User reviews

Susan George seemed to have spent a large part of 1971 being terrorised in rural houses by maniacs; in Straw Dogs she suffered violence at the hands of vicious country yokels and in Fright she is threatened by an escaped lunatic with murder on his mind.

Unfortunately, despite a great cast including George Cole, Honor Blackman and Dennis Waterman, and direction from Peter Collinson (who gave us the classic The Italian Job) this somewhat tedious thriller/horror rarely manages to be anything more than average.

Susan George (looking a lot like Sarah Michelle Gellar to me — only much sexier) is great as Amanda, the babysitter who must protect baby Tara when his homicidal father drops by for a visit; she convincingly portrays the terror of the situation (whilst simultaneously looking great in a very short dress), but even her performance cannot save the film; the histrionics in the latter part of the film undermine all that goes before and the finale, in which Amanda exacts revenge on the killer, is quite ridiculous.

Director Collinson manages a few nice touches (I particularly liked the intercutting between Susan George and Honor Blackman to show how the maniac was unable to discern between the two women), but the tension of the housebound action is dissipated by some dreadfully dull scenes set in a nearby restaurant and the local police station.

With a little more action, a bit less talk and maybe one or two more deaths, this could have been a classic little chiller — as it stands, it is just another so-so horror film which is unlikely to cause anyone sleepless nights.

Enjoyed this British film with Susan George, (Amanda), "The Strange Affair", who plays the role of a young gal attending college and taking on a babysitting job way out in the country and walking all by herself after getting off a bus. The house where Amanda is to babysit is very old and their is a little boy she is to take care of while his mom and dad go out to dine. Amanda has a visit from her boyfriend who attempts to make love to her and starts to almost get to first base when the telephone starts to ring. Susan George gives a great performance through out the entire picture and it truly shows the great talent she had during her early years of stardom. If you like Susan George when she was young, pretty and sexy, this is the film for you. Enjoy.

You might call this a slasher prototype (since it resembles something of "Halloween" and "When A Stranger Calls"), as your generic staples are there and in full flight. However it's not terribly successful in making it totally effective, but anything with Honor Blackman and the lovely Susan George in a short purple skirt has got to be worth your time. Of course! Being a very minimal production, the Gothic set-pieces are tight and the story quite simple-minded (babysitter terrorised by a escaped homicidal lunatic who returns to his family home for one night), where its all about hysteria and claustrophobic tension in a forlorn staging. The main problem it was just too uneven. Good uneasy first half, let down by a weak, bloated second half. Some plastered jolts, and atmospheric touches worked (mainly those vivid sound effects), but definitely there were moments that didn't have much impact, and fell in the risible bracket. Not helping was the script completely plods along. Peter Collinson's terse direction, along with Ian Wilson's skillful cinematography and Harry Robertson's whimsically edgy musical score build upon the creaky, and moody old-school atmosphere. The dark, gloomy isolated house (you cant go wrong there!) is well-used in many of the set-ups, and they achieve many unique placements (reflections to silhouettes) with the characters. Collinson's framing is first-rate. A busty Susan George (who gets some scenes with her bra-exposed) is superb in her well-rounded performance of conveying the frightening despair that basically overwhelms her. On the other hand Ian Bannen's spaced out, muttering psychotic loony was a bit hit-and-miss. Honor Blackman scores points as the up-tight mother. George Cole, John Gregson and Dennis Waterman provide sturdy support. Passable little horror flick.

Fright (1971) is directed by Peter Collinson, a largely under-rated film-maker who received his only positive notices for the film The Italian Job, though in reality he made a fair few good films such as Innocent Bystanders and The Earthling.

The story is simple, but fairly engrossing: a young babysitter in a lonely mansion is terrorised by an escaped homicidal lunatic. The babysitter is nicely played by Susan George and the maniac is very convincingly portrayed by Ian Bannen.

The film starts out just fine, with some careful and genuinely suspenseful build up scenes. Every now and then, we are fed another clue that someone unpleasant is hanging around outside the mansion... Dennis Waterman is assaulted whilst walking through the grounds; we see a cloudy figure sneaking past the kitchen door as George boils the kettle, etc. The film is pretty scary early on, and I'm not embarrassed to admit that the hairs on my neck were prickling a bit.

