By Lee Pfeiffer
Cinema Retro readers know that columnist Tom Lisanti wrote a piece for issue #17 about the little-seen 1969 thriller Once You Kiss a Stranger that included comments from the film's star Carol Lynley. At the time, the film was unavailable on DVD, but lo and behold, yet another cult movie we've written about has now been released to home video. We're starting to think we have a crystal ball that influences studio executives. In any event, the movie is a minor trifle, but a fun one, that is primarily distinguished by Lynley playing against type as an outwardly charming and seductive young woman who is, in fact, a mentally unstable person with a penchant for violence. Curiously, the movie is a loose remake of Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, as both films were inspired by Patricia Highsmith's source novel.
Lynley plays Diana, a consistently perky type who hides her emotional turmoils within her. Distraught by the possibility that her aged aunt and psychiatrist might re-commit her to a mental asylum, she concocts a scenario for the perfect crime. She seduces a married, famous golf pro (Paul Burke) and in playful pillow talk, tells him she will kill his main rival on the golf circuit, thus ensuring he will become a champion. In return, Burke is expected to kill the psychiatrist before he can have her committed to the asylum. Burke jokingly plays along, unaware the bedroom chatter is being secretly videotaped. (This is probably one of the earliest uses of a home video camera to figure into a motion picture storyline). When Burke discovers Lynley has actually carried out the murder, he is blackmailed by her. He faces a Hobson's Choice: either kill the psychiatrist or face the gas chamber for his role in the killing of the golfer.
The central premise of the story is brilliant: a perfect crime can be committed if the murderer has no known connection to the victim. However, Once You Kiss a Stranger is nearly in the same league as Hitchcock's version of the story, which starred Farley Granger and Robert Walker (as one of the most memorable villains in screen history). Director Robert Sparr (who tragically died shortly after completing the film) has a heavy hand and never finds the humorous aspects of the story. He has a talented cast that includes stalwart supporting actors such as Philip Carey, Martha Hyer and Stephen McNally, but they give hammy performances that often evoke unintentional laughter. Old pros Whit Bissel and Peter Lind Hayes fare better and often overshadow the usually reliable Burke, whose stoic hero is a bit of a stiff.
The film offers an abundance of guilty pleasures, including some clunky action sequences, one of which depicts what has to be the only on-screen murder committed with a golf cart. The finale of the film finds Lynley chasing Hyer down a beach with a speeding dune buggy that seems to have provided the inspiration for a similar sequence in the 1981 James Bond flick For Your Eyes Only. There's also a gut-wrenching theme song guaranteed to have you reaching for your ear plugs. Still, the film is never dull and Lynley's performance is a gem. She makes a memorable first impression, rising from the sea in a bikini with spear gun in hand. It was obviously meant to evoke memories of Ursula Andress in Dr. No, but Andress didn't get to terrorize a child with a spear gun and attempt to lock her own pet kitten in a refrigerator!
The film is available from the Warner Archive for shipment to U.S. addresses only. Click here to order.