An ambitious psychic coerces her weak-willed husband into a kidnapping plot designed to bring her fame and validation.
Myra Savage (Kim Stanley), a medium with delusions of grandeur, persuades her subservient husband Bill (Richard Attenborough) to participate in an elaborate scheme. They kidnap the young daughter of a wealthy couple, with the intention that Myra will later “psychically” solve the crime, thus gaining the public recognition she craves. As they hold the girl in their home while managing the ransom and Myra’s interactions with the police, Bill grows increasingly alarmed. Myra’s already fragile grip on reality begins to loosen, revealing a far more dangerous and unstable plan for their captive.
Bryan Forbes’s screenplay adapts Mark McShane’s novel into a chilling psychological study. The machinery of a kidnapping thriller is employed not for simple suspense, but to excavate the fractured mind of its protagonist. At the film’s core are two perfectly pitched performances: Richard Attenborough’s portrayal of frayed decency and Kim Stanley’s devastating, Oscar-nominated turn as the manipulative, self-deluding medium. Her grand scheme is a fragile construct, built to insulate her from profound personal failure. The film’s unnerving atmosphere sits comfortably within Forbes’s career; it forms a thematic link between the gothic suspense of Whistle Down the Wind and the suburban horror of The Stepford Wives.
Production Co: Artixo / 115 minutes / 1964
Director: Bryan Forbes
Screenplay: Bryan Forbes
Main Cast: Kim Stanley (Myra Savage), Richard Attenborough (William Henry ‘Bill’ Savage), Mark Eden (Mr. Charles Clayton), Nanette Newman (Mrs. Clayton), Judith Donner (Amanda Clayton)
