Fans of Beverly Garland will find this one very difficult to watch. The sultry actress, usually in horror films, makes this dark thriller. In it she will be humiliated, toyed with, beaten, and, oh yes, brutally raped. Maybe the creepiest and most humiliating rape of movie history. Her black lacy bra will actually be an important prop throughout the film. This is one that you may think reaches its darkest point...then it gets darker and more sordid. Our feature today is 1962's "Stark Fear," directed by Ned Hockman.
Ellen (Garland) only desires to please her oil executive husband, Gerry (Skip Homeier) on his birthday. She'll buy and put on a very sexy black lace bra and bring home a birthday cake. Gerry's company has not been finding oil of late so he is grouchy. Ellen has taken a new job to pay the bills with the hunk Cliff (Kenneth Tobey). She arrives home and her drunk husband pummels and humiliates her. He is upset that she has taken a job with a hunk. He calls her a tramp and belts her around. Now Gerry orders her to refuse the job she was just offered. The beating and humiliation Gerry delivered Ellen is hard to watch, and now she wanders the park in her roughed up state. What will ultimately make matters worse for her, Cliff still pursues her, not only as a secretary but romantically.
Now it gets really brutal and sadistic, this movie. Ellen, if at all possible, desires to save her marriage... mistake. When Gerry goes missing she tries to find him and learns some weird secrets about her husband. She finds out he actually hails from a small Oklahoma town and drives there. Big mistake. The town is weird and is filled with weird people and shops. Rapists and drunks abound and the smartly dressed and made-up Ellen is no match for the deviance and brutality that will violate her there. In one horrific scene, she is pulled into a graveyard and...well, you'll see. Can this get worse? Oh yes. You'll see. The last act in this film ramps up the sordid deviance three levels. Alas, the sultry Beverly Garland will have turned in a heartbreaking and difficult performance. Alas, the beautiful will suffer so much in this film.
Will Ellen be able to save her husband from whatever ails him? Just what secrets lay in Gerry's spooky home town? Will Cliff be able to be a white horse and come in and save the pretty Ellen? Beverly Garland is one of my favorite actresses and to watch her performance in this film will be unforgettable. See "Stark Fear," and be ready to gasp and squirm.
