Nightmare **** (1964, David Knight, Moira Redmond, Jennie Linden, Brenda Bruce) – Classic Movie Review 3,306

Director Freddie Francis’s 1964 Hammer Films British cult horror film Nightmare stars Jennie Linden as a girl in a finishing school plagued by nightmares after seeing her mother stab her father to death.

‘Unbelievable terror’, eh?

‘THREE SHOCKING MURDERS…did she DREAM them?… or DO them?’

Director Freddie Francis’s excellent 1964 Hammer Films psychological suspense horror thriller film Nightmare stars the 25-year-old Jennie Linden as troubled young heiress Janet, a student at a private school. She is being brought up in the absence of her parents by Grace Maddox and her guardian Henry Baxter (played by Moira Redmond and David Knight).

Alas, poor Janet is suffering from terrible nightmares in which she appears to have murdered someone, after witnessing in childhood her father’s knife death at the hands of her mother. It turns out that Janet’s mother is in fact locked in an insane asylum, so Janet has good reasons for her bad dreams. But nevertheless she is expelled from school and, back home, the nightmares continue apace…

Screen-writer/ producer Jimmy Sangster’s quintessential story is an intriguing mixture of traditional Gothic horror in the manner of Gaslight or Suspicion, with a dash of Les Diaboliques, and a post-Psycho insanity plot. But director Francis, following up his success with Paranoiac (1963), proves an expert hand at this kind of Hammer horror mystery and handles it extremely competently, indeed with considerable verve and style.

John Wilcox shoots the 35 mm film sleekly in Gothic horror-appropriate black and white, and in widescreen, Hammerscope.

In the starring role, Linden is excellent in one of her best known performances, while Moira Redmond and Brenda Bruce are tremendous in support.

Also in the cast are Brenda Bruce, John Welsh, George A Cooper, Irene Richmond, Timothy Bateson, Isla Cameron, Clytie Jessop, Elizabeth Dear, Julie Samuel and Hedger Wallace.

Running time: 82 minutes.

It was supposedly shot with the jokey working title of Here’s the Knife Dear: Now Use It, though they probably never intended to use it (the title, that is, not the Knife) and settled for the short generic Nightmare.

Jennie Linden (born 8 December 1939) was a last-minute replacement for Julie Christie who dropped out to film Billy Liar. Linden is best known for Women in Love (1969), Dr Who and the Daleks (1965) and Nightmare (1964), as well as A Severed Head (1970), Vampira (1974), Valentino (1977) and Charlie Muffin (1979).

Nightmare is the second of director Freddie Francis’s enjoyable Psycho-esque Hammer Horror trilogy, following Paranoiac (1963) and preceding Hysteria.

It premiered at the New Victoria Theatre in London on 19 April 1964, and was released by Rank Film Distributors in the UK on 31 May 1964 in a double bill supporting The Evil of Frankenstein.

The cast

The cast are David Knight as Henry Baxter, Moira Redmond as Grace Maddox, Jennie Linden as Janet Freeman, Elizabeth Dear as Young Janet Freeman, Brenda Bruce as Mary Lewis, George A Cooper as John, Clytie Jessop as Woman in White, Irene Richmond as Mrs Gibbs, John Welsh as Doctor, Timothy Bateson as Barman, Isla Cameron as Mrs Freeman, Irene Richmond, Julie Samuel and Hedger Wallace.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3,306

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

The movies in The Hammer Horror Series box set are The Brides of Dracula, The Curse of the Werewolf, The Phantom of the Opera, The Kiss of the Vampire, Paranoiac, The Evil of Frankenstein and Nightmare.