Monday, October 26, 2020

Movie review - "Deadly Strangers" (1975) ** (warning: spoilers)

 One of a few thrillers Hayley Mills made as she tried to reinvent herself. The main issue with this is it doesn't quite have enough plot for a feature and Sidney Hayers, who made a few enjoyable movies, doesn't have the style to cover that up.

Mills has a mumsy haircut that doesn't flatter her. Simon Ward appears as a guy who gives her a lift. Sterling Hayden has this random role where he's in it for about ten minutes as some old codger who gives Mills a lift and falls in love with her then disappears.

The big twist is (spoilers) its Mills who is the psycho when we think it's Ward. This is revealed by a newspaper headline with big photos of Ward and Mills. But hardly anyone seems to recognise them, which feels like a chat. We don't find out Mills is a psycho until the very end. It would have been a better movie had we found out earlier - gotten tension out of the last half hour knowing.

Mills does a bit of nudity here - shows her bum in a bath as she did in The Family Way, goes in lingere in a fantasy sequence, and goes topless. But she's got that unflattering haircut. Her performance is professional rather than inspired.  Ward isn't bad. The visual look is very 70s Britain.

Jimmy Sangster and Hammer simply told this story much better in the sixties.

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