Ehe der Morgen graut

Niave, homely Brenda ("A Taste of Honey"'s Rita Tushingham) desperate to find a man willing to give her a baby, leaves home to move in to an apartment with her "friend", after she back stabs her. She runs into the night only to find and kidnap a dog in hopes of meeting it's owner. Which she does. But life isn't romantified and has little use for idle dreamers. This is one of the later Hammer films, and i adore it. It's nihilististic, misogynistic, realistic tone is great. Well acted and suspenseful. This physcological thriller is one to see. On the downside, none of the characters are really sympathetic.

My Grade: B

DVD Extras: Commentary by Rita Tushington and Journalist Jonathan Sothcott; Peter Collinson Bio; and Theatrical Trailer

I hadn't seen this movie for decades because it hasn't been shown on terrestrial TV for years, but I decided to buy the Region 1 DVD release (there's no official Region 2 UK release as yet) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Well it's difficult to dislike Rita Tushingham in any film, but it's directed in such a great style by the late/great Peter Collinson (director of The Italian Job (1969)fame), with a bleak beginning that could only be Britian of the 1960's/1970's and with a real snap shot of how things were in London back then.

This is a very different type of film from Hammer, when compared to their usual offerings and must have been truly shocking back then with it's level of cruelty, but it's a classic movie you simply have to own and the fact it's unavailable in the UK (the very place it was made & with an all British cast) is scandalous.

When this was up on The Horror Channel, it was Rita Tushingham's name that caught my eye, her brilliant acting and intensity laying down an intriguing gauntlet.

With Radio Times not even giving a review, or even a rating, I was worried that it might be dreadful and true, many could see some parts as such, especially if they had taken them out of context and not watched it all the way through. However, from its opening, it was obvious that this was a well-made and directed (by Peter Collinson) little movie.

Not only is it a good and interesting snapshot of swinging London, it is also a warped fairytale about a reclusive serial killer. Who's the beauty and who is the beast? Should we and can we be loved for beauty alone?

Describing the story is unnecessary; it is a shortish film and it's the issues involved, often psychological and deeply sinister plus the often imaginative directing that are the pluses. The acting of the leads Tushingham and Shane Briant are very good with just the right amount of every emotion going. The popular James Bolam also co-stars.

There is often a sense of unease, even during the less intense parts. Oddness also often takes a lead but never enough for us to dismiss them. The most intense, X-Rated (still certificate 18) scenes are disturbing rather than graphic but they still shock.

Unlike many Hammer Horror's, it remains memorable, the ordinariness mixing with the oddness plus the central characters making for an unusual and compelling mix. I enjoyed it.

The swinging sixties are coming to an end in swinging London but there are still some hang overs from the 1950s and still plenty of odd ball characters. Pregnancy outside of marriage was still much looked down upon and under the guise of the 'flower children' it was perfectly possible for even homicidal maniacs to not seem out of place. Rita Tushingham is as great as ever and this much under rated actress puts in one of her more endearing performances. Shane Briant is eerily convincing as the psycho and the rest of the cast including James Bolam are all fine. Some decent location shooting is always appreciated around this time and here we get a couple of boutiques and some very moody stuff around the then recently completed South Bank complex. Plenty of surprises and well worth catching as one of the most unusual hammer movies.

This is not your usual Hammer House film.

The Brenda character is perhaps one of the strangest in cinema. She's desperately naive to the point of delusion. Los in her own fantasy world of fairytale endings she struggles to engage in the realy of her new life in London. The dog kidnapping scene where Brenda transform into a fairytale character of her own creation is a perfect example of this.

The weirdness and disconnectedness of the characters of swinging early 70's party scene reflects the lucid dream like quality of the film. The film occasionally jumps to alternative scenes, sexual, ordinary, her mother back home, they all suggest that Brenda's decisions could have led her down a different path.

When it seems that Brenda's bizarre plan to find a husband is starting to pay off, she stumbles into another person's fairytale. Peter offers Brenda what she wants but in exchange he takes her personality, renaming her as a character in his own delusional fantasy.

What follows is a superbly sinister and uneasy relationship. The tension between Peter and Brenda moves between a kind of marriage of convenience, dark sexuality and childish fantasy.

A brilliant example of 70's British horror. Well worth a watch.