Rent Paranoiac! (1963)

Pulling Out The Stops - Paranoiac! review by CH

How can a film as good as Paranoiac (1963) slip from general notice? Rarely has there been one which, in ninety minutes, takes so many turns and brings so many gasps. It was directed, for Hammer, by Freddie Francis, whose earlier career as a cinematographer proves a great force in the shades of black and white in a film set in the vicinity of the Dorset coast.

Working from a script by Jimmy Sangster, which derived from Josephine Tey's novel Brat Farrar, he fashioned a near-Gothic set-up which opens with shots of two sides of a tombstone: the deaths of two wealthy parents followed by the drowning of one of their sons.

Inside the church, as the vicar intones about those events a decade ago, the other son – Oliver Reed – sits at the organ and, as the music swells, his sister (Janette Scott) looks up and faints at the sight of somebody. To the fore comes their aunt (a formidable Sheila Burrell) who took charge of the children in tandem with the local accountant (Maurice Denham) as the day looms when sports car-driving, heavy-drinking Reed is set to come into half a million.

As one can imagine, the atmosphere in the rambling family house is fraught. Is the sister mad? Who is in league with whom?

And what can any of them make of a startling arrival?

Surprises are sprung in the first fifteen minutes, but it would be unfair to reveal even these, for they are the foundation upon which the rest is built. Surprise follows surprise, all of which make the very film a great surprise. Nobody with a relish of the resources shown by modestly-funded British films should miss it. Oak-lined rooms lit by candles bring as much a cliff-edge atmosphere as the sunlit chalk of the cliffs themselves.

There is more to be written about the use of organs in film. What is is about such a great instrument that the very press of its keyboard harbingers the sinister?

Hammer Psychothriller. - Paranoiac! review by Steve

This is loosely adapted from a novel by Josephine Tey which was broadly based on a real life incident in Victorian Britain. But given the bizarre plot, that's hard to believe! There's an inheritance up for grabs, and a family member long presumed dead comes back to claim a share. But surely he's an imposter?

Alexander Davion is the nonchalant mystery man who returns to the country estate. Oliver Reed is the violent, alcoholic brother who is spending his inheritance before he gets it. Janette Scott is the beautiful, neurotic sister who might just be frightened to death. Best of all is Sheila Burrell as the wild eyed aunt who could well be the screwiest of the lot.

It's principally a thriller which crosses over into horror for the grotesque climax. There are some excellent suspense set pieces, including a cliff hanger on the coast of Dorset. But the most interesting theme is the romance between Scott and Davion. Her nerves can't stand it... she's in love with her own brother! And he loves her too...

So he has to either give up the girl, or the loot. But if Ollie can get Janette in the mad house, he will get the lot. It's a low budget psychological thriller. It's trashy enough, but far too beautifully photographed- in b&w- and handsomely staged for a B film. It's among the more enjoyable of Hammer's sixties Psycho rip offs.