A dissolute drifter down on his luck, Jeff Farrell, is stranded in a cheap bar in France where he falls for Annette, the proprietor’s pretty stepdaughter. Annette’s stepmother Eve, gradually shifts the young man’s attentions to herself, rather than her stepdaughter, and together Eve and Jeff concoct a plot to help free Eve’s estranged husband from the institution in which he’s been confined as a homicidal maniac these past four years after committing the so-called “Acetylene Murder”, when used a blowtorch to kill the man who raped Annette. The idea is that Georges, the husband, will leave the country, but, unknown to Jeff, it’s not Georges who escapes but Henri, the guard who has become Eve’s lover . . .
Production Details
Columbia Pictures Corporation presents A Hammer Film Production
Copyright MCMLXII Hammer Film Productions Ltd.
MPAA Approved Certificate
The characters and incidents portrayed and the names used herein are fictitious and any similarity to the names characters or history of any person is entirely accidental and unintentional
A Hammer Film Production made at Metro, Goldwyn Mayer Studios, Borehamwood, England
RCA Sound Recording
Black & White 86 mins Hammerscope
Filming Began: 28th May 1962
UK Release: 20th May 1963
Studio:
MGM British Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire
Location:
Montfrin Gard, France – Eve and Jeff meet at this town’s WWI memorial
Les Baux-de-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, France – Quarry
Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, France – Roman amphitheatre
Carmarque, France
Stills from film
Click an image for enlarged slideshow
Cast & Crew
Red = Uncredited
Crew | Name | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Credits | Uncredited | Total Hammer | |
Art Director | Edward Carrick | 58 | 3 Jan 1905 | 21 Jan 1998 | 93 | 3 | 3 | ||
Assistant Art Director | Jean Peyre | 37 | 1926 | 2001 | 75 | 1 | 1 | ||
Assistant Director | Ross MacKenzie | 6 | 6 | ||||||
Assistant Make-up Artist | Stella Morris | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
Assistant Producer | Ian Lewis | 30 | 23 Nov 1932 | 23.11.1932 | 91 | 5 | 5 | ||
Boom Operator | Bill Baldwin | 2 | 2 | ||||||
Camera Operator | Harry Gillam | 26 Apr 1990 | 3 | 3 | |||||
Chargehand Props | Tommy Ibbetson | 42 | 9 Oct 1920 | 29 Jun 2005 | 84 | 1 | 1 | ||
Clapper Loader | Ray Andrew | 23 | 1940 | 01.01.1940 | 84 | 3 | 3 | ||
Continuity | Kay Rawlings | 45 | 1918 | Jul 1981 | 63 | 3 | 3 | ||
Director | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/michael-carreras/# | 35 | 21 Dec 1927 | 19 Apr 1994 | 66 | 84 | 8 | 92 | |
Director of Photography | Wilkie Cooper | 51 | 19 Oct 1911 | 15 Dec 2001 | 90 | 3 | 3 | ||
Draughtsman | Fred Carter | 31 | 1932 | 01.01.1932 | 92 | 3 | 3 | ||
Editor | Tom Simpson | 6 | 6 | ||||||
Electrician | R Stentaford | 45 | 23 Apr 1918 | 26 Jun 2016 | 98 | 1 | 1 | ||
Electrician | Bert Chapple | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Focus Puller | Trevor Wrenn | 27 | May 1936 | 05.1936 | 0 | 2 | 2 | ||
Focus Puller | Tommy Fletcher | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Grip | L. Kelly | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Hair Stylst | Pat McDermot | 33 | 1930 | 2015 | 85 | 5 | 5 | ||
