- published: 01 Oct 2015
- views: 1264
Harlequin, known as Dark Forces in the USA, is a 1980 Australian film starring Robert Powell, Carmen Duncan, David Hemmings and Broderick Crawford. The screenplay is by Everett De Roche, the music by Brian May and the film is directed by Simon Wincer.
The film is a modern-day version of the Rasputin story; the major characters have the same first names as Rasputin and the Romanov royal family, and their family name 'Rast' is simply 'Tsar' backwards. Hemmings plays an up-and-coming senator, Nick Rast, whose young son is terminally ill with leukaemia. A mysterious faith healer, Gregory Wolfe (Powell), appears and seems to cure the boy. Rast's wife Sandy (Duncan) falls in love with Wolfe, but the powerful interests behind Rast's career, represented by geriatric monster Doc Wheelan (Crawford) are less happy with events.
In Australia, Harlequin was released on an All Region DVD by Umbrella Entertainment on Wednesday, 27 October 2004. It was presented in a remastered 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, and Special Features were an Audio Commentary by director Simon Wincer and producer Antony I. Ginnane, a theatrical trailer and a photo gallery.
Claudia Davis, a typical 20 something, is an average girl working two menial jobs and has no social life to speak of. Feeling entitled to more than she truly deserves, she decides to take on a new persona and begin robbing convenience stores. That's where she meets Tom, a middle aged, fat, balding convenience store clerk. She robs him at gun point taking every sense of manhood he has left. This sends Tom on a downward spiral. He projects his own self hatred onto Claudia and becomes obsessed.
Keywords: robbery, strong-female-lead