"Fragment of Fear" certainly isn't your average type of whodunit/mystery thriller, and whether or not you like it will entirely depend on your own personal attention span and tolerance towards screenplays that reveal very few clues and depict only a minimum amount of action. Who killed Lucy Dawson, the elderly aunt of recovering drug-addict turned novelist Tim Brett, whilst she was on vacation in Italy and seemingly visiting the ruins nearby Pompeii? More importantly, are we really supposed to care by whom Aunt Lucy got strangled and why, because the script (adapted from John Bingham's novel) remains distant and vague regarding the actual murder and clearly only wants us to worry about the deteriorating mental state of protagonist Tim Brett. Shortly after the murder, and having fallen in love with the witness who first discovered the body, Tim returns to London and decides to investigate the murder himself. Although he discovers almost nothing, he does receive a few unmistakably clear warnings to restrain from looking further. He is repeatedly visited by a peculiar old lady (who turns up dead later), gets threatening letters coming from his own typewriter and someone is laughing mysteriously on his answering machine. The police don't take him very seriously, being a former heroine junkie, and rather than killing him as well, the person (or persons) Tim Brett tries to unmask is merely attempting to bring his persona in further discredit. Yes, I do realize this brief description is rather confusing, but so is the entire film! I'm not even sure if I understood half of it! "Fragment of Fear" is definitely one of the best films ever made in terms of depicting the paranoiac state of its lead character! Throughout the entire film everybody is wondering whether or not everything that is happening is real or not; and even the denouement doesn't provide a conclusive answer. Like Tim Brett mumbles at one point during the film: "Either I am mad and all this isn't happening to me, or else I'm sane and it is
" There you go: "Fragment of Fear" accurately summarized in one single line of text. Paranoid or not, the film does contain a couple of remarkably suspenseful moments, a marvelous illustration of London society during the late 60s/early 70s, a catchy soundtrack and a number of solid acting performances. David Hemmings remains one of the most phenomenal but sadly underrated actors of his generation. He carries the entire film, which must have been quite a heavy burden, without a lot of effort. There are many truly gifted actors and actresses in the supportive cast, like Adolfo Celi, Flora Robson and Yootha Joyce, but their screen time is bizarrely limited.
24 Reviews
Gripping film with unsatisfying ending
gridoon202427 February 2012
Warning: Spoilers
For the most part, "Fragment Of Fear" is a gripping film. Although sometimes it can get too talky, it cleverly builds an atmosphere of justifiable paranoia, as we can see both why the hero feels so trapped and scared and why it is difficult for other people to believe his stories. But in the last 5 minutes or so, the film goes all vague and ambiguous on us, leaving us to interpret it all in our own way. The problem is that either way leaves too many unanswered questions. What does hold the film together is a committed central performance by David Hemmings; in what is largely an one-man-show, he creates a believable Everyman, a regular guy who gets in over his head. And an amusing credit for those who stick to the very end: "Colombus" is played by....a London pigeon. Who would have guessed? **1/2 out of 4.
A case study for paranoia and madness
shakercoola1 November 2019
A British mystery drama; A story about a reformed drug addict and author who travels to Italy to visit his aunt. His aunt is murdered in Pompeii and he begins his own investigation but the clues to the mystery are complicated.
This film adaptation of John Bingham's novel is stylish and well photographed with a jazzy soundtrack which plays to the film's unusual aspects. David Hemmings delivers a convincing performance of someone with a shifting psychological state. The story leaves more questions unanswered than answered as far as the plot goes, but the theme of man driven to madness with no way out overrides this complication with considerable impact.
Paranoiac terror
lordhack_9929 September 2001
I thought that this was a brilliant thriller. Hemmings's character is the perfect foil, an admitted addict. He is like a mute who cannot scream at the horror enveloping him. Paranoia and fecklessness bounce off a genuine conspiracy. The tension is almost unbearable.
certainly worth a look
christopher-underwood1 September 2013
I felt this could have been so much better and began to temporarily tire of it somewhere around the halfway mark and then it lifted and ran pretty well to the end. David Hemmings seemed a bit limp and Gayle Hunnicutt almost asleep but then maybe it was the erratic script. I guess there is also the problem where a film is going to have different levels of reality that not all can be made too transparently clear. There is a wonderful cameo from Wilfred Hyde-White and things certainly pick up with the appearance of Daniel Massey and Arthur Lowe. Apart from the dialogue being rather lacklustre at times and some scenes going on a tad too long, the music is completely wrong. I have seen the score by Johnny Harris highly praised and possibly outside of the film the jazzy music is fine but here it is too loud, too obvious and basically, bloody annoying. Despite all this, the film remains likable enough and certainly worth a look.
