Review

It's more than just paranoia of being enclosed in a limited space underwater covered in all sorts of diving equipment, but the increasing insanity and symptoms of the experiment that causes the victim. To literally have their mind bended. Dirk Bogarde is certain that a colleague of his accused of espionage committed suicide because he was under some sort of mind control and decides to go into the tank to test what happens himself, much to his regret. He seems to be fine when he is released, but slowly, his personality begins to change starting with him passing out in the middle of the street and waking up hours later nearly with no clothes on. He begins to treat his wife, Mary Ure, with contempt, and it is insinuated that he has never loved her or even liked her, something that is very hard for the pregnant Ure to deal with.

This is a very troubling movie, brilliantly done and extremely well-acted, but very depressing for the long-term ramifications of the story and insinuations about the future, just like Orwell's "1984". I certainly couldn't sit through any of the film or TV versions of that classic novel more than once, and the same goes for this even though Bogarde and Ure are excellent, and supporting players John Clements, Michael Bryant and Wendy Craig equally great. This is definitely a film that could be classified as science fiction without being about aliens or mad doctors or other fantastic elements, but one about the possibility of a future where the mind is not under one's own control. Bogarde's soothing voice really is relaxing to listen to, but his tape-recorded screams from the tank are horrifying. While the film is slow in spots, there are a lot of rewards to be found for the viewer who can stick with it through the end.