Review of Fanatic (1965) by Ryan V — 19 Jan 2014

I saw this on Turner Classic Movies last night. It was surprisingly suspenseful, and Tallulah Bankhead is frightening as a religious fanatic whose idea of being a perfect hostess is to keep her late son's visiting former girlfriend with her, forever.

Bankhead, still remarkably beautiful in her 60's, was apparently suffering from emphysema at the time of filming, but that didn't stop her from vigorously chewing the scenery as Mrs. Trefoile. A wealthy widow, and former actress who claims to have been saved from her fallen state by her late husband, Mrs. Trefoile has adopted a "fire and brimstone" form of religiosity that bears little resemblance to the religion of the Jesus of the New Testament. At moments, Mrs. Trefoile comes across as a cynic masquerading as a psychotic.. Those moments when we glimpse the phony beneath the fanatic are the most intriguing in the film, unfortunately, the movie mostly eschews psychological complexity, and opts for Grand Guignol campy horror instead.

There is, as in "Psycho" a strong suggestion that there was an inappropriately close relationship between Mrs. Trefoile and her late son. Stefanie Powers, as the damsel in distress, is quite sympathetic, but the film never quite decides whether she is heroine or victim.

The film's plot bears a slight resemblance to a 1945 film noir starring Nina Foch, "My Name is Julia Ross," but the resolution is not quite as satisfying. Worth seeing, but I wanted to rewrite the ending.