Paralyzed young woman in a wheelchair comes to stay with her wealthy, estranged father and stepmother in France; upon her arrival however, Dad is mysteriously missing ("away on business", his wife says), but the girl thinks she sees his corpse late one night in the guest house. Marvelous derivation of "Les Diaboliques", with well-written dialogue passages and terrific black-and-white cinematography. Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster plays a bit fast and loose with the details--and upon second viewing, the premise pretty much falls apart under inspection--yet the solid cast and fun denouement make up for the lapses in logic. In the lead, Susan Strasberg is quite good (though, again, the character doesn't make much sense in retrospect); still, it's probably one of the very few roles Strasberg got which managed to show off her placid beauty and vulnerability (the daughter of famed acting teacher Lee Strasberg, Susan was faced with insurmountable expectations and never found her niche in films). As the family chauffeur, Ronald Lewis commendably pulls off a tough act, behaving curiously yet with great sensitivity to the girl's plight. In the end, it all seems rather silly, but it's certainly a compact thriller which only dawdles during the confusing prologue. *** from ****
Review of Scream of Fear
