Watched the film ‘The Penthouse’ 1967 written and directed by Peter Collinson and I was surprised I had never seen it before until coming across it the other day. It stars Suzy Kendall who I have a long time crush on, Terence Morgan, Tony Beckley, Norman Rodway, and Martine Beswick in this five hander of a film.
We have a 1960s style home invasion with Kendall and Morgan as illicit lovers tormented by three deranged intruders in a penthouse apartment they use for their nights of passion. The two lovers find themselves subjected to mental cruelty and sexual humiliation in this tense and interesting film.
The two main perpetrators, Tom (Beckley) and Dick (Rodway), are fascinating nutters, they are childlike in a chilling way, yet always they exude a sense of intelligence. They feed off each other like some double-take twins, and always they have handy a deep meaning monologue or a philosophical justification for the black heart of the human being. The two men take turns raping Kendall, but the rape is portrayed more as a humiliation of her boyfriend than of her. She gets drunk with the two nutters, develops the most rapid case of Stockholm syndrome in history, and thus may be an at least somewhat willing participant in the sex.
The third intruder Harry (Beswick) a woman eventually joins the fray claiming to be their parole officer but turns out to be one of the gang. She brings Tom and Harry back to apologise after the two slip out and they are foolishly aloud back into the penthouse. Her character needed more airtime in the film she was wasted.
The camera zooms in and out of focus, something that proves to be a masterstroke for the sex scenes, while the various angles that the camera looks through during the course are suitably nightmarish.
See trailer
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