Starring Janette Scott, Oliver Reed, Sheila Burrell and Alexander Davion
Written by Jimmy Sangster, based on the novel by Josephine They
Directed by Freddie Francis
After losing his parents to a plane crash and brother to suicide, an irresponsible and misanthropic drunk attempts to get his sister committed to an insane asylum in an effort to become the sole heir to his family's fortune. But there's a twist: the supposedly dead-by-suicide brother suddenly shows up, alive. Or does he?
Meanwhile there's ghostly music coming from the family chapel and a masked killer with a hook on the loose.
This is another black and white PSYCHO-inspired thriller like MANIAC, although it's not quite as good -- this one has a little too much going on. And I don't mean that in the sense that it moves quickly -- it's a little slow and has too many moving parts, making it less efficient and satisfying than MANIAC.
That said, it does have a bunch of interesting psychological dynamics involving guilt, jealousy, depression and conflicted sexual feelings, which makes it a little more interesting than your average thriller of the era.
Perhaps the best reason to watch this movie is the great Oliver Reed's performance as the drunken brother. He went on to star in Hammer's one and only werewolf movie, THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, which is an uglier movie than this one, though more typical of Hammer's output. I won't be reviewing it this year since I've already seen it, but I'd remiss if I didn't praise Oliver Reed who is always magnetic to watch, especially when he plays a complete jerk.
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