Der unsichtbare Schatten

At 108 minutes, the Hammer production "Stop Me Before I Kill!" is one of the longest movies that they made. It's a rather meaty story, and serves as a major showcase for three of its main actors, but isn't that satisfying overall. Written by producer & director Val Guest and author Ronald Scott Thorn, based on the latters' novel "The Full Treatment", it tells of a British race car driver, Alan Colby (Ronald Lewis), and his lovely Italian wife Denise (Diane Cilento), vacationing in France some time after a bad traffic accident in which the other driver had died. Alan fears for his sanity, and is now worried that he may have developed homicidal intentions towards his wife. They make the acquaintance of an eminent French psychiatrist, David Prade (Claude Dauphin), who attempts to help Alan deal with his issues.

This could and should have been a little more involving, as the premise is not bad and it's entertaining enough in watching psychiatric methods being employed. But the script by Guest and Thorn is so heavily laden with dialogue that it barely gives the story (not to mention the actors) a chance to breathe. It does have some good dialogue, and starts to go for more interesting visuals in its final third. The on location shooting, of course, is impeccable, which, along with the Megascope photography, helps to make the picture pleasant enough to look at. (To say nothing of sexy blonde Cilento). Dauphin, Cilento, and Lewis are all fine, and they're ably supported by Francoise Rosay as Prades' mother, and Bernard Braden as Colby's friend Harry. The filmmaking is pretty slick; it's just too bad that the scenario can't generate more suspense.

Certainly worth a look for devoted Hammer followers, but not one of their best.

Six out of 10.

Still recovering from serious head injuries sustained in a car crash, motor racing driver Alan Colby and his wife Denise go on holiday to the South of France. There, Alan is suddenly and unexpectedly struck with a compulsion to strangle his wife. Hearing about this, Dr. David Prade, a local psychiatrist, offers to help, but his offer is rejected by Alan and he and Denise return to London. The psychiatrist follows them there, convinced that sooner or later his services will be needed and that he should be close at hand. At first, all seems well with Alan, but then one morning he wakes from a long sleep to find that Denise has disappeared. Worse, all the evidence points to his having murdered her.

Beautifully filmed in black-and-white MegaScope by the great Gil Taylor and masterfully directed by Guest, who was always at his best working on suspense films, "The Full Treatment" is a minor classic.

Val Guest directed this psychological suspense yarn about a race car driver(played by Ronald Lewis) who is having huge stress issues after nearly cracking up in a car race. He takes his wife(played by Diane Cilento) on a trip to the South of France for a vacation, but is still plagued by stress and other psychological issues, so agrees to see a psychiatrist(played by Claude Dauphin) but complications ensue, as things(of course) are not all that they seem. Misfired attempt at suspense has a good cast but is fatally overlong and far too talky, with nothing in the story justifying this over-length, as film becomes quite tedious.

"Stop Me Before I Kill" or "The Full Treatment" is a 1960 film with a screenplay by Val Guest, who also directed.

The story concerns a famous race car driver, Alan Colby (Ronald Lewis), who was involved in a terrible car crash with his wife Denise (Diane Cilento). He is unable to race, and he and Denise go to the south of France on vacation.

Alan goes through swift mood shifts - the slightest word can set off his temper. And he keeps being tempted to strangle his wife - in fact, he nearly does a couple of times.

This, of course, is where one has to suspend belief because why the heck would she stay with someone who has attempted to strangle her and whose temper flares at the drop of a hat? I understand women in abusive situations, but I don't know, my husband trying to kill me takes it to a new level.

A psychiatrist they meet, Dr. David Prade (Claude Dauphin) offers to help. Alan is hesitant, but once back in London, where Prade has also returned, he agrees. At the end of the treatment, he feels that he is cured. He is able to get back on the racing track and has no temptation to hurt Denise.

Right before he is to leave for a race, Alan wakes up and finds that Denise is not there. In fact, all the evidence points to the fact that she has been murdered.

This was a very good story that suffered from an unbalanced script. The film went on too long, and the psychiatric scenes were endless. Diane Cilento is a beautiful and heartfelt Denise, Claude Dauphin is likable, and Ronald Lewis for me lacked subtlety in a difficult role. A good-looking man, in the beginning of the film, he reminded me of David Hasselhoff; fortunately, the resemblance faded somewhat.

Sadly Ronald Lewis committed suicide in 1982, bankrupt and his career in the doldrums.

In other hands and a bigger budget, this could have been an excellent film. However it's worth seeing for the story.

This is a surprisingly good film and effective thriller but someone should have advised writer/director Val Guest that it really was a little too long. Very simple to put right too, because it is clear there is just a little too much of the 'going crazy' scenes in the first half and maybe a little bit too drawn out and twisty an ending. Otherwise its great, I wasn't particularly one over by Ronald Lewis if effectively menacing at times, but Claude Dauphin is great and Diane Cilento marvellous in one of her finest roles. I enjoyed the premise and particularly the psychiatric scenes, bit surprised by the appearance of the CO2 canister, but overall very involving with plenty of changes in pace and scenery. Fifteen/twenty minutes snip and this would be far more successful. Shame.