Medford Brewster, the disguised Michael became close to sweet, bubbly fellow co-star - the submissive, confused, struggling and deceived actress Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange), while her interested widowed father Lesley "Les" Nichols (Charles Durning) fell for him/her.An owl""s huge eyes frighten her.Flying bats scare her.Craggy trees seem to reach out and pull at her, snagging her clothes.She falls into a dark pit and a dark body of water, where the shapes of fallen logs change into alligators.The film parallels and pre-dates Hitchcock""sPsycho (1960)by a few years - similarities include actress Janet Leigh in various states of undress who is victimized in an out-of-the-way motel managed by a creepy "night man" (Gunsmoke""sco-star Dennis Weaver).Their dingy living quarters were marked by broken, cast-off furnishings, and a rusty horseshoe (for good luck) nailed over the door."In the next scene, the camera pans across from a decorated army uniform to a twin bed covered with books (Marco is portrayed as a voracious reader of the following books - "Diseases of Horses," "Ulysses," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "The Trial," "Wall Street: Men and Money," "Enemies of the State," and others ).