FRIGHT (1971)
Starring Susan George and Honor Blackman
Perhaps the first "Babysitter stalked by a killer movie," "Fright" is nonetheless an overrated early 1970s horror film. Maybe it did inspire "Halloween" and "When a Stranger Calls" a bit.
But any film that has the babysitter (George) calling the mother she works for after learning a psycho used to live there and then seeing a strange face at the window -- and not the police -- just doesn't survive the "suspension of disbelief" test.
Anyway, it does have ultra-sexy George in the lead role, and Honor Blackman as the Mom. It's also British horror from the early 1970s, always a plus.
George is tormented by Blackman's ex-husband (Ian Bannen) who has escaped from the lunatic asylum. George (playing a college student babysitter) is alone at the isolated home, save for the 2 or so-year-old kid and a boyfriend who shows up to sexually harass her. When the boyfriend turns up bloodied and apparently dead, and a "neighbor" intervenes to help, things get interesting.
George does a good job of playing someone hysterical. Blackman is her usual stern British self. Bannen is a pretty good psycho. But the tale is so predictible it's difficult not to be completely bored by the goings on. Director Collinson also helmed the original "The Italian Job" and the Hammer thriller "Straight On 'Til Morning."
Typical "Hitchcockian" fare that didn't stand the test of time.