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The reviews on this page are typically of the type that
describe the plot in detail. So if you don't want to know then best avoid looking.
| Take a Girl Like You (1970) | Previous Next |
| Writer: George Melly / Director: Jonathan Miller / Producer: Hal E. Chester | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 94 mins |
| Set in the present day, young northern girl Jenny Bunn arrives in the South of England to take up a post as a primary school teacher. She lodges with Dick and Martha Thompson. Dick is a Labour councillor running for re-election and a bit of a lecher when it comes to his young female lodgers which his wife uncomfortably tolerates as long as he doesn't go to far.
Jenny meets Patrick Standish who is a fellow teacher at a nearby polytechnic. Patrick is a serial womaniser and immediately sets his sights on Jenny. But he finds his task complicated by her innocence and inexperience - he is astounded to learn she is still a virgin and would prefer to stay that way until she is in a committed relationship. He tries to convince her that in this day-and-age no one cares about that anymore. His attempts to placate her concerns about him fail and as she is introduced to a wider circle of his friends he finds he has serious competition for her affections in the person of rich playboy Julian Ormerod. Patrick's casual gallivanting behaviour with other women does nothing to convince her that he is committed to her but she eventually decides to fully commit herself to him and they arrange a date for the big moment. But his idle chit-chat to others of their plans reaches her ears and she believes this means he is just after her as another conquest and turns to Julian instead for her coming of age experience. | |
| Starring: | Hayley Mills (as Jenny Bunn), Oliver Reed (as Patrick Standish), Noel Harrison (as Julian Ormerod), John Bird (as Dick Thompson), Sheila Hancock (as Martha Thompson) |
| Familiar Faces: | John Fortune, Penelope Keith, Nicholas Courtney, Nerys Hughes |
| Starlets: | Aimi MacDonald, Geraldine Sherman, Imogen Hassall, Pippa Steel |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the novel by Kingsley Amis. |
| Take an Easy Ride (1976) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Derrick Slater / Director: Kenneth Rowles / Producers: Christopher Rowles, Kenneth Rowles | |
| Type: Drama / Sex | Running Time: 38 mins |
| The stated intention of this film is to warn of the perils of hitchhiking both from the motorist and passengers point of view and it tells the stories of several hitchhikers. The narratives are intercut but not interrelated in any way and the following summaries therefore describe each segment separately.
A) Anne and Mary are teenage girls who want to go to a Pop Festival. Mary's mother is reluctant to let her go but her father says she is old enough and gives her some money for the train fare. But Anne thinks it would be just as quick to hitchhike and then they can use the train fare as spending money. They get a lift from a man in an open top car who is a bit weird giving them porn mags to look at on the trip. When they get to the countryside he drives down a narrow lane and they realise they are in trouble and flee but he catches and brutally rapes them leaving Anne dead and Mary blinded. B) Suzanne is a Scandinavian girl travelling to see her soldier boyfriend at his base. She finds it easy to get lifts so prefers to be choosy, waiting for the right type of person who is not going to turn out to be a nutter. She accepts a lift from a married couple in their Rolls Royce and they seem very pleasant and personable and even treat her to a meal along the way. It is getting late and so the husband suggests they stop off at a hotel and continue on in the morning - all at his expense of course. Suzanne is in no special hurry so she agrees. But once in the room she discovers that the couple have planned this all along and want her to have sex with them both which she reluctantly goes along with. C) In a shorter piece, Pam and Ruth are bored and unprincipled young women who rob and take drugs. They hitch a lift from a male motorist and when they get to an isolated spot they stab him and steal his wallet. D) To balance things up and show that hitchhiking doesn't always end in tragedy or upset there is another story where a lorry driver gives a lift to two attractive young girls also heading off to a pop festival and they all get along fine and he drops them off where they want to go without incident. | |
| Featuring: | A) Helen Bernat (as Anne), Margaret Heald (as Mary), Derrick Slater (as Mary's father), Jeanne Field (as Mary's mother) B) Ina Skriver (as Suzanne), Alan Bone (as the Husband), Tara Lynn (as the Wife) C) Jenny Nevinson (as Pam), Stella Coley (as Ruth), Terry Francis (as their victim) D) Pauline Bates, Christianne (as the two Hitch Hikers), Charles Erskine (as Lorry Driver) |
| Take Me High (1973) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Christopher Penfold / Director: David Askey / Producer: Kenneth Harper | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 86 mins |
| Tim Matthews is a high-flying financial adviser in the London offices of the Merchant Bankers Furness Orlando which also has offices in Birmingham and New York. Tim has an easy manner which endears him to people but underlying this is a driving ambition which supplants all other considerations in his life. Consequently his latest girlfriend Vicki has just left him because she was fed up playing second-fiddle to his wheeler-dealing. But despite this Tim is feeling pleased with himself because he has just been promoted yet again - this time to an executive position and he fully expects to be transferred to New York where he will really be able to become a big player. But unexpectedly the company chairman, Sir Charles Furness, has other ideas and decides to send Tim to Birmingham instead. Tim is a bit disappointed but considers it will be merely another stepping-stone on his road to the big time.
The Birmingham office is currently headed by Hugo Flaxman who is another of the firm's most promising young executives. Hugo has an unctuous manner which is put out of joint by the arrival of Tim whom he views as a danger to his own ambitions. It is clear Sir Charles has decided to pit his two top executives against one another to discover which of them best deserves the Branch director's post and a seat on the board. Tim quickly gets to grips with the local political situation. A local multi-millionaire businessman called Sir Harry Cunningham has garnered a reputation for taking over small businesses and closing them down and building office blocks in their place and making vast profits as a result. Over the past thirty years he has made an enemy of former trade union leader Bert Jackson who has just been elected as head of the local council and is now in a position to frustrate Sir Harry's schemes. The council are planning a much-needed rejuvenation programme for the local City Cross amenity centre which needs a huge capital investment - but Jackson is loathe to approve the only bid for the work made by Cunningham's firm. However to successfully oppose it he will need to raise a capital investment of £10 million which he grudgingly concedes might not be possible. Sir Harry is one of Hugo's best clients and Hugo assures the entrepreneur that he will do everything he can to find him an alternate investment. Meanwhile as an outsider Tim decides to talk to Jackson and hear his side and discover if there is any way a deal can be struck. Tim finds he likes Jackson and can tell the councillor wants what is best for the community but cannot bring himself to deal with a man such as Sir Harry. Tim and Bert continue their discussion in a small local restaurant where the food is terrible and Tim has an argument with the proprietor. The restaurant is run by Sarah Jones, a pretty young woman who has always dreamed of being a restaurateur and wants to give her customers the best eating experience possible. But her aspirations have been stymied by her partner Paul who thinks of nothing but the profit margin and their customers have deserted them due to the poor quality food being offered. Sarah has had dealings with Hugo Flaxman trying to get a loan but he considers her venture a dead duck and has refused to lend her any of his bank's money. She apologises to Tim and does not charge him for the meal. Both of them find each other attractive but now is not the moment to explore that. Later Sarah goes to see Hugo Flaxman one more time to try to secure a bridging loan but he fobs her off onto the new man Tim Matthews. Tim and Sarah are surprised to meet again so soon and much to Tim's regret he has to agree with Hugo's assessment that her business cannot be saved and she should cut her losses. Sarah has to at last accept she has failed and closes up. Tim needs somewhere to stay and so he buys a houseboat and lives on the canal that runs through the heart of the city. Here he comes back into contact with Sarah who was raised on a houseboat and her parents are his neighbours. She shows Tim how to operate the barge boat properly and as the days go by they start to fall in love. Sarah is an excellent cook and when she makes some hamburgers to replace the awful ones they bought from a stand, Tim suggests that if she could produce such a high quality product on a larger scale she might be on to a winner - and in honour of the city they could name them "Brumburgers". Back at work, Tim uses all his powers of persuasion to get Sir Harry and Bert Jackson round a negotiating table together and manages to iron out a deal that both are happy with. Sir Harry can see where his profit will come from and Bert is satisfied everything is above board and there will be no dodgy kickbacks. The two men mellow towards each other and realise that neither is as bad as the other thought for all these years. Tim has successfully negotiated a multi-million pound deal on behalf of the bank which is a huge coup. The two former antagonists, Sir Harry and Bert Jackson, have now become staunch allies in the making of a better Birmingham and Tim makes the most of this détente to negotiate a capital investment in Sarah's new business venture from Sir Harry, and planning permission approval from Bert for her new business premises. Tim helps Sarah as much as he can as she prepares for her opening night and Sir Harry even organises a carnival parade to promote the new business. Hugo knows he has been well and truly trumped by Tim's success with the City Cross deal and there seems no doubt that his rival will get the top job. That is until he realises how personally involved Tim has become with Sarah and Hugo starts scheming to take advantage of this. Hugo invites company chairman Sir Charles to Birmingham to officially announce the City Cross deal on behalf of the bank. Hugo extols Tim's virtues and convinces Sir Charles that Tim's amazing accomplishments in so short a time make him the most deserving for the New York posting. But when Tim is offered the job in New York he is put in a quandary - that job was the one he so desperately wanted before coming to Birmingham, but now he has found Sarah and doesn't want to leave her. So he turns down the job and says he would rather stay here. Hugo's gambit is working and he quickly jumps in and declares that he would be pleased to take the New York job and let Tim run things here in his place. Sir Charles agrees but with an inkling he has been manipulated. So Hugo gets the top job and Tim is content to stay at his current level to be with the woman he loves and help her with her Brumburger business which opens to great critical acclaim. | |
| Starring: | Cliff Richard (as Tim Matthews, banking executive), Debbie Watling (as Sarah Jones, restaurateur), Anthony Andrews (as Hugo Flaxman, head of Birmingham office), Hugh Griffith (as Sir Harry Cunningham, businessman), George Cole (as Bert Jackson, local council leader) |
| Featuring: | Richard Wattis (as Sir Charles Furness, company chairman), Noel Trevarthen (as Paul, Sarah's restaurant partner), Moyra Fraser and Ronald Hines (as Molly and Sam, Sarah's parents) |
| Starlets: | Madeline Smith (as Vicki, Tim's girlfriend who leaves him, [small role]), Polly Williams (as Receptionist, at Hugo's office), Elizabeth Scott (as Waitress, at Sarah's restaurant) |
| NOTES: | |
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Cliff Richard sings a few songs but it is not really a musical film |
| Writer/Director: Arnold Louis Miller / Producers: Stanley Long, Arnold Louis Miller | |
| Type: Nudist | Running Time: 60 mins |
| Tony and his French friend Pierre have organised a special holiday adventure for themselves and Tony's female cousin Lee and eight of her girlfriends. The girls have decided to travel to Cannes, where Tony's borrowed yacht is moored, using three different methods. Lee, Heidi, Mandy and Jasmine arrive the conventional way by jetting into Nice-Cote D'azur Airport directly from London to be met by Tony and Pierre who drive them directly to the quay at Cannes harbour on the Riviera. Meanwhile June, Pat and Barbara are travelling from the South of France in a vintage jalopy that is always breaking down. And finally Carol and Ingrid decide to hitchhike across France.
Whilst the main group are waiting for the others to arrive they spend their time provisioning the yacht ready for their trip. The three intrepid motorists in their old banger arrive first followed soon afterwards by the two hitchhikers and at last the friends are all together. They spend the first few days enjoying Cannes and Pierre takes them to his uncle's grand palatial villa built on the edge of a cliff with steps leading down to its own private beach. Pierre's uncle likes his privacy and formed one of the first naturist clubs along the coast. It turns out that most of the friends have tried naturism before and so they all strip off to their briefs and sun themselves on the private beach. They share a belief that sunbathing naked is the best health tonic which stimulates the mind and the body. On their sailing trip they intend to spend some days at the secluded isle of Levant which is a dedicated naturist resort. After a few more days enjoying normal holidaying activities along the coast they are ready to set sail. Tony is the skipper and puts the girls to work crewing the boat. Their first little adventure is a jaunt to a nearby uninhabited island to search for some treasure which Lee believes is buried there after a friend gave her a mysterious old treasure map. They shed their tops and split up into teams to search for specified landmarks so they can follow the map's directions. The excitement mounts as they wonder what riches they might discover. When they find the spot the buried item turns out to be an old goblet of no huge value which they happily donate to a local museum. With that task accomplished they head off for their main destination of Levant which is an oasis of beauty. The island's facilities are purposely very basic to help promote a more natural way of living without clothes and without any reminders of modern life. The slow pace of life there allows its visitors to relax in natural idyllic surroundings where they can harmonise with nature and appreciate the simple essentials of life. Days of fun and relaxation follow for the group of friends but eventually their fortnight's holiday comes to an end and they sadly have to leave the wonderful island and all the lovely new friends they have met there. But they vow to return again the next year as they reflect on the wonderful memories they will take away with them of their magical Mediterranean holiday in paradise. | |
| Starring: | Ian Michael (as Tony), Gino Neenan (as Pierre), Jenny Lane (as Lee), Margaret Collins (as Mandy), Maureen Haydon (as June), Terry Lee (as Ingrid), Susan Irwin-Clark (as Carol), Paula Ku-Chih (as Jasmine), Angela Lowe (as Patricia), Ulla Thoren (as Barbara), Hedy Borland (as Heidi) |
| Also: | Anna Silvers (as Marie, [as shown on credits although there is no one in it called Marie or any unaccounted for characters]) |
| NOTES: | |
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Despite partaking in what they call "naturism" they all keep their briefs on throughout. |
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The film has no live sound. Instead we hear the narrative voices of several of the friends provided by uncredited voice artistes who talk the words and thoughts of those assembled and even banter together as if (in modern parlance) providing a retrospective commentary track. |
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This is one of a string of British films from around this time that managed to get around strict censorship rules on nudity by featuring stories involving naturism activities. The others were:- Nudist Paradise (1959), Travelling Light (1961), Nudist Memories (1959), For Members Only (1960) (aka The Nudist Story), Some Like It Cool (1961), Nudes of the World (1961), Sunswept (1961), Naked - as Nature Intended (1961), World Without Shame (1962), My Bare Lady (1963), Eves on Skis (1963), It's A Bare, Bare World (1963), The Reluctant Nudist (1963). |
| Writers: Paul Cullum, Tom Huckabee, Kent Smith / Director: Tom Huckabee / Producers: Cecil Craft, John Lane | |
| Type: Sci-Fi | Running Time: 82 mins |
| Set about a decade hence (of 1983), in a future in which America has been devastated by a terrible nuclear war, leaving it with no central government. Precious basic resources are scarce and America has become like a war-torn third-world country where civil war between states is rife with many factions vying for control. This anarchy has led to many Americans fleeing their homeland to seek refuge in other parts of the world not so badly affected. Other countries remain intact but nowhere remains untouched by a calamitous mix of environmental devastation, volatile economies and diseases epidemics. Normal life is now a vastly changed concept for everyone - especially women.
One 20-year-old American refugee called Billy Hampton has come to Great Britain where he has been gudgeoned into participating in a scientific research programme led by a think-tank of women scientists. Seemingly conducting legitimate studies the women are in fact a group of radical feminist activists who are angered by the way women have been re-subjugated in the new order. They intend to fight back using terrorist tactics. Billy is their unwitting test subject and guinea pig whom they have put through two years of intensive physical and mental conditioning procedures thus making him highly susceptible to implanted trigger responses so he can be programmed to carry out a special mission on behalf of the aggrieved women. Their ire is focussed on Europe's specially designated prostitution zones and the men who run them who are known as prostitution magistrates or commissioners. These zones are officially sanctioned by the Common Market where an oasis of the old way of life is artificially maintained where men can visit to receive sexual needs. The UK has four such zones and Billy is being sent to the Welsh one located in a small village called Brendovery. The magistrate's name is Major Guthrie Whitebread who, as well as legally licensed to run prostitution, is involved in the slavery market by abducting and sending young British people to Africa to be sold. Billy's mission will be to kill Major Whitebread although he will have no awareness of this until certain trigger conditions are met that will set his mind into a murderous rage. Billy arrives in Brendovery with his mind in a dulled and warped state by the chemicals in his system. He thinks he is been let out of the scientific institute for a vacation so he begins making use of the facilities on offer. Billy selects the services of a local maiden called Judy Church who was recommended to him by the village boy who showed him around. The young women who live and work here are experts in the craft of giving men sexual fulfilment and consider it a privilege to embrace their predestined biological roles. They live normal village lives living with their parents who are immensely proud of their daughters. The Major is always on the lookout for young men with no connections that can disappear without trace to feed the lucrative slave market in Africa and as a displaced American, Billy is vulnerable to abduction by the major's thuggish henchmen. Billy hides in a cave where he meets an oddball recluse called Tony whose passion is playing with knives and mutilating himself. Billy is then given sanctuary by Mr and Mrs Dimple who live with their prostitute daughter Barbara of whom they are very justly proud. But Billy doesn't trust them and goes on the run when he is targeted by the major's henchmen. After managing to kill the henchmen he returns to the Dimples' cottage to have sex with Barbara before going on the run again driven by the paranoia of his confused mind. He eventually finds his way to the beach where he re-encounters Tony. They fight and Tony stabs Billy to death. THE END | |
| Comment: The narrative is a bit chaotic and hard to fathom as it does not follow any regular conventions. The supposed mission that Billy was brainwashed to carry out never comes close to happening as he wanders around the village in a seemingly aimless fashion.
