Here's a review of a little know Hammer production called Taste Of Fear aka Scream Of Fear that stars Christopher Lee and concerns a murder plot in the south of France. Please check out the review....
Having never really gotten into the whole Hammer back catalogue until very recently, I had missed a lot of classic horror film and thanks to DVD I am now able to seek these films out. One film that I recently sat down to watch was a film by the name of Taste Of Fear or Scream Of Fear as it's known in the US. It's not really a horror film but more akin to a Hitchcock thriller. It does have horror elements but relies more on the theme of paranoia than all out scares and I think this is what dragged me into the plot of the film.
The film follows Penny Appleby who is confined to a wheelchair after a terrible horse riding accident. She Arrive in the south of France to live with her father and stepmother who she has never met. During her first night in the house, she hears a noise that upon investigation is a window banging in the night time wind. She notices that across the courtyard is the summer house and that a light is on. She wheels herself over to the summerhouse and enters only to find the corpse of her father sat in a chair with a candle burning. She screams and exits the house as fast as she can but loses control and falls in the pool. She is rescued by her father's chauffeur Bob and comes too in bed with a doctor, her stepmother and bob at her side, she explains what happens and they all go to the summer house. The body is missing and there is no candle. Every except for bob starts to doubt Penny's sanity including Penny and when the corpse shows up again, this time in her room, she starts to realise that maybe her stepmother and the doctor and trying to get her to admit she's insane so she is in eligible for her father's will which means everything would go to the stepmother. Bob and Penny decide to investigate and discover the body of her father in the swimming pool. As they're on they're way to the police, Bob is stopped on the road side by the stepmother. The car starts to roll down a hill with penny still inside and goes of a cliff into the water. From this point on there is twist after twist and each one more shocking than the last until the truth is exposed.
The film really had me guessing at who was responsible, there's only a small cast of characters but each one is a suspect. The same thing happened the first time I saw Wes Craven's Scream, where you believe that this character is the killer and then he dies and you're left with the next suspect. Taste of Fear does this brilliantly because from the start you're guessing as to who is responsible.
The Screenplay from Hammer icon Jimmy Sangster, is fantastic, he's is able to engage you're mind with the murderous plot of the film and the plot twists are spot on especially the reveal at the end and the final scene between Bob and the Stepmother. The Direction by Seth Holt is very good, it reminded me of Robert Wise's direction on the Original The Haunting and the use of sets such as the swimming pool adds a more unsettling feeling to the film.
The Performances are also outstanding especially the role of Penny played by Susan Strasberg, who spends the entire film stuck in a chair and shows penny's sort of decline into insanity is such a great performance. If the film was remade I guess someone like Natalie Portman would be perfect for this role. Ann Todd as The Stepmother is manipulative and cunning but at the end does seem to have a conscience. She's pretty good also.
Ronald Lewis as Bob is also pretty good, he was the first person I suspected to be the murderer but then something happens Im thrown off him. I've Not really seen him in anything else though.
Finally we have the almighty Christopher Lee as the doctor, who unfortunately doesn't get enough screen time in the film even though he's one of the main driving forces behind the plot against Penny. As usual it's great to see Christopher Lee in pretty much anything.
Taste Of Fear is a cracking, Little seen paranoid thriller that keeps you glued to the plot all the way through with some outstanding performances and some brilliant twists that would put Hitchcock to shame. Its hard to believe that for genre films in the 50s and 60s, the British were the leading lights and it's sad that we can only produce period films and comedies these days. Taste Of Fear comes with a huge recommendation from me and one that I plan on revisiting again and again.
FILM: 10/10
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