The Other
Encyclopedia
The Other is a 1972 psychological horror film
directed by Robert Mulligan
, adapted for film
by Tom Tryon
, from his bestselling novel. It stars Uta Hagen
, Diana Muldaur
, and Chris & Martin Udvarnoky.
Their mother is a recluse in her upstairs bedroom, grieving over the recent death of the boys' father in the apple cellar. Grandmother Ada, a Russian emigrant, dotes on Niles, and has taught him a psychic ability to project himself outside of his body, for example in a bird; this ability she calls "the great game."
As the summer progresses, Holland appears to play some deadly practical jokes. A pitchfork left hidden in some straw in the floor of the hayloft takes the life of their sneering cousin Russell (he leaps from the upper loft onto it) before he can betray their secret hideaway in the apple cellar. A frightening magic trick for nearby spinster Mrs. Rowe causes her to have a fatal heart attack. After Russell's funeral, Niles' mother finds the ring, and the severed finger that is wrapped in wax paper. That night she demands Niles to tell her how he has taken possession of father's ring. "Holland gave it to me," he answers. She's shocked, and asks him when he gave it to Niles. "In the parlor, after our birthday," he answers. Holland appears, whispering, "Give it back!" After a struggle on the handing over the ring, she falls down the stairs and is rendered partially paralyzed.
Ada finds Holland's harmonica at Mrs. Rowe's house after her body is discovered. Finding Niles in church, transfixed by the image of "The Angel of a Better Day," she asks Niles about Mrs. Rowe, and he identifies Holland as the culprit. Ada drags Niles to the family graveyard and demands that Niles face the truth: Holland has been dead since their birthday in March, when he fell down the well. He was thought to have been buried with his father's ring ... which, of course, is in Niles' possession. At home, Ada blames herself for teaching Niles "the game," but insists that he not play it anymore. But Niles continues to talk with Holland. Holland helps Niles to remember how he got his father's ring: Holland insisted that he cut his finger off while he lay in his casket in the parlor. In the stairway, Ada hears Niles whispering....
More tragedy strikes the family. During a storm, Rider and Torrie's newborn baby is kidnapped, a copycat of the recent Lindbergh tragedy
. (News about the trial is seen in a newspaper, and Niles has a crayon portrait of Bruno Hauptmann
in his bedroom.) As the adults mount a search for the baby, Niles sneaks off to the barn. Ada suspects that Niles knows more than he's letting on. When she discovers Niles in the barn, pleading for Holland to tell him where the baby is, she fears that Niles is beyond hope. She insists that he, Niles, has done all these things, but he refuses to believe her. The baby is found, drowned in one of Mr. Angelini's pickle barrels, and they apprehend the (innocent) handyman. Returning to the barn and shutting the door, Ada hears Niles in the apple cellar where the boys like to hide, whispering with Holland. She empties a can of gasoline into the apple cellar, and, clutching an oil lantern, dives into the cellar, starting a cataclysmic fire.
As autumn begins, the ruins of the barn are being cleared. The camera zooms in on a padlock that has been cut open with a bolt-cutter. We find that in spite of the fire, Niles is alive and well. His mother is a catatonic invalid, Ada has died in the barn fire, and no one knows Niles's terrible secret.
in the 1970s, a voice-over at the end of the film has Niles speaking to Holland: "Holland, the game's over. We can't play the game anymore. But when the sheriff comes, I'll ask him if we can play it in our new home." The voice-over deliberately truncates a line by the maid, Winnie, who in the theatrical cut says, "Niles, wash up now - time for lunch," whereas in the voice-over version she is cut off after merely "Niles, wash up now." The obvious implication of the voice-over version is that Niles has been found out and is on the way to being institutionalized. This "happier" ending was presumably given to the television version to ensure that the villain not get away with his crimes, though interestingly it does bring the film closer to the book, which Niles narrates from an asylum. The voice-over is not on the home video releases nor has it appeared on any recent television airing.
The movie follows the book fairly closely, which is unsurprising as Tryon adapted his own novel, but the ending does feature some important changes. In the book, it is Mr. Angelini who learns that Niles killed the baby and who placed the pitchfork in the hay; Mr. Angelini is never charged and is a trusted employee. In the film Angelini is falsely assumed to be the murderer, and in her delirium Ada commits her suicidal act before revealing his innocence. The movie even adds animosity toward Angelini on the part of Aunt Vee, who clearly blames him for the death of her son, Russell. The book contains a frame narrative by an adult Niles in an asylum. The movie however ends with the disturbed Niles under no suspicion and thus being free to cause more tragedy.
