United Kingdom 1972
Reviewed By-Kit Gavin Directed by Peter Collinson Starring Rita Tushingham, Shane Briant, Katya Wyeth and James Bolam Released through: Anchor Bay Entertainment [USA] Region 0 NTSC
Brenda Thompson [Tushingham], a dowdy, unworldly, and naVve, plain girl, tells her mother that she is pregnant, even though she isn’t, and have her baby. Despite her plain looks, Brenda is an incurable romantic, conjuring up hopefully dreams in semi-autobiographical short fairy stories of a Princess called Rosalba. She ups and leaves her roots in the North of England, in Liverpool, still living at home with her mother, and makes her way to swinging and happening London, in order to find for herself a man, to actually conceive and have her child. Soon enough she finds employment in a little boutique in London’s most fashionable and happening street, Carnaby Street, and starts to room with a beautiful yet promiscuous blonde called Caroline [Wyeth]. No men however seem to take an interest in Brenda, most ignore her. She tries and tries, but to no avail, and is considered too dowdy, and too square to get in with what is "happening". However along the way, unphased, she sets her sights even higher when she sees a beautiful man, Peter [Briant], with boyish good looks and kidnaps his scruffy looking dog, Tinker.
She bathes the dog, pretties it up and ties a ribbon before returning it to it’s master. She meets Peter, a quiet homebody who lives on his own in a large house with a drawer full of money. Peter confronts her and asks her why she kidnapped his dog. She fesses up and the two start a slightly strange relationship where Peter tells her that she can stay with him if she is willing to let him call her by the name of Wendy. She agrees, movies in and starts to clear up the house which Peter has made his home. The two form a bond, Brenda falls in love with Peter, hoping to have his baby. After a while of living with Peter, and neglecting to stay in contact with home, her mother tries to locate her seemingly missing daughter. Brenda, who never goes out, is totally innocent and unaware of this. Also she is unaware of Peter’s dark side, for Peter is in fact a murderer, and has an unhealthy aversion to all things pretty.
Cast in the lead as the innocent Brenda, is the unconventional looking actress Rita Tushingham, who had found fame in her homeland of the UK, in "make or break career" roles such as A TASTE OF HONEY [her debut] where she played a young working class girl made pregnant by a black sailor which won her numerous awards, and then THE KNACK. Tushingham was a household name when the film was made, and here she excels in a role which was so clearly written with her in mind [by Jason Peacock]. Opposite Tushingham is the paradoxical pretty boy Shane Briant, with flowing Peter Frampton-esque golden locks and angelic looks, which is the perfect mask for the face of a troubled psychotic murderer. There are a few little nods to Peter Pan, the dog is called Tinker, Brenda is renamed Wendy, and Peter is like Peter Pan, a man-boy who will not age.
Supporting characters don’t really amount to much, other than nice eye candy in the form of Hammer starlet Katya Wyeth, and James Bolam, one of her conquests as the thick headed Joey, who was popular at the time on British television in the much watched The Likely Lads. In a supporting role is singer Annie Ross, best known for her dubbing of actresses in British horror films [along with Georgia Brown], and singing musical numbers in films such as cult favourite THE WICKER MAN [where she also dubbed Britt Ekland’s Scottish brogue] and Ingrid Thulin’s songs in the exploitation/arthouse sleazefare SALON KITTY.
Rather than using straight and direct narrative to tell his tale, the late Peter Collinson who passed away from cancer at a relatively young age, uses cross cutting in the jagged narrative, cutting between events, and a lot here is left to the imagination of the viewer, which adds an even more unsettling edge to the gloomy and depressing proceedings on screen. Films were progressively becoming stronger and more violent yet this one shies away from blood and gore, with much of the nastiness occurring off screen. However it is none the less truly unsettling in construct. Peter kills his dog off screen after Brenda returns him to him, and he records on the tape recorder his victims [he later kills Caroline after bedding her when Brenda is out], recording their howls and screams, without the audience seeing the aftermath of events, never seeing the bodies nor how he disposes of them. The only character with any warmth is the plain, unattractive and pathetic Brenda, quite in contrast to her handsome prince, the cold and homicidal Peter. The ending is understated, open ended, ambivalent, yet should and will leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth of the viewer, with it’s inevitable fatality yet is still somewhat unexpected.
