Dead of Winter
Encyclopedia
Dead of Winter is a thriller film made in 1987 It was directed by Arthur Penn
and is a remake
of the 1945 film My Name Is Julia Ross
and stars Mary Steenburgen
who plays three roles in the film.
In New York, struggling actress Katie McGovern (Mary Steenburgen
) lives with her husband Rob Sweeney (William Russ
) and her brother Roland (Mark Malone
). At an audition, Mr. Murray (Roddy McDowall
) hires her immediately.
The pair drive upstate into the teeth of a raging snow storm. When they arrive at the home of Dr. Joseph Lewis (Jan Rubeš
), he graciously greets Katie from his wheelchair. He gives her a tour of the house, which features a number of trophies from his hunting days, including two massive stuffed polar bears. Katie asks to use the phone to call Rob but finds it has no dial tone. Dr. Lewis explains that the storm must have downed the lines and that Mr. Murray would drive her into town in the morning to make her call if they were still down.
Over dinner, Dr. Lewis explains that Katie has been hired to replace Julia Ross, an actress who had a nervous breakdown during a film shoot. Katie is stunned to see photos of Julia, exclaiming, "I could be her sister!" Dr. Lewis explains that they will shoot a test reel on videotape tomorrow, which the director will view when he arrives.
The following day, Mr. Murray tries to drive Katie into town to make her phone call, but his car will not start. Mr. Murray then cuts and dyes Katie's hair to match the photos of Julia. Katie asks him how he met Dr. Lewis. Mr. Murray explains that Dr. Lewis was his psychiatrist. The shoot goes well. Katie's lines are all about the attack seen at the beginning of the film.
That evening, Mr. Murray sneaks out of the house and reconnects the car's ignition. He drives to another house nearby where a woman, whose face is never shown, watches him from her window. He slips the videotape into her mail slot, and she watches the video of Katie. After the test reel footage, Dr. Lewis appears on the video to tell the viewer that they need to meet.
The next morning, as Katie looks for Dr. Lewis she stumbles on a notebook with Polaroids of Julia's corpse. Horrified, she confronts Dr. Lewis with the evidence. He explains that Julia's nervous breakdown ended with her suicide and apologizes for leaving out that detail. Later that day in the parlor, Katie is startled by a pop in the fireplace, where she sees her driver's license burning. Unable to retrieve it, she rushes to her room and sees that all of her ID is missing from her wallet. As night falls, Katie sneaks out of the house without a coat. She tries to steal the car, but it is locked. The weather is so ferocious that she ends up crawling to the top of a hill where, to her horror, Mr. Murray is waiting for her.
Back at the house, she demands to know what is going on. Dr. Lewis pretends her imagination is running wild. Katie realizes that Mr. Murray has drugged her hot chocolate, and she returns to her room, barricading the door with a mound of furniture before she passes out. As she sleeps, Mr. Murray enters her room from behind her full-length mirror. Katie wakes up in a fresh sleeping gown with a bandaged hand. She peels off the bandages to find that her left ring finger has been removed. Seeing that her barricade is undisturbed, Katie quickly finds the door behind the mirror and sees a staircase to the attic, which has a working phone. She calls Rob and explains that they are going to kill her. Rob asks where she is, but Katie can only remember vague landmarks about the drive upstate. Rob orders her to hang up the phone and call the police, which she does. As she collapses on a sofa, she sees the body of Julia Ross being eaten by a rat. Mr. Murray arrives and rips the handset out of the phone, taking her back downstairs to Dr. Lewis.
As Dr. Lewis redresses her finger, he explains that Julia was involved in a vicious family feud with her sister, Evelyn. As a radical therapy, Dr. Lewis had convinced her to blackmail her sister, theorizing that it would help her achieve a catharsis. He was pleased with Julia's progress, but did not expect Evelyn to kill her, ordering the hit man to take her finger as proof. During his explanation, the police arrive. Dr. Lewis has just sedated Katie, and the combination of the sedative which confuses Katie and Dr. Lewis' claim that she is his patient convince the police to leave without much of an investigation. Meanwhile, Rob and Roland have begun to drive upstate, using the handful of clues they have to try to locate Katie.
When Katie wakes again, Evelyn is standing over her. Dr. Lewis is displaying Katie to prove that Julia is still alive and continue the blackmail. Katie slowly emerges from the sedative as Mr. Murray returns her to her room. Awake again, she fakes an escape attempt, luring Dr. Lewis and Mr. Murray out of the house. She pleads with Evelyn to help her escape, but Evelyn is convinced she is really Julia and attacks her. Katie kills Evelyn and poses as her to try to escape. When Mr. Murray realizes the ruse, Katie stabs him in the neck. Dr. Lewis is also not fooled by the disguise and lunges out of his wheelchair at Katie. Using a fire poker as a crutch, he follows her upstairs and eventually into the attic, where Katie manages to kill him. Rob and Roland arrive with the police, who they had convinced to revisit the house.
concluded that, "The movie itself is finally just an exercise in silliness - great effort to little avail - but the actors have fun with it, the sets work and there are one or two moments with perfect surprises."
