Grandma Ada (Uta Hagen) harbors quite a secret in Robert Mulligan’s creepy THE OTHER
THE OTHER (Robert Mulligan, 1972)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Saturday, December 1, free with museum admission, 6:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
Twins Niles (Chris Udvarnoky) and Holland (Martin Udvarnoky) do everything together, playing around their family’s farm with a reckless abandon that gets them into a lot of trouble — especially when they leave a body or two lying around. Their mother (Diana Muldaur) has become sort of a walking zombie since the sudden death of her husband, so their grandmother, Ada (Uta Hagen), watches out for the kinder. Ada has taught Niles to play what she calls the Game, which involves psychic phenomena, but the Game goes bad very quickly. Director Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird, Summer of ’42) keeps things very creepy, especially as Niles tries to understand what makes Holland do the things he does. The screenplay is by Thomas Tryon, based on his bestselling novel. The boys’ uncle, Rider, is played by a young John Ritter, while Victor French, Agent 44 on Get Smart and Mark Gordon on Highway to Heaven, is Angelini the handyman. The Other is screening December 1 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image series “The Cinema and Its Doubles,” consisting of films that involve physical, fantastical, or psychological doppelgängers; the festival continues through December 16 with such films as Luis Buñuel’s That Obscure Object of Desire, David Fincher’s Fight Club, and David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers.