As soon as I saw Laurie Johnson's name as music composer, I thought
instantly of "Thriller" and that this was a movie of whose plotting
Brian Clemens would be proud. Gripping the viewer instantly, a woman
is seen dodging bullets from an unknown assassin, all amid idyllic
English countryside. Cut to a well to do doctor, Hayward (Christopher
Lee) who has notified the police that his wife is missing, he has also
been getting threatening letters. His secretary Helen (Judy Geeson) is
very protective of him and maverick police inspector Lomax (Jon Finch)
thinks they are having an affair. His sympathy plummets (not that he
had much anyway) for the doctor when he is taken out in a speed boat.
Hayward sees a neighbour who is encroaching on his water space and he
spends the ride trying his best to capsize the little boat, with Lomax now
thinking the bloke is an absolute psychotic!!
Hayward's plan is to keep his wife in a drugged state at a remote property they rent - when police give up the search, he can quietly kill her and dispose of her body in the lake!! The only questionable part of the movie is how a lovely girl like Helen could possibly find the cold hearted doctor even remotely likable!! Running parallel to this plot is one involving the private life of Lomax - he is involved with a woman whose husband is in a wheelchair and determined that Mary is going to have a miserable life!! Lomax is pretty awful to her but she wants some happiness and is willing to exact a horrible price!!
Christopher Lee was as usual at his supercilious best but anyone familiar with Jon Finch would be bowled over by his performance. He excelled at Shakespearian roles but his Lomax was not a gentlemanly copper. Also Jane Merrow who usually played 1960s vamps had a change of pace here as the housewife at the end of her tether!!
Hayward's plan is to keep his wife in a drugged state at a remote property they rent - when police give up the search, he can quietly kill her and dispose of her body in the lake!! The only questionable part of the movie is how a lovely girl like Helen could possibly find the cold hearted doctor even remotely likable!! Running parallel to this plot is one involving the private life of Lomax - he is involved with a woman whose husband is in a wheelchair and determined that Mary is going to have a miserable life!! Lomax is pretty awful to her but she wants some happiness and is willing to exact a horrible price!!
Christopher Lee was as usual at his supercilious best but anyone familiar with Jon Finch would be bowled over by his performance. He excelled at Shakespearian roles but his Lomax was not a gentlemanly copper. Also Jane Merrow who usually played 1960s vamps had a change of pace here as the housewife at the end of her tether!!