Twisted Nerve
– Hywel Bennett stars as Martin Durnley, a rich but damaged Oxford University drop-out with a hatred o..
Hywel Bennett stars as Martin Durnley, a rich but damaged Oxford University drop-out with a hatred of his banker stepfather, played by Frank Finlay. His mum babies the boy, a consequence of Martin's elder brother, a Down Syndrome sufferer (or 'Mongoloid' - or even 'mentally backward' as they say here), being in full-time care, and the doctors having warned Martin's parents not to have any more children - just to be on the safe side. Too late: troubled mummy's boy Martin, with his cuddly toys and penchant for smashing his own reflection, appears to have proved the doctors misgivings.
01 Dec 1968
English, French
Roy Boulting
Leo Marks (screenplay), Roy Boulting (screenplay), Roger Marshall (adapted from screen story), Roger Marshall (idea), Jeremy Scott (idea)
Hayley Mills, Hywel Bennett, Billie Whitelaw, Phyllis Calvert
Martin is a troubled young man. With a mother who insists on treating him like a child, a stepfather who can't wait to see the back of him, and a brother with Down's Syndrome shut away in an institution, is it any wonder he retreats into an alternate personality - that of six-year-old Georgie? It is Georgie who befriends Susan Harper, but friendship soon turns into obsession. When Susan begins to distance herself, something inside Georgie snaps and he embarks on a killing spree, with Susan as the next target.
Boulting Brothers