Alice Sweet Alice
Encyclopedia
Alice, Sweet Alice is a 1976 independent
American
slasher film
directed by Alfred Sole, and starring Linda Miller
, Paula Sheppard, and Brooke Shields
. It was released theatrically three different times, each time under a new title: first as Communion in November 1976; as Alice, Sweet Alice in 1978; and as Holy Terror in 1981. This film was ranked #89 on Bravo's The 100 Scariest Movie Moments for the scene when Alice scares Karen in the warehouse. The film is notable for being Shields' first acting role, which prompted distributors to re-release the film to market upon Shields' growing notoriety following her role in Pretty Baby (1978).
in the early 1960s. Catherine Spages (Linda Miller
) is visiting Father Tom (Rudolph Willrich) with her two daughters, who both attend St. Michael's Parish Girls' School: 9-year-old Karen (Brooke Shields
) and 12-year-old Alice (Paula Sheppard). Karen is preparing for her First Communion
and Father Tom gives her his mother's crucifix
as a gift. A jealous Alice puts on a creepy, translucent grinning mask, frightening Mrs. Tredoni (Mildred Clinton), Father Tom's housekeeper. Later, Alice steals Karen's porcelain doll and lures her into an abandoned building with it. She jumps out and scares Karen with the grinning mask and locks her in a room. When she lets her out she tells her that if anyone finds out, she'll never see the doll again.
On the day of the First Communion
, Karen is attacked and strangled to death, by a person in a translucent mask and yellow raincoat, in a back room as the children enter the front of the church. Her body is dragged away by her right arm and dumped into a bench compartment, which is set on fire with a candle, but not before ripping the crucifix from her neck. Smoke begins to fill the church. Meanwhile, Alice enters the church, carrying her shiny yellow raincoat. She kneels in Karen's place to receive communion when a scream is heard. A curious nun had entered the back room where the confessional
s are located, and found Karen's body. People run in, horrified. Catherine is inconsolable.
After Karen's funeral, Catherine's ex-husband Dominick "Dom" Spages (Niles McMaster) arrives in town to help track down the killer. Catherine's sister, Annie DeLorenze (Jane Lowry), moves in to help Catherine through her grief, but it is soon evident that Alice and Annie despise each other. Catherine tells Alice to deliver a rent cheque to their landlord, Mr. Alphonso (Alphonso DeNoble). After he fondles and tries to molest her, Alice kills one of his many cats and goes down to the basement, where she lights a candle and puts on her grinning mask.
Descending the stairs to go shopping, Annie is viciously attacked; a raincoated figure in a grinning mask stabs her in the knee, foot, and thigh. At the hospital, Annie cries to her husband Jim (Gary Allen) that Alice tried to kill her. Catherine says that Annie is only accusing Alice of murdering Karen to divert attention from her own daughter Angela (Kathy Rich), who was absent at the time of the murder, but Alice is sent to a mental institution for evaluation.
At the hospital with Father Tom, Dom receives a phone call from Angela saying that she has Karen's crucifix and is in hiding. They agree to meet at an abandoned building. Dom follows the killer inside and up the stairs where the killer stabs him in the shoulder and he is knocked out by a brick and tied up. Dom awakens and sees that the killer is in fact Mrs. Tredoni. She killed Karen because she believes that "children pay for the sins of the parents." She reveals that she stabbed Annie by mistake, thinking it was Catherine, whom she considers a whore
. She calls Dom and Catherine sinners because they had premarital sex. After Dom bites the crucifix off her neck, Mrs. Tredoni beats him with a rock and pushes him out of the window.
After a pathologist (veteran actress Lillian Roth
in one of her last roles), analyzes Dom's corpse, the crucifix is found and Alice is released. When Catherine and Alice go to church Mrs. Tredoni sneaks into the apartment building. As Mrs. Tredoni bangs on his apartment door, Mr. Alphonso wakes up screaming (Alice put a jar of cockroaches on his belly before leaving). He spots Mrs. Tredoni and mistakes her for Alice. She stabs him twice and runs downstairs. However, a policeman witnesses her running out of the back entrance without the mask on.
Mrs. Tredoni goes to church, where the police are stationed outside. Father Tom denies her communion. Mrs. Tredoni points at Catherine, screams that he gave communion to a whore, and violently stabs Father Tom in the neck as the police rush in. The final shot features Alice walking out of the church with Mrs. Tredoni's shopping bag, looking at the bloodstained butcher knife, and glaring at the camera.
in 1976, though the film is set in the early 1960s. The film marked the debut for Brooke Shields, who was offered the role in the film after director Alfred Sole saw a photo of her in a magazine. It was also actress Paula Sheppard's debut. Sheppard was 19 when she played 12-year-old Alice.
