Alicia I love this movie so much

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

morrison-dylan-fan Taking a look at a DVD sellers page,I spotted a Hammer Horror that I had never heard about before.With having been very interested in seeing Hammer take on the Psycho Thriller,I got set to see the studio reach their crescendo.The plot:Writing a thesis on deceased classical composer Henry Ryman, Susan Roberts decides to do research on the thesis by visiting Ryman's family,and staying at their villa in France (talk about going the extra mile for a thesis!) Arriving at the villa,Susan is greeted by Henry's wife Danielle,and introduced to their wheelchair-bound son Georges.As she begins researching on an unfinished crescendo that Henry wrote,Susan begins to fall in love for Georges,who suffers from seizures,and uses medicine that causes Georges to have black outs.During the blackouts,Georges experiences horrific nightmares,which involves him having sex with a women,who are both killed by a duplicate of Georges.Feeling unsettled after she catches a glimpse of someone who looks just like Henry playing a composition,Susan begins to fear that the Ryman's are keeping something secret from her,when the family maid suddenly disappears,and Danielle orders for the pool to be emptied.View on the film:Opening with a surreal dream sequence, director Alan Gibson & cinematographer Paul Beeson compose an extraordinary ,operatic Giallo-style Horror Chiller.Despite taking place in one building,Gibson & Beeson gives the title a strikingly tense atmosphere,with elegantly stylised tracking shots locking Susan in the villa,and lavish "corner" shots subtly showing Susan being unable to get a clear view of the Ryman's.Filmed on location in France,Gibson basks the film in vibrant primary colours,which along with giving the dream sequences an off- beat mood,also heats up the movie for the light blues and bright red splashes of blood to shiver across the screen.For the dazzling dream sequences,the screenplay by Jimmy Sangster/ Alfred Shaughnessy & Michael "Witchfinder General" Reeves dips Hammer back into their Film Noir roots,as Georges fragmented memories of the dreams leads him to questioning how "real" Susan is being.Whilst the excuse to get Susan to meet the Ryman's is a bit of a stretch,the writers make up for it by cleverly continuing Hammer Horror's theme of women being the main holders of power. The writers also superbly cross proto-Slasher hack & slash terror with a psychologically bleak Giallo edge,with each murder/disappearance leading to Susan getting closer to uncovering the Ryman's secret,which leads to the writers unleashing a wonderfully wicked twist ending.Looking gorgeous when entering the villa, Stefanie Powers gives an excellent performance as Susan Roberts,with Powers delicately displaying a mix of care and fear towards Georges,whilst also giving Susan a gripping sense of curiosity.Giving the challenge of carrying the twist,James Olson gives a great performance as Georges,as Olson wraps Georges in a warming sense of nervousness which is shattered by the scrambled nature that the dreams are turning Georges brain into,as Susan gets set to hear the Ryman's final crescendo.

Spikeopath Crescendo is directed by Alan Gibson and written by Alfred Shaughnessy and Jimmy Sangster. It stars Stefanie Powers, James Olson, Margaretta Scott, Jane Lapotaire and Joss Ackland. Music is by Malcolm Williamson and cinematography by Paul Beeson.Susan Roberts (Powers) travels to the South of France to stay with the Ryman family as she researches the work of late composer Henry Ryman for her thesis. Once there at the villa, Susan finds that the remaining family members are a little strange…Out of Hammer Films, Crescendo came at the end of the studio's cycle of psycho-thrillers that had begun so magnificently with Taste of Fear in 1961. Filmed in Technicolor, Crescendo has more than a passing resemblance to Taste of Fear. We are in a remote French villa in the company of some shifty characters. A wheelchair features prominently, there's spooky goings on, skeletons in the closet and our lead lady who is the outsider at the villa is in grave danger. So it's Taste of Fear but in colour then!Crescendo is not a great film, it's ponderously paced by Gibson, meandering through the first half set up and it's all a bit too obvious as to what is going to unravel. That said, the finale is a good pay off in its construction, the Ryman villa set is suitably designed for some creepy shenanigans, while the colour photography is deliciously lurid with the zesty oranges and ocean greens particularly striking the requisite campo composition.Then there's the cast! Powers is just dandy, having had her trial run in the disappointing Die! Die! My Darling! in 1965, she hits the required "woman in confused peril" notes even though the script does her absolutely no favours. Olson gets to don the worst hair cut in Hammer history as Georges, but the character is pungent with emotional disturbances. Wheelchair bound and having a penchant for hard drugs administered by the sultry maid…Ah yes! Lapotaire as the housemaid Lillianne, she steams up the screen with her teasing sexuality, positively revelling in her ability to have poor Georges eating out of her hand. Scott handles the batty Ryman matriarch well enough, while Ackland does a damn fine Lurch impression. The film has some qualities that put it above average, but it's a bit too bloodless to be a must see horror film, and much too laborious to be a thriller. It sits in some sort of Hammer Film purgatory, a picture that asks you to take the rough with the smooth. But all things considered, you probably should watch Taste of Fear instead. 6/10

