shooting television series and horror films. It must be said that in the late seventies in the cinematography of the kangaroo country appeared a large number of young directors who specialized in creating exploitation pictures. In addition to Winser, we can still remember Richard Franklin, George Miller, Russell Mulcay, Colin Eggleston and Brian Trenchard-Smith (a favorite of Tarantino). Many of these directors would later go on to have fruitful careers in Hollywood.

Winser's second feature, Harlequin, is a stylish psychological thriller whose script was written by the iconic figure of Australian cinema, Everett De Roche. He has been involved in the production of many Australian exploitation pictures for the past thirty years. De Roche's scripts almost always have a clear social subtext and “Harlequin”, in this regard, is no exception.

The tape tells about a boy sick with leukemia. His father is a corrupt official Nick Rust (David Hemmings), who does not care about his sick offspring. Only his mother is fighting for the boy's life. While celebrating her son's birthday, the Rust couple's mansion is infiltrated by someone named Gregory Wolfe (Robert Powell), who promises to help the boy become healthy. And indeed as time goes on the child gets better and better, but it gradually becomes clear that Wolfe is affecting the lives of all the inhabitants of the house in a strange way.

This plot may remind of the black and white picture “Rasputin and the Empress” by Richard Boleslavsky. And indeed Winser and De Roche in their movie frankly quote some moments from this tape. Even the surname Wolfe is taken for the main character not by chance, in Boleslavsky's tape there is a hero Dr. Frans Wolfe.

The picture really looks good even now. The camerawork spans really remind some episodes of “The Shining” released the same year, but two months later than this tape. Of course, the level of suspense in Winser's movie does not reach the psychological tension of Kubrick's work, but it is worth considering that “Harlequin” was filmed in a short time and for a more modest budget. Especially the producer of the tape was Anthony I. Ginnane, who is jokingly called the Australian Roger Corman for his talent to make pictures quickly and cheaply.

For Simon Winser, who has always been considered in the world of cinema average craftsman, this tape was the first big success in his career. And although in Australia the movie collected a relatively small box office, abroad the picture more than recouped its costs. Actually thanks to this work promising director noticed the American producer Burt Harris offered him to shoot a fantastic tape “Daryl”, which failed to pay off at the box office. However, foreign films Winser always, with few exceptions, or collected a small box office, or were scolded by critics.