Straight On Till Morning (1972) 1/5
Rita Tushingham plays a rather pathetic and timid Brenda, who moves to London in a desperate move to find someone who will give her a baby. Like you do. Of course, this was before the days when you could advertise on Facebook, get someone to come around and get you pregnant, delete and block them, then meet up with them again some years in the future on Jeremy Kyle.
Unfortunately for her, the first man who shows any interest, after she makes the initial pursuit, is psychotic Peter, played by Hammer regular Shane Briant, who has the unfortunate compulsion to destroy anything of beauty, be it women or, erm, dogs.
Peter’s own dog is safe from harm, flea bitten old scamp that she is. But then Brenda comes along, armed with a bottle of shampoo and a lovely pink ribbon…..
We soon learn that Peter is behind the disappearance of several girls in the Earl’s Court area of London. Rest assured, Plain Jane Brenda is perfectly safe among the capital’s bright young things. That is, until she decides to help herself to some of Peter’s money and goes out to have a make over. Purely to please him, you understand. She has a habit of these faux pax, doesn’t she?
“Mirror mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” For God’s sake name Snow White.
In the beginning the film jumps around a little, drags in the middle, and has an ambiguous ending: Brenda learns the truth of Peter’s true nature when he plays her a horrific audio recording of him killing his dog, and also of the murder of Brenda’s friend, and she tries in vain to flee from his home while he assures her he would never harm her. The last thing we see is him sitting alone, with no sign of her. Is she in the bedroom? Did he kill her? Do we care?
The film does have its moments, as well as its fans, but I hated it. It was too slow, and the character of Brenda was too pitiful for me to care about. This is one of the few Hammer films that I wouldn’t sit through again. I’m not really selling it to you, am I?
“We are watching it again? Noooooo!!!!!!!!! “
Released as a double feature with Fear In The Night (last week’s Hammer post), Fear is far superior to this one.
Hammer don’t do love stories, but if they did…….
City Jackdaw 
your commentary almost makes me want to watch it….almost. Poir doggy though.Bad hair day!
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Well, some people like it…one man’s meat and all that…but no, if I was you I’d steer clear. And yes-that poor dog was the only character that moved me. 🙂
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*poor* i mean.
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And I do think that that dog was a great actor. Look at that expression: a resigned, accepting look, coupled with a ‘Do you realise what you have done to me?’ look. Move over Lassie.
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:)))
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I’ve never seen this. I probably will continue avoiding it now. Is “straight on till morning” a Peter Pan reference? Is Peter the boy who never really grew up?
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I don’t know, I never really thought of that. Yes, I would give it a miss. Documenting the Hammer films I’ve watched means the bad aswell as the good 🙂
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