THE FURY *

Brian De Palma may be unique in the history of movies, working almost entirely in the field of pulp fiction and often paying homage to Hitchcock, he has probably made more silk purses out of sow's ears than any other director. A master craftsman with an unerring eye, his set-pieces were often masterpieces in miniature, little nuggets of gold hidden inside great big dollops of pretty inedible candyfloss.

At his best, his films were all of a piece. "Carrie", "The Untouchables", "Scarface", "Obsession" seem like one great set-piece after another with added depth thrown in for good measure but even when working with material that was far beneath his talents he seldom fell on his face.

He made "The Fury" in 1978 and for the most part, it's deeply silly, not helped, either by a plot that took the telekinesis theme of "Carrie" and tried to rework it into the age of espionage nor by some of the worst acting in any De Palma picture. This time we get two Carries for the price of one. Andrew Stevens is the boy with telekinetic powers kidnapped by a mysterious US agency who want to use him as a weapon and Amy Irving, (Carrie's schoolmate, no less), is the girl with similar powers who is used by Stevens' father, a former agent played very badly by Kirk Douglas, to try to rescue him.

Maybe with a different cast, (Stevens, Irving, John Cassavetes as the movie's number one bad guy are all terrible), or better material, this might have been a classic of sorts but apart from a couple of typically brilliant De Palmaesque set pieces this one is very hard to swallow, (it's his most overtly supernatural picture). Of course, it could be argued that despite his technical brilliance De Palma was only as good as his material and if that is the case then "The Fury" must count as one of his very weakest efforts.