The H MAN (4T) Movie Review

Die Verde Man

Later in his career, the Dutch director Paul Verhoeven would again attempt to meld a murder mystery with comically intense eroticism, but the result then—the Sharon Stone/Michael Douglas Basic Instinct—would be less inventive, less witty, less interesting, and just less fun than his diabolically clever 1979 thriller The 4th Man. Gerard (Jeroen Krabbé) is a writer who wants to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding hairdresser Christine Halsslag (Renee Soutendijk)—that is, the mystery of her three dead husbands. In order to find out if she's a murderer, he needs to get closer to her. She's a stunningly attractive woman, but as Gerard is gay, he finds himself far more attracted to Christine's latest boyfriend. Filled with outrageous fantasy sequences and a satisfyingly shocking ending, The 4th Man is good, dirty fun. The 4th Man has nudity to spare, but refuses to spare any. It went out in the U.S. without a rating, rather than submit to what would have been an inevitable “X.” (The inventive cinematography is by Jan De Bont, whose Hollywood directorial career included Speed and Twister.)

NEXT STOP … Soldier of Orange, Diabolique (1955), House of Games

1979 104m/C NL Jeroen Krabbe, Renee Soutendijk, Thorn Hoffman, Jon DeVries, Geert De Jong; D: Paul Verhoeven; C: Jan De Bont; M: Loek Dikker. Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards '84: Best Foreign Film. VHS,LV XVC