Review: Scream of Fear

Susan Strasberg stars as a young wheelchair-bound woman to see her estranged father in France. He’s not there but her stepmother (Ann Todd) insists he’ll be back in a few days and she’s welcome to stay. It doesn’t take long at her father’s villa for Strasberg to start experiencing weird, somewhat sinister things that greatly unsettle her – including insisting that she saw her father’s dead body – though no one seems to believe her except rough-hewn chauffeur Ronald Lewis who helps her try to figure out what is going on. Christopher Lee plays a French doctor and friend of the family.

 

Fourth-billed Christopher Lee called this 1961 Seth Holt (“The Nanny”, “Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb”) film one of the best films Hammer Films ever produced. I’m not in agreement with him on that, but there are enough good elements here to give it a (mild) recommendation. Methinks Mr. Lee was just glad he wasn’t playing a literal monster for a change here. Scripted by Hammer veteran Jimmy Sangster (“Curse of Frankenstein”, “The Horror of Dracula”, “The Hellfire Club”, “The Man Who Could Cheat Death”), this is more of a psychological, twisty thriller in the “Gaslight” vein. The highlights are excellent B&W camerawork by Douglas Slocombe (“The Blue Max”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark”) and an absolutely brilliant 11th hour twist that completely floored me. Up until then I was about to write the thing off as good-looking but a bit predictable and rather slow to really get going. It’s a very short film at under 90 minutes so it’s a bit of an issue. One or two of the plot progressions are indeed familiar and obvious, however towards the end…WHAM! Sangster drops an anvil right on your head out of nowhere. It really is such a great twist that I ended up liking it just enough overall despite the flaws.

 

Susan Strasberg makes for an effectively sympathetic heroine, but a faintly disingenuous Ann Todd is even better as the outwardly kind stepmother. The rather troubled Ronald Lewis has an effectively thuggish Robert Shaw vibe to him (if a bit more handsome), and whilst Christopher Lee gets little screen time, he’s effectively cast against type as a sympathetic French physician. It’s a shame that the pacing is so slow, because with the creepy camerawork it’s extremely tense at times. There’s even a good ‘jump’ scene, and we all know how jolly sick of those I tend to be. Sad that the tension isn’t sustained throughout, but if you admire great B&W cinematography like I do, you’ll likely want to give this film a look for that alone. It’s quite stunning.

 

Stick with this one, folks. At first you might feel like you’ve seen this a million times before and it’s extremely slow-moving. However while the film isn’t great, it has a killer finale that you’ll likely never predict. Good performances, absolutely outstanding cinematography (some of Douglas Slocombe’s best work), great twist – you may twiddle your thumbs getting there but it’s worth it in the end. A solid, but lumpy film I guess, it’s probably one of Hammer’s better psycho-thrillers at least (I mean, it’s a million times better than Sangster’s dull “Crescendo” for starters).  

 

Rating: B-

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Cinderella (1950)

The story of poor young Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods), treated as a servant by her nasty stepmother (voiced by Eleanor Audley), and dismissed by her thoroughly rotten, ugly stepsisters. Her only friends are a group of mice, who are forever being menaced by a cat named Lucifer (or as I call him, Grumpy Cheshire Cat). The King (hoping to find a wife for his charming son) is throwing a ball and every available young woman is invited to attend, and Cinderella is most excited to go. However, her stepmother and stepsisters do all they can to prevent this from happening. But with help from the mice and one fairy godmother (voiced by Verna Felton) later, and Cinderella looks set to attend the ball. You know the rest, folks.   Lovely 1950 Disney animated movie from directors Clyde Geronimi ( “Peter Pan” , “Lady and the Tramp” ), Wilfred Jackson ( “Fantasia” , “Alice in Wonderland” , “Peter Pan” ) & Hamilton Luske ( “Pinocchio” , “Fantasia” , “Peter Pan” ), that is a bit too s
Read more

Review: Eugenie de Sade

Eugenie (Soledad Miranda) makes a deathbed confession to author/biographer (Jesus ‘Jess’ Franco himself), recounting the tale of how her depraved stepfather (Paul Muller) groomed her into a life of depravity, debauchery, and murder.   Not to be confused with the similarly titled “Eugenie…The Story of Her Journey into Perversion” (by the same director) or “Justine de Sade” (which is not to be confused with Franco’s own “Justine” for that matter), this 1973 Marquis de Sade adaptation from writer-director Jesus Franco ( “99 Women” , “A Virgin Among the Living Dead” ) is perhaps the perfect marriage of Franco, sleazy material, and actors. Basically this is what Franco’s “She Killed in Ecstasy” might’ve been like if it were based on a Marquis de Sade work. There’s a few slow spots here and there, but overall I actually think this is Franco’s best film. Yes, even better than my previous choice “Vampyros Lesbos” , and better than his more ‘respectable’ films like “Count Dracula” (a
Read more