Twisted Nerve (1968) Plot Summary & Timeline

Martin plays catch with his older brother Pete, who has learning difficulties and has been sent to live in a special boarding school in London, by their mother, Enid Durnley. The father died years before, and their mother has a new life with her new husband, a wealthy banker. The school’s physician, Doctor, believes that Pete cannot be expected to live much longer. This fragile family landscape casts a quiet shadow over Martin’s days, where small acts of mischief hint at a deeper unease beneath his calm exterior.

In a shop, [Martin] sees Susan Harper purchase a toy. As she leaves, Martin follows after having pocketed a toy duck. Two store detectives ask them to return to the manager’s office. The detectives assert that Martin and Susan were working together to steal the toy. [Susan Harper] says she has never met Martin. The moment splits the room: is it a mere coincidence, or the start of a dangerous, unspoken bond between two young people who come to learn that appearances can be deceiving?

When questioned by the manager, [Martin] presents himself as mentally challenged, and calls himself “Georgie”. Now disbelieving in a link between them, the manager asks Susan for her address, and Martin makes a mental note when she offers it. Sympathetic to him, [Susan Harper] pays for Martin’s toy, a small act of kindness that will thread their fates together in unexpected ways. The exchange seeds a complex relationship built on uncertainty, miscommunication, and a shared sense of vulnerability.

[Martin] returns home and finds his parents arguing in the parlour, over his lack of interest in life, his unusual behaviour and the duck incident. In his room, now behaving as “Georgie”, he rocks in a rocking chair while smiling in the mirror and caressing a stuffed animal. The rocking motion of the chair is smashing a photo of his Henry Durnley, his stepfather, whose stern expectations clash with Martin’s restless inner world. The home turn brittle as the boundaries between boy and boy’s imagined self blur, and the house holds its breath for what might come next.

The next day, [Susan Harper] goes to the library, where she keeps an after-school job. [Martin] approaches [Susan Harper], who recognises him as Georgie. [Martin] says that he followed her, and pays her back for the toy. Before leaving, [Susan Harper] lends him The Jungle Book, a gift that becomes a touchstone in their fragile connection and a small window into a shared, secret world they scarcely understand.

[Martin] has a dispute with his stepfather, who insists he travel to Australia. [Martin] refuses and returns to his room. [Martin] stares in the mirror, bare-chested, and caresses himself. There are male bodybuilding magazines on his dresser. A frustrated Martin eventually smashes the mirror, breaking not just glass but the illusion that he is simply a child playing at adulthood. The tension inside him continues to boil just beneath the surface, waiting for the moment it will spill over.

[Martin] sets in motion a plan to leave home, pretending to go to France. He then shows up at [Susan Harper]‘s mother’s house, where she rents rooms. Presenting himself as Georgie, he gains sympathy both from [Susan Harper] and her mother, Joan Harper, who let him stay. The act of slipping into another life becomes a dangerous masquerade, as Martin tests the boundaries of trust and fear with the two women who become entwined in his fate.

One night, Martin steals scissors, leaves, and stabs his stepfather to death after the latter leaves a dinner party. The police investigate the murder and seek Martin for questioning. The act is swift and brutal, a decisive break from the past that will force everyone involved to confront the truth about who Martin is—and what his repressed feelings might have unleashed.

Days later, Martin invites himself to tag along with Susan who is going for a swim at a country lake. There, Martin attempts to kiss Susan, who refuses his advances. Later at home, Susan searches Martin’s room while cleaning and discovers books hidden in a drawer that a person with learning difficulties would not read or understand, as well as a book titled Know Yourself from Your Handwriting, in which signatures in the blank pages read ‘Martin Durnley’. The discovery raises questions about his identity and the extent to which he has lived a double life, blending the lines between patient and perpetrator, self and mask.

[Susan Harper] begins investigating Martin, talks with his mother, and realises that the two brothers are one and the same after seeing a photograph of Martin at the house. She seeks out more information, trying to piece together a life that seems to have two distinct paths converging in one troubled mind. Her curiosity grows as she encounters the oddities that surround Martin’s actions and the quiet, creeping danger he carries with him.

She visits her friend Shashie Kadir at a hospital where he works to question him about split personalities. The hospital corridors become a backdrop for moral inquiry, as Shashie offers insights into what mental fragmentation can look like in a life that has not yet found a steady ground.

At [Susan Harper]‘s house, Martin begins losing control over himself while suspecting that Susan may know who he really is. When Susan’s neglected and unsuspecting mother attempts to sexually arouse Martin, he kills her with a hatchet, and the room seems to close in around Susan as she realizes the terrifying truth of Martin’s dual life. The moment is a devastating collision of desire, fear, and a hidden danger that had been quietly growing beneath the surface for years.

When Susan arrives home, Martin holds her captive in his room after revealing his true persona. He forces Susan to undress so he can sexually fondle her, while her mother’s body is found in the woodshed by Gerry Henderson, one of the “paying guests,” who calls the police while Shashie Kadir learns the truth about Martin and races to the house to rescue Susan. The chase is on, and the revelation of the truth becomes a race against time as the police close in and the fragile balance of the household shatters.

The police arrive and burst into Susan’s room as Martin fires three times at his reflection in the mirror. While being taken away, he claims that he is Georgie and has killed Martin, a testament to a mind that cannot separate the self from the act. Martin is confined in a cell at a mental hospital, ranting over his lost love Susan, a man who believed he could ride the line between two lives but found only a single, tragic ending.