EYES OF LAURA MARS (1978) – Episode 232 – Decades of Horror 1970s

‘I remembered that I was sneakin’ out the back door of the bar. So I said to myself, man, I said,”What the *fuck* are you doin’, man? Sneakin’ out the back door, runnin’ away, man, from what? I mean, you didn’t do nothin’. Nobody can prove that you did nothin’ because you did not do nothin’.”’ As usual, he had an elaborate alibi. Join your faithful Grue Crew – Doc Rotten, Bill Mulligan, Chad Hunt, and Jeff Mohr, along with guest Dirk Rogers – as they discuss Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), … a movie with a script co-written by John Carpenter?

Decades of Horror 1970s
Episode 232 – Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)

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Synopsis: Fashion photographer Laura Mars, whose photographs contain violent images, develops the ability to see through a killer’s eyes. Detective John Neville notes striking similarities between her art photos and those of actual crime scenes and realizes that she can see what is happening through the eyes of the killer. Mars and Neville join forces to identify the killer before she, too, becomes a victim.

• Directed by: Irvin Kershner
• Writing Credits: (screenplay) John Carpenter and David Zelag Goodman; (story) John Carpenter; Tommy Lee Jones (monologue writer) (uncredited); Julian Barry (uncredited); Mart Crowley (uncredited); Joan Tewkesbury (uncredited)
• Produced by: Jack H. Harris (executive producer), Jon Peters (producer), Laura Ziskin (associate producer)
• Selected Cast:
  • Faye Dunaway as Laura Mars
  • Tommy Lee Jones as John Neville
  • Brad Dourif as Tommy Ludlow
  • Rene Auberjonois as Donald Phelps
  • Raul Julia as Michael Reisler (as R.J.)
  • Michael Tucker as Bert
  • Frank Adonis as Sal Volpe
  • Lisa Taylor as Michele
  • Darlanne Fluegel as Lulu
  • Rose Gregorio as Elaine Cassell
  • Bill Boggs as Bill Boggs
  • Steve Marachuk as Robert
  • Meg Mundy as Doris Spenser
  • Marilyn Meyers as Sheila Weissman
  • Gary Bayer as Reporter
  • Mitchell Edmonds as Reporter
  • Jeff Niki as Photo Assistant
  • Nicholas Guest as Party Guest (uncredited)
  • Jack H. Harris as Man in Gallery (uncredited)

John Carpenter wrote a script and it became Eyes of Laura Mars (1978). However, there was so little similarity between the finished product and his original script that Carpenter had little more to do with the film. Even so, Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Rene Auberjonois, Brad Dourif, and Raul Julia add credence to the movie along with Irvin Kershner’s direction and some very Giallo-like touches. Where will the Grue-Crew, joined by Dirk Rogers, come down amid the muddled aspects of Eyes of Laura Mars? You’ll just have to check it out to find out. Incidentally, did you notice Brad Dourif was in the film?

At the time of this writing, Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) is available to stream from Tubi and multiple PPV sources. It is available on physical media as a Blu-ray formatted disc from Kino Lorber Studio Classics and from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror 1970s is part of the Decades of Horror two-week rotation with The Classic Era and the 1980s. In two weeks, the next episode, chosen by Bill, will be Black Noon (1971), a TV movie, horror western starring Roy Thinnes, Lynn Loring, Yvette Mimeaux, Ray Milland, and Henry Silva. Mr. Mulligan tells us it’s pretty good.

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