Brian Clemens (1931–2015)

This left an impression that's lingered for several days now. It sounds a standard grade-B Girl In Danger thriller but is instead more focussed upon atmosphere than on a fast-paced plot or sympathetic v antipathetic characters.

Leaving aside Girl(s) In Danger the characters seem with only a couple of exceptions menacing. This isn't simply because they live in an environment and speak a language alien to the protagonist: a helpful English immigrant seems as threatening as the surly peasant at show more a godforsaken cafe. and it's only a harsh local who has unequivocally the protagonist's best interests at heart. The sense of danger remains vague even when the danger itself has become explicit and though the action occurs on a sunny summer day there are shadows both literal--the woods, the slowly approaching rain clouds--and figurative--the distant scarecrow of a mam broadcasting seed who often stops to gaze at the 'bad' road--that are never dispelled by full light.

Even the ending is not a resolution, or at any rate it wasn't one for me: Protagonist has been saved, but given what's gone before she might well still be in danger. I re-wound to see the end again, and certainly there's quite a strong suggestion that all is well but nonetheless this is hard to credit.

On the whole I find it difficult to sit through movies & so watch very few of them, but this one I'll watch again to soak up the atmosphere and to look not just for clues but for nuances I missed. I'm glad I didn't give in to my impulse to delete it immediately upon hearing the soundtrack over the opening credits, which inexplicably portends a bargain-basement ripoff of a James Bond thriller. show less

Title seems misleading given that the film takes place on one impossibly long French day when it never seems to get dark. There really isn't much to it when you stop to reflect, but Franklin, as a girl hunting for her missing traveling companion, and some excellent cinematography and locations keep it compelling until the end. Certainly must have been one of the cheapest films ever made in terms of costumes--one per character--and cast, really, really small. But well directed. Wildly show more inappropriate musical score by Laurie Johnson--did he even know what he was writing it for? show less

A film starring Ralph Bates and Martine Beswick (MGM, 1971).

A scientist needs cadavers in order to turn himself into a woman and possibly become immortal.

C+ (Okay).

It is by no means a well-crafted movie. But they managed to take a ridiculous, minefield of a premise which I would not have expected 1970's Britain to be able to handle, and ended up with something watchable, which is kind of impressive.

(Oct. 2022)

Great Ray Harryhausen special effects, fun story, great rainy Saturday afternoon fare.