Body Double (Widescreen Special Edition) | 
| Director: Brian De Palma
Actors: Craig Wasson, Melanie Griffith, Gregg Henry, Deborah Shelton, Guy Boyd
Studio: Sony Pictures
List Price: $14.94
Buy New: $3.91
You Save: $11.03 (74%)
New (66) Used (17) from $3.52
Rating:  84 reviews
Sales Rank: 12604
Format: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), French (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 99
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 114 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 15012
UPC: 043396150126
EAN: 0043396150126
ASIN: B000H5TH1Q
Theatrical Release Date: October 26, 1984
Release Date: October 3, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: ******BRAND NEW****** THE SOURCE FOR RARE MEDIA, THOUSANDS OF CUSTOMERS SATISFIED, AND OVER 250 000 ITEMS IN STOCK, BUY FROM A TRUSTED SOURCE, ESTABLISHED SINCE 1998 - INETVIDEO ~~~
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Even Brian De Palma's staunchest defenders had to swallow hard with this gaudily gory bauble of a thriller that is built around a gruesome (yet surprisingly wittily staged) stalking and murder involving a female victim and a killer with a giant power drill. This is De Palma at his most sensational, in a story about a B-movie actor with career problems (Craig Wasson) and a habit as a voyeur. He witnesses the aforementioned murder, then teams up with a porn actress (Melanie Griffith) to try and find the killer. De Palma has a blast going inside the porn film industry, and even films a pseudo rock video with one-hit wonders Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Wasson is an unlikely leading man, bland and pasty, but he's perfect in the role of a decidedly imperfect hero. --Marshall Fine
Product Description
Brian De Palma invites you to witness a seduction...a mystery... a murder. It's BODY DOUBLE a spine-tingling look at voyeurism and sexuality from the modern master of suspense. Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) an unemployed actor is asked to house-sit at a luxurious hillside apartment. As a bonus the home offers Jake a telescopic peek into the bedroom of Gloria Revelle (Deborah Shelton) who performs an arousing striptease. When Jake discovers another man is also spying on Gloria he begins an obsessive surveillance of her. Soon a grisly murder leads him into the world of X-rated films where he meets sexy porn queen Holly Body (Melanie Griffith) who is a key to the crime. De Palma has createda gripping adult thriller of eroticism and horror!System Requirements:Running Time: 114 MinutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: R UPC: 043396150126 Manufacturer No: 15012
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| Customer Reviews: Read 79 more reviews...
 The nastiest movie I ever saw in the theater... September 6, 2006
Dubyac99 (San Francisco, CA)
48 out of 59 found this review helpful
...with my parents.
I'll never forget seeing this movie in the theaters with my parents. We happen to see the quite young daughter of a really good couple friend of my parents, right before we went into the theater to watch this. My parents had no idea how bad this one was. My mother, just out of the blue, invited the young lady to join us. Brian DePalma has always been one of my favorite directors, and I only had a slight hint of how bad/good this would be. Well, I don't need to tell you the rest of the story, if you've seen this movie. My parents apologized profusely to her parents, later after we watched it. AND I WAS LOVING IT!!!
I bought this on laser disc right when it came out, and recently, about 1 year ago, bought the DVD. I really like the movie, one of my favorite Brian DePalma flicks. I'll tell you some of my favorite parts.
1) The music playing, when Scully, the Craig Wasson character, gets excused from his movie scene, and is driving home to spend some unexpected quality time with his live in girlfriend. That is probably the greatest sound track music I've ever heard, by Pino Donaggio.
2) The edit cuts, between the viewing of the murder, through the eyeglass, that Scully is looking through, and the real life view, in the living room of the murder victim. I still remember the sound effects and cries of pain by the actress.
3) The twirling effect of the cameras, when Scully and the female are kissing no the beach (no, it didn't make me dizzy, like other reviewers.)
4) The "B" Acting of Melanie Griffith. You' d think she really was a porn star, the way she's acting.
5) The police detective that interviews Scully. That guy was so creepy. Reminds me of the actor Fred Gwynne. Very entertaining.
Rent or buy this movie, and you shall not be disappointed.