However, it all goes wrong later on. The maniac turns up about a third of the way in and the effective suspense suddenly gives way to sadism and over-the-top hysterics. Bannen, as mentioned earlier, plays the part very well, but the lines he has to speak and his actions are ludicrously and needlessly savage. I know he's meant to be a bad man, but his nastiness just seems too excessive. Collinson forgets to keep the suspense ticking over and lunges for the audiences jugular, dragging down what could have a great little thriller and turning into a mere exploitation shocker.

A young woman goes to a secluded large house to babysit a little boy however once there she is terrorized by her employers ex husband.

The first half of the film is by far the best, the suspense is very good (if a little creeky), there is a couple of good jump scares and tension builds well. Acting is also very strong, George as the film's central character holds everything together well she as always delivers, Bannan as the demented maniac is chilling at times and Honor Blackman is also very good. What holds the film back however is Collinsons direction in the 2nd half, instead of keeping the audience on the edge by staying in the confines of the house we keep leaving and going to nothing scenes at the restaurant or police station. This could have been a really terrifying experience given the story and situation but sadly only occasionally delivers the goods.

One of the first of the babysitter stalker movies made so it does deserve some credit and its definitely not a bad film it just didn't reach the level I was expecting.

I might have missed out on the first fifteen minutes of "Fright" because the only thing that repeatedly went on in my head was: "Why the bloody hell didn't I ever had a babysitter as stunningly gorgeous as Susan George???" The unearthly beautiful star of "Straw Dogs" and "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry" walks through the opening credits wearing a minuscule yet incredibly sexy purple dress as she goes to the Lloyd's mansion to baby sit their little son…That lucky kid! The house lies isolated in the country and young Amanda is in for a night of morbid surprises, as an uncanny figure pops up at the window and even beats the hell out of her boyfriend (though he was a bastard, anyway). "Fright" can actually be considered as an influential and progressive horror movie, since it got released many years before "Halloween" that once and for all portrayed babysitters as prototype target for demented serial killers and sleazy perverts. Obviously the number of casualties isn't very high and the evoked scares are very basic, yet "Fright" is an effective little chiller that honestly deserves to be more known and appreciated among the horror-loving crowd. The direction is solid and there are hardly any words to describe the essence of Susan George. You already know my opinion on her looks, but she's also a very decent actress and perfectly suitable to play a vulnerable and hard-screaming victim of a raving madman. The pacing slows down a bit as soon as the perpetrator has been identified, but the film most likely has made a positive impression on you already by then.

This is a clumpy prototype of the slasher films which were to become so ubiquitous by the late 1970s and '80s. It starts off promisingly, setting up the story with Susan George arriving as the babysitter for a slightly odd couple – the mother clearly on edge to the point of neurosis – and, after they leave, becoming spooked by the thuds and shudders of an old, time-worn house. However the script is clumsily constructed, so moments of tension are dissipated by switching back and forth between the house and the couple's evening out. The repressed virgin routine that Susan George goes through, also, has dated pretty badly and probably seemed fairly risible even in the early '70s when the film was made. Ian Bannen as the ex-husband gone homicidal does not ring true – the moments when he growls like an over-excited terrier are as frightening as he gets; a shame because he's so good in such films as 'Tales from Beyond the Grave' (Amicus) and, much later, in 'Gorky Park' and 'Hope and Glory'. As for Susan George, her character simply turns into a sopping wet, quivering pulp of nerves as if she were in 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' instead of this very plodding drama. The DVD was only available as a Region 1, so – unable to view it as a rental - I bought it on the strength of its cast. Don't make the same mistake. Alas, I found myself in the end so uninvolved that I passed the time noticing how many times the music score (by Harry Robertson) ripped off Prokofiev's atmospheric Third Symphony.

Unfairly rated quite low, this has a choice cast, Susan George playing up to her fine standard as usual, ok, it's not a classic but it has its moments of terror. Convincing acting all round, what out for a very young 'Trigger' from Only fools and horses. It's best watched late night, one from the early 70's.