The apocalyptic nature of the world situation and America's in particular is never seen on screen but instead is heard being described in radio bulletins throughout. It is through one of these bulletins we learn that Billy was not the only unwitting agent recruited by the women scientists - and in Germany, the agent they sent successfully carried out the assassination he was programmed for. The film's title comes about because Billy's mission trigger was supposed to be when he heard the Major telling his favourite anecdote about a mountain tiger and the scientist had designated Billy as "Project Tiger Mountain". | |
| Starring: | Bill Paxton (as Billy Hampton, American refugee) |
| Featuring: | (in order listed) Barry Wooller (as ?), David Guthrie (as ?Major Guthrie Whitebread, prostitution magistrate), Mrs Davis (as Mrs Davis, old lady in hotel room), John Blan-- (as ?'Sally' John, young lad OR John, major's henchman), Tony Byra-- (as ?Tony, knifeman), Paul (as ?, [no surname on credit]), Judy Church (as Judy Church, village prostitute), Io Church (as ?), Cosmo Meemo Chiefo (as ?Meemo, major's henchman), Barbara Clifton (as ?Barbara Dimple, village prostitute), Minnie and Ernie Dimple (as Minnie and Ernie Dimple, Barbara's parents), Courtenay Anderson (as Feminist scientist), --ol Cranston (as ?), Lou Montgomery (as ?), Sandra S. Wilkison (as Feminist scientist) |
| Also: | (Voices) June Allen, Loren Bivens, Michael A. H--, Melanie Hers--, Alexandra K--, Marty Mann, -- McKinnon, jr, --harine Molloy, Margaret Nesbitt, Scott Pitcock, --herine Powell, --r Shillingford, Sally Stevens, Clement St Ge--, B.J. Turner, Kenneth Webster, Chris Winfield |
| NOTES: | |
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Made in Black and White |
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The end credits do not show character names for the actors although upon inspection it seems likely that a lot of them were called fully or partly by their real names because there are a lot of "coincidences" in the names that are used. |
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Unfortunately, on the version reviewed, some of the names on the credits are slightly truncated by the framing, on either the left or right side, and are therefore in some cases indeterminable. So for the cast names that can't be worked out (and that don't appear on the film's IMDB listing) they are shown above with as much of the name that could be seen with "----" to indicate a missing bit. The characters they played are in some cases semi-guesses based on picking the character name to which their real name has the closest resemblance. |
| Tales From The Crypt (1972) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Various / Director: Freddie Francis / Producer: Max Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky | |
| Type: Horror / Anthology | Running Time: 90 mins |
| A tour guide is showing a group around some catacombs when five of the party become lost and find themselves in a crypt. A mysterious stranger asks them why they came to this place but they can't remember so he tells each in turn their story:-
Story 1 - "And All Through The House" - Joan Collins On Christmas Eve a wife murders her husband for his insurance policy payoff. But a dangerous escaped lunatic dressed as Santa Claus has ended up at her house and is trying to get in but she cannot call the police because of her husband's body. Eventually her young daughter lets "Santa" in and he proceeds to kill the wife. Story 2 - "Reflection of Death" - Ian Hendry A man and his mistress are both deserting their respective lives and running off to start a new life together. On the way they have a car accident and he seems to have survived but when he goes to his wife's house he finds that two years have passed and people have moved on thinking him dead - then he wakes in the car and it was a dream - and then the car crashes for real and he dies. Story 3 - "Poetic Justice" - Robin Phillips A man takes a dislike to his elderly neighbour who he believes is lowering the tone on the area - so he sets about ruining the man and hounds him into suicide. A year later the neighbour rises from his grave and kills him. Story 4 - "Wish You Were Here" - Richard Greene A couple in financial difficulties decide to sell their collection of antiques when they notice some strange markings on one old statuette which gives the owner three wishes. The wife tries and remarkably the first one comes true as she wishes for lots of money - but only via the death of her husband and receipt of his Assurance money. Devastated she tries to correct the situation with the other two wishes and bring him back to life but each wish is taken literally and lead to more tragedy. Story 5 - "Blind Alleys" - Nigel Patrick A heartless ex-army major takes over the running of a home for the blind and turns the lives of the residents hellish as he economises without any thought for their well-being. When one resident dies the residents take matters into their own hands and give the major a lesson in suffering. The five lost souls now realise they are dead and the crypt keeper opens another door leading them to hell where people who die without repentance are consigned for all eternity. | |
| Starring: | Ralph Richardson (as The Crypt Keeper), Joan Collins, Ian Hendry, Robin Phillips, Richard Greene, Nigel Patrick (as the Lost Souls) |
| Featuring: | (story 2) Angela Grant (Mistress), Susan Denny (Wife) (story 3) Peter Cushing (Neighbour), David Markham (story 4) Roy Dotrice (Solicitor), Barbara Murray (Wife) (story 5) Patrick Magee (Blind Man) |
| Familiar Faces: | Geoffrey Balydon (as The Tour Guide) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the comic book stories written by Johnny Craig, Al Feldstein, Bill Gaines, Milton Subotsky in the American comic books Tales From The Crypt and Vault of Horror |
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Ralph Richardson is credited as Sir Ralph Richardson |
| Writer: Jay Fairbank / Director: Freddie Francis / Producer: Norman Priggen | |
| Type: Horror / Anthology | Running Time: 89 mins |
| At the Department of Psychiatric Medicine within HM Prison commission, a visitor arrives to make an evaluation of the studies made of four special prisoner inmates whose bizarre cases have been thoroughly assessed by Dr Tremayne, the resident psychiatrist. Dr Tremayne believes he has made a remarkable breakthrough and that all the inmates stories are completely true and he has proof. First he introduces the four patients to his visitor and takes him through the details of their stories... (We then see each story - the first named character in these summaries is the patient)
Story 1 - Mr Tiger Paul Patterson is a young boy whose parents are constantly having arguments usually revolving around him and their differing views on his upbringing. His mother doesn't want Paul spoiled and keeps him at home to be home-tutored. But without friends Paul has invented an imaginary friend that he says is an actual tiger. Although they humour him at first, his mother is becoming ever more fraught that Paul keeps the pretence up to such an extent that he even steals meat from the fridge to feed his friend. Paul talks to his unseen pal when alone and gathers that the tiger doesn't like the parents much because of their continual bickering. When the parents have finally had enough they go to Paul's bedroom to try and make him understand that he can't possibly have a real tiger in his room - until it attacks them and mauls them both to death. And Paul appears not to be at all concerned as he carries on playing while all the bloodshed is going on around him. Story 2 - Penny Farthing Timothy is the owner of an antique shop who has just taken in a some Victorian belongings of an old uncle called Albert who was a distant relative of his. This includes a photo portrait which he hangs on the wall and a penny-farthing bicycle on its stand. Unseen by him the image in the photo appears to be alive and watching him. Suddenly Tim feels compelled to mount the bike and pedal and finds himself back in the past living the young life of Uncle Albert. Tim finds this a frightening experience and when he returns to the present he attempts to destroy the bike and photo but a fire starts and he still goes back into the past and his past self is horribly burnt leading the locals to think he was struck by lightening. And in the present Tim has gone mad thinking it was he who caused the death of Albert. Story 3 - Mel Brian is out jogging when he comes across part of a fallen tree that he thinks has great ornamental potential and much to his wife Bella's dismay brings it home and installs it in the living room. The tree section's trunk and various branches and offshoots give it an approximation of a human form and Brian names it "Mel" according to a carved inscription he finds on the side. He pays great attention to his acquisition and cleans it up and sands off the bark to give it a smooth skin-like appearance. When not observed the tree shows signs of being alive being able to move its "arms" which possess unsuspected retractable thorns - and it exhibits signs of bristling hostility when Bella gets too close to it. Bella hates the monstrosity that has invaded her room and becomes jealous of the attention her husband is paying to it like she might if he had a mistress. Bella decides Mel has to go and gets a machete and raises it to strike at the tree. We don't see the results of the encounter but Brian does when he comes in and directs a mild rebuke about why she had to go and do that - and he cleans up the mess and dumps it in the forest and then returns and goes to the bedroom - but in bed is not his wife waiting for him but the tree. Story 4 - Luau Auriol Pageant is a literary agent who is eagerly anticipating the arrival from Hawaii of a new client called Mr Kimo and his male assistant Keoki. She persuades her teenage daughter Ginny to help her make a good impression. We are aware that Kimo has made a promise to his elderly mother to help her spirit rest in peace by carrying out a certain unspecified ritual. When Kimo arrives Auriol finds him an attractive man but becomes displeased when he shows greater interest in Ginny and she is pleased that her daughter is off on holiday the next day. But Ginny has fallen for Kimo and before leaving he persuades her to make a secret rendezvous with him in the pool house. We discover Kimo's ritual requires the sacrifice of a maiden and he puts Ginny into a trance and kills her. Then Keoki uses butchery skills to prepare her as meat for a Hawaiian themed party that evening. And at the party amid much genuine ritualising that Auriol believes is just traditional playacting Kimo feeds her with the specially prepared meat of her own daughter whom she thinks is safely away on her holidays. Back to Link Story After relating the details of each case to his visitor Tremayne now is ready to offer up his proof that each story is true and not just the raving inventions of unbalanced minds. He assembles the four patients into a room and watches as they all go into a room to collect an item relating to their case. But his visitor sees nothing happening and regrettably concludes that Tremayne has also gone mad and has him carted away. He then wanders into the next room and is attacked by young Paul's tiger! | |
| Starring: | Link Scenes: Donald Pleasence (as Dr Tremayne), Jack Hawkins (as Dr Nicholas, the visitor) Story 1: Georgia Brown (as Fay Patterson, mother), Donald Houston (as Sam Patterson, father), Russell Lewis (as Paul Patterson, young son), David Wood (as Paul's home tutor) Story 2: Peter McEnery (as Timothy), Suzy Kendall (as Ann/Beatrice, present and past girlfriend), Frank Forsyth (as Uncle Albert photo) Story 3: Joan Collins (as Bella), Michael Jayston (as Brian) Story 4: Kim Novak (as Auriol Pageant), Michael Petrovitch (as Kimo), Mary Tamm (as Ginny, Auriol's daughter), Leon Lissek (as Keoki, Kimo's assistant) |
| Writer: Gerard Vaughan-Hughes / Director: Roddy McDowall / Producers: Alan Ladd Jr, Stanley Mann | |
| Type: Chiller | Running Time: 103 mins |
| A very rich woman in her late 40s called Mrs Michaela Cazaret lives in a country mansion near London where she surrounds herself with a group of young people who want to live a happy uncomplicated lifestyle. Michaela's immense wealth allows her to live her dreams which she shares and enjoys with the young people and is rewarded with the feeling of recapturing her youth amongst them. All her guests feel great feelings of loyalty, warmth and devotion towards her especially Tom Lynn who is her special favourite and shares her bed. Tom genuinely loves her and is not concerned that she is so much older than himself. Occasionally a guest might anger or disappoint Michaela and she will tell them they have to leave which devastates them as they tend to become emotionally dependant on her support.
A girl from the village called Janet Ainsley comes to the mansion to deliver a puppy that has been requested and is bewildered by the array of carefree fun-loving young people she sees. She wonders if the puppy will be properly looked after here or will just be treated as a passing novelty and with a change of heart she asks for a silly amount of money for it hoping for a refusal but Mrs Cazaret immediately agrees to pay what she is asking. Janet is a vicar's daughter who lives a quiet and modest life and finds Michaela to be an extraordinary woman who seems very kind and friendly. Later on in the village while out walking Janet bumps into Tom and something magical passes between them - a feeling of immense attraction which they both give into and they have sex right away outdoors in the countryside. Their activities are observed by Mrs Cazaret's severe and sinister accountant Elroy. Janet and Tom continue to see each other over the coming days and weeks and Tom falls in love with her. Elroy warns him that he ought to be careful because other young men in his favoured position with Mrs Cazaret have met with unfortunate ends in the past if they displease her. Tom tells Michaela that he wants to leave her group but he still feels such intense devotion to her that he requires her blessing to depart. As her special favourite Michaela is not inclined to grant him that emotional release and she questions why he needs to go as he is so happy here with her - but Tom has come to see that he is wasting his life away and begs her to let him go. Tom tells her he really needs to go away to think for a while and then Michaela suddenly turns venomous and tells him she gives him one week and if he hasn't returned she will hunt him down and kill him. Tom is quite taken aback by this sudden change in her but he takes his leave. Janet discovers she is pregnant from that first encounter she had with Tom and feels shame knowing that her father wouldn't understand and seeks help from a village woman who gives her an address in Edinburgh of a doctor she can visit to help her get rid of it. She wants to speak to Tom first but when she goes to the mansion he has already left and she confides her condition to Michaela before leaving. After she has left Michaela becomes angry and tells all her current resident guests she is fed up with them now and they all have to leave immediately. She then has Elroy replace them with a second group of young people who enjoy a different kind of thrill. Tom has been given a message by the lady from the village enabling him to track Janet down in Edinburgh before she has her abortion and they go to stay in a caravan he has by the river. After a few days he suddenly panics realising his week's grace is up and he packs up with the intention of racing back down to London - but Elroy has been following him and he is bundled into a car and forcibly taken back leaving Janet on her own to follow on in her own transport. At the mansion Michaela compels Tom to take a drugged drink which muddles his senses. Then her new group of friends set about a sinister game of "Murder". They give Tom a three minute start to flee outside and then they will all give chase intent on killing him. Michaela tells Tom he has a chance to survive but only a very slim one. As Tom runs away into the surrounding marshy land he is plagued by uncontrollable psychedelic visions of wild beasts attacking him and is not sure what is real or imagined. Janet arrives and tries to help him although he struggles with her too thinking she is an attacker and in the water she has to help him to stop him drowning. As the baying pack of young party guests catch up to him the leader questions Michaela on why the inevitable hasn't happened and it becomes clear that the game was to kill the quarry by means of his own drug induced fear. Janet's intervention and love got through to his addled hallucinating brain and saved him from himself. Michaela realises Tom has beaten the odds and calls off the eager blood-hungry pack thereby releasing Tom from his obligations to her. | |
| Starring: | Ava Gardner (as Michaela Cazaret), Ian McShane (as Tom Lynn), Stephanie Beacham (as Janet Ainsley) |
| Featuring: | Richard Wattis (as Elroy, Michaela's personal secretary), Cyril Cusack (as Vicar Julian Ainsley, Janet's father), David Whitman (as Oliver, group member), Fabia Drake (as Miss Gibson, arranger of abortions) |
| Familiar Faces: | (group members, small roles) Sinéad Cusack, Joanna Lumley, Jenny Hanley, Madeline Smith |
| Starlets: | Pamela Fairbrother, Rosemary Blake, Virginia Tingwell, Delia Lindsay, Linda Marlowe, Yvonne Quenel, Erika Raffael |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the ancient ballad of Tam Lin in which a young man is held in the thrall of the evil queen of the fairies. This modern day version uses a character with the similar sounding name of Tom Lynn. |
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Stephanie Beacham receives an "introducing" credit. |
| The Tamarind Seed (1974) | Previous Next |
| Writer/Director: Blake Edwards / Producer: Ken Wales | |
| Type: Spy Drama | Running Time: 119 mins |
| Judith Farrow is on a solo-holiday in Barbados to take her mind off some recent upset in her life. She lost her husband in a car accident and then embarked on an affair with a married man but found him unwilling to leave his wife and their relationship ended. She is not looking to begin another romance but she nevertheless strikes up a friendship with a charming and charismatic Russian staying at the same hotel. His name is Feodor Sverdlov and he is an attaché to the Russian embassy in Paris. Judith is personal assistant to an important man at the British Home Office and as such has access to confidential material - so she wonders if maybe the handsome Russian is trying to recruit her into passing secrets. However Feodor states his intentions are purely romantic in nature although realises how it might seem because of their occupational positions.