Armand a film of good intentions. that is all. and it is not correct to search a guilty or to imagine a better version. because it represents only a demonstration of a period sensitivity and manner to realize a decent Gothic film. sure, the script seems have many possibilities and the acting is far to be high. but the good intentions are obvious. and the desire to translate on screen the nuances of story in the best manner. but this ambition is the cage for movie. so, after the long chain of disappointment, remains only the beginning and the end as reasonable parts. because the confusion is heavy mist and the clichés are so many. a film for fans of genre. that is all.

Jonathon Dabell In musical terms, a crescendo is an increase in intensity as a piece nears its end. In this little-seen Hammer thriller from 1970, the title has a double meaning – there's the musical meaning as just described, but there's also the fact that the film-makers try to intensify the film's suspense and air of mystery as it draws to its climax. Directed by Alan Gibson, and written by Hammer regulars Jimmy Sangster and Alfred Shaughnessy, this busy thriller is a departure from the Gothic horror entries most associated with the studio. It feels much more akin to a Hitchcock-style piece, with Psycho the most obvious source of inspiration.Music student Susan Roberts (Stephanie Powers) visits the home of a deceased composer in order to write a thesis on his life and works. The home is an elegant but remote villa in France, peopled by the various family members and housekeepers of the dead man. It isn't long before Susan realises that she is surrounded by some pretty weird characters. The composer's widow Danielle (Margaretta Scott), the nymphomaniac housemaid Lillianne (Jane Lapotaire), and the sinister butler Carter (Joss Ackland) in particular seem strange. But at least the composer's son Georges (James Olson) – a wheelchair-bound drug addict – offers a sense of normality to the place, as he helps Susan through her first days. Alas, even Georges turns out to have disturbing demons of his own – there's his recurring nightmare about making love to a rotting corpse for starters, not to mention the fact that his disability seems to come and go when it pleases. Weirder still, his outlandish nightmares usually end with him being shot by an identical double who creeps up on him with a shot-gun. Seems Georges' drug-fuelled mind is plagued by some pretty bizarre desires and phobias. Soon enough, Susan realises she is effectively the prisoner of these assorted junkies and weirdos – but her predicament gets even scarier when the villa is plunged into panic courtesy of a series of gruesome murders.Crescendo features some sex and drug abuse that was daring for the time of its release (though time has certainly made such scenes seem dated). Apart from that, it is fairly derivative stuff – the links with Psycho (sane but vulnerable female finds herself at the mercy of weird person/people with identity issues) are there for all to see. Heck, Crescendo even borrows liberally from earlier Hammer pictures (Paranoiac and Maniac, for instance), therefore making itself almost a rip-off of a rip-off! The performances are OK, with Powers holding things together quite well as the only truly normal character with whom the audience can identify. Debutant Jane Lapotaire spends a good deal of the film naked, but her character is so unattractive and irritating that it makes her nudity feel peculiarly un-erotic. Olson handles the role of the disabled drug addict reasonably well. If you're a veteran of these kinds of movies, you might see the twist coming before it arrives, but others will probably be pleasantly surprised by the film's climactic ingenuity. On the whole, Crescendo is passable but unremarkable fare – it's a hard one to track down, but is probably worth a look if you can find it.