The movie premiered on November 13, 1976 under the title Communion in the town of Paterson. Two years later, following starlet Brooke Shields' rise to notoriety, the film was re-released under the title Alice, Sweet Alice, which is what the film is most commonly known as. It was also released a third time as Holy Terror. According to director Alfred Sole, Columbia Pictures
expressed interest in distributing the film in 1976; however, following legal "friction" concerning rights to the movie, Columbia Pictures dropped the film. Allied Artists then picked up the film for distribution, and forced the filmmakers to change the title from Communion to Alice, Sweet Alice, in fear that the public would perceive the film to be religious due to its title. A book tie-in had been written in conjunction with the film through Bantam Books
, under the title Communion; the book's title was never altered.
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
American
Cinema of the United States
The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...
slasher film
Slasher film
A slasher film is a type of horror film typically involving a psychopathic killer stalking and killing a sequence of victims in a graphically violent manner, often with a cutting tool such as a knife or axe...
directed by Alfred Sole, and starring Linda Miller
Linda Miller (actress)
Linda Miller is an American film and television actress.-Career:Miller was nominated for a Tony Award in 1975 as best supporting actress.She had a regular role in the 1983 TV series The Mississippi.-Personal life:...
, Paula Sheppard, and Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
. It was released theatrically three different times, each time under a new title: first as Communion in November 1976; as Alice, Sweet Alice in 1978; and as Holy Terror in 1981. This film was ranked #89 on Bravo's The 100 Scariest Movie Moments for the scene when Alice scares Karen in the warehouse. The film is notable for being Shields' first acting role, which prompted distributors to re-release the film to market upon Shields' growing notoriety following her role in Pretty Baby (1978).
Plot
The film is set in Paterson, New JerseyPaterson, New Jersey
Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...
in the early 1960s. Catherine Spages (Linda Miller
Linda Miller (actress)
Linda Miller is an American film and television actress.-Career:Miller was nominated for a Tony Award in 1975 as best supporting actress.She had a regular role in the 1983 TV series The Mississippi.-Personal life:...
) is visiting Father Tom (Rudolph Willrich) with her two daughters, who both attend St. Michael's Parish Girls' School: 9-year-old Karen (Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields
Brooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
) and 12-year-old Alice (Paula Sheppard). Karen is preparing for her First Communion
First Communion
The First Communion, or First Holy Communion, is a Catholic Church ceremony. It is the colloquial name for a person's first reception of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. Catholics believe this event to be very important, as the Eucharist is one of the central focuses of the Catholic Church...
and Father Tom gives her his mother's crucifix
Crucifix
A crucifix is an independent image of Jesus on the cross with a representation of Jesus' body, referred to in English as the corpus , as distinct from a cross with no body....
as a gift. A jealous Alice puts on a creepy, translucent grinning mask, frightening Mrs. Tredoni (Mildred Clinton), Father Tom's housekeeper. Later, Alice steals Karen's porcelain doll and lures her into an abandoned building with it. She jumps out and scares Karen with the grinning mask and locks her in a room. When she lets her out she tells her that if anyone finds out, she'll never see the doll again.
On the day of the First Communion
First Communion
The First Communion, or First Holy Communion, is a Catholic Church ceremony. It is the colloquial name for a person's first reception of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. Catholics believe this event to be very important, as the Eucharist is one of the central focuses of the Catholic Church...
, Karen is attacked and strangled to death, by a person in a translucent mask and yellow raincoat, in a back room as the children enter the front of the church. Her body is dragged away by her right arm and dumped into a bench compartment, which is set on fire with a candle, but not before ripping the crucifix from her neck. Smoke begins to fill the church. Meanwhile, Alice enters the church, carrying her shiny yellow raincoat. She kneels in Karen's place to receive communion when a scream is heard. A curious nun had entered the back room where the confessional
Confessional
A confessional is a small, enclosed booth used for the Sacrament of Penance, often called confession, or Reconciliation. It is the usual venue for the sacrament in the Roman Catholic Church, but similar structures are also used in Anglican churches of an Anglo-Catholic orientation, and also in the...
s are located, and found Karen's body. People run in, horrified. Catherine is inconsolable.
After Karen's funeral, Catherine's ex-husband Dominick "Dom" Spages (Niles McMaster) arrives in town to help track down the killer. Catherine's sister, Annie DeLorenze (Jane Lowry), moves in to help Catherine through her grief, but it is soon evident that Alice and Annie despise each other. Catherine tells Alice to deliver a rent cheque to their landlord, Mr. Alphonso (Alphonso DeNoble). After he fondles and tries to molest her, Alice kills one of his many cats and goes down to the basement, where she lights a candle and puts on her grinning mask.
Descending the stairs to go shopping, Annie is viciously attacked; a raincoated figure in a grinning mask stabs her in the knee, foot, and thigh. At the hospital, Annie cries to her husband Jim (Gary Allen) that Alice tried to kill her. Catherine says that Annie is only accusing Alice of murdering Karen to divert attention from her own daughter Angela (Kathy Rich), who was absent at the time of the murder, but Alice is sent to a mental institution for evaluation.
