Fanatic

This effectively creepy little Gothic horror tale is one of Hammer's finest psychological-thrillers, and a valiant attempt to duplicate the success of American thrillers like "WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?" and "HUSH..., HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE" featuring aging, flamboyant female stars in macabre, unusual roles. This film is a showcase for the talents of the great Tallulah Bankhead whose last film this was. She manages to be both amusing and terrifying at the same time. It's a blissful performance, and next to LIFEBOAT it's her finest hour on screen. A very young Stefanie Powers(then age 23) also comes through with a remarkably strong performance as the terrorized daughter-in-law. The movie also features Peter Vaughan as Bankhead's menacing handyman, and in an early role Donald Sutherland as an imbecile who also works at the place. The workman-like script was written by Richard Matheson, from the novel NIGHTMARE by Anne Blaisdell.

What inspired casting! The libidinous Tallulah Bankhead as a drab, sober, religious zealot! That alone is worth the price of admission. Thanks to Bette and Joan, the 60s era of Grand Guignol brought some of our favorite glossy "middle-aged" legends back to the somewhat less glossy cinematic limelight. Debbie Reynolds, Shelley Winters, Olivia de Havilland, Geraldine Page, Agnes Moorehead, and Ruth Gordon all took the Gothic plunge. The prerequisites? Simple. Look like hell and act like a mad bull in a china shop. So why not grand ol' Tallulah, dahling?

Here, the "Alabama Foghorn," as Fred Mertz once called her when she guested (hilariously so) on an episode of "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour," is called upon to play the prim, tight-lipped Mrs. Trefoile, a wacko bible-thumper whose only child died a short time before. When her dead son's fiancee (Stefanie Powers) comes to pay an overdue visit out of respect, she makes a big whoops and tells the old lady that she is about to marry another man. And now the fun begins...

Urged on by her Maker (of course) to exorcise the young girl's demons and restore her purity (she wears that blasphemous red lipstick, you see) and, oh yeah, also to punish her (of course)for her mortal wickedness and ultimate betrayal to her dead son, the old lady (of course) imprisons the young damsel in her medieval-styled lair for a week's worth of (naturally) bible verse and repentance. But then the old crackpot decides she'd be better served if she (you know) takes it up a notch and makes her (of course) a sacrificial lamb instead. See, Trefoile finds out that the girl is still a virgin so (of course) if the girl's still a virgin, her soul can still be (you know) saved and, at the same time, she can be reunited with Trafoile's dead son in heaven, which better serves his memory. You know, kill, I mean save, two birds with one stone.

Seeing Bankhead cavorting around as a dowdy, highly repressed teetotaler while spewing passages from Revelations is an admittedly sinful pleasure. What's even better is that the old girl gets away with it. As bizarre and campy as one could hope for, Bankhead's Mrs. Trefoile is still all prickly seriousness and deadly menace, possessing a convincingly firm, fervent gait. She doesn't really play the joke. Moreover, she manages to slightly stroke audience sympathy with human shadings of loneliness and utter despair. The atmosphere is appropriately claustrophobic and suspense is built up expertly too, with every Bankhead entrance punctuated by creepy, stringy harpsichord music.

Fun too is watching Bankhead's Addams Family-like household run amok, especially Donald Sutherland as a mute, dim-witted servant -- a role I'm sure he'd love to erase permanently from his resume. Poor bruised and bloodied Stefanie Powers does yeoman's work here, gaining our sympathy from the onset and making a wonderfully feisty "straight man" to the Bankhead histrionics.

And just wait until the skeletons come out of the closet. Like you knew they would! Bankhead's final curtain in the flick is a great wallow. And speaking of final curtains, this was regrettably her last feature film.

Ooh whee, is this thing a doozie. I seen it under the title Die Die My darling, which is a helluva lot more fun than Fanatic. Ole toodle loo Tallulah goes bonkers and torments Stefanie through out the picture, which is all you need to know. Seeing one of the worst thespians in cinema (that would be Miss Powers) being tortured by one of the campiest (that would be Ms. Bankhead) heck, there's your picture right there. Great laughs from beginning to end.

