Rating: 3/5
Brenda (Rita Tushingham) lives in Liverpool with her mother — to her mother’s protestations, she decides to leave for London to “find a father for her baby,” as she puts it
A blonde boy named Peter (Shane Briant) accidentally knocks a bag out of Brenda’s hand but goes on, thinking about the drunk older woman he lives with and the games he played with her at her expense
Brenda picks up a job at a retail shop. She goes to a party her roommate throws, trying to meet men wherever she is. She tries to get with a coworker, but he fancies her roommate
She finds Peter’s dog, Tinker. Rather than return it, she brings it home and bathes it before taking it to Peter’s home. He knows she took him. She tries to leave, but he won’t let her without explaining herself
“I came to ask if you’d give me a baby,” she says through embarrassed tears. He asks her to move in and be his maid and changes her name to Wendy. As she dreams of their future, he stabs Tinker to death with a box cutter
They tell stories together, each bringing their weirdness but somehow getting along
Coming at the tail end of Hammer’s “mini-Hitchcock” series, the film has weird vibes throughout. The editing is manic and disjointed, cutting sharply between scenes. No one seems to act like a human — they’re all so rude!
Peter has mommy issues and issues with beauty because he believes everyone who ever loved him did so for his beauty
Brenda is so insecure that she doesn’t believe she deserves a loving, reciprocal relationship. She puts up with dismissive behavior from everyone around her, desperate for someone to give her the child she wants
Why? That’s a good question. Still, I felt uneasy throughout and thought both leads did well with the thin material