Follow Me

(aka The Public Eye in the USA)

1972
LP: Victor VIM-7235 (Japanese)
CD: JBCD-1 (bootleg)
Lyric by Don Black
Vocal by Thelma Keating

1. Follow Follow (vocal)
2. The Meeting
3. The Man on a Scooter - Follow Follow (vocal)
4. Another Chance
5. This is How You Dance
6. Off Again - Follow Follow (vocal)
7. Follow Follow (Instrumental)
8. Streets and Parks and Lanes
9. Some Party
10. Closer and Closer
11. The Tickle of Original Feeling
12. Follow Follow (End Title)

The Movie

This is one of the weirdest little movies I've ever seen. Michael Jayston is a Saville Row suit accountant type who falls in love with free-spirit Mia Farrow. Of course, as soon as the courtship is over he goes back to the office and expects her to stay home and have dinner on the table and his shirts pressed and for Mia to be a typical house-frau of the time. But Mia is a free spirit--she's lonely and bored and wanders the streets seeing what there is to see. Jayston figures she's having an affair, and hires wacky private eye Topol to tail her. And of course, Topol is a far better match for Mia than poor Michael Jayston...

Topol really makes the movie--he gives it the energy, humor and drive that it has, and elevates it from being a petty mediocrity into something quirky and fun. It's about a 45-minute story that's told in 95 minutes, but it's a good movie for a lazy afternoon--at least once.

Note: this movie was named The Public Eye in the USA, and still runs on television under that title. But it is not to be confused with the much later movie of the same name that starred Joe Pesci.

The Music

I love the music--this is one of my very favorites. It has this wonderful use of sustain and reverb, and rhythm that gives the music a burbling, haunting quality that I love--a bit like the way music sounds when you're far away from the source and you're hearing a lot of it from echoes. There's not much to it, and if you hate the main theme you're screwed. But if you love it as I do, then it's heaven.

Release Notes

This is probably the definition of an obscure film, and the soundtrack fits it hand in glove. The original soundtrack was released on LP in 1972 in Japan. Since then it has been rereleased only in bootleg editions, most notably on CD paired up with Walkabout.