Review: Die! Die! My Darling!

Stefanie Powers is an American in Britain currently engaged to Maurice Kaufmann. Whilst in the country, she decides to visit the mother (Tallulah Bankhead) of her previous fiancĂ© who died a few years back. What Powers had hoped would be a quick pop-in to pay her respects, turns into a seemingly unending bizarre nightmare as the old bible-thumping battle-axe ensures Powers can’t leave. Peter Vaughan and Yootha Joyce play Bankhead’s creepy servants who have their own alternate reasons for staying in Bankhead’s employ. Donald Sutherland turns up in the role of an intellectually challenged handyman.

 

Although it’s not among the better-known or more widely seen Hammer films, this 1965 outing from director Silvio Narizzano (“Georgy Girl”, “Loot”) has its fans out there. I’m not among them. Also known as “Fanatic” and scripted by the pretty reliable Richard Matheson (“The Incredible Shrinking Man”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”), this adaptation of an Anne Blaisdell novel really doesn’t come off like a Hammer film at all. It’s not one of their period outings, and it had very much the look of a 70s TV-movie to me. It’s also boring as hell, leaving me to wonder if “The Anniversary” was quite so bad after all. It’s not the worst Hammer film out there (“Spaceways”, “Crescendo”, “Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb”, and “The Terror of the Tongs” still exist), but it still feels pointless, repetitive, and static. “Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte” it ain’t and boy does it want to be.

 

Tallulah Bankhead is terrific, but she and well-cast Yootha Joyce, Peter Vaughan, and Donald Sutherland can’t come close to compensating for a film with zero energy or plot momentum. Meanwhile, lead Stefanie Powers is a bland 70s/80s TV-level actress and Maurice Kaufmann is a poor man’s Christopher Plummer by way of a poor man’s Laurence Harvey. They’re certainly no help, with Powers seemingly acting like she’s in a sitcom. Dreadful, jokey music score by Wilfred Josephs (“Cash on Demand”, “The Deadly Bees”, “Cry of the Banshee”) is the urinary icing on the turd cake. The music and Powers seem to exist on a totally different plane to everything else here. If you do watch, look out for a certain someone’s inability to stop blinking when supposedly being dead.

 

Very little plot, zero momentum, and two terrible performances from a couple of the major players here sink this one. This boring psychological horror/thriller goes nowhere and seems very uncharacteristic of Hammer on every front. I didn’t get this one at all.

 

Rating: C-

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Jinnah

The story of Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Sir Christopher Lee) the politically moderate founder of Pakistan. A Muslim lawyer, Jinnah fought to form a separate nation from India for the Muslim minority, whilst Mahatma Gandhi (Sam Dastor) wished for India to stay united and proposed Jinnah as the new PM as a compromise. James Fox plays British viceroy Lord Mountbatten, Indira Varma plays Jinnah’s wife, and veteran bit player Vernon Dobtcheff plays a British dignitary.   Although Christopher Lee’s title performance received some critical notice and the actor himself was very proud of the work, this modestly budgeted 1998 biopic from director Jamil Dehlavi ( “Immaculate Conception” with Melissa Leo) and co-writer Farrukh Dhondy ( “Red Mercury” with Stockard Channing and Ron Silver) was largely ignored at the time and still very little-known today. Part of that is probably due to the poor marketing of the film, and difficulty in finding a distributor. It’s hard to get people to talk abo...
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 t...
Read more

Review: Bloodbrothers

Detailing the trials and troubles of a working class Italian-American family, where brothers Paul Sorvino and Tony Lo Bianco try to persuade the latter’s sensitive son (a slightly too old Richard Gere) to join them in the construction business. Gere has more of an interest in working with kids, and gets a job offer by doctor Floyd Levine at the local hospital. Dad of course, sees social work as woman’s work, and belligerently disapproves, but he gets some support from his waitress girlfriend (played by Marilu Henner). Meanwhile, Lo Bianco’s frustrated wife Lelia Goldoni has become mentally unstable and her lashing out at their youngest son (Michael Hershwe) has led to his anorexia. Kenneth McMillan plays a disabled bartender, whilst various well-known character actors and faces play construction workers (Danny Aiello, Robert Costanzo, Eddie Jones, etc). This 1978 Robert Mulligan ( “To Kill a Mockingbird” ) tale about a seriously dysfunctional Italian-American family is too broadly ...
Read more