I think I'm going Mad!
sol-kay15 July 2012
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS*** Recovering drug addict and best selling British author Tim Brett,David Hennings,is to meet his Aunt Lucy Dawson,Flora Robson, after church services while visiting her on vacation in Pompeii Italy but someone got to her first. Found strangled to death outside the ancient ruins of the city the police can't find any reason for her murder other then it was the work of a escaped or as of yet uncommitted lunatic from a local mental institution! Back in Britin Tim makes it a point to find his aunt's murderer or murderers who in fact has been shadowing him all the way there form Italy!
The first tip that Tim gets to the reason why his Aunt Lucy was murdered is when he's confronted by this strange woman, Mary Wimbush, at his apartment building asking him to drop out of the case. It seems that she's somehow involved in Aunt Lucy's murder in her knowing the real reasons behind it. It's later that Tim is allegedly accused by the woman of trying to assault her by London police Sgt. Matthews, Derek Newark, and is threatening to press charges against him! Things get even stranger for Tim as it's later found out that the woman in question, Mary Wimbush, was found strangled! That after she later told Tim that she want's his forgiveness in that what Sgt. Matthews told him about her was all BS! In fact it's later discovered that this Sgt. Matthwes is no cop at all but an impostor who's working with this shadowy group of ex-cons called the "Stepping Stones" who were in fact founded and supported by Tim's late Aunt Lucy!
As Tim soon finds out Aunt Lucy was involved in getting high IQ and highly educated ex-convicts high profile jobs in the government and business world by getting them fake identities and hiding their criminal records through her "Stepping Stones" project! With many of these persons now in very high and prominent positions she was blackmailing them to keep her from exposing their past and thus destroying their very successful careers! It's when Aunt Lucy went a bit too far that they, the ex-cons, took matters into their own hands. As for Tim who's soon to marry Juliet Briston, Gayle Hunnicutt, the woman who in fact found the murdered Aunt Lucy his meddling in the case and making things a bit hot for them has the "Stpping Stones" planning to totally discredit if not murder him. That's by making it look like he's back to taking drugs which would make whatever he say about them totally unbelievable!
***SPOILERS*** David Hennings holds the plot together even when it starts to get a bit confusing as ex-drug addict Tim Brett who begins to realize that he's way over his head in trying to find his Aunt Lucy's murderer. Despite her kind heart Aunt Lucy's concocted a sinister plan to get revenge against the very persons, ex-convicts, whom she's been helping all these years. This stems from the murder of her husband of just two months in a home invasion over 20 years ago! Tim in trying to find his Aunt Lucy's killer opened up a while new can of worms that not only put his and his fiancée Juliet life in danger but in a strange way, through Aunt Lucy blackmailing the ex-cons as well as covering up their criminal records, justified her own murder!
The first tip that Tim gets to the reason why his Aunt Lucy was murdered is when he's confronted by this strange woman, Mary Wimbush, at his apartment building asking him to drop out of the case. It seems that she's somehow involved in Aunt Lucy's murder in her knowing the real reasons behind it. It's later that Tim is allegedly accused by the woman of trying to assault her by London police Sgt. Matthews, Derek Newark, and is threatening to press charges against him! Things get even stranger for Tim as it's later found out that the woman in question, Mary Wimbush, was found strangled! That after she later told Tim that she want's his forgiveness in that what Sgt. Matthews told him about her was all BS! In fact it's later discovered that this Sgt. Matthwes is no cop at all but an impostor who's working with this shadowy group of ex-cons called the "Stepping Stones" who were in fact founded and supported by Tim's late Aunt Lucy!
As Tim soon finds out Aunt Lucy was involved in getting high IQ and highly educated ex-convicts high profile jobs in the government and business world by getting them fake identities and hiding their criminal records through her "Stepping Stones" project! With many of these persons now in very high and prominent positions she was blackmailing them to keep her from exposing their past and thus destroying their very successful careers! It's when Aunt Lucy went a bit too far that they, the ex-cons, took matters into their own hands. As for Tim who's soon to marry Juliet Briston, Gayle Hunnicutt, the woman who in fact found the murdered Aunt Lucy his meddling in the case and making things a bit hot for them has the "Stpping Stones" planning to totally discredit if not murder him. That's by making it look like he's back to taking drugs which would make whatever he say about them totally unbelievable!
