Another film like 'The Ballad of Tam Lin' or 'Get Carter' in the sub-genre of what has been called on Twitter the 'Sixties Disillusionment Film'. (But then, one may ask, has there ever been a film about Swinging London that has ever been other than critical, or at least ambiguous about the whole parade?) Anyway this one is a product of Hammer Studios, purveyors of cheap, yet now cultish, horror. Though this offering may be more accurately and neatly categorised as violent psychological thriller. The director is Peter Collinson, of 'The Italian Job' fame - a film which unaccountably has never appeared on this blog and yet which I love. 'Straight on Till Morning' is however of a very different cut. I doubt it is something I could watch over again. That's not to say it's that bad only that it does make for uncomfortable viewing. There is something deeply unsettling, disturbing, about this film. Remorseless even. It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. Brenda a painfully naïve girl, played by Rita Tushingham, moves to London from an anonymous drab northern town looking for a husband for her baby. Brenda you might remember is the name of Tushingham's character in 'Smashing Time'. Poor Brenda, she seems doomed from the very beginning. In London she is a fish out of water. For a brief while things begin to right themselves when she gets a job in a fashion boutique and a room in a flat share. But then a chance with meeting with the cool, aloof Peter, played by Shane Briant, puts pay to all that. Things indeed get very dark.
Straight on Till Morning
1972
Director: Peter Collinson
Producer: Michael Carreras
Cinematographer: Bryan Probyn
No comments:
Post a Comment