Deceived

This is a variation on the forgery theme in, for example, Calvino’s Se una notte di’inverno un viaggiatore, treated in the manner of The Night of the Hunter, with frissons from Wait Until Dark and a precise special effect at the very end whose ultimate provenance is Robert Wise’s The Haunting.

Bad Company

An articulate satire of the New Economy in the Information Age. An operative infiltrates a posh corporation in the business of blackmail, he personally delivers one million dollars to a State Supreme Court justice for his vote on behalf of a client.

The Agency has the goods, takes over the business and plans to fund its own special operations. The justice has killed himself without changing his vote, his mistress acquires a weapon.

Time is spent luxuriating in all the wealth, Gordon Parks’ Shaft is a central consideration. Frank Langella and Ellen Barkin run The Grimes Organization, Laurence Fishburne is the agent, Michael Murphy his CIA control, Spalding Gray the client, David Ogden Stiers the mark, and Gia Carides the avenging mistress.