The book also differs in that it clearly states that Niles has been pretending to be Holland since Holland's death at the well.
Chris Udvarnoky died October 25, 2010 at the Father Hudson House in Elizabeth, New Jersey
, United States
. He lived most of his life in Westfield. He was an X-ray technician at Overlook Hospital and recently the Rahway Hospital. He was 49.
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Robert Mulligan
Robert Mulligan
Robert Mulligan was an American film and television director best known as the director of humanistic American dramas, including To Kill A Mockingbird , Summer of '42 , The Other , Same Time, Next Year and The Man in the Moon...
, adapted for film
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
by Tom Tryon
Tom Tryon
Tom Tryon was an American film and television actor, best known for playing the title role in the film The Cardinal and the Walt Disney television character Texas John Slaughter...
, from his bestselling novel. It stars Uta Hagen
Uta Hagen
Uta Thyra Hagen was a German-born American actress and drama teacher. She originated the role of Martha in the 1963 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee...
, Diana Muldaur
Diana Muldaur
Diana Muldaur is an Emmy-nominated American film and television actress.-Career:Born in New York City, but raised on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Muldaur started acting in high school and continued on through college, graduating from Sweet Briar College in Virginia in 1960. She studied acting...
, and Chris & Martin Udvarnoky.
Plot
It's a seemingly idyllic summer in 1935, and identical twins Niles and Holland Perry play around the bucolic family farm. We see the daily activities of the farm through the eyes of the eleven year old boys. Holland is clearly the amoral mischief maker, though sympathetic Niles is often caught in their shenanigans. Niles carries a Prince Albert tobacco tin with several secret trinkets, including the Perry family ring, which came down from their grandfather, and something mysteriously wrapped in wax paper. He asks Holland to "take them back," but Holland insists "I gave them to you, they're yours now." Their cousin Russell finds the boys in the forbidden apple cellar, and promises to snitch on them.Their mother is a recluse in her upstairs bedroom, grieving over the recent death of the boys' father in the apple cellar. Grandmother Ada, a Russian emigrant, dotes on Niles, and has taught him a psychic ability to project himself outside of his body, for example in a bird; this ability she calls "the great game."
As the summer progresses, Holland appears to play some deadly practical jokes. A pitchfork left hidden in some straw in the floor of the hayloft takes the life of their sneering cousin Russell (he leaps from the upper loft onto it) before he can betray their secret hideaway in the apple cellar. A frightening magic trick for nearby spinster Mrs. Rowe causes her to have a fatal heart attack. After Russell's funeral, Niles' mother finds the ring, and the severed finger that is wrapped in wax paper. That night she demands Niles to tell her how he has taken possession of father's ring. "Holland gave it to me," he answers. She's shocked, and asks him when he gave it to Niles. "In the parlor, after our birthday," he answers. Holland appears, whispering, "Give it back!" After a struggle on the handing over the ring, she falls down the stairs and is rendered partially paralyzed.
Ada finds Holland's harmonica at Mrs. Rowe's house after her body is discovered. Finding Niles in church, transfixed by the image of "The Angel of a Better Day," she asks Niles about Mrs. Rowe, and he identifies Holland as the culprit. Ada drags Niles to the family graveyard and demands that Niles face the truth: Holland has been dead since their birthday in March, when he fell down the well. He was thought to have been buried with his father's ring ... which, of course, is in Niles' possession. At home, Ada blames herself for teaching Niles "the game," but insists that he not play it anymore. But Niles continues to talk with Holland. Holland helps Niles to remember how he got his father's ring: Holland insisted that he cut his finger off while he lay in his casket in the parlor. In the stairway, Ada hears Niles whispering....
More tragedy strikes the family. During a storm, Rider and Torrie's newborn baby is kidnapped, a copycat of the recent Lindbergh tragedy
Lindbergh kidnapping
The kidnapping of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., was the abduction of the son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The toddler, 18 months old at the time, was abducted from his family home in East Amwell, New Jersey, near the town of Hopewell, New Jersey, on the evening of...
