From the title and year of release, one might reasonably expect Hammer's Paranoiac to be a blatant Psycho rip-off. There's definitely more than a little bit of Hitch about the film, dealing as it does with death and insanity, but this chiller from director Freddie Francis is far from a slavish copy, delivering its own very British brand of madness and murder, in many ways more unhinged than Psycho (although not quite as brilliantly executed and with far less iconic music and imagery).
Francis's film revolves around the wealthy Ashby family, who, eleven years after the deaths of patriarch John Ashby and his wife Mary in a plane crash, and eight years after the disappearance of eldest son Tony (presumed dead from suicide), are in a bit of a state: Tony's younger brother Simon is a drunken hellraiser (the role not exactly a stretch for actor Oliver Reed) who would dearly like his pretty sister Eleanor (Janette Scott) to be certified insane, so he can inherit her share of the estate; Eleanor is already well on the way to the funny farm, suffering terribly from the loss of her sibling, so much so that she needs a live-in nurse to cater for her needs; and Aunt Harriet is suspicious and untrusting - especially when a man turns up at the house purporting to be Tony, returning home after eight years of travelling. Even the nurse, Francoise (Liliane Brousse), isn't all she claims to be.
So far, so crazy, but it gets a whole lot more demented than that! Tony (Alexander Davion) turns out not to be Tony, just as Aunt Harriet suspects -- he's an imposter hired by the son of the family lawyer to swindle the Ashby's out of their fortune. Eleanor, reunited with Tony, or the man she believes to be Tony, becomes far more coherent, at least until she falls in love with the man she thinks is her brother, after which she thinks she is mad. To try and ensure that he gets all of the inheritance, Simon attempts to kill both Tony (or the man who is claiming to be Tony) and Eleanor, but his plan fails; it turns out that it's not the first time Simon has had murder on his mind, nor will it be the last. Aunt Harriet, meanwhile, has been skulking round in a creepy mask and pretending to be Tony as a child to prevent Simon from going completely insane. She doesn't succeed.
Paranoiac is quite preposterous, but thoroughly entertaining, with a wonderfully bonkers turn from Reed, some well handled scenes of tension (Tony's car teetering over the edge of a cliff being a nail-biting highlight), and lots of intrigue and suspense. All this and the lovely Janette Scott and sexy mademoiselle Brousse to boot! It might not be as brilliant or as groundbreaking as Psycho, but it's still a whole lot of fun. 7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.
Francis's film revolves around the wealthy Ashby family, who, eleven years after the deaths of patriarch John Ashby and his wife Mary in a plane crash, and eight years after the disappearance of eldest son Tony (presumed dead from suicide), are in a bit of a state: Tony's younger brother Simon is a drunken hellraiser (the role not exactly a stretch for actor Oliver Reed) who would dearly like his pretty sister Eleanor (Janette Scott) to be certified insane, so he can inherit her share of the estate; Eleanor is already well on the way to the funny farm, suffering terribly from the loss of her sibling, so much so that she needs a live-in nurse to cater for her needs; and Aunt Harriet is suspicious and untrusting - especially when a man turns up at the house purporting to be Tony, returning home after eight years of travelling. Even the nurse, Francoise (Liliane Brousse), isn't all she claims to be.
So far, so crazy, but it gets a whole lot more demented than that! Tony (Alexander Davion) turns out not to be Tony, just as Aunt Harriet suspects -- he's an imposter hired by the son of the family lawyer to swindle the Ashby's out of their fortune. Eleanor, reunited with Tony, or the man she believes to be Tony, becomes far more coherent, at least until she falls in love with the man she thinks is her brother, after which she thinks she is mad. To try and ensure that he gets all of the inheritance, Simon attempts to kill both Tony (or the man who is claiming to be Tony) and Eleanor, but his plan fails; it turns out that it's not the first time Simon has had murder on his mind, nor will it be the last. Aunt Harriet, meanwhile, has been skulking round in a creepy mask and pretending to be Tony as a child to prevent Simon from going completely insane. She doesn't succeed.
Paranoiac is quite preposterous, but thoroughly entertaining, with a wonderfully bonkers turn from Reed, some well handled scenes of tension (Tony's car teetering over the edge of a cliff being a nail-biting highlight), and lots of intrigue and suspense. All this and the lovely Janette Scott and sexy mademoiselle Brousse to boot! It might not be as brilliant or as groundbreaking as Psycho, but it's still a whole lot of fun. 7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.