Perhaps the least formulaic film ever released by Hammer, Straight On Till Morning is a bleak and unforgiving "kitchen-sink" horror flick that doesn't quite come off. It is undeniably refreshing to find the studio veering away from the usual period chillers with which it built (and then subsequently bludgeoned) its reputation. However, Straight On Till Morning has not dated particularly well and seems somewhat stuck in a time capsule of music, costumes and attitudes (other controversial movies of that era Straw Dogs, Performance, Deliverance, Frenzy, etc - have all aged much better). Also, director Peter Collinson's busy and fragmented narrative style proves just a bit too wearisome for the film's own good.
Ugly duckling Brenda Thompson (Rita Tushingham) lives in a terraced house in Liverpool, where she spends hours writing children's' fairy stories and dreaming of a perfect life. She lies to her mother that she is pregnant and heads off to London, claiming that she wants to find a nice man to raise her baby (when, in reality, she thinks she will find her perfect prince with whom to live happily ever after). Brenda is incredibly naïve and inexperienced, and it isn't long before she is literally throwing herself at men in desperation. When she fails to woo a work colleague named Joey (James Bolam), losing him instead to her beautiful room-mate Caroline (Katya Wyeth), she runs off into the dark London streets in despair. Whilst out wandering, she comes across a stray dog and takes it back to her lodgings to clean it up and make it look pretty. Later Brenda returns the dog to its rightful owner, the handsome yet day-dreamy Peter (Shane Briant). He seems to like her and offers her the chance to move in with him, but later while Brenda is away collecting her things he stabs his dog to death with a knife. Seems that Peter is psychologically messed-up and has a real problem with "beauty" . in fact, he is behind the disappearance of various beautiful girls in the Earl's Court area of London, all of them brutally murdered by him because of their good looks. Blindly, agonisingly, Brenda allows herself to walk into the life of this dangerous psychopath .
There are no characters in the film with whom we can empathise. They range from psychotic (Peter) to promiscuous (Caroline); from stupid (Brenda) to cruel and cold (Joey). To share an hour and a half with such mean-spirited people is fascinating in some respects, yet very unpleasant in others. (This is certainly not a film that encourages repeat viewings). The pacing is slow but deliberate, and the shocks are fairly infrequent (but powerful and disturbing when they come). The film ends on a typically bleak note no great crescendo of action at the end with the villain getting his just desserts; instead a painfully realistic conclusion which cruelly refuses to play to genre expectations. Straight On Till Morning marks a major departure for Hammer and is interesting, challenging stuff. Sadly - having set up its grim tone, style and themes - it doesn't make a terribly good job of shaping them into a great film.
Ugly duckling Brenda Thompson (Rita Tushingham) lives in a terraced house in Liverpool, where she spends hours writing children's' fairy stories and dreaming of a perfect life. She lies to her mother that she is pregnant and heads off to London, claiming that she wants to find a nice man to raise her baby (when, in reality, she thinks she will find her perfect prince with whom to live happily ever after). Brenda is incredibly naïve and inexperienced, and it isn't long before she is literally throwing herself at men in desperation. When she fails to woo a work colleague named Joey (James Bolam), losing him instead to her beautiful room-mate Caroline (Katya Wyeth), she runs off into the dark London streets in despair. Whilst out wandering, she comes across a stray dog and takes it back to her lodgings to clean it up and make it look pretty. Later Brenda returns the dog to its rightful owner, the handsome yet day-dreamy Peter (Shane Briant). He seems to like her and offers her the chance to move in with him, but later while Brenda is away collecting her things he stabs his dog to death with a knife. Seems that Peter is psychologically messed-up and has a real problem with "beauty" . in fact, he is behind the disappearance of various beautiful girls in the Earl's Court area of London, all of them brutally murdered by him because of their good looks. Blindly, agonisingly, Brenda allows herself to walk into the life of this dangerous psychopath .
There are no characters in the film with whom we can empathise. They range from psychotic (Peter) to promiscuous (Caroline); from stupid (Brenda) to cruel and cold (Joey). To share an hour and a half with such mean-spirited people is fascinating in some respects, yet very unpleasant in others. (This is certainly not a film that encourages repeat viewings). The pacing is slow but deliberate, and the shocks are fairly infrequent (but powerful and disturbing when they come). The film ends on a typically bleak note no great crescendo of action at the end with the villain getting his just desserts; instead a painfully realistic conclusion which cruelly refuses to play to genre expectations. Straight On Till Morning marks a major departure for Hammer and is interesting, challenging stuff. Sadly - having set up its grim tone, style and themes - it doesn't make a terribly good job of shaping them into a great film.