Grevious Bodily Harm
Available For License In Australia
& New Zealand Only
While hounded by an unethical cop, Detective Ray Birch (Bruno Lawrence), ambitious crime-reporter Tom Steward (Colin Friels) finds himself involved in the bizarre world of Morris Martin (John Waters), a school teacher obsessed with the recent, accidental death of his young wife, Claudine (Joy Bell).
Unable to accept his loss, Morris lives in his memories, caught up in a paranoid delusion that Claudine is not really dead. When his obsession convinces him that his friends are conspiring to keep Claudine from him, Morris loses his mind. One by one he kills the deceivers and each murder brings him closer to finding Claudine.
As reporter Tom Stewart investigates the murders, he discovers evidence leading to the Morris connection – and the existence of Claudine, still very much alive. Using his newspaper contacts, Tom finds Claudine in an exclusive country-house bordello. He warns her that Morris is a madman and they leave – unaware that Morris is waiting for them.
A confrontation on a winding mountain road ends with Morris’ car plunging over a cliff. Believing themselves safe, Tom and Claudine take refuge in a lonely farmhouse while their car is being repaired. By the time Tom learns the truth from Claudine about her macabre relationship with Morris and realizes the perilous depths of his own involvement in their lives, two men are hunting for him – one is Morris, the other is Detective Birch.
Morris strikes first, but the obsession that has driven him throughout his murderous quest, is about to kill him. When Detective Birch arrives at the farmhouse, Morris is dead, there is no sign of Claudine, and Tom is arrested as the prime murder suspect.
Later, after Tom learns that Detective Birch is the focus of a police corruption investigation, the missing pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Tom is released from jail, apparently duped and stalemated by Birch and Claudine – until he reveals an ace up his sleeve.