Twisted Nerve (Boulting Brothers Collection) [DVD] [1968]

Beware, this is a region 2 DVD and will not play on US players. This is shown on the back of the DVD, but the back is not pictured here and it is not otherwise noted anywhere in the Amazon product description, even though that is critical information.

THE TWISTED NERVE is only available in the U.S. on a fuzzy bad-sounding DVD. This version from the UK has beautiful sharpness, color, and sound. Although the film was probably originally released in the European widescreen format of 1.66:1, this 1.33:1 version cuts offsome information from the sides but still looks great. THE TWISTED NERVE is in the tradition of British psycho-thrillers like PEEPING TOM but the big draw here is the spare score by Bernard Herrmann and the killer's haunting whistling theme which has been used by Quentin Tarantino in KILL BILL and the recent cable series AMERICAN HORROR STORY. It's also worth noting that two of the actors, Billie Whitelaw and Barry Foster, later showed up in Hitchcock's FRENZY. If you have a Region 2 or region-free player, this is a great way to see this rarely shown movie.

Unfortunately this DVD does not play on US format so it was a waste of money. To bad, I was looking forward to viewing this DVD.

The Boulting Brothers, John and Roy had had a success with "The Family Way" in 1967 and teamed again their co-stars, Hayley Mills and Hywel Bennett. Roy Boulting had started an affair with Hayley Mills, 20 years her senior and shocked her fans with a nude scene in "The Family Way."When work was begun on a Hitchcockian story, "Twisted Nerve" (from a screen story and idea by Roger Marshall and Jeremy Scott) even had Bernard Herrmann do the score (Hitchcock's long-time collaborator), it began a 40 year sleep for the film until it was released in 2009 on Reg. 2 DVD in the "Boulting Brothers' Collection." Photography was by Harry Waxman."No puppet master pulls the string on high, a twisted nerve, a ganglion gone awry, predestinates the sinner or saint."This lead-in in 1968 established a cause, one of chromosomes and their mystery, then a curious mix of the youthfulness and then rare inclusion of male nudity amidst the Hitchcock catalog and had an even more delicious flavor of pop art, but the film was attacked because it gave the impression relatives of mongoloids were apt to be psychotic/criminal.Very different. It is a new season.

This is a clever thriller that should produce a few good chills. Hywel Bennett plays a young man named Martin who falls for Haley Mills. Through some ingenious manipulation he poses as a developmentally disabled boy (ignorantly referred to as Mongoloids when this story was filmed) so he can live in the boarding house shared by Haley Mills and her Mum. While worming his way into Haley's affections he's also sneaking out at night making some questionable moral choices. Good stuff.

Early slasher from the normally staid and respectable Boulting Brothers has Hayley Mills in all kinds of peril from the seriously loonie Hywell Bennett.'Twisted Nerve' is a nasty film even by my standards. Despite a pre-credits disclaimer that it is in no way suggesting that mongolism is connected with psychotic or criminal behaviour - it proceeds to do just that.Bennett just luurrves to stab his step-father in the stomach with a scissors and bash his horny landlady in the face with an axe, and his only motivation is a gnarled chromosome.He flits between characters: from Georgie, a meek, jealous man-child; to Martin, an intelligent, confrontational spoilt boy.Both are highly dangerous and both have the red-hots for the fetching miss Mills.The rest of the cast support superbly: Barry (Bob Rusk) Foster plays a racist, sexist, drunken lodger; Billie Whitelaw is the ever-ready landlady and Timothy West excels as a wily, droll police inspector.Each lends the movie extra worth and rising even though it rarely needs it. West is a particular joy.A clue as to the true nature of 'Twisted Nerve' comes with the discovery that Leo Marks is the script-writer. This is the guy that wrote 'Peeping Tom' for Michael Powell and it's no great leap from that film to this one.The similarities are obvious but no less interesting; only here it's a genetic defect that's the villain rather than systematic patriarchal mental abuse, but the resulting psychosis are pretty much the same - as are their outcomes.Special mention to Bernard Herrmann's annoyingly appropriate theme music which is everywhere in the film: characters whistle it, it plays on the radio and while the 'kids' are getting on down at a party - guess what's spinning on the stereogram?([edit:] If you think you've heard this devious motif before, Daryl Hannah's character whistles it as she walks down a hospital corridor in an early scene from 'Kill Bill')'Twisted Nerve' is a disturbing thriller with handsomely offensive overtones. A poem with lines like: 'a ganglion gone awry' is quoted as an explanation for mass-murder, and mental illness is nonchalantly described as 'abnormal'. The science world has a breath-taking theory that a twisted nerve 'predestinates the sinner or the saint' and the always reliably sensitive police bark out phrases like: "watch your step - this chap's a nutter!".This is what happens when people who just don't do this stuff - do this stuff.Mills is desperately trying to shake her child-star/Disney reputation and the Boultings were usually to be seen making typically resolute British fayre like 'Lucky Jim,' 'I'm Alright Jack' and 'Carlton Browne of the F.O.'It's probably the sheer scale of this departure that makes brutal-but-precise film-making like 'Twisted Nerve' appear so other-wordly and oddly attractive.

