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United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Mono ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: In a disturbing movie about psychosis, Hayley Mills plays Susan Harper, a young student who tries to help a rich, emotionally ill and sinister young man, Martin Durnley (Hywel Bennett). Martin is a schizophrenic who assumes the personality of a six-year-old boy when he is in his "nice" phase. Susan talks a store manager out of pressing charges against Martin after he steals a toy duck. Martin wants to take the toy to his mongoloid brother, who is in an institution. Martin's stepfather, Henry (Frank Finlay), enraged by his shoplifting, evicts Martin despite the pleas of his mother, Enid (Phyllis Calvert). Martin, again acting like a young child, is taken in by Susan's mother, Joan Harper (Billie Whitelaw), who runs a boarding house. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, ...Twisted Nerve
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Hayley Mills and Hywel Bennett star in this 'disturbing' movie from 1968.
I hadn't seen this film for years when I purchased it recently based upon a vague memory I had that it was a good movie. My only recall was that it had been a good film, and one single scene (oddly) had stuck in my mind where 'Martin/Georgie' (Hywel Bennett) looks at himself in the bedroom mirror like some 'Psycho' - naked, and then smashes it. For some reason this had stuck in my mind - but the rest was a complete 'blank'. However; having just seen it again after all these years, my memory had served me correctly and I was not disappointed; this was one of the best movies I have seen for some time and at almost two hours' long!
Martin (Bennett) plays a young man with a 'split' personality. He gets acquainted with 'Susan' (Mills) whilst shoplifting in a Toy Store. From there he tracks her down and moves into her life with dire consequences for all...
Also stars Billie Whitelaw and Barry Foster.
Great Five Star Movie!
I hadn't seen this film for years when I purchased it recently based upon a vague memory I had that it was a good movie. My only recall was that it had been a good film, and one single scene (oddly) had stuck in my mind where 'Martin/Georgie' (Hywel Bennett) looks at himself in the bedroom mirror like some 'Psycho' - naked, and then smashes it. For some reason this had stuck in my mind - but the rest was a complete 'blank'. However; having just seen it again after all these years, my memory had served me correctly and I was not disappointed; this was one of the best movies I have seen for some time and at almost two hours' long!
Martin (Bennett) plays a young man with a 'split' personality. He gets acquainted with 'Susan' (Mills) whilst shoplifting in a Toy Store. From there he tracks her down and moves into her life with dire consequences for all...
Also stars Billie Whitelaw and Barry Foster.
Great Five Star Movie!
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Early slasher from the normally staid and respectable Boulting Brothers has Hayley Mills in all kinds of peril from the seriously loonie Hywell Bennett.
'Twisted Nerve' is a nasty film even by my standards: despite a pre-credits disclaimer that it is in no way suggesting that mongolism is connected with psychotic or criminal behaviour - it proceeds to do just that. Bennett just luurrves to stab his step-father in the stomach with a scissors and bash his horny landlady in the face with an axe, and his only motivation is a gnarled chromosome.
He flits between characters: from Georgie, a jealous man-child; to Martin, a confrontational, intelligent spoilt-boy.
Both are highly dangerous and both have the red-hots for the rather fetching miss Mills.
The rest of the cast support superbly: Barry (Bob Rusk) Foster plays a racist, sexist, drunken lodger; Billie Whitelaw is the ever-ready landlady and Timothy West excels as a wily, droll police inspector. Each lends the movie extra worth and rising even though it rarely needs it. West is a particular joy.
A clue as to the true nature of 'Twisted Nerve' comes with the discovery of Leo Marks as the script-writer: this is the guy that wrote 'Peeping Tom' for Michael Powell and it's no great leap from there to here. The similarities are obvious but no less interesting, only here it's a genetic defect that's the villain, rather than systematic patriarchal mental abuse, but the resulting psychosis are pretty much the same - as are their outcomes.
Special mention to Bernard Herrmann's annoyingly appropriate theme music which is everywhere in the film: characters whistle it, it plays on the radio and while the 'kids' are getting on down at a party - guess what's spinning on the stereogram?
'Twisted Nerve' is a disturbing thriller with handsomely offensive overtones. A poem with lines like: 'a ganglion gone awry' is quoted as an explanation for mass-murder, and mental illness is nonchalantly described as 'abnormal.' The science world has a breath-taking theory that a twisted nerve 'predestinates the sinner or the saint,' and the always reliably sensitive police bark out phrases like: "watch your step - this chap's a nutter!".
This is what happens when people who just don't do this stuff - do this stuff.
Mills is desperately trying to shake her child-star/Disney reputation, and the Boultings were usually to be seen making typically resolute British fayre like 'Lucky Jim' 'I'm Alright Jack' and 'Carlton Browne of the F.O.' It's probably the sheer scale of this departure that makes brutal-but-precise film-making like 'Twisted Nerve' appear so other-wordly and oddly attractive.
'Twisted Nerve' is a nasty film even by my standards: despite a pre-credits disclaimer that it is in no way suggesting that mongolism is connected with psychotic or criminal behaviour - it proceeds to do just that. Bennett just luurrves to stab his step-father in the stomach with a scissors and bash his horny landlady in the face with an axe, and his only motivation is a gnarled chromosome.
He flits between characters: from Georgie, a jealous man-child; to Martin, a confrontational, intelligent spoilt-boy.
