Set in a parallel universe in which Shaw Taylor reads the news, Richard Burton plays John Morlar – “the man with the power to create catastrophe”, a writer of terrible yet inexplicably popular books.
Also on board were Lee Remick, and Lino Ventura as Detective Inspector Brunel, a French cop who’s on an official exchange, you understand (not just because the movie was a French co-production).
Morlar uses his telekinetic (now there’s a 70s phrase) powers to cause all sorts of mayhem – He sends his parents over a cliff in a car, sets his school on fire, gets his next-door neighbour to jump out the window because of some bad fish, sends a jumbo jet into a tower block and causes the death of some American astronauts.
The climax comes when ‘Minster Cathedral’ collapses on live TV – “I will bring the whole crumbling edifice down on top of their heads! I tell you!” – as Morlar lies in a hospital bed after a murder attempt (it was Remick).
French bloke rushes to the bedside, pulls out all those wires and stuff, and Morlar is dead. Except – aha . . . he’s not!
With a felt-tip pen, Morlar shakily and significantly writes the name “Windscale” on a bit of paper. (Except that it had already been called Sellafield for about 15 years. But still).
John Morlar
Richard Burton
Detective Inspector Brunel
Lino Ventura
Dr Zonfeld
Lee Remick
Assistant Commissioner
Harry Andrews
Quinton
Alan Badel
Patricia Morlar
Marie-Christine Barrault
Edward Parrish
Jeremy Brett
Altropos
Michael Hordern
Dr Johnson
Gordon Jackson
Sergeant Duff
Michael Byrne
Moulton
Derek Jacobi
Pennington
Robert Lang
Mrs Pennington
Avril Elgar
Mr Copley
John Normington
Judge McKinley
Robert Flemyng
Director
Jack Gold
