.jpg "FANATIC (1965)") |
| FANATIC (1965) |
Director: Silvio Narizzano
Producer: Anthony Hinds
Screenplay: Richard Matheson
Cast: Tallulah Bankhead, Stefanie Powers, Peter Vaughan, Maurice Kaufmann, Yootha Joyce, Donald Sutherland, Gwendoline Watts, Robert Dorning, Philip Gilbert, Winifred Denis, Diana King, Henry McGee
How?
By 1964 Hammer had already filmed a string of psychological thrillers, all penned by Jimmy Sangster and shot in black and white. When they came to make Fanatic, based on a novel by Anne Blaisdell, they took a different tack. Fanatic didn't involve Sangster at all, and it was to be shot in colour. To write the screenplay Hammer brought in the successful American novelist and screenwriter Richard Matheson, whose book I Am Legend Hammer had planned to film but had had to drop. Anthony Hinds once again took the producers chair, and he brought in a 'non-Hammer' director for the project - Silvio Narizzano, a television director. To play the central characters Hammer hired two American actors - the legendary Tallulah Bankhead, and the up-and-coming Stefanie Powers. Donald Sutherland also appears in an early screen role, and a handful of memorable English character actors filled out the cast. Shooting took place at Elstree Studios and Letchmore Heath in Hertfordshire.
What?
American Patricia Carroll (Powers) arrives in England and, while there, decides to make a courtesy call on the mother of her ex-fiancé Stephen Trefoile, who had died a few years previously (by suicide, we later discover). The widow Mrs Trefoile (Bankhead) lives in a rambling house deep in the country, with her housekeeper Anna (Joyce), Anna's husband Harry (Vaughan), and the mentally disabled gardner Joseph (Sutherland). Patricia is persuaded to stay the night, but it soon becomes apparent that Mrs Trefoil is a sinister puritan religious fanatic, obsessed with her deceased son. When she discovers that Patricia is soon to marry she refuses to let her leave and, with the help of Anna and Harry, imprisons her in the attic and begins a process of 'cleansing' her soul so that she may be fit to marry Stephen and spend eternity with him in heaven. It soon becomes clear that Mrs Trefoil intends to reunite Patricia with Stephen sooner rather than later, and Patricia must escape the house before it's too late. But Mrs Trefoil herself hides a secret from her past in the cellar which may prove her undoing...
So?
Whilst Fanatic followed a long line of Hammer psychological thrillers it stands out for a number of reasons. First, because Jimmy Sangster had no involvement in it, there is a certain freshness to the storyline. For a change there is no-one being slowly driven mad by person or persons unknown. Instead, we have a full-blown madwoman from the get-go in the shape of Ms Bankhead. Richard Matheson crafted a wonderful character in Mrs Trefoile, which Tallulah Bankhead throws herself into with gusto. Certainly, at times Bankhead is hamming it up for all she's worth but, curiously, that merely makes the character of Mrs Trefoile all the more intimidating and unnerving. In fact, Matheson created a whole wonderfully quirky set of characters with which to fill the house - Harry, the amoral lecherous thug, is played with enthusiasm by Peter Vaughan (and is particularly nasty in his sadistically 'playful' chase of Patricia through the woods); Anna, the semi-reluctant but unquestioning accomplice, is coldly portrayed by a young Yootha Joyce (her efficient physical restraint of Patricia often showing an underlying sadism herself); and Joseph, the simple gardener - not perhaps Donald Sutherland's finest hour but he does add to the house's motley crew.
Stefanie Powers is surprisingly good, for those who only know her from Hart to Hart. She manages to convey the journey of a down-to-earth girl from bemused amusement to outright terror with great conviction; someone totally out of their depth but with the balls to fight back. She was later to be equally effective in Hammer's Crescendo (1970). It is Bankhead, however, who really steals the show. After this, Hammer would again experiment with casting 'fading' Hollywood legends - Bette Davis would appear in The Nanny (1965) and The Anniversary 1968), and Joan Fontaine in The Witches (1966). Bankhead fits the roll of Mrs Trefoile perfectly. A nightmare to work with on set, Narizzano tried to reign her in (he thought she got a bit camp) but, personally, her going into full 'dahling' mode only adds to the madness conveyed by her character, and is somewhat fitting given her 'secret' past. The scenes in Mrs Trefoile's secret cellar, where she occasionally unmasks and indulges in her former life, are a joy. Narizzano had been exclusively a television director before this, his first feature. However, this does work to his advantage as most of the drama takes place indoors, in small rooms of the Trefoile house. Narizzano efficiently captures the mood of claustrophobia, imprisonment and confinement - a violent world of its own, lying unknown beneath the surface of the bucolic country village, where Mrs Trefoile is seen as perhaps eccentric, but harmless. Importantly, the story never lags, often providing shocking little twists, and the ending just fits Bankhead perfectly.
Fanatic, while not one of Hammer's best works, is an enjoyably effective and tense little thriller. It owes this to Matheson's script, Bankhead's wonderfully OTT performance, and the cast of misfits she has gathered around her. Throw all-American girl Powers into the mix and you have a fine 'fish-out-of-water' film with madness and murder thrown in. Particularly effective are the scenes of Powers' gradual degradation and dehumanisation as the domineering Bankhead first uses force of personality and then the physical persuasion of compliant Anna to accomplish her will. While weak in parts (would Anna really be so quickly accomodating to her mistresses wishes?) Fanatic provides relief from a certain 'sameness' which had crept into Hammer's psychological thrillers. It was to be Bankhead's last screen role and, much to her annoyance, was released in the US as Die! Die! My Darling (to play on Bankhead's famous 'dah-ling' and to echo the recent Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte). Fanatic provided a memorable character in Mrs Trefoile on which to bow out, and a refreshing change for a Hammer thriller.
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