I guess this one is a holdover from the March Madness theme from last month. Heavy into the psychological-horror-thriller thing. It’s British, so very polite in its insanity. I just found the warning at the front pretty amusing, thought it was part of the movie but I now I think it was serious, when it states that there is no scientific correlation between mongolism and psychotic or criminal behavior. You know what that is? It’s fuckin retarded. Holy shit, can we even say Mongolism now? Is that a banned word now too, like moist and sphincter? Maybe if you are watching this on YouTube. And why are you watching this on YouTube?!?
Martin, seems like a nice enough kinda guy, playin with with his tarded bro at the Institute where he’s being taken care of. Obvious issues with the homelife, if a suddenly dropped tea-cup is any indication. He sees a pretty girl at the store on the way home, gets busted for shopliftin. Turns out he’s just a rich 21-year-old koont with some issues. Maybe a lot of issues, given his taste in magazines and mirror-gazing and mother-love. I think even Freud would avert his eyes at how some of this plays out.
Damn that ominous music while slowly focusing into the doctor’s office poster about “Chromosomal Constitution” and that little bit about Abby someone-or-other. Delves a bit into that whole nature vs nurture kinda thing, maybe what is the scientific reasons behind what we are seeing illustrated behaviorally. It’s just slow in the telling, though increasingly disturbing. Susan, the pretty girl he latches onto, is good as she bestows kindness on what she thinks is a mentally slow guy. Interesting to see the dissolution of a high trust society play out before our very eyes. Not just horrifying, it is tragic too. I guess for 1968, it’s a bit of an updated echo of Psycho in some ways (which came out 8 years earlier), plus throw in some scientific mumbo-jumbo to throw everyone off the scent. It makes Freud want to go in a closet and rub one out, angrily. Hard to say if this may have been better in a shorter Alfred Hitchcock Presents hour-long episode format, but that probably would have pissed off all the Mongols back then.
