The Drifter

A lot better than your average low budget thriller. This had plot twists that I didn't see coming. Kim Delaney was so beautiful then. I first fell in love with her when she played Jenny Gardner on "All My Children." Her soap experience stood her in good stead for "damsel in distress" roles such as (partly) this. She is, of course, still beautiful, but her character in "NYPD Blue" is so much harder edged, that she comes off a bit less so in that part. Anyway, this is a pretty good film for one that no one's ever heard of.

Driving from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Julia Robbins (Kim Delaney) picks up a hitchhiker (Miles O'Keefe) and has a one night stand with him. Back in the city, he soon turns into a stalker and starts calling her non-stop, which is bad news because she is in a relationship with a lawyer (Timothy Bottoms). This was one of the thousands of erotic thrillers unleashed after the success of Fatal Attraction (1987) and writer-director Larry Brand (who also plays a cop) does a nice job of turning convention on its ear by having the handsome O'Keefe as the unhinged, spurned lover. There are several twists in this one and Brand pulls them all off well. He would also make a Poe film for Corman (Masque of the Red Death) and a similar thriller (Overexposed with Catherine Oxenberg).

I first saw this movie on a premium movie channel on cable TV and, unlike 95% of the things I watch on TV, I didnt find myself channel surfing. The movie kept me intrigued from start to finish.

Because I wasnt a soap opera fan, I didnt know who Kim Delany was, but she sure was attractive. Still is (NYPD Blue). Especially seeing her in the nude lovemaking scenes, the movie was very captivating!

I have a strong suspicion that producer Roger Corman, upon seeing the huge success of the major studio movie FATAL ATTRACTION, rushed this movie into production. This may explain why that, even for Roger Corman, this is an extremely tacky production. Even on DVD, the movie's visuals look so bad that you would swear this was made in the early 1970s and kept unmaintained on a shelf for the next fifteen years. There's bad sound (a couple of times when a car door slams shut, you don't hear anything!), bad continuity from shot to shot, and sets and furnished actual rooms looking hastily set up and constructed. You even clearly see the shadow of the boom mike on the ground in one shot! But even if the movie had better production values, it wouldn't help that much. The acting by all the leads is lacking passion, coming across instead as bland and lacking real emotion. But the script really drops the ball. After a while, the movie stops trying to build terror, and almost forgets the character of the drifter in the second half of the movie! Projects like this explain why Corman's movies soon after stopped getting theatrical releases.

This was not outrageously wild or gory or intense but it keeps up a consistent suspense level. Kim plays her role well. She proves herself to be pretty ballsy under fearful circumstances so I respected her and I respected her as a hard-working professional.

There seems to be a blue color scheme in some of the scenes. Kim's wardrobe is well-chosen. The outdoor restaurant with the picnic tables and the bikers seems an apt, realistic locale. Kim's apartment is stylish, austerely furnished in New Mexico Native American style. So the movie has a certain amount of flair.

The concluding twist works adequately well. This low-key thriller was fairly enjoyable.