Dressed for Death

source: Dressed for Death

Trailer—Straight on Till Morning

Straight on Till Morning

Fans of bleak, late 60s/early 70s British cinema might enjoy this sadistic psycho-thriller -- probably the most atypical release from Hammer ever. Rita Tushingham stars as an empty-headed Liverpudlian who escapes from the claustrophobia of her mother's flat only to land in the arms of psychotic Shane Briant who has an ugliness fixation. The DVD release from Anchor Bay looks great although the mono sound is a bit muddled. Downbeat ending doesn't really deliver the goods and I can't tell if Rita's makeover is supposed to be deliberately funny or not. Opening 10 minutes are great but director Collinson abandons the film's earlier, psychedelic editing style once Tushingham and Briant hook up. Still worth catching for the 70s period costumes and sets.

An ordinary, shy Liverpool girl leaves home and moves to London to find a father for the baby she desires. She becomes attracted to a stranger, unaware he is a serial killer. Ineffective, bleak thriller based on a weak story and the result is a film which is lacking in suspense. Rita Tushingham stars as the girl who is unbelievably naive and Shane Briant as the killer who is not quite sinister enough.

A conventionally offbeat early seventies psycho-thriller alive with zooms the way today's are with steadicam in which Rita Tushingham is a waif from the provinces who is abused by a smoothly misogynistic control freak upon her arrival in the big city the way she was seven years earlier in 'The Knack'. It's quickly obvious were all this is going, but the vivid location work around Earl's Court and a good cast (most of them - like a feral Annie Ross in huge hair and a tiny dress - actually seen only fleetingly) keeps you watching; despite rather than because of it's gimmick in constantly referencing Peter Pan.

I hadn't seen this movie for decades because it hasn't been shown on terrestrial TV for years, but I decided to buy the Region 1 DVD release (there's no official Region 2 UK release as yet) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Well it's difficult to dislike Rita Tushingham in any film, but it's directed in such a great style by the late/great Peter Collinson (director of The Italian Job (1969)fame), with a bleak beginning that could only be Britian of the 1960's/1970's and with a real snap shot of how things were in London back then. This is a very different type of film from Hammer, when compared to their usual offerings and must have been truly shocking back then with it's level of cruelty, but it's a classic movie you simply have to own and the fact it's unavailable in the UK (the very place it was made & with an all British cast) is scandalous.

Niave, homely Brenda ("A Taste of Honey"'s Rita Tushingham) desperate to find a man willing to give her a baby, leaves home to move in to an apartment with her "friend", after she back stabs her. She runs into the night only to find and kidnap a dog in hopes of meeting it's owner. Which she does. But life isn't romantified and has little use for idle dreamers. This is one of the later Hammer films, and i adore it. It's nihilististic, misogynistic, realistic tone is great. Well acted and suspenseful. This physcological thriller is one to see. On the downside, none of the characters are really sympathetic. My Grade: B DVD Extras: Commentary by Rita Tushington and Journalist Jonathan Sothcott; Peter Collinson Bio; and Theatrical Trailer

The swinging sixties are coming to an end in swinging London but there are still some hang overs from the 1950s and still plenty of odd ball characters. Pregnancy outside of marriage was still much looked down upon and under the guise of the 'flower children' it was perfectly possible for even homicidal maniacs to not seem out of place. Rita Tushingham is as great as ever and this much under rated actress puts in one of her more endearing performances. Shane Briant is eerily convincing as the psycho and the rest of the cast including James Bolam are all fine. Some decent location shooting is always appreciated around this time and here we get a couple of boutiques and some very moody stuff around the then recently completed South Bank complex. Plenty of surprises and well worth catching as one of the most unusual hammer movies.