This is a review of the standard Region 2 DVD from Studiocanal’s ‘Boulting Brothers Collection’. It is an excellent print.Two years after Roy Boulting directed Hayley Mills, Hywel Bennett and Barry Foster in the delightful and gently comedic ‘The Family Way’, he directed them again in a very different vehicle. And if you have seen that earlier film, this one is a real shock. It generated huge controversy even at the time it was made in 1968. Today, it seems even more shocking, not for the violence it contains (which is the kind you can see in any modern TV police drama), but for its apparent linking of Down’s Syndrome, psychiatric illness and criminality.The positive aspects of the film include reasonably good performances from the two young stars, and excellent support from several well-known British actors including Foster, Frank Finlay, Gretchen Franklin and Timothy West. Billie Whitelaw looks less comfortable, in a rather tawdry role as Hayley Mills’ lonely widowed mother, Joan. Why Mills (as Susan Harper) chose to make this film is anyone’s guess, but a desire to break out from any ‘Pollyanna’ typecasting has been cited.The actual thriller aspects of the plot work well, are reasonably exciting and the action is kept pacy. The film looks good, and shows Britain at an interesting crossroads between post-War and modernity. The script is well-written, even humorous in places. Although some late ‘60s-style references to race will raise some eyebrows now, it is interesting that the only really reliable and estimable member of the Harpers’ immediate circle, is the young Indian Medical student, nicely played by Salmaan Peer.The less positive aspects include some particulars of the action, which do perhaps strain credulity. It IS important to remember that this is NOT a modern film. It was made in a simpler, less ‘knowing’ time, perhaps a less suspicious time, and certainly before our view of the world was coloured by Scandi Noir and Quentin Tarantino. This can excuse some of the apparently rather silly decisions made by Joan and Susan Harper, but by no means all. A thriller where one finds oneself thinking “They just wouldn’t!” is always a disappointment.The hints of genetic links between Down’s and criminal psychosis are frankly, distasteful. There is a disclaimer at the start, and the film does not ACTUALLY make the link. Instead, they suggest that Down’s in one child led to dire parenting for another, which in turn led to psychological harm and psychosis. An ‘Observer’ review at the time suggested that it would have been better for the older brother character never to exist. Absolutely! Another cause of the gross over-mothering could then have been found, and would probably work better.The ‘New York Times’ described ‘Twisted Nerve’ as “more unsettling than rewarding”. We would agree. Worth seeing, but NOT a great British film ~ 3 Stars.

