Two Evil Eyes
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
George A. Romero
John Amos
Kim Hunter
Peggy Sanders
Ben Tatar
Martin Balsam
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
A dying man is manipulated by his wife and her lover in "The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar." A photographer is terrorized by a black cat in "The Black Cat."
Cast
John Amos
Kim Hunter
Peggy Sanders
Ben Tatar
Martin Balsam
Ramy Zada
Jeffrey Wild
Julie Benz
Lou Valenzi
Adrienne Barbeau
Bill Dalzell
Jeff Howell
Fred Moore
Jonathan Adams
Barbara Bryne
Christine Forrest
Charles Mcpherson
Peggy Saunders
James Macdonald
Ted Worsley
Jeff Monahan
Larry John Meyers
Madeleine Potter
Scott House
Lanene Charters
Mario Caputo
Jim Schneider
Chuck Aber
Tom Atkins
Bingo O'malley
Holter Graham
J R Hall
Harvey Keitel
Christina Romero
Anthony Dileo
Sally Kirkland
Mitchell Baseman
Cristine Forrest
E. G. Marshall
Crew
Joe Abeln
Eloise Albrecht
Nick Alexander
Barbara Anderson
Cletus Anderson
Luciano Anzellotti
Luciano Anzellotti
Massimo Anzellotti
Massimo Anzellotti
Claudio Argento
Dario Argento
Dario Argento
Lawrence Bailer
Charles Ballew
Norman Beck
Donna Belajac
Bert Bell
Jon Bergholz
John S Bick
Staci Blagovich
Raymond Boniker
Kathryn Borland
Felipe Borrero
Lisa Bradley
J. C. Brotherhood
Erik L Brown
Pasquale Buba
Everett Burrell
Francine Byrne
Kathy Carthers-wayne
Romano Checcacci
Nora Cline
Diane Collins
Carol Cuddy
Cesare D'amico
Fabrizio Diaz
Fabrizio Diaz
Pino Donaggio
Fred Donatelli
Norman Douglass
Carlo Dubois
Andy Duppin
Allegra Elson
Mindy Eshelman
Franco Ferrini
Bart Flaherty
Paul Fonquet
Edward J France
Fernando Franchi
Lorenza Franco
Lorenza Franco
Kenneth Gargaro
Eileen Garrigan
Martin Garrigan
Thomas Garrigan
Terrie Godfrey
Frederika Gray
Brian Haughin
Will Huff
Joe Janusek
Howard L Jones
Jeannee Josefczyk
Jeannee Josefczyk
Barry Kessler
Gary Kosko
Beth Kukucka
Michael Latino
Ed Letteri
David Lomax
Tommy Louie
Beppe Maccari
Aldo Mafera
Aldo Mafera
Achille Manzotti
Sergio Marcotulli
Debra Marks
Fernando Massaccesi
Natale Massara
Nicholas C Mastandrea
Judy Matthews
Frank Mcgough
Maria L Melograne
John S Moyer
Elissa Myers
Phil Neilson
Mike O'rouke
Nancy Palmetier
Paula Payne
Nicola Pecorini
Joseph Pelle
Frank Perl
Chris Peworchik-call
Edgar Allan Poe
Fred Pope
Peter Reniers
Grant Rhinehart
Christina Romero
George A. Romero
Mike Russo
Andrew Sands
Federico Savina
Tom Savini
J S Shoe
Rich Sieg
Joanne Small
Paolo Stefan
Diana Stoughton
Nick Tallo
Luciano Tartaglia
Lou Taylor
Andrea Tinnirello
John Vulich
Burton White
Ted Wiegand
Mark Worthington
Anthony J Yannone
Film Details
Technical Specs
Articles
Two Evil Eyes
The second short feature on TWO EVIL EYES is THE BLACK CAT, directed by Dario Argento. Like Romero before him, Argento takes many liberties with Poe's original story, which is understandable given the attempt to transpose Poe's universe into a modern setting. One of the ideas Poe was tapping into is certainly given its due and it coincides with the ancient Egyptian notion that held cats as sacred, thus bestowing a punishment of death onto any felon who killed a feline, even if accidentally. In Argento's adaptation, Harvey Keitel plays the part of a crime-scene photographer with a nasty temper that gets out of control - to the detriment of one hapless victim and one hungry cat. While Romero's approach in TWO EVIL EYES is measured, focused, and calm (maybe too calm), Argento's directorial style is more scattered but exuberant and manic as he packs in references to Poe's THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM, THE TELL-TALE HEART, THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO and many others. This hallucinatory jambalaya approach to storytelling might run in the family; Dario Argento's younger brother, Claudio Argento, who produced TWO EVIL EYES, also produced and co-wrote Alejandro Jodorowsky's fevered SANTA SANGRE around the same time.
