Reviews

One wonders why the rehash of old stories over and over again persists so that writers/producers/directors can put a camp bent on them. This is the case of the remake of the Stepford Wives in the hands of Frank Oz. If , perhaps, he had remade it with the Muppets it may have proven better material. As it is the acting or over-acting as the case is might as well have sprung from the small screen efforts of the Muppet Show. I was upset for the first time in my life for having paid full price to see this friends of Dorothy recreation of what was originally a thriller with respects to womens equality under attack. Poor Ira Levin, I don't think he had this in mind.

ANGELA whisks the viewer away into the nightmare of a young girl threatened with the loss of her very world through the crumbling psychology of her mother. Rebecca Miller's film brings thoroughly to bloom the essence of a dangerous imagination which plays out like a Greek tragedy in the lives of Angela and her little sister on a quest to save themselves from the devil. The devil himself white as chalk and winged appears to warn them that he soon will claim the family. A helpless father cannot bind together the broken bridges and fallen stars of his wife, a Marilyn Monroe-like singer who can only perpetuate the failures of her life, spreading them like termites to envelope any stability her family could muster. It seems then to ANGELA that she in her innocence must bear that burden and find by way of a stray horse a black cat who she believes give her messages to where she can find the holy grail of her family's salvation, and this to a desperate end.

I saw this film once in the seventies as most of you did, and was so deeply moved. I somehow felt trapped in that Jenny Hanniver character and have never released her from my psyche-crazy as it seems. I am a musician who also writes only lonely haunting songs from the sea. I even have a song called Sea Turtle that I feel captures the bond that Jenny hanniver has with the turtle. A Jenny Hanniver was, as shown in the last moments of the film as I remember, a creature fashioned from the mutilated body of a manta ray dried in the sun. There seems to be no origin to why this creature, strangely humanoid in some cases, has this name. I wondered if the legend from the film was in fact the origin. Does anyone know? And yes I too would love to have a copy of this movie, and that lovely song at the end, so memorable...please be in touch if you've found copies!