Straight on Till Morning (1972)

A conventionally offbeat early seventies psycho-thriller alive with zooms the way today's are with steadicam in which Rita Tushingham is a waif from the provinces who is abused by a smoothly misogynistic control freak upon her arrival in the big city the way she was seven years earlier in 'The Knack'.It's quickly obvious were all this is going, but the vivid location work around Earl's Court and a good cast (most of them - like a feral Annie Ross in huge hair and a tiny dress - actually seen only fleetingly) keeps you watching despite rather than because of it's gimmick in constantly referencing Peter Pan.

An ordinary, shy Liverpool girl leaves home and moves to London to find a father for the baby she desires. She becomes attracted to a stranger, unaware he is a serial killer.

1972's "Straight On Till Morning" is one of the more obscure efforts during Hammer's final period where US distribution was no longer a certainty, paired stateside with cofeature "Fear in the Night" from International Coproductions. This modern 'Women in Fear' double bill did nothing at the box office and rang down the curtain on a decade of what were described as 'mini Hitchcocks' that drew less inspiration from "Psycho" as from Jimmy Sangster's penchant for unexpected twists and turns in the manner of 1955's "Les Diaboliques" (its most frequent VHS title was "Till Dawn Do Us Part").