Little known fact about this movie: Brian DePalma interviewed a real porn star (can't think of her name off hand, but she was extremely popular at the time this movie was being made) and rejected her based on her poor acting skills. Too bad they don't include her trial tapes in the DVD extras That would be bangin'!!! There is a book I own, called Double DePalma, which gives in great details the behind the scenes of this movie. I just checked, and it is also available for as little as $2.11. I highly recommend that item too.
Dubyac99 aka MC White said: Ch-ch-ch-check it out!!! EDIT: I'm the 69th reviewer of this version? Coincidence? I think not!
EDIT: 10/27/2006
Well, I have finally received my copy of this DVD from Columbia House, and let me tell you, it was really great! I would have liked some commentaries from Brian De Palma, but I notice he does not like to do commentaries, for the most part.
Still, this movie is one of my all time favorites by him.
Totally Excellent!!!
 Good Clean Fun--OK, Maybe Not So Clean September 18, 2006
K. Harris (Las Vegas, NV)
38 out of 46 found this review helpful
I have a love/hate relationship with Brian De Palma. His name is a brand, and a couple of his films are among my favorite--"Carrie" and "The Untouchables", for example. But he certainly has just as many misses--"Bonfire of the Vanities", anyone?
He has done a number of films with direct links to Hitchcock--"Sisters", "Dressed to Kill", and this "Body Double". These films all borrow heavily from Hitch in terms of imagery and plot. It has alternately been called, during his career, paying homage or being a rip-off. There are critics in both camps. My sentiment is that if you're going to borrow elements from another director, you could do a lot worse than THE MASTER.
That being said--"Body Double" is a loopy combination of "Vertigo" and "Rear Window". It's an entertaining, if not particularly, artistic film.
A young Melanie Griffith stole the show, for me, as porn star Holly Body. And what could be better than using Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Relax" to score the porno film within the film that she stars in? Not much, in my opinion.
So put your brain on hold, and you'll likely enjoy this lurid little film. Ultimately, it's just a pulpy B-movie--and as long as you don't expect ART--you do get entertainment. KGHarris, 9/06.
Film Making at its Very Best January 16, 2000
Wayne Myers (Arlington, VA USA)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful
Underappreciated by critics, Body Double is a success on many levels. Unfairly maligned in this case for his liberal drawing on Hitchcock themes in Rear Window and Vertigo, Brian DePalma, with Body Double, has made a decisive break from Hitchcock and makes the themes of obsession, voyerism, and pervasive duplicity and sexual betrayal entirely his own. Mesmerized by the nightly titillating bedroom routine of sensuous neighbor Gloria Ravelle (Deborah Shelton), B-film actor Jake Scully (Craig Wasson) innocuously indulges his voyeristic impulses--until the evening he realizes someone else is watching Gloria too. Things quickly escalate to murder. Melanie Griffith is Seka-like porn star Holly Body, who Scully discovers is the unwitting key to a brutal murder. With its triple-flip ending and beautiful photography (especially the camera's circular travellings during Jake's brief erotic interlude with Gloria as Pino Donaggio's "Love and Menace" portion of the score reaches crescendo), Body Double is an exceptionally beautiful film. Pino Donaggio's superb score also deserves mention, particularly his "Love and Menace" track and his playful and titillating segment "Body Double" theme when Jake first watches Gloria, to its variations in a later scene in which elements of menace are introduced as Jake realizes someone else is watching too, and finally, its romantic variations in the sequence where Jake follows Gloria. One of the most intriguing and ingenious sequences I've seen in film comes amid the sequence in which Jake gets himself cast in an X-rated film to investigate Holly Body's apparent link to a murder. During the "film-within-a-film" very soft-porn parody of "An American in Paris" sequence, Jake begins to have scripted raw sex with ribald Holly to the throbbing beat of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's Relax. He suddenly finds a responsive Gloria in his arms once again as Pino Donaggio's "Love and Menace" swells on a grand scale. DePalma cross-cuts between Jake's fantasy lovemaking with Gloria and the actual raw sex he's having with Holly as illusion and reality merge to the literal climax, allowing Jake to consummate his poignant,lost romance with Gloria--while bringing Holly to orgasm at the same time! It's an incredible sequence that mixes poignancy, humor, mechnical and romantic sex. With its knowing insight into voyerism, Body Double may very well be Brian DePalma's best film.
