The Other **** (1972, Uta Hagen, Diana Muldaur, Chris Udvarnoky, Martin Udvarnoky) – Classic Movie Review 8780

The Other (1972) is a very fine, carefully handled mystery horror movie from director Robert Mulligan.

Chris Udvarnoky and Martin Udvarnoky play 12-year-old twin brothers (good Niles Perry, bad Holland Perry) living on a  farm in Thirties Connecticut, where accidents, weird occurrences and unexplained deaths scare not only their widow mom (Diana Muldaur) and grandmother Ada (Uta Hagen) but the whole small town.

It is a very good-looking film, thanks to Robert L Surtees’s striking cinematography, and Thomas [Tom] Tryon turns in a nice, creepy screenplay from his own novel.

Chris Udvarnoky in The Other (1972).

Chris and his twin Martin [Marty] were born on 23 May 1961 and were chosen for the roles of Niles and Holland Perry during a nationwide talent search. They had started to study and appear in plays at the Herbert Berghof Studio in New York City. Berghof was the husband of Uta Hagen, who plays the twins’ grandmother, Ada. Their teacher heard of the search for twin actors to play the Perry twins and sent their photos to the 20th Century Fox casting office, and the brothers won the roles after interviews with Mulligan. They had virtually no acting experience and previously were known only as star catchers on rival teams in the local Little League.

Chris died on 25 October 2010 of polycystic kidney disease, aged 49.

Also in the cast are Norma Connolly, Victor French, Loretta Leversee, Lou Frizzell, John Ritter, Portia Nelson, Jenny Sullivan, Jack Collins, Ed Bakey, Clarence Crow and Carolyn Stellar.

As it is set in the summer of 1935, the small town of Murphys, California, stands in for Connecticut.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8780

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