"Twisting and turning and begging for peace" - The Charlatans-Act OneRoy Boulting's "Twisted Nerve", follows indolent, shimmeringly handsome and cosseted 22 year old Martin Durnley (a young and so unnervingly beautiful Hywel Bennett. For HB fans who are aware of his life in more recent times it will pluck at the heartstrings a bit). Martin is gorgeous. He has a lovely voice, great taste in shirts, smokes a bit, likes jazz, has a red rocking chair and no girlfriend. "I'm in love" was my first thought. Martin sadly is also a formerly "brilliant" student, having been "sent down" from Oxford University (we never find out why). He has failed to hold down a job since (having certainly lost one through his bestowing aggressive and unwanted sexual attention on his employer's daughter) much to the chagrin of his nouveau riche stepfather, Henry Durnley (Frank Finlay) who quite obviously wants to see the back of Martin in their day to day landscape,and the worry of his neurotic mother Enid (Phyllis Calvert), who always manages to explain away Martin's worst behaviour and is frankly in insistent denial about him when he bats his impressive eyelashes and calls her "mummy". He lives an almost reclusive lifestyle in his rather grand (it has a fire of its own!) though almost empty lightly toy littered bedroom and has refused, we learn, an offer from Henry of a referral to a psychiatrist. "Face it Enid. He's not normal!", Henry exclaims before asking where his cuff links are while his tortured step-son in another room has it away with himself in front of a full length mirror that he goes on to symbolically smash. Between this and the fact that Martin's severely disabled older brother (he has Downs Syndrome) Pete, seen at the start of the film, has been hidden from embarrassed view in an institution (and one that conducts research) and visited by only an atypically attentive Martin, it would seem for several years, it is safe to say that the velvet curtained, gold encrusted Harrods heeled and Belgravia housed exterior of the Durnley landscape hides an insidiously nasty dysfunctional reality. It is strange that indeed Pete seems to be the only person Martin cares for. His respect for his mother is minimal and bathed in saucer eyed pretence and his respect for her marriage to Henry is non-existent with him viewing it as a marriage of security to help keep him and Enid in a certain high ceiling standard of living following the death of his natural though despised father when he was very young and Pete’s institutionalisation. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell the old b*sta*d”, he says in a rare and welcome pre -Shelley voiced burst of sardonic humour.Whilst aimlessly looking in a department store toy section, Martin’s eyes fall hard on Susan Harper (Hayley Mills) a seemingly very together, very pretty, unfashionably though coolly virginal, and perilously kind and naive student teacher. She is also engaged in a holiday job as a librarian. She has a sort of a boyfriend called Philip (Christian Roberts) who consistently then irritatingly tries in vain to get her into bed. She obviously remembers Philip after losing her togetherness and indulging in some momentary reciprocal gazing at cherubic Martin. The moment of obvious and strong attraction between Martin and Susan leads two store detectives to think they are courting. In order to get close to Susan, Martin, rather brilliantly has them both apprehended by the shop management in a move that Mr Bean would have been proud of when he pockets a toy duck without paying and practically superglues himself to Susan as she independently tries to leave the shop with her paid for merchandise. During the discussion with the shop management Martin, instead of saying “Well actually darlin’ I wondered if you fancied the pictures”, shockingly pretends to be a mentally disabled man called Georgie inciting Susan's sympathy enough that she pays for the toy duck and in the course of proceedings verbalises her full name and address. (Hey it is the 60s). She persuades the shop manager to take no further action. When Henry finds out about the theft of the toy duck (how he finds this out is a mystery. He curiously seems unaware of "Georgie" or Susan for that matter) he resolves to send feckless toy duck thief Martin to a sheep farming job in Australia. When Martin refuses to go Henry disowns him and throws him out of the family home. Martin then, redeploys his alias Georgie as well as a 3rd alias, Georgie's jet -set suited and booted (and boy does it handsomely suit him) cool as a toy duck, father, James Clifford. Through a cunning network of false communications, bribery and false pretensions of innocence to some when "Georgie" and decadence to others when "James" with a swagger Michael Caine could only dream of, Martin --as -Georgie works furiously to ingratiate himself into Susan's mother's boarding house and gets his loafered feet remarkably far under the table and his unrealistically stunning pile of polo and crew necks in the wardrobe at battle speed, inciting once again Susan's sympathy while subtley flattering her sexually ravenous and frustrated mother Joan (Billie Whitelaw). All of this has far reaching consequences for everyone concerned including Martin.The narrative is colourfully carried along by Harry Waxman's stunning photography. With some washed out neutrals punctuated by bold colours usually when Martin is up to no good. The cast all look quite ephemeral and beautiful. I have never seen actors so well lit. Special mention needs to be made of the colourful opening credits with the "twisted" chromosomes forming what looks like a child's spinning mobile offering an inherent and unavoidable sadness. I feel that 60s lighting technicians also knew how to bring out the actors eyes. This certainly helped the interplay at times between Billie Whitelaw and Hywel Bennett, when Martin (as Georgie) was manipulating Joan into thinking he found her attractive.The iconic music in the film "Georgie's Theme", by Bernard Herrmann is with us throughout the film following us around like Martin following Susan. You suffer auditory claustrophobia during this film. There is no escape from that tune. It is whistled by Martin , jazzed up in Martin's bedroom, and given a swinging 60s twist during a party scene. The version used during the closing credits is a suitably haunting, stunned melancholy and defeated end. Yes Joan. As you said "There is a lot of waste in this world." It is also whistled by Daryl Hannah in Kill Bill....One of the joys of this film is that the cast all look as if they have been somehow grown and hand picked for their roles. Fine support is offered by Barry Foster as jaded laddish hard drinking low budget film distributor Gerry Henderson who is in receipt of more than lodgings and breakfast at Chez Joan and who finds himself with much younger and unlikely competition for Joan's attention. Before you can say "Look there's Ethel from EastEnders!", (Gretchen Franklin puts in a turn as an assisting domestic Mrs Clarke), you notice that Salmaan Peerzada (credited in this film as Salmaan Peer in one of his earliest roles) who plays