Thoughts on Body Double

In July 2021, I watched the 1984 film Body Double on Criterion, a noir thriller by Brian de Palma about a struggling actor whose voyeuristic spying on an attractive female neighbor leads him into a twisted plot involving stalking, deception, murder, and an adult film star. It was highly stylish in a giallo kind of way, very trippy, and I enjoyed it even if I didn’t totally get it, especially in the finale.

This was really of its time that a man could make a film in that a woman getting stalked by a guy all day doesn’t see it as being weird as it should be, especially when he’s not being subtle and clearly following her around. I didn’t know that Deborah Shelton’s lines were all dubbed by Helen Shaver.

Craig Wasson as the lead was pretty bland, I wish someone like Jeff Bridges was in the lead, he’d have given this role some more bite and edge.

Melanie Griffith was great in this, as the adult film star who is initially part of the deception before knowing how much further it got. She felt like the only one who had her head on straight and called people out on their crap, I liked how smart and easily annoyed she was. She had a really wild look in this film, with an 80s punk hairstyle and a aerobicized body shape.

The whole "Relax" sequence was amazing, and given that Frankie Goes to Hollywood were all into wearing bondage gear onstage and in their videos, it fit that they would be in a movie about the porn world. In the attached video, the context is that the protagonist, the one dressed as a nerd, gets himself cast in a porno film to meet Melanie Griffith to confront her about this plot involving her and his neighbor, and the scene turns into a whole music video instead.

I saw in the credits that Barbara Crampton was in this, but I don’t know where. She wasn’t the ex-wife. And according to IMDb, this movie had a lot of adult film actors and Penthouse models throughout the movie, so good on them for getting into this classic.

I didn’t totally get the ending, like if it was really happening or in his head, it sort of gave a “it was all a dream” vibe with him conquering his claustrophobia, but not exactly.