The Very Edge

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.

The Very Edge is directed by Cyril Frankel and written by Leslie Bricusse and Vivian Cox. It stars Richard Todd, Anne Heywood, Jack Hedley, Jeremy Brett, Nicole Maurey, Maurice Denham, William Lucas and Patrick Magee. Music is by David Lee and cinematography by Robert Huke.

After she is assaulted in her own home by unhinged admirer Mullen (Brett), Tracey Lawrence (Heywood) struggles to keep control of her marriage to Geoffrey (Todd), who himself doesn't quite know how to react to Tracey's trauma. More pressing is that Mullen is still on the loose and clearly isn't going to go away...

It should be better, there is so much promise on offer of a real frightening "stalker" movie, but it ultimately ends up as a standard meller. Where it does score favourably is with the character strands that deal with a once happy marriage coming apart at the seams post the trauma incident. Things are further complicated by husband Geoffrey's French personal assistant, Helen (Maurey), who senses the time is right to confess her passions for Geoff!

Lurking around the dark corners of this emotionally bubbling human stew is Mullen, a genuinely twitchy and edgy menace of frightening capabilities, with the character brilliantly realised by future Sherlock Holmes, Jeremy Brett. It's all built competently by Frankel, brick by formulaic brick, right up to a roof top finale which brings the audience of the time the expected results. Magee is unfortunately only used sparingly, but with Heywood and Brett giving riveting readings, the staid acting elsewhere doesn't hurt the picture. While David Lee's music is excellent, a constant low tone plinking of foreboding menace.

A wasted opportunity? Yes, pretty much, but some value to be found in certain quarters. 6.5/10

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.

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.

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.