Crescendo - The handwriting of Satan
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Crescendo - The handwriting of Satan |
| Original title | crescendo |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1970 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Alan Gibson |
| script |
Jimmy Sangster , Alfred Shaughnessy |
| production | Michael Carreras |
| music | Malcolm Williamson |
| camera | Paul Beeson |
| cut | Chris Barnes |
| occupation | |
| |
Crescendo - The Handwriting of Satan is a British horror thriller created in 1969 from the manufacture of the Hammer Films. The leading roles were with the US actors Stefanie Powers and (in a dual role) James Olson , the star of the wacky immediately before Space Western bandits on the moon , occupied.
action
The American music student Susan is going to the property of the supposedly brilliant but now deceased composer Henry Ryman in the south of France for a few weeks in the summer to organize his estate and to write an academic treatise on his life and work. Ryman's last composition, a "Concerto", was never completed. On the secluded property in a picturesque landscape, Susan is welcomed by Ryman's widow Danielle and her son Georges, who has been paralyzed since a serious accident. The staff in the house seems a little strange: the chauffeur and house servant Carter seems to be eyeing her closely, and the maid Lilliane, who is extremely attentive to the young host, also eyes Susan suspiciously. Lilliane seems to see her as a competitor for Georges' favor, as she has long since kept an eye on the wheelchair user who was once a talented tennis player but is now prone to seizures. Despite his physical handicap, he is a good match for Lilliane.
It soon turns out that Georges is dependent on Lillianne, who seduces him and gives him heroin and also tries to get him to marry her. Otherwise, she makes it clear to him, she wouldn't get him any more drugs. Lilliane, a calculating slut who is not exactly scrupulous in the use of her weapons as a woman, desperately wants to become the new mistress in the house. Susan finds more and more often that the house and the people who live there hold dark secrets. One morning she discovers a photo of a girl that bears some resemblance to her. George's mother becomes very monosyllabic when she inquires and says that it is Catherine, Georges' former love. It is said that she left Georges after the accident. One evening Susan, already in bed, heard piano music echoing upstairs to her from the first floor; it is Henry Ryman's crescendo. Susan rushes downstairs, but she finds no one sitting at the piano, but instead a mannequin on the armchair, half of whose face is destroyed. At the swimming pool, the American meets servant Carter, to whom she reports, but when they both return to the piano room, only the lady of the house is sitting on the armchair where the life-size doll was just a moment ago.
The next morning, Georges warns Susan about his own mother and finally asks the girl to leave as soon as possible because he is afraid for her. The next night, Lilliane, who was bathing naked, was pulled underwater by someone in the pool and stabbed to death. Then her corpse disappears without a trace. The next morning, Susan had doubts about whether she should stay and announced to Danielle Ryman that she would be leaving. She is surprised and tries to persuade Susan to stay. So did Georges, to Susan's greatest surprise, who looks like a different person and yesterday wanted to persuade Susan to leave. Now he asks her to stay and shows Susan how good she is for him. When the first caresses between the two of them, George's convulsions go through, and after she has to give him an injection, Susan learns from Danielle that Georges is a drug addict. Danielle also makes it very clear to her that she would like to see Susan become George's wife. When Susan later told Georges that she fell in love with him, he was very excited and told her what a fool she was. Shocked, Susan runs away. A little later he apologizes in a small letter for his behavior and asks Susan to come to him.
When she goes to him, Georges suddenly gets up from the wheelchair. He is lightly bleached, has more hair on his head ... and is not Georges at all, but his twin brother Jacques, who thinks Susan is Catherine. Georges is lying on the floor in front of the pool and crawling around helplessly. Carter appears, intervenes at Georges' request, tears Jacques away from Susan, who alone can no longer resist his intrusive behavior, and takes the twin brother away. There is a brief fight at the swimming pool. When Carter is briefly distracted by the appearance of Danielle, Jacques manages to drown Carter in the water. Danielle now wants to make it clear to the obviously insane Jacques that Susan is the once allegedly missing, but in truth by him murdered Catherine and that he should take her. The fanatical Danielle plans nothing less than that Susan and Jacques should give birth to healthy children, so that the ingenious musical genes of her husband can be passed on to the next generation. So she hopes that one day this child will bring the unfinished work of her adored composer husband Henry Ryman to a worthy conclusion. Georges calls to Susan to flee, whatever she does, pursued by Jacques armed with an ax. In the cellar vault, he created a life-size doll after Catherine's image. Jacques believes he sees in Susan Catherine, whom he apparently once caught red-handed in the arms of his brother Georges and then shot him with a shotgun. When Jacques is about to kill Susan with an ax, Danielle joins them and says that he should not kill this new "Catherine" but marry her. In his madness, Jacques, who fled to Georges at the pool, sees his cheater Catherine again and wants to shoot her. He was shot himself from behind and fell into the pool. Danielle killed her own son in order not to let her dream of her husband's grandson die. Horrified, Susan runs away from the property.
Production notes
Crescendo - The Handwriting of Satan premiered on June 7, 1970. The German premiere was on September 24, 1970.
The film structures were designed by Scott MacGregor , the few outdoor shots were made in southern France. The film was released on DVD in 2009.
useful information
In musical language, crescendo means “getting louder”, i.e. an increasing dynamic in the piece of music. And the film's crescendo also symbolizes an only slow increase in tension.
Reviews
The Movie & Video Guide said "Fatiguing horror shocker".
Halliwell's Film Guide found: “Insane hammer horror with the courage to shamelessly exploit A Dead Plays the Piano , The Dark House , The Long Eyelashed Satan , The Boiled Out and all the films with crazy twin brothers, with a pinch of this chaotic brew Sex and heroin addiction was added. "
"Scary film with a solid craftsmanship that focuses more on psychological motives than on gross effects."
"Crescendo has a lot of potential and is more of a calm but expressive thriller contribution from the Hammer Studios."
Individual evidence
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 275
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 229
- ↑ Crescendo - The Handwriting of Satan in the Lexicon of International Films
- ↑ Crescendo - The Handwriting of Satan on retro-film.info
Web links
- Crescendo - The manuscript of Satan in the Internet Movie Database (English)