Their respective governments' security services become aware of the contact and begin to scrutinize their national's actions. The British are concerned that Judith may be undergoing a grooming process for passing state secrets; and the Russians are troubled that their man might be trying to defect. Judith and Feodor know how their friendship will be viewed by their political masters and that it cannot continue once they each return home. Back in Moscow Feodor reports his contact with Judith and his endeavours to recruit her through seduction into passing snippets of useful information to him. He persuades his leader to allow him to continue his efforts. Feodor meets up again with Judith in London and openly tells her he is only pretending to try and recruit her so that he can continue to see her. Their relationship becomes stronger and Judith feels she can trust him completely as he is always so honest and open with her. Eventually the situation worsens for Feodor and he is warned not to return to Moscow where he will face arrest for the suspicions he has raised. He requests asylum via Judith and promises the head of MI6, Jack Loder, that he will divulge the identity of a soviet mole within the British establishment who has the codename of Blue. Judith and Feodor return to Barbados to continue with their very real romance and from there Feodor will be flown to the safety of Canada and pass the "Blue" document. The soviet spy called Blue is in fact the British Ambassador in France and he gets wind of his imminent exposure and alerts the soviets. They send some assassins to Barbados to kill Feodor before he can pass over any secrets. The KGB agents firebomb the holiday villa where the lovers are staying. The newspapers report that a top Russian official was killed in a tragic accident and that Judith received some burns. Judith is heartbroken at Feodor's tragic death. Blue is relieved that his identity remains secret with the death of the "traitor". However Jack Loder had extracted Feodor prior to the attack and the Russian is actually now in Canada as planned but even safer than before because his leaders believe him to be dead. Loder now knows Blue's identity but has decided not to arrest him and will instead use him to unwittingly pass false or misleading information to his soviet paymasters. Judith is told that Feodor is still alive and when she has recovered from her injuries she joins him in Canada and they start a new life together. | |
| Comment: Until nearer the end the viewer is left wondering where Feodor's true loyalties lay. Is he playing a clever game trying to really recruit Judith as he is telling his leader; or is he just using that as an excuse to see her as he is telling Judith? The film is full of subterfuge and mistrust on both sides and delves into the personal life of Blue and his wife although for the above summary I've concentrated on the core story only. | |
| Starring: | Julie Andrews (as Judith Farrow), Omar Sharif (as Feodor Sverdlov), Anthony Quayle (as Jack Loder, Head of MI6), Daniel O'Herlihy (as Fergus Stephenson, ambassador), Sylvia Syms (as Margaret Stephenson, ambassador's wife) |
| Featuring: | Bryan Marshall (as George MacLeod, MI6 agent), Oskar Homolka (as General Golitsyn, head of Russian security services), David Baron (as Richard Paterson, security services agent), Celia Bannerman (as Rachel Paterson, Richard's wife), Sharon Duce (as Sandy Mitchell, girlfriend of a Russian ambassador), Kate O'Mara (as Anna Skriabina, Feodor's new secretary), Janet Henfrey (as KGB Embassy Section Head) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the novel by Evelyn Anthony |
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The Tamarind Seed after which the film is named is a Barbadian folk story about an unusually shaped seed that Judith and Feodor hear about while sightseeing and which she finds fascinating - but it is not a hugely significant aspect of the story. |
| Novel: Nicholas Luard / Writer: Michael Russell / Director: Michael E. Briant / Producer: Ron Jones | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 95 mins |
| Bob Steele is an ex-CIA man now living in England who is brought in for questioning on an immigration concern. He is told that certain felonies he committed in the States under orders have now been disavowed and he faces a trial and jail if he is returned to America which is something the British authorities won't hesitate to do if he doesn't assist them in an operation they have in mind for him - and so Bob has little choice but to co-operate. In Tangier, Morocco, a senior communication expert called Velatti in a monitoring station has absconded with certain secret tapes and information and it is believed he is planning on selling the intelligence to the Soviets - he has gone to ground and cannot be located. Bob Steele has been recruited because of his remarkable similarity to a former undercover agent at Tangier station called Ross Callum who was last seen nine years ago and was known to Velatti who has let it be known that Callum is someone that he would be willing to communicate with. Callum himself is dead but this is not publicly known.
Bob arrives in Tangier and soon finds his life threatened by people who held grudges against Callum. He meets head of Tangier section Wedderburn who is directing the efforts in the hunt for the traitor Velatti. Wedderburn tells him that he was not told the entire truth and actually Velatti has a bitter grudge against Callum and Bob is really here to lure him out of hiding when he tries to kill him. Callum's old transport vessel is still being maintained at the dockyard which is run by an old-timer called Donovan and his now-grown up daughter Beth who was fourteen when she last saw Ross and had a crush on him - she and Bob start an affair. Callum used this boat for gun-running and in his undercover role fed information back to the authorities on the smugglers involved. Bob also makes contact with Callum's former lover Louise who knows his true identity but is helping maintain appearances for the authorities. Events mull over for a time until things draw to a conclusion when another attempt is made to attack Bob in town and this time he is abducted and taken to a room where he finds he has been taken by Velatti. But Velatti has a different story entirely to the one told to Bob by the authorities:- in his role as a communication operative Velatti uncovered evidence that a high ranking officer was planing to sell sensitive information to the Soviets. But he did not know who to tell because he could be informing the traitor himself so he took the information and went into hiding and said he would talk to Callum because he had been out of the picture for so long that he couldn't be the traitor. He is now aware that Bob is not Callum but asks for his help in getting out of Tangier. Bob believes him and they make their way to Callum's vessel to transport him to Gibraltar. But at the dock they are attacked by snipers and only just make their getaway. Then in Gibraltar they find Wedderburn waiting for them and he is revealed as the traitor who wants Velatti dead. A final confrontation ensues and Wedderburn is killed while trying to escape. | |
| Starring: | Ronny Cox (as Bob Steele), Billie Whitelaw (as Louise Fraser), Glynis Barber (as Beth Donovan), Ronald Lacey (as Wedderburn, head of Tangier section), Oscar Quitak (as Velatti) |
| Featuring: | Jack Watson (as Donovan, boatyard owner and Beth's father), David Collings (as Major Greville, British officer), Ronald Fraser (as Jenkins, hotel guest) |
| Familiar Faces: | Jesse Birdsall (Naval Rating at Security Centre) |
| aka: Why Would Anyone Want to Kill a Nice Girl Like You? | |
| Writers: Brian Carton, Don Sharp / Director: Don Sharp / Producer: George Willoughby | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 93 mins |
| Jane Kerrell is a young woman from Switzerland on a European holiday. She is driving through France after travelling with her car from England on a cross channel ferry. She has been followed by a white Mercedes ever since she left Boulogne and when she comes to a stretch of mountainous road with a sheer drop along one side the other car attempts to run her off the road to her death. She manages to avert that disaster and makes a complaint to the local French police. She tells them she cannot think of any reason why someone would want to kill her. A psychiatrist called Dr Forla who overheard her complaint in the police station contacts her afterwards and tries to convince her she is imagining that someone is after her and that she is in fact suicidal. Certain odd events then occur that seem to only reinforce his theory - but she is quite certain she is not going mad.
Near her hotel Jane meets a charming British tourist called Paul Hedley who is an artist and is staying in a nearby hotel. He has an understanding nature and makes it his business to help her get to the truth. Jane is then contacted by officers from New Scotland Yard who have been sent to France to interview her. On the same ferry she travelled over on was a man called Maxwell Chalker who was murdered. And beside his body was found a note in which he names her as the person who should be contacted if he were to die with particular reference to her car. He had been a whistleblower employee on his way to deliver some vital information to NATO headquarters. Jane only barely recalls the man in question and tells the police he never told her anything. They search her car and find nothing. Chalker worked for a company that manufactured vital strategic technology which was being illegally leaked to hostile foreign powers and Chalker was going to reveal who the culprit was. The company in question is run by Hannes Josef Beiber who lives nearby and is just as worried about the leak as anyone. He is supported by his able and efficient secretary Miss Barrow and other staff including Dr Forla (the psychiatrist seen earlier). The killings continue as someone with ruthless intent tries to get hold of Jane to question her about what she knows. But the police provide her with security and Jane manages to relax and enjoy her holiday in the company of Paul as they start to get romantic. Eventually the security measures put in place fail and Jane is kidnapped and taken to Beiber's villa where she is questioned by Dr Forla using a truth drug. Beiber is an important man and the police are reluctant to search his villa without any direct proof of wrongdoing. Acting alone Paul Hedley has sudden inspiration and re-searches her car and finds hidden in her carburettor a letter which reveals to him the truth of whom Chalker was going to name. He breaks in to the Beiber estate alone to try to find Jane whom he is now sure must have been taken there. It transpires that Beiber is unaware of what is going on elsewhere in his villa, and the security leak turns out to be his secretary Miss Barrow working in cohorts with Dr Forla and another employee called Alfredo Guardi (who had been the driver of the Mercedes). Paul manages to rescue Jane and alert the police and all the villains are captured or killed. Jane has fallen for Paul during all the excitement of the last few days and even admitted she loves him while still under the influence of the truth drug. They make plans for a future together. | |
| Starring: | Eva Renzi (as Jane Kerrell), David Buck (as Paul Hedley) |
| Featuring: | Peter Vaughan (as Inspector Malling), Paul Hubschmid (as Herr Beiber), Kay Walsh (as Miss Barrow, Beiber's secretary), Francis Matthews (as Mr Breese, NATO investigator), George Pravda (as Dr Forla, psychiatrist), Peter Bowles (as Alfredo Guardi, Mercedes driver) |
| Starlets: | Sophie Hardy (as Michela, French girl at Paul's hotel), Catherine Berg (as Receptionist at Jane's hotel) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the novel Waiting For a Tiger by Ben Healey |
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The version reviewed carried the American title of Why Would Anyone Want to Kill a Nice Girl Like You? |
| Taste of Fear (1961) | Previous Next |
| aka: Scream of Fear | |
| Writer/Producer: Jimmy Sangster / Director: Seth Holt | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 77 mins |
| Penny Appleby arrives in France to come and live with her father and stepmother Jane. Penny has never met Jane and has not seen her father for ten years following her parents divorce after which she went to live with her mother in Italy. Her mother died a few years ago but she continued to live with her best friend Maggie Frencham until a few weeks ago when Maggie drowned in a lake.
Penny is wheelchair-bound following a horse-riding accident nine years beforehand and is very reliant on other people. But she finds Jane to be very friendly, welcoming and helpful giving her a downstairs bedroom and installing ramps into their large villa on the French Riviera. Jane explains that Penny's father is not there because he was suddenly called away on business. Jane finds the handsome chauffeur Bob very helpful and he becomes her confidant saying how odd he found her father's hasty departure in the middle of the night telling only Jane he was going. Penny finds Jane a bit evasive on the subject of when her father is going to return. During the night Penny sees a light on in the summer house and wheels over the courtyard from her bedroom to take a look - inside she sees her father sitting in an armchair dead! She screams and panics and on the way back she wheels into the deep pond and nearly drowns but is saved by Bob. She comes to later being cared for by her father's doctor and friend, Pierre Gerrard - when Penny explains what she was doing they all go to the summer house to take a look but there is no sign of a body. Dr Gerrard manages to persuade her that her recent traumas may have affected her mind and she should take steps to notice the signs and overcome them. Penny decides she does not like Gerrard much and thinks he may be up to something with Jane. Bob later remarks that it was odd that Gerrard was already here when Penny had her accident. Bob has become a dependable rock for Penny and is the only person in the household she feels she can trust and they begin to get romantically involved. The next night Penny sees her father's body again, this time in her own room - but when she goes to fetch Bob the body has gone when they return. Bob believes her because the chair he was supposedly sitting on is wet. Bob speculates that since Penny stands to inherit on her father's will then perhaps her father is already dead and that Jane, possibly with the help of Gerrard, have conspired to make it appear as if Penny is going mad so she will not be considered sound of mind enough to inherit and Jane will get everything instead. While Jane is out shopping Bob agrees to help Penny search the house for where her father's body is being stored so they have evidence to show to the police. They eventually discover his body is being kept at the bottom of the murky pond. Penny waits at the front of the house while Bob gets the car ready so they can go and fetch the police to come and take a look at their discovery. Along the way on a cliff top road Jane flags them down and Bob says he'll have to see what she wants and leaves Penny in the car. After he gets out the car starts rolling and as a panicked and helpless Penny looks over the front seat she finds her father's dead body laying on the front passenger seat as Bob and Jane watch the car go over the steep slope and into the sea below. We then discover that Bob and Jane are in league and this was all part of their plan - when the scheme to send Penny mad was clearly not working they decided she had to die in an accident at the same time as disposing of her father's body and explaining his death away in the same accident. Jane thought her husband had drowned by accident but Bob reveals that it was he who held him under and actually murdered him. Next day the police begin to recover the car from the sea and Bob is asked to attend to identify the car. Meanwhile Jane is visited by her late husband's solicitor to sign some paperwork. Jane asks if there are any legal difficulties involved due to both Penny and her father dying simultaneously in the same accident. The solicitor doesn’t understand what she means because Penny died three weeks before in Switzerland when she drowned herself in a lake! Then back at the accident site the police only find the body of a man - and no sign of a young woman's body. "Penny" returns to the house and reveals to Jane that she is in fact Penny's friend Maggie. After Penny died Maggie had spoken to Penny's father on the phone to tell him the sad news and he had decided not to tell Jane because he had been having marital problems with her. Then a couple of weeks later Maggie opened a letter sent to Penny which was supposedly from her father inviting her to come and live with himself and Jane. Maggie became very suspicions because she knew that Mr Appleby knew fully well his daughter was dead. Maggie contacted Mr Appleby's best friend Dr Gerrard and together they decided to engage in this impersonation to uncover the truth. Jane offers Maggie money to keep quiet but Maggie says she was well provided for in Penny's will and is off now to make a statement to the police. She gets up out of her wheelchair because she is not in fact crippled and that was how she was able to leap unseen to safety from the car before it went over the cliff - and Jane in despair sits on the wheelchair herself on the cliff edge weeping. Soon afterwards Bob returns in a rage that the girl he knows as Penny is still alive and when he sees a woman in a wheelchair on the cliff edge he rushes up and pushes her off not realising until it's too late that it is Jane and not Penny in the chair. Jane falls to her death and Bob is arrested. | |
| Comment: A good film with lots of plot twists and turns in which no one is on the level and is either keeping secrets or feigning identities or loyalties or has hidden nefarious agenda in mind. | |
| Starring: | Susan Strasberg (as Penny Appleby), Ronald Lewis (as Bob, chauffeur), Ann Todd (as Jane Appleby, stepmother), Christopher Lee (as Doctor Pierre Gerrard) |
| Featuring: | John Serret (as Inspector Legrand, French police), Leonard Sachs (as Spratt, solicitor from London), Anne Blake (as Marie, maid), Fred Johnson (as Penny's Father - seen as dead body only) |
| NOTES: | |
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Made in Black and White. |
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The title on the version reviewed was Scream of Fear. |
| A Taste of Honey (1961) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Shelagh Delaney, Tony Richardson / Director/Producer: Tony Richardson | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 96 mins |
| Jo is a teenage girl on the verge of school leaving age who lives with her single mother Helen in Liverpool. They are poor and live in a succession of rented accommodations which they regularly vacate on the sly without paying when the back-rent starts to mount up. Helen is on the look out for a man to marry and keep them in better circumstances. She socialises wildly leaving Jo alone each evening and the two of them are forever arguing and bitter towards one another.
