An American painter (Kerwin Mathews) has an affair with a bar owner (Nadia Gray) in a French village and agrees to help her murderer husband escape from a prison for the criminally insane.
Something of a Hammer Horror, though not of the Gothic type (this killer prefers blow torches). This is constant suspense, with plenty of twists and turns, and you will definitely keep guessing throughout the plot. As Bosley Crowther wrote, it has "a plot of extraordinary cunning...(It) takes on a twitching suspense that simmers, sizzles and explodes in a neat backflip". Turner Classic Movies calls Jimmy Sangster's script "gimmicky and obvious", but they are dead wrong.
Besides writing from Sangster, we have direction from Michael Carreras (the son of Hammer's founder). The cinematography is courtesy of Wilkie Cooper, who was raised under the wing of Ray Harryhausen on such films as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad". He had previously shot this film's star, Kerwin Mathews, in that film (with Mathews as Sinbad, no less).
Nadia Gray ("La Dolce Vita") plays the femme fatale, and does an admirable job, but she is overshadowed by Liliane Brousse, who plays her stepdaughter Annette. Her credits are short (this was her second to last film), but Hammer fans may have seen her in "Paranoiac" (1963) alongside Oliver Reed, which was also written by Sangster and directed by the visionary Freddie Francis.
Although not well know, this is a must-see film for Hammer fans, and is available in the "Icons of Suspense" box set. Now if only Hammer would take a more active approach in releasing their back catalogue... hundreds of great treasures.
Something of a Hammer Horror, though not of the Gothic type (this killer prefers blow torches). This is constant suspense, with plenty of twists and turns, and you will definitely keep guessing throughout the plot. As Bosley Crowther wrote, it has "a plot of extraordinary cunning...(It) takes on a twitching suspense that simmers, sizzles and explodes in a neat backflip". Turner Classic Movies calls Jimmy Sangster's script "gimmicky and obvious", but they are dead wrong.
Besides writing from Sangster, we have direction from Michael Carreras (the son of Hammer's founder). The cinematography is courtesy of Wilkie Cooper, who was raised under the wing of Ray Harryhausen on such films as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad". He had previously shot this film's star, Kerwin Mathews, in that film (with Mathews as Sinbad, no less).
Nadia Gray ("La Dolce Vita") plays the femme fatale, and does an admirable job, but she is overshadowed by Liliane Brousse, who plays her stepdaughter Annette. Her credits are short (this was her second to last film), but Hammer fans may have seen her in "Paranoiac" (1963) alongside Oliver Reed, which was also written by Sangster and directed by the visionary Freddie Francis.
Although not well know, this is a must-see film for Hammer fans, and is available in the "Icons of Suspense" box set. Now if only Hammer would take a more active approach in releasing their back catalogue... hundreds of great treasures.