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Psychotronic Film Society presents a double feature: Night of the Execution (USA, 1957) and Dilemma (UK, 1962)

  • The Sentient Bean Cafe 13 East Park Avenue Savannah, GA, 31401 United States (map)

On Sept. 4 at the Sentient Bean Coffeehouse on Forsyth Park, the Psychotronic Film Society continues its long-running and award-winning weekly series of overlooked, underappreciated or downright obscure feature films from around the globe with an unusual double-feature that’s geared toward fans of old-fashioned murder mysteries.

That night, they’ll screen “Dilemma,” a critically acclaimed but essentially unknown low-budget British thriller from 1962 that fell through the cracks almost immediately after its theatrical release. Clocking in at just a few minutes longer than an hour, this well-acted and well-made B&W tale of a respected schoolteacher who returns home one day to discover a complete stranger near death in his bathroom was a B-picture that was originally paired with another feature at British cinemas and drive-ins. Over the decades, it has reportedly only been screened twice on British television, and has never been shown or released in the USA.

The late, respected actor Peter Halliday, who plays the lead in “Dilemma,” was a member of the extremely influential Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company alongside more well-known dramatic icons as Richard Burton, Michael Redgrave and Ralph Richardson. That organization later became the Royal Shakespeare Company. While he gained most of his later fame from appearing in popular British TV movies and series, including several seasons of “Doctor Who” and the sci-fi cult classic “A is for Andromeda,” he was also seen in such esteemed cinematic fare as 1993′s “The Remains of the Day,” and such ultra-obscure guilty pleasures as 1974′s camp oddity “The Swordsman,” which the PFS of SAV gleefully screened a few years back to an appreciative crowd.

Immediately preceding “Dilemma,” the PFS will screen “Night of the Execution,” an unjustly overlooked 30-minute B&W American-made crime drama from 1957, featuring a tremendous performance from a young Pat Hingle, the craggy-faced character actor best known for his work decades later as Commissioner Gordon in the original “Batman” films franchise directed by Tim Burton. The double-feature begins at 8 p.m.