OK, I know a lot of people like this and that's fine. I don't find this earlier slasher to be a misunderstood or beyond bad flick but I still think it is punctured in many weak spots. I'm not sure why but I think it was because of these things.

1. They revealed the killer way too soon and I found that to be heavily weak. I liked this killer but at the same time he's not as memorable as Billy from Black Christmas or even the popular culture icon, Michael Myers from Halloween.

Yeah that was my only really major issue but there were also little bits and pieces which didn't work. More kills could have been better and the kills here sucked. The atmosphere of the house was scary but the death scenes, the killer or not even the music scared me. This film's called Fright and it didn't frighten me.

The good was that even if the music wasn't creepy, I liked it, the acting was excellent, the house was scary to my satisfaction and the angle shots of things was done well.

Overall it is an average flick. I was hoping I would have given it more than a 7 and I was really excited for this film since it was way way before Halloween and other slashers but it wasn't what it turned out to be. Oh well. I just wish it has the sheer power like Halloween, Black Christmas and even others like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I Spit on your Grave and the early comers of Psycho.

It's a 5.4/10 on this one.

There's certainly no time wasted starting the scares in this film. From the opening few seconds the atmosphere is rife with nastiness, and the amazing direction and camerawork are so good you feel like you are being bodily forced into a nightmare, such is the power of the filmmaking. Susan George is simply superb as Amanda, a fine performance that moves from edginess and distress to total hysteria. The house is well chosen, being dull and creaky but not ludicrously so, and the baby is a joy to behold. Ian Bannen contributes a genuinely unhinged turn as the madman and the scenes of sexual and physical violence are unbelieveably strong for the period. Fright may be seen exemplifying the nasty exploitation movie that began to infest British cinema in the early 70s as censorship laws were relaxed. It is true that the film is nasty and throws everything and the kitchen sink into its witches brew to provoke distress in the viewer. However, by the same token it can be seen as one of the rare example of pure, unhindered terror in cinema, where the characters are offered no hope, no salvation, no happy endings. By those standards, as an insight into a waking nightmare, it is one of the finest examples ever made. Peter Collinson is a director who never was appreciated enough in his lifetime; even his most popular movie, The Italian Job really only achieved classic status in the 1990s. In Fright he really proves himself as a director, and as a master of the camera, which he uses to create a gallery of some of the most bizarre and distubing shots to be found in the genre. If you want to be pleasantly frightened, this is maybe not the film to watch, but for genuine evil few films have captured it better.

The origins of the slasher flick can be traced all the way back to Hitchcock's masterpiece, Psycho, but the modern slasher is a different animal entirely. Some still believe that John Carpenter's overrated Halloween began the craze, but that was predated by Black Christmas, and that in turn was predated by this British flick from 1971. Fair enough, this isn't exactly a template for the modern slasher film, but many of the staples of the genre - a young woman in peril, a killer fresh out of the loony bin, the babysitter theme etc - feature, and to the best of my knowledge; this was one of the first films to feature these themes together. The film can be described as the film that 'When a Stranger Calls' should have been, as it takes the theme of a babysitter being stalked by a lunatic, except everything is fit into one night; and so doesn't suffer from the sprawling middle section of the aforementioned film. Amanda is a young babysitter who arrives at the residence of the Lloyds to look after their three year old son while they go out to a party. What she doesn't realise is that the father's biological father has broken out of a mental home, and has decided to go and see his won...

By keeping the focus on just one situation over one period of time, director Peter Collinson (Straight on Till Morning, The Italian Job) creates a tense atmosphere, which benefits from the dark and gloomy feeling that the night setting gives to the story. The film isn't all that gory, but this doesn't really matter as the focus is always on the atmosphere, and this is enough to pull it through. The film benefits from two great performances. First and most importantly, we have Susan George, who lights up the screen throughout with her stunning good looks. Also appearing is Pussy Galore herself Honor Blackman, who is good in the time that she appears. The plot moves well throughout, and the fact that the film doesn't really have a great deal of story is excellently masked by the tense atmosphere, which is enough to keep things moving. There's only one real twist in the story, and that concerns the meeting of the lunatic father. His appearance isn't all that shocking since the hints that he will turn up come thick and fast early on. This is where Fright falls down, but even so; this is a nice little exercise in suspense, and is well worth seeing.

