Lauren Bacall was rocking Broadway in 1981 as "Woman of the Year" when this last ditched effort of the "hags in horror" series, referring to the abundance of aging actresses who kept their career going in fright fests, usually in fright wigs or carrying some sort of cutting device. Bacall still looked gloriously gorgeous at this point (as she would through the remainder of her long life), so it is unfortunate that while still popular, she would be tied in with something that at the time was as reviled in the gay community as "Cruising" and "Windows".
You can't tick off a show queen and expect to get away with it. That is the point of this whole movie. Bacall is a legendary star who is unfortunately the idol of the obsessed Michael Biehn, a handsome young man who has built a shrine to the diva he worships. He writes letters to her and she always politely responds. But something for her isn't right after the letters keep coming, and she politely ends the continuing correspondence. Biehn blames this on her secretary (the always wonderful Maureen Stapleton) and takes it out on her in a bloody sequence that is very graphic. This makes him the target of an investigation, and that means Biehn must go into hiding which results in one of the most horrific murder sequences where unfortunately an innocent gay man is the victim. Bacall's lover (James Garner) is determined to protect her, but obsessively crazy knows no reality, and as we know from history over the years, innocent stars can't stop them no matter how much security they have.
Still offensive today, it doesn't resonate the deep hatred that gay audiences had for this back in the 1980's. It is actually extremely camp, with its Marvin Hamlish musical numbers so rapidly written and so hastily staged that they resemble something from a notorious 80's flop more than something that became a major hit. Of course, tastes have changed since Bacall was "one of the girls whose one of the boys", and that is why so very few of these late 70's/early 80's musicals (the major hits not included) are never revived. Had the film been done a bit more sensitively and not bitten at the gay community, it might have had less animosity towards it. But in reflection, if you simply look at it as a product of its time and dismiss the "psychotic show queen" as simply an error of its time, you may have a good time, either fighting off the chills of the slasher sequences or the giggles over the campy musical numbers.
You can't tick off a show queen and expect to get away with it. That is the point of this whole movie. Bacall is a legendary star who is unfortunately the idol of the obsessed Michael Biehn, a handsome young man who has built a shrine to the diva he worships. He writes letters to her and she always politely responds. But something for her isn't right after the letters keep coming, and she politely ends the continuing correspondence. Biehn blames this on her secretary (the always wonderful Maureen Stapleton) and takes it out on her in a bloody sequence that is very graphic. This makes him the target of an investigation, and that means Biehn must go into hiding which results in one of the most horrific murder sequences where unfortunately an innocent gay man is the victim. Bacall's lover (James Garner) is determined to protect her, but obsessively crazy knows no reality, and as we know from history over the years, innocent stars can't stop them no matter how much security they have.
Still offensive today, it doesn't resonate the deep hatred that gay audiences had for this back in the 1980's. It is actually extremely camp, with its Marvin Hamlish musical numbers so rapidly written and so hastily staged that they resemble something from a notorious 80's flop more than something that became a major hit. Of course, tastes have changed since Bacall was "one of the girls whose one of the boys", and that is why so very few of these late 70's/early 80's musicals (the major hits not included) are never revived. Had the film been done a bit more sensitively and not bitten at the gay community, it might have had less animosity towards it. But in reflection, if you simply look at it as a product of its time and dismiss the "psychotic show queen" as simply an error of its time, you may have a good time, either fighting off the chills of the slasher sequences or the giggles over the campy musical numbers.