Dementia 13 – Francis Ford Coppola, 1963

Dementia 13

USA, 1963

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Screenwriter:
Francis Ford Coppola (with uncredited contributions by Jack Hill and Al Locatelli).

Soundtrack composer:
Ronald Stein

Editor:
Stuart O’Brien (with contributions by Morton Tubor)

Producer:
Roger Corman

Starring:

William Campbell (Richard Haloran)

Luana Anders (Louise Haloran)

Bart Patton (Billy Haloran)

Mary Mitchel (Kane)

Patrick Magee (Justin Caleb)

Eithne Dunne (Lady Haloran)

Peter Read (John Haloran)

Karl Schanzer (Simon)

Ron Perry (Arthur)

Derry O’Donavan (Lillian)

Barbara Dowling (Kathleen)

Genre: Suspense/Thriller

Plot

Louise has married the aristocratic John Haloran, and is visiting his old family castle in Ireland. There resides his mother, a widowed woman, distraught because she has not yet been able to get over the death of her youngest daughter Kathleen. John’s sister drowned seven years ago in a lake near the castle, while still a child. Now, the Halorans are gathering again, as they do every year at this time, to commemorate the anniversary of the death of the little girl, at the request of the matriarch. For that reason, John and his newlywed wife Louise have traveled to Ireland from New York. John’s brothers Richard and Billy (the eldest and youngest, respectively), and John’s fiancée Kane, will also be in attendance.

Louise speculates on the possibility of gaining access to great wealth, as this was the sole reason for her marriage to John, who suffers from coronary problems. But she knows that if her husband were to die (a victim of his heart problems) she would be expelled from the family by her mother-in-law, the domineering and somewhat unbalanced Lady Haloran.

One night, when John and Louise take a boat ride on the same lake where Kathleen drowned, John suffers a heart attack and dies. In an attempt to prevent her husband’s death from coming to light, Louise throws the body into the water, and pretends to her husband’s relatives that he has had to return to New York for work.

Lady Haloran initially takes a great dislike to Louise, and also to Kane, Richard’s fiancée. She seems jealous of her sons’ wives. But the astute Louise, keen to gain her mother-in-law’s confidence, takes advantage of her mother-in-law’s psychically unstable condition, telling her that she is able to perceive Kathleen’s presence, that the dead girl wants to communicate with her mother, etc. Louise thus seeks to make her mother-in-law dependent on her, to somehow manipulate and subtly extort her.

Louise promises the matriarch a “sign” from Kathleen. To do so, one night she incognito searches the room where the girl lived, takes several dolls that had belonged to her and prepares to leave them in the lake where the little girl drowned. She is surprised in the corridors by her brother-in-law Richard, who from the beginning has been very suspicious of her. Still, Louise reaches the lake, and dives into the water with the intention of leaving the dolls there as a “sign” for Mrs. Haloran….

But when Louise emerges from the water, she is attacked by a shadowy silhouette wielding an axe: the beautiful and perfidious young woman is mercilessly butchered with an axe, and her corpse is hidden by the mysterious murderer.

The next day, Lady Haloran discovers her little girl’s dolls floating in the lake, and is convinced that this is the “sign from beyond” promised by Louise. The obsessive woman wants to see her daughter-in-law immediately, she needs to talk to her, but she is nowhere to be seen. Everyone is looking for her, but Louise has disappeared…

Dr. Caleb, the family doctor, has been caring for the frail lady since Kathleen’s tragic death began to affect her nerves and her reason. He is a doctor with a detective vocation, who will undertake on his own an investigation to clarify the mysteries surrounding the cursed lineage of the Haloran…

Commentary

This is the debut feature of the celebrated Francis Ford Coppola, acclaimed director of the Godfather Trilogy. Coppola’s powerful film debut was made when he was only 24 years old. Filmed in exquisite black and white, and produced by Roger Corman, “Dementia 13” is extremely convincing and effective, with a plot, an aesthetic and an atmosphere very similar to those that at the same time would have shot a Chicho Ibáñez Serrador in his “Historias para no dormir” or a Mario Bava for his first “gialli”.

The psychological thriller is intermingled with the paranormal. The viewer remains intrigued and attentive, as he or she is unaware until the end whether the responsibility for the brutal deaths that follow one after the other is a curse from beyond the grave (Kathleen’s ghostly influence) or something more “earthly”. Who is the axe murderer?

The very young Coppola manages to create suspense with this underrated debut of his, and the actors involved more than fulfill their roles. Special mention to the beautiful Luana Anders, who plays the devious Louise.

By the way, the striking physical resemblance between Dr. Caleb (Patrick Magee) and Coppola’s later character Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is very curious.

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