the upskilling Dr Shashie Kadir, provides a foil for "Everyman", Gerry when they discuss psychopathy, Gerry seeing it as a moral choice punishable by death in the case of murder and Dr Kadir viewing it as an illness requiring treatment like any other. All of this while Martin -as-Georgie is cynically chewing a sugar cube a couple of seats along at the dining table. Timothy West and Brian Peck provide some welcome light relief as hardened Superintendent Dakin and his beleaguered Sgt. Rogers. Then there is librarian Mr Groom (Susan's stuffed shirt boss played by Timothy Bateson) who astonishingly seems to be the only character halfway noticing that "Georgie" is not all he seems. (He is joined later by Philip’s friend Mack). Like all psychopaths, Martin chooses one safe and universally disrespected figure to flash the Martin truth at.The nature and origin of psychopathy is still debated today in what appears to be old arguments consisting of bad seeds (nature) poor parenting (nurture) violence in childhood, like war situations (nurture) and in the 21st century this paradigm has been joined by unavoidably shrunken hippocampuses (nature). The iconic voiceover introduction to this film, shot with that shade of blue background that only the 60s could paint, stating that there is no proven scientific connection between Downs Syndrome (yes you will cringe at the use of the then de rigeur terms "Mongolism" and "Mongol" that were indeed, I remember, still in regular use as late as the 1980s) and psychotic or criminal behaviour serves as an endorsement accompanying (some have said disowning) the theory discussed in the film. Viewers, if you actually pay attention Professor Fuller (Russell Napier) who incidentally does the research at the institution that Pete resides in, simply suggests that irregular chromosomal activity IN GENERAL, COULD determine personality traits at conception. He does not state this as fact, nor does the film. He simply projects this as a frightening possibility....as does the film. At no point does he or the film say that the specific fault in chromosomal structure that gives rise to a Downs Syndrome child causes other mental disturbances. One of the major criticisms of this film is that it promotes the notion that psychopaths or criminals are born this way, cannot help who they are and that environmental factors like upbringing or moral teaching have no bearing on the end resulting adult. This criticism of the film is groundless in my view. The cause or causes of Martin's anti social behaviour are in fact debated throughout the film with no easy answers, though of course part of this debate is that we are left with the terrifying notion and question mark that anti social behaviours maybe an incidental occupational hazard of the human genome that cannot be helped. That said, from the conversation between Henry and Enid where they both feel they have spoiled Martin and done too much for him to the conversation between Susan and Shashie in the hospital citing the possible long term effects of Enid's neurotic obsessive fear of anything being wrong with Martin having had his Downs Syndrome afflicted brother Pete beforehand there is plenty of debate about the trouble with Martin. Ironically, Martin chastises Enid for having Pete institutionalised. Enid's resultant constant scrutiny and cosseting of "perfect" baby Martin giving rise to his later arrested emotional development (his apparent desire to remain a child) and what would appear to be body dismorphic disorder or an ambivalent attitude towards his own adult body and his seemingly high strength sexuality. He certainly knows he is beautiful and uses this to chillingly manipulative effect particularly towards the women in the film but he is repulsed more than once in the film and indeed ashamed of his own sexual response with all of that strategic mirror smashing and crotch clutching. Is he Oedipal? Is he in fact gay/ bisexual going by his magazines of choice in his bedroom? (Male bodybuilding magazines) Where a man his age ought to be rejoicing in his fortunate good looks and sexual enthusiasm, Martin in swinging London in the late 60s is recoiling at both.The same range of possible causes of Martin’s disturbed antics is demonstrated in the film’s title. Twisted Nerve is in fact a double entendre in the film’s case. Although taken from the overquoted poem “Slaves” by George Sylvester Viereck and taken to mean a physical feature or fault in the human make up within the context of the poem, or that we are all slaves to what we are born as, it is also within the context of the film, taken to mean “twisted” as a synonym of “evil as Martin’s moral choice” and “nerve” as having the brass neck nerve or willingness to do the terrible things Martin does.There is also the idea that Enid should perhaps have been careful for what she wished for. Having had it recommended to her that she have no further children after Pete, when it was discovered that the chromosomal glitch that gave rise to Pete’s Down Syndrome was permanent and that any further children would have a 33% chance of being the same Enid defied this and had her second child who, in the absence of so many examinations now routine arrived “perfect”. Whether Martin’s terrible psychology was caused by genetics, progressive mental abuse or just sheer evil, Enid got her perfect son.....but....I first saw a VHS box for this film when I was about 10 (around 1983). On the front was a photo of a very handsome looking man with soaking wet hair with obvious murderous intentions all inherent in one facial expression. I was shocked when my mother told me that, that was "Shelley" (Hywel Bennett and the said TV comedy he starred in were riding the crest of a wave) and that my mum and my auntie had gone to see Twisted Nerve at the cinema in Glasgow upon its release. According to my mother many of the late 60s hardened Gallus of Glasgow gals attending the Saturday matinee showing, were, at the film's climax, yelling at the screen such was the power of Bennett's performance. One of the many skilful and seismic aspects of Bennett's turn is that there is no triumphalist scarf waving moment when Martin's denouement arrives. We are forced to feel his pain and forced to acknowledge the odd nanoseconds of tenderness glinting within the delapidation of psychopathic aggression. We are forced to acknowledge the waste of a man who on paper should have been successful professionally, socially and romantically. (His physical beauty is referred to repeatedly by other male characters and implicitly between Susan and a rapidly and tragically crushing Joan).There is only one destination for Martin Durnley. It is a pity really. If he hadn't hated himself so much he would have been Susan's ideal man. There is no more awry a ganglion than a psychopath who is in love....nor the person who reciprocates.The film however is always Hywel Bennett's from start to finish and is a fine and heart rending reminder that Hywel is one of the finest actors of his generation. Hope he is fine wherever he is.NB. Since writing Hywel Bennett died in 2017. I still hope he is fine wherever he is.Newtown Goddess. Xxx

