Sheila Keith – Frightmare (Pete Walker, 1974)
Posted: July 18, 2009 Filed under: British Cinema, European Cinema, Faces, Film Studies, Finding Words, PeteWalker | Tags: BF Taylor, British Cinema, European Cinema, Faces, Film Studies, Frightmare, From Robin Wood to Robin Askwith, Pete Walker, Sheila Keith, Words 2 Comments
Sheila Keith’s presence here ensures that Frightmare will always be capable of bearing both a critical and an interpretative weight.
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A highly underrated work, and an intelligent study of extreme mental illness, FRIGHTMARE confirms Pete Walker’s status as one of the most subversive and radical horror film-makers of the last century. His films are actually far less gruesome than many contemporary critics allow; where he really succeeds is in the coaxing of wonderfully unsettling performances from the likes of Sheila Keith (his favourite actor of them all, surely), Anthony Sharp, Patrick Barr and even TV’s lovable vagabond Compo, Bill Owen. Walker’s body of work is gradually being re-evaluated, and about time too. He is a genuine talent.
Thanks for your comments. I agree with you entirely. Sheila Keith always bring something wonderful to Walker’s films. As for Pete Walker, I agree that he is a genuine talent. My two (current) favourites are Frightmare and Cool It Carol! I always include one (or both) of these films on any British cinema module I am teaching. I am particularly taken by Cool It Carol! and the parallels it shares with Schlesinger’s Billy Liar. And this brings us nicely onto Rita Tushingham.
Again, I agree with you. Her presence in this film really elevates A Taste of Honey and to my mind is a perfect riposte to the many people who have always argued (and still do) that the British New Wave was never really capable of bearing a serious critical comparison with what was happening elsewhere at the time.