A Movie Nearly Every Night: Paranoiac

Paranoiac (1963)
Dir. Freddie Francis
Starring: Janette Scott, Oliver Reed, Sheila Burrell, Alexander Davion

he's my brother, he's my boyfriend,
he's my brother, he's my boyfriend

Perhaps not one of the more well-known of the Hammer Films, but so far it's the best one we've watched. Although it's got the requisite busty foreign actress (poor Liliane Brousse as the put-upon nurse Francoise) it's not as gaudy as Brides of Dracula or Lust for a Vampire. It is, however, suspenseful and weird and full of fun little twists, and, by God, it's got Oliver Reed. How can it be bad?

What happens when you tell Oliver Reed there's no more booze

He's fascinating. You can't stop looking at him. Even in black and white you can feel those blue eyes staring you down through the screen, and that voice flowing out like bees trapped in their own honey. Dude. I can't get enough. Not that the other actors are bad, because they're great, doing exactly what they're supposed to do, but Ollie's the one you watch whenever he's on the screen. What's he doing now? How's he going to react? Is he acting or just being Oliver Reed?

Simon, Aunt Harriet and Tony - but which one are you really looking at?

He's tortured. He's a gad-about. He's mad. He's misunderstood. But what about these other people? Is Eleanor mad as well? Is Tony, the brother who returns after faking his own suicide, really Tony? And Aunt Harriet, what's her story? She's absurdly close to crazy Simon. What is she up to? I love Sheila Burrell, by the way. She's got a great character face.

"There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm."

But what's particularly interesting about this movie -- aside from Oliver Reed and Sheila Burrell -- is the way it's filmed. Sometimes there are these weird irises around the central part of the frame. It's very Guy Maddin. But it's not through the entire movie, just where you need the tunnel-vision of paranoia. The world is closing in on poor crazy Simon - what to do? what to do?

Acting? maybe... maybe not

We looked up Freddie Francis on imdb.com and turns out he's this incredible cinematographer who not only shot The Elephant Man (1980) but also did arguably the best of the British New Wave films: Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and Room at the Top (1959). He knew how to make that black and white creepy, focused and exciting. Sometimes it's contrasty, sometimes it's muted, but most of the time it's just plain sucking you in.

Under another director it may have ended up more like the other Hammer productions -- the credited cinematographer here is Arthur Grant, who cranked out Hammer films one after the other, and left to his own devices might have just flipped the camera on and watched it go. Instead this is definitely in a league of its own.

Ollie from under the lily pond. He's coming for you next.