Actuakers
One of my all time favorites.
CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
mike dewey
This is by no means an esoteric, deeply psychological thriller, but entertain it does, and well at that. Not an unfamiliar plot thesis here but it is a cleverly laid out amnesia story and suitably paced melodrama with a lot of the usual mid 60's ambiance, including a nicely orchestrated jazz score, (from Don Banks & co.), which ever so deftly weaves in and out of a given scene with subtle acuity. Special kudos to the tenor sax player in the orchestra for his gorgeous musical renderings.It was nice to see the "Hammer" people opt for Robert Webber as the lead here, something he rarely got a chance to do stateside. The other cast members were more than competent in fulfilling the requirements of their respective roles which also helped make for a nice 90 minute flashback to an earlier time. The story itself takes a twist or two in the plot development to keep things interesting.Thanks go to TCM for airing films like this which would probably never be shown anywhere else.
preppy-3
This is one of the low-budget black & white thrillers Hammer Studio in England made in the early 1960s. Chris Smith (Robert Webber) is an American in London and has complete amnesia after a car crash. An anonymous person pays for his medical treatment and buys him a penthouse in a deserted high rise. Almost immediately he starts hearing voices and sees hints of a murder--but is it real or is he imaging things? There are a few major problems with this movie--there's a pointlessly loud jazz score that was totally at odds with the subject matter, Webber smirks his way through his performance, the plot was needlessly convoluted and it was pretty easy to guess who was doing what. Still this is an OK thriller. It was beautifully shot in moody black and white and well-directed by talented cinematographer Freddie Francis. The first half of the movie is also very good when Webber tries to figure out what's going on. When everything is revealed this starts to really unravel. Ultimately the plot is just too unbelievable to take seriously. This (understandably) got a bad reaction when released in 1965 and disappeared quickly. Still, there are far worse movies out there and this is fun in a turn off your brain kind of way. I give it a 6.
Paul Andrews
Hysteria starts in London where car accident victim Chris Smith (Robert Webber) is about to leave hospital after four months of recovering, he has total amnesia & cannot remember anything about himself not even his proper name. When brought into the hospital Chris had no wallet or form of identification & had no possessions other than a photo of a woman. While in hospital someone has been paying his medical bills & has sent the keys to a penthouse flat for him to live in rent free, Chris decides to accept his mysterious benefactor's hospitality & moves into the flat. There he sets about discovering who he was before he lost his memory although everything that he remembers might not be pleasant as several strange occurrences begin to happen...This English production was a link up between Hammer studios & MGM, directed by Freddie Francis this is a unusual little thriller although you shouldn't read too much into the fact it's a Hammer film as it's not the sort of thing you would typically associate with them. The script by producer Jimmy Sangster is a mysterious psychological thriller that builds up the plot about someone who can't remember anything about himself & has all these strange & peculiar things happen to him before everything is turned upside down where just about everyone is revealed to not be who you originally thought they were in a contrived & silly multiple twist ending that is only partially successful in my opinion. At only 85 minutes in length it moves along at a decent pace, the story is quite intriguing at times although I have to say I wasn't really ever gripped & that ending really is rather far fetched & hard to swallow. The character's are alright even if some are a bit optimistic in terms of what they think they can get away with! It's watchable enough I suppose but nothing brilliant & the ending just didn't surprise or impress me enough.Director Francis does alright here, the black and white photography is nice enough. I personally don't think Hysteria gains anything from being shot in black and white & it was almost certainly a decision made for financial rather than artistic reasons. There's no blood or gore & little horror in Hysteria which is a surprise since the 50's & 60's was when Hammer studios was having so much success with their horror films & I don't really understand why they would try to deviate from a successful & proved formula. The film reminds of Hictchcock's Psycho (1960) the way it's shot & the constant unsubtle references to dead women in shower's.Technically the film is good, it's well made on location in England & in the studio. The acting is solid although I doubt anyone is going to win any awards for it.Hysteria is a decent time waster, I didn't think it was outstanding & I didn't think the twist endings were all that great either, I certainly think the twists in more recent films like The Sixth Sense (1999) & Fight Club (1999) are much more effective.
Boba_Fett1138
This is an unusual little surprise from the Hammer Studio's and horror director Freddie Francis. It's a thriller in the style of Hitchcock.The movie and story are well constructed and there are quite some plot twists and mysterious elements in the movie. It truly leaves you guessing till the end so fans of the genre will be absolutely delighted.However the movie notably tries to create a film-noir kind of atmosphere and story and characters. It fails in it mainly because the backdrop of this movie, London, simply is no New York, Chicago or San Fransisco. Also director's Freddie Francis inexperience with this genre doesn't help much. It's too bad because the movie and certainly story were already good enough on it's own, it didn't needed extra style and atmosphere.The actors do their jobs well and they are believable enough in their roles. The cinematography by John Wilcox is also truly great at times. Director Freddie Francis himself of course also was a much famed director of photography and later did some well known movies such as; "The Elephant Man", "Glory" and "Cape Fear (1991)". So his skill almost certainly had something to do with the at times great cinematography in this movie.The Jazzy musical score of the movie however was awful. There are only two things I hate in this world; hospital clowns and Jazz. So, yes obviously I'm biased of course.A very surprising, watchable thriller.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
