Strange behavior is on the menu for this frustratingly slow-moving "thriller" about a Swiss bank account everyone needs the numbers to so that what's inside can be retrieved. Marianne(Susan George, dressed evocatively in skimpy outfits the entire film)is only one of two people who know it..the other, her mother, is dead. Marianne's father, The Judge(Leo Genn)needs notes that are scathing enough to possibly send him to jail. The film offers a distinct possibility of The Judge being the very one who murdered Marianne's mother. Hildegarde(Judy Huxtable)is slowly going mad and wants the cash within that bank account. It's her inner hatred for Marianne(she's papa's little girl)that drives her to find some way of getting those numbers to open it. Sebastian(Christopher Sandford)gets in the mix as he started a relationship(that didn't last because he bored Marianne)with Marianne..but we come to find out he had already been involved with Hildegarde once before. He will make a deal with the devil, Hildegarde, to bring Marianne, who had ran away from home out of fear for her life, back to The Judge so that brute force might extract those numbers from her mouth. The unfortunate victim in all this isn't Marianne as much as her lover, Eli(Barry Evans)who comes with her only to face possible danger not just from Hildegarde, but even from his own friend Sebastian. The obsession for the money is at the heart of the film which takes way too long to get going. What made me restless was the way the characters just didn't get on with it. We spend so much time watching them skirting the issue of THE important confrontation to get those numbers from Marianne's brain. I think Pete Walker wants to try and evade as much suspense as possible which hurts this film because I, for one, just didn't care for any of them enough. I think it comes down to George in the lead. She spends most of this film simply blank without a hint of expression. I wanted to beat out her thoughts into words myself so she can just say what she damn well feels. Hildegarde wants the money so bad enough it takes her damn well a long time to do anything. She tries manipulation using Sebastian as a means to snuff out the numbers, but shouldn't she know after such a length of Marianne's absence that wouldn't work? The film limply moves along at a turtle's pace and by the time any real action occurs I was so uninvolved to care.
Review of Die Screaming Marianne
