Rent Taste of Fear (1961)
3.8 of 5 from 88 ratings
1h 18min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Wheelchair-bound heiress Penny Appleby (Susan Strasberg) arrives at the Cote d'Azur to live with her estranged father. Penny's stepmother Jane (Ann Todd) informs her that her father has left suddenly on business. That night Penny visits the summer house, where she sees her father's corpse propped up in a chair. Further disturbing incidents are also witnessed solely by Penny. A local doctor, Pierre Gerrard (Christopher Lee), speculates that the girl might be going insane. Penny confides in the family's chauffeur Bob (Ronald Lewis), believing that Jane and Gerrard are attempting to have her certified and thus cheated out of her inheritance. Penny's trust is cruelly betrayed before the horrifying truth is revealed... - Actors:
- Susan Strasberg, Ronald Lewis, Ann Todd, Christopher Lee, John Serret, Leonard Sachs, Anne Blake, Fred Johnson, Heinz Bernard, Bernard Browne, Rodney Burke, Brian Jackson, Richard Klee, Madame Lobegue, Frederick Rawlings, Frederick Schrecker, Gordon Sterne
- Directors:
- Seth Holt
- Producers:
- Jimmy Sangster
- Writers:
- Jimmy Sangster
- Aka:
- Scream of Fear
- Studio:
- Sony
- Genres:
- Classics, Horror, Thrillers
- Collections:
- A Brief History of Hammer Horror, inema Paradiso's 2023 Centenary Club: Part 2, A Brief History of Film...
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 25/11/2019
- Run Time:
- 82 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.66:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- (0) All
- Bonus:
- Two presentations of the film: 'Taste of Fear', with the rarely seen original UK title sequence, and 'Scream of Fear', with the alternative US titles
- New audio commentary with Kevin Lyons, editor of The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film and Television
- Body Horror: Inside 'Taste of Fear' (2019, 23 mins): new and exclusive documentary, featuring Alan Barnes, Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby, exploring aspects of the film's production Hammer's Women: Ann Todd (2019, 12 mins): profile of the Taste of Fear actor by Melanie Williams, author of Female Stars of British Cinema: The Women in Question
- The BFI Southbank Interview with Jimmy Sangster (2008, 68 mins): archival audio recording of the celebrated filmmaker and screenwriter in conversation with Marcus Hearn at London's BFI Southbank
- The BEHP Video Interview with Jimmy Sangster (2008, 117 mins): archival video recording, made as part of the British Entertainment History Project, featuring Sangster in conversation with Jonathan Rigby
- The BEHP Interview with Douglas Slocombe, Part Two: From Hammer to Spielberg (1988, 82 mins): archival audio recording featuring the renowned cinematographer in conversation with Sidney Cole
- Fear Makers (2019, 9 mins): camera operator Desmond Davis and assistant sound editor John Crome recall the making of the film
- Anxiety and Terror (2019, 25 mins): i appreciation of Clifton Parker's score by David Huckvale, author of Hammer Films' Psychological Thrillers, 1950-1972
- Super 8 version of Scream of Fear (20 mins): original cut-down home cinema ; presentation Original US Scream of Fear theatrical trailer
- Sam Hamm trailer commentary (2013, 2 mins): short critical appreciation
- Image gallery: promotional and publicity materials
- UK premiere on Blu-ray
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Reviews (1) of Taste of Fear
Twisty Thriller. - Taste of Fear review by Steve
In 1955, the release of the French thriller Les Diaboliques reset the genre for the next ten years, with its mood of psychological uncertainty, and the ostentatiously twisty plot capped by a big final reveal which hopefully upends the audience's expectations. No studio ploughed this furrow deeper than Hammer.
And no film ripped of the motifs of Henri-Georges Clouzot's classic as audaciously as Taste of Fear. There's even a body hidden in a swimming pool... But no matter, the illusion works again and this is the best of the Hammer psychological suspense films. The performances are persuasive and director Seth Holt evokes a pleasing noir sensibility.
Susan Strasbourg calls on the luxurious coastal mansion of her estranged, wealthy father only to be informed by his new wife (Ann Todd) that he has been suddenly called away. The teenager is vulnerable because she is confined to a wheelchair, and soon she begins to be confronted by her father's corpse. Is she crazy, or is the stepmother...
Well, the audience is requested by the management of the cinema not to divulge the ending of this exciting suspense thriller. It's a woman in peril film which benefits from a quietly menacing portrayal by Ann Todd. Aspects of the plot are contrived, and don't work at all on a second viewing. But, it remains a fun, entertaining shocker.
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