Mona Freeman, Jean Kent, and Maxwell Reed star in "Before I Wake," a 1955 British film.
Freeman plays April Haddon, who has been going to college in California for four years and returns to England for her father's funeral. Her mother has died, and her father remarried the mother's nurse, Florence, whom April hasn't met yet.
April has never been satisfied with the details of her father's death. And what she hears about her mother's last months are unbelievable. She is disturbed that she never heard from her parents in the last year or so she was away.
She begins to suspect that Florence had something to do with both of her parents' deaths, but she can't find anyone - including an old beau (Reed) who has taken over his uncle's medical practice - to believe her.
The major problem with the film is that there is no ambiguity. How anyone in the town could even tolerate cold, austere Florence was laughable. There isn't any doubt of her intentions, especially when we learn that April's 21st birthday is two weeks away, and if she lives, she inherits the bulk of the estate.
So while the film has Hitchock elements, it just shows that you can throw all of them in a film and not come out with much. This wasn't a bad film by any stretch, but it could have been terrific with better direction and perhaps different casting of Florence, to leave us wondering how much of April's fears were in her head.
Freeman plays April Haddon, who has been going to college in California for four years and returns to England for her father's funeral. Her mother has died, and her father remarried the mother's nurse, Florence, whom April hasn't met yet.
April has never been satisfied with the details of her father's death. And what she hears about her mother's last months are unbelievable. She is disturbed that she never heard from her parents in the last year or so she was away.
She begins to suspect that Florence had something to do with both of her parents' deaths, but she can't find anyone - including an old beau (Reed) who has taken over his uncle's medical practice - to believe her.
The major problem with the film is that there is no ambiguity. How anyone in the town could even tolerate cold, austere Florence was laughable. There isn't any doubt of her intentions, especially when we learn that April's 21st birthday is two weeks away, and if she lives, she inherits the bulk of the estate.
So while the film has Hitchock elements, it just shows that you can throw all of them in a film and not come out with much. This wasn't a bad film by any stretch, but it could have been terrific with better direction and perhaps different casting of Florence, to leave us wondering how much of April's fears were in her head.