Crescendo (1970)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1969
Running Times: 92m/95m
Length:
Format: 35mm
Colour Format: Technicolor
Ratio:
Sound:

DIRECTION

Directed by: Alan Gibson

PRODUCTION
Copyright: © MCMLXIX [1969] Hammer Film Productions Ltd.
Production Company: Warner Bros-Seven Arts presents a Hammer Film production
Produced by: Michael Carreras
Production Manager: Hugh Harlow

SCRIPT
Screenplay by: Jimmy Sangster & Alfred Shaughnessy
From an original screenplay by Alfred Shaughnessy

DIRECTION
Assistant Director: Jack Martin
Continuity: Lillian Lee

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Paul Beeson
Camera Operator: John Winbolt

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Chris Barnes

MUSIC
Music Composed by: Malcolm Williamson
Played by: The London Symphony Orchestra
And Featuring Solo Piano: Clive Lythgoe
And Featuring Solo Saxophone: Tubby Hayes
Conducted by: Philip Martell

SOUND
Sound Mixer: Claude Hitchcock
Recording Supervisor: A.W. Lumkin
Dubbing Mixer: Len Abbott
Sound Editor: Roy Hyde
RCA Sound System

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Wardrobe: Jackie Breed
Make Up: Stella Morris
Hairdresser: Ivy Emmerton

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Scott MacGregor
Assistant Art Director: Don Picton
Set Dresser: Freda Pearson
Property Buyer: Ron Baker
Construction Manager: Arthur Banks

LOCATIONS
Locations: A.B.P. Studios, Boreham Wood, England; France

CAST

Stefanie Powers (Susan)
James Olson (Georges/Jacques)
Margaretta Scott (Danielle)
Jane Lapotaire (Lillianne)
Joss Ackland (Carter)
Kirsten Betts (Catherine)

PLOT SUMMARY

Music student Susan Roberts travels to the South of France to research her thesis on a little known dead composer. She meets his widow, Danielle, and his strange, wheelchair-bound son, Georges. It soon becomes clear though that things are not that they seem in the dysfunctional household...

UK
Theatrical Distributor: Warner-Pathe Distributors Limited

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Warner-Seven Arts

USA
Rating: R; PG
After initially being released with an R rating, the film was edited and re-rated PG to catch a wider audience.

1969
July
14: UK - principal photography begins

1970
May
15 : UK - theatrical release (at the New Victoria, London, on a double bill with Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970))

June
7: UK - national theatrical release

1972
November
Day Unknown: USA - theatrical release

2008
October
17: UK - shown at the Gothique Film Society, London

The night the loving ended and the killing began!

Concierto inacabado - Spanish title
Crescendo... con terrore - Italian title
Crescendo - Die Handschrift des Satans - German title

PERIODICALS

Filmfacts vol.15 no.21 (1972) pp.527-528 (USA)
credits, reprinted review

Films and Filming vol.16 no.11 (August 1970) pp.47-48 (UK)
credits, review

Hollywood Reporter vol.207 no.28 (29 August 1969) p.7 (USA)
credits

The House That Hammer Built no.7 (February 1998) pp.364-367 (UK)
illustrated credits, synopsis, review

Kine Weekly no.3266 (16 May 1970) p.10 (UK)
review

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.37 no.437 (June 1970) p.127
credits, synopsis, review

Today's Cinema no.9697 (14 July 1969) p.6 (UK)
credits

Today's Cinema no.9806 (22 May 1970) p.10 (UK)
review

Variety 1 November 1972 p.20 (USA)
credits, review

BOOKS

Hoffman's Guide to SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991 - 1992 p.82
credits, review

The Hammer Story pp.64, 178
illustrated review (by Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes), credits

Reference Guide to Fantastic Films p.79
credits

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

disabilities, drugs, paranoia, students

Last Updated: 2 May, 2010