British thriller has comely college student Susan George (studying child welfare and psychology!) babysitting for Honor Blackman's little boy, unaware that Blackman's estranged husband--a homicidal maniac--has just escaped from the institution and is lurking about in the darkness. Early precursor to the killer-in-the-house/terrorizing-the-babysitter genre is well-enough made and acted, despite an extremely thin script. There are no twists to the plot (it's all routine), though the overwrought finale makes an attempt to surprise us. George, who always looks on the verge of crying, suffers and screams with her blouse open and her brassiere showing. It's that kind of picture... *1/2 from ****

This is a fairly interesting picture with lots of British faces and a gorgeous young Susan George playing the babysitter. Ian Bannen's acting doesn't bear close inspection at the best of times, but here his characterisation seems appropriate. This is a seventies film so flares are much in evidence and Dennis Waterman has some wicked side burns. Also check out the amusing restaurant scene where diners in velvet dinner-wear are grooving and shimmering to a guy playing a jazzy number on a Hammond organ. Overall though, an interesting yarn.

The plot-line of Fright is very similar to the idea used by John Carpenter for his box-office smash Halloween (1978) several years later. After all its story can be boiled down to one sentence - a baby-sitter is terrorised by a psychopath who has escaped from an asylum. Consequently, Fright could be considered alongside the likes of Black Christmas (1974) as a proto-slasher of sorts. It's definitely quite a nasty movie for its era. It starts out as a psychological thriller and turns into a house invasion movie. And like most from the latter sub-genre it gets somewhat disturbing and exploitative in the process. Unfortunately, this transition also marks the point in which the film loses a bit of quality. The first half in which an unknown ominous person is stalking around outside the house is very strong and actually tense and scary. But once the action moves to within the house things do go a bit flat. The unknown quality that elevated the earlier scares is replaced with less interesting shock material. It also bothered me a bit that the babysitter acted a little too stupidly to be entirely believable. Her boyfriend staggers into the house bloodied and half-dead and a mysterious man follows a few seconds later and she never considers that he may be the lunatic responsible! And then later on the film finishes with an abrupt ending that doesn't entirely work unfortunately.

But, criticisms aside, this is still a pretty fine psychological thriller. Its director Peter Collinson would go on to direct another film from that genre the following year, namely Straight on Till Morning. He made that one for the famous British studio Hammer and it was one of the most pleasingly atypical offerings they ever turned out. Both films certainly show Collinson had a handle on generating suspense. Fright benefits additionally from a very good cast. Susan George is ridiculously cute and puts in an impressive performance. Like her work in the same year's Straw Dogs, this is another tough role where she has to go through some pretty nasty scenes. Ian Bannen plays her maniac tormentor and Honor Blackman of The Avengers fame is his ex-wife. We also have Dennis Waterman and George Cole star together for the first time; they would of course go on to be a TV double act in the 80's series Minder.

The film is quite notable too for featuring enacted terror scenes involving a child which would simply never be allowed to be filmed now. Amongst others, at one point Bannen holds him aggressively with a shard of glass against his neck. Okay, it was a prop and not actually glass but nevertheless I'm pretty sure that sort of scene would not be permitted to be filmed nowadays. So like many older genre pictures, this one is a window into another time where different rules applied. I would ultimately recommend this film with some reservations. It has a few problem areas but it more than makes up for those with some genuine chills, the delectable Susan George and a pleasing early 70's vibe.

