The Full Treatment – 1960 | 93 mins | Thriller, Drama | B&W

Plot Synopsis

Val Guest travelled to France for this satisfyingly-plotted film from Hammer’s period of psycho-thrillers. Adapted from Ronald Scott Thorn’s novel by the author and Val Guest, the film echoes Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound and received an X certificate due to some brief nudity, but on release The Full Treatment was greeted by a lacklustre critical and commercial reception. The handsome Ronald Lewis is altogether convincing in the central role and is ably supported by the attractive Diane Cilento and Claude Dauphin.

Grand Prix driver Alan Colby (Ronald Lewis) and his newlywed French bride Denise (Diane Cilento) are plagued by marital woes when a freak car accident causes the concussed Colby to have impulses to strangle his bride every time they make love during their belated honeymoon on the French Riviera. On holiday they meet suave French psychiatrist Dr. Prade (Claude Dauphin) who takes an immediate interest in Colby’s condition. When the couple return to London, Colby once again attempts to strangle Denise, and subsequently becomes a patient of Prade who endeavours to break down his mounting wall of psychosis before the seemingly inevitable tragedy occurs.

Prade makes Colby relive the day of the crash under sedation and after numerous sessions they finally appear to be making significant progress, but when Colby wakes one morning in his hotel room he is greeted by Prade who leads him to believe he may have murdered his wife. As Colby is being driven across London to a mental clinic by Prade, he knocks the psychiatrist unconscious and flees to the South of France. But as Colby is walking along the peer he quickly realizes that his feelings of anger and suspicion aren’t so misguided when he sees Prade and Denise leaving port on a motor boat.