Fanatic (film)

Fanatic
UK theatrical release poster
Directed by Silvio Narizzano
Produced by Anthony Hinds
Written by Richard Matheson
Based on the novel Nightmare
by Anne Blaisdell
Starring Tallulah Bankhead
Stefanie Powers
Donald Sutherland
Music by Wilfred Josephs
Cinematography Arthur Ibbetson
Edited by John Dunsford
Production
company
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date
 21 March 1965
Running time
 97 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English

Fanatic (US title: Die! Die! My Darling!) is a 1965 British thriller directed by Silvio Narizzano for Hammer Films. It stars Tallulah Bankhead, Stefanie Powers, Peter Vaughan, Yootha Joyce, Maurice Kaufmann and Donald Sutherland.

First released in theaters on 21 March 1965 in United Kingdom, it was filmed at Elstree Studios and on location in Letchmore Heath, Hertfordshire, during the summer of 1964. It was Bankhead's final feature film.

Plot details

An American woman, Patricia Carroll (Powers), arrives in London to get married to her lover Alan Glentower (Kaufmann). Before she gets married, Patricia wants to pay her respects to Mrs. Trefoile (Bankhead), the mother of her deceased fiancé Stephen (who died in an automobile accident several years earlier) at a secluded house on the edge of an English village. Mrs. Trefoile is fanatically religious, and it soon becomes apparent she blames Patricia for her son's death. Patricia reveals to her that she was not actually going to marry Stephen, who, it turns out, committed suicide. With the help of her two married servants Harry (Vaughn) and Anna (Joyce), Mrs. Trefoile holds Patricia captive in an attempt to cleanse Patricia's soul. After Mrs. Trefoile kills Harry, she then tries to kill Patricia. Patricia is rescued by Alan. Anna finds Harry's body, and finally Mrs. Trefoile falls dead with a knife in her back—presumably stabbed by Anna.

Cast

Critical reception

Variety wrote that the film "should click with fright fans," praising Narizzano's direction as "imaginative" and the script as having dialogue that was generally "fresher than most pix of its class" while giving Bankhead "numerous chances to display virtuosity, from sweet-tongued menace to maniacal blood-lust."[1] The Monthly Film Bulletin declared: "Though uneven in tone (to put it mildly), this piece of extravagance is at least consistently enjoyable ... One suspects here a laudable determination in Miss Bankhead not to be outdone by Bette Davis' Baby Jane. Still, why cavil? There is enough here to give horror addicts a field day on various levels."[2] A. H. Weiler of The New York Times wrote that although Bankhead "towers above the cast and story, her present effort adds little to her record."[3]

The film maintains a 44% rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on 9 reviews.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Die, Die, My Darling". Variety: 6. April 28, 1965.
  2. ↑ "Fanatic". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 32 (375): 51. April 1965.
  3. ↑ Weiler, A. H. (May 20, 1965). "The Screen: Tallulah Bankhead in a Horror Film". The New York Times: 52.
  4. ↑ "Die! Die! My Darling! (1965)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 5 March 2017.


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