Film Review: Scream of Fear (1961)

Scream of Fear, aka Taste of Fear (1961), directed by Seth Holt for Hammer; starring Susan Strasberg, Ann Todd, Christopher Lee, and Ronald Lewis.

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I frankly never heard of this twisty, early 60s thriller until it showed up in my Amazon Prime recommendations. It has a lot going for it, although I wouldn't say it was particularly "thrilling" according to today's attitudes.

The plusses include a great script by Jimmy Sangster, who penned many of Hammer’s great classics, and amazing, shadowy b&w cinematography by Douglas Slocombe, one of the greatest cameramen of all-time (he shot the first three Indiana Jones films for Spielberg).

Director Holt didn’t direct many films, but his best-known effort was the well-known, Bette Davis-starring, evil-nanny creepfest, The Nanny (1965), also directed for Hammer, and also written by Sangster.

Acting duties are very well done, with Lee a stand-out as a sinister French doctor; great accent (he spoke fluent French IRL.)

The film opens with a woman’s corpse being extricated from a giant lake by police in what looks like Switzerland. Then we switch to Strasberg (the daughter of famous “Method” acting coach Lee Strasberg), starring as Penny, a young, wealthy heiress who is a paraplegic from a horse-riding accident.

After years of estrangement from her rich, industrialist father, Penny arrives for a stay at his lavish villa on the French Riviera, which he shares with his second wife, Jane (Ann Todd, from Hitchcock’s Paradine Case (1947). Also resident at the villa is Robert (Lewis), a combination chauffeur/manservant, who is quickly pressed into service to help disabled Penny get around. The French doctor, Gerrard (Lee), also seems to be hanging around the villa constantly, and around Penny's stepmother, Jane, for no reason.

When Penny first takes up residence in the villa, she finds that dear old dad isn’t there; he was called away suddenly on a business trip, according to Jane. Penny, however, starts hearing and seeing strange noises and lights coming from an old summerhouse across from her room at the villa. One night she investigates and finds the dead body of an older man she thinks is her father, sitting upright in a chair in the summerhouse. Of course no one believes her, and the corpse disappears. It resurfaces again, however, and Penny enlists the aid of Robert in getting to the bottom of the mystery.

As the story unfolds, viewers might think this is a standard “gaslighting-the-rich-heiress” plot. And partially, they would be right. But that’s not by any means the sum total of this film, because the "gaslighting" is going in all directions, and there are at least three “twists” revealed toward the end that may surprise even the most jaded viewer. It lags a bit in the middle, and the "scares" are hardly scares by today's standards, but is worth watching for the high production values, good performances, and great script.