Crescendo

This is one of those films that rarely gets a good review. In fact it's been pretty much forgotten! It probably isn't one of Hammer's greatest achievements but it is by no means one of the worst. There are some rather uneventful scenes but I think they add to the suspense. The photography is very effective in places and the setting is quite haunting in a picturesque kind of way. The music which obviously is a major part of the story also adds to the more sinister scenes. The best performance comes from the seductive and eccentric maid, Lilliane (played by Jane Lapotaire) and Joss Ackland also puts in a fine performance as Carter (the butler/minder). It is not available on DVD and probably never will be, so if it's ever shown on TV it's certainly worth a look at.

This is a thriller from England's Hammer studios and not a TV movie as some comments have suggested. A woman arrives at a country estate to write a thesis on a dead classical composer. While she's there, she becomes involved in a twisted tale involving infidelity and murder and finds her own life in jeopardy. Warner Brothers released this uncut and rated R but later cut it down to PG and used it on double bills with Dracula AD 72 and WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH. WHEN DINOSAURS was cut down to a G rating and seeing as Warner's is releasing Dracula AD later this year, maybe they can get around to their other remaining Hammer properties. It would be great to see CRESCENDO AND DINOSAURS get uncut R1 DVD releases.

This was the last of Hammer's 10 psycho-thrillers to get watched by me: in the long run, it is a middle-of-the-road effort, not particularly good but neither is it among the worst. Still, the film has palpable deficiencies, first and foremost because it is severely undercast (though lead Stefanie Powers had already co-starred in the above-average FANATIC aka DIE! DIE! MY DARLING {1965} from the same stable: incidentally, I regret not giving that one a spin as part of my recent tribute to its late director Silvio Narizzano!) and over-familiar – to say nothing of being essentially dreary – in plot line. In fact, it borrows the French setting, wheelchair-bound protagonist and the mysterious room from TASTE OF FEAR aka SCREAM OF FEAR {1961}, the hallucinations pertaining to a past crime from NIGHTMARE {1964} – both among the company's top outings and both also scripted by the late Jimmy Sangster, who here reworked Alfred Shaughnessy's original scenario…which had actually been intended for Michael Reeves, the promising but short-lived director of WITCHFINDER GENERAL {1968}! – and the domineering mother from FANATIC itself. By the way, the pool-as-murder-setting owes its origins to Henri-Georges Clouzot's seminal DIABOLIQUE (1955), which – along with Alfred Hitchcock's even more celebrated PSYCHO {1960} – was virtually the template for all of these Hammer shockers to begin with! Another clear link to the latter's cinematic universe is the molding of one character into the personality of another, now deceased, which was at the center of both his REBECCA (1940) and VERTIGO (1958)! One additional motif here is the eerie presence of broken dolls, which may very well have already been employed by some earlier Hammer shocker but was certainly a vital feature of Freddie Francis' THE PSYCHOPATH (1966): while this was made for the company's rival Amicus, its director had contributed a trio of titles to the British House Of Horror's Grand Guignol-infused subgenre.

The afore-mentioned dreams that afflict hero James Olson (who had just starred in Hammer's goofy 'Space Western' MOON ZERO TWO {1969}) do rather give away the final twist (much-abused over the years), especially with the repetition but, then, the plot does incorporate a number of red herrings which makes one think the narrative will be going a certain way only for it to change direction before long. These have to do with the sordid goings-on in the central mansion and the sleazy characters that inhabit it, the others being Margaretta Scott – whom I was mainly familiar with from the mammoth Alexander Korda/William Cameron Menzies sci-fi THINGS TO COME (1936) – as Olson's "obsessed" mother (determined to keep the memory of her late and distinguished composer husband alive), Jane Lapotaire as the "sensuous" maid (who procures Olson with his heroin fix for sexual services rendered – the film is reasonably explicit in this regard – though at the same time deluding herself that she can one day become his wife) and "sinister" manservant Joss Ackland (who seems to have something going with the latter as well but nothing is eventually made of it!). I deliberately quoted the adjectives utilized in the accompanying theatrical trailer (for the record, though CRESCENDO was recently issued on DVD-R as part of Warners' "Archive Collection", the copy I watched came via a serviceable VHS source) to describe each of these three characters!

To the house arrives young, pretty music teacher Powers who has decided to research the life and work of Scott's husband for her Masters degree; the main piano theme, while quite good in itself, does receive a thorough work-out amid the proceedings. Another quibble I have with the script expressly concerns her presence there (though it is not limited to the film under review), that is to say, if the household obviously concealed some dark secret that would invariably bring the whole crushing down (thankfully, not literally) on its occupants, why tempt Fate by inviting an outsider into their fold? The climax, then, is appropriately intense but also not exactly inspired (with Ackland's demise proving especially unconvincing) and abrupt into the bargain. Indeed, even if the handling here of Hammer newbie Alan Gibson was appreciated by some, I had always been somewhat wary of his involvement since he would subsequently helm the notorious last two entries in the company's "Dracula" franchise, which brought the mythical vampire Count uneasily into contemporary times (though he still could not tarnish the reputation of genre icons Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee)! Even so, I did enjoy one of his two contributions to the HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR (1980) TV series (which had also starred Cushing) and was intrigued enough by the picture that would follow CRESCENDO, namely the obscure but impressively-cast telepathic horror GOODBYE GEMINI (1970), that I acquired it soon after this viewing...

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Alan Gibson; Produced by Michael Carreras for Hammer Films; Released in America by Warner Brothers. Screenplay by Jimmy Sangster and Alfred Shaughnessy; Photography by Paul Beeson; Edited by Chris Barnes; Music by Malcolm Williamson. Starring: Stefanie Powers, James Olson, Jane Lapotaire, Margaretta Scott and Joss Ackland.

Tight little, well-constructed old-fashioned "psycho" horror thriller, with Stefanie in an ultra-short white nightgown. Depicts interesting and ominous possessive/sexual relationships among the characters and features fine soft-focus, slow-motion nightmares, plus brief exploitation of Olson's paralyzed legs a la Tod Browning's "Freaks".

American Susan Roberts (Stefanie Powers) goes to the south of France to research the late composer Henry Ryman. She is staying with his family. There are his widow wife Danielle (Margaretta Scott) and his wheelchair-bound son Georges (James Olson).

This is a Hammer horror. Like a lot of them, they're not actually scary. It's more a psychological thriller with some injected nudity to try to make it erotic. It doesn't get sexier than Stefanie Powers but the movie drags. The flashbacks are too clunky. I really don't like shooting the pool scenes in a studio. There is something inferior about this and it annoys me. Besides all that, the bigger sin is the lack of tension, thrills, or scares. I guess it has a few thrills in the final section but it's too little, too late.