The Penthouse (1967) User Reviews

Penthouse Pandemonium.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 28 January 2014]

The Penthouse is written and directed by Peter Collinson and is an adaptation from the play The Meter Man by Scott Forbes. It stars Suzy Kendall, Terence Morgan, Tony Beckley, Norman Rodway and Martine Beswick. Music is by John Hawksworth and cinematography by Arthur Lavis.

Alligators and Sharks

Home invasion 1960s style. Story finds Kendall and Morgan as illicit lovers tormented by two deranged intruders in the penthouse apartment they use for their nights of passion. It's a five person play, well for the majority it's a four person production, and it's 99% set in a dimly lighted apartment. Narrative subjects our two hapless lovers to an hour and half of mental cruelty and sexual humiliation.

The two main perpetrators, Tom (Beckley) and Dick (Rodway), are fascinating nutters, they are childlike in a chilling way, yet always they exude a sense of intelligence. They feed off of each other like some double-take twins, and always they have handy a deep meaning monologue or a philosophical justification for the black heart of the human being.

Collinson does a grand job of keeping things claustrophobic, making sure the emotional discord and sense of menace haunts every frame. The camera zooms in and out of focus, something which proves to be a masterstroke for the sex scenes, while the various angles that the camera looks through during the course are suitably nightmarish.

Originally Collinson was at pains to say his movie didn't have a message, but over the years the only thing consistent was his inconsistent viewpoint on the film. It's nigh on impossible not to seek out a message here, the film is just too odd-ball and unsavoury to not court a deeper meaning than the lazy "it's just a thriller" statement that Collinson trundled out upon pic's release.

Pretentious? Absolutely, but this film has the ability to get under your skin, either in a good way to make you ponder, or to utterly irritate you. If someone said to me it's the worst film they have ever sat through, I would understand. Yet for me I felt challenged and uncomfortable, that's the medium of film doing a good job as far as I'm concerned. 7/10

A groovy mess

[MissSimonetta · 5/10 · 11 October 2023]

THE PENTHOUSE has a dynamic sense of direction going for it. It's hard to shoot a film in one cramped location, but Peter Collinson keeps visual fatigue from creeping in through interesting compositions and a total embracing of the claustrophobic quality of the story.

Direction isn't everything though. As the Bard once said, the play is the thing and in this case, the play is a mediocre effort that feels like it was written by pretentious college students. Characters ramble about this or that sociopolitical issue-- when the baddies actually got violent instead of just blabbering on about baby alligators representing society's abandoned, it was less a shock and more a relief from the tedium.

Suzie Kendall meets "Tom", "Dick", and "Harry"

[lazarillo · 28 February 2005]

This one of a number of movies that were popular in the 60's and 70's (i.e. "Cape Fear", "Kitten with a Whip", "Lady in a Cage", "Wait Until Dark", "Straw Dogs", "Death Game")where complacent middle-class people find their comfortable lifestyles (and often their very lives) threatened by lower-class cretins, who rather being after just the usual things (money, sex), almost seem to have been sent as divine messengers to punish them for their sins. In this particularly nasty example a married, middle-age business man is in his isolated luxury penthouse with his young mistress when the two are attacked by a trio of crazed and seemingly motiveless characters calling themselves "Tom", "Dick", and "Harry" (the latter is a woman brilliantly played by ex-Bond girl Martine Beswick). The criminals soon expose both the immoral lifestyle of the couple and the cracks in their shallow relationship of convenience.

The movie is every bit as sleazy as the more notorious "Straw Dogs" (and it shows what you can get away with in Britain and America if you only adopt the proper moralistic tone). The two men take turns raping Kendall, but a la "Straw Dogs" her rape is portrayed more as a humiliation of her boyfriend than of her as she gets drunk and develops the most rapid case of Stockholm Syndrome in history and thus may be an at least somewhat willing participant.

The movie was no doubt based on a stage play--it has a very limited set and excessive amount of dialogue--and the stageiness gets a little annoying at times. Still it is one of the more interesting films of director Pete Collinson ("Straight on Until Morning", "Fright") who was the three Pete's of British genre cinema (the other two being Pete Walker and Pete Sasdy). Oh yeah, and it has some very uncharacteristic (if pretty tame)nude scenes from Suzie Kendall. Not a bad to kill way an hour and a half overall.

Oddball thriller which tries to be different but comes across as somewhat foolish.

