The Plumber 1979

Dr. Brian Cowper, Robert Coleby, takes a shower in the flat he shares with his wife Jill, Judy Morris, a master’s student in anthropology. As he steps out of the building’s lift on his way to work, a shadowy figure enters and randomly selects the button for the ninth floor. He knocks on the Cowpers’ door and announces himself as Max, the building’s plumber Ivar Kants. Jill insists they did not call for a plumber, and Max assures her that he is simply doing a mandatory check of the building’s pipes.

Max maintains an affable, loquacious facade. Once inside the bathroom, he starts to chip away at the tile under the sink. When Jill rushes in to see what he is doing, Max improperly encourages her to leave him to his work. He closes the door and then takes a very loud shower. Meanwhile, Brian has been informed that a team from the World Health Organization is coming to interview him about his work. He calls Jill to share the news and, in his glee, dismisses her concerns about Max.

Max tells Jill that the apartment’s pipes are a mess and that he will come back tomorrow to replace them. After he leaves, Jill goes to the bathroom to look at the mess that Max made, and he suddenly appears behind her, claiming that the door was unlocked and that he was just bringing in her groceries, since he had noticed they were in a heavy box. This basic pattern of Max’s odd, slightly ominous behavior recurs and expands throughout the film. Because Brian never sees Max, he remains dismissive of Jill’s worries. In one shot, Max patiently waits in his car for Brian to leave before heading up to the apartment.

Max eventually erects an elaborate scaffolding in the bathroom which renders it largely useless. As the Cowpers host the WHO officials for dinner, one of their guests gets himself trapped in the rigging and injures himself. During an argument with Jill, Max finally promises to finish his work, threatening that he will do a haphazard job just to get it over with. Sure enough, the plumbing explodes, pouring fetid water all over the bathroom, and prompting the return of Max to the apartment.

The police arrest Max, search his car and find items that belong to Jill that she placed there to frame him. She looks down on the arrest from her balcony, and Max screams at her that she set him up.