I realised I’d never seen any pre-Hollywood Paul Verhoeven Dutch movies so I sat down with The Fourth Man (1983), which is a pretty nutty erotic thriller in the post-Hitchcock mould. Better known to me as the go-to actor for European dodgy guys in American movies like No Mercy and The Fugitive, Jeroen Krabbé plays an alcoholic author beset by bizarre dreams and surrealist images of death. While on a speaking engagement in a seaside town, he meets Renee Soutendijk, a hairdresser in new wave-meets-Kim-Novak-in-Vertigo chic who seduces him. Even as she’s framed as a husband murdering femme fatale, Krabbe’s not much better either as he schemes to seduce Christine’s current lover, the hunky Herman (Thom Hoffman) for himself. This was a wild ride with shades of Basic Instinct but even more bizarre and full on in its treatment of sexuality, Catholic imagery and grotesque moments of violence. I was entertained! Krabbe is particularly hilarious the more unhinged he becomes.
VHS Tracking 