[barnabyrudge · 3/10 · 17 February 2004]

If Peter Collinson's intention when writing and directing this film was to present the most bizarre characters imaginable, then he has succeeded admirably. If, however, he was trying to make a serious thriller with genuine excitement, realistic situations and a meaningful underlying moral subtext, then he has failed utterly.

The story has married estate agent Bruce Victor (Terence Morgan) and his secret lover Barbara Willason (Suzy Kendall) shacking up in a penthouse suite in an unfinished tower block. A pair of knife-wielding hoodlums turn up, posing as meter readers, and proceed to hold the adulterous lovers at knifepoint. Bruce is tied up and forced to look on as the lecherous intruders get Barbara well-and-truly drunk and then degrade her for their entertainment.

The film is based on a stage play, and it comes across - unsurprisingly - as a very stagy, talky affair. This is not necessarily a weakness (films like Sleuth, made five years after this, proved that stagy and talky films can actually be very good). However, The Penthouse is not only stagy and talky - it is very unpleasant too. The characters are awfully hard to like and their predicaments are extremely difficult to care about. Director Collinson frequently demonstrated a fascination with violence and aggression during his career, and this is a perfect vehicle for his favourite two themes. Collinson also had a fondness for stylistic flourishes in his movies, but here his outlandish camera angles and visual/aural tricks seem merely self-indulgent and meaningless. For the first twenty minutes, the film's surreal style is oddly enjoyable, but it pretty soon becomes wearisome. On the whole, The Penthouse is a failure and the fact that it is rarely-seen ought to be viewed as a blessing in disguise!

Not the top -- the pits

[pppatty · 1/10 · 26 June 2000]

This is the only movie I regret not having got up and walked out! Although it is some 30 years since I had the misfortune of seeing this film in the cinema, I have never forgotten what a thoroughly unpleasant experience it was -- with unlikeable characters and stupidly unbelievable circumstances. I can forgive all sorts of things in a film if there is at least one redeeming quality, but you can look in vain for it here. I am amazed that its rating is as high as it is since I would have given it a minus rating were this possible.

Brilliant Film; Should be on DVD

[wdixon · 9/10 · 31 May 2003]

This is a superb and prescient little thriller by Peter Collinson that predates such films as FUNNY GAMES and other "extreme cinema" projects, and is much better, and much more restrained, in every way. I'm amazed that the film hasn't gotten better distribution, and that it seems to have slipped between the cracks of cinema history. A great film; see it if you can.

It is a movie

[johnmonter · 2/10 · 7 February 2018]

I watched this movie and had no feelings. There is nothing special. It is not really funny. It is not really scary. It is too clean and simple. At the end of the movie I had the feeling that I wasted my time. There was nothing really entertaining - not even the black cat at the end that survived the killer.

Not a pleasant watch

[christopher-underwood · 8/10 · 15 April 2014]

Nasty, gripping, home invasion flick, directed by Peter Collinson who was always able to tell a tight, no nonsense tale. Known, I suppose for The Italian Job, although I prefer his, Straight On Till Morning, he had a background in TV and broke out with this film. Its a bit stylised with Pinteresque dialogue that seems to get in the way of the action at first. Gradually though these oafish clowns become far too sinister to dismiss and this really doesn't let up till the end, which isn't the end because we still have Martine Beswick to look forward to. Suzy Kendall had a mixed career, including several giallo, notably Bird With the Crystal Plumage and was apparently a 'guest screamer' in the recent, Berberian Sound Studio. Here she is majestic. It cannot have been an easy role but she does everything right as she veers from fear to seduction and rape aftermath. She looks fantastic throughout but even she is outshone when Beswick finally appears. An interesting actress, always referred to as 'the Bond girl' for her roles in From Russia With Love and Thunderball but I always think of her for Dr, Jekyll & Sister Hyde, Prehistoric Women and A Bullet For The General. Always good and in The Penthouse, she is at her very best. Not a pleasant watch and nobody comes out of this well but one of a kind and two great female performances.

Very very good!

