(1960)
Dir - Val Guest
Overall: MEH
One of the more talky psychological thrillers in Hammer's cannon, The Full Treatment, (Stop Me Before I Kill!, The Treatment), was a passion project for one of the studio's busiest directors Val Guest. After purchasing the film rights to Ronald Scott Thorn's novel of the same name, Guest produced and co-wrote the screenplay with the author and maybe because of this, it is loaded with busy dialog involving Ronald Lewis' troubled race car driver who suffers bouts of severe mood swings and violence towards his wife after both were involved in an automobile crash. While the cast turns in fittingly melodramatic performances and Guest utilizes some Hitchcockian style from behind the lens, the plot is monotonous and mostly revolves around waiting for Lewis to act like an asshole out of nowhere, which he does. This is intentional to showcase the frustration suffered by he and the characters around him, but the very concept of a pushy psychiatrist using such aggressive methods to crack his patient's mental affliction are more annoying than compelling.
(1963)
Dir - Michael Carreras
Overall: MEH
A bit of film noir by way of psychological thriller, Maniac, (The Maniac), was also one of several such Hammer movies to be scripted and produced by Jimmy Sangster at the time, who was briefly stepping away from the studio's Gothic horror vehicles. Set and particularly filmed in the South of France, it concerns a dupe played by Kerwin Mathews who has an affair with a married woman while also falling for her adopted adult daughter, getting played by the former in a convoluted ploy involving her husband who was committed to an asylum after murdering his daughter's rapist with a blowtorch. The wacky details sound more interesting on paper than they come across on screen unfortunately, with Hammer founder James Carreras' son, (producer-turned-director Michael Carreras), failing to keep up the momentum throughout the sluggish first half. Manipulative plot points eventually start kicking into gear, but it is too easy to tune out before that happens and there is not enough gusto to the presentation or the performances to elevate it.
(1965)
Dir - Seth Holt
Overall: MEH
Hammer's psycho-biddy entry The Nanny features a wonderfully low-key performance from Bette Davis, but its focus on a completely unlikable family makes it a tiring watch. Oddly enough, mainstay screenwriter Jimmy Sangster allegedly wanted Greer Garson in the title role and had to settle for Davis who was still hot off of her Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? success. Though she is not ranting and raving to her heart's content, Davis is still ideally suited as a traumatized woman who takes a curiously passive stance amongst the dysfunctional behavior of her employers. Young William Dix has the thankless responsibility of playing a mercilessly obnoxious brat, while James Villiers is his ice cold father and Wendy Craig his enabling, bed-ridden mother. Sangster's script does gradually shift where the audience's sympathies lie so that we feel more sorry for everyone as opposed to hating them, but the structure is clearly leading to a twist from the onset so it never ends up anywhere surprising. In other words, the kid that Dix plays cannot be THAT awful can he? Still, director Seth Hold handles everything with a sturdy hand and does not let the pace lull once everything settles into a routine second act.
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