Sisters

Sisters (1973)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Brian De Palma

Starring: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, William Finley, Lisle Wilson

From: AIP

This is something I watched on Turner Classic Movies late last night. Some people on a messageboard recommended it; it's not great and there are movies from the director I rate higher... I still don't regret checking this out. My Letterboxd review is below:

This is a movie that I watched on TCM late last night. There are several ways to see this film but I figured a viewing that way would work best for me. As I know some people who give it a lot of praise, it was something I eventually did want to see. Even knowing De Palma's other movies, I was still surprised by this.

First off, the Peeping Tom's game show, I just about howled with laughter as I never could have predicted such a thing. It certainly is satirical of how game shows were even back then. It was more sleazy and trashy than I expected. I imagine that by now people know the main hook of how Margot Kidder played conjoined (I understand that Siamese twins is a frowned upon term these days) twins only recently separated, one normal and one pretty crazy. It's a Hitchcockian murder mystery-the director's love of Sir Alfred is another detail that people around here should know-where Jennifer Salt is a reporter who witnessed someone get killed and she has to try and convince people of it. Further elements include a lot of split-screen, a jealous ex-husband, a birthday cake, and a piece of furniture.

This is quite ridiculous for sure and it isn't De Palma at his best... but I know this was early on in his career, he would go on to better things and this is still something I enjoyed. The Hitchcock influences are rather thick and plentiful, which was fine by me. He even hired noted Hitch composer Bernard Herrmann to do a violin-heavy score. What helps is that both Kidder and Salt do a great job with their roles, and it was nice to see familiar faces like Charles Durning too.

I am not sure what Old Brian was doing there with the ending but aside from that I can't really complain about this film. I did think that the minor character known as “Dr. Pierre Milius” was a nice tip of the cap to his pal John.