slayrrr666 "Hysteria" is a decent and enjoyable thriller that serves it's purpose well.**SPOILERS**Awakening in an English hospital, American Chris Smith, (Robert Webber) confides in Dr Keller, (Anthony Newlands) about his inability to remember anything before a recent car accident. Released from the hospital after finally healed, he finds that all of his accommodations are being met by a mysterious benefactor, including a nice apartment. Determined to solve the mysteries surrounding him, he hires Hemmings, (Maurice Denham) a private detective, to help unlock his history, only for more revelations to come up that make the case even weirder. When he starts to piece together the events of the past, all it does is manage to make it even harder to figure out. Finally unlocking the key piece of evidence to make the whole thing fit together, he is soon on the run for his life from a mysterious figure in his life trying to frame him for several murders as he tries to clear his name of the crimes.The Good News: This is actually much better than expected, and has some good points to it. The most telling aspect to this one is the fact that the story to it is so strong. This one has a lot of rather intriguing questions that keep it going along, from who his mysterious benefactor is to why the rest of the apartment building is empty except for him that are dealt with earlier on in the film, which make these parts of the film highly enjoyable. The questions that come from the later half, the mysterious, arguing voices he hears emanating nightly from the empty apartment next door to the bloodied knives to the photograph and the model's death are all nicely tied together with the amnesia angle, creating an effective mystery that must be solved which does it's job well. That the amnesia angle is so well-played as well makes it fun, since it's a normal plot-element that here is taken to rather fun extremes with the name-mishap and more coming to light to produce a really nice mystery that moves the film along. The film also manages to get a little excitement going along when they feature these aspects, specifically the arguing-neighbors subplot as that one tends to elicit the most exciting scenes from the film, making for some fun times in here. Of special note is the walk-through with the running shower and the bloody knife on the floor and a later one where he tears through the apartment looking for the cause of the noises. Both are the best bits of injecting some energy into the proceedings and are quite enjoyable. The last plus here is the fact that the film has an incredibly enjoyable ending that gets a lot right. From the revelations about the whole scenario to the reasons and motivations for it, which are nicely spelled out and get a couple of good points out of it, and it ends the film on a high-note. These are the film's good points.The Bad News: There wasn't too much really wrong with this one, yet those flaws are pretty big. One of the biggest flaws is that it's just not that fast-paced a film, leading many scenes to be slow-going and quite dull. The film is quite the opposite of those looking for some excitement in their films, tending to take the mostly-through-talking approach, preferring to spell everything out through dialog than anything else that could've helped this one, which is really where most of the problems with it come from. These are the film's biggest revelation scenes, yet here it does nothing for the film except draw out the boredom by not doing anything all that exciting or interesting, and that doesn't make for very enjoyable times. This one really could've moved along much faster and not been as dialog-heavy. The other flaw to this is the fact that the middle of the film is a lengthy flashback scene that doesn't really do much of anything. It is supposedly put there to explain what's been going on at the time, but instead of clarifying the confusion, it doesn't do anything other than show how the accident happened at the end of a scene where he meets up with an unknown woman and manages to sneak into the country in order to be able to have the whole situation happen to him. It's not unnecessary, but it doesn't do what it should've done by clearing away the confusion. These here are the film's biggest flaws, although the pacing one will be the hardest to overcome.The Final Verdict: Not exactly the most energetic of horror films, but as a thriller it's not that bad and actually quite entertaining. Give it a chance if you're into these kinds of films, a fan of Hammer horror or are in the mood for something different, while those looking for straight-up horror should look at the company's other output.Today's Rating-PG: Violence

sol **SPOILERS** Having survived a fiery car crash just 40 miles outside of London city limits Chris Smith, Robert Webber, a name given to him by his physician Dr. Keller, Anthony Newlands, has completely lost his memory of everything about himself before his accident. Chris is told by Dr. Keller that his medical bills are being paid for in full by some unknown benefactor as well as a luxury penthouse apartment rented for him in a London suburb.Acting a bit aloof and not at all interested in who this mystery man, who taking care of all his bills, is Chris checks into his already paid for pad and expects to take it easy until his memory returns. It's not that long that Chris starts to hear noises in the next apartment of a couple fighting with each other. Chris running to see what happened he finds a bloody knife and running shower in the empty apartment next door.Therse spats of the fathom couple go on for a couple of nights where Chris starts to believe that he in fact is, or is going, insane. With only a torn out photo of a woman, from a fashion magazine, found on him after his accident Chris checks out all the fashion photographers in town to who this woman is. Finding out from photographer Marcus Allen, Peter Woodthrope, that the mystery woman is Denise James, Leli Godoni, who in fact modeled for him and was murdered some six months ago about the time that Chris had his near-fatal accident! What Chris also finds out from Allan is that Denise was murdered in the same building, in fact on the same floor, that he's staying in now!Feeling that he's somehow being set up-in a possible murder-by someone behind the scenes Chris goes to see private dick Hammings, Maurice Denham, to get to the bottom of all these weird happenings. Hammings in the end uncovers just what's behind all these strange events which, as it turned out, Chris was subconsciously wise to.Chris in fact does later meet Denise, the woman of his dreams or hallucinations, who turned out to be the person paying his bills! Denise was married to the man Mr. James, John Arnatt, driving the car that Chris was in when he drove it off the road and thus killing himself. ****SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON**** It also turns out that Denise is only interested in Chris for reasons other then his health in fact she, and her secret associate, are planning to frame him in a murder that they'll soon commit! The shower murder of Denise's lover and accomplice's wife, Irene Richardson!The movie "Hysteria" gets very muddled and confusing at the halfway point where we see Chris recalling a trip he had, before his car accident, in France. Getting ripped off by a local hooker,Sue Lloyd, at a French cat-house was bad enough but when her boyfriend, Kiwi Kingston, showed up Chris almost ended up breaking his neck, jumping out of a second floor window, getting away.With no money or passport Chris ends up being picked up, by forcing his way into her car, by this English tourist Sandra Doizer who for some strange reason, it couldn't have been his bubbling personality, falls in love with the rude and pushy Chris. Snuck out of France and across the English Channel in the trunk of her Bently Chris shows his gratitude for the star-struck Sandra by leaving her the first chance available to him. It's then that Chris was picked up by Mr. James and that's when all his troubles in the movie began.Very over-plotted but at the same time predictable ending with Chris, together with private dick Hammings, breaking this very strange murder case wide open. But by them it seemed like that nobody, both on the screen and in the audience, was all that interested, already knowing who the killer or killers were, anyway.

