4. Straight On Till Morning (1972)
Another weird gem from Hammer that was rescued from obscurity by the Horror Channel and horror fans all over are most grateful for this deed. Straight on Till Morning has a strange kitchen sink drama feel to it which is probably because Rita 'A Taste of Honey' Tushingham plays the lead female role. Brenda is a quiet girl in a Northern town who decides she wants a baby and travels to go to London to find a man to have a baby with. The film follows her life for a while. She gets a job and a flat and makes friends. She becomes embroiled with a handsome young psycho called Peter. We know he is a psycho because earlier on in the film, he kills a woman. Circumstances conspire that Brenda and Peter have a romance. She moves in with him and falls pregnant - Peter doesn't seem to mind and Brenda is in the seventh heaven as her wishes have been fulfilled. However, Peter has a nasty shock for her. He shows her footage of him killing a woman and a dog. Brenda becomes hysterical and starts screaming. Will she meet a similar fate? Definitely not your average Hammer Horror film - no ghosts that go bump in the night - Straight on Till Morning captures the zeitgeist of London in the early 1970s, which is pretty depressing - no way would I want to be there. Rita Tushingham's character is rather drab and dreary but this fact probably heightens the narrative tension - why would a handsome guy like Peter go out with such a boring woman? I think Brenda needed to be dull for the film to work. The film depicts her life in a fairytale way - insipid woman achieves her dream and suffers horribly for it. The acting is excellent and the film cuts between scenes as fast as a cheetah leaving it rolling along at a zippy pace. A good way to pass two hours of your time.