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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Saturday, July 27, 2019

Paranoiac (1963)

Starring Janette Scott, Oliver Reed, Sheila Burrell, Maurice Denham, Alexander Davion
Directed by Freddie Francis
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A young woman on the verge of a breakdown due to her brother's suicide eight years before is overjoyed when a man resembling him rescues her, but her family suspects he's an imposter.

One of Hammer Films' suspense thrillers, the picture is well photographed and directed, with a twisting screenplay by Jimmy Sangster.  Scott and Davion make a good screen couple, but Reed makes the most impact as Scott's drunkard brother, prone to screaming fits and acts of violence.  It's a difficult role to play without going over the top, but I think Reed succeeds, and adds a legitimately fearsome character to his filmography.  There's some good suspenseful scenes, particularly one involving an automobile falling over a crumbling cliff, which is well-staged by Francis.  I think that this production ranks well among the other thrillers Hammer produced, and has some memorably eerie and disturbing moments building up to the climax.

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