Melanie Griffith’s Extremely R-Rated, 80s Mystery Thriller Turns A Creep Into A Hero 

By Robert Scucci
| Published 13 seconds ago

This may sound like a controversial opinion, but if you’re trying to warn the woman you’re infatuated with that she’s being stalked by a potentially dangerous third party, there are better ways to communicate that than stalking her yourself. 1984’s Body Double, written, directed, and produced by Brian De Palma, drives this point home through its protagonist’s voyeuristic tendencies, none of which do him any favors when he finds himself peeping from afar, then snooping where he shouldn’t be snooping, and finally suspected of murder for a crime he didn’t commit. There’s no real reason to believe he’s guilty, yet he keeps showing up in the wrong places at the worst possible times.

Body Double succeeds as a neo-noir thriller, and its erotic edge makes sense in a world of aspiring actors obsessed with appearances and making the right connections. There are genuinely uncomfortable moments, but the heart of the story is cautionary. Not every opportunity is created equal, and sometimes your best instincts seem like your worst when you’re caught in the middle of a murder conspiracy you were pulled into by proxy. When you sense something terrible is about to happen, you have to question not only your own motives, but the motives of peers who may be involved in something much bigger than you realize.

You Might Remember Me From Thrillers Like “Peeping Tommy Knockers,” And “Is Voyeurism Really A Crime?”

Body Double first introduces us to Jake Scully (Craig Wasson), an aspiring actor who just lost his latest gig for an embarrassing reason. He’s cast as Dracula in a B movie, but his claustrophobia causes him to botch his coffin scenes every time his director yells “action.” To make matters worse, he walks in on his girlfriend having an affair shortly after losing the job, and since she’s the leaseholder, he suddenly has nowhere to live.

In what feels like a stroke of good luck, Jake meets Sam Bouchard (Gregg Henry) in an acting class, and they quickly hit it off. Sam, another struggling actor who knows what it’s like to live in the trenches while chasing steady work, offers Jake an opportunity. After landing a cushy housesitting gig for a wealthy friend where all he has to do is water plants while living rent free, Sam lets Jake take his place because he’s booked a better job that prevents him from doing it himself.

On his way out, Sam shows Jake the owner’s telescope, which overlooks the Hollywood Hills and points directly into Gloria Revelle’s (Deborah Shelton) bedroom window, where she can be seen dancing half-nude like clockwork every night. Without thinking much beyond how much fun it’ll be to ogle a stranger from afar while crashing in a cliffside, flying-saucer-shaped house that resembles Troy McClure’s place in The Simpsons episode “A Fish Called Selma,” Jake starts sneaking peeks whenever he can.

Unfortunately for Jake, this is where things get messy in Body Double. During one of his nightly spying sessions, he realizes somebody else is watching Gloria, and it looks like he’s waiting for the right moment to hurt her. Instead of contacting the authorities, Jake takes matters into his own hands and follows Gloria wherever she goes. He is an unemployed actor, after all, so he has plenty of time to kill during the day. 

The Skin Flick Connection

All of this in Body Double culminates in Gloria’s murder. Naturally, Jake, the man who’s been peeping on her and trailing her around town all week, becomes a primary suspect. Unsure how to clear his name or find the real killer, Jake spends a night drinking whiskey straight from the bottle and watching porn. That’s when he notices the woman in the video he’s watching has the same tattoo on her buttocks that Gloria had, leading him to suspect she was a paid actor posing as Gloria, though he can’t definitively prove it.

After learning the actress’ name is Holly Body (Melanie Griffith), he tracks her down through her agency and befriends her under false pretenses, hoping to figure out why she would pretend to be Gloria and put on a show specifically for him to see from his living room window.

Body Double is one of those noir thrillers that keeps dragging you into places you’d rather not go. Like Jake, you’re pushed into uncomfortable situations that seem to lead nowhere, until the mystery blows wide open and the conspiracy reveals how deep it runs. Is Jake on the verge of a psychotic break after losing his job and his home, or is his new friend setting him up to take the fall for murder?

To experience all of the erotic misdirections that Body Double has to offer, you can stream it for free on Tubi as of this writing.