Blue Underground;s exemplary release of TWO EVIL EYES marks the films debut to dvd on a 1.85:1 widescreen transfer, and gives listeners their choice of DTS 6.1, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX, and Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround sound. It comes with a bonus disk with a wealth of supplemental material that includes a theatrical trailer, poster and still gallery, talent bios, three behind-the-scenes documentaries, and an interview with star Adrienne Barbeau. The Barbeau bit is brief and of little interest, but the other interviews are meatier and well worth the price of admission - especially given how dynamic and animated both Dario Argento and Tom Savini can be. During one revealing moment Argento talks about the lack of funds that cut their Poe tribute short, thus leaving open to speculation the idea that if Argento and Romero had added a version of MORELLA to their film it could have been billed as a tribute to both Edgar Allan Poe and Roger Corman, given that TALES OF TERROR covered the same trilogy of tales.
For more information about Two Evil Eyes, visit Blue Underground. To order Two Evil Eyes, go to TCM Shopping.
by Pablo Kjolseth
Two Evil Eyes
TCM Remembers - Kim Hunter
KIM HUNTER, 1922-2002
Kim Hunter, the versatile, distinguished actress who won the Supporting Actress Academy Award for her portrayal as the long-suffering Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and appeared as Dr. Zira in three Planet of the Apes movies, died in her Greenwich Village apartment from an apparent heart attack on September 11, 2002. She was 79.
Born Janet Cole in Detroit on November 12, 1922, where her mother was a concert pianist, she made her professional debut at 17 with a small theatre company in Miami. She gained notice immediately with her strong voice and alluring presence, and eventually studied at the Actors' Studio in New York.
She made a striking film debut in an eerie, low-budget RKO horror film, The Seventh Victim (1943), produced by Val Lewton. She played a similar ingenue role in another stylish cult flick, When Strangers Meet (1944) - a film directed by William Castle and notable for featuring Robert Mitchum in one of his first starring roles. Hunter's big break came two years later when Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger cast her in their splendid romantic fantasy, Stairway to Heaven (1946).
Despite her growing popularity as a screen actress, Hunter returned to the stage to make her Broadway debut as Stella in Tennessee Williams'A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). When Elia Kazan adapted the production for the silver screen, she continued her role as Stella opposite Marlon Brando, and won an Oscar as best supporting actress. A few more film roles followed, but sadly her screen career entered a lull in the late 1950s, after Hunter, a liberal Democrat, was listed as a communist sympathizer by Red Channels, a red-hunting booklet that influenced hiring by studios and the Television networks. Kim was blacklisted from both mediums despite never having been labeled a Communist, yet as a strong believer in civil rights she signed a lot of petitions and was a sponsor of a 1949 World Peace Conference in New York. She was widely praised in the industry for her testimony to the New York Supreme Court in 1962 against the publishers of Red Channels, and helped pave the way for clearance of many performers unjustly accused of Communist associations.
Hunter spent the next few years on the stage and didn't make a strong impression again in films until she was cast as Dr. Zira in the Planet of the Apes (1968), as a simian psychiatrist in the classic science fiction film. The success of that film encouraged her to continue playing the same character in two back-to-back sequels - Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) and Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971). Hunter spent the remainder of her career on the stage and television, but she a terrific cameo role in Clint Eastwood's Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil (1997), one of her last films. She is survived by her daughter Kathryn, from her first marriage to William Baldwin, and her son Sean, from her marriage to actor and producer Robert Emmett.