Writing for The Washington Post
, Paul Attanasio asserts that Steenburgen "manages with e'lan an assignment that has her playing three parts". He faulted the lengthy build up to the final confrontation, "An hour's worth of exposition is a long wait, and if the payoff isn't quite worth it, it is fun. After nine yards of soggy oatmeal, you're reintroduced to the pleasures of an old-fashioned haunted house." The staff review of the film in Variety
found Rubeš to be lacking as the villain, "Steenburgen and McDowall are the adversaries to follow, even though it would seem more likely that the wheel-chair bound doctor (Jan Rubes) should be the one to watch. Rubes is simply not sinister enough to be the mastermind behind this scheme."
Arthur Penn
Arthur Hiller Penn was an American film director and producer with a career as a theater director as well. Penn amassed a critically acclaimed body of work throughout the 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:...
and is a remake
Remake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of the 1945 film My Name Is Julia Ross
My Name is Julia Ross
My Name is Julia Ross is a film noir directed by Joseph H. Lewis, based on the novel The Woman in Red by Anthony Gilbert. This drama is the first in a series of film noirs directed by Lewis and features Nina Foch, Dame May Whitty, George Macready.-Plot:In London, Julia Ross goes to a new...
and stars Mary Steenburgen
Mary Steenburgen
Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...
who plays three roles in the film.
Plot
During the opening credits, a woman drives to a train station on New Year's Eve to retrieve a satchel full of cash. Later that night, she is strangled, and her left ring finger is removed.In New York, struggling actress Katie McGovern (Mary Steenburgen
Mary Steenburgen
Mary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...
) lives with her husband Rob Sweeney (William Russ
William Russ
William Russ is an American actor, best known for his role as Alan Matthews on Boy Meets World.-Early life:Russ was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, and is the son of a naval officer...
) and her brother Roland (Mark Malone
Mark Malone
Mark M. Malone is a former American football quarterback in the NFL.-Playing career:Malone was the nation's most recruited quarterback in 1975 out of El Cajon Valley High School near San Diego, California...
). At an audition, Mr. Murray (Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
) hires her immediately.
The pair drive upstate into the teeth of a raging snow storm. When they arrive at the home of Dr. Joseph Lewis (Jan Rubeš
Jan Rubes
Jan Ladislav Rubeš CM was a Czech-Canadian bass opera singer and actor.-Life and career:Rubeš was born in Volyně, Czechoslovakia, the son of Ružena and Jan Rubeš. Not too long after World War II, he graduated from the Prague Conservatoire and joined the Prague Opera House as a bass singer...
), he graciously greets Katie from his wheelchair. He gives her a tour of the house, which features a number of trophies from his hunting days, including two massive stuffed polar bears. Katie asks to use the phone to call Rob but finds it has no dial tone. Dr. Lewis explains that the storm must have downed the lines and that Mr. Murray would drive her into town in the morning to make her call if they were still down.
Over dinner, Dr. Lewis explains that Katie has been hired to replace Julia Ross, an actress who had a nervous breakdown during a film shoot. Katie is stunned to see photos of Julia, exclaiming, "I could be her sister!" Dr. Lewis explains that they will shoot a test reel on videotape tomorrow, which the director will view when he arrives.
The following day, Mr. Murray tries to drive Katie into town to make her phone call, but his car will not start. Mr. Murray then cuts and dyes Katie's hair to match the photos of Julia. Katie asks him how he met Dr. Lewis. Mr. Murray explains that Dr. Lewis was his psychiatrist. The shoot goes well. Katie's lines are all about the attack seen at the beginning of the film.
That evening, Mr. Murray sneaks out of the house and reconnects the car's ignition. He drives to another house nearby where a woman, whose face is never shown, watches him from her window. He slips the videotape into her mail slot, and she watches the video of Katie. After the test reel footage, Dr. Lewis appears on the video to tell the viewer that they need to meet.
The next morning, as Katie looks for Dr. Lewis she stumbles on a notebook with Polaroids of Julia's corpse. Horrified, she confronts Dr. Lewis with the evidence. He explains that Julia's nervous breakdown ended with her suicide and apologizes for leaving out that detail. Later that day in the parlor, Katie is startled by a pop in the fireplace, where she sees her driver's license burning. Unable to retrieve it, she rushes to her room and sees that all of her ID is missing from her wallet. As night falls, Katie sneaks out of the house without a coat. She tries to steal the car, but it is locked. The weather is so ferocious that she ends up crawling to the top of a hill where, to her horror, Mr. Murray is waiting for her.
Back at the house, she demands to know what is going on. Dr. Lewis pretends her imagination is running wild. Katie realizes that Mr. Murray has drugged her hot chocolate, and she returns to her room, barricading the door with a mound of furniture before she passes out. As she sleeps, Mr. Murray enters her room from behind her full-length mirror. Katie wakes up in a fresh sleeping gown with a bandaged hand. She peels off the bandages to find that her left ring finger has been removed. Seeing that her barricade is undisturbed, Katie quickly finds the door behind the mirror and sees a staircase to the attic, which has a working phone. She calls Rob and explains that they are going to kill her. Rob asks where she is, but Katie can only remember vague landmarks about the drive upstate. Rob orders her to hang up the phone and call the police, which she does. As she collapses on a sofa, she sees the body of Julia Ross being eaten by a rat. Mr. Murray arrives and rips the handset out of the phone, taking her back downstairs to Dr. Lewis.
