Peeping Tom (1960) & Twisted Nerve (1968) Eight years separate these two films, each with their own fascinating behind-the-scenes backstories......
Both shared the same screenwriter, Leo Marks and both took a deep dive into the warped, murderous psychosis of their lead characters.
While Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' became a box-office and cultural sensation, across the Pond, director Micheal Powell's "Peeping Tom" sickened and outraged British movie critics and audiences.
Powell, the brilliant director of "The Red Shoes" and "Black Narcissus" saw his reputation destroyed and his career severely damaged.
So what the hell upset everybody to much about 'Tom'?
While Hitchcock constructed a tightly wound thrill ride 'Psycho' had minimal interest in the details of Norman Bates' split personality madness.....(it's tossed off at the end with that chatty psychiatrist's explanation.)
'Peeping Tom', on the other hand, took you on a more-than-you-wanted-to-know through the sickness of Mark Lewis,(Carl Boehm) a film crew member and would-be documentarian. From the first minute onward, you know Mark's a sick puppy, seen from the point-of-view of the 16mm camera he uses to stalk his women victims.
A childhood victim of disturbing physical and psychological abuse at the hands of his own father, Mark now works out his inner demons by fatally stabbing the women he films........essentially making 'snuff' movies for real........
(To add to the overall horror, Mark runs amateur films of his childhood tortures made by his father......and enacted by director Powell and his own young son.....)
Filmed in ripe, garish color by Otto Heller ("The Ipcress File"), the film also benefited from a top-of-the-line supporting cast (Moira Shearer, Anna Massey, Miles Malleson) For an audience, it was nerve wracking and relentless in its depiction of a dark, damaged soul....(and applause to Boehm for the feat of making Mark both pathetic and scary all at the same time...)
But the 1960 critics judged it an abomination, until decades later, when the film found an enthusiastic champion in Martin Scorsese. Now, it's heralded as a classic by audiences and critics alike......(keep in mind, American film critics didn't much care for 'Vertigo' or 'It's a Wonderful Life' either......)
Now let's jump ahead 8 years to "Twisted Nerve", a psycho-on-the-loose thriller co-written by Leo Marks and its director Roy Boulting.
Unlike 'Peeping Tom', there's precious little filmmaking skill on display here. Overall, it's visually unimaginative and borderline tedious in its plotting. Roy Boulting is most assuredly not Micheal Powell....
But before slipping into total (and mostly deserved) obscurity, the film absorbed controversial heat for its offensive premise, based on some dubious genetic theory that Leo Marks must have stumbled on while researching the script.
What the story implies in its opening scene earned it an immediate disclaimer tacked on to prints of the film when it hit theaters - that the gene causing a child's ' 'Mongolism' (the crude antiquated term for Down Syndrome) could also render the child's sibling a sociopath, devoid of empathy, humanity and morals.
Yeah, sure. Right, guys.....whatever you say......
The movie wastes no time laying out this specious idea.......we see normal young handsome guy Martin (Hywell Bennet) visiting his Down Syndrome brother at a children's care facility. After the personable young Martin confers with this brother's doctor, the doc silently ponders whether Marty's afflicted brother has made Marty nuttier than a fruitcake.
Oh yeah, he is. We know this right away as the film launches into the one and only thing it's still remembered for - Bernard Herrmann's creepy catchy whistling theme.....(later borrowed by Quentin Tarentino for "Kill Bill Vol.1)
Spoiled psychopath that he is, Martin worms his way into the sympathy and good graces of ultra-sweet Susan (Hayley Mills). This he accomplishes by pretending he's a mentally challenged young adult whose mind stop developing around 10 years old.
More weirdness occurs when Susan convinces her disapproving mother (Billie Whitelaw) to allow Martin to stay at their large home that they've rented out to a few other boarders.
We wish we could tell you that at this point the move kicks into suspenseful high gear and that it proceeds to shred your nerves (twisted or otherwise) and makes you shiver 'n shake.
Nope. Not gonna happen.
Director Boulting knows nothing about how to direct an effective thriller and it shows in every flat, slowly paced scene. With his constant use of slow fades to black, the film feels like it's already dead and buried and he's hammering the last nails in the coffin.
A few plus marks here and there......Hayley Mills, then 22, never looked more adorably lovely, and the always live wire Barry Foster is around to liven things up as one of the boarders....(and whom Hitchcock later chose to play the mad strangler in "Frenzy").
And don't forget Herrmann's wonderful, ominous whistling, which helps to give the film the sense of dread its director couldn't supply.
For Peeping Tom, 5 stars (*****) an essential for all cinema lovers.
For Twisted Nerve, 2 stars (**)....and that's primarily for Hayley Mills and Bernard Herrmann.
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