Taglines: Holland-where is the baby?
The Other movie storyline. In the summer of 1935, identical twins Holland and Niles Perry enjoy playing on their family farm. Earlier in the year the boys’ father died in an accident in the apple cellar, leaving their mother deeply melancholic and agoraphobic. Instead the farm is looked after by their father’s brother George and his wife Vee, along with their bratty son Russell.
Also residing nearby are the twins’ pregnant older sister Torrie, her new husband Rider, and their Russian emigrant grandmother Ada, with whom Niles shares an especially close relationship. Ada has taught Niles to astrally project his mind into the bodies of other living creatures, an ability that runs in the Perry family; they refer to this as “the great game.”
Though the apple cellar is off-limits after their father’s death, the twins enjoy playing there. One day while playing in the cellar, they are discovered by Russell, who sees that Niles is wearing the Perry family ring. Russell threatens to tell on him for having the ring, which he says was supposed to be buried. Holland tells Niles that the ring is always passed from eldest son to eldest son, and that after the death of their father, Holland (the elder twin by 20 minutes) came to possess the ring and can do whatever he likes with it, including giving it to Niles. Niles hides the ring, along with other secret trinkets, in a Prince Albert tin he conceals from his mother.
Uncle George puts a padlock on the apple cellar to keep the twins out, but Holland knows a secret stairway from the barn that allows them access. In revenge for Russell tattling about the cellar, and to prevent him from telling about the ring, Holland hides a pitchfork in a haystack in the barn. While Niles and Russell are playing in the barn, Russell jumps into the haystack and is impaled. Niles is horrified, but keeps his brother’s secret.
Later, Niles and Holland tease their neighbor Mrs. Rowe, causing her to scold Niles (who she mistakes for Holland) and report him to Ada. Holland takes revenge on Mrs. Rowe by frightening her with a live rat, knowing that she is terrified of them. The shock causes her to have a fatal heart attack. Holland runs away without telling anyone, but accidentally leaves his harmonica behind.
The Other is a 1972 American psychological thriller film directed by Robert Mulligan, adapted for film by Thomas Tryon from his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Uta Hagen, Diana Muldaur, and twins Chris and Martin Udvarnoky, with Victor French, John Ritter, and Jenny Sullivan in supporting roles.
About the Production
The film was shot entirely on location in Murphys, California and Angels Camp, California. Director Robert Mulligan had hoped to shoot the film on location in Connecticut, where it takes place, but because it was autumn when the film entered production (and therefore the color of the leaves would not reflect the height of summer, when the story takes place) this idea was dropped. Assistant director/associate producer Don Kranze picked the location for the house in Murphys, having remembered it from the 1947 film The Red House. The fairground sequence was shot in Angels Camp.
Mulligan described his intentions with the film: “I want to put the audience into the body of the boy with this shot and to make the experience of the film, from beginning to end, a totally subjective one.” Of the character of Niles, he commented, “If Niles could have life just the way he wanted it, his world would contain only Ada, Holland, and himself—preferably only Holland and himself.”
Of the character of Ada, he commented, “She was the heart of the house. She has a primitive sense of imagination and drama, which is the greatest thing an adult can give a child…Her only failing is that she has a maternal love so strong that it blinds her to what is happening. Though she enriches and turns on the child’s imagination, her gift is used in a destructive way by the child.”
This would be the only movie appearance by the twins Chris and Martin Udvarnoky, the featured stars. Mulligan never shows the brothers in frame together. They are always separated by a camera pan, or an editing cut. John Ritter would make one of his earliest appearances in the film, as the boys’ brother-in-law, Rider Gannon. Decades later, on an episode of 8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter, Ritter paid tribute to Robert Mulligan in a scene where his character quoted To Kill A Mockingbird. Rider’s young wife and the twins’ sister, Torrie, is played by Jenny Sullivan.
Goldsmith’s compositions for the film can be heard in a 22-minute suite found on the soundtrack album of The Mephisto Waltz. This CD was released 25 years after the release of the film. According to the liner notes of the soundtrack, over half of Goldsmith’s music was removed during the film’s post-production. It does not specify whether this was the result of deleted footage or a decision affecting the music only.
Chris Udvarnoky eventually became an emergency medical technician. He died in Elizabeth, New Jersey on October 25, 2010, at the age of 49. Martin Udvarnoky works as a massage therapist in Summit, New Jersey.
The Other (1972)
Directed by: Robert Mulligan
Starring: Uta Hagen, Diana Muldaur, Chris Udvarnoky, Martin Udvarnoky, Norma Connolly, Victor French, Loretta Leversee, Lou Frizzell, Clarence Crow, Jenny Sullivan
Screenplay by: Thomas Tryon
Production Design by: Albert Brenner
Cinematography by: Robert L. Surtees
Film Editing by: Folmar Blangsted, O. Nicholas Brown
Set Decoration by: Ruby R. Levitt, Walter M. Scott
Art Direction by: Albert Brenner, Jack Martin Smith
Music by: Jerry Goldsmith
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: May 26, 1972
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