Happy Canada Day! To celebrate, I
decided to watch one of my Canadian VHS,
Harvey Hart's 1973 film
The Pyx.
After call girl Elizabeth (Karen Black)
falls from a high-rise apartment roof, Detective Henderson
(Christopher Plummer) tries to piece together the events that led to
her demise.
The Pyx was an adaptation of the 1959
novel of the same name, and also released with the tad more explanatory title of The Hooker Cult
Murders. This movie was likely the
most Canadian film I've seen in a long, long time – perhaps since
Bon Cop, Bad Cop! It was shot entirely in Montreal, and the
characters often switched back and forth between French & English
while talking to each other. Christopher Plummer was so young in this,
that it was almost distracting and Karen Black was as striking as she
always was.
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| Karen Black as Elizabeth in The Pyx. |
The narrative played out in a back and
forth style as we saw the twenty-four hours before and
after Elizabeth's death. I appreciated that Hart's didn't feel the
need to over explain the shifts with the use of title cards and the
like, as he had faith that his audience would be able to follow the flow
of his film.
The Pyx functions as more of a crime
drama than a horror film. Likely in response to the popularity of
Rosemary's Baby and
The Exorcist, this film was one of three
Satanic-themed titles to come out of Canada around this time (
The Reincarnate and
The Possession of Virginia being the other two). We
Canucks didn't really get a true handle on horror until the
tax shelter system began the following year. Although, despite most of
the film being pretty sedate, the cat stuck to the door with a
kitchen knife sure made a statement!
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| Mon Dieu!!! |
I think what I liked most about the
movie were the little flourishes. Some of the exchanges between the
cops were priceless, like when the ambulance pulls up to the
crime scene;
“Cut the racket, she ain't goin'
nowhere.”
“Yeah, but I am, heavy date.”
“Okay!”
Or when the detectives are talking to
the coroner;
“I don't know if you guys noticed but
she's got needle marks on her.”
“Yeah? You must have looked her over
real good.”
“Well listen. My wife don't look as
half as good, and she ain't even dead yet.”
I think the part that takes the cake
for me though was when the rope being used as the body's crime scene outline was picked up by some neighbourhood kids to be used to jump rope. So morbid! I love it!
Lastly, there was the music. In
addition to the three songs that feature Black on vocals, there was
some really strange choral music that sounded like Alvin & the
Chipmunks sat in with the Tabernacle Choir. It was amusing at first,
but during the last moments of Elizabeth's life, it actually became
quite eerie.
The Pyx, while not outwardly horror,
was a competent yarn full of spirited performances. The opening
visual where the night-gowned figure fell from the building was, even
within my murky VHS, quite alarming and something I won't forget for
a while. Tres bon!
