I've heard a lot about this film but couldn't help being a bit disappointed by it now I've finally seen it. It's loved by film buffs because it's a film about film with a finger pointing at the audience for, as much as the perpetrator of, the murders committed. There's a film- within- a- film and references to Hitchcock, all very clever but as a horror film it fails to be very exciting through a lack of gore - the third murder's offscreen - and the casting of unattractive actresses.
Mark Lewis ( Carl Boehm ) is an attractive but socially awkward young man who is at once a landlord, a pornographer's assistant and a film cameraman. He has been seriously abused by his father using him as a filmed guinea pig for his studies in fear. Mark takes it one step further by concealing a spike in a leg of his tripod and murdering women so that he can film the fear in their faces at the point of death. Despite this he is portrayed as a sympathetic character in thrall to his ingrained obsessions.
Anna Massey ( as Helen Stephens )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
The bird-faced Massey, in only her second film here, was the Gail Platt of her generation and any film which has her as the love interest has an immediate problem. Nonetheless she became a formidable character actress on TV right up until her death from cancer in 2011 aged 73.
Moira Shearer ( as Vivian )
Sex : No
Death : Receives a spike in the throat from Mark
Moira was best known as a ballet dancer and was miscast here as a film extra and Mark's second victim after making her name in director Michael Powell's earlier film The Red Shoes. She is also remembered as the wife of campaigner and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy. She died in 2006 aged 80.
Pamela Green ( as Milly )
Sex : Appears topless in some cuts of the film
Death : Receives a spike in the throat from Mark
This was Pamela's first mainstream film and she basically played herself, a glamour model. She took a businesslike approach to her work and set up her own company Kamera.She later became a photographer's assistant. She died in 2010 aged 81.
Shirley Anne Field ( as Diane Ashley )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
Shirley Anne plays a meta-role as the actress in the film on which Mark is assisting,
Brenda Bruce ( as Dora )
Sex : Dora is a prostitute
Death : Receives a spike in the throat from Mark
Brenda was another very popular British character actress who kept working right up to her death in 1996 aged 76.
Margaret Neale ( as Mark's stepmother )
Sex : Appears in a bikini
Death : Not covered
This is Margaret's only film but she had a regular TV role in a series called Object Z and its sequel. She disappeared from view in the late sixties.
Susan Travers ( as Lorraine )
Sex : Appears with a hat and drape but otherwise nude
Death : Survives
Susan was originally Jennifer Leon from Chelsea and she is the niece of Virginia McKenna. We'll find her in other horror films and she was Barry Foster's wife in Van der Valk. She is now 78.
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