[RodrigAndrisan · 10/10 · 9 March 2019]

One of the best English movies. Static, everything is only happening in an apartment, but what a story, what a valuable interpretation, all the actors are absolutely exceptional. The best part I've seen Martine Beswick. The best role for Suzy Kendall, which was of a rare beauty, what a gorgeous ass, a pity that she did not show her front beauty too... Terence Morgan also saw him in those two films with Surcouf as Lord Blackwood, but I already think this Bruce Victor was his most accomplished character ever. Tony Beckley, an exceptional actor, I saw him in very good films: "Chimes at Midnight" (1965), "The Italian Job"(1969)(directed by the same Peter Collinson), "Get Carter"(1971). Norman Rodway was also an exceptional actor, also featured in "Chimes at Midnight"(1965) and many other movies. A simply great movie!

I saw this movie 38 years ago and it still reverberates

[fereeves · 10/10 · 12 January 2005]

I marveled at this film because it pulls off a quite complete double reverse in the traditional methodology of a Greek drama. There are some great soliloquies and the main characters carry on a bit like folks in a No Exit play by Sartre. Human nature is exposed with the ruthlessness of an artist that likes to see his characters bare to the bone with skin peeled back for added color. Metaphorically of course, not like the Passion of Christ where the main character ends up looking like hamburger.

The Penthouse is psychological destruction in the form of Virgina Wolf. Complete and devastating but not in a cheap trash psycho thriller way. I totally related to this modern day "Greek Drama".

#1 on the all time most forgettable list

[rwint · 12 May 2002]

Two thugs, armed with nothing more than a a very small knife, take over a couple's 'love nest' almost at will. They then proceed to 'terrorize' them which consists of nothing more than talking for the next ninety minutes. The only action comes, literally, when one of the thugs takes a sausage out of the refrigerator and eats it.

There is a certain stylish quality mixed in with some 60's kitsch that,at the beginning, gives it a certain avant-garde quality. This though is soon killed by it's very pedestrian script. The thugs go from being child like to dumb and the couple is just plain boring. Why we should have any concern for these people is about as nebulous as to why any of this is even happening. The whole thing is stretched out so much that one is incredulous to believe that the director really thought any viewer would find this even remotely gripping or suspenseful.

Flat and forgettable. The only distinction this has is to see just how boring and uninvolving a film purported to be a 'thriller' can be. It's hard to imagine that there could be anything worse.

One of Collinson's best, before Kubrick's CLOCKWORK ORANGE

[searchanddestroy-1 · 9/10 · 4 May 2021]

We'll find another link of this scheme in Collinson's filmography by watching OPEN SEASON, FRIGHT, STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING which the story is not the same but the atmosphere, distrubing, nasty, making the audiences very uncomfortable. But if you have seen FUNNY GAMES - both versions - you'll also think about PENTHOUSE. Among the best home invasion topics films ever. But prepare not to watch this with the parents in law or the youngest in the family. Delicious, nasty, excellent, repugnant. A pure masterpiece. The ending, the very moral ending made me think a little about SNOW THERAPY, around some kind of couple analysis.... The only difference is that in this movie, it is not question of an avalanche but a couple of punks disturbing the peace. If you can go beyond this film if you accept it, maybe you'll succeed with CLOCKWORK ORANGE.

UPDATED: The Penthouse Movie Review 1967. Crocodiles Live in the Sewer! Peter Collinson Suzy Kendall

[ItsACityOfApes_Movie_Reviews · 17 September 2020]

Review of The Penthouse 1967. Crocodiles Live in the Sewer! This movie is about crocodiles but it is a talkie. One reviewer put it: 'crocodiles can live buried in the hardened mud for two years'. This movie introduces the twist that crocodiles can live in the sewer. Some captivating dialogue. No action. Ratings: Crocodile: 8; Black Monolith with apes: 0; Monkeys on a typewriter: 0.

ADDENDUM: The "Alligator Monologue" terror scene is available at COMPETITOR. OOGA BOOGAl!

At about minute 40, the home invader runs out of material to terrorize the bound human female. Like a Medicine Ape Storyteller of old, his mind grabs for a preposterous premise ..."and crocodiles live in the sewer." Which is actually a terrifying thought to those who live above said infested sewers. And to those 40 stories up in The Penthouse, apparently. Or, the human male home invader ran out of material in his said pea-brain and chose to extrapolate and enrich the "crocodiles live in sewers" bit as his next piece de resistance for the purposes of terrifying The Penthouse female for another 30 minutes? Great material for some of us thirsting for new ideas about crocs. But bad theory generally.

This movie has been added to the "Some Humans Are Wily"/"Hostage Narrative" Genre Category.