Wonderful film with Hayley Mills, but it's Hywell Bennett that's give's the defining performance, especially with the murderous split personality of Georgie, it's a classic story from The Boulting Brothers, a worthy predecessor to Norman J Warren, Pete Walker, as well as the production's of Tigon and Kobalt, of an era of the changing face of British horror, from the gothic to the contemporary psychological thriller, which began with 'Peeping Tom", then conntinued with 'And Soon The Darkness" (Michelle Dotrice, Pamela Franklin), Expose, then with Hammer, 'Straight On Till Morning", 'Fear In The Night", 'Evil's Of The Mind", concluding with 'Corruption", Susan George in 'Fright", 'Beast In The Cellar", a unique era of British horror in a changing climate & face of style, theme's of horror, a very different era.

An excellent 1968 colour film starring Hayley Mills and Hywel Bennett about 'Georgie' the son of a wealthy man who suffers from Downs Syndrome. A psychological thriller of the first water. Not to be missed! A welcome addition to any film library! Ably assisted by Billie Whitelaw, Barry Foster, and Frank Findlay, this dramatic thriller is an edge of the seat film! Fresh from 'The Family Way', Hayley, Hywel and Barry are excellent protagonists as Hayley shows sympathy and patience to a man with a little understood medical condition. Drama, lies, and deceit permeate this film. In the very best of British film-making tradition Twisted Nerve will twist and scour your emotions as you view. Always see in a single viewing for the full dramatic impact.NOT TO BE MISSED!!!

A very quick delivery by Amazon of vintage film Twisted Nerve now on dvd as luckily many are.. Have bought another sixties film that I vaguely remember from all those years ago and many were entertaining enough. Not had time to watch it all yet, but the start of the film looks good enough to watch all the way through and trust my judgement