Thursday, April 01, 2010

Hywel Bennett in Twisted Nerve

The above YouTube shows Hywel Bennett in Twisted Nerve (1968) whistling Bernard Herrmann's eerie musical theme. The film was panned on its release for making an entirely spurious link between Down's Syndrome and psychopathic behaviour. Bad taste aside the Welsh actor did a fine job playing Martin the mentally disturbed central character. Such was the controversy engendered by the film that it was virtually impossible to see until it was given a DVD re-release in 2007. Twisted Nerve's cult status was assured when Quentin Tarantino referenced Bernard Herrmann's creepy score in Kill Bill (2003). Check out his version of the whistling scene here.