L'incubo di Janet Lind

Freddie Francis' Nightmare is one of those lesser-known movies from Hammer Films which usually finds itself lumped together in box sets dominated by their more popular Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy series. It's obscurity is slightly unfair, as this black-and-white psychological horror-come-slasher unravels itself cleverly and with a healthy dose of style. Written by Hammer regular Jimmy Sangster, Nightmare conjures up a fair share of creepiness despite its age, and often feels somewhat Hitchcockian in its execution.

Janet (Jennie Linden) is a young girl attending boarding school. At night, she is plagued by nightmares of when she witnessed the stabbing of her father at the hands of her deranged mother. As her mental state worsens, she is sent back home to her guardian Henry Baxter (David Knight) and assigned a nurse Grace Maddox (Moira Redmond). Soon after arriving, Janet starts to have visions of a woman she has never seen before with a huge scar on her cheek. Essentially a movie broken into two parts, the second act cannot be summarised without giving away a spoiler.

The visuals are rather bland - Hammer tended to churn out movies quickly and cheaply to serve as a starter for the main event in cinemas - but the black-and-white photography gives the film a Gothic, and almost noirish, sense of style. While Knight is enjoyably smug, the rest of the cast fail to make any real impression, with the pre- Women in Love (1969) Linden extremely lucky to find herself cast after a number of preferable choices, including Julie Christie who chose to make Billy Liar instead, were unavailable. But the film's flaws are to be expected - it is a quickie B-movie after all - and it makes the most of its limitations. The plot's mystery is engrossing and the pacing is odd yet intriguing, and I would recommend Nightmare to any fan of British horror.

During the 1960s, Hammer would sometimes counteract their lavish color Gothic horrors with some effective black & white psychological thrillers; this is one of the latter type.

Moira Redmond plays Grace Maddox, a nurse/companion hired by attorney Henry Baxter (David Knight). Henry is guardian to a very fragile teen aged girl named Janet (Jennie Linden), who as a child witnessed her mother snap and kill her father. Plagued by nightmares, Janet travels home from school and continues to be haunted by visions of a scar faced woman in white (Clytie Jessop).

It would be better for me to not relay too much about the plot, so that potential viewers can experience the twists and plot developments fresh. It manages to avoid being particularly predictable.

Written and produced by famed Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster, "Nightmare" is good fun, although I don't know if the screenplay would hold up under any intense scrutiny. Still, it is quite entertaining, and slickly directed by ace cinematographer (and sometime director) Freddie Francis. It's got plenty of atmosphere, especially in the opening scene, and Francis works well with the D.P. on this show, John Wilcox. The music by Don Banks is excellent.

The cast is full of solid actors but no major stars. Brenda Bruce as kindly teacher Mary Lewis, George A. Cooper as chauffeur / gardener John, Irene Richmond as housekeeper Mrs. Gibbs, John Welsh as a doctor, Timothy Bateson as a barman, and Elizabeth Dear as the younger incarnation of Janet round out the credited players. The film ultimately belongs to those performers who are required to act out stress and hysteria; they're utterly convincing.

A worthy viewing for any Hammer fan.

Seven out of 10.

Jimmy Sangster's screenplay for "Nightmare" is an excellent contemporary (early 1960s) thriller with Gothic touches. However, the script falters about halfway through when the young heroine Janet, who has been driven almost out of her mind by a series of terrifying events, is removed from the action of the story.

Instead of centering the action of the second half on characters sympathetic to the heroine who might take up her cause, identify the conspirators and bring them to justice - as happens in, for example, "Psycho" - the script reveals to the audience who the conspirators are, and then, until the final scene, makes them the center of the action.

It is asking a lot of an audience to identify with those whose machinations have brought about the committal of a sympathetic heroine, and this may well explain why the second half of "Nightmare" is less gripping than the first - especially as the plot of the second half is a variation on what has gone before, this time with an unsympathetic character experiencing terrifying events. This part of the screenplay also stretches credibility, since it seems unlikely that an antagonist with an alert and cunning mind would not detect a plot which is dividing him from his female accomplice.

