‘The motion picture shocker of the year!’
Taste of Fear is a 1961 British horror thriller film about a wheelchair-bound young woman who returns to her father’s estate after ten years, and although she’s told he’s away, she keeps seeing his dead body.
Directed by Seth Holt (Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb) and shot in black-and-white by Douglas Slocombe. In the US, the movie was released as Scream of Fear
The Hammer Films production stars Susan Strasberg (The Manitou), Ronald Lewis, Ann Todd, and Christopher Lee, the latter, one of Hammer’s most bankable stars, in a supporting role.
Christopher Lee has been quoted as saying: “Taste of Fear was the best film that I was in that Hammer ever made… It had the best director, the best cast and the best story.” To “drag it back to reality” (his words in the film), Lee’s French accent doesn’t work.
A young paralysed woman (Susan Strasberg) returns to her family home after the mysterious disappearance of her father. She has a cool relationship with her stepmother, while the chauffeur helps her to investigate the father’s disappearance.
During the investigations, she finds the father’s corpse in various locations around the house, but it always quickly vanishes again before anyone else sees it.
For reviews of Taste of Fear we recommend the following websites:
1000 Misspent Hours and Counting
All Movie
Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings
Horror Movie a Day
Kindertrauma
Mondo Digital
Tipping My Fedora
Buy Hammer Films Collection: Volume One – Amazon.com
Writer/producer Jimmy Sangster jokes with actress Susan StrasbergTrailer:
Full film – free to watch online:
Choice dialogue:
Penny Appleby: [to Doctor Gerrard] “You say my mind is affecting my legs. You’re wrong. It’s my legs that are affecting my mind.”
Technical details:
1 hour 21 minutes
Audio: Mono (RCA Sound Recording)
Black and white
Aspect ratio: 1.85: 1