 Voyeurism and Hitchcock a-go-go! October 13, 2006
Cubist (United States)
19 out of 24 found this review helpful
In the early 1980s, Brian De Palma made two movies about obsessed voyeurs with Blow Out and then Body Double. With its perceived misogynistic views of women exacerbated by the violence depicted towards them and the ample use of nudity, the film became a lightning rod for controversy when it was initially released. This new Special Edition is a double-dip for this title with brand new extras and new interviews conducted with cast and crew made specifically for this release.
Throughout his career, De Palma has been dogged with the criticism that he blatantly rips off the films of Alfred Hitchcock. And to be fair, there are several overt references in Body Double. Like Jimmy Stewart's character in Vertigo, Jake has a debilitating fear that affects him at the worst possible moments. He also ends up remaking a woman into an idealized version of one he was obsessed with previously, much as Stewart does with Kim Novak's character in Vertigo. And like Stewart's character in Rear Window, Jake witnesses a crime being committed from afar and is powerless to stop it.
Body Double shows the ugly, moral tawdriness of the bottom rungs of the Los Angeles acting scene. When we first meet Jake he's in danger of being fired from Z-grade horror film. De Palma has crafted a beautifully structured thriller with a mystery that we piece together along with Jake.
"The Seduction" examines the origins of the film. De Palma got the idea for it while working on Dressed to Kill and originally set it in New York City but he spent a lot of time in L.A. while making Scarface.
In "The Setup" De Palma explains that the premise of Body Double is a postmodern spin on Hitchcock, specifically Vertigo. He also talks about the notion of voyeurism and how he called attention to it repeatedly.
"The Mystery." The porn music video was inspired by De Palma watching countless hours of MTV. A colleague recommended using the song "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood who, as it turned out, were big fans of the director.
Finally, there is "The Controversy" which examines the critical savaging Body Double received when it came out, claiming that it portrayed women negatively and that it was too violent.
 Avoid at all costs December 30, 2002
12 out of 36 found this review helpful
Wow, what a clunker! First of all, I could not believe that Leonard Maltin gave this 1 1/2 stars, should have been a [flop] for sure. After watching this bottom of the barrel, B-grade junk, I thought I'd have a look on Amazon, and see what sort of reviews this thing got from viewers around the world. Just for a laugh. As it got some 5 star opinions, I was moved to actually write my very first Amazon review, ever. Let's start by saying, I like movies. I have a DVD collection of very slightly under 1,000 titles, and still building. My shelves range from "Citizen Kane" to "Baise Moi". Favourite is probably "Pulp Fiction". I have to say "Body Double" is the worst movie I have ever seen. It is also the first DVD I've had to throw out. So what's wrong with it? 1. Acting is below B-grade, below 1970's Italian exploitation flicks. In particular Craig Wasson is so unremittingly wooden and pathetically bad that he could not hold down a gig on daytime TV. 2. As a supposedly erotic movie, if fails miserably, cringingly and completely in that department. Melanie Griffith looks like she'd rather be somewhere else, and who can blame her. Try "Bound" or "9 1/2 Weeks" instead. As for Melanie, she was more erotic in "Milk Money". 3. Continuity - non-existent. Editing also very poor. 4. Intent?? Serious thriller, all out comedy?? We actually switched this thing off about half way through. Then we said - hang on, these guys could not have been serious, there must be some huge punchline coming, or a complete turnaround a-la "From Dusk Till Dawn"... So we wasted another 50 minutes, and it just got worse. 5. Direction: DePalma must have been out to lunch for this one, and left the guy who gets the coffee in charge. I mean, this just went nowhere. 6. Locale used : some reviewers have praised the use of locale, but it really was used in the blandest fashion only. For an example of a movie that makes the most of a good locale, watch "Charlotte Gray", and think again. 7. Suspense : None. Wholly predictable from the start, we picked who was under the indian mask when ...
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