***SPOILERS*** David Hennings holds the plot together even when it starts to get a bit confusing as ex-drug addict Tim Brett who begins to realize that he's way over his head in trying to find his Aunt Lucy's murderer. Despite her kind heart Aunt Lucy's concocted a sinister plan to get revenge against the very persons, ex-convicts, whom she's been helping all these years. This stems from the murder of her husband of just two months in a home invasion over 20 years ago! Tim in trying to find his Aunt Lucy's killer opened up a while new can of worms that not only put his and his fiancée Juliet life in danger but in a strange way, through Aunt Lucy blackmailing the ex-cons as well as covering up their criminal records, justified her own murder!
Fragment Of Fear
DowntonR128 August 2018
From Here On In to Oblivion
bbjzilla11 February 2020
It's a shame that while Fragment seems to be a latent classic, what frustrates is Hemmings' rather offbeat performance early on, rather at odds with the style and ambiance of the film. Also, the plot seems to be missing elements which were either cut, not filmed or deliberately left out to add to the jumbled nature of Tim's disintegration.
What is left is a paradigm of paranoid perfection with Tim's existential fate rendered powerless in the face of the crises his alternate path's absence creates.
His brain develops as many holes as he may have put in his arms, and he eventually disappears down a rabbit hole part Hitchcock, part Kubrick, part Antonioni.
The supporting cast are all exceptional with such household faces as Daniel Massey, Kenneth Cranham, Arthur Lowe and Philip Stone. Director Safarian was subsequently to make his best film Vanishing Point, placing Fragment as the nearly man in the careers of practically everyone involved.
If you enjoy your movies off centre and with a focus on style over substance, without paying consideration to tedious concerns like comprehensibility then you will find much to like here.
Mediocre Story
cunningpal8 December 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Possible spoilers * Very peculiar and disappointing final few minutes and ending. The music was odd, not appropriate for a thriller, unpleasant and intrusive screeching flute and bongos. It was nice to see those great old British actors, all gone now, in 2018. The pigeon did a good job too! And don't forget the geranium, very effective in its bit part. After the big revelation about what the murdered woman was really doing, the story just meandered along, not doing much of anything except terrorizing Hemmings till he's limp as a dishrag in a wheelchair. And why was the laughing man laughing so much? Just happy to be terrorizing, I guess. I'm sort of glad I saw it, if only for the good acting, but the plot just wasn't much. A piece of junk, basically.
Cool movie, just a shame about the ending
Stevieboy6663 October 2023
David Hemmings, an actor known for his boyish good looks, plays former drug addict turned successful author Tim Brett. When his elderly aunt is murdered in sunny Pompeii, Italy, he conducts his own investigation back home in rainy England but his life becomes plagued by threatening telephone calls and strange events. Given his past are these frightening things real or are they a figment of his imagination? This is a well shot British suspenseful thriller with touches of horror and Italian Giallo. Amongst the good cast are Gayle Hunniciutt who plays Tim's girlfriend Juliet (she and Hemmings were real life lovers at the time), and good old Arthur Lowe, best known as Captain Mannering from the BBC comedy "Dad's Army" and as the voice of the Mister Men kids TV series. Johnny Harris provides an excellent jazzy musical score. I did enjoy the movie but the ending was rather disappointing.
scream, flute, scream!!!
jonathan-57717 April 2008
This British - very British - thriller trades on the good name of David Hemmings, who at this time still had substantial "Blow Up" cachet left to p*ss away. His jaded ex-junkie finds his aunt murdered one sunny vacation, and sets out to find out whodunit amid many threatening overtures from big nasties. The main selling point here is a wild and wholly inappropriate soundtrack from one Johnny Harris - Hemmings is just shlepping around the funeral doing nothing in particular, and in comes that damned 'screaming flute' with attendant bongos. It's not embarrassingly bad, but it is dull for long stretches of dialogue in between its set pieces, and for all its attempts to be tense and/or creepy the plot's passing resemblance to Argento's "Deep Red" (also with Hemmings) does this no favours at all.
