Fanatic (film)

Fanatic
British original poster
Directed by	Silvio Narizzano
Produced by	Anthony Hinds
Written by	Richard Matheson
Based on	the novel Nightmare by Anne Blaisdell
Starring	Tallulah Bankhead Stefanie Powers Donald Sutherland
Music by	Wilfred Josephs
Cinematography	Arthur Ibbetson
Edited by	John Dunsford
Production company	Hammer Film Productions
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	1965-03-21
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Fanatic (US title: Die! Die! My Darling!) is a 1965 British thriller directed by Silvio Narizzano for Hammer Films. It stars Tallulah Bankhead, Stefanie Powers, Peter Vaughan, Yootha Joyce, Maurice Kaufmann and Donald Sutherland.

First released in theaters on 21 March 1965 in United Kingdom, it was filmed at Elstree Studios and on location in Letchmore Heath, Hertfordshire, during the summer of 1964. It was Bankhead's final feature film.

Plot details

An American woman, Patricia Carroll (Powers), arrives in London to get married to her lover Alan Glentower (Kaufmann). Before she gets married, Patricia wants to pay her respects to Mrs. Trefoile (Bankhead), the mother of her deceased fiancé Stephen (who died in an automobile accident several years earlier) at a secluded house on the edge of an English village. Mrs. Trefoile is fanatically religious, and it soon becomes apparent she blames Patricia for her son's death. Patricia reveals to her that she was not actually going to marry Stephen, who, it turns out, committed suicide. With the help of her two married servants Harry (Vaughn) and Anna (Joyce), Mrs. Trefoile holds Patricia captive in an attempt to cleanse Patricia's soul. After Mrs. Trefoile kills Harry, she then tries to kill Patricia. Patricia is rescued by Alan. Anna finds Harry's body, and finally Mrs. Trefoile falls dead with a knife in her back—presumably put there by Anna.

Cast

• Tallulah Bankhead as Mrs. Trefoile
• Stefanie Powers as Patricia Carroll
• Peter Vaughan as Harry
• Maurice Kaufmann as Alan Glentower
• Yootha Joyce as Anna
• Donald Sutherland as Joseph
• Gwendolyn Watts as Gloria
• Robert Dorning as Ormsby
• Philip Gilbert as Oscar
• Winifred Dennis as Shopkeeper
• Diana King as Shopper
• Henry McGee as Priest

Critical reception

The film maintains a 44% rating on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on 9 reviews.

See also

• Looped, a 2010 Broadway play that uses the production of this film as its setting
• Psycho-biddy genre

External links

• Fanatic at IMDb
• Fanatic at AllMovie
• Die! Die! My Darling! at the TCM Movie Database

Template:Hammer Film Productions films