1971's "Fright" from Britain's Fantale Films and screenwriter Tudor Gates was one of the last theatrical releases for Allied Artists, formerly Poverty Row outfit Monogram. A fine cast is gathered together for what essentially is a prototype for the next decade's slasher subgenre, Susan George well cast as babysitter Amanda, apparently virginal but dressed quite provocatively in go go boots, whose latest charge is a 3 year old boy with a highly agitated mother, Helen Lloyd (Honor Blackman), living in a creaky country cottage far off the main road with new husband Jim (George Cole). One would believe that Helen has never left her child alone with a babysitter before, quite reluctant to give in and have a good time at the local pub for a celebration of some kind. The first thing that Amanda does by herself is head for the kitchen to rattle those pipes for a pot of tea, director Peter Collinson using sound to ratchet up suspense as we have reason to fear that a prowler lurks outside. Amanda immediately does what any ordinary frightened girl would do, unlock the back door and venture out into the night to confront whoever is there, only to be greeted by a revolving clothesline repeatedly hitting a tree branch (she screams at the top of her lungs). No sooner are we beyond that false scare than another arrives, a slowly opening door that reveals...the baby Tara (Tara Collinson, the director's son), in need of a bedtime story just as Amanda's lustful boyfriend Chris makes his presence known at the front door. Some careful maneuvering is necessary to maintain her virginity, sending the would be lothario back out into the cold as she winds down with a television broadcast of Hammer's 1966 classic "The Plague of the Zombies" Little does she know that in refusing to leave Chris finds himself beaten to a pulp by an unknown assailant, easily telegraphed by the conversation between the Lloyds, fearing the homicidal return of Helen's former husband, Brian Halston (Ian Bannen), locked away since his previous attempt to murder her. When creeping noises upstairs sound the alarm bells Amanda seeks to escape by the front door, encounters a bloodied Chris, and allows the intrusion of the escaped lunatic himself, quickly proclaiming the boyfriend dead (he isn't) and finding himself so far gone that he often mistakes Amanda for Helen. With the Lloyds racing home and the police too late to accomplish anything but wait it out, a lengthy hostage situation presents itself, poor Amanda holding baby Tara close while her captor endlessly rants and raves about killing both if he doesn't see his wife. Fright may be the operative word for Susan George, an exceptional actress in conveying quivering terror, but a picture that starts off in hysteria unfortunately fails miserably to maintain suspense, Ian Bannen almost single handedly sinking the ship with an unintentionally comic turn where even Honor Blackman follows suit in overwrought fashion. A sadistic twist in having a young child in constant peril from a blade against his throat just doesn't resonate due to the unlikely behavior on exhibit, left without any likable characters well before its half baked climax. Collinson's career featured similar failed titles like Hammer's "Straight on Till Morning" and remakes "Ten Little Indians" and "The Spiral Staircase," Tudor Gates best remembered for his Hammer trilogy "The Vampire Lovers," "Lust for a Vampire," and "Twins of Evil."

Fright is directed by Peter Collinson and written by Tudor gates. It stars Susan George, Ian Bannen, Honor Blackman, George Cole, Dennis Waterman and John Gregson. Music is by Harry Robinson and cinematography by Ian Wilson.

A young babysitter is terrorised by an escaped mental patient.

It plays as stock fair now, but Fright is undoubtedly influential in the line of "maniac stalks girl alone" movies. But! That is no gauge of quality because in spite of some good initial ground work in the first half, the pic fails to deliver on its promise. Susan George as Amanda, in fetching mini-dress, falls prey to an unhinged Ian Bannen as Brian who literally has come home.

The build up consists of Amanda turning up for her babysitting assignment and finding the lady of the house (Blackman over acting big time) on tender hooks. Once Amanda is alone in the house noises are used as scare tactics, Waterman turns up as a horny boyfriend and soon gets sent packing with a flea in his ear, and then the lights go out and Brian turns up thinking that Amanda is his wife (Blackman who is out doing some awful dancing with Cole).

General hysterics ensue as Amanda becomes a simpering wreck whilst trying to hold it together long enough to keep the baby safe from harm. Bannen goes into over drive convincing us he's mad, which leads to some very unsettling scenes as Amanda is put through a nightmare (1971 really saw George at the mercy of film makers!) until the conclusion which comes with the inevitable outcome.

