StephenPaul C
The greatest 01 hour: and 23 minutes filmed in England, United Kingdom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
07/11/23
Full Review
Bill T
Bizarre little tale about a music student thrilled to be invited to a dead composer's estate to study his papers. His family still resides there, and pretty soon, she realizes she's intended to be MORE than a guest, It has a certain perversity to it, and maybe just a wee bit too dumb a' conclusion, but this certainly is watchable to see where it's taking us.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/16/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Interesting though flawed horror chamber piece. Stefanie Powers plays an American grad student who travels to France to research deceased composer by staying with her family. The film never leaves the family compound and includes a drug addict wheelchair bound son, evil nurses, menacing bodyguards, and a domineering patriarch. Oh, and there's an evil twin brother of the composer too, who's locked up in the attic. I was fascinated to see a young Joss Ackland, who I'm used to seeing as an older guy. But most of interest to me is that this film was originally pitched to Hammer Studios by Michael Reeves, who made the fascinating "Wtichfinder General." I'm a huge fan of Reeves, even if he only made one great film, but he's kind of like James Dean, where he died young just at the start of what should have been a great career. Reeves wrote the original screenplay, although his script was significantly change by the time this film reached the screen and he doesn't even receive a story credit. Still, you can tell there are seeds of something better just below the surface.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The film moves slow and takes its time in building up both its characters and its storyline,which all eventually pays off in the final 30 minutes. It is a once-long lost thriller that is really worth digging up and viewing. With Joss Ackland(LETHAL WEAPON 2). Christopher Lee was originally intended for Olson's role,but the American co-producers were more yearning for a rising American name co-star alongside Powers.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Directed by Alan Gibson (Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)) and produced by Hammer, this psychological thriller had been on Hammer's to do list since 1966, originally intended for Michael Reeves (Witchfinder General (1968)) to direct, but it got postponed, Hammer veteran Jimmy Sangster gave the screenplay a rewrite, but it's release was delayed several times. Which is a shame, as it's a thriller where nothing is what it seems. Set in the South of France, music student Susan Roberts (Stefanie Powers) comes from New York to study the work of the late music composer Henry Ryman. She meets Ryman's widow Danielle (Margaretta Scott), and her disabled, drug-addled son Georges (James Olson). Susan discovers that this is a very dysfunctional family, where they all have skeletons in the closet, even maid Lillianne (Jane Lapotaire) and manservant Carter (Joss Ackland) have something to hide. Susan is studying an unfinished composition Ryman was working on, and she hears music coming from a barn on the Ryman estate, only to find it empty, but a lot of disfigured mannequins. Plus, Georges is making a lot of advances towards Susan, claiming she's a doppelganger of someone he knew. This is very similar to what Hammer did with Taste of Fear (1961) and what they would later do with Fear in the Night (1972), all had Sangster involved. But this is an underrated thriller, once which seems to have been forgotten by many of Hammer's hardcore fans, but it's one which deserves a look. While it takes it's time in getting going, it has an effective pay-off.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/05/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Derivative Hammer thriller--An Unusual atmospheric Story!!
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/22/23
Full Review
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