Twisted Nerve

Watch: Twisted Nerve

Unrated

2/26/19691h 52m

Theatrical Release (US)

~ Cleaver. Cleaver. Chop. Chop. First the mom and then the pop. Then we'll get the pretty girl. We'll get her right between the curl. ~

Overview:

Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession.

Director:

Roy Boulting

Status:

Released

Language:

English

Buget:

$0.00

Revenue:

$0.00

Key words:

obsession
down syndrome
stepfather
boarding house

Cast

Hayley Mills

~ as ~

Susan Harper

Hywel Bennett

~ as ~

Martin (Georgie) Durnley

Billie Whitelaw

~ as ~

Joan Harper

Frank Finlay

~ as ~

Henry Durnley

Barry Foster

~ as ~

Gerry Henderson

Phyllis Calvert

~ as ~

Enid Durnley

Salmaan Peerzada

~ as ~

Shashie Kadir

Christian Roberts

~ as ~

Philip Harvey

Gretchen Franklin

~ as ~

Clarkie

Timothy West

~ as ~

Superintendant Dakin

View full cast & crew

Reviews (1)

Wuchak
Written 4 month(s) ago
6
Hayley Mills in a late 60’s psychological drama-thriller

A 22 years-old man (Hywel Bennett) cops a childlike personality to get close to a winsome library worker in London (Mills). He seeks to get his foot in the door of her mother’s boarding house. Havoc ensues.

“Twisted Nerve” (1968) was influenced by Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (and even borrows Bernard Herrmann for the score), but it’s more dramatic and less over-the-top. Hayley was 21 years-old during shooting and thoroughly winsome, as usual, but she needed to eat some cheeseburgers. Meanwhile Billie Whitelaw is sultry as the mother in a subdued way.

There’s a curious voiceover at the beginning that states: “there is no established scientific connection between mongolism (aka Down Syndrome) and psychotic or criminal behavior.” Yet this was unnecessary in light of the fact that the key character in the movie doesn’t have Down Syndrome. Secondly, so a relative of a person with Down Syndrome has psychological issues and commits a serious crime or two, so what? Who in their right mind would draw the conclusion that EVERYONE related to a person with Down Syndrome would be that way?

Interesting tidbit: Tarantino borrowed the whistling tune from Herrmann’s score for “Kill Bill” (when Elle Driver impersonates a nurse) and “Death Proof” (heard as Abernathy Ross’ ringtone).

It runs 1 hour, 58 minutes, and was shot in Twickenham, which is just southwest of London (I’m talking about the Harper house, which happened to be the residence of Hayley’s family). Studio stuff was done in Shepperton, which is about 5 miles southwest of there.

GRADE: B-