We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
HOMICIDAL (1961)
William Castle knew that getting an audience into a movie theatre was only half the battle. The horror filmmaker wanted to give moviegoers an experience they would remember, whether that meant insuring them against death by fright, making theatre seats vibrate, or offering a refund to anyone too scared to watch a movie’s climax. For the 1961 release of Homicidal, Castle came up with the Fright Break, a 45-second window in which frightened viewers could flee the theatre and reclaim the price of admission. Those who chose to leave would then have to contend with the indignity of being put in the Coward’s Corner.
It was a typically audacious gimmick from a filmmaker who understood the value of a good publicity stunt. But Homicidal has more going for it than a clever marketing campaign. Released in the wake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, this thriller from Castle and screenwriter Robb White hooks the viewer from the start, when a mysterious woman going by the name Miriam Webster, played by Jean Arless (a.k.a. Joan Marshall), walks into a hotel in Ventura, California and offers a hapless bellboy $2000 if he’ll marry her that. She’s nice to look at, so the bellboy jumps at the chance. But, it’s all a trick. “Miriam” only wanted to get close enough to the local justice of the peace to sink a knife into him. She ditches the bellboy and goes home, where she tells the mute, wheelchair-bound old woman in her care – Eugenie Leontovich as Helga – about the murder.
Homicidal does slow down considerably from that point on, as we have to take some time to learn about a lot of character drama. We’re told that the killer’s name is Emily, and she was brought to America from Denmark to serve as Helga’s caretaker for a man named Warren, who may or may not be her fiance. The real Miriam is Warren’s half-sister, played by Patricia Breslin, and Miriam’s boyfriend Karl (Glenn Corbett) has a wandering eye when it comes to Emily. Not only has Emily used Miriam’s name while committing murder, she also uses an afternoon errand run as an opportunity to trash Miriam’s flower shop.
Eventually, the authorities come looking for this homicidal Miriam Webster, and the story takes some twists and turns. Things get especially strange when Warren steps onto the screen, because he is quite an odd fellow. There’s supposed to be a shocking reveal involving the actor playing Warren, but I think most viewers will be able to pinpoint exactly what’s going on as soon as he steps onto the screen.
Events build up to a climactic confrontation in a creepy, dark house – and when Miriam is about to enter the house, that’s when the Fright Break option appears and gives viewers the chance to make a break for it before they’re subjected to the horrors of the final moments. It’s a cute gimmick.
Homicidal could have been a bit more eventful between the opening sequence and the climax, but this 87-minute thriller still makes for a decent viewing experience.
PARANOIAC (1963)
Hammer Films built its reputation on Gothic horror, but the studio’s output in the early 1960s also included a run of psychological thrillers that found terror in apparently ordinary people, family secrets, and elaborate deceptions. Among them was Paranoiac, a 1963 film directed by Freddie Francis and written by Jimmy Sangster, which takes the familiar mystery of a missing heir and turns it into a twisted tale of greed, guilt, and madness.
Loosely based on Josephine Tey’s 1949 novel Brat Farrar, the film introduces viewers to a wealthy family still haunted by the deaths of the parents in a plane crash and the disappearance (and, possibly, the suicide) of one of the sons. When a man claiming to be the missing heir appears, his arrival threatens to upset the inheritance plans of his hard-drinking younger brother, Simon, played by Oliver Reed. But the question of whether the newcomer is who he claims to be is only the beginning of the family's troubles.
Shot in black and white and presented in CinemaScope, Paranoiac bears the influence of the psychological thrillers that flourished after Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho but has a distinct Hammer flavor of its own, blending suspense with Gothic imagery and increasingly strange revelations.
Simon is actively trying to get his sister Eleanor (Janette Scott) committed to an insane asylum so he can be the sole heir to the family fortune (he has some serious debts to pay off), so he is really disturbed to see his long-lost brother Tony (Alexander Davion) come walking back into their live... but when Eleanor finds herself falling in love with the man who may or may not be her brother, she’s quite disturbed by his presence, as well.
More disturbing to the audience will be the moments when we hear creepy music playing in the family chapel while a hook-wielding, mask-wearing figure hangs out on the property.
Paranoiac goes in some wild and crazy directions over the course of its 80-minute running time, and it’s a fun ride, even if I was left wishing that hook-wielding, masked figure had been given more to do.
BERSERK (1967)
Joan Crawford had already reinvented herself as a horror star by the time she made Berserk, and this 1967 thriller offers a new variation on the story she brought to the screen with William Castle’s 1964 film Strait-Jacket. Here, Crawford takes center stage as Monica Rivers, the owner and ringmistress of a traveling circus where spectacular performances are becoming increasingly overshadowed by a series of suspicious deaths.
Directed by Jim O'Connolly and produced by Herman Cohen, who also wrote the script with Aben Kandel, Berserk makes the most of its colorful setting. The credits proudly declare that the movie was filmed at Billy Smart's Circus, and there’s so much focus on the circus acts and animals that you might get the impression that the movie was only made because Cohen had access to Billy Smart's Circus and wanted to promote it. Put a lot of circus stuff on the screen, then pad it out with murder mystery moments to pretend there’s an intriguing story being told. Tightrope walkers, knife throwers and dangerous magic tricks provide a succession of opportunities for elaborate accidents and grisly murders, while Monica’s determination to keep the circus profitable raises the unsettling possibility that death can be good publicity.
Crawford is joined by Ty Hardin, Judy Geeson, Diana Dors, and Michael Gough in a film that attempts to come off as a sensational thriller but ultimately feels like a time-waster, thanks to how many of its 96 minutes are padded out with circus attractions. Beneath the cute animals and dazzling stunts, Berserk turns out to be more of a repeat of Strait-Jacket than you might expect.
It’s not great, but look at those elephants!
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