The Night Visitor *** (1971, Max von Sydow, Trevor Howard, Liv Ullmann, Rupert Davies, Per Oscarsson, Andrew Keir)– Classic Movie Review 13,020

The spooky and suspenseful 1971 Swedish/ US crime horror thriller The Night Visitor stars Max von Sydow as an insane asylum inmate who escapes for revenge on his guilty sister (Liv Ullmann) and her husband (Per Oscarsson).

‘If your flesh doesn’t crawl, it’s on too tight!’

Director Laslo Benedek’s suspenseful 1971 Swedish/ US crime horror thriller The Night Visitor stars Max von Sydow, Trevor Howard, Liv Ullmann, Rupert Davies, Per Oscarsson, and Andrew Keir.

The Night Visitor is a spooky Scandinavian-made shocker, in which man named Salem (Max von Sydow), an enforced patient in an insane asylum madhouse, wrongly locked up there ‘guilty due to insanity’ as the axe-murder killer of his farmworker, plans a quick getaway for his scheme of vengeance on the guilty couple Ester Jenks and Dr Anton Jenks (Liv Ullmann and Per Oscarsson), his sister and her husband.

All three Scandinavian stars are tremendous and Trevor Howard is excellent the investigating inspector.

Maybe it is rather gloomy and slightly hard going, rather than exciting, but the high-quality acting and confident direction make it an effective, upmarket chiller. It helps that it is filmed entirely on location in Sweden (Varberg, Hallands län, Sweden) and Denmark.

Also in the cast are Arthur Hewlett, Jim Kennedy and Gretchen Franklin.

It is written by Guy Elmes, based on an original story by Sam Roecca.

Runtime: 106 minutes.

February 10, 1971 (New York City), July 13, 1972 (UK), and February 7, 1972 (Sweden),

The Night Visitor is directed by Laslo Benedek, runs 106 minutes, is made by Hemisphere Pictures, is released by Universal Marion Corporation (UMC) (US), Scotia-Barber (UK) and Elit-Film (Sweden), is written by Guy Elmes, based on an original story by Sam Roecca, is shot by Henning Kristiansen, is produced by Mel Ferrer, and is scored by Henry Mancini.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,020

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