Underrated, unknown near masterpiece psychological thriller
chrisdfilm18 February 2004
Richard Sarafian is a decidedly underrated director. After finally seeing this, it's satisfying to report his VANISHING POINT was not a flash-in-the-pan. FRAGMENT...does not move at the same pace, nor does it get the viewer involved quite as quickly, but once you're about twenty minutes in, you're hooked until the end as Sarafian and screenwriter Dehn continually manipulate reality and our perceptions of it, along with lead character David Hemmings' perceptions of it. Really brilliant in the way it portrays a matter-of-fact unfolding of events that seem like a conventional, yet still insidious conspired-murder-by-blackmail-ring plot. But then we're constantly shown by the dialogue and actions of other characters that these events we've just witnessed may never have occurred. As an audience, we're constantly being shifted back and forth, momentarily convinced that recovering-addict-turned-successful-writer Hemmings is undergoing paranoid delusions, then the next moment convinced there really is a vast conspiracy against him and his investigation into his rich aunt's death. Disturbing and constantly involving, sucking the viewer in until the shocking conclusion. Unfortunately, the film's one real liability, which may in fact be the reason for some viewers' antipathy toward this film, is its totally inappropriate music score. Not only is the score mixed too loud on the soundtrack, it repeatedly draws attention to itself, often diffusing the effects Sarafian is trying to achieve. If only they had gotten someone like John Dankworth who could have composed a similar jazzy score but much more subtly and in keeping with the film's rhythms. Of course, even better would have been Ennio Morricone, someone who had already scored many Italian giallo thrillers that had attempted to play with reality in a similar way. Whomever hired Johnny Harris made a big mistake. His score is the one thing that keeps this from being a genuine little masterpiece.
Fragment of insanity
AAdaSC17 April 2017
Ex-junkie author David Hemmings (Tim) is chilling out in Italy and agrees to meet his aunt Flora Robson (Lucy) for lunch in Pompeii. I'm afraid that's not going to happen – Robson doesn't make it. She's been strangled. Hemmings wants to find out more about her aunt's life and pursues his own investigation back in London. However, there is a network called 'The Stepping Stones' that seems hell-bent on preventing him from discovering anything. He's a marked man unless he drops his curiosity.
It's a tense film if a little complicated at times as you're never quite sure who's who. Basically, suspect everyone who Hemmings comes into contact with. The cast are good and the story unravels well but the ending just didn't do it for me. I wanted something better as things don't get resolved in the manner I had wanted. And the music by Johnny Harris is laughably inappropriate. I see that some nutter has previously referred to it as a superb music score. He clearly has no knowledge of how to score a film. The film leaves unanswered questions and that was a let-down for me.
It's a tense film if a little complicated at times as you're never quite sure who's who. Basically, suspect everyone who Hemmings comes into contact with. The cast are good and the story unravels well but the ending just didn't do it for me. I wanted something better as things don't get resolved in the manner I had wanted. And the music by Johnny Harris is laughably inappropriate. I see that some nutter has previously referred to it as a superb music score. He clearly has no knowledge of how to score a film. The film leaves unanswered questions and that was a let-down for me.
Don't waste your time.
MOscarbradley17 October 2018
This mediocre and very un-thrilling thriller was directed by the American Richard C. Sarafian but shot in the UK and Italy. David Hemmings is the writer and former drug addict whose aunt, (Flora Robson), is murdered while they are on holiday in Italy. When he decides to pursue the case on his own strange things start to happen. There is a germ of a good idea here but it never materializes into anything and a good cast is totally wasted. A misfire that you certainly shouldn't waste your own time on.
An atmospheric thriller with a startling twist
FilmFlaneur15 September 2000
Warning: Spoilers
SPOILER WARNING
This is a little known gem from the underrated director of the cult road movie Vanishing Point which plays with audience expectations - before undermining them completely in an audacious and unexpected twist.
Fans of David Hemmings, who appreciate his work at this time in Blow Up and Deep Red ( to name two of his most famous cult collaborations) will be delighted to discover this performance. Minor characters are also well drawn and much of the location work in London and elsewhere is atmospheric and excellent.
The central concern of the film is Hemmings' suspicion that there is a conspiracy afoot attempting, amongst other things, to undermine his sanity. Some of the elements here recall Polanski's work on creating an effect of mental instability in his Repulsion.
His increasingly frantic and neurotic attempts to unravel the mystery leads the viewers to expect a tidy denouement, when the true facts are revealed and Hemmings' self esteem and position is restored. Hemmings is too likeable and too much a central figure upon whom the viewer depends to make judgements to *really* be at fault...