Make-up Artist | Basil Newall | 39 | 17 May 1924 | Nov 1991 | 67 | 2 | 2 | ||
Master Carpenter | Tommy Westbrook | 29 | 1934 | 01.01.1934 | 90 | 1 | 1 | ||
Music Composed and Conducted by | Stanley Black | 49 | 14 Jun 1913 | 26 Nov 2002 | 89 | 5 | 5 | ||
Producer | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/jimmy-sangster/# | 35 | 2 Dec 1927 | 19 Aug 2011 | 83 | 65 | 2 | 67 | |
Production Design | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/bernard-robinson/# | 50 | 28 Jul 1912 | 2 Mar 1970 | 57 | 45 | 4 | 49 | |
Production Manager | Bill Hill | 41 | Jun 1921 | 3 | 3 | ||||
Production Secretary | Margurite Green | 41 | 1922 | 4 Jun 1983 | 61 | 1 | 1 | ||
Props Buyer | Marjory Whittington | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Scenic Artist | Feliks Sergejak | 57 | 25 May 1906 | 1982 | 76 | 4 | 4 | ||
Second Assistant Director | Terry Lens | 29 | Aug 1933 | 2008 | 74 | 2 | 2 | ||
Sound Camera Operator | Ron Matthews | 2 | 2 | ||||||
Sound Editor | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/roy-baker/# | 35 | Jul 1927 | Feb 2011 | 83 | 29 | 1 | 30 | |
Sound Maintenance | Peter Martingell | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Sound Recordist | Cyril Swern | 42 | 27 Jan 1921 | Dec 1987 | 66 | 2 | 2 | ||
Still Photographer | James Swarbrick | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Supervising Editor | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/james-needs/# | 43 | 17 Oct 1919 | 4 Feb 2003 | 83 | 110 | 1 | 111 | |
Wardrobe | Jean Fairlie | 38 | 25 Jun 1924 | 2007 | 82 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Wardrobe Supervisor | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/molly-arbuthnot/# | 54 | 19 Dec 1908 | 31 Oct 2001 | 92 | 48 | 5 | 53 | |
Writer | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/jimmy-sangster/# | 35 | 2 Dec 1927 | 19 Aug 2011 | 83 | 65 | 2 | 67 | |
Cast | Name | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Credits | Uncredited | Total Hammer | |
Annette Beynat | Liliane Brousse | 26 | 27 Sep 1936 | 27.09.1936 | 88 | 2 | 2 | ||
Bar Patron | Daniel Brown | 6 | 6 | ||||||
Bar Patron | Jack May | 4 | 4 | ||||||
Bar Patron | Manny Michael | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Blanchard | Leon Peers | 32 | 7 Apr 1931 | 7.04.1931 | 93 | 1 | 1 | ||
Eve Beynat | Nadia Gray | 39 | 23 Nov 1923 | 13 Jun 1994 | 70 | 1 | 1 | ||
Giles | Jerold Wells | 54 | 8 Aug 1908 | 19 Jul 1999 | 90 | 4 | 4 | ||
Grace | Justine Lord | 26 | 8 Mar 1937 | 8.03.1937 | 87 | 2 | 2 | ||
Henri | Donald Houston | 39 | 6 Nov 1923 | 13 Oct 1991 | 67 | 2 | 2 | ||
Inspector Etienne | George Pastell | 40 | 13 Mar 1923 | 4 Apr 1976 | 53 | 5 | 1 | 6 | |
Janiello | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/arnold-diamond/# | 48 | 18 Apr 1915 | 18 Mar 1992 | 76 | 5 | 2 | 7 | |
Jeff Farrell | Kerwin Matthews | 37 | 8 Jan 1926 | 5 Jul 2007 | 81 | 2 | 2 | ||
Salon | Norman Bird | 38 | 30 Oct 1924 | 22 Apr 2005 | 80 | 5 | 5 | ||
Salon (Voice) | Andre Maranne | 37 | 14 May 1926 | 12 Apr 2021 | 94 | 1 | 1 |
Original Poster
Click to enlarge
Footnotes
The film was on Hammer’s 1960 schedule but for unclear reasons it was shelved. It would have starred Peter Cushing and George Sanders.
Norman Bird is dubbed by André Maranne.