blanche-2
"Stop Me Before I Kill" or "The Full Treatment" is a 1960 film with a screenplay by Val Guest, who also directed.The story concerns a famous race car driver, Alan Colby (Ronald Lewis), who was involved in a terrible car crash with his wife Denise (Diane Cilento). He is unable to race, and he and Denise go to the south of France on vacation.Alan goes through swift mood shifts - the slightest word can set off his temper. And he keeps being tempted to strangle his wife - in fact, he nearly does a couple of times. This, of course, is where one has to suspend belief because why the heck would she stay with someone who has attempted to strangle her and whose temper flares at the drop of a hat? I understand women in abusive situations, but I don't know, my husband trying to kill me takes it to a new level.A psychiatrist they meet, Dr. David Prade (Claude Dauphin) offers to help. Alan is hesitant, but once back in London, where Prade has also returned, he agrees. At the end of the treatment, he feels that he is cured. He is able to get back on the racing track and has no temptation to hurt Denise.Right before he is to leave for a race, Alan wakes up and finds that Denise is not there. In fact, all the evidence points to the fact that she has been murdered. This was a very good story that suffered from an unbalanced script. The film went on too long, and the psychiatric scenes were endless. Diane Cilento is a beautiful and heartfelt Denise, Claude Dauphin is likable, and Ronald Lewis for me lacked subtlety in a difficult role. A good-looking man, in the beginning of the film, he reminded me of David Hasselhoff; fortunately, the resemblance faded somewhat.Sadly Ronald Lewis committed suicide in 1982, bankrupt and his career in the doldrums.In other hands and a bigger budget, this could have been an excellent film. However it's worth seeing for the story.
Rainey Dawn
'Stop Me Before I Kill' is AKA 'The Full Treatment'. Both titles seem to fit this film quite well.A race car driver is in an accident and spends time in a coma, once he is awake he has the strange urge to kill his wife. His wife seeks help from a psychiatrist to help her husband overcome his urge and to find out why this is suddenly happening.The ending of this film seem appropriate - very befitting. I will not give it away for those who have not seen the film and would like to.This is not a bad mystery-drama - it's pretty good. No movie is "perfect" - they all have a few flaws and this one is no exception. The flaws in this film are minor.All movies are hard to fathom - you have to suspend your beliefs to watch any movie. With this film you will have to do the same thing as with any film.All in all a pretty good film. I enjoyed watching it.7/10
bkoganbing
Stop Me Before I Kill has Ronald Lewis cast as a racing car driver just getting over serious head injuries that had him in a coma. For whatever reason he's got all kinds of thoughts in his head about strangling his beautiful wife Diane Cilento. As another reviewer pointed out her accent kind of changes from French to Italian as if she was trying for some kind of middle romance language ground. I think mastered the American accent quite well later on in Hombre. But that was a much better picture.As they are on holiday in France up pops psychiatrist Claude Dauphin who lives with his mother Francoise Rosay. He follows them back to London when they leave. Right there that should have told anyone, even someone with homicidal fantasies that this guy has some issues.I found it interesting several other reviewers while pointing out a lot of the flaws Stop Me Before I Kill still said they enjoyed the film. I found the whole thing hard to fathom with some characters I thought made no sense at all.This one was not the best work for any of the cast.
kidboots
....says an agitated Allan Colby to sinister psychiatrist Dr. Prade. It is a very flimsy story for it's length (almost 2 hours!!) with a lot more questions being left unanswered than answered!! Why was Diane Cilento given an accent, why couldn't they have left her as a sultry British girl (maybe there wasn't such a thing as a sultry English girl in 1960 - but what about Joan Greenwood or Shirley Ann Field!!). And while Cilento was attractive, she wasn't really the type who would send a strait laced doctor into a spin - maybe it was her nude swim!!!The film starts at the scene of a horrific accident involving ace racing car driver Allan Colby, his new bride Denise and, as we learn later, a truck driver who dies at the scene. Next scene shows that after a year in and out of hospital Colby and Denise are on the continent on a belated honeymoon but something is not right. Colby is often agitated, finding offense at the smallest thing - even punching Dr. Prade who has invited them for dinner at his water front villa. Of course Colby is contrite the next morning but not before he has tried to strangle Denise for the second time. Denise has stayed behind to talk to the doctor while Colby has sped off in his car that the day before he could not drive over 30 mph!! Prade notices the bruising around her throat and more than ever wants to put his plan into action - watching her take a nude swim complete with binoculars doesn't strike one as the actions of a trust worthy doctor.I was actually expecting the denouement to be that he wasn't a doctor after all but the rest of the movie focused on his artful plan of trying to prove to Denise that Conrad is highly dangerous and needs to be locked up and to convince Conrad that he has actually gone through with his grisly plan to kill his wife and dispose of the body.Again Cilento's dodgy accent didn't help, first Italian then French, finally she suggest that they both go home to England!! Added to the fact that Colby's behaviour is so erratic and dangerous but no police are called!! The film does boast a couple of stellar French names - Claude Dauphine from the theatre and the legendary Francoise Rosay as the dignified Madame Prade.
AD