When in the last moments of the film there is no tidy conclusion to the matter, save the idea that Hemmings is actually unbalanced, and that what has happened has been the result of his delusions, it is far more shocking than a more conventional 'tidy' explanation.. the plot lines, the unexplained elements of the film, are left trailing, just as Hemming's character's sanity is left in shreds. Hemming's final collapsed journey in a wheelchair, both crippled by his experiences and mentally exhausted, is very disturbing. It is as if the viewer is staring into a bottomless pit of madness, where all certainty is stripped away, and ranks with the great moments of horror film.
This is a little known gem from the underrated director of the cult road movie Vanishing Point which plays with audience expectations - before undermining them completely in an audacious and unexpected twist.
Fans of David Hemmings, who appreciate his work at this time in Blow Up and Deep Red ( to name two of his most famous cult collaborations) will be delighted to discover this performance. Minor characters are also well drawn and much of the location work in London and elsewhere is atmospheric and excellent.
The central concern of the film is Hemmings' suspicion that there is a conspiracy afoot attempting, amongst other things, to undermine his sanity. Some of the elements here recall Polanski's work on creating an effect of mental instability in his Repulsion.
His increasingly frantic and neurotic attempts to unravel the mystery leads the viewers to expect a tidy denouement, when the true facts are revealed and Hemmings' self esteem and position is restored. Hemmings is too likeable and too much a central figure upon whom the viewer depends to make judgements to *really* be at fault...
When in the last moments of the film there is no tidy conclusion to the matter, save the idea that Hemmings is actually unbalanced, and that what has happened has been the result of his delusions, it is far more shocking than a more conventional 'tidy' explanation.. the plot lines, the unexplained elements of the film, are left trailing, just as Hemming's character's sanity is left in shreds. Hemming's final collapsed journey in a wheelchair, both crippled by his experiences and mentally exhausted, is very disturbing. It is as if the viewer is staring into a bottomless pit of madness, where all certainty is stripped away, and ranks with the great moments of horror film.
RUBBISH
thejohngent27 March 2019
Fragment of Fear
henry8-330 August 2018
Hemmings in post drug addled state (he sweats profusely throughout) sets out to investigate the murder of his aunt.
Comes across like an episode of 'The Prisoner' - is it the lead going mad or are dozens of English character actors out to get him.
All very sixties (made in 72) with a deeply intrusive soundtrack - a pleasant enough watch.
Comes across like an episode of 'The Prisoner' - is it the lead going mad or are dozens of English character actors out to get him.
All very sixties (made in 72) with a deeply intrusive soundtrack - a pleasant enough watch.
the thighs
Cristi_Ciopron22 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
A movie with Hemmings, Gayle Hunnicutt, Adolfo Celi (a serviceable supporting player), W. H. White, about insanity, severe delusions, grief, very accomplished unpretentious craftsmanship, it's not artsy, but stylish, lavish, colorful; the style is a European synthesis, not only British, but continental as well
.
Very suspenseful, one of the most accomplished genre movies, of an ineffable freshness; the sense of creepiness is as efficient as nuanced and sober. It has an undertone of distorted sexuality, the predilection for aged women, Bunface and the schoolgirls, the eerie but certain appeal of the aged ladies, those kisses; the focus is on eyes, mouths, thighs in their shameless bare luxuriance. Tim Brett's flat gives a very suggestive sense of the place.
The young women appear as naked thighs, and so does the seductress in the train, the temptress who knows the writer's address. Also, the leading character's 1st shot shows his legs.
Those thighs symbolize the access, not as much denied (by the women), as repellent. He feels threatened by the walk, by the bride's walk . The male characters, beginning with the copper who visits him, are paternal symbols. They are burly. The women's thighs are viscous. The women are cold, tempting, indifferent, desired. The writer resents them. Force, desire, dream, deceit; he feels deceived, and resents health, the insanity proves a stronger temptation than the drugs he used to take.
In its depiction of the insanity, the movie shows the feverish phony cleverness of the delusion, with its crippling mistrust; and it's not a moralizing stance, but a clinical one, the twilight of a mind, clinically depicted. The addiction is a _crippleness, and the leading character ends in a wheelchair, i. e. denying himself almost everything, deprived of walk and deprived of rest, unable to walk, unable to rest, dominated by his wife, defeated. The puzzling plot has been meant to be dreamlike. The eerie, spooky story-line from the standpoint of insanity had a worthy career in the cinema, and occasioned other movies as well.
