Great Film overall

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Silvio Narizzano died recently. I had actually never heard of him until I saw "Die! Die! My Darling!" (also called "Fanatic"). An OK story of a young woman (Stefanie Powers) held hostage by the mother (Talullah Bankhead) of her late boyfriend, it mainly caught my eye because it stars a young Donald Sutherland as the gardener. Bankhead really chews the scenery as the maniacally religious matriarch.This was by no means the best movie released by Hammer Films. Indeed, in 1965, Sutherland co-starred in another Hammer movie that I liked better: "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors". Even though this movie is nothing special, it's pretty entertaining for the brief period that it runs.Also starring Peter Vaughn (Uncle Alfie in "Death at a Funeral"), Yootha Joyce and Maurice Kaufmann.

I wasn't expecting too much, but I actually enjoyed this movie and found parts of it quite suspenseful. OK, there are some cheesy elements for sure, but overall it is worth seeing. Tallulah is great, and I also really liked Yootha Joyce's dark performance as Anna.I wanted to see this because I recently saw the play "Looped" starring Valerie Harper as Tallulah. A fun show - I saw it at Arena Stage in DC but it's supposed to be headed for Broadway. Anyhoo, the premise of the play is based on a true story of Tallulah taking many long hours to re-record or "loop" one line of dialogue from this movie. The line is about a third of the way in, when they are leaving the house to go into town. Tallulah says boozily: "And Patricia, as I was telling you, even though that deluded rector has in literal effect closed the church to me, I have as you note designed to maintain proper service of the Lord in my own home." Or something close to that. In the play they took some artistic license, and shortened and changed the line to: "And so, Patricia, as I was telling you, that deluded rector has, in literal effect, closed the doors of the church to me." Which was good since in the play she says it about 50 times!

Marvelous Tallulah Bankhead is the only reason I consented to see this mid-sixties horror flick. As an actress, Tallulah had a unique on screen persona, with that throaty, raspy voice and those animated facial expressions. She gives this film everything she's got. It's a wonderful, melodramatic performance.But the script is beneath her. It starts out okay. Tallulah plays Mrs. Trefoile, an eccentric elderly woman holed up in her big house with just her servants. Her son has died and, as a result, her clinging to his memory has made her more than a little ... theological. When her son's fiancée pays her a courtesy call, Mrs. Trefoile at first is pleased. Then realizing that her once-to-be daughter-in-law does not share Mrs. Trefoile's interest in the ascetic life, Mrs. Trefoil's attitude ... changes.Some of the dialogue is a hoot, like when the daughter-in-law asks for some salt to flavor her food at dinner. Mrs. Trefoile replies confidently: "We use no condiments of any kind in this house, Patricia. God's food should be eaten unadorned ... For instance this meatloaf is synthetic, compounded of bread, oatmeal, and wheat germ". Marvelous!The problem with the film is that the plot makes the daughter-in-law so weak that she is initially unable to escape the clutches of this old woman. How can that be? Yet, if the daughter-in-law did escape, there wouldn't be any story.Further, casting of the servants is weak. And the Donald Sutherland character is unnecessary.The story is set in England. That's okay. But given Mrs. Trefoile's obsession with biblical scripture, I think the story would have been more potent had it been set in the American South.Opening credits sequence has a whimsical, light tone to it, suggesting that the story should not be taken seriously. And I didn't. The plot is too weak for that. Yet, I greatly admire the effort that Tallulah Bankhead put into her performance. For that, mostly, the film is worth watching.

This Hammer classic has been renamed to Fanatic. Maybe to capitalize on the fanatic in The Mist. I haven't see that one, but Mrs. Trefoile was bad enough.Played by Tallulah Bankhead, who I last saw in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat, Mrs. Trefoile was a scary hag that lost her son and blamed his fiancé, Pat, played by Stefanie Powers, known most notable for the TV series "Hart to Hart." Mrs. Trefoile kept Pat locked up so she could "convert" her to be worthy of her son.Peter Vaughan, an actor with a hellacious amount of credits (173), was really funny as he kept trying to get into Power's pants. Don't blame him for trying, but the hag kept interrupting.One minor character of note was Donald Sutherland in his fourth or fifth movie.Great horror from the House of Hammer.