See No Evil (1971)
Columbia Tri-Star DVD (region 2)
d. Richard Fleischer; pr. Leslie Linder, Martin Ransohoff; scr. Brian Clemens; ph. Gerry Fisher; m. Elmer Bernstein; ed. Thelma Connell; cast. Mia Farrow, Dorothy Ellison, Robin Bailey, Diane Grayson, Brain Rawlinson, Norman Eshley, Michael Elphick (89 mins)
Although director Richard Fleischer worked steadily in Hollywood for several decades, he never received the auteurist attentions awarded many of his fellows. However, in a career that ventured through many genres, it is in a series of remarkable films essaying criminality and law enforcement that Fleischer emerges most tantalizing. Embryonic in his early action movies, his interest in true crime led to The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing and the acclaimed Compulsion. With The Boston Strangler in particular, he outlined the blueprint for what would be the contemporary serial killer film. Such criminal psychopathology as essayed in that work would remain with Fleischer when he next went to England to make another astonishing serial killer movie, 10 Rillington Place, again founded in real events. Although these two movies have found their due praise, such acclaim and acknowledgement eluded the obscure See No Evil, a crime film which was completed immediately after 10 Rillington Place and with much of the same creative team at work. But, here freed from the true-case scenarios of his previous films, Fleischer sought a much more stylized form of socio-cultural comment to underlie the behaviourist, even docudrama agenda elsewhere. A sly comment on the end of the swinging 60s era in Britain, the film was not a hit, although would speak to a similar disenchantment as Sam Peckinpah would essay in the controversial Straw Dogs.
A man, identified only by his boots, leaves a city cinema after a double feature of violent exploitation. On the street, his prized boots are muddied by a passing car. Upset, he is determined to make a point. He is apparently restless, lustful and angry but has no social contact with anyone. Sometime later, at a country estate, a recently blinded young woman (Mia Farrow) is adjusting to the large property. Her uncle is dismissive to the servant tending the property when he arrives late. Farrow is driven, past a newly arrived caravan of gypsies, to her boyfriend (Norman Eshley), whom she has not seen in some time. She returns to an empty house, knowing that her relatives have gone out. Unknown to her, there is a bracelet on the carpet near the doorway. Likewise, as she makes herself a sandwich, she is wholly unaware of the broken glass on the kitchen floor. Soon, it is evident that something horrible has transpired in the house. Farrow takes a nap and when she awakens, goes to make a bath. In the bathtub is a dead body and soon Farrow rushes through the house, gradually realizing what has happened. The servant enters, shot through the stomach, and tells her of the lost bracelet, apparently belonging to the killer. The servant is sure that this killer will return for it. Farrow searches for it and finds it, but just as she is about to leave, the killer has indeed returned. Farrow must find another way to flee. read more