One of the last of the Hammer studio’s Hitchcockian suspense
films, and also one of the weakest, though certainly not without merit. (None of the series had anything to do with
Hitchcock, of course, but merely used the surface affectations of Psycho as
the basis of a whole sub-genre of psycho-thrillers.) Stephanie Powers is writing about a deceased
composer, visits his estate for research and gets caught up in the problems of
the current residents; a family with many a skeleton in its closets. The film is filled with fairly predictable
twists and turns, and it’s production values make it look much more like a TV
show like Night Gallery or the similar short-lived anthology show that
Hammer actually produced, Journey to the Unknown. But what makes it memorable are its surreal
dream sequences, all variations of a recurring situation and done in lilting
slow-motion. To see the best of Hammer’s
so-called “mini-Hitchcocks” I’d recommend Never Take Candy from a Stranger (1961),
Maniac (1963) and The Nanny (1965).
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