''Escapement'' (aka ''The Electronic Monster'' ) is a 1958 British horror

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...

directed by

Montgomery Tully Montgomery Tully (6 May 190410 October 1988) was an Irish film director and writer. Film career Born in Dublin, Tully studied at the University of London, and originally entered the film industry as a director of documentaries. Later, Tully wo ...

and

David Paltenghi David Paltenghi (1919 – 4 February 1961) was a British ballet dancer, choreographer, director and film director. Early life David Paltenghi was born in 1919 in Christchurch, Hampshire (now Dorset), the son of a Swiss-Italian father and Englis ...

(dream sequences) .

Plot

Inquiring into the mysterious death of a Hollywood star, insurance investigator Jeff Keenan uncovers an exclusive psychiatric clinic on the

French Riviera The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...

. Here, patients who want to escape the stresses of life are hypnotized, then laid out in morgue-like drawers and left to dream for several weeks. It turns out that Dr. Zakon, the clinic's ex-Nazi owner, is using a "dream machine" to alter the sleepers' dreams, and to impose his will on theirs.

Cast

* Rod Cameron as Jeff Keenan * Mary Murphy as Ruth Vance * Meredith Edwards as Dr. Philip Maxwell *

Peter Illing Peter Illing (4 March 1899 – 29 October 1966) was an Austrian-born British film and television actor. Selected TV series * '' Deadline Midnight'' (1961) as Captain Dnieprovsky * '' The Saint'' (1962) as Inspector Buono Filmography * '' The S ...

as Paul Zakon *

Carl Jaffe Carl Jaffe (21 March 1902 – 12 April 1974) was a German actor. Jaffe trained on the stage in his native Hamburg, Kassel and Wiesbaden before moving to Berlin, where his career began to develop. In 1933 Jaffe changed his stage name to Fran ...

as Dr. Hoff (as Carl Jaffé) *

Kay Callard Kay Callard (10 November 1923 – 7 March 2008) was a Canadian film and television actress who spent most of her career in Britain. She was married to the actor Jack McNaughton Jack McNaughton (22 December 190522 February 1990) was a British ...

as Laura Maxwell *

Carl Duering Gerald Percy Fox (29 May 1923 – 1 September 2018), better known as Carl Duering, was a German-born British actor whose best-known role is as Dr. Brodsky in Stanley Kubrick's ''A Clockwork Orange''. He died in London in September 2018 at the age ...

as Blore * Roberta Huby as Verna Berteaux *

Felix Felton Robert Forbes Felton (12 August 1911 – 21 October 1972), known professionally as Felix Felton, was a British film, television, stage and voice actor as well as a radio director, composer and author. Radio work In his earlier years Felton cons ...

as Police Commissaire * Larry Cross as Brad Somers * Carlo Borelli as Signore Pietro Kallini * John McCarthy as Claude Denver * Jacques Cey as Police Doctor * Armand Guinle as French Farmer (as Armande Guinle) * Malou Pantera as Clinic Receptionist * Pat Clavin as Receptionist at Studio * Alan Gifford as Wayne - Insurance Company Chief

Production

Producer Richard Gordon later said there were major problems with the film's special effects. He also said that he had a dispute with Anglo-Amalgamated, who did not want the movie to get an X certificate in England, whereas Gordon wanted more horror for the US.Tom Weaver, ''The Horror Hits of Richard Gordon'', Bear Manor Media 2011 p 19

Critical reception

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...

called it a "blah sci-fi programmer" ; while

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

noted, "an intriguing feature in that it was among the first to examine the possibilities of

psychological manipulation Manipulation in psychology is a behavior designed to exploit, control, or otherwise influence others to one’s advantage. Definitions for the term vary in which behavior is specifically included, influenced by both culture and whether referring t ...

and

brainwashing Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwash ...

." Moria found that the movie failed to live up to its interesting premise, being overly talky.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and f ...

found the movie was leaning towards a thriller-like plot and had a disinclination to argue too about its often shaky scientific pinning.

References

External links

* * {{Montgomery Tully 1958 films Films directed by Montgomery Tully Fiction about mind control British science fiction films 1950s science fiction films 1950s English-language films 1950s British films