At the hospital with Father Tom, Dom receives a phone call from Angela saying that she has Karen's crucifix and is in hiding. They agree to meet at an abandoned building. Dom follows the killer inside and up the stairs where the killer stabs him in the shoulder and he is knocked out by a brick and tied up. Dom awakens and sees that the killer is in fact Mrs. Tredoni. She killed Karen because she believes that "children pay for the sins of the parents." She reveals that she stabbed Annie by mistake, thinking it was Catherine, whom she considers a whore
Slut
Slut or slattern is a pejorative term applied to an individual who is considered to have loose sexual morals or who is sexually promiscuous...
. She calls Dom and Catherine sinners because they had premarital sex. After Dom bites the crucifix off her neck, Mrs. Tredoni beats him with a rock and pushes him out of the window.
After a pathologist (veteran actress Lillian Roth
Lillian Roth
Lillian Roth was an American singer and actress.-Early life:Roth was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was only 6 years old when her mother took her to Educational Pictures, where she became the company's trademark, symbolized by a living statue holding a lamp of knowledge...
in one of her last roles), analyzes Dom's corpse, the crucifix is found and Alice is released. When Catherine and Alice go to church Mrs. Tredoni sneaks into the apartment building. As Mrs. Tredoni bangs on his apartment door, Mr. Alphonso wakes up screaming (Alice put a jar of cockroaches on his belly before leaving). He spots Mrs. Tredoni and mistakes her for Alice. She stabs him twice and runs downstairs. However, a policeman witnesses her running out of the back entrance without the mask on.
Mrs. Tredoni goes to church, where the police are stationed outside. Father Tom denies her communion. Mrs. Tredoni points at Catherine, screams that he gave communion to a whore, and violently stabs Father Tom in the neck as the police rush in. The final shot features Alice walking out of the church with Mrs. Tredoni's shopping bag, looking at the bloodstained butcher knife, and glaring at the camera.
Cast
- Linda MillerLinda Miller (actress)Linda Miller is an American film and television actress.-Career:Miller was nominated for a Tony Award in 1975 as best supporting actress.She had a regular role in the 1983 TV series The Mississippi.-Personal life:...
as Catherine Spages - Mildred Clinton as Mrs. Tredoni
- Paula E. Sheppard as Alice Spages
- Niles McMaster as Dominick 'Dom' Spages
- Jane Lowry as Aunt Annie DeLorenze
- Rudolph Willrich as Father Tom
- Michael Hardstark as Detective Spina
- Alphonso DeNoble as Alphonso
- Gary Allen as Jim DeLorenze
- Brooke ShieldsBrooke ShieldsBrooke Christa Shields is an American actress and model. Some of her better-known movies include Pretty Baby and The Blue Lagoon, as well as TV shows such as Suddenly Susan, That '70s Show and Lipstick Jungle....
as Karen Spages - Louisa Horton as Dr. Whitman
- Tom Signorelli as Detective Brennan
- Antonino RoccaAntonino RoccaAntonino Rocca was an Italian-born Argentine professional wrestler. Rocca was a popular face and in some cities with both Italian-American and especially Hispanic audiences, his following was exceptionally large and loyal.He had a love for opera and was apparently described as having an excellent...
as Funeral Director - Lillian RothLillian RothLillian Roth was an American singer and actress.-Early life:Roth was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was only 6 years old when her mother took her to Educational Pictures, where she became the company's trademark, symbolized by a living statue holding a lamp of knowledge...
as Pathologist - Kathy Rich as Angela DeLorenze
Production and release
The film was shot on location in Paterson, New JerseyPaterson, New Jersey
Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...
in 1976, though the film is set in the early 1960s. The film marked the debut for Brooke Shields, who was offered the role in the film after director Alfred Sole saw a photo of her in a magazine. It was also actress Paula Sheppard's debut. Sheppard was 19 when she played 12-year-old Alice.
The movie premiered on November 13, 1976 under the title Communion in the town of Paterson. Two years later, following starlet Brooke Shields' rise to notoriety, the film was re-released under the title Alice, Sweet Alice, which is what the film is most commonly known as. It was also released a third time as Holy Terror. According to director Alfred Sole, Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
expressed interest in distributing the film in 1976; however, following legal "friction" concerning rights to the movie, Columbia Pictures dropped the film. Allied Artists then picked up the film for distribution, and forced the filmmakers to change the title from Communion to Alice, Sweet Alice, in fear that the public would perceive the film to be religious due to its title. A book tie-in had been written in conjunction with the film through Bantam Books
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by Random House, the German media corporation subsidiary of Bertelsmann; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine...
, under the title Communion; the book's title was never altered.