Episode 311 - Crescendo

About this Episode

I was listening to a sermon concerning spiritual warfare and my mind went straight back to 1970, to the English film, a psychological thriller, entitled Crescendo. The film stars Stephanie Powers and James Olson and was directed by Alan Gibson.

The preacher's passionate evocation of Ephesians 6:12 in connection with current events had brought considerable criticism from many quarters. I wanted to ask the critics, Didn't you ever see Psycho (1960) -- let alone read Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers, or Conan Doyle, for that matter? I mean, almost all mystery novels, short stories and movies presuppose that the solution to a crime is unseen, that the events taking place on the surface are almost always driven by factors that are not seen or envisaged. In other words, the explanation for criminal, let alone curious behavior turns out to be an unexpected person or circumstance.

If a plot line such as that of Crescendo (1970) should intrigue and actually satisfy us, why would we close the door on a religious form of that uncommon explanation, that explanation for a mystery that calls into question our perceptions of the visible in favor of explanations from the invisible?

This cast looks at the current drama/s unfolding in the aftermath of November 3rd in unseen rather than in seen terms. Not that I know personally what is happening -- but rather, what one sees is seldom what one gets.

To put it another way, if I hadn't seen Hammer Studios' seemingly innumerable psychological thrillers -- most of them written by the indefatigable Jimmy Sangster -- I would probably be strongly attached to one outcome or another, unfolding on the surface of circumstance. Or, for that matter, if I hadn't been reading the New Testament...
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