''Murder a la Mod'' is a 1968 American film directed by

Brian De Palma Brian Russell De Palma (; born September 11, 1940) is an Americans, American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for work in the suspense, Crime film, crime, and psychological thriller genres. ...

in his first feature film as a director and writer. An

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

, low-budget murder-mystery, it was shot on

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

16mm film 16 mm film is a historically popular and economical Film gauge, gauge of Photographic film, film. 16 mm refers to the width of the film (about inch); other common film gauges include 8 mm film, 8 mm and 35mm movie film, 35 mm. It ...

. Following its limited theatrical release, the film was rarely seen until its reissue on DVD in 2006. In the film, a female

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided in ...

steals money and jewelry from a friend, with the intention to offer the stolen items to her fiancé. She is instead murdered, with her murder recorded in a

snuff film A snuff film, snuff movie, or snuff video is a type of film, sometimes defined as being produced for profit or financial gain, that shows, or purports to show, scenes of actual homicide. The concept of snuff films became known to the general pub ...

. Her re-animated corpse seemingly kills her fiancé, though it turns out that the second murder was the result of a miscalculation in a

prank A practical joke or prank is a trick played on people, generally causing the victim to experience embarrassment, perplexity, confusion, or discomfort.Marsh, Moira. 2015. ''Practically Joking''. Logan: Utah State University Press. The perpetrat ...

Plot summary

In a prologue shown from the

point of view Point of View or Points of View may refer to: Concept and technique * Point of view (literature) or narrative mode, the perspective of the narrative voice; the pronoun used in narration * Point of view (philosophy), an attitude how one sees or ...

of a camera

viewfinder In photography, a viewfinder is a device on a camera that a photographer uses to determine exactly where the camera is pointed, and approximately how much of that view will be photographed. A viewfinder can be mechanical (indicating only direct ...

, a series of female

models A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided int ...

in a studio are asked by an off-screen cameraman to undress for a

screen test A screen test is a method of determining the suitability of an actor or actress for performing on film or in a particular role. It is typically a secondary or later stage in the audition process. The performer is generally given a scene, or sel ...

. One model is seemingly stabbed by the unseen man behind the camera. During an afternoon of shopping in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

's boutiques, Karen, another model, tells her socialite friend Tracy about her fiancé Christopher, a photographer and widower. Tracy visits her bank to withdraw money and jewelry from her safe deposit box, which she places inside a large envelope. Meanwhile, Karen catches sight of Christopher in the street and follows him to his studio, where she discovers he is shooting a

sexploitation film A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit se ...

featuring a deranged prankster, Otto. Christopher remorsefully tells Karen that he lied about being a widower, and that he is reluctantly working for the film's producer, Wiley, because he urgently needs money to obtain a divorce from his wife. Karen pleads with Christopher to let her help raise the money. Returning to Tracy's parked car, Karen finds Tracy has gone inside a dress shop, leaving the envelope of valuables under her car seat. Karen impulsively steals the cash from the envelope and hurries back to Christopher's studio, intending to give him the money. Entering the building, Karen is surprised by Otto, who pretends to stab her with a dummy ice-pick (a

prop A prop, formally known as a (theatrical) property, is an object actors use on stage or screen during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct ...

from Wiley's film) and squirts her with

ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and sour flavor. "Ketchup" now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes for different varieties contained mushrooms, oysters, mussels, egg whites, grapes, or walnuts, amon ...

. After walking inside the studio and cleaning herself up, Karen is then stabbed to death by a genuine assailant wielding a real ice-pick. The film then shows events from the viewpoints of the three other main characters: Tracy follows Otto, who is wheeling a large trunk apparently containing Karen's corpse to a nearby cemetery; Otto discovers Karen's corpse in the studio and attempts to lure the killer to the cemetery with an empty trunk; while Christopher, who has been spying on Karen and Tracy during their shopping expedition, pursues Otto and Tracy to the cemetery. The killer is revealed to be Christopher, who has secretly filmed his murder of Karen. After a fight in the cemetery, Christopher and Otto both return separately to the studio. Christopher kills Wiley when he finds him watching the footage of Karen's murder. He then turns and is shocked to see Karen's corpse apparently moving towards him and brandishing an ice-pick, with which she fatally stabs him. Otto, who is then revealed to have been holding up Karen's body as another intended prank, realizes he has mistakenly used the real ice-pick to stab Christopher, and laughs at the irony.

