Hammer Again

 

STOP ME BEFORE I KILL!-1960-Race driver Alan Colby (Ronald Lewis) has trouble adjusting after a car crash. He's very argumentative and paranoid and has the feeling he wants to kill his wife Denise (Diane Cilento). She convinces him to go see a French doctor Prade (Claude Daupin) who he doesn't like (he punched him at a dinner party!). The doc tries to help him and seems to succeed but then Denise disappears. Has he killed her? 

Interesting if a little drawn out psychological English drama from Hammer Pictures directed by Val Guest (THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN).

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Black & White Hammer

SHADOW OF THE CAT-1961-With the help of two servants (Michael Crawford and Freda Jackson) Walter (Andre Morell) kills his wife and has her buried in the forest. There are no witnesses except for the victim's cat. All seems to go as planned until the cat keeps popping up, driving the trio to paranoid delusions as they try to kill it. When Walter suffers a heart attack while trying to do in puss, his unsuspecting niece Beth (Barbara Shelly) comes to take care of him. She doesn't understand what the big to-do is about the cat but her boyfriend Michael (Conrad Phillips) suspects the truth (she doesn't believe him though). Deaths by falling, quicksand and stairs eliminate some prying greedy relatives and after they are all gone the cat leads Beth and Michael to the dead woman's grave. 

This little black and white Hammer melodrama was directed by John Gilling (THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS) and plays like an extended version of THRILLER or ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS.

Lady Bug

LADYBUG LADY BUG-1963-A panic arises at a small elementary school when it appears they get a warning of a nuclear attack. The principal (William Daniels) sends all the kids home and along the way their fear and paranoia grows. It seems to end tragically with one girl hiding in an abandoned refrigerator and a boy losing his mind when he hears a plane flying over head. Though it might seem tame today I'd bet it scared a few moviegoers back in the turbulence of the early '60's. 

The husband-wife team of Frank Perry (director) and Eleanor Perry (screenwriter) made other offbeat, unusual films including THE SWIMMER and DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE. Frank later directed MOMMIE DEAREST.

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Jersey Devil

THE BARRENS-A dysfunctional family goes camping in The Pine Barrens in NJ where years before dad Richard (Steven Moyer) had an encounter with the Jersey devil. Now he wants to scatter this grandfather's ashes. They are in a group with some others and a stupid guy tells them the story of a woman who gave birth to a devil. Later the family leaves the group and goes on their own. Richard seems rather paranoid and has strange delusions. When they find a mysterious abandoned camp Richard insists they stay there. Later he admits he killed the family dog. Is Richard nuts or has he got rabies from a dog bite? Despite his violent incoherent behavior it turns out there really is a Jersey devil (terrible effect). Only the children survive but no one believes their story. At the end, the sister joins a group going to hunt the monster down. 

Director/writer Darren Lynn Bousman made this disjointed horror film (shot in Canada) a few years after directing several SAW sequels.  

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