Jo meets a young black sailor called Jimmy who works as a cook on one of the merchant ships at the docks. Over the coming days they get friendly and have a brief affair before his ship departs and he is gone. Helen meets a younger man called Peter who proposes marriage. Jo does not approve of him and makes it clear with her stubborn and truculent behaviour that she does not like him. Peter is equally negative towards Jo's attitude and tells Helen that if they marry then Jo is certainly not going to live with them. Helen has few options and marries Peter leaving Jo to fend for herself. Jo has now left school and found a job as a shopgirl. She rents a flat and soon meets kind and sensitive Geoffrey. He is gay and she gets on with him like he was a sister - and because he currently has nowhere to live she lets him stay with her. Jo soon discovers she is pregnant from her liaison with sailor Jimmy. She is very anxious about becoming a mother and not sure she'll be able to cope but Geoffrey helps her organise everything and make all the preparations and even offers to marry her if she wants and become the baby's father. Further into her pregnancy Helen comes back into her life having been unaware of her daughter's condition because Jo didn't want her to know. Helen and Peter's marriage did not last and he cast her off for a younger woman and so she has nowhere to go except stay with Jo. Helen moves in and immediately disapproves of the cosy relationship Jo has with Geoffrey and declares that now she is here he need not remain. Jo insists that he stay as well but Geoffrey realises he is no longer required and slinks off leaving mother and daughter to resume their bellicose life as before. | |
| Comment: The film ends before the baby is born. | |
| Starring: | Rita Tushingham (as Jo), Dora Bryan (as Helen, Jo's mother), Murray Melvin (as Geoffrey Ingham), Robert Stephens (as Peter Smith, Helen's fancy man) |
| Featuring: | Paul Danquah (as Jimmy, sailor) |
| NOTES: | |
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Made in Black and White |
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Adapted from the play by Shelagh Delaney |
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Rita Tushingham receives an "introducing" credit |
| Writer: John Elder / Director: Peter Sasdy / Producer: Aida Young | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 91 mins |
| Set in the early years of the 20th century. In a prologue set a few years before the film's main story we see a travelling English salesman called Weller as he journeys in Germany. One evening he finds himself in the middle of nowhere in a forest where he wanders as dusk approaches and hears some fearsomely ungodly moaning. Although terrified he follows it to its source and is confronted by the sight of Count Dracula on the verge of dying with a large crucifix piercing his body. As Weller watches aghast Dracula crumbles to dust and his blood oozes over a rock and turns into red powder. Weller collects the powder and the other relics of Dracula's existence:- his cape, ring, and broach. End of prologue.
In England in a small church-going community three respectable middle-aged family men called Hargood, Paxton and Secker have a dark secret. Once a month while claiming to be engaged in charitable work they get together and travel to an East End mission house. But this is actually a front for a high-class bordello where the men enjoy the company of exotic women and unusual entertainment. However the trio of thrill-seekers have begun to find the entertainment dull and they crave something new. On their latest visit to the bordello they meet the arrogant and haughty Lord Courtley who gets their measure and understands their need for exciting experiences and he suggests they participate in a black mass and sell their very souls to the devil. Although a bit cautious of the idea at first they are intrigued enough to agree. Courtley tells them they need to purchase some important relics for the ceremony he has in mind and takes them to salesman Weller's shop (the man in the prologue). For a large sum of money the three men pool together to buy Dracula's relics. Courtley arranges the black mass at a remote abandoned gothic crypt and gives each of them a goblet containing a dusting of Dracula's powdered blood. Courtley adds to this a drop of his own blood which causes the vessels to bubble up and fill to the brim with blood and then he tells the men to drink it for the ceremony. But the three men become too spooked and balk at the prospect and refuse. To show them what is required Courtley takes a drink himself but he almost immediately chokes and falls down dead. The three men flee leaving Courtley's body where it fell - and unseen by them after they have gone the body becomes cocooned by dust from which emerges the reborn Count Dracula! The evil vampire swears vengeance on the three men for causing the death of his servant Courtley. Each man has grown up children and Dracula targets these young adults to take his revenge. First Dracula uses his powers to mesmerise Hargood's daughter Alice and causes her to kill her father. In the events that follow Paxton's daughter Lucy and Secker's son Jeremy are turned into vampires and although the two remaining fathers seek to stop the evil that has been mounted against them they too are killed by the actions of their children. Finally Alice's boyfriend Paul mounts an effort to save her as she is still a mesmerised human and not vampirised. In the church crypt in a final battle with Dracula, and armed with religious artefacts, Paul manages to defeat the dark lord and Alice is released from her thrall as Dracula turns to dust once more. | |
| Starring: | Christopher Lee (as Count Dracula) (The three men) Geoffrey Keen (as William Hargood), Peter Sallis (as Samuel Paxton), John Carson (as Jonathon Secker) (The young adults) Linda Hayden (as Alice Hargood), Anthony Corlan (as Paul Paxton), Isla Blair (as Lucy Paxton), Martin Jarvis (as Jeremy Secker) |
| Featuring: | Ralph Bates (as Lord Courtley), Gwen Watford (as Martha Hargood, wife), Roy Kinnear (as Weller, salesman), Michael Ripper (as Inspector Cobb), Russell Hunter (as Felix, Bordello proprietor) |
| Starlets: | Shirley Jaffe (as Hargood's Maid) (Bordello girls) Madeline Smith (as Dolly - credited as Maddy Smith), Lai Ling (as Chinese girl), Malaika Martin (as Snake girl, dancer) - and uncredited:- June Palmer, Amber Blare, Vicky Gillespie |
| NOTES: | |
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Although Christopher Lee is listed as the top-billed star he actually only makes a few short appearances in the film and then in the final scene. So although he remains listed above as the star it is more of a star-turn role really. |
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This Hammer Horror follows on directly from Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968) with the death that the salesman witnesses in this film's prologue being the death scene from the previous film. The next film in the series was Scars of Dracula (1970). |
| Tell Me Lies (1968) | Previous Next |
| Writer/Director/Producer: Peter Brook | |
| Type: Documentary | Running Time: 109 mins |
| Mark Jones is a man who is horrified by the human suffering caused by the American war in Vietnam and sets about investigating for himself the issues surrounding the conflict by attending rallies and demonstrations and having debates with politicians; and audiences with Buddhist monks. He seeks to try to understand whether the suffering of others is justified for the greater long-term good in the battle against the rise of communism and whether he is normal to feel so appalled by the images of maimed locals he sees printed in magazines. | |
| Comment: This is essentially a documentary about how the Vietnam war is viewed by the British people and was made whilst the conflict was still being waged. Actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company play the parts of many of the speakers intermixed with some genuine documentary footage. There is no underlying story to accompany the examination of the issues and after a while it becomes rather dull to watch. Mark Jones is an actor playing "himself" as a character and using his own name in the film. | |
| Starring: | Mark Jones (as Mark Jones), Pauline Munro (as Mark's wife) |
| Featuring: | (The rest of the participants as listed in the opening credits have lesser roles - some are playing characters, others are themselves [as characters], and others are themselves [as themselves]. Here is a small selection picking out the more well-known names) Glenda Jackson (as anti-war speaker), Ian Hogg, Kingsley Amis, Peggy Ashcroft, Paul Scofield, Marjie Lawrence, Leon Lissek, Henry Woolf |
| NOTES: | |
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Although not a strict documentary it seems more applicable to classify it as that than a drama. |
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Based on the Aldwych Theatre Stage Production of "US" directed by Peter Brook with original text by Denis Cannan. Adaptation of documentary material by Michael Kustow and Michael Scott |
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Some (non-archive footage) scenes are in black and white and others in colour often with no seemingly good reason for the switch |
| The Tempest (1979) | Previous Next |
| Screen Adaptation: Derek Jarman / Director: Derek Jarman / Producers: Guy Ford, Mordecai Shreiber | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 91 mins |
| Prospero is an exiled nobleman from Naples who has lived in an old castle abbey on a remote island for well over ten years ever since his enforced banishment at the hands of his deceitful brother Antonio and the king of Naples. Prospero shares the abbey with his daughter Miranda who has grown from a child to a young woman during this time and is therefore unknowing of men; and their demented slave Caliban who lives in fear and hatred of his master and is only tolerated by Prospero and Miranda for the menial tasks he performs.
Prospero is versed in magic and has conjured forth a dispossessed spirit called Ariel to serve him. Opportunistically all of Prospero's hated enemies are voyaging nearby and Prospero commands Ariel conjure up a storm that will shipwreck his foes with him on this isle. Prospero intends to inflict upon them his fitting revenge. First ashore is the king's son Ferdinand who believes himself to be the only survivor of the tempest that overcame them. Prospero imprisons him at the castle and sets him laborious tasks. However Miranda finds the young man fascinating and falls in love with him and a romance ensues. The king and Antonio follow later in a lifeboat and come under Prospero's power. With his enemies at his mercy Prospero decides he will let them leave if Miranda and Ferdinand are permitted to marry and he is returned to his rightful position in society. The king agrees and Prospero forgives them for the injustice that was done him. Then Prospero wakes up and is all alone in the castle abbey. | |
| Comment: The ending is a bit unclear. Did Prospero dream it ALL or did everyone simply leave while he was asleep? If the prior events were all a dream it is therefore uncertain if even Miranda was ever a real cohabitant of his exile. | |
| Starring: | Heathcote Williams (as Prospero), Toyah Willcox (as Miranda, Prospero's daughter), Karl Johnson (as Ariel, dispossessed spirit), Jack Birkett (as Caliban, Prospero's servant), David Meyer (as Ferdinand, king's son) |
| Featuring: | Peter Bull (as Alonso, King of Naples), Neil Cunningham (as Sebastian, clergyman, king's brother), Richard Warwick (as Antonio, Prospero's brother), Christopher Biggins (as Stephano, shipwrecked cook), Peter Turner (as Trinculo, shipwrecked companion of Stephano), Ken Campbell (as Gonzalo, king's councillor), Elisabeth Welch (as Singer), Claire Davenport (as Sycorax, grotesque witch, [one scene cameo]), Helen Wellington-Lloyd and Angela Whittingham (as Dwarf spirits) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the play by William Shakespeare |
| The Tempter (1975) | Previous Next |
| aka: The Devil Is a Woman | |
| Writers: Damiano Damiani, Fabrizio Onofri, Audrey Nohra / Director: Damiano Damiani / Producer: Anis Nohra | |
| Type: European / Drama | Running Time: 101 mins |
| Rodolfo Solina is a writer specialising in historical events and whilst in Rome he is approached by a priest called Monsignor Badinsky who is impressed by his efficient and honest writing style that reads as if he were presenting a case in a courtroom. Badinsky has an important historical work he would like documented and is willing to pay Rodolfo well for his time. Rodolfo agrees to have a look and Badinsky takes him to a large convent that is used by the Vatican as a religious hostel for dignitaries who are visiting with the Pope as well as having a number of permanent residents of which Monsignor Badinsky is one.
Rodolfo is taken to meet the civilian administrator of the convent called Senorita Emilia Contrera who runs the clerical side of the establishment on behalf of its founder, Sister Geraldine. Emilia is efficient at her job but not very interested in engaging in small talk with Rodolfo. He notices she is a highly attractive woman but she goes to efforts to make herself look plain. Rodolfo is given a room at the hostel and expects to be there for a month. Badinsky explains that the job is to write his memoirs. He is Polish and was accused in the Second World War of being a Nazi collaborator and despite repeated applications to the Vatican for an audience with the Pope to explain his case he is forever being turned down and he now wants to document his version of events in a clear and accurate way so that it can be read as part of his next application. Rodolfo meets the other regular residents of the convent. They all have stories to tell and are in some way outcasts from society who have sought refuge from the world in this place although they are free to leave whenever they choose. Rodolfo meets Sister Geraldine who is in overall charge of the convent and of whom he has discovered everyone seems to be in awe. He finds her a coolly efficient woman who is very forceful in her views of what she thinks is best for the people in her care - although Rodolfo feels she is missing the point with a number of her charges who would be better served with a different approach. She finds his ideas unorthodox and hopes he won't try to interfere. Even Emilia has her special reasons for being there - she is half-English/Bolivian and the man she married was an officer in the Bolivian political police force whose job it was to torture prisoners. She had fallen in love with a revolutionary and when she discovered he was to be arrested she warned him and he managed to evade capture. She was arrested and sentenced to death but the church stepped in and gave her sanctuary here asking for nothing in return from her other than her repentance. Emilia is a highly sexual woman but maintains a self-disciplined abstinence although she is unable to prevent herself from self-gratification at times. Over the forthcoming days and weeks as Rodolfo works on the manuscript he becomes part of the social group and he and Emilia start to feel an attraction and fall into a sexual relationship and Emilia experiences great joy at having sex with a man again. She becomes rebellions towards Geraldine and voices her dislike of her and her controlling ways. Sister Geraldine behaves very harshly towards Emilia embarrassing her in a group counselling session and many of the regulars think Geraldine went too far and have come to the decision that they have had enough of this place and it is time for them to move on with their lives. Sister Geraldine begins to think that some terrible shadow has been cast that is determined to destroy them. The cosy safe unit of people to whom she has become so used is disintegrating with the leavers, an earlier death, and some changes of emphasis being imposed on her by the Vatican higher echelons who have expressed their dissatisfaction with the way she runs the hostel. She is mindful of the fact that it all started to go wrong since the arrival of Rodolfo and his unorthodox outside views. Rodolfo and Badinsky complete their work and the writer prepares to leave. Emilia decides it is time for her to go too and she leaves with him. They move into an apartment together where she finds Rodolfo's tolerance of all things perplexing and infectious which she says is destroying her faith. She has a need to punish herself and when one day he comes home he finds she has been having sex with the smelly caretaker so she can punish her body with his filth. Soon after that Emilia runs out on him and he is unable to find her. It is three months since his time in the convent and Rodolfo goes back to visit with Sister Geraldine to see if she has heard from Emilia. He is invited in to the convent and is amazed to find things back to normal just as they had been when he first arrived those months past. Other than the one who died, all the departed regulars who had seemed so adamant they were ready to move on with their lives have returned. And Emilia is there too back in her old job and seemingly content with her lot again. He doesn’t try to get her to leave with him as he can see she's back where she really belongs. Sister Geraldine tells him there is always a place here for him if he wants it and he leaves finding the whole situation highly amusing. | |
| Starring: | Claudio Cassinelli (as Rodolfo Solina), Glenda Jackson (as Sister Geraldine), Lisa Harrow (as Emilia), Arnoldo Foà (as Monsignor Badinsky) |
| Featuring: | Adolfo Celi (as Father Borelli), Francisco Rabal (as Bishop Marquez), Gabriele Lavia (as Prince Ottavio), Enrico Ribulsi (as Professor Villa) |
| Starlets: | Ely Galeani, Adele Sperati |
| NOTES: | |
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This Italian film has been reviewed here because of the involvement of British actresses Glenda Jackson and Lisa Harrow. Its Italian title is Il Sorriso del grande tentatore. The title on the version reviewed was The Tempter. |
| 10 Rillington Place (1971) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Clive Exton / Director: Richard Fleischer / Producers: Leslie Linder, Martin Ransohoff | |
| Type: Crime Drama | Running Time: 106 mins |
| In London's Notting Hill district in 1944 during the war John Christie works as a special constable and is considered as an upstanding citizen. But he secretly harbours a twisted compulsion to have sex with women he has just killed. He has a knack of gaining a woman's confidence claiming rudimentary medical knowledge that he says he was training for before the war. But under the guise of providing pain relief he gasses his victims and then strangles and has sex with them before hiding their bodies in his back yard at 10 Rillington Place.
