Rating: 4/5
Hooptober 4.0 | 16/31 | Before 1970 4/6
German police officers dredge a lake until they find the body of a young woman.
Meanwhile, Penny Appleby arrives in France. Her father’s chauffeur, Robert, picks her up from the airport. Her father is away on business, so it will be Penny and her stepmother, Jane, whom Penny hasn’t met. Penny hasn’t been to her father’s house in ten years. Robert accidentally lets slip that her father’s doctor, Pierre Gerrard, is always at the house. Penny didn’t know he was ill. Strange, then, that, despite his illness, he is away.
Jane cheerfully greets Penny as she arrives at the French Riviera estate. Jane has done everything she can to make the place comfortable for Penny. Penny confides in Jane how Penny’s nurse, Maggie, was her only friend after her mother died. After Maggie drowned, Penny came here. Penny mentions to Jane how she didn’t know her father was ill. Jane says she is mistaken. Doctor Gerrard and her father only play chess together from time to time.
The veranda door slamming in the wind wakes Penny at night. She slips out of bed and into her wheelchair to latch the door. As she does, she looks outside to see a flickering light in a window of the guest cottage. She goes across the yard, around the pool, and arrives at the door. There, beside the fireplace, sits her father. At his feet is a lit candle. Penny calls out to him. But she sees in his pitch-black eyes — he is dead.
She screams and rolls away. In her haste, the wheel of her chair catches the lip of the pool, and she falls in. When she awakes, Doctor Gerrard stands over her. Jane joins him as she comes to. Penny tells them that her father is dead in the guest cottage. They tell her she must have hallucinated it. When they go to investigate, the place is empty.
We follow Penny as she investigates to learn the truth about her father. Meanwhile, Jane and the doctor cite Penny’s history of neurosis as what is motivating her. The truth may be something else altogether.
The film has the standard Hammer dryness, but it has one of the best developing story structures. It teases at several paths the story can take. You’ll predict where it goes if you’ve seen enough of these. It reflects their confidence in the story rather than any significant flaw.
Susan Strasberg is one of the best actors they’ve worked with. It’s a shame she didn’t do more with them — I assume they never brought her a script as good as this one.
Ann Todd is good, but you can tell she thinks she’s schlepping it by being in the movie. I read she hated the movie because of Susan Strasberg
Despite having little to do, Christopher Lee never disappoints.
What a satisfying finale! Great stuff.