The Penthouse (1967 film)
The Penthouse | |
---|---|
Paramount British Pictures | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 96 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Box office | $1,350,000 (US/ Canada)[1] |
The Penthouse is a 1967 British
Plot
Bruce Victor, a real estate agent, is a married man having an affair with Barbara. They are staying in a penthouse apartment that they've rented.
One morning, two men, Tom and Dick, who claim to be meter men and that Harry is downstairs, arrive but Barbara then realizes that they are dangerous when they tie Bruce up to a chair. When she screams for help, they violate her with drugs and alcohol. Barbara then performs a striptease for them and Dick later rapes her.
After Tom and Dick finally leave, Harry, a woman, who claims to be Tom and Dick's
The film ends with Barbara and Bruce leaving the building, parting ways and walking off into the night.
Cast
- Terence Morgan as Bruce Victor
- Suzy Kendall as Barbara Willison
- Tony Beckley as Tom
- Norman Rodway as Dick
- Martine Beswick as Harry
Production
The film was the
Filming
The film was shot at Twickenham Studios with sets designed by the art director Peter Mullins. The exterior shots of the high-rise apartment building were shot at the Wembley Point tower (now WEM Tower London) in Stonebridge Park, London.[citation needed]
Music
The song heard during the end credits "The World Is Full of Lonely Men", is sung by Lisa Shane with music and lyrics by Johnny Hawksworth and Hal Shaper, respectively.
Critical reception
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 1/5 stars, writing: "Married estate agent Terence Morgan and his mistress Suzy Kendall are terrorised in their love nest by Tom and Dick (Tony Beckley and Norman Rodway), a knife-wielding pair of villains – Harry turns up later. After tying up the estate agent, they force him to watch them abuse the girlfriend as well as listen to self-justifying monologues and musings on the sad state of the world. The original stage play was probably more effective; the film version, however, comes across as grim, tasteless and pretentious."[4]
Leslie Halliwell said: "Thoroughly objectionable and unpleasant melodrama with no attractive characters and no attempt to explain itself."[5]
References
- ^ "Big Rental Films of 1968", Variety, 8 January 1969 p 15. Please note this figure is a rental accruing to distributors.
- ^ "The Penthouse". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
- Monthly Film Bulletin. 34 (396): 169. 1967 – via ProQuest.
- ISBN 9780992936440.
- ISBN 0586088946.
External links
- The Penthouse at IMDb
- The Penthouse at the TCM Movie Database
- The Penthouse at AllMovie
- The Penthouse at ReelStreets