Fanatismo Macabro

The story: A young woman named Pat Carroll (Stefanie Powers) pays a courtesy call on Mrs. Trefoile (Tallulah Bankhead), the mother of Pat's dead fiancé. Pat plans to stay one night and be on her way. But Mrs. Trefoile has other ideas. She sees it as her mission to "cleanse" Pat and keep her pure for the day Pat will join her son in the afterlife. To accomplish her mission, Mrs. Trefoile locks Pat in an upper room of her crumbling mansion and preaches to her with a bible in one hand and a gun in the other.

Tallulah! That's all you really need to know about Die! Die! My Darling! Tallulah Bankhead's performance is so over-the-top, so wonderfully demented, so full of campy entertainment that she dominates every aspect of this movie. Stefanie Powers is good, but she and the rest of the cast are completely overshadowed by Tallulah. I just can't imagine anyone else (and that includes the likes of Bette Davis or Joan Crawford who were also part of the aging actress playing a crazed nut in a horror movie) in the role of Mrs. Trefoile - she's that good. I'll go so far as to say that Tallulah's performance in Die! Die! My Darling! is one of my two or three favorite pieces of acting from any horror movie I've seen. Amazing!

The woman known for giving extravagant parties and answering door bells au natural in her youth plays an old, religious grande dame with no make-up and drab attire. Tallulah Bankhead, in her last screen performance, shows us one more time that she was a consumate actress when given the opportunity to perform. Every moment of hers is precious as she plays a woman that has driven her son from home by her excessive religious fanaticism and is now coping with his death. She is visited by a woman, played by Stephanie Powers, that was engaged to her son. The dialogue and interaction between Miss Bankhead and Miss Powers is wonderful as Bankhead cuts her speech off and hams it up almost in a sedate yet effective manner. Powers soon becomes a forced guest as Tallulah tries and "cleanse" her soul. Watching Tallulah read Biblical passages, sermonize on the evils of the flesh, and gently yet forcefully decay into a state of histrionics is delightful to watch. That woman could act! The rest of the cast is effective with Donald Sutherland in a satisfactory yet forgetable role as a dimwitted servant. Solid direction, claustrophobic settings, and good production values all add up to some good old-fashioned fun!

Bette and Joan got the ball rolling and, thankfully, Tallulah hopped on board and got in on the mid-'60's bandwagon of formerly glamorous mega-stars starring in exploitive suspense films. This film was made, literally, during Bankhead's last gasps of life and she gives it her ALL. She plays a fanatical widow, deeply devoted to her dead son and husband and steeped in literal Biblical translations and practices. When her late son's girlfriend (Powers) comes for a visit, she attempts to forge a spiritual bond with her and indoctrinate her into the rigid and fundamental ways of her life. However, worldly Powers will have none of it and soon has to pay for her transgressions. The thing kicks off with a symbolic, so-1960's credit sequence of a cat chasing a mouse (while blaring music blasts away.) Soon Powers arrives at Bankhead's rundown estate and the fun begins. Every glance, every nuance, every crackled, garbled word of Bankhead's performance is so interesting and right on, it is REQUIRED VIEWING to watch her a second time in order to catch all the hooty lines she spits out. Her inimitable growl of a voice ranges from blithely polite (as she spouts her platitudes on the simplicity of a clean life) to outright maniacal ("He died in a car accident!!") and she's a complete joy to behold. The woman was almost never seen without her smear of make-up and her shoulder length hair, but here she dissolves into character with almost no make-up and her hair in a sedate bun. Even though Powers often overacts certain reactions and intentions, she makes a good adversary for Bankhead. They square off against each other pretty well. Some decent British supporting actors round out the cast including a menacing and bothersome Vaughn and a barely recognizable Sutherland, quite convincing as a mentally handicapped odd job man. The film is dated in its hair/clothing and some of it's jerky camera work and music, but still manages to be quite creepy and suspenseful. It's Tallulah's show all the way, though. The relish with which she attacks this final screen role is a treasure to witness. Unforgettable.

It's most unfortunate that all the smaller-scaled psychological thrillers Hammer produced during the mid 60's remain somewhat in the shadows of their more grotesque and Grand Guignol featuring horror & Sci-Fi productions (like the Dracula and Frankenstein franchises or the Quatermass trilogy), because there are quite a few of genuine treasures to discover! "Fanatic" a.k.a. "Die! Die! My Darling" is such a wondrous example of an original and highly atmospheric but sadly underrated Hammer thriller. Richard Matheson's screenplay – adapted from a novel by Anne Blaisdell – is terrifically tight & uncomfortably credible, the atmosphere is uncanny throughout and Tallulah Bankhead's performance as the insane religious freak truly stands as one of the greatest in the history of horror cinema. Whilst visiting England with her new lover, all-American girl Pat Carroll plans to pay a visit to Mrs. Trefoile; the mother of her ex-fiancée who died in a car accident before they ever had the chance of getting married. Mrs. Trefoile acts a bit whiny and exaggeratedly religious at first, but still fairly harmless since the visit is meant to be brief and formal. However, Mrs. Trefoile turns into a totally religion-obsessed fruitcake when she learns Pat isn't a virgin anymore and never actually intended to marry her son in the first place! She gets more fanatic than Jesus himself and locks Pat away in the secluded mansion's attic with the intention to cleanse her soul and prepare her to reunite with the son in the afterlife. The concept of this film is simply stupendous, if you ask me, and veteran writer Richard Matheson makes sure that every tiniest possible detail in the script gets covered. There are also some very intriguing sub plots, like the awkward relationships between Mrs. Trefoile's servants and the gradual unfolding of what exactly happened between Pat and Mrs. Trefoile departed son. There are a few clearly noticeable similarities between this film and Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho", which leads to some obvious twists and a fairly predictable finale. But then again, you can't blame the film for this since pretty much every horror movie made after 1960 is influenced by "Psycho" in one way or another. Tallulah (I even love typing her name) Bankhead obviously steals the show in every scene she's in, but the rest of fine cast deserves a word of respect as well, including a young Donald Sutherland as the mentally disabled gardener. Next time you set up a list of favorite Hammer films, make sure you watch "Fanatic" first and I guarantee it will be in there somewhere.

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.