THE VIOLENCE OF THE HAMS

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1990)
dir: Jonathan Demme

THE VIOLENCE OF THE HAMS
MAD #305, September 1991
w: Frank Jacobs
a: Sam Viviano

Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is an FBI agent in training almost ready to get her credentials. They are trying to catch “Buffalo Bill” (Ted Levine), a serial killer who dresses in womens' clothes and skins his victims. Her supervisor, Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) has assigned her to interview Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a serial killer they have in confinement, with the hopes of getting clues about Buffalo Bill. Hannibal is a former psychiatrist who is a gourmet, intellectual, artist, and cannibal. Dr. Chilton, head of the institution, takes her to where they keep their worst criminals.

The other inmates are MAD editors John Ficarra and Nick Meglin.

Hannibal will give Clarice clues on the condition of quid pro quo. The title of the movie is revealed when she confesses she had dreams of screaming lambs as a child. A victim of Buffalo Bill is found and during an autopsy they find his calling card, the larvae of a moth that's only found in South America. Senator Martin (Diane Baker), tells an audience on TV she is looking for her daughter, who may be Buffalo Bill's latest victim.

Hannibal is offered a reward of a better prison cell by Clarice (it's bogus) if he can tell more about Buffalo Bill, but his answers are all cryptic. He goes to meet Ms. Martin personally but she's so disgusted by him she demands he be taken back. At his cell, when Hannibal is given his meal, he's cuffed to bars first in order for someone to safely bring his tray in, but he picks the lock, kills guards, and escapes. Guards put the building on lockdown and seal off the area.

Clarice has taken it upon herself to catch Buffalo Bill. She has found him at his home where he has kidnapped the Senator's daughter Catherine (Brooke Smith) and put her in a well in his basement before he skins her. Buffalo Bill has hidden in a dark room and is wearing night vision goggles so he can see Clarice but she can't see him. She's still able to find him and shoots him. At the end she graduates and is promoted to an agent and gets a congratulatory call from Hannibal, who's hiding out on a remote Carribean island.

-”LOVE” and “HATE” were tattooed on the knuckles of the killer in Night of the Hunter.
- The Accused was a film Jodie Foster made before this one.
- “To impress Jodie Foster” was John Hinckley's rationale for shooting Ronald Reagan while she was still a child star.

There was a full length spoof of Silence of the Lambs which had a lot of celebrity support for such a small budget, though I don't think it's as funny when spoof movies do a film in particular.