Masquerade **** (1988, Rob Lowe, Meg Tilly, Kim Cattrall, Doug Savant, John Glover, Dana Delany) – Classic Movie Review 4395

Rob Lowe stars as an insinuating creepy charmer in director Bob Swaim’s smooth, slick and satisfying 1988 Hitchcockian neo noir romantic mystery thriller film Masquerade. It is French-based American film director Swaim’s first American film.

Lowe confidently takes on a Cary Grant-style role in an unofficial remake of Hitchcock’s Suspicion (1941), in Dick Wolf’s screenplay that tells the story of a magnetically handsome young playboy, yacht racing captain Tim, who marries a rich, mousey young woman (Meg Tilly), the recently orphaned millionairess Olivia, who hates her scheming stepfather.

Unfortunately Tim is not truthful with the love-struck Olivia, and, what’s more, he may or may not be planning to murder her.

Swaim’s movie is a lightweight but extremely pretty looking and thoroughly enjoyable romantic thriller, beautifully photographed at the seaside near New York City. Lowe and Tilly make a lot out of roles that are fairly thinly sketched in a screenplay that, like Suspicion‘s, just does not get quite dangerous enough. But Masquerade is still sleek, sexy, slippery entertainment.

The young Lowe obligingly gets his kit off and looks cute as he makes love with Tilly and Kim Cattrall. This film was a good move for Lowe at the time, a more-adult step up and away from his earlier teen movies. It was also a good move for Meg Tilly, who got approving reviews for her well-judged performance.

Meg Tilly recalled: ‘I’d never done a love scene before and I found it hard to do. We all feel sensitive about the way we behave in bed and it’s strange having someone watch and correct you – and Bob Swaim did give quite a bit of direction in those scenes!’

Also in the cast are Doug Savant, John Glover, Dana Delany, Erik Holland, Brian Davies and Barton Heyman.

The film was shot in ten weeks in New York City, and at Riverhead, Sag Harbor, Shelter Island, and Southampton, all Long Island, New York.

In the US, it was rated R for strong language and sex.

French-based American film director Swaim had an international success with the 1982 French police film La Balance, which led him to Hollywood. He signed a contract as director, writer and producer in 1987 with MGM, where he developed several projects. Masquerade was greenlit for him to direct by Alan Ladd Jr at MGM. On a $12 million budget it earned $91.6 million.

However, disenchanted with Hollywood and the studio system, Swaim returned to France.

Unfortunately in the same year 1988, Lowe, 24, was involved in a sex scandal over a videotape of him having sex with a 16-year-old girl he met in a nightclub. This derailed his career, though it rebounded eventually. The story broke during rehearsals for Bad Influence, where Lowe plays a mysterious stranger. Director Curtis Hanson stated: ‘It was like a carnival atmosphere around him.’ But ultimately it was decided to keep Lowe in the part. In other good news, Lowe has been married to makeup artist Sheryl Berkoff since 1991 after re-meeting on the set of Bad Influence.

The cast are Rob Lowe as Tim Whalen, Meg Tilly as Olivia Lawrence, Kim Cattrall as Brooke Morrison, Doug Savant as Officer Mike McGill, John Glover as Tony Gateworth, Dana Delany as Anne Briscoe, Erik Holland as Chief of Police, Brian Davies as Granger Morrison, Barton Heyman as Tommy McGill, Bernie McInerney as Harland Fitzgerald, Bill Lopatto as Weyburn, Pirie MacDonald as Theodore Cantrell, Maeve McGuire as Aunt Eleanor, Ira Wheeler as Uncle Charles, Timothy Landfield as Sam, Karen McLaughlin as Jillian, Nada Rowand as Mrs. Chase, Edwin Bordo as Mortician, Bruce Tuthill as Lt. Wacker, James Caulfield as Cop #1, Boz Scaggs as Cop #2, Henry Ravelo as Alberto, Lois Diane Hicks as Judge, Dorothy Lancaster as Nun, Marilyn Raphael as Maid, Dick Wolf as Sedgewick, Evan O’Neill as Debutante, Jimmy Raitt as Store Manager, Robert D. Wilson Sr. as Dock Man, Michael Tadross as Kid on Dock, Benjamin Lee Swaim as French Boy #1, and Christopher Thomas Swaim as French Boy #2.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4395

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