White Angel
((BRITISH))
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A Living Spirit Pictures Ltd. production. (International sales: Living Spirit Pictures/The Old Picture House, Througham, Gloucestershire). Produced by Genevieve Jolliffe. Directed by Chris Jones. Screenplay, Jones, Jolliffe.
Leslie Steckler ... Peter Firth
Ellen Carter ... Harriet Robinson
Inspector Taylor ... Don Henderson
This amateurish thriller wants to plumb some "Silence of the Lambs" depths, but silly plot and lame thesping will soon send it straight to video prison.
Cheapo production banks everything on solid skills of Peter Firth, as Leslie Steckler, a seemingly mild-mannered London dentist who is actually the brutal killer of blond-haired women who happen to wear white. The methodical murderer has his reasons, though, and the desire to express them proves his -- and the film's -- undoing, when he chooses pulp writer Ellen Carter as his vehicle.
Steckler hopes to bond with the brunet scribbler (whose specialty is serial killers, natch) when he figures out that she has bumped off her abusive husband. Harriet Robinson's flat Yankee accent may sound amusing to some Brit ears, but it's hard to imagine a more grating, gawky presence in this co-lead role, which is the cold-blooded pic's only touchstone for aud identification (oddly, Robinson was fine in a small part in "Utz").
Pedestrian tech values, with bad cuts enervating already dull images, don't help, and a few clever lines (as when veteran Don Henderson, as a wily policeman on Carter's trail, blithely warns, "Catch you later") only point up the amateurish emptiness of the rest. Racial and religious themes implied by the title never come into play.
This is the kind of tale that boils down a supposedly complex psychopath's motivation to a single triggering quirk: His first wife (a white-wearing blonde!) bossed him around ... quite a lot.
VENICE FESTLeslie Steckler ... Peter Firth
Ellen Carter ... Harriet Robinson
Inspector Taylor ... Don Henderson
This amateurish thriller wants to plumb some "Silence of the Lambs" depths, but silly plot and lame thesping will soon send it straight to video prison.
Cheapo production banks everything on solid skills of Peter Firth, as Leslie Steckler, a seemingly mild-mannered London dentist who is actually the brutal killer of blond-haired women who happen to wear white. The methodical murderer has his reasons, though, and the desire to express them proves his -- and the film's -- undoing, when he chooses pulp writer Ellen Carter as his vehicle.
Steckler hopes to bond with the brunet scribbler (whose specialty is serial killers, natch) when he figures out that she has bumped off her abusive husband. Harriet Robinson's flat Yankee accent may sound amusing to some Brit ears, but it's hard to imagine a more grating, gawky presence in this co-lead role, which is the cold-blooded pic's only touchstone for aud identification (oddly, Robinson was fine in a small part in "Utz").
Pedestrian tech values, with bad cuts enervating already dull images, don't help, and a few clever lines (as when veteran Don Henderson, as a wily policeman on Carter's trail, blithely warns, "Catch you later") only point up the amateurish emptiness of the rest. Racial and religious themes implied by the title never come into play.
This is the kind of tale that boils down a supposedly complex psychopath's motivation to a single triggering quirk: His first wife (a white-wearing blonde!) bossed him around ... quite a lot.
Camera (color), Jon Walker; editor, John Holland; music, Harry Gregson-Williams; sound, Tim Cavagin. Reviewed at World Film Festival, Montreal, Sept. 6, 1993. Running time:95 MIN.
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