The Medusa Touch - Film Review

I remember seeing this film at the cinema and it always stuck with me. The film centres on novelist John Morlar played by Richard Burton who is one of my favourite actors.

French detective Brunel (Lino Ventura), who is on secondment to Scotland Yard and assigned to investigate the murder of John Morlar. He discovers the victim is still alive in spite of his severe injuries and is rushed to hospital. With the help of Morlar's journals and Dr. Zonfeld (Lee Remick), a psychiatrist Morlar was seeing, Brunel reconstructs Morlar's past life.

In flashbacks, we see Morlar’s life full of the inexplicable catastrophes and the sudden deaths of people he disliked or who offended him. Burton’s character grew up believing himself to be an individual capable of causing disaster. As a child, he kills his parents and causes his school to burn down. As an adult, he marries but it doesn't work out – his wife ends up hating him and the child she eventually has is a monster. Dr. Zonfeld scoffs at his explanation, that he can make things happen.

To prove his powers Morlar crashes an airliner into a London office tower with his powerful telekinetic abilities. When he threatens a disaster would befall a manned spacecraft again, Dr. Zonfeld is not convinced. However, while watching the problems unfold on the TV she now realises just how powerful Morlar is and rushes to his home, tries to stop him from killing the astronauts in the spacecraft, bashing his skull in with a blunt object.

Richard Burton as John Morlar

Brunel eventually figures out that Zonfeld attempted to kill Morlar, and confronts her. She admits to attempting to murder him but without enough evidence, Brunel does not arrest her right away. Later, Brunel returns to Dr. Zonfeld's office, discovering her body, she had committed suicide, leaving a note where she can't live in a world where Morlar is also, and apologizing to Brunel for leaving the mess for him to deal with.

In the meantime, Brunel discovers Morlar mentioned in one of his journals about a cathedral being built and how he will punish the hypocrisy of those praying there to God but caring nothing about the suffering he inflicts. From his hospital bed, Morlar manages to bring down the cathedral on the "unworthy heads" of a VIP congregation attending the fund raising event for the crumbling building's restoration. Morlar seems able to keep himself alive by sheer willpower. An enraged Brunel runs from the collapsing cathedral to the hospital, where he tries to kill Morlar to end the destruction, Morlar writes on a pad the name of his next target: a nuclear power station.

The Medusa Touch gave Burton’s career a bit of a lift after a number of frankly underwhelming film roles inclueding such films as (Exorcist II: The Heretic). He was forced to take these roles mostly to pay off the debts incurred by his second failed marriage to Liz Taylor and his ongoing battle with the bottle. Burton was temporarily sober for the duration of filming Burton totally owns every scene he is in.

There is also a fine supporting cast of familiar British actors including Michael Horden, Gordon Jackson, and a pre Sherlock Holmes Jeremy Brett. The dialogue is intelligent with plenty of meaty lines for Burton to get his teeth into, the cinematography is beautiful with nice location work, and the editing is crisp.