Genetic Gibberish

"Face it, Enid," Dad says to Mum. "He's not normal." They are talking about their crazy 21-year-old son Martin (Hywel Bennett), whose idea of a big time is to masquerade as merely retarded. Martin spots an attractive bird named Susan (Hayley Mills) and hatches a plot that eventually gets Dad done in, Susan-ravaged, and Susan's mom cut up like so much kindling. This exercise in Petit Guignol, called Twisted Nerve, has all the suspense of a marshmallow roast, and struggles to make itself more plausible by adding some genetic gibberish about chromosomal damage. The film even suggests that Mongolism and criminal behavior are somehow connected, an unconscionable lapse of taste that has justly outraged the National Association for Retarded Children, which has demanded that the producers add a postfactum disclaimer. It is doubtful that enough people will see Twisted Nerve for its distortions to make much difference.

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