MartinHafer When "The Medusa Touch" debuted, Roger Ebert apparently hated it so much that he named it the worst picture of the year. I am not 100% why he thought this...it's not really good but it's not that bad either.The film begins with Morlar (Richard Burton) getting bludgeoned. Despite the ferocity of the attack and the number of blows he took to the head, the police are shocked to see that they aren't investigating a murder but an attempted murder...though how he survived is anyone's guess. The trail takes them to the man's psychotherapist (Lee Remick) and she recounts a strange story about Morlar thinking he had the ability to use his mind to cause the deaths of folks he didn't like. And, since he was a detestable misanthrope, he didn't seem to like much of anyone! The man investigating the case (Lino Ventura) eventually comes to the determination that perhaps the man in the coma is actually a super- being...someone who does possess strange supernatural powers.This is a decent enough film but the premise itself seems better than the actual movie. I think, for me, the ending wasn't particularly thrilling. Plus, although I love Lino Ventura (he was amazing in many of Jean-Pierre Melville's films), here he seems odd...a French- Italian British police inspector. Worth seeing...perhaps.

alexanderdavies-99382 "The Medusa Touch" has many effective scenes but the films rather modest budget works against the production. In addition, the narrative is a bit silly in including all those flashbacks but some of them work. It is quite disturbing in thinking about how one seemingly ordinary human being can create all kinds of disasters through sheer will power. That is the character Richard Burton plays and his performance is very good. It is a bit difficult to ascertain whether he is almost a villain in "The Medusa Touch" as he has complete control over his unique but dangerous abilities. In the end, he comes across as being a tragic character who didn't ask to be cursed by his gifts (how else can you describe them?). The flashbacks that reveal his troubled childhood show all this. Jeremy Brett is wasted in his one scene appearance as the man who is having an affair with Burton's wife in the film. I would have thought an actor of his calibre could have had a more interesting character to play. As it is, Brett hams it up unforgivably and doesn't come off well. In comparison, Richard Burton is much more natural and subtle. Derek Jacobi fairs slightly better. Lee Remick has a good part to play as the character who befriends Burton in the film. The film required better special effects than the ones which were used for the films climax but they are just about passable. One of the more interesting films from the latter half of Richard Burton's career.

mattbaxter72 There are horror films, and there are horror films. Some have a bunch of teenagers being stalked by some nutjob with a mask and a big knife, and you have trouble remembering those the minute they're over. And some horror films have bigger ambitions, and less splatter, and the best of those can stay with you for a long time after they're over. The Medusa Touch, an almost forgotten gem from the 1970s, is one that might leave you with trouble sleeping if you watch it late at night.The set-up is certainly eye-catching. John Morlar, a misanthropic writer played by Richard Burton, is a man who thinks he can create disasters. At the very least, people who annoy him have a funny way of dying - his parents, his teacher, the judge at a trial where Morlar was a lawyer. But that was in the past - now Morlar is thinking bigger, causing bigger and bigger disasters. Or at least, that's what he thinks. But is he really a man with devastating powers, or is he a deluded madman? In fact, although the movie leaves the question open in the early going, there's never much doubt as to what the answer is. The question becomes not so much what is he doing, as how he can be stopped. When you can't kill a man by smashing his skull in so badly that his brains ooze onto the carpet, can you stop him at all? I hadn't seen this movie for years until today, but I remembered enough of it from when I was a kid, hiding behind the sofa. Coming back to it as a grown-up, I had my doubts. It's a euro-production, with a couple of roles handed to French actors for no good reason. It was made by Lew Grade's notoriously cheap studios, known for wobbly special effects and ruthless editing to fit in with TV schedules. And most of all, the premise seemed a bit, well, silly.I needn't have worried. The euro-actors acquit themselves well, especially Lino Ventura in what's effectively the lead role, the special effects are better than they have any right to be, and still stand up well. And as for the premise - yeah, it is a bit hokey. But as with any such mad sci-fi plot, everything depends on how the actors and the director play it. Here, they sell it, right to the bone - there's no smirking, no winks to the camera - and considering this is late-period Richard Burton, surprisingly little ham. Everyone is committed, and the result is that I was drawn in all over again, and I'll likely have nightmares all over again. That's OK, though. I just wish all my nightmares were as well-crafted as this one.

Theo Robertson This was promoted at the time as a star vehicle for Richard Burton who also appeared in THE WILD GEESE the same year . What wasn't promoted at the time was that the screenwriter was John Briley who would go on to Oscar winning success with the screenplay for GHANDI . Briley's structure follows that of a whodunnit . Novelist John Morlar is found battered nearly to death in his flat and French detective Brunel traces Morlar's life by talking to witnesses and realises bad things happen to people who cross Morlar It's hardly Oscar winning stuff but as a piece of low brow entertainment it serves its function . What makes it such a morbid delight is that the audience can empathise with Morlar's telekinetic abilities and to be honest we'd all use them to get back against sadistic teachers , noisy neighbours and cheating lovers . Morlar only becomes a villain when he starts killing people he has no argument with like plane passengers and astronauts There's also some wonderfully bitchy dialogue that Burton delivers in an appropriate dead pan style such as when Mrs Morlar introduces her fancy man to her husband , the fancy man being a renowned West End actor " You might like to pour yourself a large drink " " Why ? Is he going to perform for us ? " The climax takes place at a cathedral where a large amount of VIPs are congregating and guess what happens next ? There's a high amount of amusement to be had watching a bunch of well dressed film extras being crushed to death by polystyrene boulders crashing down . In fact the scene with the bell ringers being bonged to death by bells caused me to collapse in tears of laughter That scene sums up the whole movie . You'll feel slightly dirty watching it but you'll have almost two hours of undiluted entertainment even though you don't want to admit it