The real strength of "Nightmare", however, is in director Freddie Francis' visual flair. A former cameraman/director of photography, using black and white 'scope and obviously influenced by his work on Jack Clayton's "The Innocents", he succeeds in creating a real sense of fear and isolation around his vulnerable heroine.

He achieves this by using the expanse of the 'scope frame, often surrounding Janet with shadows or, in daylight, setting her in a frame devoid of anything or anybody reassuring. For example: when Janet travels home from school, the railway station is almost deserted; we do not see the departing train from which she has presumably just alighted. There are no other cars on the road as she is driven home. As they pass the asylum she dreads, there are no signs of human activity within the grounds. Once back home she is dwarfed by the mansion "High Towers" she has become heir to, and her isolation is compounded by her home being located in remote snow-covered countryside.

Janet's isolation is social as well as physical; ostracized at boarding school in the early scenes, and clinging to a grotesque doll and a small transistor radio, she is never seen with anyone her own age (mid-teens). Her only friend at the school is a sympathetic teacher. At "High Towers" the guardian she dotes on, Henry Baxter, is at least twice her age - as are her other household companions.

In addition to traditional Gothic trappings (heroines wandering dark corridors in flowing night-dresses, candlelight illumination, door handles seen turning slowly and ghostly nocturnal figures) Freddie Francis endows several everyday objects with fearful connotations - Janet's doll, her transistor radio that forever blares out fast jazz, and above all, a birthday cake with lighted candles. The latter becomes a powerful image of dread, since it was on Janet's eleventh birthday the horrific event occurred that started the cycle of nightmares and fear of inherited insanity.

"Nightmare" has a particularly bleak atmosphere: most of the action is set during a harsh winter, the dialogue has virtually no humor and the ending - which should give the audience a sense of satisfaction - is grimly downbeat. This is probably because in achieving justice for Janet, her sympathizers have virtually duplicated the methods of the conspirators and brought about a similar result - a gruesome death and a woman on the edge of madness.

Highly recommended viewing.

When was an eleven year-old child, Janet witnessed her insane mother stabbing her father to death on their bed. Six years later, Janet (Jennie Linden) is a wealthy teenager outcast in a boarding school afflicted by dreadful nightmares and fearing to have inherited her mother´s insanity. After a series of nightmares, her teacher Mary Lewis (Brenda Bruce) brings Janet home and she is welcomed by the family chauffeur John (George A. Cooper), by his wife and housekeeper Mrs. Gibbs (Irene Richmond) and by the beautiful nurse Grace Maddox (Moira Redmond), who was hired as a companion by her guardian Henry Baxter (David Knight). However Janet continues to have nightmares with a woman (Clytie Jessop) with a scar on her face and wearing a white shroud wandering in the house and stabbed on her parents´ bed. After trying to commit suicide, two doctors and Henry summon Janet to the living room to decide whether she should go to an asylum. When Henry brings his wife to the room, Janet sees the woman with scar and stabs her to death. She is sent to an institution and soon a diabolical plot is disclosed. What will happen next?

"Nightmare" is an underrated and unknown thriller by Hammer, with a great story of greed and insanity. The plot is predictable but also engaging. The black and white cinematography and the camera work are magnificent. Jennie Linden never convinces as a teenager but the rest of the cast is excellent. The hysterical behavior of women on the 60´s is annoying but a reality in those years. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Cilada Diabólica" ("Devilish Entrapment")

One of Hammer Films' best psychological-shockers features a marvellous British cast, great black and white cinematography, and solid direction by veteran horror filmmaker Freddie Francis. Like so many of Hammer's psychological scare flicks, the plot-within-a-plot owes much to the 50's French classic DIABOLIQUE, but this is still a moderately creepy little thriller.