Ten Days of Terror!: Twisted Nerve

Film: Twisted Nerve
Format: Streaming video from Plex on Fire!

There is a long history of films where a male character becomes obsessed with a woman and does everything he can to get close to her, causing death and mayhem along the way. Twisted Nerve is another in that long line of films. It’s disturbing in the same way that Peeping Tom is disturbing, and for a lot of the same reasons, although this is far less extreme. However, what it gives up in shock value, it makes up by placing former child actor Hayley Mills in the role of stalking victim

One of the problems with films that explore mental illness is that it frequently gets a great deal of it wrong, often simplifying things far too much to get to a desired ending. Hitchcock, with films like Marnie and Spellbound might have been the worst for this, but it’s a consistent problem—mental illness is rarely depicted accurately or fairly. Twisted Nerve probably isn’t that accurate, either (not a psychologist, so I can’t really speak to it with much experience or knowledge), but it at least presents us with something interesting. It is nice to know, however, that the film begins with a disclaimer that people with Downs Syndrome are not dangerous and are not connected to psychosis or criminality.

Martin Durnley (Hywel Bennett) has a brother who has a severe case of Downs Syndrome and has essentially been abandoned by his family aside from Martin. After visiting his brother, Martin gets caught shoplifting in the vicinity of Susan Harper (Hayley Mills). They are both pulled into a back room of the store and grilled, and it’s soon evident that Susan doesn’t know him. For his part, Martin calls himself Georgie and pretends to be simple-minded, which allows him to escape without trouble, especially when Susan buys the toy that he has shoplifted for him.

What follows is a sort of psycho-sexual game. Martin discovers where Susan lives and learns that her mother (Billie Whitelaw) takes in borders. He shows up as Georgie, claiming that his father has asked him to come and stay while he is in Paris. All of this is done in hopes of getting close to Susan, but Martin hasn’t quite figured out how to translate his simple-minded persona would allow him to have a genuine relationship with her.

Much of what is going on with Martin comes from his relationship with his parents. His father is dead, and his mother Enid (Phyllis Calvert) has abandoned his brother as mentioned previously. She has also remarried, and her new husband (Frank Finlay) is a wealthy banker who constantly and intensely disapproves of Martin. Much of Martin’s current deception of Susan and her mother is to provide cover for him as he tracks down his step-father.

One of the more shocking moments of the film comes when Martin, who has been weird and duplicitous through the film becomes absolutely murderous. He sneaks out of the boarding house, tracks down his step-father, and kills him with a pair of scissors. Once we know this, we’re going to look much more differently at him, but the people he interacts with haven’t figured that out yet. But soon enough, the lies start to add up and the world starts to close in on the persona that Martin has built for himself and the world he wants to live in with Susan.

Twisted Nerve does this exactly right. There’s certainly a temptation when making a film that is going to take a deep dive into psychosis to make it flashy and prurient, and Twisted Nerve goes just far enough to keep things interesting without being obscene. Despite this, Twisted Nerve was incredibly controversial when it was released in the late 1960s because it seems to imply a connection between Martin’s behavior and his brother’s condition. It’s worth noting that today—since the film comes with a disclaimer at the beginning and makes the same point near the end that there is no connection—that the biggest issue people would likely have today is that the doctors regularly use the term “mongolism” to refer to Martin’s brother.

The biggest realization is that Hayley Mills circa 1968 was absolutely gorgeous. Like surprisingly so. You don’t have to feel guilty—she was 22 when this was made.

Ultimately, it’s a bit long. Ten minutes or so could be cut from this without losing much, but it's not that big of a deal—it’s still an interesting couple of hours.

Why to watch Twisted Nerve: This is upsetting in the way that any film involving deep mental illness is upsetting.
Why not to watch: It’s long for the story it wants to tell.