Review of And Soon the Darkness (1970) by Kim L — 06 Dec 2014

1970 British thriller that is based on location in the idyllic French countryside.

Two young British women are on a cycling holiday through the long straight roads of France when after some petty argument they go their seperate ways.

Later on one of the women Jane gets a guilty conscience and turns back in the hope of finding her friend Cathy except she can't locate her.

I won't go into the details of the remainder of the film except to say some strange French locals and English ex pats bring fear and doubt into Jane about the safety of Cathy.

The film achieves its goal in making it's audience constantly change their mind as to what could have happened and by whom to Cathy.

Some random observations I made included the cast.

Jane is played by Michele Dotrice who went onto fame later in the decade as Betty Spencer in BBC comedy Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em.

The soundtrack seems to consist solely of one annoying tune played on every radio and restaurant in the film it seems.

The French countryside does look good even in a film print some 45 years old.

I believe there has been a later 'remake' of this film.

I was satisfied with this considering its low budget English film origins.