After the war opportunities to act on his compulsion do not arise so easily and we next rejoin the story in 1949 when the upstairs flat at 10 Rillington Place is rented by a young couple called Timothy and Beryl Evans with their baby daughter Geraldine. Tim is not a bright man and he is forever inventing tall-tales for his mates in the pub. His temper is easily raised and he and Beryl are frequently heard having furious rows about the poor state of their finances. Beryl becomes pregnant again but they don't know how they'll be able to afford another baby and Beryl tries some drugs to make herself abort although these are ineffective. John Christie in the downstairs flat where he lives with his wife Ethel sees an opportunity and offers to help saying he has experience in such matters of terminating pregnancies - and such is their desperation that the Evanses put their trust in him since he sounds knowledgeable and is risking arrest on their behalf should he be discovered performing this illegal procedure. Tim goes to work as normal and Christie starts his procedure on Beryl - but his intention all along is to renew his compulsive desires to kill and have sex and he proceeds to gas and kill her - having to hit her hard several times to finally subdue her. When Tim gets home he is met by Christie giving him the shock news that Beryl did not survive the termination procedure and is dead. Tim wants to go to the police but Christie manipulates him to an extent that the distraught Tim believes he is complicit in the death because he knew that Christie was going to perform the procedure. He tells Tim that the police would believe Beryl's death was murder caused by Tim's known violent temper against her. Christie says he will however help Tim by quietly disposing of her body down a drain but Tim must immediately pack and leave town for a while so that Christie can tell everyone that he and Beryl have gone away on holiday. Christie says he knows a couple in East Acton who will look after the baby Geraldine for him while he's away. Tim leaves in the night as per the plan - then Christie goes upstairs and strangles the baby too and hides both bodies in his garden shed. After a few days Tim's conscience gets the better of him and he goes to the police saying he disposed of his wife's body down a drain thinking that's what Christie must have done by now and he has no idea his baby is dead - he leaves Christie's name out of it not wishing to implicate him. When the police cannot find a body in the drain he starts telling the truth about Christie. But he has changed his story too many times and is not found very credible. While searching around at Rillington Place the police easily find the (intentionally) not very well hidden body of Beryl and the baby in the shed and arrest Tim for murder. Tim is shocked to discover his baby is dead too and in his distraught state he agrees that he is responsible which is taken as a confession. At his trial Tim finds all the circumstances stacked against him by Christie's clever lies and manipulations and he is found guilty of murder and hanged shortly afterwards in March 1950. Christie hits hard times over the next few years unable to work through back problems. He continues killing several more times including his wife Ethel who had become too aware of what he had done during the Evans case. Eventually he moves out of Rillington Place and new tenants make the gruesome discoveries of the various dead bodies hidden around the house behind papered over wall cavities and under the floorboards. Christie is arrested and is himself hanged in 1953. | |
| Starring: | Richard Attenborough (as John Christie), John Hurt (as Timothy Evans), Judy Geeson (as Beryl Evans), Pat Heywood (as Ethel Christie) |
| Featuring: | Isobel Black (as Alice, Beryl's friend), Phyllis MacMahon (as Muriel Eady, victim), Gabrielle Daye (as Tim's Aunt), Jimmy Gardner (as Tim's uncle), Edward Evans (as Detective Inspector), Tenniel Evans (as Detective Sergeant), André Morell (as Judge), Robert Hardy (as Malcolm Morris, defence barrister), Geoffrey Chater (as Christmas Humphreys, prosecution barrister) |
| Familiar Faces: | Rudolph Walker (new tenant discovering bodies) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on Ludovic Kennedy's non-fiction book Ten Rillington Place describing these real-life events. The book which was published in 1961 raised serious doubts on the guilt of Timothy Evans and an ensuing official inquiry resulted in Evans receiving a posthumous pardon in 1966. |
| Tendre Dracula (1974) | Previous Next |
| aka: Vampire | |
| Writers: (see below) / Director: Pierre Grunstein / Executive Producer: Jérôme Kanapa | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 85 mins |
| The version of the film reviewed was in its original French with no subtitles. This review is therefore a sketchy interpretation of what seemed to be going on based mostly on the visuals alone.
Two struggling scriptwriters called Alfred and Boris have a meeting with a film producer who promises them some work providing they can persuade the celebrated actor MacGregor to play a part. MacGregor was once famous for playing vampire roles but has retired from the acting profession. Alfred and Boris, together with their girlfriends Marie and Madeleine, set off to visit MacGregor's home. The actor lives in an eerie gothic castle and appears to still live and dress the part of the Count Dracula character. He lives with a woman called Héloïse and a servant called Abélard. At first MacGregor is furious at the intrusion into his private life and rants at them, but he soon calms down and becomes the genial host. Over dinner MacGregor tells of his humble beginnings as a gypsy who learned his skills of acting as a way of surviving the prejudices against his kinfolk. At night there are eerie goings on and the two writers start searching the castle. Some people appear to get killed although these turn out to be hoaxes. In the end Héloïse seems to flip and capture Marie and Alfred in the dungeons where she subjects them to torture using her collection of medieval devices. She seems to be doing this for MacGregor who is laying nearby seemingly dead on a slab. But then he reawakens and develops a bloodlust after seeing the bloody wounds inflicted upon their prisoners. Then the prisoners are unexpectedly released and it seems like the two hosts have being playing a game on their guests by behaving in such an eerie and menacing way. Then the film producer arrives with a crew and starts filming whatever is happening to get some footage for his film. But this develops into chaos when the film crew proceed to have an orgy and the producer tries to salvage something by getting that on film. MacGregor and Héloïse look in through the window at the goings-on and think it to be very odd behaviour. Meanwhile down in the basement the servant Abélard is over-stoking the boiler and the castle begins to shake and crumble and in the end it blows up - presumably killing all the characters in the film. THE END | |
| Starring: | Peter Cushing (as MacGregor, vampire actor), Bernard Menez (as Alfred), Stephane Shandor (as Boris), Miou-Miou (as Marie), Nathalie Courval (as Madeleine), Alida Valli (as Héloïse, MacGregor's companion) |
| Featuring: | Percival Russel (as Abélard, MacGregor's manservant), Julien Guiomar (as Film producer) |
| Starlets: | Brigitte De Borghese (as Film producer's secretary) |
| NOTES: | |
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Writing credits: Scenario et Dialogues: Justin Lenoir; Adaptation: Harold Brav, Justin Lenoir and Pierre Grunstein |
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The version reviewed carried the title "Vampire". The soundtrack and all the credits were in the original French. It is reviewed here because of the starring role for Peter Cushing. Its original French title was "Tendre Dracula". The word "Tendre" could mean either "Tender", "Affectionate" or "New". After watching the film the word "New" seems the only one that would really be appropriate. |
| Writer: David McGillivray / Director: Norman J. Warren / Producers: Richard Crafter, Les Young | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 79 mins |
| Prologue. The story starts in the 17th century where a young woman is being hunted down by villagers for being a witch. When she is caught she is tied to a stake and set alight and she calls upon her master Satan to help her. The lord and lady of the manor witness her death and in particular Lady Garrick fixes her with a steely gaze as this thorn in her side is finally removed. But back at their house the spectre of the witch manifests and kills them both issuing a curse upon the Garrick family and all their descendants. Then THE END appears on the screen and we find that what we have actually been watching is a movie being shown in the present day.
The film's producer is James Garrick who has made a screen drama of his family history which he is giving a private viewing of to his friends at a party at his ancestral home. Also present is Ann Garrick, a cousin whom James has only recently met for the first time - they represent the last members of the Garrick line. During the party a light-hearted hypnotism stunt goes wrong when Ann volunteers to be the subject - but after she goes under she cannot be roused and in a trance-like state tries to kill James until she is jolted out of it. She had no idea what she was doing and can't explain it. From here on various violent murders occur of people Ann knows. She lives in a hostel for young actresses and they all begin to have scary encounters some of which turn out to be harmless and others murderous. James and his friend Phillip at their film studio also experience strange happenings and deaths. This pattern of events fills the rest of the movie with false-scares and violent killings until eventually back at the Garrick house James is killed in an accident and then the 17th century witch re-appears and murders Ann. Curse fulfilled! | |
| Comments: The story ultimately makes little sense and certain things are never explained. One glaring story anomaly is that the witch in "real life" is the same witch who was burnt at the stake in the movie that James made of his family history - even though that movie witch would have just been a present-day actress playing the part. And also despite the witch's curse of eliminating the Garrick family line she seems very free and easy of who else she kills including their friends and even a policeman investigating one of the deaths. | |
| Starring: | John Nolan (as James Garrick), Carolyn Courage (as Ann Garrick), James Aubrey (as Phillip, James' friend), Sarah Keller (Suzy, hostel actress), Tricia Walsh (Viv, hostel actress) |
| Featuring: | Glynis Barber (as Carol Tucker), Michael Craze (as Gary), Patti Love (as The Witch), Mary Maude (as Lady Garrick, prologue), William Russell (as Lord Garrick, prologue) |
| Starlets: | Rosie Collins (Diane, hostel actress), Tanya Ferowa (as Nightclub Stripper), Cleo Rocos (uncredited party guest) |
| NOTES: | |
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There is an in-joke name in the end-credits "L E Mack as Mad Dolly". This has led some to think that Mad Dolly is the name of the Witch whose name is never actually mentioned in the dialogue. In fact the witch is the actress Patti Love and is therefore called "Hannah" according to the credits. "Mad Dolly" refers to the camera dolly which gains a murderous life of its own in one scene - and LE Mack (or something pronounced like that) is the name such a dolly is given. |
| aka: Raptus The Secret of Dr. Hichcock | |
| Writer: Julyan Perry / Director: Robert Hampton / Producer: Louis Mann | |
| Type: European / Chiller | Running Time: 83 mins |
| Starting in London in 1885. Professor Bernard Hichcock is a surgeon at University College Hospital. He is a strong supporter of the use of anaesthetics because of the way it slows down the metabolism to make previously impossible operational procedures practical - although quite how it works is not fully understood.
Dr Hichcock lives in a large townhouse which he shares with his wife Margaretha and their austere housekeeper Martha. When Dr Hichcock gets home at night after a tiring day he seeks gratification from his wife with a fetish they both enjoy. He administers an anaesthetic injection to her which brings her to a point of near unconscious. She finds this state exhilarating and he feels overwhelming excitement to be able to do as he will with her utterly helpless body. Housekeeper Martha is tacitly aware of her employee's predilections and always gets things ready for them without comment. One evening Dr Hichcock decides to increase the dosage in a bid to boost the pleasure they both experience - but unfortunately Margaretha's body goes into shock and she is declared dead. Margaretha is quickly laid to rest in a coffin in the family crypt beneath the house. Dr Hichcock is so distressed by his loss that he decides to depart London leaving Martha to keep the house in order. Twelve years later Dr Hichcock returns to London to resume his residence and restart his career at the hospital. He has a new young wife called Cynthia who has recently suffered from a nervous condition following close family bereavements - but with Dr Hichcock's help has now recovered. Nevertheless she has an uneasy feeling about the house and wishes that her new husband hadn't insisted they come to live here with the ever-present reminders of his previous wife abounding in portraits. At night Cynthia thinks she hears strange noises and a woman's scream but her worries are dismissed by Hichcock as a mild relapse of her condition. Only her husband's friendly and sympathetic younger colleague Dr Kurt Lowe seems to show any consideration for her concerns and he tells her to come to her if she ever needs his help. As the days go on Cynthia's alarm increases and she begins to feel distrustful of her new husband who has become very distant towards her. Dr Hichcock's unusual desires have begun to re-emerge and at the hospital he feels himself drawn to the corpse of a recently deceased young woman patient - and it is only the chance of discovery that holds him back. Back at home he mixes Cynthia a lethal drink which he tells her will help her to sleep - and then he heads off to work. He returns later expecting to find her dead but in fact she has taken the drink to Kurt for analysis after becoming suspicious. Kurt says he'll let her know the results later. Back home again Dr Hichcock lets all pretence end and begins preparing for her demise. Cynthia goes home to pack but when she sees what her husband is planning she feints. She wakes in a coffin in the crypt but manages to get free. She is confronted by a mad cackling woman whom she discovers is none other than Margaretha! Hichcock's first wife did not die but her metabolism had been slowed so much by the drugs that it seemed as though she had. She eventually had awoken only to find herself trapped in a coffin in a dark and sealed crypt. Hichcock had by now departed and by the time Martha discovered her the poor woman had gone mad. Martha continued to secretly care for her for many years. When Dr Hichcock eventually discovered his beloved Margaretha was still alive he returned with a young pawn who wouldn't be missed with the intention of using her fresh young blood to restore his first wife's health and beauty. Meanwhile Kurt has discovered that the drink Cynthia left with him was heavily laden with poison and he rushes to the townhouse to warn her. Kurt breaks in and sees that Hichcock is about to slit Cynthia's throat. He fights with the madly determined doctor and in the struggle a candle topples and starts a fire. Hichcock falls to his death and Margaretha is consumed by the raging fire. Kurt manages to get Cynthia out to safety and her nightmarish ordeal is over. | |
| Comment: It is not quite clear at what stage Dr Hichcock learned of his first wife's survival and therefore how much he pre-planned Cynthia's narrowly avoided fate - so some of the italicised text in the penultimate paragraph is speculative. | |
| Starring: | Robert Flemyng (as Professor Bernard Hichcock), Barbara Steele (as Cynthia Hichcock, second wife), Harriet White (as Martha, the housekeeper), Montgomery Glenn (as Dr Kurt Lowe) |
| Featuring: | Teresa Fitzgerald (as Margaretha Hichcock, first wife) |
| NOTES: | |
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This is an Italian film reviewed here because it starred British actors Robert Flemyng and Barbara Steele and was set in London. The version reviewed carried the title Raptus The Secret of Dr. Hichcock and had English language dubbing. The original Italian title was L'Orribile segreto del Dr. Hichcock. |
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There is a kind of sequel film called The Ghost (1963) which also stars Barbara Steele and has a character called Dr Hichcock. But there is no direct story connection. That other film is set about a decade later in Scotland and Hichcock's name is "John" instead of "Charles". Barbara Steele is Hichcock's wife again but with a different first name |
| The Terrornauts (1967) | Previous Next |
| Writer: John Brunner / Director: Montgomery Tully / Producers: Max J. Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky | |
| Type: Sci-Fi | Running Time: 76 mins |
| Dr Joe Burke is in charge of a small privately funded scientific project named "Star Talk" whose purpose is to scan electromagnetic waves from space for signs of intelligent life. Burke and his colleagues Ben Keller and Sandy Lund are housed in a purpose built cabin near the radio telescope to which they are granted limited access to listen for signals from the stars. The observatory manager Dr Henry Shore resents the valuable dish time he has to allocate to Project Star Talk which after several years has produced no results and he feels the dish antenna could be better employed on a more worthwhile project. Shore tells Burke that he has recommended his project be closed down and gives them three months notice of termination.
