Dr. James Hamilton (Eric Fleming) is a psychiatrist. When an escaped killer named George Morley (Frank Marth) is trapped on a bridge threatening to jump he offers to help defuse the situation. He manages to talk the man down by hypnotizing him. In the crowd watching the action is Ann Summers (Nancy Malone). Ann finds herself responding to James’ soothing voice as he talks to George. The incident brings James to the attention of the press, especially a reporter named Cullen (Dean L. Almquist). James is not happy with his newfound fame. Cullen begins keeping an eye on James.
Ann is a well-to-do young woman from England. The next day she approaches James asking for his help. After much posturing, James finally decides to take Ann on as a client. Under hypnosis Ann tells James that she is an Austrian baroness named Maria Vetsera who is having an affair with married Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria. James also learns that that Maria and Rudolf had a suicide pact. James believes that Ann has developed a split personality due to some childhood trauma. Despite his ethics he begins to find himself falling in love with his patient.
Cullen talks his way into James’ office and noses around. He finds a tape recording of Ann’s last session and listens to it. He believes that James is trying to prove that Ann is the reincarnation of the baroness. He writes an article about it for his paper. James is, of course, furious with Cullen, especially since James doesn’t believe in reincarnation, even though there really was a Baroness Maria Vetsera that died in 1889.
Ann is angry with James and disappears. James feels that Ann is in a fragile state and could harm herself is she doesn’t get the help she needs. He becomes desperate to find her. To draw her out he believes he needs the help of a hardened murderer.
“Fright” was released in 1956 and was directed by W Lee Wilder. It is an American low budget thriller. The screenplay was written by Director Wilder’s son Myles.
The film is often mislabeled as a film noir. Although the subject matter may be a little noirish, there is nothing else here that would lend itself to making the film fall into the noir genre. At best it is an alright “B” movie. The scariest part of the movie is the title. The highlight of the film is the acting by Eric Fleming and Nancy Malone, although Frank Marth did a decent job of portraying a murderer. Somehow, they manage to take a rather pedestrian premise and make it somewhat interesting.
Surprisingly Myles does a halfway decent job with the writing, even though some of the plot was a little farfetched. What makes the film bad, other than the directing, is mostly the production values. Everything is on the cheap and it shows. The sets look like they were in someone’s den.
Altogether, the film’s drawbacks weren’t enough to condemn the film out of hand. There are enough good parts to make it worth seeing, but don’t expect too much.