Die Screaming, Marianne

I recently started looking at the work of British rough trade director Pete Walker, an individual who during the 1970’s tried to adapt the British horror/thriller genre to be more modern, picking up current issues and giving them a funky twist. Die Screaming, Marianne released back in 1971 was the movie that really put the director on the map, with its twisted tale of bizarre practices, betrayal, incest, deception, and mental illness.

 

Opening with Go Go dancer Marianne (Susan George) begins the movie in a bedroom having seduced a sailor the night before in a small Algarve town. Rudely awoken though by the arrival of a shady looking Portuguese man, Marianne sneaks out through an open window to escape, the reason for this escape is shrouded in secrecy. Walking down the road she encounters Sebastian (Christopher Sandford), who whisks her away back to England so she can set up a new life. On the day of her marriage to Sebastian Marianne suspects something is wrong, and falls into the arms of Eli Frome (the late Barry Evans). But as her sinister past in Portugal catches up with her, Marianne, Eli and Sebastian are all forced to go to Portugal to face the sinister Judge, and his daughter Hildegard, who just so transpire to be Marianne’s father and sister.

 

Die Screaming, Marianne is much criticised movie that has its heart in the right place, but it’s soul buried elsewhere thanks for its appalling acting skills, and Walker’s then harsh direction. But with this taken into account I really enjoyed the movie, I found it a touch refreshing although at times a little predictable.

 

The movie despite being a British offering has something incredibly European about it, almost as a reflection of the increased interest in the European horror and thriller movies of Italy. What is good though is unlike so many of these Brit movies that look like Brits abroad, Walker direction allows for a genuinely European look. The movie is split 50/50 between time in Portugal and in England.

 

For fans of 70’s cinema this is almost like the ultimate resource, you get a very precise view of life in England, specifically Brighton and London during the 1970’s. It’s fascinating to look at the way the streets look, the movies at the cinemas, posters, and newspaper stand signs. While all around are the tell tale signs of a rapidly changing society, drugs and free love both hinted at but never properly addressed.

 

Back onto the movie in general and despite my earlier comment about the poor acting I should add that both Susan George and Barry Evans both put their heart and soul into the movie; George shows the sort of feistiness she returned to later in the same year with Sam Peckinpah’s Cornish Western Straw Dogs, to be fair she is where she is this movie simply due to her smouldering sexuality, and this is played up more than her acting skill. While Evan’s is essentially used as a tool for the movie, but his performances is straight up, this was actually the last serious movie Evans starred in. The acting comedy comes from a quartet of clowns; Leo Genn a familiar horror actor delivers an abysmally creepy performance as the Judge. Christopher Sandford a DJ from the likes of Radio Caroline is just diabolical, that’s if you can get beyond the humour of his hair. Judy Huxtable here nearing the end of her acting career is just completely vacant; she cannot have the decency to even be attacked in a decent manner, as Marianne’s murderously obsessed sister she actually comes across as more of a drag queen than a woman, a very bizarre casting indeed. Finally Kenneth Hendal plays the dodgy butler Rodriguez, here tanned up so that he looks Portuguese but is so obviously British.

 

The story goes well beyond the boundaries of typical British fare of the era; it’s an incredibly sexual piece that once having broken the boundaries of sexual inhibition pushes the envelope a bit further by having a vicious stab at incest. It’s hard to believe that the same country that delivered stodgy looking Hammer horror movies around the same time was capable of delivering this sort of very new terror, although personally it gave me no fears.

 

Despite the flaws I really enjoyed Die Screaming, Marianne; it was a really heavily layered movie with an awful lot of depth to it, it to some degree seemed like two movies jammed into one. The story is well developed, with well rounded corners all the way, although there are a few moments where you almost enter cartoon filmmaking because it seems that script writer Murray Smith literally though on his feet as the script continued. The one thing that let the movie down are those abysmal performances, and even though I did start to warm to Leo Genn his appearances on screen were suddenly cut short just as his performance improved, only allowing you to remember the negatives.