MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological* This British B-movie taught me something. I'd seen the title "Escapement" listed in concordances, but I assumed it was a word made-up for the film. Instead, I learned that it's a term for a "linkage in mechanical watches and clocks." This fits director Montogomery Tully's dull outing far more than the overbaked American title, THE ELECTRONIC MONSTER, because as you watch ENGAGMENT, it is a lot like watching the slow mechanical progress of a clock-hand.
The viewpoint character (though not the movie's central character) is insurance investigator Jeff (Rod Cameron of G-MEN VS. THE BLACK DRAGON). Jeff's firm learns that a movie-star client has died in France, so in order to explore any angles that might invalidate paying on the client's death policy, Jeff flies to Cannes and begins nosing about. He talks to one of the late actor's girlfriends, who has oddly enough also dated two other persons who died in accidents recently. The girlfriend's implication in the overall situation is never explained, though it may have been in the source novel, which its author Charles Maine adapted for this movie. In any case, Jeff learns that before their deaths the victims had all received some radical new therapy at a psychological clinic. Head scientist Maxwell explains that he's invented a new application for the magnetic tape used (much later) in videotapes: the tape can record film-scenarios, and through some sort of computer-hookup Mawell can transmit those scenarios directly into patients' brains, for purpose of therapy. The viewer soon learns, though, that Maxwell's not in charge of the institution, for the owner is movie-producer Paul Zakon (Peter Illing), and Zakon is implicitly involved in the suspicious deaths.
Jeff makes no progress with Maxwell or Zakon, but he does when he meets one of the clinic's employees: his old flame Ruth (Mary Murphy). Sometime after Jeff and Ruth broke up, Ruth in her capacity as a professional dancer was hired to perform in some of Zakon's scenarios, which all look like surrealistic scenes from the tamer grindhouse films. (Not that we see many of these.) Ruth also tells Jeff that she's now engaged to Zakon. However, by the readiness seen as Ruth responds to Jeff's lovemaking, it's evident that Zakon was just a rebound engagement to the young woman. In due time Ruth becomes embroiled in Jeff's investigation.
The very vague implication is that Zakon's been trying to use computer-enhanced brainwashing to bilk his rich clients out of their fortunes, but the unstable process causes the clients to kill themselves. There are a lot of clunky talking-heads scenes, and one measly fight-scene as the intrepid insurance investigator keeps plugging away at the case-- though at least his personal involvement with Ruth justifies some of his ardor. Zakon tries to block the inquiry with murder and kidnapping, and one of Zakon's henchmen is said to have worked with the Nazi regime. I think he was the one briefly seen smoking a cigarette in a holder, a frequent visual trope signifying effete European evil. In the end Maxwell rebels against his puppet master and kills Zakon before destroying all of his machinery, so that Maxwell's invention can never again be used to wash brains. Jeff and Ruth are reunited.
I'm not likely to ever read Charles Maine's original novel, but since the author has been described as a thriller-writer who only used minor SF-elements in his works, I don't think I'm missing much. Most of Tully's oeuvre consisted of low budget crime thrillers, though at the end of his career he produced two somewhat better-budgeted SF-movies, THE TERRORNAUTS and BATTLE BENEATH THE EARTH. ESCAPEMENT mostly gets mention as one of the first "SF-brainwashing" movies, which is the only reason I give it a "fair" mythicity rating. But either of those later two films may be more entertaining if watched uncritically. Though the sympathetic viewpoint characters of TERRORNAUTS are the central figures of that film, in BATTLE it's the villain, much as Zakon is the central figure of ESCAPEMENT. Amusingly, one of the film's alternate titles is "Zex, the Electronic Fiend," which sounds like someone blended the word "sex" with the name "Zakon."
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