In this film 'Steel and Lace' we meet concert
pianist Gaily Morton (Claire Wren) who has just finished a
virtuoso performance and was on her way home, when the
completely scummy real-estate mogul Daniel Emerson (Michael
Cerveris) decided he needed to rape her. I guess raping
a concert pianist was on his bucket list or something.
Lucky for John Tesh and the late Cliburn that they weren't
performing that day. Worst still is that Emerson had his
four buddies help him rape this woman. They didn't
actually do any raping, they just… watched. I
guess. Jeez. In the subsequent trial, these same
four guys testified that Emerson wasn't there and now he's
totally beat that rap. Completely distraught, Gaily
launches herself off the tallest building, destroying her
loving brother Albert (Bruce Davison) who, by chance, also
happens to be a top NASA micro robotics Artificial
Intelligence scientist. Who knew?
Five years have passed and life has gone on for Emerson and
his friends, as he has welcomed them into his real estate
company where they shake down old people and get paid well
doing it. Good times. We are also reacquainted
with Alison the courtroom artist (Stacy Haiduk) who hasn't
been the same since sketching Gaily during that unfortunate
trial so many years back, and who will play a critical part in
doing stuff in this movie. Anyway, after a stressful day
of shaking down old people, one of Emerson's boys meets a
total hottie on the side of the road. One thing leads to
another, they head to a local motel, and it looks like the
lovin' was a comin' until the hottie transmorphed into Gaily
and somebody got impaled. Not the good kind of impaling
either. One down. Waitaminute… is that Squiggy…
David L. Landers playing the Medical Examiner? Why yes
it is.
Emerson handles the murder of his
lifelong friend like somebody just told him they were out of
Sweet n' Low, and life goes on, even though his friends are a
little more concerned. On the murder scene is top cop
Dunn (David Naughton) who does little or nothing cop-like in
this movie. Now
I'm not completely sure about the order of
the deaths, but I know one cat gets decapitated and another
attempting to get some office lovin' apparently had the
entirety of his body fluids sucked through the tip of his
penis. That sound fairly horrific. Just so you
know, a super advanced, almost sentient robot, that looks like
Gaily, designed by her brother, is doing all of this killing
and while the killings are pretty inventive, what's most
amazing is this robots amazing people morphing
abilities. It's like a Super Skrull.
So all of people who helped this awful rape take place are
getting picked off on by one, and the only one who seems to
see the connection is the pretty sketch artist who is now a
crack detective and will get to the bottom of this
nonsense. Even our main bad guy doesn't seem to be all
that concerned about it. The top cop, who is also kind
of the sketch artists boyfriend, who doesn't do much cop
stuff, doesn't want the sketch artist to do any cop stuff
either. The sorrowful brother is also having some issue
as his robot / sister is starting to think for herself and
question her purpose in life.
Eventually there will be a showdown. Our evil rapist,
the introspective robot, the sad brother, the sketch artist
and the top cop will all meet on the same roof that poor Gaily
met her end… and poetic justice will be our deliverance.
This movie 'Steel and Lace' from way back in 1991is a bit of
an odd duck. It's a rape / revenge sci-fi procedural
film, with just a touch of slapstick. I could also toss
in there just the hint of incest as well since Albert seemed
to really love his sister. I
mean I love my sister too, but I don't think my love for my
sister would make people uncomfortable the way Albert's love
for his sister made me uncomfortable.
There are parts of this mish mash of genres in this movie that
work pretty good. Claire Wren first as the distraught
victim then as the emotionless robot and in particular the
clever kills our emotionless robot was able to pull off was
probably the high point of the film. Bruce Davidson is
such a fine actor that even in roles that probably don't
warrant Shakespearean intensity, he brings it anyway.
Gotta respect that. And Michael Cerveris made for a
pretty slimy villain.
What seems somewhat out of place is the pretty sketch artist
dead set on investigating the crime… I am thinking the
filmmakers might have made her an investigative reporter or
something just to keep it simple… and the top cop NOT
investigating the crime. And their whole relationship
with each other. I was also thinking that it might've
been more interesting to give Gaily a love interest or a
boyfriend to see how that would play out in regards to Gaily
now being a robot, but then I'm still thinking that her
brother was really her boyfriend. Then there's the whole
raping of the concert pianist which is just odd. Does a
person really need four friends to help him rape a concert
pianist? I guess this is just what evil people do.
We did like the ending, and with all that other stuff being
said, ultimately we did like the movie, strange as it
is. 'Steel and Lace' is a bit of a bizarre entry in the
rape / revenge genre, but it is the strangeness of it all that
makes it kind of cool.
