The first scene we see in The Medusa Touch is the lead character John Morlar (Richard Burton) being beaten around the head with a solid object! French detective Monsieur Brunel (Lino Ventura) is assigned to find out who might be responsible and why. One of his leads is the psychiatrist he was seeing, Dr Zonfield (Lee Remick) who tells the cop all about Morlar and so his story is told in retrospect a la Sunset Boulevard except that Morlar isn’t dead but critically ill in hospital due to his injuries. It is quickly established that Morlar has telekinetic powers and can cause deaths and disasters.

I first got to see The Medusa Touch as a boy as it was one of the Sunday Night Movies shown on TV. It had a profoundly disturbing effect on me then. I’m pleased to report that it still has that effect on me today.

The Medusa Touch is brilliant. An A-grade cast, a fantastic screenplay and characterisation to die for (pun not intended). There’s also a sly sense of humour at play that runs throughout the film, largely due to Ventura’s French cop being based in London for the investigation and the culture clash involved.

And watch out for the ending. It’s the cherry on top of an already perfectly iced cake. I couldn’t help thinking as I watched the end credits ‘They don’t make ’em like that anymore!’ And it’s true.

Dialogue from the film was sampled on the Manic Street Preachers’ song Ready For Drowning.

A stone-cold classic.

5 out of 5 stars