The so-called Grey Lady hovers over the superstitious characters and the surreal world of this direct-to-consumer video release. In historic Cape Cod, the supernatural presence of the Grey Lady comforted the wives as they awaited the safe return of their seafaring menfolk. But in the film, she would appear to place a curse on the victims more than to provide a safe haven for members of the Doyle clan.
The protagonist is James "Jimmy" Doyle, a decent hard-working Boston detective, whose sister and fiancée are murdered in what appears to be a string of cult killings dominated by the symbols of the "crown" and the "rose." Doyle follows the clues to picturesque Nantucket Island where in the sleepy community, two psychopathic members of the Doyle family continue their killing spree.
Starting at the Crown and Rose pub, Doyle discovers the whereabouts of his long-lost auntie Lola who has taken up residence on the island. Lola alone knows the deep, dark secrets of the Doyles when young Jimmy's father was caught in flagrante delicto in bed with his aunt Lola at the unfortunate moment in which Jimmy's uncle Tim surprised them. A fight ensued, and the enraged Uncle Tim was stabbed to death.
Little Jimmy always believed erroneously that his dad was the killer of his own brother. The brother-and-sister team of little Perry and Eli (Beth) never knew the truth either. But that didn't stop them from slashing their way through the Doyle family in a spate of revenge murders much like Orestes and Electra team up to murder their mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus in Greek mythology.
While the performances were good and the Nantucket scenery was beautiful, the film unfortunately lacked credibility. The tawdry nature of the family secrets, the incompetent police investigative work, and the overall sense of lawlessness both in Boston and Nantucket were extremely unpleasant features of this film.
In 1931, American playwright Eugene O'Neill attempted to modernize Aeschylus' tragedy "The Oresteia" in a lengthy play entitled "Mourning Becomes Electra," placed in a New England setting. The filmmakers of "Grey Lady" are attempting to channel O'Neill, but the film lacked O'Neill's psychological depth.
Early in the film, Detective Doyle comes across a line of poetry that reads, "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart." Another quote suggests that the only way to achieve wisdom is through suffering. Of course, these lines are from the Greek tragic playwright Aeschylus in the opening play of his trilogy, the "Oresteia." His fifth-century B.C. play chronicles the dysfunctional family of the House of Atreus and the killing of the husband Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra. In this modern nightmare on Nantucket, Tim and Lola do not quite measure up to either the larger-than-life figures of Greek tragedy or their post-Civil War counterparts as devised by Eugene O'Neill.
The protagonist is James "Jimmy" Doyle, a decent hard-working Boston detective, whose sister and fiancée are murdered in what appears to be a string of cult killings dominated by the symbols of the "crown" and the "rose." Doyle follows the clues to picturesque Nantucket Island where in the sleepy community, two psychopathic members of the Doyle family continue their killing spree.
Starting at the Crown and Rose pub, Doyle discovers the whereabouts of his long-lost auntie Lola who has taken up residence on the island. Lola alone knows the deep, dark secrets of the Doyles when young Jimmy's father was caught in flagrante delicto in bed with his aunt Lola at the unfortunate moment in which Jimmy's uncle Tim surprised them. A fight ensued, and the enraged Uncle Tim was stabbed to death.
Little Jimmy always believed erroneously that his dad was the killer of his own brother. The brother-and-sister team of little Perry and Eli (Beth) never knew the truth either. But that didn't stop them from slashing their way through the Doyle family in a spate of revenge murders much like Orestes and Electra team up to murder their mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus in Greek mythology.
While the performances were good and the Nantucket scenery was beautiful, the film unfortunately lacked credibility. The tawdry nature of the family secrets, the incompetent police investigative work, and the overall sense of lawlessness both in Boston and Nantucket were extremely unpleasant features of this film.
In 1931, American playwright Eugene O'Neill attempted to modernize Aeschylus' tragedy "The Oresteia" in a lengthy play entitled "Mourning Becomes Electra," placed in a New England setting. The filmmakers of "Grey Lady" are attempting to channel O'Neill, but the film lacked O'Neill's psychological depth.
Early in the film, Detective Doyle comes across a line of poetry that reads, "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart." Another quote suggests that the only way to achieve wisdom is through suffering. Of course, these lines are from the Greek tragic playwright Aeschylus in the opening play of his trilogy, the "Oresteia." His fifth-century B.C. play chronicles the dysfunctional family of the House of Atreus and the killing of the husband Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra. In this modern nightmare on Nantucket, Tim and Lola do not quite measure up to either the larger-than-life figures of Greek tragedy or their post-Civil War counterparts as devised by Eugene O'Neill.
