Harlequin
There is never a good time for a political crisis, but for United States Senator Nick Rast it could not be more inconvenient, an accident while scuba diving and the presumed death of a senior member of the House, no body found but a reshuffle imminent, opportunities for those who are well placed and ambitious but coinciding with what might be the final birthday party for his son Alex.
Diagnosed with leukaemia three years previously, there is little joy at the party, Sandra doing her best while the clown performs feats startling to the point of sinister which surely must be coincidence, for how can a man conjure thunder on cue? Alex asking if the clown can return next year, his parents know he is unlikely to survive that long, but magician, entertainer and faith healer Gregory Wolfe has other tricks up his sleeve.
An Australian produced supernatural thriller of 1980, though it is implied to be set in America for commercial reasons, the strange inclusion of the familiar BBC test card in one shot only adding to the sense of oddity, written by Everett De Roche Harlequin’s inspiration was the Romanov family, Rast being Tsar backwards and with Nicky, Sandra and Alex named for Nikolai, Alexandra and Alexei, Gregory of course being Grigori Rasputin, a terrifying and apparently indestructible man of tremendous hold over those in his thrall.
An agent of good, evil, or perhaps just chaos but certainly change, starring Doomwatch’s Robert Powell, Gregory is an outsider who inveigles his way into their lives with an impossible promise to heal their son, but one which inconceivably appears to be true, Alex’s condition immediately but inexplicably improving, though those around the family are concerned about what influence he may wield through mesmerism and misdirection, nor who he represents, aware that those who are desperate to believe are vulnerable.
Directed by Simon Wincer and retitled Dark Forces for the international market, Barbarella’s David Hemmings is Nicky, aware he is a puppet but unsure who is pulling the strings, while Carmen Duncan is sympathetic as Sandra, caught in a loveless marriage of political expedience and blaming herself for her son’s illness, “the marred fruit of a godless union,” the chameleon among them changing his face and costume and provoking each to different actions, revealing their flaws and triggers and forcing compromises.
A film which wants to have its cake and eat it, a mystery which never quite resolves any of its facets, with the acceptance that it remains a paradox Harlequin is an overlooked curio which is entertaining throughout, still relevant in the age of professional influencers and leaders eager to embrace pseudoscience, the new edition supported by a plethora of archive and newer material including a commentary from Wincer and producer Antony I Ginnane and interviews with Powell, Hemmings, De Roche and others.
Harlequin is available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from PowerHouse
