christopher-underwood Nasty, gripping, home invasion flick, directed by Peter Collinson who was always able to tell a tight, no nonsense tale. Known, I suppose for The Italian Job, although I prefer his, Straight On Till Morning, he had a background in TV and broke out with this film. Its a bit stylised with Pinteresque dialogue that seems to get in the way of the action at first. Gradually though these oafish clowns become far too sinister to dismiss and this really doesn't let up till the end, which isn't the end because we still have Martine Beswick to look forward to. Suzy Kendall had a mixed career, including several giallo, notably Bird With the Crystal Plumage and was apparently a 'guest screamer' in the recent, Berberian Sound Studio. Here she is majestic. It cannot have been an easy role but she does everything right as she veers from fear to seduction and rape aftermath. She looks fantastic throughout but even she is outshone when Beswick finally appears. An interesting actress, always referred to as 'the Bond girl' for her roles in From Russia With Love and Thunderball but I always think of her for Dr, Jekyll & Sister Hyde, Prehistoric Women and A Bullet For The General. Always good and in The Penthouse, she is at her very best. Not a pleasant watch and nobody comes out of this well but one of a kind and two great female performances.

lazarillo This one of a number of movies that were popular in the 60's and 70's (i.e. "Cape Fear", "Kitten with a Whip", "Lady in a Cage", "Wait Until Dark", "Straw Dogs", "Death Game")where complacent middle-class people find their comfortable lifestyles (and often their very lives) threatened by lower-class cretins, who rather being after just the usual things (money, sex), almost seem to have been sent as divine messengers to punish them for their sins. In this particularly nasty example a married, middle-age business man is in his isolated luxury penthouse with his young mistress when the two are attacked by a trio of crazed and seemingly motiveless characters calling themselves "Tom", "Dick", and "Harry" (the latter is a woman brilliantly played by ex-Bond girl Martine Beswick). The criminals soon expose both the immoral lifestyle of the couple and the cracks in their shallow relationship of convenience.The movie is every bit as sleazy as the more notorious "Straw Dogs" (and it shows what you can get away with in Britain and America if you only adopt the proper moralistic tone). The two men take turns raping Kendall, but a la "Straw Dogs" her rape is portrayed more as a humiliation of her boyfriend than of her as she gets drunk and develops the most rapid case of Stockholm Syndrome in history and thus may be an at least somewhat willing participant.The movie was no doubt based on a stage play--it has a very limited set and excessive amount of dialogue--and the stageiness gets a little annoying at times. Still it is one of the more interesting films of director Pete Collinson ("Straight on Until Morning", "Fright") who was the three Pete's of British genre cinema (the other two being Pete Walker and Pete Sasdy). Oh yeah, and it has some very uncharacteristic (if pretty tame)nude scenes from Suzie Kendall. Not a bad to kill way an hour and a half overall.

wdixon This is a superb and prescient little thriller by Peter Collinson that predates such films as FUNNY GAMES and other "extreme cinema" projects, and is much better, and much more restrained, in every way. I'm amazed that the film hasn't gotten better distribution, and that it seems to have slipped between the cracks of cinema history. A great film; see it if you can.

pppatty This is the only movie I regret not having got up and walked out! Although it is some 30 years since I had the misfortune of seeing this film in the cinema, I have never forgotten what a thoroughly unpleasant experience it was -- with unlikeable characters and stupidly unbelievable circumstances. I can forgive all sorts of things in a film if there is at least one redeeming quality, but you can look in vain for it here. I am amazed that its rating is as high as it is since I would have given it a minus rating were this possible.