Previously finding the likes of Face The Music (1954-also reviewed) on the site, I decided to check Talking Pictures free catch-up service for Terence Fisher titles, and found one that was to soon leave the site, leaving to me flying to a viewing.
View on the film:
Revealed in the great book Terence Fisher Master Of Gothic Cinema by Tony Dalton that this movie was the first of a two film contract the director had with Hammer, and that the three week production had to move to shooting in Hammersmith, due to the new sound studio at Bray (where it was meant to be filmed) not being completed in time.
For his first contract with Hammer, directing auteur Terence Fisher & who was to become his regular cinematographer of this era Walter J. Harvey, start to give tantalizing glimpses of Hammer's move away from Film Noir, into their signature Gothic Horror, via Fisher and Harvey being joined by Fisher's future regular scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster working here as a assistant director, and all teaming up to cast an eerie atmosphere over Noir loner Van Ness, (played with dashing, broad strokes by Zachary Scott) suffocating from blackouts under the great icy score from The Heroes of Telemark (1965-also reviewed) composer Malcolm Arnold, tapping at the window with stylish, reflective shots, which Fisher spirals out into fiery doom-laden wide-shots, as all Van Ness's hopes sink into blackout.
Following Fisher in becoming a major director at Hammer with the likes of the proto-Slasher The Mummy's Shroud (1967-also reviewed), the screenplay by John Gilling sadly shows few signs of his future colourful creations, instead getting into an abrupt stop/start cycle, which along with taking misjudged pauses, just as things are starting to build in Van Ness's blackouts, also lands with a terribly flat ending that clips the wings.
View on the film:
Revealed in the great book Terence Fisher Master Of Gothic Cinema by Tony Dalton that this movie was the first of a two film contract the director had with Hammer, and that the three week production had to move to shooting in Hammersmith, due to the new sound studio at Bray (where it was meant to be filmed) not being completed in time.
For his first contract with Hammer, directing auteur Terence Fisher & who was to become his regular cinematographer of this era Walter J. Harvey, start to give tantalizing glimpses of Hammer's move away from Film Noir, into their signature Gothic Horror, via Fisher and Harvey being joined by Fisher's future regular scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster working here as a assistant director, and all teaming up to cast an eerie atmosphere over Noir loner Van Ness, (played with dashing, broad strokes by Zachary Scott) suffocating from blackouts under the great icy score from The Heroes of Telemark (1965-also reviewed) composer Malcolm Arnold, tapping at the window with stylish, reflective shots, which Fisher spirals out into fiery doom-laden wide-shots, as all Van Ness's hopes sink into blackout.
Following Fisher in becoming a major director at Hammer with the likes of the proto-Slasher The Mummy's Shroud (1967-also reviewed), the screenplay by John Gilling sadly shows few signs of his future colourful creations, instead getting into an abrupt stop/start cycle, which along with taking misjudged pauses, just as things are starting to build in Van Ness's blackouts, also lands with a terribly flat ending that clips the wings.