STOP ME BEFORE I KILL!
Icons of Suspense: Hammer Films
U.K. | 1960
Directed by Val Guest
Starring
Claude Dauphin
Diane Cilento
Ronald Lewis
B&W | 108 Minutes | Not Rated
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC | 3-disc set)
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
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Review by
Troy Howarth

Film:6
: DVD:9
NOTE: DVD Rating is for entire 6-film set
Race car driver Alan Colby (Ronald Lewis) is in a bad car crash, and he suffers a terrible mental trauma as a result; after this, he is driven by an irrational compulsion to murder his adoring wife (Diane Cilento)...
    Val Guest has one of the most diverse and interesting filmographies in the history of the British cinema. After a tenure as a reporter and film critic, he entered the film industry as a screenwriter. His early specialty was comedy, but he eventually moved into genres as diverse as sci-fi and softcore porn. He's seldom mentioned as enthusiastically as such British genre icons as Terence Fisher or Freddie Francis, but at his best he was easily the equal of the former and often outshone the latter. Horror and fantasy buffs tend to remember him best for such titles as The Quatermass Xperiment (1954) and The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961), but his filmography cannot be condensed into a single genre. For Hammer Studios alone, for example, he directed everything from Hell is a City (1960) to Yesterday's Enemy (1959). Stop Me Before I Kill! sees him working in the 'mini-Hitchcock' mode popularized by such Jimmy Sangster-penned thrillers as Scream of Fear (1960) and Paranoiac (1962).
    The film was based on Ronald Scott Thorn's novel The Full Treatment; the title was also used for the U.K. release, though American distributor Columbia Pictures wisely opted for a flashier moniker. Like so many of the Sangster thrillers alluded to above, the film relies on the old 'is he crazy or isn't he?' theme. Ronald Lewis takes center stage as a charismatic race car driver who becomes completely unhinged after an accident which may or may not have been his fault. He soon finds himself in the care of Dr. Prade (Claude Dauphin), whom he meets while holidaying with his wife in Cannes. Prade works hard to cure his patient, but there are clues that he may be a little too eager to please. The film proceeds along these lines, dropping enough red herrings and clues to keep the average mystery buff working overtime. The denouement is a tad predictable, but Guest manages to keep the tension sufficiently taut to keep one slightly unsure of where it's really going to go.
    Guest's excellent use of framing and camerawork keeps things visually interesting. Working with ace cinematographer Gilbert Taylor (Star Wars, Polanski's Repulsion), Guest uses the wide (2.35) ratio to his advantage. The location filming in France adds production gloss, but the film never becomes bogged down in tedious travelogue footage. The crisp black and white imagery is only undone by some less than convincing rear screen photography. Apart from this one cost cutting measure, the film looks considerably richer than it probably was.
    The cast performs very well. Ronald Lewis (Mr. Sardonicus) is excellent in a complex characterization. Colby is required to vacillate between being likable and psychotic in his anger, a juggling act that could come off as ludicrous in the hands of a lesser actor. Lewis manages to consistently hit the right emotional notes. Dr. Padre is very well played by Claude Dauphin (Barbarella). Dauphin is also required to toy with viewer expectations, and he does a seemingly effortless job of conveying paternal authority and a possible undercurrent of unhealthy fixation. Diane Cilento (The Wicker Man) is stuck with a less developed characterization, but she does a fine job just the same. Denise is the usual, clichéd adoring wife — it's difficult to believe that she'd really endure so much drama so early on in her marriage — but Cilento comes across as earnest and believable throughout; she also gets to tease the audience with some half glimpsed nudity during a skinny dipping sequence.
    Ultimately, Stop Me Before I Kill! cannot compare to the best of Guest's output — it's a bit labored in its psychology, and the running time is padded to an overstuffed 108 minutes — but it's still an entertaining and stylishly crafted psychological thriller.
Sony's recent release of Icons of Suspense: Hammer Films is most welcome — and long overdue. As with their previous Icons sets highlighting Hammer Films (Icons of Adventure, Icons of Horror), it brings together a wide array of titles from the Hammer catalogue.
    Stop Me is presented for the first time on U.S. video, in any format, and it is presented fully uncut and in its original 2.35 aspect ratio. The 16x9 transfer looks superb — black levels are rich, whites are clean, and there's a nice array in the gray tones. Print damage is kept to a bare minimum. The mono soundtrack is clean and clear — there are no issues with hiss or distortion, and English subtitles and closed captioning are included. Extras are limited to a theatrical trailer, also in 2.35/16x9. (Note: The other titles in the Icons of Suspense collection are Cash on Demand, The Snorkel, 1963's Maniac, Never Take Candy from a Stranger and These Are the Damned.) 5/22/10
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