Die Screaming Marianne (1971)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

That was an excellent one.

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Susan George plays Marianne, a young go-go dancer in London apt to running away from any man who takes a liking to her; she's not fickle, exactly, she just has a troubled past with men starting with her nefarious father, nicknamed "the Judge." After a fellow picks Marianne up on the road, she finds herself at the altar about to marry him, but enters their best man's name on the marriage certificate instead. This enrages her intended, who turns snitch to the Judge (and Marianne's wicked half-sister) who's in desperate need of a Swiss bank account number that only Marianne knows, an account that houses legal papers incriminating the Judge in various dirty doings. Written by Murray Smith and directed by Pete Walker (who also produced), the misleadingly-titled "Die Screaming Marianne" (without a comma) isn't a horror movie or a suspense-thriller; it's more of a character portrait-cum-criminal melodrama, one that is curiously coy in its violent and sexual matters. George is seen dancing in a bedazzled bikini under the opening credits, but she doesn't dance again, nor does she get much of a chance to create a genuine character. Marianne is unpredictable in all the wrong ways; she's a question-mark whose actions are confusing, confounding and often reach a dead-end (running off from her new husband in the early morning hours, she hitches a ride, stops to rest in the meadow grass, applies for a dancing job, turns it down when the boss asks to "see the goods," and then returns home). Finale at the Judge's seaside spread in Portugal is even odder, with lustful, jealous Judy Huxtable bent on torturing Marianne to get that account number before killing her. Before long, bodies have piled up, corpses have to be identified, the cops are on their way, and we still have no idea who Marianne is. *1/2 from ****

I got the DVD as I am a great fan of Susan George, who normally is prepared to flaunt her excellent physique in many of her films (we see plenty of her in "Straw Dogs", A Strange Affair" etc.), but this film goes out of its way to totally keep her covered: even in the bubble bath she is wearing clothes under the foam! The continuity is truly risible - for example, in the above bath scene, all the close ups show her dry and her breasts covered with the white bra, but longer shots show her covered in foam but the bra still visible under the bubbles! In another sequence they leave the airport in a black Mercedes registration number BA-99-77, but in the very next shot the car's registration plates have changed to 11-32-32. The make-up on her face to show that her half-sister has tortured her with a cigarette lighter is seen before the incident happens.The plot, direction and lighting is all dire too. Fortunately I only bought the DVD secondhand very cheaply, as it was a total waste of money.

DIE SCREAMING MARIANNE is a standard-issue potboiler which is high on 'exotic' locations but low on excitement. Susan George is good to look at, as always, but she can't save boredom from setting in or do much to salvage the dreadful screenplay. Veteran exploitations Pete Walker didn't hit his stride as a truly effective film-maker until he began directing horror movies, bringing sleaze and gore to suburbia, so quite what this tedious mess is doing in Anchor Bay's otherwise excellent Pete Walker boxed set is a mystery to me. THE FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW or SCHIZO would have been more welcome inclusions, but Walker made films for a wide variety of companies and distributors, so maybe some rights complications prevented their inclusion. Having said that, the title sequence is justly celebrated, and Walker offers an amusing and illuminating audio commentary on the film's troubled history (at one point he cancelled the production, and the location filming in Portugal was hampered by personality clashes) and his admiration for the lovely George is touchingly clear throughout. In fact, it's a lot more entertaining than the film itself! Kenneth Kendel, Barry Evans and Anthony Sharpe offer effective support in smallish roles.

Somehow this film manages to be boring as hell even with the lovely Susan George all over it, and in her prime too.This disjointed relic from British Cinema's Bronze Age features George as a bonne viveuse who is keeping her distance from a dis-functional family which threaten to unravel her hopes of a normal romantic life, and all because she possesses within her mind the secret swiss bank account number which contains her inheritance, which will be entirely her's when she reaches the age of 21. Various losers try to get her to come across with the goods and they certainly take their time with it. And for some odd reason Maryanne tags along with their schemes right up till the last minute even though she knows who she's dealing with. It's kind of confusing.There is a cheesy song about Maryanne at the end, and the opening credits are rather dated, with Ms. George doing her best go-go dancer routine.