Fragment of Fear

I felt this could have been so much better and began to temporarily tire of it somewhere around the halfway mark and then it lifted and ran pretty well to the end. David Hemmings seemed a bit limp and Gayle Hunnicutt almost asleep but then maybe it was the erratic script.

This mediocre and very un-thrilling thriller was directed by the American Richard C. Sarafian but shot in the UK and Italy.

A British mystery drama; A story about a reformed drug addict and author who travels to Italy to visit his aunt. His aunt is murdered in Pompeii and he begins his own investigation but the clues to the mystery are complicated.

This is a truly awful musical score which ruins the film.You half expect Lee Van Cleer to come riding up the street with a cigarette in his mouth.

It's a shame that while Fragment seems to be a latent classic, what frustrates is Hemmings' rather offbeat performance early on, rather at odds with the style and ambiance of the film. Also, the plot seems to be missing elements which were either cut, not filmed or deliberately left out to add to the jumbled nature of Tim's disintegration.

How much you like Fragment of Fear depends on how much you've seen of the type of film it is. David Hemmings believes some sort of peculiar conspiracy behind the murder of his rich aunt and he goes about his way to prove it back in London, except he gets his apartment broken into, strange messages and cackling laughter mysteriously appear on his tape recorder, and someone appears to have sent him a warning letter written on his own paper with his own typewriter.

An intriguing thriller with a fine, bewildered performance from David Hemmings.

Hemmings in post drug addled state (he sweats profusely throughout) sets out to investigate the murder of his aunt.Comes across like an episode of 'The Prisoner' - is it the lead going mad or are dozens of English character actors out to get him.

Fragment of Fear is a film that has somehow slipped under the radar since its release in 1970 and that's a real shame as while the film does have a few narrative problems; this is excellently produced and well worked mystery thriller that really does deserve to be more seen. The film is halfway between a murder mystery and a psychological thriller and director Richard C.