Revenge (1971)

Pretty Good

Great Film overall

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The reasonably entertaining psychological thriller "Revenge" stars Joan Collins and James Booth as Carol and Jim Radford, a couple grieving over the rape & murder of their youngest child. Due to the insistence of his friend Harry (Ray Barrett) and son Lee (Tom Marshall), Jim ends up kidnapping the man, Seely (Kenneth Griffith), who was accused of the crime but ultimately let go due to insufficient evidence. Jim, a pub owner, keeps Seely in his basement, and this development sparks all kinds of dramatic conflicts between the people in the house, including Lees' girlfriend Rose (the lovely Sinead Cusack) and Jims' daughter Jill (Zuleika Robson).First off, a word of warning that people suckered in by false advertising, which attempted to sell this as a horror film (!), may be disappointed. (Although the horrors that man is capable of do figure into the plot.) The abduction of Seely merely serves as a catalyst for all the melodrama that results. Particularly of interest is the relationship between Lee and his stepmother Carol. It's likely to amuse some of those in the audience. The movie as a whole is nothing special, but its story (by John Kruse) is absorbing enough to carry it for about 90 minutes.The acting is generally solid, with Collins cast against type and doing a fine job. Griffith does illicit some sympathy for his character for a while; we're given doubts as to whether the man is actually guilty of such heinous crimes. Cusack is appealing in one of her earliest big screen appearances. Cult director Sidney Hayers ("Burn Witch Burn", "Circus of Horrors") guides things with efficiency if not style; the filmmaking overall is adequate. Effective pacing helps - the opening credits are over very quickly and Hayers wastes no time in getting things started.Towards the end, you DO start to sense where all of this is going.Seven out of 10.

The premise of Sidney Hayers underrated "Revenge" is fairly simple:a bereaved family seek brutal revenge on the man who attacked,raped and murdered their daughter.He is kept in the basement,beaten and humiliated.Pretty dreary and somewhat upsetting revenge drama which deals with the themes of child molestation and grief.The acting is believable and there is some suspense.The violence is kept to minimum as is the sleaze,so if you want explicit exploitation flick you will be sorely disappointed.Personally I found this forgotten revenge drama to be intriguing and strangely compelling.Like it or not,you won't forget it.7 basements out of 10.

After the funeral of their young daughter, the family learns that the man who was suspected for rape and murder is let go because of the lack of evidence. The father, along with his older son and friend whose daughter was also killed by the same man devise a plan to kidnap and hopefully get the confession out of him. However things turn bad, when one slip after another leads to them turning on each other and having second thoughts that maybe they've got the wrong man.There's potential there, but the compact, stiff script doesn't really tap into it enough and leaves plenty of the looming heavy-handed themes high and dry. Emotionally the film makes a huge dent, but more so in a bleakly intense and serious tone. The film itself is pretty fundamental and scandalously melodramatic as it rears it ugly head into brusque crudeness. Watching the characters lose control of the situation, and going on to tear each other apart as the misguided kidnapping triggers a disastrous domino effect is strangely gripping and at times rather uneasy. One interesting moment sees an unusual state of sexual tension between two characters, which has you thinking, was there something there before it erupted. Maybe it goes too over-the-top, and in doing so loses some creditability. Sidney Hayers' direction is efficiently workman-like, with little in the way of style, but he manages to draw up a tautly knitted atmosphere and milks out a few ample shocks. The violence and sexual context might not be explicit, but it's gritty and in what matters effective. Ken Hodges' sturdy camera-work is intrusively lensed and Eric Rogers' miss-guided musical score comes off daftly staged. The performances fall into the overacting category, but come off committed. Joan Collins who's no stranger to that tag, is gracefully fine and gives it her all. An edgy James Booth scorns about, and delivers a serviceable job with a complicated character trying to overcome his anger, which eventuates to guilt. Ray Barrett, Tom Marshall, Kenneth Griffith and the gorgeously rich Sinéad Cusack also star with tolerable turns.There's flaws, but it's decently done to make it a passable cliff-hanger thriller.

Joan Collins stars in this well-crafted British suspense-drama about a grieving family who take the law into their own hands and seek revenge on the man who raped and murdered their young daughter. Sidney Hayers' direction is smooth, the cast(particularly Collins and James Booth) is terrific, and there are some effective shock and suspense sequences, but it's all been done before, and it's pretty dreary and unpleasant stuff.