Whilst there, Myles falls asleep and experiences a strange dream in which Roxanne places one of her life casts on his head and, using a strange oil, draws a pentagram on the floor of the room, whilst Duncan chants in a low, desperate whisper. (In response, Paula reminds Myles that he already has a father.)ĭuncan returns to the Ely home to donate blood to Duncan. He returns home and tells Paula this, suggesting to her that he is the son that Duncan never had. Visiting the Ely home so that Roxanne may make her life cast of him, Myles discovers that Duncan is dying of leukemia. In the Ely house, Paula discovers life casts, looking suspiciously like death masks, that Roxanne has made, and Roxanne expresses her desire to produce a similar cast of Myles’ face. However, despite her reticence, Myles manages to persuade Paula to attend the Elys’ New Year’s Eve party with him they discover the party is a bizarre masked ball, the strange formality of the occasion offset by the funk music which dominates the soundscape. Paula returns home and tells Myles she is worried about Duncan and feels that Duncan and Roxanne are ‘studying us like little white mice in a maze’. After Duncan and his friends have left, Paula’s colleague tells Paula that Duncan’s ‘wife was murdered – by a dog’. Paula has opened a boutique, which is performing badly until Duncan and his entourage pay a visit and buy numerous goods. Paula watches on as Roxanne gazes at Myles, and the Elys’ dog Robin growls menacingly at Paula. At a party thrown by the Elys, Myles introduces Paula to Duncan, who asks Myles to play a duet on the piano with him. Duncan asks Myles to play the piano, and then comments on Myles’ ‘Rachmaninov hands’ (‘Hands like yours are one in a hundred thousand’) before introducing the journalist to his divorced daughter Roxanne (Barbara Parkins). Ely reacts coldly to Myles, until Myles reveals that as a younger man, he displayed a talent for playing the piano which fell by the wayside, leading to Myles taking up a career as a writer. Music journalist Myles Clarkson (Alan Alda) leaves his wife Paula (Jacqueline Bisset) and daughter Abby (Pamela Ferdyn) to interview pianist Duncan Ely (Curd Jürgens) at his home.
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