Deadly Strangers (1975)

It is a performances centric movie

An absolute waste of money

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Belle Adams (Hayley Mills) catches a lift with a local driver, amidst rumours of a maniac on the loose. Seems like someone has broken out of the nearby Greenwood Sanatorium. Interesting that the local reports don't specify whether the escapee is male or female. Anyway, the driver quite candidly feels he has the right to attempt to rape her as a form of 'settling the fare'. When she is rescued by a tipsy Simon Ward (as Steven Slade), he tells her 'she asked for it.' It is strange to see former child star Hayley Mills as a focus for lust among the men (she is, after all, 29 at this time). And smoking ciggies as well! Her wholesome image endures however and Adams is either very naïve or very brave to be travelling alone during such times on what appears to be a whim. Several flashbacks throw suspicion on both her and Slade, and it is good to see dependable Peter Jeffrey playing another rogue.They stop at a petrol station, where the young female attendant flirts with Slade. He has an eye for the ladies and his behaviour is a little odd. Not too surprising to find that she is murdered shortly after. Slade and Adams have temporarily split up during this time, leaving them both suspects. Unruffled, they reunite after Slade has apparently 'made a phone call', and continue their journey.From then on, it is one mishap after another. Belle meets up with the eccentric Malcolm Robarts (Sterling Hayden), who is clearly not going to let a thirty year age-gap stop him trying to woo Belle.The British locations are wonderful, all winter trees, barren roads, dilapidated petrol stations and, latterly, a windswept seaside town. Directed rather like a television movie by the prolific Sidney Hayes (who went on to have great success directing American series including 'Baywatch', 'Knight Rider' and 'Magnum PI', and his previous brush with horror was 1960's 'Circus of Horrors'), who wrings as much intrigue and tension out of the low budget. Interestingly when, during the finale, one character kills another character (you'll get no names out of me) there is no music, just the sound of taut rope being stretched around the throat of the victim.This is a terrific, sparse road-tale of psychological horror with a tiny cast of excellent actors, set in a bleak world where most people you meet are either sex-maniacs or hooligans. I always felt that Simon Ward never really had quite the success he deserved. The wonderful Mills moved away from acting for a few years after 'Deadly Strangers' before returning to television in 1981 for the highly-regarded 'Flame Trees of Thika', which lead to a renewed interest in the profession.

A violent psychiatric patient escapes from a mental hospital . Nearby the next day Belle Adams is stuck in a roadside café . Accepting a life from a trucker she finds herself victim from unwanted attention by the trucker . Escapiing his clutches she staggers in to the road and his nearly hit by a car driven by Stephen Slade . Accepting a life from him she quickly becomes aware that he is doing all he can to avoid the police roadblocks searching for the patient !!!!!! MASSIVE SPOILERS!!!!!! Sometimes someone comes up with a great idea that confounds all expectations . Reading the synopsis to this relatively unknown British thriller you'll be asking yourself why anyone wants to go out of their way to watch it because it has predictable written all over it . Innocent young woman accepts a lift from a stranger who is psychotic . The way the story is told is equally predictable . The producers don't have faith in the premise and therefore it gets padded out by having flashback scenes as if there's an agenda of employing as many actors as possible in a minimalist story . The cynicism extends to having Sterling Hayden appear wearing a comedy beard in order to appeal to American distributors and one constantly finds oneself asking why instead of melodrama we couldn't have had film confined to a slow burning tale involving two talking roles where the tension is slowly but surely cranked up until the shocking end This has a relatively high average user rating . It's easy to see why because the ending is totally surprising and one that I didn't see coming . The problem is when you recall the rest of the story proceeding it then it doesn't make the slightest bit of sense whatsoever . When the patient escapes at the beginning they overpower a female nurse in an unpleasant scene that alludes to rape so we jump to the conclusion that Stephen is the escaped patient . When the cops arrive at the final scene they arrest Belle and it's rather obvious that by their reaction it is she who is the escaped patient who the authorities are hunting in a blaze of publicity . This was made in the mid 1970s when we didn't have 24 hour TV news broadcasting but yet every single character in the film knows there's an escaped maniac on the loose but unaware that she's female . The internal logic and continuity of the scenario doesn't hold up the slightest piece of scrutiny when given any thought . There's also another unpleasant scene where Stephen leaves Belle sleeping in the car , goes in to a shop and the young female counter assistant is murdered . We see the murder entirely take place through the murderer's POV then it cuts to Stephen going back to he car . You might think there might be a bit of ambiguity to this scene but it's almost certain Stephen carried out the murder , so we have a story about an escaped psychopath on the run from the police getting a lift from a serial killer . So what's the chances of anything like that remotely happening in real life ?

A melodramatic and exciting thriller, boasting a dead man's chest full of red herrings plus an excellent British cast ( and Sterling Hayden), this tale of mayhem will likely keep you guessing to the very end as the plot twists and turns with the very lovely and talented Hayley Mills and "Young Winston" star Simon Ward at their best.There is a bonus, too. What Roy Boulting gave us a teeny peek of in "The Family Way" during Miss Mills' bath scene is revealed in it's divine perfection as British Film Industry veteran Sidney Hayers gives us a bathtub scene of his own. The movie belongs to Hayley anyway so that was a nice gift. WOW!

Good movie plots remain with me. This is a movie I'd seen as a child and am lucky to find it here. It's a plot I've never forgotten and has quite a twist at the end. The only actor I remembered was Simon Ward. The acting was fine and, like so many of the British movies I've seen, nothing is overdone. No unnecessary violence and things blowing up for the sake of a boom. They don't write enough movies like this one. Other moves like this one is Vanishing Act with Elliot Gould, Silent Partner with Elliot Gould, and Sudden Fury (a very little known Canadian movie which should not be confused with the idiotic action film of the same name).If you're the kind of movie fan who hates predictable movies then this movie is for you.