Twisted Nerve (1968)

Director:

Roy Boulting

Writers:

Leo Marks (screenplay) and
Roy Boulting (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

December 1968 (UK)

Genre:

Crime | Horror | Thriller | Drama

Tagline:

Cleaver. Cleaver. Chop. Chop. First the mom and then the pop. Then we'll get the pretty girl. We'll get her right between the curl.

Plot:

Martin is a troubled young man. With a mother who insists on treating him like a child, a stepfather who can't wait to see the back of him...

Plot Keywords:

Controversy | Whistling Killer | Financier | Boarding House | Broken Mirror

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award.

Cast

Hayley Mills	...	Susan Harper
Hywel Bennett	...	Martin Durnley
Billie Whitelaw	...	Joan Harper
Phyllis Calvert	...	Enid Durnley
Frank Finlay	...	Henry Durnley
Barry Foster	...	Gerry Henderson
Salmaan Peerzada	...	Shashie Kadir (as Salmaan Peer)
Christian Roberts	...	Philip Harvey
Gretchen Franklin	...	'Clarkie'
Thorley Walters	...	Sir John Forrester
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Timothy Bateson	...	Mr. Groom
Clifford Cox	...	Insp. Goddard
Richard Davies	...	'Taffy' Evans
Basil Dignam	...	Doctor
Mollie Maureen	...	Lady Patient
Russell Napier	...	Prof. Fuller
Robin Parkinson	...	Shop Manager
Brian Peck	...	Det. Sgt. Rogers
Timothy West	...	Supt. Dakin

Runtime:

Australia:113 min | Germany:104 min | Germany:104 min (cut version) | USA:118 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 (video rating) | UK:X (original rating) | Australia:M | USA:M (original rating) | USA:Unrated | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Charter Film Productions

Trivia:

The whistling theme from the score was resurrected in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003). Daryl Hannah's character Elle Driver is whistling it as she enters the hospital.

Quotes:

Narrator: Ladies and gentlemen, because of the controversy already aroused, the producers of this film wish to re-emphasize what is already stated in the film, that there is no established scientific connection between Mongolism and psychotic or criminal behavior.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Death Proof (2007)

Not much to recommend

Along with "Peeping Tom" this film is sometimes cited as the British version of "Psycho". But while "Peeping Tom" really deserves that compliment, this film is more of a British version of "The Bad Seed" (and, if anything, is even more ridiculous). Like that movie, it tries to explain psychopathic behavior with half-baked genetic theories and it managed to offend the families of mongoloids everywhere by implying that their normal siblings were prone to become serial killers.

There are really two main problems with this movie: it's too sleazy for Haley Mills fans and it's not nearly sleazy enough for horror movie fans. I can't really say I've seen a Hayley Mill's movie (although maybe I passed out once watching "The Trouble with Angels" on TV). She is pretty appealing here--she's definitely very cute as your typical 20-year-old British bird in a mini-skirt in 1960's London. She's doesn't do much more than provide eye candy though and she seems strangely innocent and out of place for the hedonistic "Swinging London" era. Billie Whitelaw is OK as her mother, who runs a boarding house and has a strange new tenant who might be a serial killer. The horror elements are virtually non-existent, however. There are no axe murders as the tagline seems to claim, or much violence at all for that matter. This movie is mostly what you call psychological horror--and not in a good way.

If you want to see a good 60's British psycho movie try "Peeping Tom". If you want to see a wholesome young actress being debauched and denuded in a seedy horror movie try "The Dunwich Horror" with Sandra Dee. There's just not a lot to recommend in this one.