Die! Die! My Darling! (a.k.a Fanatic) (1965)

A young woman named Patricia pays a visit to her dead fiance Stephen's mother, Mrs. Trefoile. Although she is surprised and annoyed at Mrs. Trefoile's religious devotion, especially when Mrs. Trefoile brings her to task for simply wearing makeup, she tries not to say anything out to turn. Eventually, though, Mrs. Trefoile pushes Patricia too far, and Patricia admits she is now engaged to marry someone else and, at the time Stephen died, she considered breaking off her engagement to him. Believing that the purity of her son's soul can only be preserved by Patricia's repentence, Mrs. Trefoile, with the aid of her loyal household, lock Patricia up in the house. As Patricia becomes more and more desperate to escape, Mrs. Trefoile slides further into madness, and decides that she must reunite her precious son with his would-have-been bride...

Psychological thrillers come and go, but this one's worth noticing for a couple of reasons: first, it's an attempt by Hammer to recreate the classic gothic genre, complete with eerie sociopathic characters and a helpless woman locked up in a large, ancient house; and second, it has Telulah Bankhead, one of the lesser known "titanesses" of the black-and-white era (and probably best known for her role as Connie Porter in Hitchcock's Lifeboat), playing the central role of Mrs. Trefoile, a religious fanatic who's slowly going mad over her son's death and his fiance's "infidelity."

The biggest problem with the plot is, of course, that it may remind certain viewers of the traumatic experience that is Flowers in the Attic. What seperates Mrs. Trefoile from that movie's senselessly sinister matriarch, known only as "Grandmother," is that Mrs. Trefoile is simply a better thought-out character . For one thing, whoever wrote the character of Mrs. Trefoile actually had some understanding of the Christian Protestant religion, which is far more than can be said for the screenwriters of Flowers in the Attic. Also, while "Grandmother" does what she does 'cause she's Eeeeviiiil and that's the end of it, Mrs. Trefoile's actions are pretty logical, if one can accept the basic premise that her son's soul is endangered by his fiance's actions. It's the very fact that there is a method to Mrs. Trefoile's madness that makes her character all the more effective, chilling, and, most importantly, realistic. I've heard many complaints against films with fanatical villains that simply the villain's association with Christianity (more specifically, Protestantism) automatically brands the character as irrational, mad, and, yes, Eeeeviiiil. It's difficult to say if this film is really guilty of that. Yes, Mrs. Bankhead does spout off biblical quotes, and, yes, there are plenty of shots of her Bible and indoor chapel and "little clues" such as Mrs. Trefoile's refusal to let Patricia wear red clothing in her house; yet, the film does have the task of setting up her fanaticism. Other than perhaps making the protagonist a Christian (which, in this case, she isn't), there's really no way of bypassing the problem, I think.

Annoying P.C. problems aside, Tallulah Bankhead plays off the role beautifully. Not only does she have the presence (and the voice) for the role, she also does a superb job of balancing Mrs. Trefoile the wealthy, puritanical woman with Mrs. Trefoile the psychotic, homicidal loony. Her painful, guilt-ridden descent into insanity is obvious, but still the character keeps a strange sense of pride and upper-class decorum up until the very end. While the object of Mrs. Trefoile's torments, our Gothic heroine Patricia, is not nearly as complex as her captor (of course, one wouldn't expect her to be), Patricia avoids falling into the trap of becoming the helpless woman. Her current fiance never barges in to save the day, and she manages to stay resourceful without resorting to overly dramatic fits of screaming and despair.

As with any gothic movie, especially one with someone like Tallulah Bankhead, there's more than a fair share of scenery chewing, but that's part of the fun. Plus, it works alongside the usual Hammer eye for background. Certainly a movie worth checking out, and good proof that there is more to Hammer than just their Dracula and Frankenstein series.


Cast Connections

Among quite a few other things, Richard Mattheson also wrote the "Prey" segment in Trilogy of Terror and also the classic Comedy of Terrors.

Maurice Greentower (Alan) was also Dr. Whitcombe in The Abominable Dr. Phibes