Body Double is an "oldie but goodie" from Director Brian DePalma. The story is contrived, campy and predictable, but somehow manages to be fun.
Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) is a claustrophobic method actor struggling to pay the bills in Hollywood. His day starts off bad when his fear of tight spaces costs him his lead role as a vampire in a cheesy B-film. It gets worse when he arrives home to find his wife in bed with someone else. To add insult to injury, it's her place. Jake finds himself in search of a place to sublet. He begins crossing paths with another struggling actor, Sam Bouchard (Gregg Henry), who sets him up with housing that seems too good to be true.
Sam is house-sitting for a friend, who is out of the country on business travel. He has a gig set up in Seattle and needs someone to watch the house while he is out of town. Since Jake needs a place to stay, it is a perfect fit. The house is like a space needle, looking out over the valley. There is a particularly good view of a nearby house, especially when seen through a high-powered telescope, which just happens to sit next to the window pointing in that direction. It is through this telescope that Jake becomes infatuated with Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton).
Jake's infatuation with Gloria becomes disturbing as he realizes that someone else (a native American) is stalking her. Jake spends his days trailing (stalking) Gloria before witnessing her murder. Jake's statement to the Police takes the prime suspect, Mr. Revelle, out of the equation. But when Jake watches the beautiful porn star Holly Body (Melanie Griffith) dance, he realizes he has been duped. Jake takes matters into his own hands, risking everything to save his latest love.
Body Double is not even close to perfect. The plot is contrived and relies heavily on unpredictable circumstances to move the plot. Nobody could plan the perfect crime in this much detail and factor in the minutest of details. The characters are a bit weak at times and the entire feel of the film is campy. Even the ending seemed to come up short. Yet, somewhere in the delivery, this film managed to capture my attention. The film has an interesting flavor that felt unique and didn't take itself too seriously. It was almost as if Hollywood has a sense of humor and decided to roast itself. DePalma did an excellent job of giving the story the zest it needed to make the contrivances secondary.
The acting was okay, but not spectacular. Melanie Griffith did receive a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her work as porn star Holly Body. I don't know that I would have given her an award for her performance, but it wasn't bad. Wasson wasn't a big name in the 1980s, but he does a good job with the role. I think it was the fact that he wasn't one of the blockbuster stars of his era that allowed his performance to be enjoyable. It fit with the overall mood and theme of the film.
The special effects are almost laughable. I am not sure if that is just a product of the improvements over the past quarter century, or if DePalma was going for the look he achieved. The "Indian" had a really strange look that I believe was intentional. The driving scenes were classic canned footage in a car that isn't moving. It's felt like DePalma was trying to pay his respects to special effects of years-gone-by.
Body Double has plenty of nudity and sex scenes. In fact, DePalma was going to feature sex scenes that were not simulated, but was not permitted to shoot the film that way. The film has plenty of nudity, sexual situations, strong language and violence. The sexual content is enough to set an age range at least in the mid-teens and above. The content earned an easy R from the MPAA. The film has a run time of one hour, 54 minutes.
I almost feel guilty for liking Body Double. When I analyze it by individual parts, it doesn't feel like they add up to the whole. The film in its completeness is greater than the sum of its parts. It is the flavor of the film that makes the erratic cinematography, odd dialogue and contrived plot work out in the long run. It is a mad mess of pieces that seem intended to avoid taking the idea of Hollywood too seriously. It felt like Hollywood has a sense of humor. 7.5/10.
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