Burke is devastated because the search for intelligent life on other worlds has been his vocation ever since he was a young boy who visited his uncle's archaeological dig in France and discovered an anachronistic black box made of unknown material which caused him to dream of a strange other planet. Burke is convinced there are other intelligent beings out there in the galaxy which he knows he will find if he is given long enough to search. Soon afterwards they unexpectedly get a modulated signal from space which is repeated. Burke knows this is that singular moment he has been waiting for all this time because it is the same signal he heard in his childhood dream. The signal appears to be emanating for the asteroid belt and Burke wants to prove it by using the radio telescope to send a signal back and see if they get a reply. This takes some time to prepare as they need to buy new equipment and an auditor called Joshua Yellowlees arrives from their funding body, the Holmes Foundation, to monitor their expenditure. When they are at last ready they send out a signal not knowing what to expect. On the target asteroid there is a base and when it receives their broadcast an automatic response is triggered and a space ship is launched. Back on Earth the three scientists are waiting anxiously for a response in their cabin along with the auditor and a tea lady called Mrs Jones on her rounds, when suddenly their cabin is bodily pulled from its foundations with them inside and drawn up into the sky and into the hold of a large spaceship. Once inside the ship it swiftly conveys them to the asteroid base. The five humans look around but encounter no life forms on the base other than a robotic device which leads them around. They are given a set of tests and challenges and Burke realises that their intelligence level is being assessed. Once their ability to understand has been established they are allowed access to the base's knowledge banks and discover the shocking truth behind their abduction. The beings who built this base had been highly advanced peace-loving explorers whose only goal was to communicate with other races and enrich their knowledge. But they had the misfortune to encounter a ruthless and warlike race whose only impulse was to destroy civilisations different to their own. The builders were forced to develop terrible weapons to fight the warmongers whom they named the "Enemy". Once the initial battles against the Enemy were won, they built defensive fortresses, such as this one, to stand sentry over other more primitive civilisations whom the Enemy may one day attack. The original fortress personnel have long since died out but the automatic systems remained operational and when the fortress detected the Enemy approaching Earth it sent out a warning signal. When it received a reply it brought the responding humans here to man the base and activate the offensive measures. Burke and his colleagues quickly learn how the fortresses weapons work and launch missiles against the fleet of approaching Enemy ships. They eventually manage to destroy all the warships but the last one crashes into the base triggering a series of devastating explosions. The base is facing total destruction and the five humans are trapped with no way to return to Earth using the ship that brought them here. But fortunately the base is equipped with a teleportation device and Burke manages to program it for Earth and they escape having saved their planet from a terrible fate. | |
| Starring: | Simon Oates (as Dr Joe Burke, project leader), Stanley Meadows (as Ben Keller, Burke's colleague), Zena Marshall (as Sandy Lund, scientist's assistant), Charles Hawtrey (as Joshua Yellowlees, auditor), Patricia Hayes (as Mrs Jones, tealady) |
| Featuring: | Max Adrian (as Dr Henry Shore, observatory boss), Frank Barry (as Young Joe Burke, flashback scene), Frank Forsyth (as Joe's archaeologist uncle in flashback), Richard Carpenter and Leonard Cracknell (as Observatory control room operators), André Maranne (as Gendarme) |
| NOTES: | |
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From the novel The Wailing Asteroid by Murray Leinster. |
| Writers: Gérard Brach, Roman Polanski, John Brownjohn / Director: Roman Polanski / Producer: Claude Berri | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 164 mins |
| Set in the latter part of the 1800s in the county of Wessex. Teresa (Tess) Durbeyfield is the demure teenage daughter in a poor farming family in the village of Marlott. Her father John scrapes a living for his family never expecting much of life and knowing his place. Until one day he is told by an antiquarian that his family are direct descendents of the once great family line of D'urbeyvilles founded in the time of William The Conqueror. Unfortunately in more recent times the family declined and the name has all but died out. John is elated to think he is heir to a great heritage and even though it changes nothing of his circumstances he takes every opportunity to brag about being one of the gentlefolk at the local tavern.
John feels sure there must be some way to capitalise on their family name to save them from their financial hardships. He knows of an old lady in a neighbouring district who goes by the name of D'Urberville and seems well-to-do with a big estate. John decides to send his daughter Tess along for a visit and use their family connection to appeal for some help with buying a new horse. Tess is a proud person who finds the idea of begging distasteful but agrees to go along for the sake of her family. Tess arrives at the D'Urberville home and meets Alec D'Urberville who is the son of Mrs D'Urberville and runs the estate on her behalf. Tess shyly explains her reasons for coming and Alec is very understanding. However he tells her that his family are not real D'Urbervilles and only purchased the extinguished name. Alec is a womaniser and fancies his chances with this beautiful and refreshingly naïve young visitor. So to keep her nearby he offers her work on the farm to help with her family's finances. Tess begins work at the poultry farm and soon finds herself subject to Alec's continual seductive attention. Tess is a respectable girl with strong fortitude that belies her unassuming nature and she gives Alec no encouragement. Alec genuinely likes her and cannot understand her coy reluctance to show him some kindness. Alec does not force himself on her but uses every trick he can to loosen her resolve. He even buys her parents the horse they needed to show how generous he is hoping to manipulate her feelings towards him. Eventually one night when he is riding her home his passions rise as he is comforting her to keep her warm and a slight response from her is all that is needed for him to impose himself on her. After that, Alec wants them to have a proper relationship and buys her presents and tries to romance her correctly but Tess is not interested and leaves the farm to go back home despite Alec pleading for her to stay. She discovers she is pregnant and has a baby boy. But it is poorly and soon dies. Tess is ashamed of herself and is convinced she is now a bad and tainted person with her life in ruins. Tess leaves home again to work on a dairy farm as a milkmaid. All the girls there fancy a serene and courteous parson's son called Angel Clare who is working an apprenticeship at the farm - but although he could have his pick of the girls there, he largely keeps to himself. When he sees Tess however he is taken aback by her beauty. Tess is still burdensomely shy and reserved and Angel perceives that she is afraid of life and of taking risks. Angel falls in love with her sweet innocence and knows he has met the woman he is going to marry. Tess loves him too but seems strangely reticent to commit as if she is holding a dark secret, but eventually she agrees to be his wife. They are married and are both very happy and Angel decides they should have no secrets and tells her of a relationship he had before he met her which she freely forgives. But when she tells him of her violation by Alec D'Urberville several years ago, Angel feels deceived that he did not know this before. Another man has had knowledge of her and she is not the woman he thought she was. His disappointment is such that he cannot bear to be with her and he leaves with plans to travel abroad. Tess goes back to working on a farm living a peasant's existence as if punishing herself with misery and hardships. She regularly writes to Angel but he never replies. Then Alec comes back into her life. He has heard of her circumstances and wants to do right by her. He says that if he had known she had become pregnant he would have willingly accepted his duties by her. Tess remains fiercely proud and spurns all his offers of help however genuinely offered. Eventually however Tess capitulates and agrees to marry Alec for the better life he can offer. They move to the seaside town of Sambourne. Their marriage is loveless. Alec treats Tess like a useless child and she is forever miserable and sullen and she has grown to hate him for taking possession of her in this way. Alec tires of the way she always feels sorry for herself when she should be happy and content with what he provides for her. Then Angel turns up after expending considerable effort tracking her down. He has spent the last several years thinking and realising he made a dreadful mistake in judging her so harshly and now he wants to take her back. But she tells him that is impossible because she is married to Alec now. Angel leaves despondent that he has missed his opportunity. But Unexpectedly Tess catches up with Angel at the train station and says she wants to be with him after all. She has blood on her dress and she confesses she has just killed Alec. Angel is shocked but he loves her and wants to stand by her and protect her. They go on the run with the police on her trail for murder. Angel knows they must try to get abroad but Tess has fatalistically given up on life ever being kind to her and wants to allow events to take their course. They spend the night at Stonehenge and in the morning they are found by the police and arrested. Tess is found guilty of murder and hanged at Wintoncester. | |
| Starring: | Nastassja Kinski (as Tess Durbeyfield, [credited as Natassia Kinski]), Peter Firth (as Angel Clare), Leigh Lawson (as Alec d'Urberville) |
| Featuring: | John Collin (as John Durbeyfield, Tess' father), Rosemary Martin (as Mrs Durbeyfield, Tess' mother), Carolyn Pickles (as Miriam, milkmaid at Crick's farm), Richard Pearson (as Vicar of Marlott), Tony Church (as Parson Tringham, Antiquarian), John Bett (as Felix Clare, Angel's brother), Sylvia Coleridge (as Mrs d'Urberville, Alec's old blind mother), Fred Bryant (as Dairyman Crick), Lesley Dunlop (as Henhouse Girl), Suzanna Hamilton (as Izz, farm girl), Caroline Embling (as Retty, farm girl), Arielle Dombasle (as Mercy Chant, Angel's former girlfriend), David Markham (as Reverend Clare, Angel's father), Patsy Rowlands (as Landlady at Sambourne) |
| That Kind of Girl (1963) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Jan Read / Director: Gerry O'Hara / Producer: Robert Hartford-Davis | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 73 mins |
| Eva Koenig is a beautiful 18-year-old Austrian girl working as an au pair in England. She looks after the young son of her host family Mr and Mrs Millar by day and studies English at college in the evenings. Eva makes friends easily although she has not had much experience of men and has never had a boyfriend. She meets a young man called Max who is campaigning against nuclear weapons and he persuades her to go on an organised march with her in a few weeks time.
In the meantime she and Max go dancing at a nightclub where she is noticed by a predatory bachelor called Elliot Collier who plies her with his charm and prises her away from Max. Elliot is an older man who seems to know exactly how to make her feel special and she feels comfortable in his relaxed company. They go out on several dates and eventually Elliot talks her into coming back to his flat where she sleeps with him. They start going out on a regular basis over the next week or so. Elliot has to go away on business so Eva honours her promise to Max and goes with him on the anti-bomb demonstration although she hadn't realised what a task she was undertaking. The demonstrators have planned a four-day march from the weapons factory at Aldermaston all the way to London. Eva completes the first day but decides she cannot go on and heads home. She misses the bus but is given a lift up by chivalrous young man called Keith Murray heading home to London in his sports car. They get along well and Eva tells him about the club where she spends her evenings in case he wants to meet up with her again. But Keith has a girlfriend already so he doesn't expect he will see Eva again. Keith is a university student studying engineering and plans to marry his girlfriend Janet Bates. They want to get married right away but Janet's father thinks Keith should wait until he has completed his degree and has become financially secure. Until Janet becomes independent at 21 she is obliged to abide by her father's wishes. Keith is frustrated that Janet will not have sex with him until they are married and they have a blazing row about it and split up. In his unsettled state Keith remembers Eva and seeks her out at the nightclub she mentioned. Eva is pleased to see him and invites him to go with her to an all-night party by the Thames. They become close in the heady excitement and end up having sex. Early next morning Keith drops Eva off near her home, but as she walks up the street she is confronted by an angry Elliot demanding to know why she has been seeing other men whilst he has been away. His possessive behaviour frightens her and she tries to get away but he wrestles her to the ground and starts assaulting her. Her screams are heard by a policeman and Elliot runs away. At the police station Eva pretends she didn't know her attacker even though the policewoman sergeant suspects she knows more than she is saying. Even though she wasn't raped Eva agrees to have a medical check-up which results in her being referred to the special clinic at Kensington Hospital. After tests are done Eva is told she has the venereal disease syphilis and is put on a programme of daily penicillin injections for two weeks to cure it and told she needs to report for periodic checks for another two years thereafter. Eva knows she must have caught it from Elliot several weeks ago and she is told she must also inform any other sexual partners she has had since then of their need to report for a check up. Eva realises this means she must tell Keith but she doesn't know how to contact him. Eva is so embarrassed about how foolish she has been and the consequences it has had for other people, but fortunately the Millar family remain supportive. Meanwhile Janet realises she has been idiotic and risks losing Keith for the sake of her virtue. So she decides to patch things up and agrees to sleep with him if that's what he needs. Keith is very considerate about it and tells her she doesn’t need to do it, but she has made up her mind and they have sex. A while later Janet discovers she is pregnant and they are both happy because now her father cannot stand in their way of getting married. In the meantime Eva traces Keith and apologetically hands him a medical slip telling him to report to the Special Clinic for tests. Keith is appalled that he may now have passed the disease onto Janet and possible consequences for their unborn baby. Keith discovers he has indeed caught syphilis and has to tell Janet which makes her distraught and regretful that she ever agreed to sleep with him and feels dirty like a common tart. Janet has lost her confidence in Keith and says she can never marry him now for making her feel this way about herself. Meanwhile Eva has started to get obscene pestering phone calls from Elliot which frighten her. As the abusive calls continue the Millars eventually persuade her to go to the police about it. She tells the police sergeant that it was Elliot who attacked her and about the calls. The police put a tap on the Millars phone and await his next call. When he does they trace his location to a phone box and arrest him. Eva decides to go home to Austria, but first she pays a visit to Janet to apologise for all the trouble she has caused. Janet has had the treatment and the baby should be fine so everything is all right. Janet has had time to think things over and is prepared to forgive Keith and is upset he has not called her. Eva helps out by phoning Keith and telling him that Janet might be conducive to a reconciliation. And as the film ends Keith and Janet seem to have got back together. | |
| Starring: | Margaret Rose Keil (as Eva Koenig), David Weston (as Keith Murray, student), Linda Marlowe (as Janet Bates, Keith's girlfriend), Peter Burton (as Elliot Collier, bachelor), Frank Jarvis (as Max, campaigner), David Davenport and Sylvia Kay (as Mr and Mrs Millar, Eva's host family) |
| Featuring: | Martin Wyldeck (as Mr Bates, Janet's father) (other unspecified roles) Richard Bebb, Graeme Bruce, Alexandra Dane, Ann Gow, Betty Hardy, Peter Harrison, Audrey Muir, Larry Taylor, Julie Webb, Elizabeth Zinn |
| Starlets: | Margot Travers (as Cabaret Stripper) |
| NOTES: | |
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Made in Black and White |
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Margaret Rose Keil receives an "introducing" credit although this was her only English language film. |
| That Riviera Touch (1966) | Previous Next |
| Writers: S.C. Green, R.M. Hills (with Peter Blackmore) / Director: Cliff Owen / Producer: Hugh Stewart | |
| Type: Comedy | Running Time: 94 mins |
| Eric and Ernie are two hapless traffic wardens who decide to go on holiday to the South of France after a faux pas of trying to book the Queen's car. As they disembark the plane in France with their car they are unaware that a beautiful woman called Claudette has singled them out from the arrivals as the perfect candidates to exploit for her boss's villainous objectives. Eric and Ernie are soon approached by another gang member called Marcel posing as an official who says there is a problem with their booking but as compensation they are being offered gratis use of a villa.
Claudette's boss is a jewel thief known as Le Pirate who has carefully hidden the Latour Emeralds in the villa. He now wants to smuggle the jewels into the UK and plans to use Eric and Ernie as the unwitting couriers when they return home. Claudette's job is to keep the pair occupied on a night out while the villains hide the jewels in their car. Claudette has no problems attracting the attention of the lusty lads on the beach and arranges to meet them in town later. Both Eric and Ernie fancy their chances with Claudette but Ernie outwits Eric and sends him off to the casino where Eric accidentally wins a fortune. This raises complications when Claudette realises they might be planning on buying a new car and she has to arrange to have the money stolen. The lads eventually come to suspect Claudette of the theft and follow her and discover that she is up to no good. But Claudette has been having second thoughts about her harsh boss and warns the lads they are in danger. She goes back to the villa to recover the jewels from their hiding place and is attacked by members of a rival gang who are ransacking the villa searching for them. Eric and Ernie chivalrously help her out and the police arrest all the villains and recover the jewels. Eric's money is returned and they decide not to press charges against Claudette. At the end there is a wedding in which Claudette marries one of them with the other as best man but which was which is kept intentionally indefinite. | |
| Starring: | Eric Morecambe (as Eric Simpson), Ernie Wise (as Ernest Clark), Suzanne Lloyd (as Claudette) |
| Featuring: | Paul Stassino (as Le Pirate, Jewel thief), Armand Mestral (as Inspector Duval), Peter Jeffrey (as Detective Mauron), George Eugeniou (as Marcel, Pirate's henchman), Gerald Lawson (as Coco, Villa's caretaker) |
| Familiar Faces: | Francis Matthews (as Hotel Manager) |
| Starlets: | Alexandra Bastedo (as Casino hanger-on), Nicole Shelby (as Casino hanger-on), Sally Douglas (as French Girl at casino) |
| NOTES: | |
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This film was the second of three that Morecambe and Wise made in the 1960s. They were well known TV stars at the time because of their successful ITV series (1961 - 1968) - but still a few years away from the start of their "golden era" of BBC-made shows (1968 - 1977) when they really became the comedy legends they are now fondly remembered as being. The other two films were The Intelligence Men (1965) and The Magnificent Two (1967). |
| That Summer! (1979) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Janey Preger / Director: Harley Cokliss / Producers: Davina Belling, Clive Parsons | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 88 mins |
| Steve Brody is a cockney London youth who has just spent eight months in borstal for GBH where his strength as a swimmer was recognised by a coach. Cursed with a quick temper Steve is basically a decent sort of guy whose detention was brought about when he too vigorously intervened in a domestic dispute to save his lady neighbour being beaten up by her husband. Steve wishes to get out of London where he has a bad name and believes the police have it in for him. He decides to head down to Torquay on the Devon coast because the borstal coach had mentioned there was a swimming competition taking place there soon.
