Sisters (1972)

Sisters (1972), written and directed by Brian De Palma.

The young director's thriller homage to Hitchcock, with generous quotes of Spellbound (1945), Rear Window (1954), and Psycho (1960). He even gets Bernard Herrmann to contribute a worthy score.

The composer elevates whatever he touches, but otherwise this film is entertaining without being exceptional. It has some giallo gruesomeness.

Notes:

• Margot Kidder, age 25, plays French-Canadian and gets her boobs out briefly.

• Jennifer Salt is the tenacious reporter who is certain she has witnessed a murder. Last seen in Gargoyles (1972) and Play It Again, Sam (1972), both made the same year as this one.

• Charles Durning had been working for a while but this is one of his earliest featured roles. He gets the last scene as the private detective perched on a utility pole in Canada, waiting to see who will pick up a certain extra-heavy shipment. That's a mystery: we'll never know.

• Uncredited Olympia Dukakis has a small part.

• De Palma uses split-screens (trendy back then) to give multiple POV shots.

• Best thriller moment: the race to clean up the crime scene while the police bicker downstairs.

• The brand new towers of the World Trade Center are featured in several shots.

Remade in 2003.

Available on DVD from Criterion. The image is pretty bad in spots.