A compromised but often titillating dummy possession movie, directed by the workmanlike Richard Attenborough. Anthony Hopkins (a sweatily intense performance—one of his best) plays a smalltime magician named Corky who finds temporary salvation in his newest act, a lewd dummy named Fats. When contracted to take a physical exam, he flees to the Catskills and into the arms of an old girlfriend, played by Ann-Margret. Locked away in his log cabin, he starts to unglue. The film begins clunkily but grows progressively better as members of the tiny cast get bumped off one by one. Hopkins’s performance, too, becomes increasingly sympathetic in spite of the horrible things he does (or is forced to do?). The smallness of the ensemble (which include Burgess Meredith as Corky’s manager and Ed Lauter as a jealous husband) allows ample opportunity for William Goldman to create tension with limited resources. He accomplishes this task with the grim determination of a young and gifted playwright. Appropriately shot in drab tones by Victor J. Kemper, with a sputtering, atmospheric score by the always-reliable Jerry Goldsmith. The dummy, an unsettling little fellow effectively voiced by Hopkins himself, was designed by ventriloquist Dennis Alwood.
