Paranoiac (film)

Last updated

Paranoiac
Paranoiac movie poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Freddie Francis
Written by Josephine Tey
Screenplay by Jimmy Sangster
Based on Brat Farrar
by Josephine Tey
Produced by Anthony Hinds
Starring
Cinematography Arthur Grant
Edited by James Needs
Music by Elisabeth Lutyens
Production
company
Distributed by Rank Film Distributors
Release dates
Running time
80 minutes [3]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Paranoiac is a 1963 British psychological thriller film directed by Freddie Francis, and starring Janette Scott, Oliver Reed, Sheila Burrell, and Alexander Davion. [4] The screenplay, written by Jimmy Sangster, was based loosely on the 1949 crime novel Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey.

Contents

Synopsis

After the wealthy Mr. and Mrs. Ashby die in a plane crash, their three children were left in the care of their Aunt Harriet. Three years later, the elder son, Tony, jumped into the sea when he was 15 after he had left a suicide note, but his body was never recovered. Eight years later, the younger son, Simon, is a cruel spendthrift alcoholic, who tries to have his sister, Eleanor, committed for insanity so that he can be the sole heir.

Only three weeks before he inherits, a man resembling an adult Tony appears. Initially, he is seen only by Eleanor, who believes that her dead brother is calling her from beyond the grave. She is rescued by him during a suicide attempt.

The man claims to be Tony and that he simply ran away. Eleanor believes him, but Harriet calls him an impostor. In fact, he is a conman, who was hired by Keith Kossett (Bonney), the son of the family attorney, to allow Kossett to keep embezzling from the estate.

"Tony" hears music from the family chapel at night. When he investigates, he is attacked by a masked figure with a hook. Eleanor heard the music before but was too afraid to leave her room. Simon appears to be open-minded about him but does not really believe him. Fearing that he will lose the inheritance, Simon sabotages the car when "Tony" and Eleanor go for a drive, and Eleanor is nearly killed.

That night, the music starts again. Eleanor and "Tony" investigate and see Simon playing the organ with a masked singer, but the singing emerges to be a recording. Eleanor is spotted by the masked person, who emerges with the hook but is stopped by "Tony." The masked person is revealed to be Aunt Harriet, who explains that Simon has been driven insane by guilt over Tony's death. The ritual calms Simon by allowing him to pretend that his brother is still alive. He plays a recording of Tony singing, Simon plays the organ, and Harriet is a masked "singer" and plays Tony's part.

Eleanor falls in love with "Tony" and is conflicted by her seemingly-incestuous thoughts. She is about to commit suicide, but he stops her and confesses that he is not her brother. Meanwhile, Simon had an affair with Eleanor's nurse, who guesses Simon's murder attempt and so tries to leave. When he stops her, she threatens to expose him, which makes him drown her in the garden pond. Simon tells Eleanor that the nurse left.

The fake Tony investigates the chapel and finds the real Tony's mummified body, despite Harriet's attempt to stop him, after the struggle reveals a hidden wall. He is about to leave but is stopped by Simon, who admits he had tricked the real Tony into writing the suicide note and then murdered him and that he had sabotaged the car. Simon slugs and binds him.

When the fake Tony comes to his senses, Simon plays the organ with the real Tony's body now seated on a chair. Simon informs the impostor that he and Tony had a talk and have decided to have the impostor "join" Tony.

Harriet appears and persuades Simon to leave since she will take care of the situation. She is unfazed at seeing the corpse and so evidently knew the truth as well. She sets the chapel on fire with a lantern to protect Simon and then leaves. Eleanor, alarmed by the fire, appears. She sees the real Tony's body and unties the fake Tony.

They flee the chapel, and since it is ablaze and Tony's body is inside, Simon's madness overwhelms him. He staggers to the chapel to try to "rescue" Tony but is trapped by the flames and is overcome as he clutches Tony's skeletal remains.

Cast

Release

Paranoiac was first released theatrically in the United States, opening in San Francisco, California on 15 May 1963. [1] It opened in January 1964 in London as a double bill with The Kiss of the Vampire (1963). [2]

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "A thinly disguised variation on Taste of Fear (1961) and Maniac (1963), this is perhaps the most bizarre, far-fetched and tasteless Grand Guignol which Jimmy Sangster has yet scripted. Freddie Francis's direction is workmanlike without being notably imaginative; he has little luck solving the familiar Hammer problems of a diffuse, loose-ended script, stock characterisation and makeshift acting. The atmosphere has little of the requisite atmosphere which one found in a Thirties film along vaguely similar lines, The Case of the Frightened Lady (1940), nor, by any stretch of the imagination, is Oliver Reed a young Marius Goring. One finds oneself continually asking awkward questions, fatal in this kind of story which, if it is to work, needs to be consistently, rigidly stylised. An indication of the film's lack of purpose, even on its own level, is the revelation of the mummified schoolboy, shorn of all shock by its risible resemblance to a wizened old gnome." [5]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "This is one of the best of a cycle of psychological horror films Hammer made in the 1960s." [6]

