Still recovering from serious head injuries sustained in a car crash, motor racing driver Alan Colby and his wife Denise go on holiday to the South of France. There, Alan is suddenly and unexpectedly struck with a compulsion to strangle his wife. Hearing about this, Dr. David Prade, a local psychiatrist, offers to help, but his offer is rejected by Alan and he and Denise return to London.
The psychiatrist follows them there, convinced that sooner or later his services will be needed and that he should be close at hand. At first, all seems well with Alan, but then one morning he wakes from a long sleep to find that Denise has disappeared. Worse, all the evidence points to his having murdered her…..
Production Details
A Columbia Pictures Corporation presentation of a Hammer Film
Production.
Copyright MCMLIV by Hammer Film Productions Ltd. Ltd. All rights reserved
Megascope
MPAA Approved
RCA Sound System
Produced at Bray Studios
Based on the novel “The Full Treatment” by Ronald Scott Thorn
All characters and incidents portrayed, and the names used herewith are ficticious and the similarity to any names, characters or history of any person is entirely accidental and unintentional
Black & White 81 mins
Filming Began: 14th August 1959
UK Release: 4th March 1960
Studio:
Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire
Locations:
Black Park, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England
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 Direction | Tony Masters | 41 | 9 Nov 1919 | 12 May 1990 | 70 | 1 | 1 | ||
Assistant Director | Kip Gowans | 30 | 28 Mar 1930 | 11 Mar 2011 | 80 | 1 | 1 | ||
Associate Producer | Victor Lyndon | 42 | 19 Dec 1918 | Sep 1996 | 77 | 1 | 1 | ||
Camera Operator | Moray Grant | 43 | 13 Nov 1917 | 17 Sep 1977 | 59 | 29 | 29 | ||
Continuity | Doreen Dearnaley | 32 | 20 Nov 1928 | 3 Feb 1992 | 63 | 13 | 13 | ||
Costumes | Beatrice Dawson | 53 | 26 Jan 1908 | 16 Apr 1976 | 68 | 2 | 2 | ||
Director | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/val-guest/# | 49 | 11 Dec 1911 | 10 May 2006 | 94 | 30 | 30 | ||
Director of Photography | Gilbert Taylor BSc | 46 | 21 Apr 1914 | 23 Aug 2013 | 99 | 1 | 1 | ||
Film Editor | Bill Lenny | 33 | 1928 | 2002 | 74 | 10 | 4 | 14 | |
Focus Puller | Kelvin Pike | 32 | 1929 | 01.01.1929 | 95 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
Hairdressing | Ivy Emmerton | 7 | 7 | ||||||
Make-up | Tony Sforzini | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Music Composed & Conducted by | Stanley Black | 47 | 14 Jun 1913 | 26 Nov 2002 | 89 | 5 | 5 | ||
Producer | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/val-guest/# | 49 | 11 Dec 1911 | 10 May 2006 | 94 | 30 | 30 | ||
Production Accountant | Doreen Jones | 35 | 1926 | 01.01.1926 | 98 | 3 | 3 | ||
Production Manager | Clifton Brandon | 34 | 26 Jan 1927 | 20 Sep 2018 | 91 | 1 | 1 | ||
Screenplay | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/val-guest/# | 49 | 11 Dec 1911 | 10 May 2006 | 94 | 30 | 30 | ||
Screenplay | Ronald Scott Thorn | 40 | 27 Apr 1920 | 20 Apr 1996 | 75 | 1 | 1 | ||
Set Decoration | Scott Slimon | 45 | 8 Aug 1915 | 1980 | 64 | 1 | 1 | ||
Sound Recordist | Bert Ross | 56 | 26 Apr 1904 | 1972 | 67 | 1 | 1 | ||
Special Photographic Effects | Vic Margutti | 48 | 1913 | 1980 | 67 | 6 | 6 | ||
Cast | Name | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Credits | Uncredited | Total Hammer | |
Alan Colby | Ronald Lewis | 32 | 11 Dec 1928 | 11 Jan 1982 | 53 | 3 | 3 | ||
Baroness de la Vaillon | Barbara Chilcott | 38 | 10 Sep 1922 | 1 Jan 2022 | 99 | 1 | 1 | ||
Connie | Katya Douglas | 22 | 14 Feb 1938 | 14.01.1938 | 86 | 1 | 1 | ||
Denise Colby | Diane Cilento | 28 | 2 Apr 1932 | 6 Oct 2011 | 79 | 2 | 2 | ||
Doctor Manfield | George Merritt | 70 | 10 Dec 1890 | 27 Aug 1977 | 86 | 3 | 3 | ||
Doctor Roberts | Edwin Styles | 62 | 13 Jan 1899 | 20 Dec 1960 | 61 | 1 | 1 | ||
Dr David Prade | Claude Dauphin | 57 | 19 Aug 1903 | 16 Nov 1978 | 75 | 1 | 1 | ||
Harry | Bernard Braden | 44 | 16 May 1916 | 2 Feb 1993 | 76 | 1 | 1 | ||
London Taxi Driver | Dickie Owen | 33 | 26 Mar 1927 | 7 Apr 2015 | 88 | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
Madame Prade | Francoise Rosay | 69 | 19 Apr 1891 | 28 Mar 1974 | 82 | 1 | 1 | ||
Nicole | Ann Tirard | 43 | 5 Jun 1917 | 12 Aug 2003 | 86 | 1 | 1 | ||
Onlooker at Crash | https://www.hammer-graveyard.org.uk/aileen-lewis/# | 46 | 9 Apr 1914 | 12 Feb 2014 | 99 | 1 | 6 | 7 | |
Onlooker at Crash | Roy Everson | 1 Apr 2001 | 3 | 3 |
Original Poster
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Footnotes
In the introduction to the main filmography, we stated that only films described in their credits as Hammer productions would be eligible for inclusion. Well, this film is an exception we shall be making to that rule. The reasons for doing so are two-fold:- (a) it is included in all lists of Hammer Films, and (b) Falcon was a subsidiary of Hammer.
Actor Ronald Lewis also starred in Hammer’s Taste of Fear (1961) and The Brigand of Kandahar (1965).
Bernard Braden was, like his wife Barbara Kelly, more well known as a TV personality than an actor and was host of programmes such as Criss Cross Quiz and On the Braden Beat in the 1960s. Another of his acting roles was also for director Val Guest in the documentary-style sci-fi thriller The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961).