Both leads give apposite performances. It's impressive how both of them understood the requirements of their roles.
Gayle Hunnicutt is decorative, and her role required a bland act, she had to be a decorative doll. Hemmings made me think of a plumper and more urbane Dean; what might seem like overacting actually suits his part, suggesting the behavior of a psychotic, the feverish, sometimes frenzied behavior.
Very suspenseful, one of the most accomplished genre movies, of an ineffable freshness; the sense of creepiness is as efficient as nuanced and sober. It has an undertone of distorted sexuality, the predilection for aged women, Bunface and the schoolgirls, the eerie but certain appeal of the aged ladies, those kisses; the focus is on eyes, mouths, thighs in their shameless bare luxuriance. Tim Brett's flat gives a very suggestive sense of the place.
The young women appear as naked thighs, and so does the seductress in the train, the temptress who knows the writer's address. Also, the leading character's 1st shot shows his legs.
Those thighs symbolize the access, not as much denied (by the women), as repellent. He feels threatened by the walk, by the bride's walk . The male characters, beginning with the copper who visits him, are paternal symbols. They are burly. The women's thighs are viscous. The women are cold, tempting, indifferent, desired. The writer resents them. Force, desire, dream, deceit; he feels deceived, and resents health, the insanity proves a stronger temptation than the drugs he used to take.
In its depiction of the insanity, the movie shows the feverish phony cleverness of the delusion, with its crippling mistrust; and it's not a moralizing stance, but a clinical one, the twilight of a mind, clinically depicted. The addiction is a _crippleness, and the leading character ends in a wheelchair, i. e. denying himself almost everything, deprived of walk and deprived of rest, unable to walk, unable to rest, dominated by his wife, defeated. The puzzling plot has been meant to be dreamlike. The eerie, spooky story-line from the standpoint of insanity had a worthy career in the cinema, and occasioned other movies as well.
Both leads give apposite performances. It's impressive how both of them understood the requirements of their roles.
Gayle Hunnicutt is decorative, and her role required a bland act, she had to be a decorative doll. Hemmings made me think of a plumper and more urbane Dean; what might seem like overacting actually suits his part, suggesting the behavior of a psychotic, the feverish, sometimes frenzied behavior.
Is this the worst ever thriller score
malcolmgsw3 November 2018
This is a truly awful musical score which ruins the film.You half expect Lee Van Cleer to come riding up the street with a cigarette in his mouth.This is not so much Mickley mousing as Dumbo the Elephant.The only way to get through this is to fast forward as soon as you hear the first bar of music.Other than that this is a reasonable if unmemorable thriller.
Excellent and sadly unknown mystery thriller!
The_Void22 March 2008
Fragment of Fear is a film that has somehow slipped under the radar since its release in 1970 and that's a real shame as while the film does have a few narrative problems; this is excellently produced and well worked mystery thriller that really does deserve to be more seen. The film is halfway between a murder mystery and a psychological thriller and director Richard C. Sarafian gives both halves of the film equal credence as the focus is stretched across the central character's questionable mental health and the murder of his aunt that he is investigating. The central character is Tim Brett; he's a reformed drug addict living in Italy. He returns to London when his aunt is found murdered and begins asking people who knew his aunt questions. It's not long before strange things start happening to him; his flat is broken into, he receives a letter that was written on his own typewriter and gets strange phone calls. It soon transpires that someone doesn't want Tim investigating. But naturally, considering he was a drug user, nobody will believe him...
Some have labelled this film as a British Giallo; I don't agree that such a thing exists personally, but Fragment of Fear does feature some staples of Italy's finest type of film. The murder mystery is a given, but we also have an unseen killer and adding to that is the fact that many Giallo's feature a lead character with a fractured state of mind. The film is lead by the great David Hemmings who puts in a good performance. I was unsure of how he would across as a former drug user given his debonair screen presence, but he actually fits into this role really well and is not hard to believe. Director Richard C. Sarafian keeps the film streamlined and the action focused on the mystery which ensures that Fragment of Fear is always interesting and entertaining. The film gets more exciting as it goes along and it all boils down to a good ending that provides a nice twist and also manages a bit of ambiguity. Overall, it's a real shame that this film is so obscure as it deserves a wider audience and hopefully it will soon be picked up for a DVD release. Recommended if you can find it!