Elsewhere in London Jimmy Swales is a student and during the summer holidays decides he'd rather live and work on the coast than work at his father's butchers shop - he too heads for Torquay to get a job on the beach. And up in Leeds two young girls Carole and Angie decide they are fed up with working in a factory and head off to Torquay where they have taken jobs as hotel chambermaids. Steve gets a job at a pub with a lodgings thrown in and although he works in the evenings he has the days free to train in the sea for the 10th Annual Devon Long Distance Champion swim around the bay. On the beach he meets Jimmy who is working there hiring out boat-floats to the tourists. Jimmy offers to help Steve train. Also, after their morning's work at the hotel, the two girls relax on the beach and they meet the two boys. Carole is the less confident of the two and she favours Jimmy whilst headstrong Angie sees the somewhat aloof Steve as being the kind of challenge she is good at. The couples pair off and whilst Jimmy and Carole appear well suited, Angie and Steve soon come to blows when she feels he is more interested in training than going out with her. Steve also has to contend with a rival called Tam from Scotland who together with his two rowdy mates seems determined to make trouble for Steve whom the Scot sees as a serious rival. The lads all get into a fight when the Scots try and muscle in on the girls and in the scuffle Steve's wallet is taken. On the night before the big race the Scots break into a chemists to steal some drugs and leave Steve's wallet behind to incriminate him. On the day of the race just as the competitors are preparing to start, the police arrive to arrest Steve for the burglary. He misses the start but knows he has been set up and figures it must have been the Scottish lads. Steve breaks away from the policeman and dashes into the water starting the race 200 yards behind the other competitors. He swims so well that he soon catches up and has a mid-water fight with Tam who gets away but one of his non-swimmer mates in a boat falls in. Steve stops to save him but uses the fear of drowning to get him to confess to the burglary. This satisfies the police who have given chase in a launch and Steve is allowed to continue the race whilst Tam is picked up. Steve then goes on to win the race. | |
| Starring: | Ray Winstone (as Steve Brody), Julie Shipley (as Angie Nolan), Tony London (as Jimmy Swales), Emily Moore (as Carole Benson) |
| Featuring: | Jon Morrison (as Tam, rival swimmer), Andrew Byatt (as Georgie, Tam's friend), Ewan Stewart (as Stu, Tam's friend), David Daker (as Jack, pub landlord), Jo Rowbottom (as Doreen, pub landlady), John Junkin (as Mr Swales, Jimmy's father), Stephanie Cole (as Mrs Mainwaring, hotel head housekeeper), Nick Donnelly (as Torquay Detective) |
| NOTES: | |
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From a story by Tony Attard. |
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Ray Winstone, Julie Shipley, Tony London and Emily Moore all receive "introducing" credits. |
| That'll Be the Day (1973) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Ray Connolly / Director: Claude Whatham / Producers: David Puttnam, Sanford Lieberson | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 87 mins |
| When Jim MacLaine was a young boy just after the Second World War his soldier father came home and had a hard time readjusting to civilian life. He ran a local store for a while and tried to be a good father to Jim but became restless and one day just packed up and left the family home leaving his wife to cope with young Jim and his granddad alone.
It is now the late 1950s and Jim is in his final year at school. He is a bit of a dreamer appearing to pay scant attention in class but whenever put on the spot by a teacher in class he always knows the answers because actually he is extremely bright and just finds things dull and wants something more exciting out of life. His mother is very proud of her clever son and delighted that he will be off to university soon and well on his way to having a successful life ahead of him. But on the day of his final exams Jim decides he has had enough and on the way to school with his friend Terry decides to drop out and not take the exams. He goes home and packs a bag and hitches a ride to a seaside resort where he rents a room and takes a job as a deckchair attendant. He is very interested in girls but at first has no success with them and becomes a bit disillusioned and on a dull rainy day at the beach decides to move on again. He gets a job at a holiday camp working as a waiter in the night entertainment bar where the resident band sing Rock 'n' Roll covers which Jim enjoys but wonders why they don't write heir own material. Jim shares a chalet with co-worker Mike, a teddy-boy who knows the ropes and shows him how to chat up girls properly in a place where there is no end of opportunity to pull. Jim has his first sexual experience with a girl called Sandra but this proves quick and unsatisfactory for both of them. So he becomes determined to improve and throughout the rest of the summer perfects his technique with a string of girls. When the holiday camp season is over Mike returns to his other job working at a funfair and Jim decides to go with him and they share a caravan and Jim continues bedding as many girls as he can. He becomes so insatiable that even Mike gets annoyed at his friend's compulsion. When Mike is hospitalised after being beaten up by some angry customers he short-changed Jim steps up to take over his duties on the more glamorous rides with more opportunities to chat up the girls. His friend from school Terry pays him a visit and he is doing well - he is at university now studying economic history and while he obviously cannot understand his friend's life-choice he doesn't dwell on their different fortunes as Jim tells him of the incredible success he has with the girls in his job. Terry takes Jim along to one of his own social events which is a jazz dance evening - but there Terry's friends demonstrate their unspoken uncomfortable embarrassment at having to find small talk with someone as lowly as a carnival worker and Jim knows it. It comes as a slap in the face to him and hurts his pride and he decides to return home. After two years away with barely any contact his mother is not too pleased to see him but he swears he has changed now and to show his commitment he helps by selling his motorbike to pay for a delivery van for the family grocery store. His mother was very disappointed in him dropping out as he was always much cleverer than Terry who is doing incredibly well for himself and so Jim agrees to go to night school. He renews his acquaintance with Terry's sister Jeannette and after a while of going out together he proposes and they make preparations to marry. Jeannette's mother is none to pleased thinking her daughter can do a lot better than someone like Jim. Even Terry, who is to be Jim's best man, warns his sister about the sort of restless type Jim is with an eye for the ladies but Jeannette is convinced Jim has decided to settle down - but even as they talk on the eve of the wedding Jim is having a last one-night stand with Terry's own girlfriend Jean. The wedding goes ahead and everything seems to be perfect - the couple have a child and Jim seems content at last. But he is skipping night school and instead visiting the local music hall to listen to the Rock and Roll group sing the same old tired cover versions and he knows he could do better and tries writing lyrics which he thinks are rather good although Jeannette doesn't understand what he's trying to say in them when she reads them. As he is walking his baby's pram sedately through the park he begins to get the overwhelming restless feeling again that he inherited from his father and knows he wants more excitement out of life and to get away from the feeling of being hemmed into the predictable life pattern that he's found himself within. So he goes home and packs his bags and announces he is leaving. And his first stop is to a music store where he buys himself an electric guitar .... The End. | |
| Links: Jim's story continues in the sequel Stardust (1974). | |
| Starring: | David Essex (as Jim MacLaine), Ringo Starr (as Mike Menari), Rosemary Leach (as Mrs MacLaine), Robert Lindsay (as Terry Sutcliffe) Rosalind Ayres (as Jeannette Sutcliffe, Terry's sister) |
| Featuring: | Beth Morris (as Jean, Terry's girlfriend), Deborah Watling (as Sandra), Billy Fury (as Stormy Tempest, holiday camp singer), James Ottaway (as Jim's Granddad), James Booth (as Young Jim's father), Karl Howman (as Johnny, a schoolfriend), Keith Moon (as J.D. Clover) |
| Starlets: | Sue Holderness (as Shirley, schoolgirl in Coffee Shop), Sally Watts (as Shirley's friend), Verna Harvey (Blonde girl on beach), Erin Geraghty (as Brunette girl on beach), Patti Love (as Sandra's Friend), Kim Braden (as Charlotte, Terry's college friend), Patsy Blower (as Young Girl at Fair), Sara Clee (as Girl with a baby), Vivian Stanshall |
| NOTES: | |
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Deborah Watling's nudity is best seen in the full screen version because some of it remains hidden below the frame in the widescreen version. |
| That's Your Funeral (1972) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Peter Lewis / Director: John Robins / Producer: Michael Carreras | |
| Type: Sitcom Spin-off | Running Time: 78 mins |
| Holroyds are a firm of traditional funeral directors run by Emmanuel Holroyd and his two associates Basil Bulstrode and Percy. They operate in a small town in which they have a healthy rivalry with their only competitor Grimthorpe's.
When Mr Grimthorpe dies with no heirs to continue his business Holroyds quietly celebrate that they will now be the only game in town and be in receipt of all the town's funereal requirements. However before long they are dismayed to find that Grimthorpe's establishment has been bought out as a going concern by a new operator who has renamed it as The Haven of Rest. It has been restyled to bring a new modernistic approach to the sorrow service providing grieving relatives with a gaudily dignified environment making it all seem much more accessible than the daunting formality of a traditional undertakers' solemnity. After a couple of months Holroyds find their business has all but dried up. However as we discover, The Haven, run by Roland Smallbody, is a front for a illegal drug-running operation which smuggles cannabis into the country inside coffins transported into town by British Rail freight services. Holroyds are pleased to get a high-profile job of providing funeral services for recently deceased local luminary Ezra Taylor, founder of a soft drinks empire, who died abroad. His returned body is arriving by train but unfortunately the name of "Taylor" is the name that The Haven's camouflaged drugs consignment is also travelling under and there is a mix-up with the wrong coffins being collected by each firm resulting in a series of farcical developments involving the real body, the drugs, and later a waxwork replica of Ezra Taylor made for a museum, as the two firms try to get things sorted out without the Taylor family realising that anything is amiss as they prepare for their loved-ones cremation service. | |
| Starring: | (TV series characters) Bill Fraser (as Basil Bulstrode), Raymond Huntley (as Emmanuel Holroyd), David Battley (as Percy) (The Haven of Rest) John Ronane (as Roland Smallbody, owner), Dennis Price (as Eugene Soul, beautician), Sue Lloyd (as Miss Peach, hostess) |
| Featuring: | Richard Wattis (as Simmonds, personal secretary to late Ezra Taylor), Roy Kinnear (as Purvis, proprietor of waxworks museum), Michael Ripper (as Arthur, Railway Porter), Ken Parry (as Second Railway Porter) |
| Familiar Faces: | Frank Thornton (as Town Clerk), Bob Todd (as Funeral Director at ball), Michael Robbins (as Funeral Director at ball) |
| NOTES: | |
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A spin-off film version of a barely remembered 1971 BBC sitcom that only lasted one series made in 1971 following a pilot edition made in 1970 totalling 7 episodes overall. The three main stars revived their roles for the film. |
| Theatre of Blood (1973) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Anthony Greville-Bell / Director: Douglas Hickox / Producers: John Kohn, Stanley Mann | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 99 mins |
| The police are investigating several bizarre murders in which the victims are all London theatre critics who were members of the same Critics Circle. Critic Peregrine Devlin observes to police Inspector Boot that the manner of the deaths seems to be based on incidents that occur in Shakespeare plays. The only person Devlin can think of that might hold a serious grudge against the critics is dead though - two years ago at the Critics Awards, one Edward Lionheart was bitterly resentful that he was overlooked as Best Actor. Considered by some as the greatest actor of his age but unwilling to perform anything but Shakespeare he had that year performed a massive season of the bard's plays, but the critics unanimously voted for a relative newcomer to win. Lionheart had confronted the critics later that evening in a penthouse suite and accused them of a determined and vindictive denial of his genius - their critiques of his performances were routinely scathing. He then threw himself off the high-balcony into the river Thames and was never heard from again and assumed to be dead.
Lionheart's loyal daughter Edwina is considered a possible suspect as maybe she is carrying out the murders in revenge at her father's treatment. We, however, know that Lionheart is alive and is behind the murders with the assistance of his daughter. We find out that Lionheart was saved from drowning by some down-and-outs and now he leads them as they assist with his elaborate revenge plans. He lures each unsuspecting critic on some pretext and confronts them with their vitriolic words against him before carrying out a death fitting to the play they reviewed. The police put guards on the remaining critics but Lionheart still manages to get to them. Eventually only Devlin remains alive and despite special protection Lionheart still manages to capture him and under threat of horrible death insists that he re-present the award to Lionheart in a mock-up of the contested award ceremony at an old theatre. Devlin refuses and is left to his fate in a timed death trap. Luckily the police arrive just in time to free him and Lionheart flees up into the upper floors of the now burning theatre building - he makes an impassioned speech and then falls to his death - and Devlin makes a final critique commenting that as usual he over-acted. | |
| Comment: This has a similar sort of plot structure to another Vincent Price film:-The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971). In that film Price's character was killing off all the medical personnel that had failed to save his wife's life during an operation. | |
| Starring: | Vincent Price (as Edward Lionheart), Diana Rigg (as Edwina Lionheart, daughter), Ian Hendry (as Peregrine Devlin, main critic) |
| Featuring: | Michael Hordern, Dennis Price, Arthur Lowe, Harry Andrews, Robert Coote, Jack Hawkins, Coral Browne, Robert Morley (as the unfortunate critics), Milo O'Shea (as Inspector Boot), Eric Sykes (as Sgt Dogge) |
| Familiar Faces: | Diana Dors, Joan Hickson (as critics' wives) |
| Starlets: | Madeline Smith, Brigid Erin Bates |
| NOTES: | |
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The nudity indicated for Diana Dors is a very marginal and partial nipple glimpse whilst she is being massaged by Vincent Price. |
| Theatre of Death (1966) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Ellis Kadison, Roger Marshall / Director: Samuel Gallu / Producer: M. Smedley-Aston | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 86 mins |
| In modern day Paris (1966) there is a theatre called Theatre de Mort (The Theatre of Death) which for sixty years has been successfully presenting shocking tales of horror to thrill its audiences. The theatre company director is Phillipe Darvas who has carried on the role from his father who founded the theatre. Darvas is an intense and dislikeable egotistical figure who nevertheless has the ability to write profoundly dramatic sketches that convey the horror of the human spirit. People wonder how he manages to write with such a telling passion and he explains he is widely travelled and he also has access to his late father's extensive notes. A portrait of Darvas' father shows that the two men are very similar in appearance.
The company are rehearsing Darvas' latest show which consists of twelve sketches although Darvas is still busy writing the final one. Darvas shows special interest in the talent of a young actress called Nicole Chapelle whom he believes has great potential. He takes a personal hand in teaching her and utilises his skills as a hypnotist to bring out her raw abilities. Nicole's roommate Dani Gireaux is also in the cast and she warns Nicole about becoming too besotted by Darvas whom she finds ominously sinister - but Nicole has become infatuated by Darvas and moves into his mansion with him. Dani's boyfriend Charles Marquis is a police doctor who is involved in a baffling investigation in which a series of murder victims have been found completely drained of blood and all with the same puncture marks to the neck. There is talk of vampirism and Dani puts forward her wild theory that Darvas is the killer and he and his father are actually the same man with an immortal lifespan sustained by human blood - although Charles does not believe in the supernatural and knows there must be a more down-to-earth explanation. Then Darvas goes missing and no one knows if he is alive or dead. Nicole is in a vulnerable state and so Dani moves into Darvas' mansion to look after her. While at the mansion Dani finds the completed manuscript of Darvas twelfth dramatic sketch which tells of a gypsy family in 1946 who were crossing the Alps when their caravan was hit by an avalanche. Many days later the caravan was dug out of the snow and the family were all dead except for the baby girl whose mother had sustained by feeding her with the blood of dead family members. Dani realises that Nicole is that baby now grown up and still with a taste for blood. She is the serial killer and under hypnosis Darvas had found out about the story and written it down for his final playlet depicting a tale of a mother's horrifying desperation. But Nicole could not risk her secret being exposed and so she killed Darvas - and now that Dani knows she too has to die. Elsewhere Charles has been following up on clues that have led him to the same conclusion of Nicole being the killer and he rushes to warn Dani who he knows is alone with her. He arrives just in time and Dani is saved but Nicole escapes to the theatre. She hides from the police in the under stage area. Meanwhile a voodoo sacrifice sketch is being performed on the stage and at the conclusion the native warrior thrusts his spear into stage floor (as if killing his victim on the ground). The spear penetrates through the special soft wood flooring panel and kills Nicole who is hiding under that very spot. | |
| Comment: Christopher Lee plays Darvas with suitable menace and the film plays upon the expectation that even after he goes missing he will make a dramatic reappearance and turn out to be the villain of the piece. But actually he does not appear again at all after that point. | |
| Starring: | Christopher Lee (as Philippe Darvas), Julian Glover (as Charles Marquis, police doctor), Lelia Goldoni (as Dani Gireaux, actress and Charles' girlfriend), Jenny Till (as Nicole Chapelle, young actress), Ivor Dean (as Inspector Georges Micheaud, detective) |
| Featuring: | Evelyn Laye (as Madame Angelique, theatre owner), Joseph Furst (as Karl Schiller, doctor), Steve Plytas (as Andre, Patron of Café), Miki Iveria (as Andre's Wife) |
| Starlets: | Dilys Watling (as Heidi, actress in voodoo sketch), Lita Scott (as Voodoo Dancer), Suzanne Owens (as Victim) |
| NOTES: | |
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Jenny Till receives an "introducing" credit |
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Darvas' first name is spelt "Philippe" on the end credits but on the manuscript seen in the film his name is spelt "Phillipe" |
| Writer: Terence Frisby (based on his own play) / Director: Roy Boulting / Producers: M.J. Frankovich, John Boulting | |
| Type: Romantic Comedy | Running Time: 95 mins |
| Robert Danvers is a forty-something TV celebrity famous for his cookery and food critique programmes where he specialises in the finer end of culinary tastes. His taste for the good life extends to his women and his fame, wealth and powers of seduction allow him any women he chooses. He relishes women, treats them with great respect and takes great pleasure in giving them sexual fulfilment - but he is merely a connoisseur of the initial pleasures of a relationship and is not interested in long-term partnerships.
