Anna to the Infinite Power

Anna to the Infinite Power is a 1982 science-fiction thriller film about a young teenager who learns that she was the product of a cloning experiment. The film was based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Mildred Ames. It was produced by Ned Kandell Enterprises and Film Gallery, previously responsible for the American syndicated children's series Big Blue Marble, and many alumni from that program worked on the film. The film was never released theatrically, but premiered on the pay-cable service HBO and later appeared on home video. The film's signature score "Anna's Reverie" was composed by Paul Baillargeon, who wrote the music for the film and has a cameo in which he plays the music teacher of Anna's brother Rowan.

Anna to the Infinite Power
Directed byRobert Wiemer
Produced byBruce Graham
Written byRobert Wiemer
Based on Anna to the Infinite Power by Mildred Ames
StarringMartha Byrne
Dina Merrill
Mark Patton
Donna Mitchell
Jack Gilford
Music byPaul Baillargeon
CinematographyGlenn Kershaw
Edited byPeter Hammer
Production
company
Blue Marble Company[1]
Film Gallery[1]
Ned Kandel Productions[1]
Distributed byRCA/Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment (video)
Scorpion Releasing (DVD)
Release date
1982[1]
Running time
105 min.[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Twelve-year-old Anna Hart of Flemington, New Jersey, a student at a school for gifted children, is a genius and a kleptomaniac who insults her teachers, gets headaches when she stares at fires and flickering lights, and suffers from strange, prophetic dreams. Michaela Dupont, a piano teacher who has been watching Anna and has kept photos of her and a similar-looking girl taken in 1970, moves in next door. Then Anna sees her exact double on local TV news when a commuter plane makes a forced landing nearby, and she learns that her double, Anna Smithson, has the same family setting as hers — the child of a scientist and a musician.

As Anna investigates, she learns about a woman named Anna Zimmerman, who has been dead 20 years, and that Anna herself was part of a cloning experiment by Zimmerman and that she will grow into a duplicate of Zimmerman herself. Anna further learns that her mother volunteered for the cloning project but her father wanted nothing to do with it. Anna dreams of Zimmerman's past — growing up during World War II as a Jew in Nazi-controlled Germany, where she, like the present Anna, was a pianist and child prodigy who would play a part in the Nazis' plans for the genetic engineering of humans. Anna begins behaving more like a normal little girl, and continues exploring her background with the help of her brother Rowan and secret assistance from Michaela.

Anna's mother brings Anna to a facility at Albacore Island after the people involved in the cloning project want to re-evaluate Anna for a few days. While there, Anna becomes suspicious when the phone in her room is blocked. Exploring, she notices the experiments being performed. When Rowan has not heard from Anna, he sneaks into the facility to see his sister. Anna and Rowan confront Dr. Henry Jelliff, the person who continued Zimmerman's cloning experiments, who tells her that she is now a "normal" person and suggests she should change her name as a way to start a new life. After Anna and her brother go, Jelliff reveals to Michaela, whom he suspected was not following her assignments, that he is secretly grooming yet another Anna to grow up to become the future Zimmerman; they plan to kill the remaining five Annas, including Hart and her family, shortly.

Jelliff's plans to eliminate the girls backfire when Michaela reveals herself to him as Anna Parkhurst, the original product of Zimmerman's cloning experiment; she was the girl that resembled Anna in the 1970 photo. Like her mother/creator, Parkhurst knows how to create the replicator. Because Jelliff had her parents killed and because she is enraged by the experiments, Parkhurst turns the table on him by offering him the plans for the replicator in return for the safety of all of the Annas (including the one Jelliff is grooming), as well as an undisclosed location for Parkhurst to continue her work without interference. Jeliff considers her offer.