Some have labelled this film as a British Giallo; I don't agree that such a thing exists personally, but Fragment of Fear does feature some staples of Italy's finest type of film. The murder mystery is a given, but we also have an unseen killer and adding to that is the fact that many Giallo's feature a lead character with a fractured state of mind. The film is lead by the great David Hemmings who puts in a good performance. I was unsure of how he would across as a former drug user given his debonair screen presence, but he actually fits into this role really well and is not hard to believe. Director Richard C. Sarafian keeps the film streamlined and the action focused on the mystery which ensures that Fragment of Fear is always interesting and entertaining. The film gets more exciting as it goes along and it all boils down to a good ending that provides a nice twist and also manages a bit of ambiguity. Overall, it's a real shame that this film is so obscure as it deserves a wider audience and hopefully it will soon be picked up for a DVD release. Recommended if you can find it!
You know the movie and there's little deviation from what you know here.
chaos-rampant15 April 2010
How much you like Fragment of Fear depends on how much you've seen of the type of film it is. David Hemmings believes some sort of peculiar conspiracy behind the murder of his rich aunt and he goes about his way to prove it back in London, except he gets his apartment broken into, strange messages and cackling laughter mysteriously appear on his tape recorder, and someone appears to have sent him a warning letter written on his own paper with his own typewriter. There's a girl on the side which he wants to marry and he's had a drug problem a few years back so that no one around him believes his ravings about a secret society out to silence him because he used to be a dope fiend. We even get the "we have no such person working here" mystery man cliché and if you're reading this, chances are you've seen variations of all this in one form or another.
So form is where the movie must distinguish itself except its ambitions never rise to the occasion. Great movies in this "losing a grip on reality" mystery/thriller niche were made at around the same time and Fragment of Fear can't measure up to them because a lot of what is ambiguous here is mostly a series of plot points and there's very little of a metaphorical/poetic nature, a key by which to render Hemmings' struggle a metaphor for something else. It can't measure up to something like Roeg's Don't Look Now or Weir's The Last Wave because this is still mostly a thriller, with all the noise and alarm and the sound and fury of a hunt, this not dying away in the distance to reveal something potentially meaningful about the condition of a fragile man trying to hold onto his pieces as his world bears him false witness, not until the end at least when the movie retreats with a maddened Hemmings inside his head for a final showpiece where "creepy old peoples' faces" stare ominously in the wide-angle lens of the camera and the the movie disappears on board a train through a dark tunnel and emerges on the other side on a grey lonely beachwalk where psychodrama and "twisty" horror thriller are allowed to finally converge.
This is not a bad movie by any means but something in it tells me Richard Sarafian may not have been the best man for the job. He turns in something that is competent and borderline successful but it lacks the intuitive mark of a director who's making his kind of film. The problem here is that the movie posits itself as something ambiguous except it's mostly literal and straightforward. When David Hemmings goes mad we know it not a second too late. Sarafian probably felt more comfortable in the grit and dust of Vanishing Point and Man in the Wilderness, films which are at once more metaphoric in their conception and poetic in execution, but it's still a bit puzzling that he didn't make something more out of Fragment of Fear.
So form is where the movie must distinguish itself except its ambitions never rise to the occasion. Great movies in this "losing a grip on reality" mystery/thriller niche were made at around the same time and Fragment of Fear can't measure up to them because a lot of what is ambiguous here is mostly a series of plot points and there's very little of a metaphorical/poetic nature, a key by which to render Hemmings' struggle a metaphor for something else. It can't measure up to something like Roeg's Don't Look Now or Weir's The Last Wave because this is still mostly a thriller, with all the noise and alarm and the sound and fury of a hunt, this not dying away in the distance to reveal something potentially meaningful about the condition of a fragile man trying to hold onto his pieces as his world bears him false witness, not until the end at least when the movie retreats with a maddened Hemmings inside his head for a final showpiece where "creepy old peoples' faces" stare ominously in the wide-angle lens of the camera and the the movie disappears on board a train through a dark tunnel and emerges on the other side on a grey lonely beachwalk where psychodrama and "twisty" horror thriller are allowed to finally converge.
