The scenes which should be good are, in terms of suspense or supernatural but they are few and far between and the rest has the always good Richard Conte showing off how badly miscast he is here as a "stud" who has gotten himself into trouble with too many women. Yes Conte is a bit too old for the part but he's miscast anyway--typical of an American name being crammed into a story they don't fit into in an UK production.
I didn't know who Francesca Annis was as I watched this film but soon she stood out at the best thing in the movie and, looking her up, I had indeed seen her in much film work and she's still working.
The best non supernatural scene is sort of a Lolita scene with Conte--if all the sexual tension scenes worked like this one this would be a better movie.
Buxton Orr contributes a good score, but they should have let him score the dialogue scenes. He's an unusual modern composer and his choices of instruments is effective.
The direction is flat much of the time, though the séance type sequences work well, helped by Annis and by the music.
The main fault must be the script way way too much talking and the talk is either romantic bickering or police procedural---both movie killer filler.
The structure is one of suspense not mystery but the story is all talk and not enough actual suspence scenes--there is really one longish set piece scene which is a highlight. There needed to be more such scenes.
This would be a good 30 minute episode for Twilight Zone or Hitchcock's show and feels like a padded version of a TV idea. In fact the story source Henry Sleasar who did write for Hitchcock's TV series.
Final "chase" sequence is flatly and cheaply done.
So when it's good it's good but you should probably fast forward through any 3 plus minute long dialogue scene which far out number the supernatural ones.
I didn't know who Francesca Annis was as I watched this film but soon she stood out at the best thing in the movie and, looking her up, I had indeed seen her in much film work and she's still working.
The best non supernatural scene is sort of a Lolita scene with Conte--if all the sexual tension scenes worked like this one this would be a better movie.
Buxton Orr contributes a good score, but they should have let him score the dialogue scenes. He's an unusual modern composer and his choices of instruments is effective.
The direction is flat much of the time, though the séance type sequences work well, helped by Annis and by the music.
The main fault must be the script way way too much talking and the talk is either romantic bickering or police procedural---both movie killer filler.
The structure is one of suspense not mystery but the story is all talk and not enough actual suspence scenes--there is really one longish set piece scene which is a highlight. There needed to be more such scenes.
This would be a good 30 minute episode for Twilight Zone or Hitchcock's show and feels like a padded version of a TV idea. In fact the story source Henry Sleasar who did write for Hitchcock's TV series.
Final "chase" sequence is flatly and cheaply done.
So when it's good it's good but you should probably fast forward through any 3 plus minute long dialogue scene which far out number the supernatural ones.