Crescendo

For her masters degree in music, Susan Roberts (Stefanie Powers) intends to write a thesis on the late composer Henry Ryman and accepts an invitation to stay at the Ryman villa in the south of France, home to Henry's widow Danielle, her wheelchair-bound son Georges (James Olson), and their staff: manservant Carter (Joss Ackland) and maid Lillianne (Jane Lapotaire). However, soon after arriving, Susan realises that something is very wrong in the Ryman household.

This psychological horror from Hammer is admittedly slow-moving, and instead of building to a crescendo, it closes with a rather trite twist that I imagine most will have seen coming a mile off. That said, the film does score major points with its fine cast of five, who deliver memorable performances despite the predictability of the script. The gorgeous Stefanie Powers is terrific as the woman-in-peril, proving a far more capable actress than her role in Hart to Hart ever suggested; Ackland is very effective as menacing manservant Carter; Olson is required to run the gamut from pitiful to deranged, and does so admirably; Scott is relatively restrained, but still acquits herself well as the clearly not-quite-right matriarch; and Lapotaire steals every scene she is in, oozing sultriness with a side-order of insanity.

Those looking for horror in this particular Hammer outing might be disappointed by the one murder, but the film offers up some sleaze by way of compensation, with Georges revealed to be a heroin addict who is sexually teased by Lillianne, who wants to become his wife so that she can quit her job and live the high life. Lapotaire strips off several times, most notably for a naked swim in the Ryman pool, while Powers flaunts her bod in a blue bikini and briefly gets topless for a dream sequence.

Not nearly as bad as others might have you believe, this is definitely worth checking out if you've enjoyed Hammer's other psychological thrillers (or if you've always wanted to see Jennifer Hart's jubblies).

Around this time, the type of movies that Hammer was most famous for were becoming out of style, so the studio desperately tried to tackle some other kind of movies, this being one of them. Few of these new efforts were successful financially or critically, and "Crescendo" was not an exception. There are two main problems with this movie. The first being that the movie unfolds at an extremely slow pace. In the first half hour of the movie, for example, pretty much nothing of significance happens. Eventually things do start to happen, but the movie not only still suffers from a glacial pace, there is the second problem with the movie. That being that the story is often head-scratching. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and even though the movie tries at the end to have a big surprise revelation, there are still plenty of unanswered questions as the end credits start to roll. I will say that the movie is decently produced, from the nice looking sets to the work with the camera, but that did little to stop me from starting to nod off long before the movie reached its end.

Hammer studios were obviously most famous for their horror flicks, but they did produce some work in other genres; and the thriller genre was one of their strongest outside horror, especially during the sixties with films such as Paranoiac and A Taste of Fear. I had rather high hopes for this one going into it despite its poor reputation simply for the fact that Hammer produced it and they have produced some good thrillers; such as those mentioned, but unfortunately it would seem that the studio's success in this genre didn't continue into the seventies as Crescendo, despite some good moments and positive elements, is a largely lacklustre thriller. The plot focuses on a young girl who goes to stay at a house in France to help her with a thesis. The house used to belong to a famous music composer but is now owned by his wife and son after the composer's death. The girl soon gets to meet the family as well as the staff and soon it becomes apparent that not everything is as it should be; mostly because everyone in the house is a weirdo!

The film's main problem is that it largely fails to be interesting; the story is derivative and not all that interesting anyway, and this isn't compensated for by the characters (who are also largely uninteresting) so we end up with a film that doesn't fit the 'thriller' bill very well. Most of the film takes place in an old, large house; although director Alan Gibson doesn't really make best use of this in terms of atmosphere. The director would go on to make the latter two films in the popular Dracula series - the fun Dracula A.D. 1972 and the disappointing Satanic Rites of Dracula and both of these lacked atmosphere too. Crescendo was apparently made for TV and this is pretty obvious as it's all quite tame; there are actually a few murders in this film but we never get to see much blood and they're not very brutal. Nobody in the cast particularly stands out either; Stefanie Powers is the biggest standout in the lead role, though not particularly for her performance. There is a twist at the end which comes as something of a surprise, but as the build up to it is quite dull; the twist doesn't come off all that well. Overall, I can't say I enjoyed this film much and I'd only recommend it to Hammer Horror completists.

This is one of those films that rarely gets a good review. In fact it's been pretty much forgotten! It probably isn't one of Hammer's greatest achievements but it is by no means one of the worst. There are some rather uneventful scenes but I think they add to the suspense. The photography is very effective in places and the setting is quite haunting in a picturesque kind of way. The music which obviously is a major part of the story also adds to the more sinister scenes. The best performance comes from the seductive and eccentric maid, Lilliane (played by Jane Lapotaire) and Joss Ackland also puts in a fine performance as Carter (the butler/minder). It is not available on DVD and probably never will be, so if it's ever shown on TV it's certainly worth a look at.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Alan Gibson; Produced by Michael Carreras for Hammer Films; Released in America by Warner Brothers. Screenplay by Jimmy Sangster and Alfred Shaughnessy; Photography by Paul Beeson; Edited by Chris Barnes; Music by Malcolm Williamson. Starring: Stefanie Powers, James Olson, Jane Lapotaire, Margaretta Scott and Joss Ackland.

Tight little, well-constructed old-fashioned "psycho" horror thriller, with Stefanie in an ultra-short white nightgown. Depicts interesting and ominous possessive/sexual relationships among the characters and features fine soft-focus, slow-motion nightmares, plus brief exploitation of Olson's paralyzed legs a la Tod Browning's "Freaks".