Cast

Source:[1]

  • Dina Merrill - Sarah Hart
  • Martha Byrne - Anna Hart/Anna Smithson/Anna Zimmerman/Eve
  • Mark Patton - Rowan Hart
  • Donna Mitchell - Michaela Dupont/Anna Parkhurst
  • Jack Ryland - Graham Hart
  • Loretta Devine - Ms. Benson
  • Jack Gilford - Dr. Jelliff
  • Gail Weed - Clara
  • Virginia Stevens - Nurse Grap
  • Marilyn Rockafellow - Mrs. Smithson
  • John Wardwell - Farmer
  • Susan Lowden - TV Newscaster
  • Warren Watson - Dr. Barrett
  • James Louis Fleming - Dr. Randall
  • Julie Araskog - Nurse
  • Kent Cottingham, Marshall Wieme - Furniture movers
  • Stuart Cole, Gary Mitchel - Albacore security guards
  • Paul Baillargeon - Rowan's music teacher

Release

The film premiered on the pay-cable service HBO.[2] It was released by at least November 8, 1983, when it played in a 7 a.m. timeslot.[3]

Reception

Calling it "[a]n oddly engrossing cult item — sort of a Brady Bunch episode about cloning," TV Guide critic Frank Lovece, reviewing the VHS release, said that, "While the direction and cinematography are flat and the acting wooden, it's precisely this home-movie quality, this banal ordinariness, that makes the film's sinister, conspiratorial undertones all the more believably compelling" and that it climaxed with "a paranoid-conspiracy sequence that, unlike the rest of the movie, delivers some genuine suspense."[4] Reviewing the DVD release, Mac McEntire of DVD Verdict, agreed that, "The final third of the movie, taking place in the oddball futuristic medical complex, generates a serious sense of paranoia, and has some suspenseful scenes of Anna sneaking around, just a few steps ahead of getting caught," but found "the pacing is off" and the ending "abrupt," and that the film overall "looks and feels just like one of those '70s TV cult shlockers like Bad Ronald and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark." He found Byrne's performance "just low-key enough to be realistic and heartfelt without being cutesy or annoying."[5]

Home media

In 1983[6] or 1984,[7] RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment released the film on VHS video cassette. In 2010, Scorpion Releasing released the film on DVD[8] with interviews with Martha Byrne and Mark Patton.[5]

Connections

The opening credits of the television series Big Blue Marble can also be seen in the film; the show's production company also co-produced this film.

A 1990s rock band in the Chapel Hill, North Carolina area was named Anna to the Infinite Power.[9] They recorded their CD "Idea Guy" at Malibu Recording Studios, in High Point North Carolina. The record was Produced by Ray "RayTheMixer" Winters.

The line up included: Mitch Bennett – vocals, guitar Lee Richards – drums, vocals Matt Blanchard – bass, vocals

gollark: No, it seems to be saying that the things themselves are not "mighty".
gollark: No it isn't. Those things are "mighty" because they act as force multipliers, not because they do things on their own.
gollark: I see.
gollark: As in, Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or another queen?
gollark: "Fortunately" such high-energy drives would also be very visible when running, so we'd have plenty of time to prepare and be unable to do anything.

References
  1. "Anna to the Infinite Power Cast & Details". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  2. "Martha Byrne". CBS News. Archived from the original on April 8, 2013. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  3. "What's on TV". The Ponchatoula Times. November 8, 1983. Archived from the original on February 9, 2013. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  4. Lovece, Frank. "Anna To The Infinite Power: Review". TVGuide.com. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  5. McEntire, Mac (October 15, 2010). "Anna To The Infinite Power". DVDVerdict.com. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  6. "Anna to the Infinite Power". WorldCat (RCA/Columbia 1983 entry). Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  7. "Anna to the Infinite Power". WorldCat (RCA/Columbia 1984 entry). Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  8. "Anna to the Infinite Power". WorldCat (Scorpion Releasing entry). Retrieved February 9, 2013.
  9. "Family Tree > Anna to the Infinite Power". Reluctant Beating. Archived from the original on October 28, 2007. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.