Something to Hide

"Something To Hide"? A better title would be "Something To Regret" as that would accurately describe how I felt after watching it.

This is the director, Alastair Reid, trying his hand at the French style of cinema, and he has proved that French cinema is an art-form best left to the French. It is a craft that needs to be learned from masters of the art.

They know how to use strange camera angles, close ups of random objects, long, slow pans and short scenes using un-connected, incidental characters to produce atmosphere, build interest and intrigue, and hold attention. I'm afraid Reid's attempts are a flop.

His close ups (a boiled egg, a typewriter, an eyeball and many other objects), his long, slow pans (one being totally out of focus), the random shots of people on a beach, children playing, frequent shots of a mechanical digger cleaning the beach, noisy old women in a shop are meant to be atmospheric and evocative, but they are perfect examples of how to get things not-quite-right when an un-trained hand tries to copy a style.

Had those techniques worked as they should, then the music would have been right too, but playing behind such bland and uninteresting scenes, the accompanying music - "Concerto For Harry" played by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra no less - simply seems pretentious.

I'm sure Reid was strongly influenced by Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend (1967), "Something To Hide" even has a scene where Harry is stuck in a traffic queue caused by a car accident ahead, as does Weekend. I'm afraid that even fans of French cinema will feel let down by this attempt. Just as you don't want a dentist trying his hand at heart surgery, you don't want a British director trying his hand at French cinema.

But perhaps the plot can uplift this film into something worth watching. Sadly, no, as it doesn't really have a plot, it is just a series of events, as is Godard's Weekend, that lead up to a climactic ending.

Harry Field (Peter Finch) is a man with a drink problem and something to hide, and having something to hide, he constantly covers up, makes excuses and lies, very much like the character he played twenty-three years earlier in Train of Events (1949).

The opening scenes are of Harry and his wife, Gabby, (Shelley Winters) spending an evening together and having dinner. It is the energy and charisma of Winters that makes these scenes worthwhile. She could have delivered her lines to a shop window mannequin or even an empty chair with equal success, such is her performance. Finch need not have been present.

Then, Shelley Winters was gone and we were left with the unbearably cheerless and grumpy Harry going about his life, and this was where the tedium set in as we followed Harry's domestic routine.

He gets up, shaves, goes to work, or some days doesn't go to work because he has a hangover, he cooks a meal and it is all mundane and dismal until he gives a lift to a young woman, Lorelei (Linda Hayden) who coerces him into putting her up for a few days. She disturbs his domestic routine and is thoroughly troublesome.

Then lots more of the French style - a man lighting a bonfire, long, sweeping shots of the outside of the house and later, one like that but at night, people building a huge sandcastle, a close up of the knobs on the stereo system - Reid must have thought these shots were interesting additions to his building the relationship between Harry and Lorelei, but they just slowed things down so much that it was hard to sit through.

This was too slow, too much time-wasting, no actual plot, just happenings, unlikeable characters and by the time it got to the climactic ending, I didn't really care, and so the emotional impact was lost on me.

When it got to the end, I wished that I hadn't wasted my time. I've seen films before that I didn't enjoy, but I'd never before seen one that was so utterly devoid of anything to make it worth watching. If ever there was film that wasn't worth watching, this is it, a total waste of time. See Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend to see how it should be done.

Harry Field had a drink problem, and trying to sit through this was such hard work,it almost drove me to drink.

Dire. Avoid! Harsh words, but deserved.

I really like this movie but am distressed that the US video SHATTERED runs 86 minutes while the film should run 99 min. The video box claims 100 min, so something is clearly off with the Media release. I have no idea what is missing from the US version but there are scenes that cut off abruptly and the ending also seems tampered with. Peter Finch gives a mighty performance as a man who is hanging by a thread. His involvement with a young pregnant girl seals his fate as he gets sucked in over his head and then makes a very poor decision about how to dispose of unwanted refuse. If anyone has seen a version other than the US video release I would love to hear some details.

Peter Finch as an unhappily married man, brow-beaten by his coarse and vulgar wife (Shelley Winters, in a bit) as well as on the job by his supervisor at the Town Council on the Isle of Wight. A fight between the couple on Christmas night ends with a wine bottle shattering; the next thing we know, the shrewish spouse is "away" and may not be returning. Meanwhile, the husband has picked up a belligerent, pregnant and unmarried teenager whom he allows to stay at his house (but not for long because the neighbors might gossip!). Writer-director Alastair Reid, adapting Nicholas Monsarrat's 1963 novel, pitches this melodramatic material too high; it's grating and off-putting instead of interesting, despite yet another solid job of acting by Finch. British production went unreleased in the States until 1976, where it usually played under the title "Shattered". *1/2 from ****

If the first ten minutes of Something to Hide seem cheesy and over the top, you should know that it only goes downhill from there. I stuck through the end because Peter Finch is a good actor, and I'll give anything with Shelley Winters a try. However, I should have stuck with my initial impression. I should have watched an old favorite of Shelley's and remembered Peter Finch in movies where he showed his acting talents. This is not one of them.

The movie starts with Peter and Shelly screaming at each other. There are a very unhappily married couple having another fight. Shelley pushes him too far, and it implies that Peter loses control... The next section features Peter functioning in the house without Shelly, but sometimes he hears her voice and believes her to still be in the house. It is pretty obvious what has happened, but the movie doesn't come right out and say it. Meanwhile, he picks up a pregnant hitchhiker and allows her to stay in his home. Their relationship is ambiguous and quite pointless. Save your time and watch something else tonight.

Kiddy Warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to adult content, I wouldn't let my kids watch it.

SOMETHING TO HIDE is a rather strange and dreamy low budget thriller shot on the Isle of Wight. It's a little like THE SAILOR WHO FELL FROM GRACE WITH THE SEA but has nowhere near the same level of power. Peter Finch plays a regular guy harrassed by his nagging wife (a powerful Shelley Winters cameo) who picks up pregnant hitchhiker Linda Hayden. It all goes wrong from there, but I didn't feel much until the admittedly powerful climax.