. (News about the trial is seen in a newspaper, and Niles has a crayon portrait of Bruno Hauptmann
Bruno Hauptmann
Bruno Richard Hauptmann was a German ex-convict sentenced to death for the abduction and murder of the 20-month-old son of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The Lindbergh kidnapping became known as "The Crime of the Century".-Background:Hauptmann was born in Kamenz in the German Empire,...
in his bedroom.) As the adults mount a search for the baby, Niles sneaks off to the barn. Ada suspects that Niles knows more than he's letting on. When she discovers Niles in the barn, pleading for Holland to tell him where the baby is, she fears that Niles is beyond hope. She insists that he, Niles, has done all these things, but he refuses to believe her. The baby is found, drowned in one of Mr. Angelini's pickle barrels, and they apprehend the (innocent) handyman. Returning to the barn and shutting the door, Ada hears Niles in the apple cellar where the boys like to hide, whispering with Holland. She empties a can of gasoline into the apple cellar, and, clutching an oil lantern, dives into the cellar, starting a cataclysmic fire.
As autumn begins, the ruins of the barn are being cleared. The camera zooms in on a padlock that has been cut open with a bolt-cutter. We find that in spite of the fire, Niles is alive and well. His mother is a catatonic invalid, Ada has died in the barn fire, and no one knows Niles's terrible secret.
Endings
When the film aired on CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
in the 1970s, a voice-over at the end of the film has Niles speaking to Holland: "Holland, the game's over. We can't play the game anymore. But when the sheriff comes, I'll ask him if we can play it in our new home." The voice-over deliberately truncates a line by the maid, Winnie, who in the theatrical cut says, "Niles, wash up now - time for lunch," whereas in the voice-over version she is cut off after merely "Niles, wash up now." The obvious implication of the voice-over version is that Niles has been found out and is on the way to being institutionalized. This "happier" ending was presumably given to the television version to ensure that the villain not get away with his crimes, though interestingly it does bring the film closer to the book, which Niles narrates from an asylum. The voice-over is not on the home video releases nor has it appeared on any recent television airing.
The movie follows the book fairly closely, which is unsurprising as Tryon adapted his own novel, but the ending does feature some important changes. In the book, it is Mr. Angelini who learns that Niles killed the baby and who placed the pitchfork in the hay; Mr. Angelini is never charged and is a trusted employee. In the film Angelini is falsely assumed to be the murderer, and in her delirium Ada commits her suicidal act before revealing his innocence. The movie even adds animosity toward Angelini on the part of Aunt Vee, who clearly blames him for the death of her son, Russell. The book contains a frame narrative by an adult Niles in an asylum. The movie however ends with the disturbed Niles under no suspicion and thus being free to cause more tragedy.
The book also differs in that it clearly states that Niles has been pretending to be Holland since Holland's death at the well.
Cast
- Chris Udvarnoky ... Niles Perry
- Martin Udvarnoky ... Holland Perry
- Uta HagenUta HagenUta Thyra Hagen was a German-born American actress and drama teacher. She originated the role of Martha in the 1963 Broadway premiere of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee...
... Ada - Diana MuldaurDiana MuldaurDiana Muldaur is an Emmy-nominated American film and television actress.-Career:Born in New York City, but raised on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Muldaur started acting in high school and continued on through college, graduating from Sweet Briar College in Virginia in 1960. She studied acting...
... Alexandra - Norma Connolly ... Aunt Vee
- Victor FrenchVictor FrenchVictor Edwin French was an American actor and director.-Early career:Born in Santa Barbara, California,...
... Mr. Angelini - Loretta Leversee ... Winnie
- Lou Frizzell ... Uncle George
- Clarence Crow ... Russell
- John RitterJohn RitterJonathan Southworth "John" Ritter was an American actor, voice over artist and comedian perhaps best known for having played Jack Tripper and Paul Hennessy in the ABC sitcoms Three's Company and 8 Simple Rules, respectively...
... Rider - Jenny SullivanJenny SullivanFor the Welsh author see Jennifer Sullivan.Jenny Sullivan is an American actress who has starred in films and on television. She has starred in some made for TV movies, her best known role is in the 1983 NBC hit miniseries V as the reporter Kristine Walsh. In 1984, she reprised her role as...
... Torrie - Portia NelsonPortia NelsonPortia Nelson was an American popular singer, songwriter, actress, and author. She was best known for her appearances in the most prestigious 1950s cabarets, where she sang an elegant repertoire in a soprano noted for its silvery tone, perfect diction, intimacy, and meticulous attention to words...
... Mrs. Rowe - Jack CollinsJack Collins (actor)Jack Collins, , is a stage, film, and television actor. He played Mike Brady's boss, Mr. Phillips, in the television series The Brady Bunch, and Peter Christopher's boss, baby-food manufacturer Max Brahms, in the short-lived sitcom Occasional Wife.-Filmography:*The Brady Bunch * The Other * The...