By Michael T. Toole
TCM REMEMBERS J. LEE THOMPSON, 1914 - 2002
Oscar-nominated director J. Lee Thompson died August 30th at the age of 88. Though he worked in several genres, Thompson was best-known for his action films. Thompson was born in Bristol England on August 1, 1914. After graduating from college he became a playwright and it was the appearance of one of his plays on London's famous West End that got him noticed by the British film studio, Elstree. His first filmed script was The Pride of Folly in 1937 and others appeared sporadically until his career was side-tracked during the war when Thompson served in the RAF as a B-29 tail gunner. (He also reportedly worked as a dialogue coach on Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn, 1939.) Thompson's directorial debut came in 1950 when he adapted his own play Double Error to the screen as Murder Without Crime. Throughout the decade he directed a variety of dramas and comedies until hitting it big in 1958 with Ice Cold in Alex (released in the US minus 50 minutes under the title Desert Attack). It was nominated for three BAFTAs and was enough of a commercial success that Thompson landed the film that made his career: The Guns of Navarone (1961). This enormous international hit snagged Thompson an Oscar nomination for Best Director. He immediately followed that with the original Cape Fear (1962) and his reputation was set. Though Thompson remained active almost three more decades he didn't reach that level again. He worked on Westerns (Mackenna's Gold, 1969), horror films (Eye of the Devil, 1967), literary adaptations (Huckleberry Finn, 1974) and others. During this time, Thompson directed two Planet of the Apes sequels but was kept most busy working with Charles Bronson, for whom he directed nine films. Thompson's last film was in 1989.
KATRIN CARTLIDGE, 1961 - 2002
The news of actress Katrin Cartlidge's death at the age of 41 has come as a shock. It's not just the age but the thought that even though Cartlidge was already a major actress--despite a slender filmography--she held out the promise of even greater work, a promise that so few artists of any type can make. "Fearless" is perhaps the word most often used to describe Cartlidge but emotions are never enough for an actor; much more is required. Director Mike Leigh said she had "the objective eye of an artist" while remarking on her "her deep-seated suspicion of all forms of woolly thinking and received ideas."
Cartlidge was born in London on May 15, 1961. Her first acting work was on the stage, in tiny independent theatres before she was selected by Peter Gill for the National Theatre. Cartlidge also worked as a dresser at the Royal Court where she later made one of her final stage appearances. She began appearing in the popular British TV series Brookside before making her first film in 1985, Sacred Hearts. A small role in the Robbie Coltrane-Rik Mayall vehicle Eat the Rich (1987) followed before Cartlidge had her first leading role in Mike Leigh's scathing Naked (1993).
Cartlidge never took a safe approach in her films. She told The Guardian that "I try to work with film-makers who I feel will produce something original, revealing and provoking. If something provokes a reaction, it's well worth doing." You can see this in her choice of projects. Before the Rain (1994) dramatized violence in Macedonia in the wake of the Yugoslavian break-up and made Cartlidge something of a star in the area. She appeared in Lars Von Trier's controversial look at redemption, Breaking the Waves (1996), Leigh's sharply detailed story of aging friends Career Girls (1997), as one of Jack the Ripper's victims in From Hell (2001), as a call girl trying to leave the business in Clair Dolan (1998) and in the Oscar-winning film about Bosnia-Herzegovina, No Man's Land (2001). Her last work included a BBC adaptation of Crime and Punishment (2002), playing Salvador Dali's wife Gala in the BBC comedy-drama Surrealissimo (2002) and an appearance in Rosanna Arquette's directorial debut, Searching for Debra Winger (also 2002), a documentary about women in the film industry.
Cartlidge died September 7th from septicaemia brought on by pneumonia.
By Lang Thompson
TCM Remembers - Kim Hunter
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States Fall October 25, 1991
Released in United States on Video April 23, 1992
Began shooting July 10, 1989.
Completed shooting September 12, 1989.
Italian language version available
Released in United States Fall October 25, 1991
Released in United States on Video April 23, 1992