The Very Edge

A sex maniac (SHERLOCK HOLMES' Jeremy Brett) breaks into the home of happy housewife Tracey Lawrence (Anne Heywood) to assault and almost rape her which causes the girl to miscarry and become frigid. This, of course, is a problem for her husband, Geoffrey (Richard Todd), who finds solace in the arms of his sympathetic secretary (Nicole Maurey) but that's the least of Tracey's worries because the pervert makes it clear he'll stop at nothing to have at her again...

Britain was way ahead of the U.S. when it came to tackling adult subject matter in a mature manner beginning with THE VICTIM but that isn't always the right approach as THE VERY EDGE proves. Although marketed as exploitation ("No Woman Should See This Film Without A Man!"), it's actually a rather subdued "thriller" that comes perilously close to "timid" so don't expect many surprises. Unlike similarly-themed Hollywood exploitation shockers such as THE BEAT GENERATION and WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR?, Tracey isn't raped in lurid fashion, just chased around the living room a few times but that said, the film's ahead of the curve on "stalking", a crime that wouldn't register on public consciousness until decades later.

Nicole Maurey was very good in the role of Elena Antonescu in "Secret of the Incas" opposite Charlton Heston. Here too she is the most compelling, she does the best role. The other actors, Richard Todd, Anne Heywood, are not in their best form. Because the story is boring, uninteresting.

This is a mediocre film which contains a remarkable performance. Jeremy Brett is scary and pitiable as a stalker who is obsessed with Anne Heywood's helpless housewife. I found his performance absolutely convincing and incredibly intense. The subject matter of the film is certainly timely, but the rest of the performances are workmanlike at best and no one else seems to have any particular passion in their role--though Anne Heywood is at least watchable.

One gets the impression that when they hired David Lee to compose the music they just told him that they wanted it loud so people wouldn't take too much notice what was going on on the screen.This film just piles on cliché after cliché.The dye which Brett manages to cover with makeup.He manages to follow Heywood to the zoo.Then,like all screen maniacs he escaped from prison,totally unexplained.Every character in the film seems to have a screw loose.What is the final shot of the film all about,why does he clasp Heywoods shoes to his chest?Is he a secret foot fetishists? Richard Todd,approaching the end of his film career looks rather bemused by it all.Anne Heywood does the best she can with a fatherless part.Brett does what all screen sex maniacs do,he looks very maniacal.

When Jeremy Brett assaults Anne Heywood, the aftermath has longterm effects on her and husband Richard Todd in this well wrought thriller.

This movie tries to say something real about the mental issues involved in stalking: the stalker's obsession, the victim's fears, the ancillaries victims' suffering. It's a matter that has consumed Western lawmaking for millennia, with no clear consensus yet in sight. What are we to conclude when Jeremy Brett's character says he is consumed with thoughts of Heywood? Blaming the victim may be satisfactory from the criminal's viewpoint, but my brand of libertarianism includes personal responsibility and the assertion that criminals, whether they commit crimes because of mental illness or conscious decision, should bear the burden of their transgressions; every time I watch a movie and the perp announces that the next crime is the fault of the victim or the police officer who has failed to shoot him.... puh-leeze!

Such issues are not going to be solved, or even adequately addressed in 90-mnute second features like this. Good performances, like those here, may make an entertaining thriller, but they butter no parsnips.