Two ways we enjoy movies are 1) to share the emotional life of characters in a great story, regardless of the performer, and 2) to watch a great performer, regardless of the story. "Die! Die My Darling" [or "Fanatic"] falls into the latter category; here, Tallulah Bankhead is the great performer. Bankhead was, it is popularly believed, in the depths of alcohol abuse when she made this classic melodramatic thriller. Yet, she turns-in a terr(or)ific performance. Alcohol abuse may have helped her to slur some lines in that unique drawl of hers, but the well-experienced actress that she is - underneath the numb - shines thru by having clearly planned ahead to alternate her episodes of sweetness and rage, and performs them with well-crafted notes. It's an absolute tour-de-force: That ET-like bourbon voice of hers croaking out commands to her servants; like a witch shrieking "Liar!" to Stefanie Powers (and slapping her silly!); and looking like a backsliding soul at her most pitiful digging in her closet for a secret stash. And my favorite image: force-feeding a sermon to Stefanie Powers at gunpoint (Bankhead holding the Bible *and* a gun in her hands!). The story that sets all this into motion: Bankhead receives a visit from her dead son's one-time fiance, played by Stefanie Powers. Bankhead, a religious fanatic [thus the other title to this movie], presumes her son's betrothal to Powers means that they *are* husband and wife - FOR ETERNITY! Powers plays along, at first, but reveals little truths that counter the religious Bankhead's plans for her son's eternal peace; Bankhead, then, turns determined to "save" her son's Grace by keeping Powers pure. And so it goes from that, with escalating animosity. Bankhead is great. The production design is great (sets and color), and Yootha Joyce as the housemaid Anna is also terrific. Powers, however, grossly overacts; but, to her credit, she lets Yootha Joyce really lay into her with obviously no stunt-doubles between them. That was fun. Oh, there's also a couple homage to PSYCHO: recall that scene in Psycho when Vera Miles screams and flails an arm to set swinging the overhead lamp upon entering the fruit cellar. There's an instance when Powers screams and does the same with an overhead lamp. At that moment, listen to the soundtrack: it shrieks for a measure or two like Psycho's shower scene shrieking violins. Cool. I'll let you find the second "borrowing" from Psycho; it's not as obvious. For some campy fun, definitely rent this'n. Powers is a snitty over-acter, and she'll annoy you, but you'll feel she gets what she deserves when the Ol' Lady smacks the stuffing out of her. Plus, Bankhead simply saying the line "Milk?!" will make it all worthwhile - and that's just at the beginning...!

TALLULAH BANKHEAD, looking like a ravaged reject from a summer stock version of "The Little Foxes", delivers an appropriately over-the-top performance from this Hammer schlock that borrows from every madhouse movie ever made.

STEFANIE POWERS is the unlucky victim, a young woman who makes a courtesy call on the mother of her dead fiancé, only to discover that she's a religious zealot and a complete madwoman looking for sin in every fabric of Powers' too glamorous wardrobe and make-up. Not only is Bankhead mad, but her servants are enough to scare anyone within sight--including DONALD SUTHERLAND as a retarded man, and YOOTHA JOYCE and HARRY VAUGHAN as an unethical couple badly in need of cash.

Most unrealistic aspect of the story has strong-willed Powers submitting meekly to outrageous requests Bankhead makes upon her arrival instead of packing her things and leaving immediately. But when she fights back, she has to deal with Tallulah and her loyal servants, all of whom make for heavy combat.

Well photographed with some appropriately melodramatic musical flourishes to pump up the fright element, it nevertheless seems like a freak show by the time it reaches its harrowing conclusion. Not until the last moment, does the heroine get some much needed help from a boyfriend who returns for no apparent reason after Bankhead assures him that Powers has already left.

Summing up: Talllulah looks a fright but performs befitting the material--adding horror to the kind of role attracting overage stars in the '60s.