Alice, Sweet Alice

Communion

United States

1976

108 Min

Color

1.85:1

English

Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
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PROD Alfred Sole, Marc G. Greenberg

SCR Alfred Sole, Rosemary Ritvo

CAST Paula E. Sheppard, Linda Miller, Brooke Shields, Mildred Clinton, Niles McMaster, Rudolph Willrich

Alice Spages is a withdrawn 12 year old girl who lives with her mother, Catherine, and her younger sister, Karen. Karen gets most of the attention from her mother, and Alice is often left out of the spotlight. But when Karen is found brutally murdered in a church before her first holy communion, all suspicions are turned towards Alice. But is a twelve year old girl really capable of such savagery? As more people begin to die at the hands of a merciless killer, Alice becomes more and more likely of a suspect. —IMDb

Director

Alfred Sole

Alfred Sole was born on July 2nd, 1943, in Paterson, New Jersey. He grew up avidly watching the movies of Alfred Hitchcock, who later was an acknowledged influence on Sole’s best known and most well-regarded feature Alice Sweet Alice (1976), better known as “Alice, Sweet Alice.”

Sole graduated from the University of Florence in Italy with a degree in architecture and spent his young adulthood working as an architect. He made his directorial debut as director with the tongue-in-cheek hardcore parody Deep Sleep (1972), which starred 1970s porno superstars Harry Reems and ‘Georgina Spelvin. It won first prize at the New York Erotic Film Festival and was made in Sole’s hometown of Paterson on a paltry US$25,000 budget. Alas, the movie was pulled from theaters on charges that it was obscene, and all the prints were confiscated. Sole’s superbly atmospheric and vehemently anti-Catholic horror winner “Alice, Sweet Alice” fared much better with critics and audiences alike. It won first… read more

Alfred Sole was born on July 2nd, 1943, in Paterson, New Jersey. He grew up avidly watching the movies of Alfred Hitchcock, who later was an acknowledged influence on Sole’s best known and most well-regarded feature Alice Sweet Alice (1976), better known as “Alice, Sweet Alice.”

Sole graduated from the University of Florence in Italy with a degree in architecture and spent his young adulthood working as an architect. He made his directorial debut as director with the tongue-in-cheek hardcore parody Deep Sleep (1972), which starred 1970s porno superstars Harry Reems and ‘Georgina Spelvin. It won first prize at the New York Erotic Film Festival and was made in Sole’s hometown of Paterson on a paltry US$25,000 budget. Alas, the movie was pulled from theaters on charges that it was obscene, and all the prints were confiscated. Sole’s superbly atmospheric and vehemently anti-Catholic horror winner “Alice, Sweet Alice” fared much better with critics and audiences alike. It won first prize at the Chicago Film Festival and garnered highly positive reviews from critics, among them Roger Ebert. The film also boasted a then-unknown Brooke Shields in her film debut and was shot on location in Paterson. Alas, it too did poorly at the box office due to spotty distribution.

Sole next made the quirky and kinky soft-core fantasy outing Tanya’s Island (1980), which starred future Prince Rogers Nelson protégé Vanity acting under the pseudonym D.D. Winters and showcased a remarkably convincing ape costume designed by Rob Bottin. This movie, likewise, suffered from virtually nonexistent theatrical distribution. Sole’s final film as director was the silly slasher-movie spoof Pandemonium (1982), which offered an amazing all-star cast that included Tom Smothers, Phil Hartman, Tab Hunter, Eileen Brennan, Carol Kane, Eve Arden, Judge Reinhold, Kaye Ballard, Paul Reubens, and David L. Lander all doing their best with a dopey script. Sole also wrote stories for episodes of the TV shows “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” (1985), “Friday the 13th” (1987), and “Hotel” (1983).

Fed up with studio politics and the Hollywood rat race, Sole called it day as a director in 1982 and went on to become a successful production designer. Among the movies Sole has worked on in this facility are Halloweentown High (2004) (TV), These Old Broads (2001) (TV), Clubland (1999), Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999) (V), Glory Daze (1995), Bodily Harm (1995), and Night of the Running Man (1995). More recently, Sole handled production-designer chores on the TV series “Veronica Mars” (2004). —IMDb

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