Escapement (film)


Escapement is a 1958 British horror science fiction film directed by Montgomery Tully and David Paltenghi. The screenplay was by Charles Eric Maine based on his 1956 novel of the same title.
The film was released in the UK on March 4, 1958. It was released in the US on June 10, 1960.

Plot

Inquiring into the mysterious death of a Hollywood star, insurance investigator Jeff Keenan uncovers an exclusive psychiatric clinic on the French Riviera. Here, patients who want to escape the stresses of life are hypnotized, then laid out in morgue-like drawers and left to dream for several weeks. It turns out that Zakon, the clinic's owner, is using a "dream machine" to alter the sleepers' dreams, and to impose his will on theirs.

Cast

Producer Richard Gordon later said there were major problems with the film's special effects. He also said that he had a dispute with Anglo-Amalgamated, who did not want the movie to get an X certificate in England, whereas Gordon wanted more horror for the US. Most of Anglo's films were crime orientated but this had some science fiction aspects.
The film's electronic music soundtrack is credited to Soundrama with John Simmons as consultant and Robert Taylor as music director.

Release

Escapement was released in the United States on June 10, 1960, retitled The Electronic Monster. It played on a double bill with the Japanese film ''Battle in Outer Space''

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Though Charles Eric Maine is credited with the script, the credit titles make no mention of his intriguing but surely unfilmable novel. The film, in any case, is a tepid adaptation which scarcely suggests the genuinely terrifying possibilities explored in the book. The "dream sequences" are a mistake; the "electronic music" loses much of its effect through over-use. All the same, the theme gives this science fiction melodrama a certain originality."
Variety wrote: "The Electronic Monster offers one or two novel twists to an old cinema standby, the one about the diabolical scientist-sorcerer who creates disciples by toying with human brains. Since modern audiences seem intrigued with dramati-clinical sorties into the mysteries of the human thought mechanism, the Columbia release generates a certain pseudo-scientific appeal that should qualify it for comfortable second-billing. Outside of this quality and the fact that it has been produced wiih cinematic skill, it's a strictly routine melodrama. ... The dream sequences give the picture a curious dash of sex."
Chibnall and McFarlane in The British 'B' Film wrote that the film: "generates a genuine strangeness of atmosphere through its use of electronic music and special effects."
In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "mediocre", writing: "Main sufferers are the audience who have to sit through this unconvincing tosh."
TV Guide noted, "an intriguing feature in that it was among the first to examine the possibilities of psychological manipulation and brainwashing."