The Changeling **** (1980, George C Scott, Trish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas) – Classic Movie Review 7978

Peter Medak’s 1980 Canadian film The Changeling is a scary and effective chiller. George C Scott is excellent as musician Professor John Russell, who moves into a Seattle old dark house after his wife and son are killed in a car accident.

Director Peter Medak’s 1980 Canadian film The Changeling is a truly creepy, scary and effective spook-house horror movie. George C Scott is excellent as the widowed musician / composer Professor John Russell, who moves from New York into a Seattle old dark house after his wife and son are killed in a car accident. 

The rundown Victorian mansion is inhabited (because this is a ghost story) by the inevitable spirit of a murdered boy who lived there 70 years before The child’s father placed a changeling in his stead to grab money bequeathed to the kid. But now the changeling has become rich old mogul Senator Carmichael (Melvyn Douglas), who does not like Russell (Scott) sniffing around.

Russell sees apparitions of a drowned young boy and then finds a hidden room in the attic, where John Carmichael, a sickly child murdered in the bathtub by his own father, lived. John’s father replaced him with an orphan, now the senator, to avoid leaving his wealth to a handicapped son.

So, another creepy attic movie then.

The good cast, William Gray and Diana Maddox’s credible screenplay (based on a story by Russell Hunter), the spooky atmosphere, and Medak’s well-paced direction all combine to help turn this into a well above-average chiller. The outstanding Art Design (Trevor Williams) and Cinematography (John Coquillon) contribute to a fine-looking, well-crafted film too. It is based on events Russell Hunter claimed happened to him while living in the Henry Treat Rogers mansion in the Cheesman Park neighbourhood of Denver, Colorado, in the late 1960s.

The Changeling won the first ever Canadian Genie Award for Best Canadian Film and won seven other Genie Awards: Best Foreign Actor (George C Scott), Best Foreign Actress (Trish Van Devere), Best Adapted Screenplay (William Gray and Diana Maddox), Best Art Design (Trevor Williams), Best Cinematography (John Coquillon), Best Sound and Best Sound Editing. It was nominated for two Saturn Awards.

Also in the cast are Trish Van Devere, John Colicos, Jean Marsh, Barry Morse, James Douglas, Madeleine Thornton-Sherwood, Roberta Maxwell, Berrand Behrens, Frances Hyland, Ruth Springford, Helen Burns, Eric Christmas and Chris Gampell.

Though set in Seattle, most of the film was shot in the British Columbian cities of Vancouver and Victoria. The senator’s home was Hatley Castle in Victoria, exterior shots of Russell’s home were filmed with a facade in front of a home in South Vancouver, and the haunted mansion’s interior was a series of interconnected sets at Panorama Studios in West Vancouver.

Peter Medak (born 23 December 1937) took over with only a month for script re-writes and set building after Donald Cammell and Tony Richardson withdrew through ‘creative differences’. His other films include Negatives (1968). The Ruling Class (1972), The Krays (1990) and Let Him Have It (1991).

Changeling 2: The Revenge [Fino alla Morte] followed in 1987 but it has no relation to the 1980 Canadian film.

Trish Van Devere (born on 9 March 1941) is best known for being the wife and widow and frequent co-star of legendary actor George C Scott.

Van Devere married George C Scott in September 1972 after appearing together in The Last Run (1971). They appeared in The Day of the Dolphin (1973), The Savage Is Loose (1973), Beauty and the Beast (1976), Movie Movie (1978), and The Changeling (1980). 

Van Devere acted frequently on TV and film until 1994. She remained married to Scott until his death in 1999.

Also in 1980, Van Devere starred in the horror film The Hearse. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for the film One Is a Lonely Number (1972), and won a Genie Award for The Changeling.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7978

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