Leslie Halliwell said: "A complex maze of disguise, mistaken identity, family curses and revelations of something nasty in the woodshed, out of Psycho (1960) by Taste of Fear (1961). Not very good in itself, but interesting in its borrowings." [7]

AllMovie called the film a "solid if not entirely satisfying entry in the wave of Psycho -inspired thrillers produced by England's Hammer Studios during the early-to-mid-'60s" ... The plot and the devices (organ played in the middle of the night, car brakes tampered with) now seem very hackneyed. But this was very popular with rebellious teens, and the twist ending is still not easily guessable." [8]

Home media

On 26 July 2010 a Blu-ray and DVD was released in the UK and made available for the first time on home video in the UK. The Blu-ray contains a restored Cinemascope high-definition transfer, optional music and effects track, the long-unseen original trailer, and high-definition stills gallery of rare materials (exclusive to the Blu-ray version).

In North America, the film had been released on 6 September 2005 along with seven other Hammer horror films on the 4-DVD set The Hammer Horror Series (ASIN: B0009X770O), which is part of MCA-Universal's Franchise Collection. The set was re-released on Blu-ray 13 September 2016. On 8 February 2022, Scream Factory released a collector's edition Blu-ray of the film. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Bound for Glory</i> (1976 film) 1976 American film

Bound for Glory is a 1976 American biographical film directed by Hal Ashby and loosely adapted by Robert Getchell from Woody Guthrie's 1943 partly fictionalized autobiography Bound for Glory. The film stars David Carradine as folk singer Woody Guthrie, with Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland, John Lehne, Ji-Tu Cumbuka and Randy Quaid. Much of the film is based on Guthrie's attempt to humanize the desperate Okie Dust Bowl refugees in California during the Great Depression.

<i>Thirteen Ghosts</i> 2001 film by Steve Beck

Thirteen Ghosts is a 2001 supernatural horror film directed by Steve Beck in his directorial debut. A remake of the 1960 film 13 Ghosts by William Castle, the film stars Tony Shalhoub, Embeth Davidtz, Matthew Lillard, Shannon Elizabeth, Alec Roberts, Rah Digga, and F. Murray Abraham.

<i>The Plague of the Zombies</i> 1966 British film

The Plague of the Zombies is a 1966 British horror film directed by John Gilling and starring André Morell, John Carson, Jacqueline Pearce, Brook Williams, and Michael Ripper. The film's imagery influenced many later films in the zombie genre.

<i>Kiss of the Vampire</i> (film) 1963 British film by Don Sharp

Kiss of the Vampire is a 1963 British vampire film made by the film studio Hammer Film Productions. The film was directed by Don Sharp and was written by producer Anthony Hinds, credited under his writing pseudonym John Elder.

<i>The Fallen Idol</i> (film) 1948 British film

The Fallen Idol is a 1948 British mystery thriller film directed by Carol Reed, and starring Ralph Richardson, Bobby Henrey, Michèle Morgan, and Denis O'Dea. Its plot follows the young son of a diplomat in London, who comes to suspect that his family's butler, whom he idolises, has committed a murder. It is based on the 1936 short story "The Basement Room", by Graham Greene.

<i>Ms .45</i> 1981 film by Abel Ferrara

Ms .45 is a 1981 American exploitation thriller film directed by Abel Ferrara and starring Zoë Tamerlis.

<i>The Whip and the Body</i> 1963 Italian gothic horror film

The Whip and the Body is a 1963 gothic horror film directed by Mario Bava under the alias "John M. Old". The film is about Kurt Menliff who is ostracized by his father for his relationship with a servant girl and her eventual suicide. He later returns to reclaim his title and his former fiancée Nevenka who is now his brother's wife. Menliff is later found murdered, but the locals believe his ghost has returned to haunt the castle for revenge.

Prehysteria! is a series of three family monster comedy films made in the early to mid-1990s about the adventures of five miniature baby dinosaurs named after famous pop musicians. The dinosaurs were Elvis, a male Tyrannosaurus, Paula, a female Brachiosaurus, Jagger, a male Stegosaurus, Hammer, a male Chasmosaurus, and Madonna, a female Geosternbergia. The films were made by Moonbeam Entertainment, the family-oriented sub-brand of B-movie producer Charles Band's Full Moon Entertainment. Richard Band, Michael Bishop, and Fuzzbee Morse composed the music for the films.