Horror really wasn't Collinson's forte, and his choices in the genre tended to revolve around a woman in peril, and that's kind of the problem with Fright, it just comes off as unsavoury (do I smell misogyny?). Collinson shows some nice touches, such as a pendulum sequence, while the sense of dread in that first half is well marshalled, but most of the time he's using the picture as an excuse to leer at George's skirt, legs and ripped blouse! Don't get me wrong, as a red blooded male I find George sexy in the extreme, but I don't need it as an excuse to cover up a scripts failings.

It proves to be a most interesting viewing experience now, where armed with the knowledge of the sub-genre offerings that followed, you can't help but acknowledge that it's a film only of its time; yet still important on its basic formula terms. However, and casting aside that we are in a world where George Cole can net Honor Blackman, it really is distinctly average at best. 5/10

Ever-sexy and ever-delightful Susan George plays Amanda, a young babysitter who goes to watch over the son of older couple Helen (Honor Blackman) and Jim (George Cole). Unfortunately, Amanda doesn't know their whole sordid story, leading to a scenario wherein Amanda and the kid (played by the adorable son of the films' director) are repeatedly terrorized by an unhinged man (Ian Bannen).

Director Peter Collinson ("The Italian Job", "Straight On till Morning") does a commendable job of building up the suspense for the first act. The script (by Tudor Gates) includes such classic elements as the "old dark house" and characters with a secret (that gets a reveal sooner than you'd think). The casting of young George works because she has an inherent vulnerability about her, yet is responsible enough to always be concerned about the childs' welfare. However, Gates and Collinson would have done better to keep the truth about the maniac hidden a while longer, despite the excellent (and not entirely unsympathetic) portrayal by Bannen. Soon, the scenario has led into a typical stand-off between the maniac and the authorities, and the couple, who have arrived home to a melodrama full of histrionics.

The film is effectively violent, managing to get gory without going over the top in this department. And it also showcases Georges' assets to memorable effect (for one thing, she has a make-out scene with Dennis Waterman, who plays her goofy boyfriend Chris). The whole cast is superb; also co-starring are John Gregson as a helpful doctor, and Maurice Kaufmann as an officious police inspector.

Overall, "Fright" has good touches (this viewer too liked the way that the creep at times can't distinguish between Amanda and Helen), and solid sequences, but emerges as a largely routine thriller, complete with an unbelievable and silly resolution.

Seven out of 10.

I have a childhood memory of watching this low-budget British shocker movie in a graveyard slot and some scenes from it have since stayed with me, prompting me to re-view it many, many years on.

Susan George plays a pretty young college girl in a small village who's subbed to be baby-sitter for a middle-aged couple's three year old son at their big, creaky old house. It's already dark as she arrives and every little bump in the night adds to her ever more nervous state, which she then promptly compounds by watching a horror zombie movie on the TV!

Randy boyfriend Denis Waterman then turns up, intent on persuading the young girl to give him her virginity but he's spurned, which is round about when we learn just why the wife and mother of the young child is apparently so anxious about going out for the night, her just divorced husband has escaped from the local sanitarium where he was placed after previously attempting to kill her and her son. Sure enough now he's out, he heads for the old home, flitting between moments of almost childlike lucidity and crazed homicidal mania frequently imagining that George is in fact his wife. Then, after raping the terrified George, the film climaxes with a showdown at the house as the police and the now-returned married couple, with the escapee's psychiatrist handily on the scene too, arrive to try to resolve the escalating hostage scene.

Shot mostly inside the gloomy, rambling old house, the film starts well as George's initial nerves are fanned to boiling point when Ian Bannen as the deranged ex does his "Here's Johnny" routine, but I didn't appreciate his unhinged performance and felt it unbalanced the film as it degenerated into sensationalism and exploited George's character at the heart of it.

Reminiscent of the ITV feature-length "Thriller" TV series of the early 70's which came in its wake, it does feature some good performances notably from George as the terrorised girl, (in fact this wasn't the last time this particular year she was so treated in a movie, as her next character was subject to similar abuse in Peckinpah's controversial "Straw Dogs") and the late Honor Blackman as the distracted wife. It was mildly amusing to see George Cole and Denis Waterman share a credit line here, years before they teamed up for years in the long-running TV series "Minder", although it has to be said that if old Arthur's 'er-indoors was as attractive as Blackman, he'd have had a lot less to complain about.

