The Sentinel * (1977, Cristina Raines, Ava Gardner, Chris Sarandon) – Classic Movie Review 6,033

Michael Winner’s distasteful 1977 supernatural horror film The Sentinel is a ferocious farrago. Cristina Raines stars as a fashion model who moves into a Brooklyn Heights apartment built over the gates of Hell.

‘She was young. She was beautiful. She was next!’

Co-writer/ director Michael Winner’s thoroughly distasteful 1977 supernatural horror film The Sentinel is a bit of a ferocious farrago, a muddled mixture and a horror hodgepodge. Obviously, as it is Michael Winner, we are not expecting any subtlety.

It is based on the 1974 novel by Jeffrey Konvitz and stars Cristina Raines as a young, beautiful fashion model called Alison Parker, who finds herself renting a cheap Brooklyn Heights brownstone apartment in a historic block that is owned by the Catholic diocese and turns out to be built over the gates of Hell. No wonder it is a low rental! You don’t get much lower than hell, though it saves on the heating bills.

The good guys want her to take the place of an ailing blind-mute priest named Father Halliran (played by John Carradine) and guard the gate, while the demons of Hell want her to fail her job interview and commit suicide.

Winner assembles a dream cast of the time, but the tremendous efforts of both the newcomers (Chris Sarandon, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Walken) and old-timers (including Ava Gardner, Martin Balsam, John Carradine, José Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy, Eli Wallach, and Sylvia Miles) is largely squandered battling working in bizarre cameos or minor roles. Though Ava Gardner does okay as the realtor Miss Logan.

The controversial climax is deeply worrying, with Winner mixing actors in makeup (effectively designed by Dick Smith) with genuinely deformed people in the manner of Freaks, to gratuitous effect. Winner revealed that he cast people with physical disabilities and abnormalities from hospitals and sideshows as the deformed people in the film’s finale.

Universal vetoed Winner’s choice of Martin Sheen as Alison’s attorney boyfriend Michael Lerman as he had ‘done too much television’ so Winner cast Chris Sarandon, impressed by him in Dog Day Afternoon (1975).

It is Tom Berenger’s debut (as man at end) and Beverly D’Angelo’s first feature screen appearance (as Sandra). Also in the cast are Chris Sarandon, Martin Balsam, José Ferrer, Ava Gardner, Arthur Kennedy, Burgess Meredith, Sylvia Miles, Deborah Raffin, Eli Wallach, Jerry Orbach, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Walken as a detective, Beverly D’Angelo, Hank Garrett and William Hickey.

Winner later opined Walken and D’Angelo should have played the main roles.

It started shooting in New York City on May 21, 1976 on a budget of $3.5 million.

The film was released by Universal Pictures on February 11, 1977, taking $4 million at the US box office.

The Sentinel is directed by Michael Winner, runs 92 minutes, is made and released by Universal Pictures, is written by Winner and Jeffrey Konvitz, based on the novel by Jeffrey Konvitz, is shot by Dick Kratina, is produced by Jeffrey Konvitz, and is scored by Gil Melle.

The cast are Chris Sarandon as Michael Lerman, Cristina Raines as Alison Parker, Martin Balsam as Professor Ruzinsky, John Carradine as Father Francis Matthew Halliran, José Ferrer as robed figure, Ava Gardner as the realtor Miss Logan, Arthur Kennedy as Monsignor Franchino, Burgess Meredith as Charles Chazen, Sylvia Miles as Gerde Engstrom, Deborah Raffin as Jennifer, Eli Wallach as Detective Gatz, Christopher Walken as Detective Rizzo, Jerry Orbach as film director, Beverly D’Angelo as Sandra, Hank Garrett as James Brenner, Nana Tucker as girl at end, Tom Berenger as man at end, William Hickey as Perry, and Jeff Goldblum as Jack. Richard Dreyfuss appears uncredited as an extra in the final sequence.

Chris Sarandon recalled: ‘When I first read it, I thought it had a chance of being a first-rate picture. I liked the book a lot, but I had no fun making it. It was the only picture I’ve done that I felt was not a success on any level, personally or professionally.’

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6,033

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