Hysteria (1965)

"Hysteria" is a decent and enjoyable thriller that serves it's purpose well.**SPOILERS**Awakening in an English hospital, American Chris Smith, (Robert Webber) confides in Dr Keller, (Anthony Newlands) about his inability to remember anything before a recent car accident. Released from the hospital after finally healed, he finds that all of his accommodations are being met by a mysterious benefactor, including a nice apartment. Determined to solve the mysteries surrounding him, he hires Hemmings, (Maurice Denham) a private detective, to help unlock his history, only for more revelations to come up that make the case even weirder. When he starts to piece together the events of the past, all it does is manage to make it even harder to figure out. Finally unlocking the key piece of evidence to make the whole thing fit together, he is soon on the run for his life from a mysterious figure in his life trying to frame him for several murders as he tries to clear his name of the crimes.The Good News: This is actually much better than expected, and has some good points to it. The most telling aspect to this one is the fact that the story to it is so strong. This one has a lot of rather intriguing questions that keep it going along, from who his mysterious benefactor is to why the rest of the apartment building is empty except for him that are dealt with earlier on in the film, which make these parts of the film highly enjoyable. The questions that come from the later half, the mysterious, arguing voices he hears emanating nightly from the empty apartment next door to the bloodied knives to the photograph and the model's death are all nicely tied together with the amnesia angle, creating an effective mystery that must be solved which does it's job well. That the amnesia angle is so well-played as well makes it fun, since it's a normal plot-element that here is taken to rather fun extremes with the name-mishap and more coming to light to produce a really nice mystery that moves the film along. The film also manages to get a little excitement going along when they feature these aspects, specifically the arguing-neighbors subplot as that one tends to elicit the most exciting scenes from the film, making for some fun times in here. Of special note is the walk-through with the running shower and the bloody knife on the floor and a later one where he tears through the apartment looking for the cause of the noises. Both are the best bits of injecting some energy into the proceedings and are quite enjoyable. The last plus here is the fact that the film has an incredibly enjoyable ending that gets a lot right. From the revelations about the whole scenario to the reasons and motivations for it, which are nicely spelled out and get a couple of good points out of it, and it ends the film on a high-note. These are the film's good points.The Bad News: There wasn't too much really wrong with this one, yet those flaws are pretty big. One of the biggest flaws is that it's just not that fast-paced a film, leading many scenes to be slow-going and quite dull. The film is quite the opposite of those looking for some excitement in their films, tending to take the mostly-through-talking approach, preferring to spell everything out through dialog than anything else that could've helped this one, which is really where most of the problems with it come from. These are the film's biggest revelation scenes, yet here it does nothing for the film except draw out the boredom by not doing anything all that exciting or interesting, and that doesn't make for very enjoyable times. This one really could've moved along much faster and not been as dialog-heavy. The other flaw to this is the fact that the middle of the film is a lengthy flashback scene that doesn't really do much of anything. It is supposedly put there to explain what's been going on at the time, but instead of clarifying the confusion, it doesn't do anything other than show how the accident happened at the end of a scene where he meets up with an unknown woman and manages to sneak into the country in order to be able to have the whole situation happen to him. It's not unnecessary, but it doesn't do what it should've done by clearing away the confusion. These here are the film's biggest flaws, although the pacing one will be the hardest to overcome.The Final Verdict: Not exactly the most energetic of horror films, but as a thriller it's not that bad and actually quite entertaining. Give it a chance if you're into these kinds of films, a fan of Hammer horror or are in the mood for something different, while those looking for straight-up horror should look at the company's other output.Today's Rating-PG: Violence

This is one of the low-budget black & white thrillers Hammer Studio in England made in the early 1960s. Chris Smith (Robert Webber) is an American in London and has complete amnesia after a car crash. An anonymous person pays for his medical treatment and buys him a penthouse in a deserted high rise. Almost immediately he starts hearing voices and sees hints of a murder--but is it real or is he imaging things? There are a few major problems with this movie--there's a pointlessly loud jazz score that was totally at odds with the subject matter, Webber smirks his way through his performance, the plot was needlessly convoluted and it was pretty easy to guess who was doing what. Still this is an OK thriller. It was beautifully shot in moody black and white and well-directed by talented cinematographer Freddie Francis. The first half of the movie is also very good when Webber tries to figure out what's going on. When everything is revealed this starts to really unravel. Ultimately the plot is just too unbelievable to take seriously. This (understandably) got a bad reaction when released in 1965 and disappeared quickly. Still, there are far worse movies out there and this is fun in a turn off your brain kind of way. I give it a 6.

I really liked this film, lots of suspense with an interesting story line full of twists and turns as the plot unfolds.I quickly recorded this on late night TV in the UK without knowing anything about it just because i seen it listed as a hammer film and seen it stared Robert Webber who i knew from "12 Angry Men". I thought that would make a interesting combination but when you think of the kind of films that Hammer are more well known for this dose`nt quite fit in now that i`ve seen it. But i`m glad i did record it.What i like about it is Robert Webber seems to be going mad but is he? is he going mad or are we being made to think he is going mad? more to the point is someone trying to make him think he is mad ..... try and find a copy and find out, fans of psychological mysteries will love this one.

Those who love the psychological twisters of the sixties will find this one of the best, with its masterful twists and turns of the plot. The question in this film is: Is our hero (played with aplomb by Robert Webber) really going mad, or is someone trying to convince him he's mad? Is he seeing things and hearing voices or is someone playing ghastly tricks on him? If so, for what purpose?The ending leaves no strings untied, which in this case is a feat Hitchcock would be proud of, and in fact, you can see the influence of the Hitchcock films throughout this one. It especially reminds me of "Dial M for Murder". The film does seem very dated by today's standards, but is well worth a screening.