What the Peeper Saw

Seeing that this flick was about a pervert kid I almost instinctively picked it up. Even though I was intrigued about the story-line, the expectations of this flick was pretty low. I was pretty much just hoping for a couple scenes of nudity, ya know, some bosoms. Not only did I get some bosoms, I also was treated with a decent lil flick.

The story's main focus is on a lady named Elease who's now the wife of a very wealthy man named Paul. Somewhat recently Paul's previous wife, Sara, accidentally died in a bathtub mishap. Paul and Sara had one child together, and that is Marcus, the original problem child. ;) Marcus, Paul and Elease are trying to begin a new life together, but not all is going so smoothly and things begin heading down the wrong path.

The Night Child aka What the Peeper Saw was definitely a neat little flick, that surprised me on a few accounts. With only three main characters really, and what seems to be moderate acting abilities in all, the film still managed to keep the viewer (me) interested in what the next scene would bring. Elease and Marcus lead the show. With Elease's beautiful face and ability to keep the viewer (me) waiting for more nudity, she did a fine job with her respective role. But the kid who played Marcus did a very good job as the weirdo, neurotic lead. His mature, intellectual approach really was well-done and pretty damn entertaining. Even though he felt robotic at times, it seemed to add to his weirdass vibe.

With a story that involves a bizarre little kid, and where you're second guessing his motives and his behavior, and a lead actress who is gorgeous, you've got the makings of a very good film. The pacing does have it's problems and some scenes do go on for a tad too long, but overall The Night Child was a nice surprise.

Twelve year old Marcus is a pure bad seed.The boy has the history of animal abuse,sexual perversion and possibly murder.His mother died mysteriously during so-called tragic accident.Marcus is a manipulative and cruel boy.His rich father Paul marries Elise played by Britt Ekland.Marcus becomes obsessed with her and tragic occurrences follow."Night Child" aka "What the Peeper Saw" is an unsettling psychological thriller with few controversial set-pieces including the scenes where Elise strips in front of Marcus,shots of Marcus caressing Elise's breasts and finally short bed scene between Elise and Marcus.The acting is decent and Britt Ekland is truly one of the most beautiful women ever seen on screen.Be sure to track down an uncut version!

This is just what the world needed--the star of "Oliver" as a pubescent sex pervert and psychopath. A young woman (Swedish sex symbol Britt Ekland)marries an older man soon after his first wife dies in a mysterious bathtub accident. All is fine until his creepy 12-year-old son (played by Mark "Oliver" Lester) returns home early from school. The cold, precocious youngster tortures and kills animals, tells malicious lies to turn her husband against her, spies on them in bed(this was alternately marketed under the more lurid title "What the Peeper Saw"), and for the piece de resistance forces her to strip while he reveals the truth about what happened to his mother. This movie is not entirely uninteresting, but it is let down by the acting. Britt Ekland was great dancing naked in "The Wicker Man" and tolerable as a bikini-clad Bond girl in "The Man with the Golden Gun", but she is simply not a good enough actress to play a dramatic lead. As for Lester there is probably a reason he never made the leap from child to adult star--he was pretty much a British MacCauley Culkin (who years later would star in a very similar "Bad Seed"-type movie called "The Good Son"). Lester is not very scary and he's certainly not very convincing as an erudite child genius (who names his dogs "Trotsky" and "Hanibal").

Modern audiences will probably be surprised by the sexual intrigue between Ekland and Lester. I don't know if that scene where she strips for him was controversial at the time, but I know a similar scene in Lucio Fulci's "Don't Torture a Duckling" where Barbara Bouchet displays herself to a young boy certainly was.

The ending is surreal, bizarre, and really doesn't make a lick of sense, but it's vastly preferable to the very predictable ending of the "The Good Son" or the ridiculous deus ex machina ending of the original "The Bad Seed". This film may not be as creepy and well-acted as the "The Bad Seed", but it's not as stagey and it was filmed in one of the most beautiful places in the world, the north of Spain. However, if you want good acting, a truly creepy storyline, AND beautiful cinematography, the best of these bad seed/child psycho movies is "The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea" with Kris Kristoferson.