In summary, while I enjoyed seeing so many familiar faces from British TV in the one place, I found the story and particularly its treatment of the young babysitter to be too distasteful to even appreciate it as a low-key horror movie.

Amanda(Susan George),a young babysitter is called to watch the child at an isolated British manor.The child's mother,Helen(Honor Blackman),has had her husband committed after he tried to murder her and the child.Helen's psycho husband(excellent Ian Bannen)returns home and terrorizes young Amanda while Helen and her new boyfriend are out on the town.The film is pretty creepy-there are numerous false scares which work pretty well.The most surprising is the fact that "Fright" is pretty similar to "Halloween"-for example both movies take place mostly at night with a babysitter in peril.There is no gore and nudity at all,but like I said before,there are some effective scares throughout the film.I agree that "Fright" is pretty boring at times,but if you are a fan of British horror cinema give this one a look!

The Susan George fan club president is here again (just kidding!) and my review of FRIGHT focuses more on whether or not this is a picture worthy of this lovely young starlet who unfortunately did not choose her parts well, and ended up in less conventional movies. And got dubbed (a) a sexpot (b) "poor Susan, always getting raped".

FRIGHT, by today's standards, and by the kind of slasher flicks to follow in the wake of HALLOWEEN, is hardly a frightening movie. So if that's what you're looking for, you'd be well advised to stay clear. I wanted a good movie with suspense showing off Susan George to full advantage, and that is what I got, she is absolutely darling in this 1971 movie. At her best. Though I'd always have a special fondness for LOLA, better known as TWINKY. And DIRTY MARY CRAZY LARRY shall forever remain THE Susan George movie. But lookswise Susan's at the top of her game here. Did I say darling?

The It girl of the late Sixties and early Seventies, Susan George was the best the silver screen had to offer at that time. Even today she'd hold her own looking the way she does in FRIGHT compared against the best of contemporary Hollywood. So just imagine her effect on the hearts and minds of men and women alike back in 1971! A blonde bombshell, and a very, very likable one too. Always cheeky in a very cute way, especially in FRIGHT, DIE SCREAMING MARIANNE and LOLA, Susan represents this reviewer's ideal dream girl, and it is saddening that alas! fate ruined her career with health obstacles. But for a time back there, she was the ultimate screen goddess, and her youthful exuberance will forever shine in my heart and mind forever. If you'd observe closely, she wasn't really Playboy pretty, more girl next door with just a fantastic figure and a really great hairstyle. Some people have a lot owed to choosing a great hairstyle, Farrah Fawcett- Majors, Jennifer Aniston... Include Susan George here. I did say darling, did I not?

As for the picture, it really started off on the right track, but gets derailed and loses steam with an unconvincing villain and a script that falls far short as the story progresses. And that scene where she is trying to escape all busty-looking is filmed wrong. Unconvincing. Contrived. Film sexiness as sexiness, don't do it this way, it ruins all credibility and ruined my enjoyment of the movie as I from then on saw through all its mistakes.

Honor Blackman was quite disappointing as well. Really, I can say a lot of good things about this movie: Susan's eyes, Susan's hair, Susan's legs. Without Susan, I'd not have bothered. Put it this way: Anything remotely likable about this movie besides Susan George? No. ZILCH.

But, wow, nice chick. Unforgettable.

Wearing a mini-skirt with an attached top unbuttoned nearly halfway all-ready, sexy blonde babysitter Susan George (as Amanda) arrives at a creaky mansion for an evening of sherry, TV and a visit from the boyfriend. As luck would have it, homicidal maniac Ian Bannen (as Brian Helston) escapes from a nearby insane asylum. There could be some connection, but not on the telephone; the land line goes dead when worried mother Honor Blackman (as Helen Lloyd) calls to check up on her son and the babysitter. This thriller loses steam before it's even half over, but Susan George is arousing even before her top is half off... don't feel bad, we are encouraged to notice.

***** Fright (11/71) Peter Collinson ~ Susan George, Ian Bannen, Honor Blackman, George Cole