... Mr. Pretty
Chris Udvarnoky died October 25, 2010 at the Father Hudson House in Elizabeth, New Jersey
Elizabeth, New Jersey
Elizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 124,969, retaining its ranking as New Jersey's fourth largest city with an increase of 4,401 residents from its 2000 Census population of 120,568...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He lived most of his life in Westfield. He was an X-ray technician at Overlook Hospital and recently the Rahway Hospital. He was 49.
Trivia
- John RitterJohn RitterJonathan Southworth "John" Ritter was an American actor, voice over artist and comedian perhaps best known for having played Jack Tripper and Paul Hennessy in the ABC sitcoms Three's Company and 8 Simple Rules, respectively...
makes one of his earliest appearances in this film, as the boys' brother-in-law, Rider Gannon. Ritter appeared as Father Matthew Fordwick on The WaltonsThe WaltonsThe Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name. The show centered on a family growing up in a rural Virginia community during the Great Depression and World War II. The series pilot was a television...
; coincidentally, film-music composer Jerry GoldsmithJerry GoldsmithJerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....
also scored the TV series' theme, as well as the soundtrack for The Other. - Rider's young wife and the twins' sister, Torrie, is played by Jenny SullivanJenny SullivanFor the Welsh author see Jennifer Sullivan.Jenny Sullivan is an American actress who has starred in films and on television. She has starred in some made for TV movies, her best known role is in the 1983 NBC hit miniseries V as the reporter Kristine Walsh. In 1984, she reprised her role as...
, who, at the time, was married to singer-songwriter Jim Messina of Loggins & Messina fame. - This is the only movie appearance by the twins Chris and Martin Udvarnoky, the featured stars.
- Though real-life twins played Niles and Holland, director Mulligan never shows the brothers in frame together. They are always separated by a camera panPanning (camera)In photography, panning refers to the horizontal movement or rotation of a still or video camera, or the scanning of a subject horizontally on video or a display device...
, or an editing cutShot reverse shotShot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character , and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character...
. - The film was shot entirely on location in Murphy's, CAMurphys, CaliforniaMurphys is a census-designated place in Calaveras County, California, United States...
and Angels Camp, CaliforniaAngels Camp, CaliforniaAngels Camp, also known as City of Angels and formerly Angel's Camp, Angels, Angels City, Carson's Creek, and Clearlake, is the only incorporated city in Calaveras County, California, United States. The population was 3,835 at the 2010 census, up from 3,004 at the 2000 census...
. Director Robert MulliganRobert MulliganRobert Mulligan was an American film and television director best known as the director of humanistic American dramas, including To Kill A Mockingbird , Summer of '42 , The Other , Same Time, Next Year and The Man in the Moon...
had hoped to shoot the film on location in Connecticut, where it takes place, but because it was autumn when the film entered production (and therefore the color of the leaves would not reflect the height of summer, when the story takes place) this idea was dropped. - Though not specified in the credits, Rider's last name is Gannon. In the scene in the movie where Niles runs to the house to alert the family of Mrs. Rowe's death, Niles' sister and Rider's wife Torrie refers to herself as "Torrie Gannon" when on the phone with the constable.
- Despite the grotesque nature of the plot, composer Jerry GoldsmithJerry GoldsmithJerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....
elected to give the film a mostly upbeat score to reflect the childish innocence of its main character. More often than not, the film's darker scenes feature no music at all. Goldsmith's compositions for the film can be heard in a 22 minute suite found on the soundtrack album of The Mephisto WaltzThe Mephisto Waltz (film)The Mephisto Waltz is a 1971 American horror film about an occult-murder mystery. It was directed by Paul Wendkos and starred Alan Alda, Jacqueline Bisset, Barbara Parkins, Bradford Dillman and Curt Jürgens...
. This CD was released 25 years after the release of the film. According to the liner notes of the soundtrack, over half of Goldsmith's music was removed during the film's post production. It does not specify whether this was the result of deleted footage or a decision affecting the music only. - Though the film experienced a quiet theatrical run, it has found a devoted audience over the years after regular television airings in the late 70s.
- Throughout the film, reference is occasionally made to Ada's pain pills, such as when Niles brings them to her in the church and near the end of the film when he reveals to her that "Holland" had put them in her tea to put her to sleep. In the book, it is explained that Ada suffers from severe toothaches, and the pain pills are to help alleviate them.
- Many of the book's smaller details managed to make their way to the transition to film, such as the blue outlines for the tools in the barn, the portrait of "Mother and Her Boys" in the living room, the design of the scroll on the Chautauqua desk that Niles hides the tobacco tin behind, and the drawing of Chan-yu the Magician in Niles' bedroom.