This is not a bad movie by any means but something in it tells me Richard Sarafian may not have been the best man for the job. He turns in something that is competent and borderline successful but it lacks the intuitive mark of a director who's making his kind of film. The problem here is that the movie posits itself as something ambiguous except it's mostly literal and straightforward. When David Hemmings goes mad we know it not a second too late. Sarafian probably felt more comfortable in the grit and dust of Vanishing Point and Man in the Wilderness, films which are at once more metaphoric in their conception and poetic in execution, but it's still a bit puzzling that he didn't make something more out of Fragment of Fear.
Superb music score
librarys-etc30 December 2006
British cult classic with a memorable music score by Johnny Harris featuring a small tight group of top class jazz players including Harold McNair on screaming flute. Re-recorded cuts from this soundtrack feature on the 1970 Johnny Harris - Movements album (issued on CD by Warner Bros in 2002) which is highly recommended. Including flute and bongo driven main theme "Stepping Stones" (named after the secret society in the film) which has developed a life of it's own - used by Levi Jeans on it's Kung Fu TV ad in 1997, featured on film soundtracks, used by the BBC as the theme to a season of seventies cult film and played in clubs by DJ's to jazz, funk and northern soul crowds for four decades! P.S. This film is now on DVD from Columbia in the US and will soon be on blu-ray. P.P.S Now if only Sony Film Music can see sense and release the TRULY AMAZING score on CD for the first time ever please, good news: There is now a 12" LP release available. P.P.P.S. The reviews criticising the music written by chrisdfilm and a few other fools are total bs, ignore that garbage!!
Riveting from start to finish
Leofwine_draca19 July 2016
Warning: Spoilers
This is a complex, involving thriller which requires immediate attention from mystery fans. The clues and puzzles build up thick and fast in this disturbing masterpiece which will have you hooked right from the beginning. The tension builds slowly to breaking point at the film's conclusion. Then comes one of those twist endings which totally changes your perception of the rest of the film.
As you might have guessed, I absolutely loved this film. It has the same style and atmosphere as many Italian-made gialli which is somewhat surprising, seeing as it's a British film. The Italian links are even stronger seeing as it shares the hero of one of Argento's best films, DEEP RED, namely David Hemmings. There's a definite feeling of the "swinging sixties" in the jazzy, upbeat music which plays frequently and the crisp colour photography really brings the surroundings and characters to life.
David Hemmings is a charismatic and talented actor who conveys well the haunting expressions and outbursts of a disturbed man. He is supported by a good cast of British stalwarts, popping up in minor roles are the seemingly-omnipotent Wilfrid Hyde-White, plus Daniel Massey, Arthur Lowe and others. Fans of recent conspiracy thrillers will enjoy the conspiracy and paranoia surrounding Hemmings in this film, and it's one of those movies in which you aren't really sure what's happening, so needs to be seen at least twice. This is a thoroughly entertaining, intelligent thriller which remains riveting from start to finish.
As you might have guessed, I absolutely loved this film. It has the same style and atmosphere as many Italian-made gialli which is somewhat surprising, seeing as it's a British film. The Italian links are even stronger seeing as it shares the hero of one of Argento's best films, DEEP RED, namely David Hemmings. There's a definite feeling of the "swinging sixties" in the jazzy, upbeat music which plays frequently and the crisp colour photography really brings the surroundings and characters to life.
David Hemmings is a charismatic and talented actor who conveys well the haunting expressions and outbursts of a disturbed man. He is supported by a good cast of British stalwarts, popping up in minor roles are the seemingly-omnipotent Wilfrid Hyde-White, plus Daniel Massey, Arthur Lowe and others. Fans of recent conspiracy thrillers will enjoy the conspiracy and paranoia surrounding Hemmings in this film, and it's one of those movies in which you aren't really sure what's happening, so needs to be seen at least twice. This is a thoroughly entertaining, intelligent thriller which remains riveting from start to finish.
BLOW UP is not so far from this one
searchanddestroy-119 February 2023
I speak not of the story itself but the overall atmosphere, and the presence of David Hemmings is of course not totally a coincidence. Remember that the Antonioni's film, his best known, was also starring David Hemmings. Richard Sarafian gives here one of his less known films, and it doesn't deserve such a treatment. In this movie, many details, things may be illusion, they are not necessarily what they seem to be, as in BLOW UP, that's my analysis. It is an intriguing, a bit disturbing mystery tale that grabs you more and more to the extent the movie proceeds. The ending is of course really weird, but I guess that belongs to the overall spirit, mind of this interesting thriller which may let you think of a British giallo. The early seventies was the perfect period for giallos.
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