In a prior post, I referenced Paul A. Partain's Franklin Hardesty as a Cassandra figure in Tobe Hooper/Kim Henkel's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Another notion hit me as I re-watched the macabre classic, regarding one of its antagonists, Drayton Sawyer. I hereby offer my views:
Whether one considers Jim Siedow's Drayton Sawyer the brother or father of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre clan (Hooper perceived him as more the former than latter, at least for the initial submission), Drayton is the most complex of its villains, distinguished by a passive-aggressive crutch that makes him, in one way, a non-practitioner of violence and yet whenever a brutal moment occurs, a shameless voyeur.
This ambivalence is evident early on, though it's easy to miss during a first viewing, since Drayton's relegation isn't clarified until much later.
Drayton appears benign, if not a trifle cantankerous at the outset, as evidenced by the movie's earlier, gas-station sequence. At one point he tells the youths he's out of gas and doesn't anticipate a delivery any time soon, only then to encourage them to stay because it shouldn't be much longer before the delivery arrives. He even invites the youngsters to stick around for some barbeque, but also informs the young men that they shouldn't let the girls wander the area.
Later, when Sally averts Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), she returns to the station, where Drayton attempts to calm her. As Drayton goes for his truck, one presumes that Leatherface will strike him down, but after Drayton reappears, Sally realizes he's part of the mayhem. Drayton then confines her to a burlap sack and stashes her in the truck, making "pleasant" chatter, while poking her with his broomstick on the drive to his estate.
Dayton's reluctance to kill is confirmed during the movie's dinner scene (a sort of Alice in Wonderland "tea party" on acid, with Drayton as its surrogate Mad Hatter). His confession (and lament) comes when the Hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) mocks Drayton for being a mere cook, stating that he and Leatherface do all the killing. However, after the Hitchhiker and Leatherface prep Sally for Grandpa (John Dugan) to bludgeon, his eyes glisten with glee.
That Drayton doesn't kill may be what keeps him more clear-headed than his ravenous counterparts, as he holds the responsibility of overseeing the station and farmhouse. On the other hand, such doesn't make him any better (no less unstable or cruel) than his slaughtering siblings.
For the sake of a prequel, an exploration of a young Drayton would be fascinating. If handled right, it could unravel the character's inner conflict, as well as (let's say) his relationship with Grandpa, who might be shown coercing him into the clan's cannibalistic pastime.
Much can be said of Siedow's performance in the 1974 foundation, in that his nuanced expressions (pivoting from congeniality to anxiousness and back again) are on full, lurid display. These seesawing reactions make the movie's misdirecting tension palpable, and once experienced, impossible to forget.
It's in no small part that Siedow helps establish The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as more than just an flash-in-the-pan fright fest. He, along with its makers, ensure that the product is a meticulous and manipulative nightmare and because of such, perhaps the greatest of its kind.
