Die! Die! My Darling! poster & wallpaper

Donald Sutherland, Gwendolyn Watts, Maurice Kaufmann

In the tradition of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Hammer Studios drew aging Tallulah Bankhead out of retirement to play the fanatical matriarch of Die! Die! My Darling! (in Britain th...( read more  read more... )e film was simply titled Fanatic). Stefanie Powers, fresh from a string of juvenile and ingenue roles, plays her first adult, a thoroughly modern (and sexually liberated) woman who steps out of her time and into Bankhead's decaying mansion, a bit of southern Gothic nestled in the rural England countryside. Her courtesy call to the mother of her deceased lover turns into a cat-and-mouse thriller as the dotty, scripture-reading old lady dedicates herself to "cleansing" the befouled girl in memory of her son. Richard Matheson's smart screenplay (from the novel Nightmare by Anne Blaisdell) gives Powers a scrappy character, defying Bankhead and struggling to escape at every turn, while Bankhead's increasingly deranged campaign is given a delicious dimension with a marvelously schizophrenic backstory. Director Silvio Narizzano tends to overplay his hand at times and at one point steals a scene right out of Psycho, but he happily makes the battle of wits the central focus, letting the gothic elements stand as flourish. Peter Vaughan costars as a sleazy, salacious caretaker who can't keep his paws of their captive and Donald Sutherland has a small role as an idiot odd-job man devoted to his bizarre little family. --Sean Axmaker

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53% liked it

1,696 ratings

Unrated, 97 min.

Directed by: Silvio Narizzano

Release Date: January 1, 1965

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DVD Release Date: August 12, 2003

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Stats: 61 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (61)

  • mjgildea
    March 20, 2007
    mjgildea
    Such a haggard movie. Although I will give credit for having the villain be a batshit raving Jesus freak, which Bankhead plays perfectly as she sort of mugs Baby Jane. And what's scarier is that these people exist. Seeing Donald Sutherland play the kindly and retarded Strong Guy ...( read more)was a nice break alongside with the interesting sets. Basically it's a British What Ever Happened To Baby Jane. By the way, the Misfits song inspired by this movie is much better.
  • chischilly13
    February 15, 2008
    chischilly13
    great movie, love the title. Metallica comes to mind!
  • hugonar
    November 1, 2007
    hugonar
    Not interested. I generally avoid horror movies.
  • graciawing
    October 20, 2007
    graciawing
    OK, how did I not know this was a Hammer film? Weird movie with calliope music keeping a constant counterpoint to the "suspense" of a 20-something woman being held by a 65-year old nutjob. Tallulah waves a pistol around with no apparent idea of how to actually hold it. Donald ...( read more)Sutherland appears in one of his first roles, channeling Robert Duvall's Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird. Perhaps all aspiring actors in the '60s were required to play mentally retarded men in order to earn their SAG card??
  • grimm667
    July 31, 2007
    grimm667
    i haven't yet seen the end, but i will
  • hisbabyk
    April 17, 2007
    hisbabyk
    By far 1000 times better then the modern physco thrillers
  • hiphopsucks1
    February 22, 2007
    hiphopsucks1
    freakin old man love it!
  • Davismo
    September 27, 2006
    Davismo
    she shouldnt talk to me like that

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