Paul Andrews Hysteria starts in London where car accident victim Chris Smith (Robert Webber) is about to leave hospital after four months of recovering, he has total amnesia & cannot remember anything about himself not even his proper name. When brought into the hospital Chris had no wallet or form of identification & had no possessions other than a photo of a woman. While in hospital someone has been paying his medical bills & has sent the keys to a penthouse flat for him to live in rent free, Chris decides to accept his mysterious benefactor's hospitality & moves into the flat. There he sets about discovering who he was before he lost his memory although everything that he remembers might not be pleasant as several strange occurrences begin to happen...This English production was a link up between Hammer studios & MGM, directed by Freddie Francis this is a unusual little thriller although you shouldn't read too much into the fact it's a Hammer film as it's not the sort of thing you would typically associate with them. The script by producer Jimmy Sangster is a mysterious psychological thriller that builds up the plot about someone who can't remember anything about himself & has all these strange & peculiar things happen to him before everything is turned upside down where just about everyone is revealed to not be who you originally thought they were in a contrived & silly multiple twist ending that is only partially successful in my opinion. At only 85 minutes in length it moves along at a decent pace, the story is quite intriguing at times although I have to say I wasn't really ever gripped & that ending really is rather far fetched & hard to swallow. The character's are alright even if some are a bit optimistic in terms of what they think they can get away with! It's watchable enough I suppose but nothing brilliant & the ending just didn't surprise or impress me enough.Director Francis does alright here, the black and white photography is nice enough. I personally don't think Hysteria gains anything from being shot in black and white & it was almost certainly a decision made for financial rather than artistic reasons. There's no blood or gore & little horror in Hysteria which is a surprise since the 50's & 60's was when Hammer studios was having so much success with their horror films & I don't really understand why they would try to deviate from a successful & proved formula. The film reminds of Hictchcock's Psycho (1960) the way it's shot & the constant unsubtle references to dead women in shower's.Technically the film is good, it's well made on location in England & in the studio. The acting is solid although I doubt anyone is going to win any awards for it.Hysteria is a decent time waster, I didn't think it was outstanding & I didn't think the twist endings were all that great either, I certainly think the twists in more recent films like The Sixth Sense (1999) & Fight Club (1999) are much more effective.

The_Void Hammer studios are best known for their campy horror efforts such as the Frankenstein and Dracula series', but in the mid-sixties they also produced a number of satisfying little thrillers (mostly directed by Freddie Francis) and this film belongs to that side of the studio's output. The film is not as appealing as Francis' earlier Paranoiac, but Hysteria works primarily because of the swinging sixties atmosphere and the mysterious plot, which is played to the maximum and finishes with a great twisted climax. It's amazing that this film was produced by Hammer studios, as it feels much more like a Hitchcockian mystery/film noir than anything else that the studio produced. The plot follows an American who wakes up in an English hospital, unable to recall what has happened to him and how he got there. All we know about the man is that he was involved in a car accident, and he has a mysterious benefactor who's paying all of his hospital bills and has paid for a penthouse suite for him to stay in upon his release. His only real link to his past is a newspaper cut-out of a mysterious French model...It's obvious that this film was an attempt to mimic the successful American mystery movies of the sixties. Robert Webber's suave performance isn't a world away from Cary Grant, while Lelia Goldoni does her best Audrey Hepburn impression, and actually does rather well with it. Hammer films are distinctly English, but despite being set in the home nation; this one feels more like an American film overall. Of course, the lead character's accent helps this greatly. The film may be a disappointment to die-hard Hammer fans who prefer the colourful imagery of their most successful horror films, but Hysteria is good because it shows that the studio have some diversity. Freddie Francis was certainly one of Hammer's most capable directors, and in his hands this story is allowed to show some characterisation and present a good mystery. Hysteria keeps its audience on the edge of their seat throughout, and manages to deliver just the right amount of humour to be funny, without taking anything away from the mystery. The conclusion is well worked and makes sense, and overall; although this isn't a classic Hammer film, it's certainly a very good one!