Wednesday, October 22, 2014

2014 Horror Countdown: Taste of Fear (1961)



Taste of Fear (1961), dir. Seth Holt, Hammer Film Productions

Released in the US as Scream of Fear, Hammer’s thriller was quite shocking for its time and more so when looking at the company’s later output. It does make one wonder if the company would have fared better if they had to recapture the magic of this film rather than churning more vampire flicks.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/01/Taste_of_Fear_poster.jpg



On a Swiss lake, a team of police discover the body of missing teen Emily Frencham. Emily was on holiday with her best friend Penny Appleby (Susan Strasberg), who can only say that her friend left in the middle of the night.

A while later, Penny arrives at the Nice-Cote d’Azure airport expecting to be picked up by her father (Fred Johnson), only the old man isn’t there. The pair hasn’t been very close; in fact Penny hasn’t spoken to or seen her father in almost a decade since her parents divorced and her paralysis in a riding accident. Her mother having died recently has more or less left Penny homeless, but her father was kind enough to invite her to his home in the south of France.

Of course, this hardly explains why he isn’t there to greet her, but his chauffer Bob (Ronald Lewis) is; stepmother Jane (Ann Todd) is waiting back at the house and has gone to some effort to make the girl feel welcome. This doesn’t explain where her father is though, as the man apparently rushed out for a business related manner some days ago without giving word. Bob finds this funny, as the man he works for is so sickly that leaving the house is a nigh Herculean task. The older man’s personal doctor, Dr. Gerrard (Christopher Lee) is also suspicious, hanging around the house too much and seeming far too friendly with Jane. 
Penny’s first night there is fine, but as she’s turning in for the night she notices a light on in the guest house. Curious, as Jane swore they would be the only people there (Bob living above the garage), Penny goes to investigate. Her findings: Her father-quite dead.

Panicked, Penny wheels herself out of the house and into the pool by accident. Jane and Bob fish her out of the pool and take inside. When she is recovered enough to talk, Jane is quick to dismiss her, as her father informed her that Penny has always been a nervous girl with an overactive imagination. Opening the guest house the next morning reveals no bodies, Mr. Appleby or anyone else. Bob sees, however, a chunk of hardened candle wax, like the kind that would be left behind if one left a lit candle. Not a hundred percent convinced but not trusting Jane either, Bob and Penny team up to find out what happened to her father. 

Honestly, this film surprised me. Lee plays his character with the right amount of care and smug. Is he a friendly doctor or a murderer? Is Penny correct or is she going mad?

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