Lady in White ***½ (1988, Lukas Haas, Len Cariou, Alex Rocco, Katherine Helmond) – Classic Movie Review 10,972

The eerie 1988 supernatural mystery horror film Lady in White stars Lukas Haas as a schoolboy in 1962 upstate New York mixed up in a series of child murders after he witnesses the ghost of a young girl murdered in his school’s cloakroom. 

The tagline for Lady in White (1988) is unusually helpful to explain and locate the film: ‘The year is 1962. The place is Willowpoint Falls. Nobody talks about what happened in the school cloakroom 10 years ago. Now, in the dead of night, Frankie Scarlatti is going to find out why.’

The 1988 American independent supernatural mystery horror film Lady in White stars Lukas Haas as a schoolboy in 1962 upstate New York mixed up in a series of child murders after he witnesses the ghost of a young girl who was murdered in his school’s cloakroom.

Len Cariou, Alex Rocco and Katherine Helmond also star, In a tour-de-force, it is directed, produced, written and scored by Frank LaLoggia, who bases his story partly on his own upbringing, as well as his local legend of The Lady in White about a woman who searches for her daughter in Durand-Eastman Park in Rochester, New York, where the director was born into an Italian American family in 1954.

Lukas Haas (the boy in Witness) stars as schoolboy Frankie Scarlatti, who is locked in a school cloakroom as a schoolkids’ Halloween stunt, and witnesses the ghost of a young girl and the man who murdered her years ago. But his life is threatened when a real strangler discovers him and he finds himself stalked by the killer.

Writer-director Frank LaLoggia’s 1988 fantasy horror mystery film Lady in White is an eerie and glossily produced little child-in-jeopardy chiller, with an appealing performance from Haas and careful craftsmanship. But writer-director LaLoggia slightly lets the film slip away from him: though it starts really well, it begins to runs out of steam around the half way point and it just doesn’t have a big finish.

Nevertheless, it is a mostly creepy and entertaining mystery outing, with Haas excellent, and performances by Len Cariou, Alex Rocco and Katherine Helmond also to enjoy, and as a bonus, the New England country atmosphere is vividly conjured up. Inventive and imaginative, it enjoyed good reviews and is now a cult film.

Much of filming took place in Lyons, New York,

There are three versions: 113 minutes, 117 minutes (director’s cut) and 126 minutes (extended director’s cut). In 2016, Scream Factory issued a Blu-ray edition of the film featuring the three versions.

Also in the cast are Jason Presson, Renata Vanni, Angelo Bertolini, Joelle Jacobi, Jared Rushton, Gregory Levinson, Lucy Lee Flippin, Tom Bower, Jack Andreozzi, Sydney Lassick, Rita Zohar, Hal Bokar, Rose Weaver, Henry Harris, Bruce Kirby, Emily Tracy and Karen Powell.

It was filmed around the end of 1986, but not released in the US till 22 April 1988 and screened in the UK at London Film Festival on 17 November 1988, with the UK release on 16 June 1989.

The film grossed only $1.7 million at the US box office but it recouped its entire production budget of $4.7 million via foreign, video and cable TV earnings, and then earned a further $3 million – $5 million (estimated) subsequently.

Frank LaLoggia and his cousin Charles M LaLoggia raised the $4.7 million independently by setting up a public company, New Sky Communications, financed through a penny stock offering.

Samuel Goldwyn Productions paid a $1,000,000 advance and 70 per cent of all foreign sales for the foreign rights, home video rights went to Richard Branson’s Virgin Vision for $2,000,000, and New Century Vista picked up the US theatrical release.

Lady in White is directed by Frank LaLoggia, runs 113 minutes, 117 minutes
(director’s cut) or 126 minutes (extended director’s cut), is made by New Sky Productions, is released by New Century Vista Film Company (1988) (US) and Virgin Vision (1989) (UK), is written by Frank LaLoggia, is shot by Russell Carpenter, is produced by Frank LaLoggia and Andrew G La Marca, is scored by Frank LaLoggia and designed by Richard K Hummel.

Frank LaLoggia (born January 12, 1954) acted in several films before making his directorial debut with the horror film Fear No Evil (1981). Lady in White was his second feature. He later directed the made-for-TV film Mother (1995), starring Diane Ladd and Olympia Dukakis.

The cast are Lukas Haas as Frankie Scarlatti, Len Cariou as Phil Terragrossa, Alex Rocco as Angelo Rodolfo Scarlatti, Katherine Helmond as Amanda Harper, Jason Presson as Geno Scarlatti, Henry Harris as Harold “Willy” Williams, Renata Vanni as Mama Assunta, Angelo Bertolini as Papa Charlie, Joelle Jacobi as Melissa Anne Montgomery, Jared Rushton as Donald, Gregory Levinson as Louie, Karen Powell as Anne Montgomery (Melissa’s mother/ Lady in White.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,972

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