Mousey (1974)

You won't be disappointed!

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Blistering performances.

That is indeed the question. This movie has a lot of questions, but -provide few answers.For instance: Why is Kirk Douglas taking revenge on his ex wife? Is it because she divorced him? Because she is giving her son her new husband's name instead of his? Or is it something else?We get no answers to these questions. Maybe he is blaming his ex for being called "Mousey?" Who knows!Here is the bottom line: Kirk Douglas is engaging the people involved in a game of cat & mouse and we are not told why.This is no way to make a movie, even for TV. If they are going to make movies-don't ask questions and then not provide answers. There are far worse movies than this, but at least most of them provide answers as to why the characters do what they do.

Disregard the relatively low score and negative comments. MOUSEY is one of the best made-for-TV suspense/horror films of the '70s, and that's saying something.The film is taut from beginning to end....the sort of sustained low-key tension that keeps you on edge and engrossed, but rarely provides jump-out-of-your-seat moments. The alternate title, CAT AND MOUSE, is more apposite, for that's the game Kirk Douglas's character is playing throughout. How he outwits his ex-wife, her new husband, and their crew of private investigators is wonderfully entertaining.Douglas's performance is a well-judged balance of pathos, dementia, and understandable spite, that ably evokes sympathy from the viewer. The remainder of the cast is not particularly noteworthy, but the other actors aren't given much to do anyway. It's Douglas's show.The film's only other liability (minor as it is), aside from the odd snippet of painfully trite expository dialogue, is the music score. It isn't awful, but it doesn't do much to accentuate the suspense at key moments, and the same melancholy theme is repeated a little too often. Director Daniel Petrie's craftsmanship, however, is flawless and understated.The thrilling conclusion of MOUSEY, a sequence of events that uncannily recalls the memorable, allegedly precedent-setting "call-tracing" scene from the estimable BLACK CHRISTMAS (1974), actually predates its more famous cousin: "Mousey" was broadcast on TV just weeks before "Black Christmas" started filming. Coincidence?

Don't expect to get much pleasure out of watching this one-note, slow-moving made-for-TV thriller. It's just too thinly plotted for a feature-length film, and despite its cinematic look and Kirk Douglas' convincing performance, it has only a handful of mildly tense moments. (**)