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Simply Perfect

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Beautiful Lelia Goldini looks as though she has just stepped off the cover of a 1965 edition of Vogue!!! This terrific movie was produced by Hammer films in the style of "Charade" (the movie with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant) which happened to be in the style of Hitchcock but was directed by Stanley Donen. Anyway "Hysteria" was directed by Freddie Francis and seemed like it should have been written by Brian Clemens (it was written by Jimmie Sangster who wrote the screenplay of "The Nanny" and a lot of those Hammer chillers from the late 1950s). I didn't know anything about this movie, only that I could vividly remember Robert Weber being the brash Madison Avenue ad man in the original "Twelve Angry Men".Weber plays Chris Smith, also a brash opportunist (maybe a bit of typecasting)!! There is one sequence where he has to get out of France in a hurry so he insinuates himself into the good graces of an English girl who is driving back to Britain (it was definitely Sue Lloyd). She smuggles him out of the country at great risk to herself and he repays her at a service station by.....!!! I kept wondering whether this was the way Britain viewed the Americans in their country and if so they obviously didn't like what they saw.The movie starts out as Weber, an amnesiac victim, grasps for clues to his identity from a patient psychiatrist. A mysterious benefactor is paying for his medical bills and for a luxury penthouse apartment (the estate agency is clearly displayed on a sign, wouldn't it have been easier just to make inquiries off them)?? But no, Chris hires the services of a quirky private detective (Maurice Denham) and when a mysterious beauty (Goldini) keeps appearing, the same girl whose picture was found on Chris and who was, presumably, killed a few weeks before, nobody believes him. There is also the problem of raised voices that Chris hears from the vacant flat, always late at night!!Just when you think you know where the plot is going, Chris's confession turns everything on it's head. Jennifer Jayne as the nurse plays the film's only sympathetic character. This movie has such a swinging sixties London look from the opulent penthouse to Goldini's wardrobe to the offbeat jazz soundtrack.

This is one of the low-budget black & white thrillers Hammer Studio in England made in the early 1960s. Chris Smith (Robert Webber) is an American in London and has complete amnesia after a car crash. An anonymous person pays for his medical treatment and buys him a penthouse in a deserted high rise. Almost immediately he starts hearing voices and sees hints of a murder--but is it real or is he imaging things? There are a few major problems with this movie--there's a pointlessly loud jazz score that was totally at odds with the subject matter, Webber smirks his way through his performance, the plot was needlessly convoluted and it was pretty easy to guess who was doing what. Still this is an OK thriller. It was beautifully shot in moody black and white and well-directed by talented cinematographer Freddie Francis. The first half of the movie is also very good when Webber tries to figure out what's going on. When everything is revealed this starts to really unravel. Ultimately the plot is just too unbelievable to take seriously. This (understandably) got a bad reaction when released in 1965 and disappeared quickly. Still, there are far worse movies out there and this is fun in a turn off your brain kind of way. I give it a 6.

Hysteria starts in London where car accident victim Chris Smith (Robert Webber) is about to leave hospital after four months of recovering, he has total amnesia & cannot remember anything about himself not even his proper name. When brought into the hospital Chris had no wallet or form of identification & had no possessions other than a photo of a woman. While in hospital someone has been paying his medical bills & has sent the keys to a penthouse flat for him to live in rent free, Chris decides to accept his mysterious benefactor's hospitality & moves into the flat. There he sets about discovering who he was before he lost his memory although everything that he remembers might not be pleasant as several strange occurrences begin to happen...This English production was a link up between Hammer studios & MGM, directed by Freddie Francis this is a unusual little thriller although you shouldn't read too much into the fact it's a Hammer film as it's not the sort of thing you would typically associate with them. The script by producer Jimmy Sangster is a mysterious psychological thriller that builds up the plot about someone who can't remember anything about himself & has all these strange & peculiar things happen to him before everything is turned upside down where just about everyone is revealed to not be who you originally thought they were in a contrived & silly multiple twist ending that is only partially successful in my opinion. At only 85 minutes in length it moves along at a decent pace, the story is quite intriguing at times although I have to say I wasn't really ever gripped & that ending really is rather far fetched & hard to swallow. The character's are alright even if some are a bit optimistic in terms of what they think they can get away with! It's watchable enough I suppose but nothing brilliant & the ending just didn't surprise or impress me enough.Director Francis does alright here, the black and white photography is nice enough. I personally don't think Hysteria gains anything from being shot in black and white & it was almost certainly a decision made for financial rather than artistic reasons. There's no blood or gore & little horror in Hysteria which is a surprise since the 50's & 60's was when Hammer studios was having so much success with their horror films & I don't really understand why they would try to deviate from a successful & proved formula. The film reminds of Hictchcock's Psycho (1960) the way it's shot & the constant unsubtle references to dead women in shower's.Technically the film is good, it's well made on location in England & in the studio. The acting is solid although I doubt anyone is going to win any awards for it.Hysteria is a decent time waster, I didn't think it was outstanding & I didn't think the twist endings were all that great either, I certainly think the twists in more recent films like The Sixth Sense (1999) & Fight Club (1999) are much more effective.

Hammer studios gained fame and fortune by producing tons of eerie horror films, filled with monsters, madmen or classic gothic influences. In short, films high on adrenalin and action. Hysteria is one of their least known films just because it's the exact opposite. It's a mysterious, slow-moving thriller that requires a little more thinking and involvement from the viewer. An American (Robert Webber, known from cinema classics like `12 Angry Men' and `Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia') wakes up in a British hospital after a car-accident. He suffers from a bad case of amnesia and he has to start digging into his own past and personality. The only thing he was carrying at the time of the accident was a picture of a stunningly beautiful, mysterious girl! Also, someone is paying for his hospital bills and arranged an apartment for him but he has no idea who that is.Hysteria contains a few nice and unpredictable twists and the screenplay is overall solid and realistic. Alfred Hitchcock influences are never far away. Jimmy Sangster, who delivered many decent scripts for Hammer productions in his career, wrote the film and co-produced. There's a compelling atmosphere to detect and the cheap black and white photography helps increasing the suspense. Too bad about the constant guiding Jazz music which isn't really appropriate for this type of film. Judging by modern standards, the film is now pretty dated and heavily flawed, but with the right state of mind, you'll be enjoying this old-fashioned, low budgeted film. Freddie Francis is a professional director, not afraid to bring a little diversity in his career. He directed famous Hammer stories (Dracula has Risen from the Grave, the Creeping Flesh) as well as modest, more story driven tales like this one but also `Paranoiac' and `Nightmare'. Good acting as well! Robert Webber is very convincing and the gorgeous beauty Lelia Goldina (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) portrays a terrific muse. Recommended!