Wizard-8 Around this time, the type of movies that Hammer was most famous for were becoming out of style, so the studio desperately tried to tackle some other kind of movies, this being one of them. Few of these new efforts were successful financially or critically, and "Crescendo" was not an exception. There are two main problems with this movie. The first being that the movie unfolds at an extremely slow pace. In the first half hour of the movie, for example, pretty much nothing of significance happens. Eventually things do start to happen, but the movie not only still suffers from a glacial pace, there is the second problem with the movie. That being that the story is often head-scratching. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and even though the movie tries at the end to have a big surprise revelation, there are still plenty of unanswered questions as the end credits start to roll. I will say that the movie is decently produced, from the nice looking sets to the work with the camera, but that did little to stop me from starting to nod off long before the movie reached its end.

edwagreen Stefanie Powers got more than she was wishing for when she meets and stays in the home of a wealthy widow, whose husband was a great composer. Powers is there to do research on the latter in order to obtain her master's degree; however, she encounters much more as the film descends quickly into the macabre.James Olson is the paralyzed son in this way over-the-top drama. Margaritta Scott does quite an imitation of Joan Fontaine here. She sounds just like her, and she can become quite eerie as well.Powers realizes quickly that it's time to exit as all sorts of strange things seem to happen. There is absolute mayhem, drug addiction, murder, seduction, you name it.Of course, we have the resolution of the twin. Normally, a cop-out, but the film is so dreadful by then that you just don't care.

Armand a film of good intentions. that is all. and it is not correct to search a guilty or to imagine a better version. because it represents only a demonstration of a period sensitivity and manner to realize a decent Gothic film. sure, the script seems have many possibilities and the acting is far to be high. but the good intentions are obvious. and the desire to translate on screen the nuances of story in the best manner. but this ambition is the cage for movie. so, after the long chain of disappointment, remains only the beginning and the end as reasonable parts. because the confusion is heavy mist and the clichés are so many. a film for fans of genre. that is all.

MARIO GAUCI This was the last of Hammer's 10 psycho-thrillers to get watched by me: in the long run, it is a middle-of-the-road effort, not particularly good but neither is it among the worst. Still, the film has palpable deficiencies, first and foremost because it is severely undercast (though lead Stefanie Powers had already co-starred in the above-average FANATIC aka DIE! DIE! MY DARLING {1965} from the same stable: incidentally, I regret not giving that one a spin as part of my recent tribute to its late director Silvio Narizzano!) and over-familiar – to say nothing of being essentially dreary – in plot line. In fact, it borrows the French setting, wheelchair-bound protagonist and the mysterious room from TASTE OF FEAR aka SCREAM OF FEAR {1961}, the hallucinations pertaining to a past crime from NIGHTMARE {1964} – both among the company's top outings and both also scripted by the late Jimmy Sangster, who here reworked Alfred Shaughnessy's original scenario…which had actually been intended for Michael Reeves, the promising but short-lived director of WITCHFINDER GENERAL {1968}! – and the domineering mother from FANATIC itself. By the way, the pool-as-murder-setting owes its origins to Henri-Georges Clouzot's seminal DIABOLIQUE (1955), which – along with Alfred Hitchcock's even more celebrated PSYCHO {1960} – was virtually the template for all of these Hammer shockers to begin with! Another clear link to the latter's cinematic universe is the molding of one character into the personality of another, now deceased, which was at the center of both his REBECCA (1940) and VERTIGO (1958)! One additional motif here is the eerie presence of broken dolls, which may very well have already been employed by some earlier Hammer shocker but was certainly a vital feature of Freddie Francis' THE PSYCHOPATH (1966): while this was made for the company's rival Amicus, its director had contributed a trio of titles to the British House Of Horror's Grand Guignol-infused subgenre.The afore-mentioned dreams that afflict hero James Olson (who had just starred in Hammer's goofy 'Space Western' MOON ZERO TWO {1969}) do rather give away the final twist (much-abused over the years), especially with the repetition but, then, the plot does incorporate a number of red herrings which makes one think the narrative will be going a certain way only for it to change direction before long. These have to do with the sordid goings-on in the central mansion and the sleazy characters that inhabit it, the others being Margaretta Scott – whom I was mainly familiar with from the mammoth Alexander Korda/William Cameron Menzies sci-fi THINGS TO COME (1936) – as Olson's "obsessed" mother (determined to keep the memory of her late and distinguished composer husband alive), Jane Lapotaire as the "sensuous" maid (who procures Olson with his heroin fix for sexual services rendered – the film is reasonably explicit in this regard – though at the same time deluding herself that she can one day become his wife) and "sinister" manservant Joss Ackland (who seems to have something going with the latter as well but nothing is eventually made of it!). I deliberately quoted the adjectives utilized in the accompanying theatrical trailer (for the record, though CRESCENDO was recently issued on DVD-R as part of Warners' "Archive Collection", the copy I watched came via a serviceable VHS source) to describe each of these three characters! To the house arrives young, pretty music teacher Powers who has decided to research the life and work of Scott's husband for her Masters degree; the main piano theme, while quite good in itself, does receive a thorough work-out amid the proceedings. Another quibble I have with the script expressly concerns her presence there (though it is not limited to the film under review), that is to say, if the household obviously concealed some dark secret that would invariably bring the whole crushing down (thankfully, not literally) on its occupants, why tempt Fate by inviting an outsider into their fold? The climax, then, is appropriately intense but also not exactly inspired (with Ackland's demise proving especially unconvincing) and abrupt into the bargain. Indeed, even if the handling here of Hammer newbie Alan Gibson was appreciated by some, I had always been somewhat wary of his involvement since he would subsequently helm the notorious last two entries in the company's "Dracula" franchise, which brought the mythical vampire Count uneasily into contemporary times (though he still could not tarnish the reputation of genre icons Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee)! Even so, I did enjoy one of his two contributions to the HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR (1980) TV series (which had also starred Cushing) and was intrigued enough by the picture that would follow CRESCENDO, namely the obscure but impressively-cast telepathic horror GOODBYE GEMINI (1970), that I acquired it soon after this viewing...