Both are highly dangerous and both have the red-hots for the rather fetching miss Mills.
The rest of the cast support superbly: Barry (Bob Rusk) Foster plays a racist, sexist, drunken lodger; Billie Whitelaw is the ever-ready landlady and Timothy West excels as a wily, droll police inspector. Each lends the movie extra worth and rising even though it rarely needs it. West is a particular joy.
A clue as to the true nature of 'Twisted Nerve' comes with the discovery of Leo Marks as the script-writer: this is the guy that wrote 'Peeping Tom' for Michael Powell and it's no great leap from there to here. The similarities are obvious but no less interesting, only here it's a genetic defect that's the villain, rather than systematic patriarchal mental abuse, but the resulting psychosis are pretty much the same - as are their outcomes.
Special mention to Bernard Herrmann's annoyingly appropriate theme music which is everywhere in the film: characters whistle it, it plays on the radio and while the 'kids' are getting on down at a party - guess what's spinning on the stereogram?
'Twisted Nerve' is a disturbing thriller with handsomely offensive overtones. A poem with lines like: 'a ganglion gone awry' is quoted as an explanation for mass-murder, and mental illness is nonchalantly described as 'abnormal.' The science world has a breath-taking theory that a twisted nerve 'predestinates the sinner or the saint,' and the always reliably sensitive police bark out phrases like: "watch your step - this chap's a nutter!".
This is what happens when people who just don't do this stuff - do this stuff.
Mills is desperately trying to shake her child-star/Disney reputation, and the Boultings were usually to be seen making typically resolute British fayre like 'Lucky Jim' 'I'm Alright Jack' and 'Carlton Browne of the F.O.' It's probably the sheer scale of this departure that makes brutal-but-precise film-making like 'Twisted Nerve' appear so other-wordly and oddly attractive.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
A very well crafted 60's film dealing with psychopathy in suburbia. Hywel Bennett plays Martin Durnley who alternates between his normal spoilt and egotistical persona with his child like learning disabled alter ego 'Georgie'
After a chance encounter at a department store whereby 'Georgie' gets both himself and the unwitting Susan (Hayley Mills) nabbed for shoplifting, Georgie soon tracks Susan down and manages to ingratiate himself into her life using his vulnerable status to full effect upon both Susan and her landlady mother (Billie Whitelaw)
Unbeknownst to them Martin/Georgie is from dubious genes, his brother being a 'mongol' and therefore leaving him predisposed to inherit the 'twisted nerve' of the title rendering him an unfeeling psychopath. Of course some dubious science is provided during the running of the film to support this theory rather discrediting the disclaimer announced at the start of the film denying any established scientific link between 'mongolism' and psychopathy.
Things don't pan out well for poor jealous and resentful Georgie and his psychopathic tendencies soon come to the fore with disasterous consequences for those misfortunate to have triggered his murderous rages. With an all-round excellent cast including Frank Finlay, Barry Foster as well as the aforementioned 'twisted nerve' is a slow boiler of a thriller building up to a climatic and dramatic ending. No doubt very shocking back in 1968 this still provides some punch.
After a chance encounter at a department store whereby 'Georgie' gets both himself and the unwitting Susan (Hayley Mills) nabbed for shoplifting, Georgie soon tracks Susan down and manages to ingratiate himself into her life using his vulnerable status to full effect upon both Susan and her landlady mother (Billie Whitelaw)
Unbeknownst to them Martin/Georgie is from dubious genes, his brother being a 'mongol' and therefore leaving him predisposed to inherit the 'twisted nerve' of the title rendering him an unfeeling psychopath. Of course some dubious science is provided during the running of the film to support this theory rather discrediting the disclaimer announced at the start of the film denying any established scientific link between 'mongolism' and psychopathy.
Things don't pan out well for poor jealous and resentful Georgie and his psychopathic tendencies soon come to the fore with disasterous consequences for those misfortunate to have triggered his murderous rages. With an all-round excellent cast including Frank Finlay, Barry Foster as well as the aforementioned 'twisted nerve' is a slow boiler of a thriller building up to a climatic and dramatic ending. No doubt very shocking back in 1968 this still provides some punch.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Unsavory psychological thriller
Unsavory psychological thriller with a dubious medical premise. A homicidal sociopath (Hywel Bennett), the product of an over doting mother (Phyllis Calvert), has a brother with... Read more
Published 18 months ago by The CinemaScope Cat
Twisted Gem
Troubled loner Martin Durnley(Hywel Bennett) has a traumatic home life, being doted on by his over protective mother(Phyllis Calvert) and has regular verbal joustings with his... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr. Jonathon T. Beckett
Great 1968 'Shocker'!
Hayley Mills and Hywel Bennett star in this 'disturbing' movie from 1968.
I hadn't seen this film for years when I purchased it recently based upon a vague memory I had... Read more
I hadn't seen this film for years when I purchased it recently based upon a vague memory I had... Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2010 by FAMOUS NAME
Stunning Quality
I remembered this film from its first release, but not the furore of critiscism that accomapnied it. Read more
Published on 4 Jun 2009 by Archie
scary movie
I've always liked hayley Mills.....this really scared me when i first saw it.. back in a time when the world was a much better place
Published on 22 Mar 2009 by silverfox
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