The basic plot of "What the Peeper Saw" is very simple and has been done several times before. The story revolves around a widower whose much younger and ravishingly beautiful new wife discovers that her 12-year-old stepson is a troubled and deeply disturbed kid. While her husband (a not-so-successful writer) is often away on business, Elise finds out that Mark has been expelled from school for peeping at young couples and torturing/killing defenseless little animals, and at home he cheerfully continues with lying, stealing, peeping, and manipulating. She even gathers evidence that his mother's death wasn't so accidental as it looked.

A typically formulaic "bad seed" thriller, in other words, and thus the movie needed something extra and much spicier to stand out in the crowd of early 70s exploitation shockers. Luckily, the British crew collaborated with several notorious Italians - and specifically Andrea Bianchi ("Cry of a Prostitute", "Burial Ground") - who knew a thing or two about controversy. "What the Peeper Saw" became infamous for its sequences in which the stunning Britt Ekland (29 at the time) strips nude in front of child actor Mark Lester (14 years of age), passionately kisses him, and crawls into bed naked next to him. Without a doubt the ultimate wet dream of every horny male teenager (I, for one, wouldn't have minded taking Lester's place) but the UK's censorship committee was appalled - duh - and commanded to withdraw the film from circulation. The film became available again in a heavily cut version of barely 72 minutes, without all the supposedly perverse and provocative underage sex footage. Censorship people are no fun at all!

Controversial or not, "What the Peeper Saw" (aka "Night Child") isn't such a great film. Most of the time, you'll just be frustrated and yelling at the screen for Britt Ekland to get away from her worthless husband and his creepy freak of a kid. The build-up is also very standard, with the doofus husband not believing poor Elise and defending his psycho son because he went through a traumatizing experience. Yeah, yeah. Fortunately, the last 15 minutes are terrific with Ekland's character going completely cuckoo, and the script cleverly hinting that she may have been all along. And thanks to the abrupt and unforeseeable shock-ending, it comes fully recommended after all.

"What the Peeper Saw" is much more of a psychological drama than a horror film, or even a thriller. It focuses heavily on the antagonistic relationship between Elise (Britt Ekland), the new wife of an older man, successful author Paul (Hardy Kruger), and her stepson Marcus (Mark Lester of "Oliver!" fame). They initially seem to get along all right, but Elise becomes increasingly frustrated by this enigmatic, aloof kid, who acts much older than his actual age. She comes to suspect that he had murdered his biological mother Sarah (Colette Giacobine), and now has similar designs on her.

As directed by James Kelley ("The Beast in the Cellar"), you can't ever expect a lot of tension in this film. That doesn't seem to be its primary concern. It DOES have a sexual charge about it, however. Hell, the uncut version opens with a scene of nudity. The evolving relationship between our heroine and bratty antagonist does play up this quality. (Still, it must be noted that you don't ever see the kid indulge in the act of peeping on screen.) The single most memorable sequence involves the two main characters exchanging clothes for information, as Elise strips in front of Marcus in order to get some truths out of him.

And this kid is one truly cagey character. One thing you can expect is that the scenario turns into one of "he said, she said", and Elise is understandably flustered that she can get almost nobody to believe her about this bad seed.

Ekland is no great shakes as a dramatic actress, but she just looks so damn fine that some viewers probably won't mind very much. (She DOES give the proceedings an earnest effort.) Kruger is fine as the dad, but the film belongs to young Lester, who's quite amusing throughout. Lilli Palmer and Harry Andrews are excellent in special guest appearances as a psychiatrist and school headmaster.

The out of nowhere violent ending is downright hilarious, even if it's probably not intended to be that way.

The Italian version is credited to Andrea Bianchi ("Strip Nude for Your Killer", "Burial Ground").

Six out of 10.