Cul-de-sac

Here's what can only be described as a bit of dark fun from Roman Polanski (1967). Its the story of an unlikely couple being held captive by an even more unlikely invader in the form of Lionel Stander's bumbling gangster, Dickie. He and his doomed partner are on the run from some misdeed that has evidently gone horribly wrong. His partner, a completely surreal looking Jack MacGowran, dies from a "belly full of holes" shortly after arriving at the gloomy and inhospitable Rob Roy castle. Donald Pleasence, with a shaved head, plays George, the utterly emasculated husband of the delicious and very young Teresa (Francoise Dorleac). George has sold up his factory and moved with his new young wife to this forbidding and remote castle, where they are subsisting on a diet of eggs from the chicken house and where George is slipping slowly into madness. Teresa is so bored that she takes to drinking her home made vodka with Dickie and helps him to bury his partner in crime. As can be expected it all ends rather badly. Despite a rather bleak premise, Cul-de-sac is quite funny in parts and certainly sustains your interest. The cinematography is clever and some scenes are head-spinningly surreal.