Depending on the viewpoint of the spectator, the film will either be enjoyed and entertaining for it’s underlying edge and nastiness as much as playing out like a slow yet well executed tragic stageplay between two characters, where events should be inevitable, but owing to the plainness and loyalty of Brenda, we can never be sure if they will. Viwerers will no doubt draw comparisons and see nods to the classic PEEPING TOM, another film much reviled upon it’s original release, and now considered a masterpiece. There are trends throughout, with a beautiful homicidal yet troubled young man, and his interest in the plain girl. A murderer who records the suffering his victims.
Alternatively some viewers may see it as mundane and boring, even too depressing, as it was upon it’s initial release in the early 70’s, where it played in double bills with the equally misunderstood and again relatively bloodless FEAR IN THE NIGHT [reviewed previously on Cinema Nocturna], as the shocks and horror is more psychological – and perhaps more intense as a result. The film’s plotline is actually quite sympistic and the film could be much shorter, yet it’s intensity is increased owing to the more gradual pacing of the picture, despite it’s relatively simplistic and thin plotline. The film is also more layered than most horror films, and is perhaps more aimed for the "thinking man". Hammer was gradually moving away from just adaptations of traditional horror tales, such as Count Dracula and Frankenstein, even the Mummy, and moving towards more psychological horror, when the rest of Europe was erring towards more bloody, shocking and gruesome horror films for overseas sales. Perhaps this accounts for why Hammer started to lose it’s popularity and eventually went under, but despite this fact being a tragedy of British cinema, we should still be grateful for little diamonds, slightly in the rough, such as this film under review here.
Once again Anchor Bay Entertainment have given the presentation of this mostly forgotten and relatively obscure little gem from Britain’s most famous horror Studio (ie Hammer), the Red Carpet treatment, nicely framed at 1:66:1 (although some reviewers have suggested that this wrong), but the print used is beautiful and colors look fresh and correct, from the bright wild sixties colors at the party and Peter’s loud mauve top, to the dull soulless feel of Peter’s home, bereft of anything pretty. The English soundtrack is clear and free of any pops and hisses.
Also included is an audio commentary with lead Rita Tushingham, moderated by Anchor Bay’s usual British horror writer/researcher Jonathan Sothcott. Collinson is sadly no longer with us to give his insight into the film and Shane Briant has relocated to Australia. The commentary flows well, a little dry in patches, but Tushingham tells some interesting anecdotes about the film, seemingly unphased by nudity of Wyeth on screen (despite Sothcott trying to illicit a response) and content to discuss her participation in the feature as well as some background to her career. Tushingham seems somewhat dismissive about the film and her performance, perhaps unfairly, but she does in reasonably good humor and with suitable British sense of irony about proceedings, despite her misgivings about having worked on it. She seems offended by the scene where Tinker the dog is killed, and though many complain about animal violence in films (in the wake of Italian and Spanish exploitation makers killing livestock most infamously in the cannibal films), viewers will be glad hear that this takes place of camera. Tushingham is also disdainful of when she tries to pretty herself up, donned in a wig and over made up, and gaps are filled with information about supporting players by Sothcott. One opportunity, surprisingly, and sadly, which Anchor Bay never made use of in it’s early DVDs was to get the commentators on camera, even making an introduction to the film. It would have been nice to see how some these people look now, and to put a face now to some of the stars and to see how some of the directors look, but this is a minor quibble.
There are no poster or art galleries, only the only other extra is a British trailer, announcing the film as "a love story from Hammer", which perhaps may have accounted for the lacklustre reception which the film received upon it’s initial release. There is brief talent bio on the late Collinson by Mark Wickham, which refers to quotes by his widow and some well written liner notes by Sothcott. All in all a nice, understated and thought provoking little release, arguably not to everyone’s taste, but well worth having on the shelves of fans of British horror fare or psychological horror films.
Story: 4 BITCH SLAPS Picture: 4 BITCH SLAPS Audio: 3.5 BITCH SLAPS Extras: 3 BITCH SLAPS Overall: 3.5 BITCH SLAPS Discuss this DVD or film in our forum.
