Lady in White

LaLoggia partly based the screenplay of the film on The Lady in White legend, regarding a woman who supposedly searches for her lost daughter in Durand-Eastman Park in Rochester, New York, LaLoggia's hometown.[7]

The film was entirely financed through a penny stock offering, New Sky Communications, a public company set-up by LaLoggia and his cousin Charles M. LaLoggia, traded initially on NASDAQ for 10 cents a share. It was the first and only occasion that a single, feature film was financed in this manner. After producing a 7-minute promotional reel for the project, New Sky Communications was able to secure $4.7 million[8][9] from 4,000 investors.[3]

'Charlie came to me and said ‘Look, we may be able to do this again (raise money independently) if we go public.’ He said that there was a possibility we could structure a penny stock offering to raise the money to make another film. It took us quite a while to structure this public entity called New Sky Communications. We had a number of brokers around the country selling stock for "Lady" and it took us about three years, from beginning to end, to bring Lady in White to fruition.'[10]

Prior to filming, Frank and Charles LaLoggia meticulously storyboarded every scene prior to the shoot, forgoing a standard practice like a completion bond insuring against budget overages. Principal photography of Lady in White began on September 29, 1986, in Lyons, New York.[3] Additional photography took place at Raleigh Studios in Los Angeles.[3] Filming was officially completed on January 10, 1987.[3]

The LaLoggias managed to recoup every penny of their negative costs ($4.7million) before the film had even hit theaters. They sold the foreign rights to Samuel Goldwyn Productions for a $1 million advance and 70% of all foreign sales bringing their foreign earnings to over $2.7 million. New Century Vista acquired the film for U.S. theatrical distribution, guaranteeing $1 million in prints and ads to promote and open the picture.[11]

Lady in White premiered in the United States on April 22, 1988 in 90 theaters in Los Angeles and Chicago.[3] The film was dropped by a number of Southern California theaters after its first week of screening due to average attendance and a glut of films that were on the market competing for screens before it opened in New York City on May 13, 1988 and expanded to a wide theatrical release on May 20, 1988.[3] By the end of its theatrical run, it had grossed a total of $1.7 million in the United States.[12]

The film has had a mostly positive critical response focusing on the stylish small-town vibe and suspense without gore. Writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert stated: "Lady in White, like most good films, depends more on style and tone than it does on story, and after awhile [sic] it's the whole insidious atmosphere of the film that begins to envelop us...We have been this way before in countless other movies, but not often with so much style, atmosphere and believable human nature.."[13] The New York Times critic Caryn James praised the film stating that: "Here are the bones of an ordinary ghost story. But the writer and director Frank LaLoggia brings them to life with exceptional vitality...  The extended Scarlatti family—warm, funny, so real they make the characters in Moonstruck seem like impostors...  Mr. LaLoggia creates an unusual, effective child's-eye-view of a sinister wide world, a restless afterlife, and the comforts of family."[14] Newsweek's David Ansen wrote: "'Lady in White' is uncommonly ambitious and daringly eclectic...who needs big stars and $20 million special effects when you've got a good yarn to spin and a storyteller who trusts his tale? Gather round the campfire and enjoy."[15]

Pauline Kael wrote, in The New Yorker: "Lady in White is a ghost movie with an overcomplicated plot but it has a poetic feeling that makes up for much of the clutter...and there are touches that charm you: the piles of candy corn in the window of the Kandy Kitchen; the pack of dogs that chase after bicyclists but are turned back by a nun's basilisk glare...and there's endearing, giggly tom foolery between Frankie and his older brother (Jason Presson). Laloggia puts on a good show." Peter Travers for People Magazine wrote: "This one is going to scare you senseless. Bone chilling and unexpectedly moving [16] "Wonderful and potent... an enthralling movie experience," said The Hollywood Reporter. Variety wrote "Lady in White is a superb supernatural horror film from independent filmmaker Frank LaLoggia...This probably is as good a nightmare as any impressionable boy could have and still be suspenseful enough to get most adults’ hearts going." Lady in White maintains a 69% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 16 reviews [17] and a 70% rating on Metacritic.

Lukas Haas and Katherine Helmond were both nominated for Saturn Awards in 1990,[18] Haas was also nominated for and won a Young Artist Award.[19] The film itself received nominations for a Young Artist Award[19] and a Fantasporto.[20] The film was selected as "an outstanding film of the year for presentation" at the London Film Festival in 1988 and won Best Film and the Audience Award at The Festival of Imagination in Clermont-Ferrand, France in 1988.

The film was first introduced to the home video market on VHS by Virgin Vision (who acquired home media rights at a cost of $2 million)[11] and later by Anchor Bay on October 15, 1993.[21] It was also released on laserdisc and DVD through Elite Entertainment, who released a Director's Cut with an extended 4 minutes on March 25, 1998. The director's cut was reissued on DVD by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on September 20, 2005, and featured bonus materials including 36 minutes of deleted footage and commentary from director Frank LaLoggia.[21][22] In 2016, Scream Factory issued a Blu-ray edition of the film featuring the original 113-minute theatrical cut, the previously-released director's cut, and a never-before-seen extended director's cut running 127 minutes.[23]