Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession.
Acting
Hywel Bennett's voice switch from Martin to Georgie is genuinely chilling
Score
Bernard Herrmann's nursery-rhyme theme that haunts your brain for days
Direction
Boulting's restraint makes the violence land harder when it comes
Director
Roy Boulting
Hayley Mills
Susan Harper
Hywel Bennett
Martin (Georgie) Durnley
Billie Whitelaw
Joan Harper
Frank Finlay
Henry Durnley
Barry Foster
Gerry Henderson
Phyllis Calvert
Enid Durnley
Salmaan Peerzada
Shashie Kadir
Christian Roberts
Philip Harvey
Gretchen Franklin
Clarkie
Timothy West
Superintendant Dakin
Thorley Walters
Sir John Forrester
Russell Napier
Professor Fuller
Timothy Bateson
Mr. Groom
Basil Dignam
Doctor
Marianne Stone
Store Detective
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film's opening 'educational' segment was added by distributors nervous about the plot, accidentally creating a text-versus-subtext tension that scholars still debate.
The 'Cleaver' rhyme was improvised by Bennett and became so associated with the film that it overshadows the actual nursery theme Herrmann composed; audiences still whistle the wrong tune.
GB
