The Pyx (1973) Montreal Noir

"Sort of the Seventh Victim            Canadian Style." (Noirsville)

Directed by Harvey Hart

Written by Robert Schlitt and based on a novel by John Buell. the Cinematography was by René Verzier. The Music was by Harry Freedman with a Soundtrack by Karen Black.

The film starts Karen Black (Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider, Born To Win, The Outfit)  as Elizabeth Lucy, Christopher Plummer (Murder by Decree, The Silent Partner) as Det. Sgt. Jim Henderson, Donald Pilon (Red The Half Breed, The Heavenly Bodies) as Det. Sgt. Pierre Paquette. 

Karen Black as Elizabeth Lucy

Christopher Plummer as Det. Sgt. Jim Henderson

Donald Pilon as Det. Sgt. Pierre Paquette. 

With Jean-Louis Roux as Keerson, Yvette Brind'amour as the Madame Meg Latimer, Jacques Godin as Superintendent, Lee Broker as Herbie Lafram, Terry Haig as Jimmy, Robin Gammell as Worther, Louise Rinfret as Sandra. 

The Opening sequence is a aerial view. We hover. A god's eye over Montreal. It's the largest city in Canada's Québec province. The city sits on an island in the Saint Lawrence River and named after the islands highest point, Mt. Royal. 

Opening Sequence

Our first focus point is the lighted cross atop Mt. Royal. It's the Rio De Janeiro del Norte, not.  We slowly do a fly by over the city with Karen Black strumming a guitar and singing a plaintive, almost angelic ballad. 

Being a film set in Montreal and having religious themes its a tad more heavy on Catholic iconography than American films. It's in this respect akin to Sergio Leone's Westerns. American Westerns, I'm sure no one would question, displayed sort of a Protestant zeitgeist. When Leone Westerns hit the theaters we saw more crosses, statuary, priests, etc., etc, more befitting the Mexican border locations of the tales in  the American West. 

We cut to scenes through the windshield of a downtown cab ride past the grand old theatres and shops of Rue Ste-Catherine. Impressionist Noir by rain on a windshield.

This shot is reminiscent of the opening of In The Heat of the Night.

We then switch back and forth between an aerial of a city arterial, and a highrise, to the street level view of the same highrise, as if from the taxi, and we catch a glimpse of something ghostly white falling off the top

It's a woman and her body lays now in the grass at the base of the highrise. Witnesses report the tragedy to the police. A typical police procedural sequence follows. 

we've seen this machine in old LAPD Noirs

Det. Sgt. Jim Henderson, and Det. Sgt. Pierre Paquette, are assigned the case. It's interesting that the procedural sequences play very realistically with both English and French dialog spoken by the police. You get this same international feel when you watch The Third Man where English, German, and Russian are spoken with no subtitles. 

The Drop

They find a crucifix and a pyx clutched tightly in her hands. A what?  Pierre recognizes her as one of Madame Latimer's prostitutes Elizabeth Lucy, he also knows what a pyx is. Its a small, blessed, ornamental container that priests use to carry communion hosts from the sacristy to invalid parishioners. 

Jim goes up to investigate the penthouse apartment she dropped from. He finds it unoccupied, and that the building's super is curiously uncooperative. Incidentally,  Madame Meg Latimer runs a whorehouse out of an apartment on a lower floor of the same building. 

Starting here we start to get flashbacks in the film of Elizabeth's life as Jim uncovers more facts during his investigation. The flashbacks are not only of her johns, but also of some of the events of her childhood, the death of her mother, her sisters addiction, also to heroin, and her confinement in a Catholic hospital run by nuns. 

Elizabeth's Flashbacks Compilation

Elizabeth's Shooting up sequence

When Jim questions Meg Latimer and he finds out that Elizabeth was only a part time employee and that she often worked independently preferring to troll for her own tricks. Meg tells Jim that she though that practice was unsafe. Jim also questions another blonde prostitute at Megs.

Jim finds out that Elizabeth lived with a gay man in another apartment that she kept in another part of the city.

It all goes Noirsville after Jim returns the next day to follow up on his questions to Meg Latimer, and he finds her and the blonde dead with their throats slit. 

Then later when he questions Jimmy, Elizabeth's gay roommate, he finds out Elizabeth was very nervous about a wealthy client she was supposed to meet on the day of her death. 

His investigation is cut short when Jimmy is assassinated with a gunshot through the apartments window. 

Noirsville

Harvey Hart directed a slow paced Noir Police Procedural that dovetails beautifully with a Woman's Noir of melancholy and regret. It's mostly a Karen Black film with Christopher Plummer keeping pace. 7/10

From IMDb

Truly underrated

Cujo10815 September 2011

Warning: Spoilers

Detective Jim Henderson (Christopher Plummer) is called in to investigate the mysterious death of Elizabeth Lucy (Karen Black in rare form), a hooker who fell from the roof of a Montreal high-rise. What he uncovers is far more sinister than a simple accident or suicide.

This Canadian gem is a prime example of a film which has been criminally overlooked. It starts with Lucy's fall and then goes back and forth between her life leading up to it and Henderson's investigation. Both strands of the storyline are intriguing, and the constant mix between the two gives the film a mournful atmosphere. It's an innovative way to tell a story, even more so when you take into account the year this film was made. We watch as Elizabeth tries getting her life on track, wanting to leave drugs and prostitution behind her, all while knowing that things don't end well for her. Plummer's detective is a lost soul in his own right, harboring a few demons which remain from circumstances surrounding the death of his wife. The sense of regret and overall sadness is predominant throughout, never letting up. Even after the credits roll, the feeling remains.

"The Pyx" is a hard-hitting piece of work, something that likely comes as a surprise to anyone expecting a cheap exploitation flick. Indeed, the alternate title, "The Hooker Cult Murders", surely did it no favors in this regard, all while spoiling the film's mystery in the process. Instead of low rent trash, Harvey Hart's picture is a classy horror tale doubling as heartbreaking allegory for the struggles of addiction and the utter emptiness one can feel, desperate for any potential release from inner torment. It is a beautiful work of art and one of the more emotionally complex films in the genre.

Hart paces his film so as to let the mystery grow ever so slightly with each frame, all while garnering it's power from mood and character. Black has never been better than she is here. Whenever her name pops up, it's her role in "The Pyx" that always comes to mind first. Plummer also excels, especially in his final scene where he comes face to face with both Elizabeth's killer and his own inner demons.

The slow-burn pacing certainly won't please everyone, but I think it works beautifully in bringing out the aspects that really make this film shine. When all is said and done, the mystery at the core is brought to a most satisfying conclusion, the scenes detailing Elizabeth's fate and the end confrontation being the best of the picture. Special mention must be made of the bizarre music used during the cult gathering. I thought it added immensely to the atmospheric dread of the scene. Likewise, the song sung by Black herself over the opening credits sets the mood for the somber events to follow.

"The Pyx" ranks right up there with the likes of Cronenberg and Clark in the annals of powerful Canadian horror. Hell, no need for such restrictions; it's an amazing film in general, one deserving of far more respect. In a just world, it would be heralded as a classic.