Crescendo – 1970

A Hammer Film production released through Warner-Pathe Dimibutors Limited (UK) and Warner-Seven Arts (USA)
Copyright MCMLXIX Hammer Film Productions Limited – All rights reserved
MPAA Approved Certificate
The characters and incidents portrayed and the names used herein are fictitious and any similarity to the name, character, or history of any person is entirely accidental and unintentional
RCA Sound System
Produced at A.B.P. Studios, Boreham Wood, England and on location in France
Technicolor 95 mins
Storyline
A young music student, Susan Roberts, arrives in the South of France to research a thesis she is writing about a dead composer. She is greeted at his home by his widow, Danielle, and his wheelchair-bound son, Georges, a strange and intense young man. But all is not well in the household and Susan is soon caught up in a nightmare of recurring dreams, insanity, drug addiction and murder!
Crew
Function | Credited | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Credits |
Art Director | Scott MacGregor | 55 | 22 Oct 1914 | 1971 | 56 | 14 |
Assistant Art Director | Don Picton | 53 | 22 Feb 1916 | 1 Nov 1981 | 65 | 15 |
Assistant Director | Jack Martin | 70 | 15 Mar 1899 | 3 | ||
Camera Operator | John Winbolt | 47 | 14 Dec 1922 | 8 Jan 1992 | 69 | 2 |
Conducted by | Philip Martell | 62 | 6 Oct 1907 | 11 Aug 1993 | 85 | 103 |
Construction Manager | Arthur Banks | 18 | ||||
Continuity | Lillian Lee | 1 | ||||
Directed by | Alan Gibson | 31 | 28 Apr 1938 | 5 Jul 1987 | 49 | 8 |
Director of Photography | Paul Beeson, BSc | 48 | 16 Nov 1921 | 19 Jul 2001 | 79 | 3 |
Dubbing Mixer | Len Abbott | 4 | ||||
Editor | Chris Barnes | 32 | 1938 | 5 Jun 2009 | 71 | 21 |
Featuring Solo Piano | Clive Lythgoe | 42 | 9 Apr 1927 | 4 Sep 2006 | 79 | 1 |
From an original screenplay by | Alfred Shaughnessy | 50 | 19 May 1919 | 2 Nov 2005 | 86 | 3 |
Hairdresser | Ivy Emmerton | 7 | ||||
Make-up | Stella Morris | 1 | ||||
Music Composed by | Malcolm Williamson | 38 | 21 Nov 1931 | 2 Mar 2003 | 71 | 3 |
Played by the | London Symphony Orchestra | 1 | ||||
Produced by | Michael Carreras | 42 | 21 Dec 1927 | 19 Apr 1994 | 66 | 83 |
Production Manager | Hugh Harlow | 30 | 1 Jun 1939 | Living | 81 | 3 |
Property Buyer | Ron Baker | 1 | ||||
Recording Supervisor | A.W. Lumkin | 56 | 2 Feb 1913 | 25 Oct 1985 | 72 | 30 |
Screenplay by | Alfred Shaughnessy | 50 | 19 May 1919 | 2 Nov 2005 | 86 | 3 |
Screenplay by | Jimmy Sangster | 42 | 2 Dec 1927 | 19 Aug 2011 | 83 | 65 |
Set Dresser | Freda Pearson | 1 | ||||
Solo Saxophone | Tubby Hayes | 34 | 30 Jan 1935 | 8 Jun 1973 | 38 | 2 |
Sound Editor | Roy Hyde | 49 | 15 Feb 1920 | 28 Jun 1985 | 65 | 30 |
Sound Mixer | Claude Hitchcock | 51 | 8 Nov 1918 | 4 Oct 2010 | 91 | 14 |
Wardrobe | Jackie Breed (Rebecca Breed) | 53 | 27 Aug 1916 | 104 | 3 |
Cast
Character | Actor | Age at Release | Birth | Death | Age | Hammer Appearances |
Carter | Joss Ackland | 41 | 29 Feb 1928 | Living | 92 | 2 |
Catherine | Kirsten Betts (Kirsten Lindholm) | 26 | 1 Sep 1943 | Living | 77 | 4 |
Danielle | Margaretta Scott | 57 | 13 Feb 1912 | 15 Apr 2005 | 93 | 1 |
Georges/Jacques | James Olson | 39 | 8 Oct 1930 | Living | 90 | 2 |
Lillianne | Jane Lapotaire | 25 | 26 Dec 1944 | Living | 76 | 1 |
Susan | Stefanie Powers | 27 | 2 Nov 1942 | Living | 78 | 3 |
Footnotes
American actor James Olson could not have been happy with his experience at Hammer, having made two flops for them in quick succession, this one and the same year’s “Moon Zero Two!”. His other films include the horror prequel “Amityville II the Possession” (1982).
Stefanie Powers went on to star opposite Robert Wagner in the long-running American thriller series “Hart to Hart”.
Canadian director Alan Gibson made two more films for Hammer, “Dracula A.D.1972” (1972) and “The Satanic Rites of Dracula” (1973). He died in 1987.
Saxaphone player, Tubby Hayes, died during heart surgery at the age of 38.
Details were complied viewing the actual film.
Source of viewing copy – The Hammer Graveyard Collection