Brenda is extremely timid and has low self esteem. She see's herself as ugly and is desperate to fall in love and have a baby. She leaves her Mothers and vacates to London to search for her Prince. She meets Peter and thinks she has met the man of her dreams and he seems to be infatuated with her too.It would be unfair to give too much away; you should see this film, recommended. An unusual diversion from Hammer, who was still making Dracula & Frankenstein films at the same time, this is a gem though and as always, Hammer don't disappoint. They sure can make films whatever genre they do.Although this is a girl meets guy who is not what he seems type of film, it's not your average body at the bottom of the stairs that keeps getting up, or a big fire that kills the bad guys off, I suggest Halloween or a clichéd horror for that. This film is intelligent and well written, although does tend to be ambiguous.Rita Tushingham and Shane Brent were both excellent and the former gives an audio commentary on the DVD if you look around carefully. Look out for James Bolam too.9 out of 10, good old Hammer films.

When this was up on The Horror Channel, it was Rita Tushingham's name that caught my eye, her brilliant acting and intensity laying down an intriguing gauntlet.With Radio Times not even giving a review, or even a rating, I was worried that it might be dreadful and true, many could see some parts as such, especially if they had taken them out of context and not watched it all the way through. However, from its opening, it was obvious that this was a well-made and directed (by Peter Collinson) little movie.Not only is it a good and interesting snapshot of swinging London, it is also a warped fairytale about a reclusive serial killer. Who's the beauty and who is the beast? Should we and can we be loved for beauty alone?Describing the story is unnecessary; it is a shortish film and it's the issues involved, often psychological and deeply sinister plus the often imaginative directing that are the pluses. The acting of the leads Tushingham and Shane Briant are very good with just the right amount of every emotion going. The popular James Bolam also co-stars.There is often a sense of unease, even during the less intense parts. Oddness also often takes a lead but never enough for us to dismiss them. The most intense, X-Rated (still certificate 18) scenes are disturbing rather than graphic but they still shock.Unlike many Hammer Horror's, it remains memorable, the ordinariness mixing with the oddness plus the central characters making for an unusual and compelling mix. I enjoyed it.

Perhaps the least formulaic film ever released by Hammer, Straight On Till Morning is a bleak and unforgiving "kitchen-sink" horror flick that doesn't quite come off. It is undeniably refreshing to find the studio veering away from the usual period chillers with which it built (and then subsequently bludgeoned) its reputation. However, Straight On Till Morning has not dated particularly well and seems somewhat stuck in a time capsule of music, costumes and attitudes (other controversial movies of that era – Straw Dogs, Performance, Deliverance, Frenzy, etc - have all aged much better). Also, director Peter Collinson's busy and fragmented narrative style proves just a bit too wearisome for the film's own good.Ugly duckling Brenda Thompson (Rita Tushingham) lives in a terraced house in Liverpool, where she spends hours writing children's' fairy stories and dreaming of a perfect life. She lies to her mother that she is pregnant and heads off to London, claiming that she wants to find a nice man to raise her baby (when, in reality, she thinks she will find her perfect prince with whom to live happily ever after). Brenda is incredibly naïve and inexperienced, and it isn't long before she is literally throwing herself at men in desperation. When she fails to woo a work colleague named Joey (James Bolam), losing him instead to her beautiful room-mate Caroline (Katya Wyeth), she runs off into the dark London streets in despair. Whilst out wandering, she comes across a stray dog and takes it back to her lodgings to clean it up and make it look pretty. Later Brenda returns the dog to its rightful owner, the handsome yet day-dreamy Peter (Shane Briant). He seems to like her and offers her the chance to move in with him, but later – while Brenda is away collecting her things – he stabs his dog to death with a knife. Seems that Peter is psychologically messed-up and has a real problem with "beauty"…. in fact, he is behind the disappearance of various beautiful girls in the Earl's Court area of London, all of them brutally murdered by him because of their good looks. Blindly, agonisingly, Brenda allows herself to walk into the life of this dangerous psychopath….There are no characters in the film with whom we can empathise. They range from psychotic (Peter) to promiscuous (Caroline); from stupid (Brenda) to cruel and cold (Joey). To share an hour and a half with such mean-spirited people is fascinating in some respects, yet very unpleasant in others. (This is certainly not a film that encourages repeat viewings). The pacing is slow but deliberate, and the shocks are fairly infrequent (but powerful and disturbing when they come). The film ends on a typically bleak note – no great crescendo of action at the end with the villain getting his just desserts; instead a painfully realistic conclusion which cruelly refuses to play to genre expectations. Straight On Till Morning marks a major departure for Hammer and is interesting, challenging stuff. Sadly - having set up its grim tone, style and themes - it doesn't make a terribly good job of shaping them into a great film.

This one is perhaps Hammer's most incongruous film - a flashily-directed modern suspenser with pretensions; actually, the horror brand-name is only displayed at the very end (even if the credits themselves are unmistakable) - whereas the trailer proudly advertises it as "A Love Story From Hammer"! While the film features gratuitous nudity (virtually a Hammer mandate by this stage), in spite of a number of murders occurring throughout, it's surprisingly bloodless for this studio.Director Collinson's fragmentary style is appropriately disorienting at times and actually proves quite economical - for instance, in the course of the first couple of minutes, we get to know practically the entire back-story of the two protagonists - but it also becomes irritating very quickly! Rita Tushingham and Shane Briant are quite good in their roles, the former typically kooky and the latter effectively disturbed; lovely Katya Wyeth appears as Tushingham's colleague/room-mate, an unfortunate association which ends in her brutal murder.The title (and title tune) are inspired by "Peter Pan" and, in fact, the script makes several references to J.M. Barrie's popular tale: the leading characters call one another Peter and Wendy when their names are really Clive and Brenda; Briant is a bit the boy who never grew up, whereas Tushingham's relocation from humdrum Liverpool to Swinging London (cue some horrid 70s fashions and hairstyles) can be seen as the equivalent of the journey to Neverland. The film ends rather abruptly on a downbeat note.The Rita Tushingham Audio Commentary (moderated by Jonathan Sothcott), unsurprisingly, is not up to the level of tracks I've heard for other Hammer films - given the star's limited connection with the company. However, she displays a winning sense of humor throughout and her recollections prove engaging enough to make it a worthwhile listen nonetheless. Incidentally, here it's mentioned that STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING was released as the A feature in a double-bill with another Hammer thriller - FEAR IN THE NIGHT (1972) - which I also recently watched for the first time and is, ironically, the superior effort!