Beyond Nurse Ratched: Four Louise Fletcher Genre Performances For the Ages

Louise Fletcher earned a well-deserved Academy Award in 1975 for her unforgettable performance as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Outside that much-honored dramatic turn, however, the Oscar-winning actress has also contributed a steady stream of memorable performances in more, well, let's just say, outré productions.

In fact, just knowing that Louise Fletcher is bound to appear can make many lesser films -- like Shadowzone (1990) -- tolerable instead of a chore.

During the 1980s, in particular, Ms. Fletcher starred in a steady stream of weird and outlandish genre fare such as Strange Invaders (1983) and Flowers in the Attic (1987). In these and other film and TV appearances, Fletcher vacillates between two distinct modes of operation.

These modes are:

a.) the crazy parental-or-authority figure (see: Two Moon Junction [1988])

and

b.) the preternaturally cool-as-a-cucumber scientist or doctor (see: The Boy Who Could Fly [1986]).

The four genre performances excerpted below perhaps diagram this actress's singular mystique best.   

1. Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977).

MODE: Preternaturally cool-as-cucumber scientist or doctor.

In John Boorman's legendarily bad sequel to The Exorcist, Fletcher plays Dr. Gene Tuskin, a psychologist who utilizes bio-feedback and hypnosis to cure Regan's (Linda Blair) mental illness/demonic possession. 

In short order, Dr. Tuskin hooks-up Regan to a fanciful "synch" machine so as to relive the events of the first film, and later watches -- nonplussed -- as Regan miraculously cures one of her patients of autism, just by conversing with her.

Through it all, Tuskin rarely breaks a sweat, simply modulating her patient's brain waves.  "Lower...lower...."

Those very words may also reflect Fletcher's technique here, as she keeps dialing down the spiraling-out-of-control melodrama, no matter how big, weird (or, frankly, awful...) the movie gets.

I should probably note here that I once called this Fletcher performance "awful" (in Horror Films of the 1970s [2002]), but after watching the film again recently, I must acknowledge that it is, frankly, a necessary corrective in terms of the rest of the movie.

In fact, this performance reflects Ms. Fletcher's capacity to play cool and collected, knowing and serene, even when all Hell is literally breaking loose around her, and even when other performers might decide to show-boat or go big. 

But Fletcher in The Heretic -- no matter the scene or subject matter -- simply goes "lower..." 

One can see approach reach full flower during the sequence (pictured above), in which Tuskin's body rather improbably becomes a battlefield between the myriad forces of good and evil.

2. Brainstorm (1983)

MODE: Preternaturally cool-as-cucumber scientist or doctor.

In this Douglas Trumball film's most powerful and unforgettable moment, a scientist named Lillian (Fletcher) realizes she is suffering a fatal heart attack, and rather than seek medical help, decides to record the moment for posterity on the new "brain impulse" machine she has devised along with Christopher Walken's character, Michael.

What follows is a tour-de-force Fletcher performance as Lillian puts survival aside, powers through the fear, and records -- for the ages -- the "death" experience. 

I admire this performance in terms of its sense of focus and commitment. Lillian is dying, but before she can let go of life, she has to navigate the lab, plus a lot of very user-unfriendly 1980s computer devices.

Living is easy.  Dying with purpose is hard.

3. Invaders from Mars (1986)

MODE:  The crazy parental-or-authority figure.

The Tobe Hooper remake of the 1953 original is a knowing and cheeky nightmare/fantasy shot from the perspective of a child, David Gardner (Hunter Carson). 

In keeping with that youthful view-point, the boy's teacher, Mrs. McKeltch (Fletcher) is depicted as a fearsome and distant figure of school-marm-ish authority. 

Fletcher's best moment sees McKeltch swallowing a frog -- and then delicately dabbing at her mouth with a napkin.

The moment reminds us that from a kid's perspective, adult behavior (not to mention taste...) is often inexplicable.

That the messy eating of a frog is punctuated by the cleaning of the lips/mouth, is an especially nice Fletcher touch, if you ask me.

4. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)

MODE:  The crazy parental-or-authority figure.

Fletcher played the recurring role of Vedek (then Kai) Winn on Deep Space Nine, a religious extremist bent on consolidating power on the planet Bajor, and then sending the planet back to a kind of fundamentalist dark ages.  

In her first appearance, "In the Hands of the Prophets," Fletcher's Winn objects to the school on DS9 teaching, well, science.

In this appearance, and throughout the series, Fletcher makes Winn an infuriating (but again, calm-voiced) figure of condescending intolerance, one who is wrapped up in flourishes of self-righteous, holier-than-thou morality.  

Winn often refers to those she disagrees with as "my child," thus claiming the upper hand in every debate and dismissing her opponents as somehow less mature at the same time.

Winn is absolutely infuriating, and Fletcher is perfect in the part. In a franchise famous for featuring villainous races like the Klingons, Cardassians and Borg, Fletcher's turn as the face of backwards-thinking fundamentalist loon remains noteworthy and impressive.