Deadly Strangers (1975)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Belle Adams (Hayley Mills) catches a lift with a local driver, amidst rumours of a maniac on the loose. Seems like someone has broken out of the nearby Greenwood Sanatorium. Interesting that the local reports don't specify whether the escapee is male or female. Anyway, the driver quite candidly feels he has the right to attempt to rape her as a form of 'settling the fare'. When she is rescued by a tipsy Simon Ward (as Steven Slade), he tells her 'she asked for it.' It is strange to see former child star Hayley Mills as a focus for lust among the men (she is, after all, 29 at this time). And smoking ciggies as well! Her wholesome image endures however and Adams is either very naïve or very brave to be travelling alone during such times on what appears to be a whim. Several flashbacks throw suspicion on both her and Slade, and it is good to see dependable Peter Jeffrey playing another rogue.They stop at a petrol station, where the young female attendant flirts with Slade. He has an eye for the ladies and his behaviour is a little odd. Not too surprising to find that she is murdered shortly after. Slade and Adams have temporarily split up during this time, leaving them both suspects. Unruffled, they reunite after Slade has apparently 'made a phone call', and continue their journey.From then on, it is one mishap after another. Belle meets up with the eccentric Malcolm Robarts (Sterling Hayden), who is clearly not going to let a thirty year age-gap stop him trying to woo Belle.The British locations are wonderful, all winter trees, barren roads, dilapidated petrol stations and, latterly, a windswept seaside town. Directed rather like a television movie by the prolific Sidney Hayes (who went on to have great success directing American series including 'Baywatch', 'Knight Rider' and 'Magnum PI', and his previous brush with horror was 1960's 'Circus of Horrors'), who wrings as much intrigue and tension out of the low budget. Interestingly when, during the finale, one character kills another character (you'll get no names out of me) there is no music, just the sound of taut rope being stretched around the throat of the victim.This is a terrific, sparse road-tale of psychological horror with a tiny cast of excellent actors, set in a bleak world where most people you meet are either sex-maniacs or hooligans. I always felt that Simon Ward never really had quite the success he deserved. The wonderful Mills moved away from acting for a few years after 'Deadly Strangers' before returning to television in 1981 for the highly-regarded 'Flame Trees of Thika', which lead to a renewed interest in the profession.

"Deadly Strangers" is a very poor suspense movie--mostly due to bad pacing and really bad writing. I know several of the reviewers really liked it...but I just couldn't get past many odd dangling plot points. The story begins with a maniac killing some folks at an institute for the criminally insane and disappearing. The next scene, Belle (Hayley Mills) is at a pub...trying to hitch a ride with someone. A truck driver takes her...and soon tries to molest her and she escapes. Soon, Stephen (Simon Ward) arrives and offers to take her the rest of the way. What follows is a very LONG cross country trek where OFTEN Stephen does criminal activities that simply make no sense AND Belle complains...but ultimately stays with him. By the end, you learn which of them is the psychotic murderer...and this really does NOT explain away a lot of what you'd previously seen!The other problem with the film is that BOTH Stephen AND Belle keep having flashback scenes...far too often. It's just plain sloppy and the film left me frustrated because I wanted to see a good suspense picture....and didn't!

A young woman (Hayley Mills) misses her train and is forced to hitchhike. After a misadventure with a horny truck driver who wants her to pay a "fare", she is picked up by a handsome but mysterious stranger (Simon Ward) who may just have escaped from an asylum for the criminally insane. This is a familiar role for Hayley Mills that she had basically performed several times before: the pretty dolly bird who meets a slimy creep that she is nevertheless somewhat sexually attracted to (except that her usual co-star Hywel Bennet is replaced here by Simon Ward). When she played this role back in "Twisted Nerve", however, she was still coming off her wholesome Disney image, and was appealing, but also pretty two-dimensional. In "Endless Night" she played a troubled heiress and had little more of a rounded character and performance. In this movie the back-story of her character, revealed in flashbacks where she is orphaned in a car accident and sent to live with a lecherous uncle, might make her even more troubled than the sinister young man who picks her up. (There is in fact a great twist at the end here that I don't want to reveal).Ironically, Mills first played this "endangered innocent" role as a child actress way back even before Disney in 1959's "Tiger Bay" (where she plays a pre-pubescent girl who steals a gun and befriends a murderer). It took her this long, in what was basically to be her last film, to get back to the acting and fully developed roles in which she first started. It was revealed years later that Mills had been offered, and nearly accepted, the title role in Stanley Kubrick's "Lolita". And while that notorious role ruined the career (and perhaps life) of the actress who eventually took it (Sue Lyon), it might have actually been better for Mills than all the saccharine, cloying Disney movies she got typecast in.This is pretty much Mills show all the way. Ward is good but pretty functional. It's generally well directed by journeyman director Sid Hayers ("Assault", "Circus of Horror", "Revenge"). Sterling Hayden shows up in a cameo as an eccentric old coot (and his character's harmless flirtations with Mills have some unintentional sexual tension given that in real life she had recently married a man about Hayden's age). And, oh yes, and for those of you whose minds are in the gutter (along with mine), Mills also has some nice nude scenes. Good luck finding this as it is undeservedly very obscure today, but it's definitely recommended.

Young British man offers stranded, pretty girl a lift--but is he the psychopathic killer all the police are searching for? Damp, chilly film from the UK does boast a stylish direction (the rolling compact, the chase in the parking structure) and fine performances from the principals, particularly Hayley Mills in what must have been just a quick movie-stop on her busy theatrical schedule of the 1970s. Mills isn't flatteringly photographed here, but she's a natural, never winking at the camera for affect and never adding more to a scene than is needed. Nerve-jangling yarn will probably surprise you with its twists. It has a compact screenplay and is well paced. **1/2 from ****