<i>Nightmare</i> (1964 film) 1964 film

Nightmare is a 1964 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis and starring Jennie Linden. It was written by Jimmy Sangster, who also produced the film for Hammer Films. The film focuses on a young girl in a finishing school who is plagued by nightmares concerning her institutionalized mother.

<i>The Phantom of the Opera</i> (1962 film) 1962 British film

The Phantom of the Opera is a 1962 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher, a loose adaptation of the 1910 novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux. The film was made by Hammer Film Productions but performed unsuccessfully at the box office.

<i>The Last Page</i> 1952 British film by Terence Fisher

The Last Page, released in the United States as Man Bait, is a 1952 British film noir directed by Terence Fisher, starring George Brent, Marguerite Chapman and Diana Dors. The film was also known as Murder in Safety and Blonde Blackmail.

<i>Le Amiche</i> 1955 Italian film

Le amiche is a 1955 Italian drama film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Eleonora Rossi Drago, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi, and Valentina Cortese. Based on Cesare Pavese's 1949 novella Tra donne sole, Le amiche portrays a group of five upper-class women in Turin and their various relationships with men. It premiered at the 16th Venice International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Silver Lion.

<i>Brat Farrar</i>

Brat Farrar is a 1949 crime novel by Josephine Tey, based in part on the Tichborne case.

<i>Incense for the Damned</i> 1971 British film by Robert Hartford-Davis

Incense for the Damned is a 1971 British horror film directed by Robert Hartford-Davis and starring Patrick Macnee, Johnny Sekka, Madeleine Hinde, Alexander Davion, Peter Cushing and Edward Woodward. It is based on the 1960 Simon Raven novel Doctors Wear Scarlet. The film centres on Richard Fountain, a scholar of Greek mythology at the University of Oxford, who has fallen under the influence of Chriseis, a mysterious Greek woman who is a modern-day vampire.

<i>The Partys Over</i> (1965 film) 1963 British film by Guy Hamilton

The Party's Over is a 1965 British drama film directed by Guy Hamilton and starring Oliver Reed, Clifford David, Ann Lynn and Katherine Woodville. Filmed in 1963, it was censored in the UK over scenes of implied necrophilia, which delayed its release until 1965. It was produced by Anthony Perry, with music by John Barry. Guy Hamilton asked for his name to be removed from the credits in protest at the censorship of the film.

<i>Blood and Lace</i> 1971 film by Philip Gilbert

Blood and Lace is a 1971 American exploitation horror film directed by Philip Gilbert, written by Gil Lasky, and starring Gloria Grahame, Melody Patterson, Len Lesser, and Milton Selzer. The film follows an orphaned teenager (Patterson) who arrives at a remote orphanage run by a madwoman (Grahame) and her handyman, both sadists and child murderers.

Judy Matheson is a British actress notable for her appearances in several horror films in the 1970s. She also appeared in many other films and television series.

<i>House of Whipcord</i> 1974 British film by Pete Walker

House of Whipcord is a 1974 British exploitation thriller film directed and produced by Pete Walker and starring Barbara Markham, Patrick Barr, Ray Brooks, Ann Michelle, Sheila Keith, Dorothy Gordon, Robert Tayman and Penny Irving. In the United States, House of Whipcord was distributed by American International Pictures. In 1975, AIP reissued it under a new title, The Photographer's Model, in a double feature package with Thriller – A Cruel Picture (1973) re-tiled Hooker's Revenge.

Frankenstein is a British horror-adventure film series produced by Hammer Film Productions. The films, loosely based on the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, are centered on Baron Victor Frankenstein, who experiments in creating a creature beyond human. The series is part of the larger Hammer horror oeuvre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Davion</span> French-born British actor (1929–2019)

Alexander Davion was a French-born British actor. He was perhaps best known in the UK for his starring role in Gideon's Way as Detective Chief Inspector David Keen. He was born in Paris, France. He died in London, England at the age of 90.

References

  1. 1 2 "Paramount Has 'Paranoiac'". The San Francisco Examiner . 15 May 1963. p. 17 via Newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 "Picture Preview Next Week's Films". Kensington Post. 24 January 1964. p. 2 via Newspapers.com.
  3. Keaney 2010, p. 150.
  4. "Paranoiac". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
  5. "Paranoiac". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 30 (348): 146. 1 January 1963 via ProQuest.
  6. Radio Times Guide to Films (18th ed.). London: Immediate Media Company. 2017. p. 702. ISBN   9780992936440.
  7. Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 779. ISBN   0586088946.
  8. Guarisco, Donald. "Paranoiac (1963) - Review - AllMovie". AllMovie . Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  9. "Paranoiac [Collectors' Edition]". Shout! Factory . Archived from the original on 1 December 2021.

Sources