Alice, Sweet Alice
by Alfred Sole
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jane Lowry, Linda Miller, Mildred Clinton, Niles McMaster, Paula E. SheppardDirector: Alfred Sole
Brand: Henstooth Video
Producer: Alfred Sole
Writer: Alfred Sole
Editor: M. Edward Salier
Producer: Marc G. Greenberg
Producer: Richard K. Rosenberg
Writer: Rosemary Ritvo
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 98 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-01
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Henstooth Video
Movie Reviews of Alice, Sweet Alice
Movie Review: In the name of the father
Summary: 5 Stars
In the July/August 2007 of Film Comment Maitland Mcdonagh chooses Alice, Sweet Alice as the cult pick of the month. She is dead on in saying that director Alfred Sole "learned the right lessons from Hitchcock". To be more specific there is a scene reminiscent of both stair sequences in Vertigo. It is like James Stewart's first ascension up the stairs with the same tension and suspense and also his second trip in the finale following a girl that should be dead, is Alice's father following a ghost? I'll let you find out. Also for good measure the priest Father Tom walks by a poster of Psycho in the rain nearing the end a direct wink at Hitchcock.
Maitland Mcdonagh also points out the yellow rain slicker the killer wears a "respectful nod to Nicolas Roeg's great Don't Look Now. I felt that even more when Karen at the beginning takes off the first mask of her sister in the warehouse to find something even more disturbing along the lines of the killer in Don't Look Now.
Alice, Sweet Alice was also Brooke Shields acting debut but it was Paula Sheppard as Alice that steals the show with a great performance, we never know what her character is up to, I thought so many different things about Alice throughout the movie and at the end i was still left puzzled, in large part to Paula Sheppard's acting. It's hard to believe she was only in one other film Liquid Sky in 1982, possibly Paula like Alice had things going on and it enabled her to have such a believable performance, but that's speculation.
The third point I'd like to bring up of Maitland Mcdonagh's review was after she pointed out the Hitchock and Roeg references she states how the "film's atmosphere of suffocating Italian-American Catholicism is all director Alfred Sole", and i would add the guilt to go with it.
I would highly recommend this psychological thriller that will have you racking your brain for answers and holes throughout. It also has a real and believable feel to it. David Fincher would have no problems finding "Seven" deadly sins in this thriller, you'll notice which one of them Alice's perverted landlord is responsible for. Alice, Sweet Alice will have you thinking even after the film is over, A lot of things are left unanswered concerning Alice, she has obviously had something happen to her and she is disturbed, you feel for her but Alice isn't sweet any longer and possibly her aunt's fears could come true.
Alice, Sweet Alice is also on the Bravo Channel's scariest movie moments list at #89.
**THE DVD**
Film comment claims "The dvd commentary, featuring Sole and director Bill Lustig, who assisted on the film's effects makeup, is enthralling".
The audio is in Dolby digital 2 channel lacks a 5.1 track
The video the black bars at the bottom and top are very thick, for the most part the picture looks great however there are a few white lines that are present in some scenes.
Summary of Alice, Sweet Alice
When ten-year-old Karen (Brooke Shields) is killed in church on the occasion of her first communion, her seemingly innocent older sister Alice (Paula Sheppard) becomes the prime suspect. Matters become complicated as more of Alice's family members are attacked, along with residents of her apartment building. Can a twelve-year-old girl be capable of such mayhem, or is someone else with a vicious plan destroying her family? ALICE SWEET ALICE features a surprising amount of bloodletting along with a heavy dose of Catholic iconography. This was the first (albeit brief) screen appearance for Shields. The film is alternately known as Communion and Holy Terror. Special Features Include Commentary by Director Alfred Sole & Film Editor Edward Salier and Photo Gallery. Presented in Letterboxed format (Aspect Ratio 1.85:1)Paula Sheppard is Alice, a pouty, petulant problem child at that awkward age living with her precocious little sister Karen (Brooke Shields) and single mom. When Karen is murdered during her first communion and Alice takes her place in line, suspicion immediately falls on her. Then a diminutive killer in a yellow slicker and opaque mask continues the reign of terror, and Alice's estranged father takes up the investigation to prove her innocence. Director Alfred Sole has acknowledged a debt to Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now, but Alice, Sweet Alice is really in the Hitchcock mold, a stylish, smartly executed psychological suspense thriller. The violence is rarely graphic but often grueling and always harrowing, and the deaths reverberate through the film in genuine and sometimes hysterical outpourings of grief. Even when Sole reveals the killer's identity in a startling moment halfway through (à la Vertigo), the tension never lets up. The original title of the film, Communion, better captures the Catholic elements of guilt, sacrifice, and redemption that become central to the film (another tip to Hitchcock). Only a couple of grotesque caricatures (notably an obese pedophile landlord) and a few rough moments (largely special effects scenes, likely due to budgetary constraints) mar this otherwise intelligent and well executed thriller. The DVD also features an insightful commentary track by director Alfred Sole and editor Edward Salier and an alternate credits sequence (identical but for the film's title), as well as brief biographies and filmographies and a stills gallery. --Sean Axmaker
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