Straight on Till Morning

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.

Just a couple of days ago, I narrated the Peter Pan fairytale to my five-year-old son before bedtime. Luckily I read him the sane and harmless Disney version, because this mentally depraved cult variation probably would have messed up his innocent little mind beyond repair… Just like his daddy's, yikes! We all know and worship the Hammer Studios for the outrageously vicious Grand Guignol horror movies they unleashed, but many people remain unaware that Hammer also produced several mysterious and experimental psycho-thrillers that don't feature their big stars, Victorian castle settings or entire buckets full of gore & bloodshed. The vast majority of these titles sadly ended up in obscurity, and that's a damn shame because most often these are extremely suspenseful, original and unorthodox thriller and/or film-noir beauties. "Straight on till Morning" is a terrific example of an atypical Hammer movie that nevertheless turned out to be a fascinating surprise and truly one of the most morbidly disturbing thrillers that I've seen in a very long time. It has to be said that the brief plot description here on the website is rather misleading. It says: "A timid, withdrawn woman meets a man she believes is finally the love of her life, unaware that he is a vicious serial killer". It makes you believe that this is a typical damsel-in-distress story, but the timid and withdrawn woman in question is actually quite troubled herself. Brenda Thompson lives with her meddlesome mother in Liverpool, but she dreams about meeting a handsome husband like the ones she describes in her self-written children's fairy tales. Brenda tells her mother that she's pregnant and heads off to London to find a father for her inexistent baby. In the swinging capital she tries hard to meet guys, but she's too obtrusive and desperate and it certainly also doesn't help that her much sexier roommate Caroline dives into bed with all of Brenda's potential boyfriends. One night Brenda kidnaps the hunky Peter's dog Tinkel, only to be able to bring him back the next day and properly makes his acquaintance. Peter knows what she did, but still offers Brenda to move into his house and live with him. He does insist that she changes her name to Wendy, and through previous flashbacks we also learned that he's a bit of a murderous psychopath.

Admittedly the first half hour of "Straight on till Morning" is dull, confusing and very hard to struggle through. There's far too much experimental editing going on and the script extendedly introduces too many characters that aren't really relevant. However, if you manage to sit through this, you'll be rewarded with an otherwise uniquely twisted thriller, full of dark themes, misogynist undertones and so-called "kitchen sink" trademarks. There are several uncanny references towards the Peter Pan story (the names and the title, but little plot details as well) and the eventual explanation of why our hunky protagonist is killing is incredibly vile and disturbing. On a side note, it actually also reminded me of the excellent Nick Cave song "Where the Wild Roses Grow". The climax is literally breathtaking and hugely depressing. The film is undeniably a prototypic "life in London during the early 70's" product, illustrated through a cast full of bleak and unsympathetic characters and hideous clothes & hairstyles. Rita Tushingham gives a stellar performance, which I figure wasn't easy since she's supposed to be unattractive, naive and pitiable. Shane Briant is excellent as well, with a performance that is simultaneously menacing and miserable. And supportive babe Katya Wyeth, well… she's simply one of the most ravishing girls I've ever seen. Peter Collinson, who died way too young, did a great job as the director, although he should have cut some scenes towards the beginning.

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.

Straight on Till Morning is certainly one of the most atypical films that Hammer Studios ever produced. It begins like a social realist kitchen-sink drama, replete with fragmented snapshot montage editing similar to Ken Loach's Up the Junction – incidentally, a film remade by Peter Collinson the director of this film. And for the first third of the film it seems like this is going to be another such gritty drama, however, it takes an unexpected detour when it suddenly turns into a psychological thriller. It's an extremely unusual combination that isn't entirely successful but definitely interesting. In actual fact it's one of Hammer's more intriguing efforts in my opinion because it's so weird.

The story is about a naive young girl called Brenda who moves to London to try and find a man. She winds up staying with a very strange foppish man called Peter who is in fact a serial killer of women.

The social realism and montage heavy editing is entirely at odds to anything else Hammer ever put out. This is a film that has way more in common with the British New Wave than it does with anything previously produced by the famous studio. None of the characters are particularly likable, with the men in particular very creepy and/or deeply unpleasant people with appalling haircuts. The central relationship between Brenda and Peter is, to put it mildly, bizarre. It's difficult to see what either of them sees in each other; while Peter's strange issues with beauty are a little hard to fathom. Nevertheless, I thought this one was not bad at all. It wasn't predictable in the way that most Hammer films tend to be. It was pretty bleak and overall a commendably uncommercial offering. Definitely worth a look if you like downbeat psychological dramas.

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.