The Fan Reviews

Sally Ross (Bacall) is a famous star who is loved by a fan, Douglas Breen (Biehn). He tries to get in touch with her but can't get close as Sally's secretary, Belle (Stapleton), keeps everyone from her boss. Jake (Garner) is Sally's ex-husband. They have parted on good terms, so she is in touch with him more than split people usually are. Douglas' love turns to hate when he can't get past Belle, so he kills the faithful factotum. The rest of the film is what you might expect: an obsession that turns violent. The Sally Ross character is set up to be a lovely person who is totally innocent and knows nothing of the letters and other communications from the demented Douglas; she is understandably shocked when blood begins to flow. It's a B movie with an A cast. No amount of good acting or directing (this was commercials director Bianchi's first feature effort, and he did well enough) will triumph over what is a cliched story. Lots of good talent is mostly wasted in a highly predictable plot that we've seen before and will, no doubt, see again. Does life imitate art, or is it the other way around? In this case, art came first as Bob Randall's novel was released and the picture completed quite some time before the tragedy when Mark David Chapman took John Lennon's life outside the Dakota apartments in New York.