As Dr. Lewis redresses her finger, he explains that Julia was involved in a vicious family feud with her sister, Evelyn. As a radical therapy, Dr. Lewis had convinced her to blackmail her sister, theorizing that it would help her achieve a catharsis. He was pleased with Julia's progress, but did not expect Evelyn to kill her, ordering the hit man to take her finger as proof. During his explanation, the police arrive. Dr. Lewis has just sedated Katie, and the combination of the sedative which confuses Katie and Dr. Lewis' claim that she is his patient convince the police to leave without much of an investigation. Meanwhile, Rob and Roland have begun to drive upstate, using the handful of clues they have to try to locate Katie.
When Katie wakes again, Evelyn is standing over her. Dr. Lewis is displaying Katie to prove that Julia is still alive and continue the blackmail. Katie slowly emerges from the sedative as Mr. Murray returns her to her room. Awake again, she fakes an escape attempt, luring Dr. Lewis and Mr. Murray out of the house. She pleads with Evelyn to help her escape, but Evelyn is convinced she is really Julia and attacks her. Katie kills Evelyn and poses as her to try to escape. When Mr. Murray realizes the ruse, Katie stabs him in the neck. Dr. Lewis is also not fooled by the disguise and lunges out of his wheelchair at Katie. Using a fire poker as a crutch, he follows her upstairs and eventually into the attic, where Katie manages to kill him. Rob and Roland arrive with the police, who they had convinced to revisit the house.
Cast
- Mary SteenburgenMary SteenburgenMary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...
as Julie Rose / Katie McGovern / Evelyn - Roddy McDowallRoddy McDowallRoderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
as Mr. Murray - Jan RubešJan RubesJan Ladislav Rubeš CM was a Czech-Canadian bass opera singer and actor.-Life and career:Rubeš was born in Volyně, Czechoslovakia, the son of Ružena and Jan Rubeš. Not too long after World War II, he graduated from the Prague Conservatoire and joined the Prague Opera House as a bass singer...
as Dr. Joseph Lewis - William RussWilliam RussWilliam Russ is an American actor, best known for his role as Alan Matthews on Boy Meets World.-Early life:Russ was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, and is the son of a naval officer...
as Rob Sweeney - Ken PogueKen PogueKen Pogue is a Canadian actor.He is married to the actress Diana Barrington. His first motion picture role in 1973 was in The Neptune Factor. He almost drowned in SCUBA gear. He worked at the Stratford Festival and St. Lawrence Centre in the 1960s through 1980s before moving to television and film...
as Officer Mullavy - Wayne RobsonWayne RobsonWayne Robson was a Canadian television, film and stage actor best known for playing the part of Mike Hamar, an ex-convict and sometime thief, on the Canadian sitcom The Red Green Show from 1993 to 2006, as well as in the 2002 film Duct Tape Forever.Robson was born in Vancouver, British Columbia...
as Officer Huntley - Mark MaloneMark MaloneMark M. Malone is a former American football quarterback in the NFL.-Playing career:Malone was the nation's most recruited quarterback in 1975 out of El Cajon Valley High School near San Diego, California...
as Roland McGovern - Michael Copeman as Highway Patrolman
- Sam Malkin as Gas Jock
- Pamela Moller as Woman at audition
- Dwayne McLean as Killer
- Paul WelshPaul WelshPaul Welsh is a British television and radio correspondent and presenter. He was born in England in 1961, but moved frequently because his father was a serving member of the RAF. His family lived in England, Germany, Singapore, Scotland and Cyprus...
as New Year's Eve reveler
Critical Reaction
Dead of Winter has a 75% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In Janet Maslin's review for The New York Times, she wrote, "When a director approaches Gothic horror with this much enthusiasm, the results are bound to be as merry as they are frightening. So audiences for Arthur Penn's Dead of Winter are in for a hair-raising treat." Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
concluded that, "The movie itself is finally just an exercise in silliness - great effort to little avail - but the actors have fun with it, the sets work and there are one or two moments with perfect surprises."
Writing for The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, Paul Attanasio asserts that Steenburgen "manages with e'lan an assignment that has her playing three parts". He faulted the lengthy build up to the final confrontation, "An hour's worth of exposition is a long wait, and if the payoff isn't quite worth it, it is fun. After nine yards of soggy oatmeal, you're reintroduced to the pleasures of an old-fashioned haunted house." The staff review of the film in Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
found Rubeš to be lacking as the villain, "Steenburgen and McDowall are the adversaries to follow, even though it would seem more likely that the wheel-chair bound doctor (Jan Rubes) should be the one to watch. Rubes is simply not sinister enough to be the mastermind behind this scheme."