Fragment of Fear (1970)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

Richard C. Sarafian

Writers:

John Bingham (novel)
Paul Dehn (writer)

Release Date:

September 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Drama

Tagline:

A phantasmagoria of fright!

Plot:

Reformed drug addict travels to Italy to find out who murdered his aunt.

Plot Keywords:

Paranoia | Wedding Ceremony | Blackmail | Drug Addiction | Hallucination

Cast

David Hemmings	...	Tim Brett
Gayle Hunnicutt	...	Juliet Bristow
Wilfrid Hyde-White	...	Mr. Copsey
Flora Robson	...	Lucy Dawson
Adolfo Celi	...	Signor Bardoni
Roland Culver	...	Mr. Vellacot
Daniel Massey	...	Maj. Ricketts
Mona Washbourne	...	Mrs. Gray
Arthur Lowe	...	Mr. Nugent
Yootha Joyce	...	Miss Ward-Cadbury
Derek Newark	...	Sgt. Matthews
Patricia Hayes	...	Mrs. Baird
Mary Wimbush	...	Bunface
Philip Stone	...	CID Sergeant
Glynn Edwards	...	CID Superintendent

Also Known As:

Freelance

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Finland:K-16 | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:PG | UK:AA (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating)

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

During production on British Rail's Waterloo & City tube line, a train ran into the buffer stops at the end of the line at Bank station. David Hemmings, Gayle Hunnicutt, and 10 extras suffered minor injuries.

Quotes:

Tim Brett: Either I am mad and all this isn't happening to me, or else I'm sane and it is.

Underrated, unknown near masterpiece psychological thriller

Richard Sarafian is a decidedly underrated director. After finally seeing this, it's satisfying to report his VANISHING POINT was not a flash-in-the-pan. FRAGMENT...does not move at the same pace, nor does it get the viewer involved quite as quickly, but once you're about twenty minutes in, you're hooked until the end as Sarafian and screenwriter Dehn continually manipulate reality and our perceptions of it, along with lead character David Hemmings' perceptions of it. Really brilliant in the way it portrays a matter-of-fact unfolding of events that seem like a conventional, yet still insidious conspired-murder-by-blackmail-ring plot. But then we're constantly shown by the dialogue and actions of other characters that these events we've just witnessed may never have occurred. As an audience, we're constantly being shifted back and forth, momentarily convinced that recovering-addict-turned-successful-writer Hemmings is undergoing paranoid delusions, then the next moment convinced there really is a vast conspiracy against him and his investigation into his rich aunt's death. Disturbing and constantly involving, sucking the viewer in until the shocking conclusion. Unfortunately, the film's one real liability, which may in fact be the reason for some viewers' antipathy toward this film, is its totally inappropriate music score. Not only is the score mixed too loud on the soundtrack, it repeatedly draws attention to itself, often diffusing the effects Sarafian is trying to achieve. If only they had gotten someone like John Dankworth who could have composed a similar jazzy score but much more subtly and in keeping with the film's rhythms. Of course, even better would have been Ennio Morricone, someone who had already scored many Italian giallo thrillers that had attempted to play with reality in a similar way. Whomever hired Johnny Harris made a big mistake. His score is the one thing that keeps this from being a genuine little masterpiece.