Lady Beware (1987)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Karen Arthur

Writers:

Charles Zev Cohen (writer)
Susan Miller (writer)

Release Date:

14 August 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

When Fantasy Leads To Terror...

Plot:

Young and good looking Katya, a window dresser for a big department store in Pittsburgh, begins a love story with a journalist...

Plot Keywords:

Window Dresser | Feminist | Masturbation Scene | Female Nudity | Stalker

Cast

Diane Lane	...	Katya Yarno
Michael Woods	...	Jack Price
Cotter Smith	...	Mac Odell
Tyra Ferrell	...	Nan
Peter Nevargic	...	Lionel
Edward Penn	...	Mr. Thayer
Chelsea Benedict	...	Chelsea Price
Don Brockett	...	Locksmith
David Crawford	...	Katya's father
Maria Barney	...	Female patient
Clayton D. Hill	...	Policeman #1
Angela Rosignalo Jones	...	Inez (little girl)
Raymond Laine	...	Doctor
Zachary Mott	...	Printer (as Zack Mott)
Bingo O'Malley	...	Man in window

Runtime:

Italy:112 min | USA:108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:R | Finland:K-16 | Netherlands:12 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Company:

International Video Entertainment (IVE)

Goofs:

Continuity: At one point when Katya walks down the street and enters a building, the scrunchie in her hair appears and disappears between shots.

More a dream than a drama

While it isn't an especially good movie, and while it has no obvious significance, "Lady Beware" has a way of lingering in the memory. Perhaps it's because of its gray, subdued, dream-like quality -- like one of those visions you can only half-remember when you wake up but which you find yourself thinking back on during the course of the day.

Because of this dreamy, sleep-walking quality, the movie's lapses in logic and plausibility don't really count. In fact, they only add to the effect.

The plot seems to deal with a somewhat-repressed young woman named Katya who acts out her sexual fantasies through designing window displays at a department store. These displays attract the attention of a pervert named Jack who thinks he finds in Katya a kindred spirit. The script, however, never clarifies this connection so those looking for a sensible, no-loose-ends story will probable not be satisfied. However, the script's refusal to resort to a typical "slasher movie" ending is a definite plus.

Yes, Diane Lane has a notable topless scene, but leading men Michael Woods and Cotter Smith bare their nipples as well. Their torsos conform to Hollywood's usual notion that masculinity is dangerous. Woods, the "bad guy," has a chest covered with virile, black hair whereas Smith, "the good guy," has a smooth, hairless chest which has a boyish, almost feminine look.

Woods, (sometimes confused with the Michael J. Woods who is brother to actor James Woods), seemed to be on the verge here of a major career which, curiously, never developed. He seems too much like a handsome movie-star to be the pervert he portrays but, once again, this fits into the movie's dream-fantasy motif. In his best-remembered scene, he dances around Diane Lane's empty apartment wearing only a bath towel which threatens to gape open, and while one can almost sense the actor's embarrassment at having to do this scene, (his movements are laughably amateurish), one can't deny his sexual appeal.