Cast

Andra Akers Andra Akers (September 16, 1943 – March 20, 2002) was an American actress and philanthropist. A character actress, she appeared in films, theater and television, usually in tough or brassy roles. Early life and education Akers was born in Ne ...

as Tracy * William Finley as Otto * Margo Norton as Karen * Jared Martin as Chris * Ken Burrows as Wiley *

Jennifer Salt Jennifer Salt (born September 4, 1944) is an American producer, screenwriter, and former actress known for playing Eunice Tate on ''Soap'' (1977–1981). Life and career Salt was born in Los Angeles, California, to screenwriter Waldo Salt and ...

as a 'Bird'

Reception

During the film's very limited U.S. theatrical release, it was screened with

Paul Bartel Paul Bartel (August 6, 1938 – May 13, 2000) was an American actor, writer and director. He was perhaps most known for his 1982 hit black comedy ''Eating Raoul'', which he co-wrote, starred in and directed. Bartel appeared in over 90 movies an ...

's short film ''

The Secret Cinema ''The Secret Cinema'' is a short black-and-white film produced, written, and directed by Paul Bartel, and released in 1966, gaining somewhat wider distribution in 1968. The film is about a woman who is manipulated by people around her so a direc ...

''. Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' said both films were "somewhat sophomoric in tone and crude technically", but "imaginative enough to warrant encouragement to their makers." Thomas felt the first half of ''Murder a la Mod'' was "terrible", but that "de Palma then successfully comes to grips with a ''

Rashomon is a 1950 Japanese ''jidaigeki'' film directed by Akira Kurosawa from a screenplay he co-wrote with Shinobu Hashimoto. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō, Masayuki Mori, and Takashi Shimura, it follows various people who describe how a ...

''-like technique in presenting the murder from the points of view of everyone involved."

Vincent Canby Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who was the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in 2000. ...

of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' said the film "has a mind and reality of its own. It's completely logical in its use of cinematic tricks — speeded-up action and slow motion, and slapstick humor that is not funny, juxtaposed with mayhem that is. There is a limit as to just how far this sort of playfulness can be carried." David Nusair of ''Reel Film Reviews'' called it "De Palma's first (and worst) feature-length endeavor".

DVD/Blu-ray reissues

''Murder a la Mod'' was reissued on DVD by

Something Weird Video Something Weird Video is an American film distributor company based in Seattle, Washington. They specialize in exploitation B to Z films, particularly the works of Harry Novak, Doris Wishman, David F. Friedman and Herschell Gordon Lewis. ...

in 2006. It was subsequently included as a bonus feature on

Criterion Criterion (: criteria) may refer to: General * Criterion, Oregon, a historic unincorporated community in the United States * Criterion Place, a proposed skyscraper in West Yorkshire, England * Criterion Restaurant, in London, England * Criteri ...

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

edition of De Palma's ''

Blow Out ''Blow Out'' is a 1981 American independent mystery thriller film written and directed by Brian De Palma. The film stars John Travolta as Jack Terry, a movie sound effects technician from Philadelphia who, while recording sounds for a low-bud ...

'' in April 2011.

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Murder A La Mod 1968 films 1960s mystery thriller films 1968 black comedy films 1960s crime thriller films 1968 directorial debut films 1960s avant-garde and experimental films American black-and-white films American black comedy films American crime thriller films Films directed by Brian De Palma Films about pornography Films about film directors and producers 1960s English-language films 1960s American films Films set in Manhattan Films about pranks Films about modeling Films about snuff films 1960s rediscovered films Rediscovered American films English-language black comedy films English-language crime thriller films English-language mystery thriller films