Then he meets Marion, a bright, chirpy, nineteen-year-old American on the rebound from a failed relationship. She is at a low-ebb after her boyfriend Jimmy dumped her for another girl, but Robert finds her attractive and uses his charm to get her back to his place with the usual outcome on his mind. However Marion is different - for one thing she is not aware of his celebrity status and finds his seductive techniques amusing and old fashioned although she is more than up for sex with a forthright no-nonsense attitude to it all. However Robert finds this unnerving and feels like he's taking advantage of her in her depressed state and so ends up sleeping on the couch. Although the relationship between them seems set to end there, when he takes her home to the communal flat she shares with Jimmy and his new girl Caroline, Robert finds Jimmy's insinuations that he is too old and past-it to be an insufferable slight and he consequently takes Marion with him on a two-week holiday break to France. There they get romantic and he falls for her quirky, unconventional ways and when a journalist mistakenly believes them to have secretly married they arrive back in England to a barrage of press speculation. Marion enjoyed her two weeks immensely but when Jimmy chucks his new girl and wants her back she elects to return to him. Faced with the danger of losing her Robert realises he has genuinely come to care for her and impulsively asks her to marry him for real. However she declines his offer and departs leaving Robert in a highly dejected state feeling a great sense of loss. This period is short-lived however and as soon as the next bright young thing comes his way he is back to his old womanising ways with as much gusto as before. | |
| Starring: | Peter Sellers (as Robert Danvers), Goldie Hawn (as Marion), Tony Britton (as Andrew) |
| Featuring: | Nicky Henson (as Jimmy, Marion's student boyfriend), John Comer (as John the Porter), Diana Dors (as John's Wife), Nicola Pagett (as Clare, the Bride), Lance Percival (as Willie, the Groom), Judy Campbell (as Lady Heather, bride's mother), Gabrielle Drake (as Julia Halforde-Smythe, wedding guest), Ruth Trouncer (as Gilly, Andrew's wife), Thorley Walters (as Manager of Carlton Hotel in France), Tom Marshall (as Bryan, Jimmy's friend) |
| Starlets: | Françoise Pascal (as Paola, Andrew's Au-Pair), Geraldine Sherman (as Caroline, Jimmy's new girlfriend) |
| NOTES: | |
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Additional dialogue by Peter Kortner. |
| Writer: Milton Subotsky / Director: Freddie Francis / Producers: Max J. Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky | |
| Type: Sci-Fi | Running Time: 85 mins |
| Dr Curtis Temple heads a team of scientists at an observatory whose objective is to search for life on other planets. The team includes Temple's girlfriend Lee Mason who is his deputy. An official from the ministry of Space Research called Richard Arden arrives with need of their expertise on a curious matter. The previous night nine meteorites were tracked flying in an unusual V-formation and all landing in the same field in Cornwall. This behaviour suggests the possibility they were guided by some extraterrestrial intelligence and the ministry require some experts to go to the landing site and study the meteorites. Temple is eager to go but his doctor refuses him permission to travel such a distance because he recently had a car accident and has had the top part of his skull replaced with a silver plate. Temple is frustrated but sends along Lee in his place knowing she is just as capable. She promises to send him regular reports on what they find at the site.
Lee arrives at the site with Arden and a team of scientists and they spend the first couple of days studying the impact craters and assessing the trajectory that the meteorites followed. The data is sent back to Temple at the lab where the computer bizarrely calculates that the meteorites came from the Moon which seems unlikely to everyone. Lee is finally ready to chip off a sample of rock for chemical analysis - but when she does so the rock pulses with light and Lee's mind is taken over by an alien presence. The same thing happens to Arden and all the scientists as more alien intelligences connect to them and take over their bodies. Several days pass and Temple becomes concerned when he has not heard from the team in Cornwall and cannot contact them by phone. Then Arden unexpectedly arrives back at base saying Temple and his assistant Alan Mullane are needed urgently in Cornwall. Arden has a rock with him and as it glows it takes over Mullane's mind - but although Temple is exposed to the same effect nothing happens to him and Arden and Mullane drive off without him. Temple discovers from the Accounts Department that the team in Cornwall have been requisitioning heavy-duty construction materials and machinery of which they can have no possible need for the task-in-hand, so Temple decides to override his doctor's orders and go to Cornwall to see for himself what is going on. He finds the farmland has become a construction site and the perimeter is surrounded by an electric fence with the only entrance manned by armed guards. Temple demands to see Lee Mason and after a fuss she comes to the gatehouse. But she is not the warm friendly woman he knows but is instead cold and officious demanding he leave and not interfere with their important work although she refuses to say what that is. Temple knows she is not herself and somehow she is under the influence of something evil - but he can do nothing to help her with the guards present. Somewhat bewildered Temple returns to the local village and meets a man called Stilwell who says he is an agent for Internal Security investigating the mysterious goings on at the farm. Stilwell goes to use a phone box to gain permission from his boss to brief Temple on the details when he suddenly collapses and dies of an unknown plague. The plague proves to be very infectious and lots of people in the village die. The area is put under quarantine and the experts fear an epidemic of global proportions could easily spread. Temple curiously remains unaffected by the illness. News reports indicate that the government has found a way to safely dispose of the dead bodies but the details are still confidential. Temple keeps a watch on the farm from a vantage point and is amazed to see a rocket being launched from a hidden pad. He calculates that it is headed for the Moon. Temple decides he must find out more and manages to get into the grounds and finds an elevator to a newly built underground centre where all manner of construction work is underway. To his amazement Temple finds a cold storage room full of dead plague victims and furthermore he sees Stilwell alive and well as a member of a work gang. Temple finds where Lee is working and overpowers her. He smuggles her out of the base and back to the village. He knows that somehow she and all the other scientists have had their minds and bodies taken over by alien entities and he thinks he has figured out why they didn't do the same to him. Somehow the silver plate in his head has protected him. He takes Lee to a friend of his called Farge who is an expert on optics and using Lee as a specimen they devise a method to detect possessed humans and a weapon to destroy the alien trespasser and free the human from its power. They successfully cure Lee and she returns to her old self but remembers nothing of what she had been doing. The three of them return to the farm with Lee pretending she is still possessed in order to gain access. They find a rocket ship about to be launched and get on board hoping to stop it but they fail and it takes off with them aboard. On board they are captured by the possessed Richard Arden who informs them they are going to the Moon. There their Master will surgically remove Temple's bothersome silver plate so he can be possessed for the valuable information he possesses. On the Moon they meet the Leader of the aliens who tells them that his race are called the Zarn. They are ultimate evolutionary beings in the form of intelligent energy devoid of physical form. But they were dying out so they built a spaceship to explore the universe for an answer to their dilemma. Unfortunately they crashed on Earth's moon and became stranded. They managed to send some of their numbers to Earth on meteorites to take over enough humans to construct rockets to reach the Moon and rescue the others. The plague victims are not really dead but have become slave workers to do the work for them. Humans have no defence against them and they can take over the world for their own use. But when Temple informs the Master that he has helped devise a detection and extermination method the Master realises that his people face extinction and there is no answer to their plight - so they will use the full size spaceship they are building to return to their home planet to die. Temple tells the Master that trying to conquer the human race was not necessary and had they asked for help in repairing their spaceship it would have been freely offered - and as the film ends Temple guarantees that he will get them that help as a new bond of interplanetary friendship is formed. | |
| Starring: | Robert Hutton (as Dr Curtis Temple), Jennifer Jayne (as Lee Mason), Zia Mohyeddin (as Farge, Temple's scientist friend), Bernard Kay (as Richard Arden, Ministry of Space Research) |
| Featuring: | Michael Gough (as Master of the Moon), Geoffrey Wallace (as Alan Mullane, computer scientist), Maurice Good (as Agent Stilwell, internal security), Jack Lambert (as Temple's Doctor) |
| Familiar Faces: | Kenneth Kendall (as Himself - TV Reporter) |
| Starlets: | Luanshya Greer (as Petrol Station Attendant) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the novel The Gods Hate Kansas by Joseph Millard |
| Writer: John Pinkney / Director: Rod Hardy / Producer: Antony I. Ginnane | |
| Type: Australian / Horror | Running Time: 91 mins |
| Kate Davis is a normal young businesswoman who is unaware that she has become subject to the close scrutiny of a group of mysterious individuals who are about to turn her life upside down. Kate has just begun a holiday break from work when she is rendered unconscious by an intruder and jetted across the country to a small isolated establishment named the Quasta Research Centre.
The Centre, which is headed by a hard-nosed woman called Mrs Barker, has a darkly sinister purpose unknown to the outside world. She and her kin are a breed of vampires who have set up this establishment as a "dairy farm" for blood. The farm is populated by hundreds of docile brainwashed humans who regularly give blood in a highly mechanised process backed by a large processing refinery designed to purify and package the blood into milk-like cartons which are then shipped around the world to their vampire brethren. Kate has been brought here, not to be a donor, but because she is one of them - but just does not know it yet. In the vampires' genealogy Kate is of noble birth being a descendant of the revered Countess Elizabeth Bathory. But once told of this lineage, far from embracing her birthright, Kate is appalled at the revelations and is sickened by the thought of drinking blood. So the brotherhood begin a programme of conditioning to try to break down her resilience and strength of will and have her accept her true heritage as one of their kind. Dr Fraser is responsible for managing the regimen of acceptance as Kate is put through a series of terrifying nightmare scenarios which due to some psychic engineering by Fraser seem so real that she sometimes cannot tell if she is back home or in some sort of dreamland (nor can the viewer). The final scenario is set up so that the only way she can escape it is to drink some blood as the lesser of the two terrors. She is then put through an initiation rite and after some initial misgivings she finally drinks eagerly from the sacrifice victim as a tell-tale red glow of hunger comes to her eyes. But when her boyfriend Derek is captured and brought to the farm to be her blood victim she balks at proving herself by killing him and begs Dr Fraser to help her and Derek escape. Dr Fraser appears to be acting out of compassion as he duly arranges for her to get off the grounds past security and takes her to a small safe house where he tells her he has previously taken Derek so they can be reunited. But there she finds Derek hooked to a machine being desanguinated and she can control herself no more as she drinks greedily from him - and back at the farm Dr Fraser is congratulated for successfully achieving the final part of Kate's full conditioning. | |
| Starring: | Chantal Contouri (as Kate Davis), David Hemmings (as Dr Fraser, conditioning specialist), Shirley Cameron (as Mrs Barker, person in charge of farm operations), Max Phipps (as Mr Hodge, her second in command) |
| Featuring: | Henry Silva (as Dr Gauss, doctor at farm), Rod Mullinar (as Derek Whitelaw, Kate's boyfriend), Rosie Sturgess (as Lori, Kate's housekeeper) |
| Starlets: | Amanda Muggleton (as Martha, Kate's secretary), Jacqui Gordon (Leah, docile prisoner cow) |
| Writers: Dudley Moore, Joseph McGrath, John Wells / Director: Joseph McGrath / Producer: Walter Shenson | |
| Type: Romantic Comedy | Running Time: 84 mins |
| Rupert Street is a composer who works as a resident pianist at a London nightclub. He is just six weeks away from his 30th birthday and has decided that he has accomplished little in his life and if he doesn't do something by the time he is 30 he probably never will. He therefore sets himself the goal of both writing a hit musical and getting married within the next six weeks.
Until three months ago Rupert had still been living with his parents and has now moved into a boarding house. He is rather shy and doesn't know how to go about meeting women but when he discovers that he is living next door to a beautiful young woman called Louise who has just broken up with her boyfriend he sets his sights on marrying her. Rupert and Louise share neighbourly chats and eventually he invites her to dinner and they become romantic - but her boyfriend returns and roughs Rupert up when he tries to intervene in their lover's tiff - and his arm is badly sprained. Unable to play at the club Rupert concentrates on his other goal of writing a hit musical but he can find nothing to inspire him and has only five weeks left. His friend Oscar suggests he goes away for a holiday to try and replenish his creative energies and so Rupert travels to Ireland. He has no luck until he hears a medieval Irish folktale about some young sweethearts whose love is broken by lies told by a wicked rival. This story fuels his imagination and he completes his musical in record time - calling it The Golden Legend of Erin which he posts off to his agent to put into immediate production. When he returns home to his London flat eager to pursue his other goal of marriage he discovers that Louise has left the boarding house and returned to Birmingham but left no forwarding address. Devastated Rupert heads off to Birmingham to search for her neglecting his responsibilities to the musical. Whilst Rupert searches, the musical's director and the company rehearse and prepare but eventually need Rupert to sign important legal documents. He cannot be contacted and so they hire a private detective to trace him. It takes a while but the detective finds both Rupert and Louise and reunites them and Louise agrees to marry him. It is that day of his 30th Birthday and they rush back to London so Rupert can sign the documents and the two of them get married in a registry office. Rupert's musical is a massive hit and he has successfully achieved both his goals. | |
| Comment: The "Cynthia" of the title is not a character in the film and the reason for its usage is not explained. | |
| Starring: | Dudley Moore (as Rupert Street), Suzy Kendall (as Louise Hammond), Eddie Foy Jr (as Oscar, Rupert's American friend) |
| Featuring: | Patricia Routledge (as Mrs Woolley, Rupert's landlady), John Bird (as Herbert Greenslade, private detective), Peter Bayliss (as Victor, Rupert's agent), Duncan Macrae (as Jock McCue, club owner), John Wells (as Honourable Gavin Hopton, money man backing Rupert's musical), Harry Towb (as Mr Woolley, Landlady's husband), Jonathan Routh (as Captain Gore-Taylor, choreographer), Ted Dicks Jr (as Horst Cohen jr, director), Micheál MacLiammóir (as Irish Story Teller) |
| Familiar Faces: | Clive Dunn (as Doctor), Frank Thornton (as Marriage Registrar), Nicky Henson (as Paul, Louise's boyfriend) |
| aka: A Promise of Bed | |
| Writers: Donald Ford, Derek Ford / Director: Derek Ford / Producer: Stanley Long | |
| Type: Sex Comedy / Anthology | Running Time: 78 mins |
| The film comprises of three completely separate comic tales:-.
Story 1: A 30-something actress called Susan Stress is auditioning for a part in a movie in a film producer's hotel apartment. The role requires her to seduce a young inexperienced virginal lad and the producer is not sure if she can carry that off. He goes into the next room to ask his camera-enthusiastic teenage son his opinion of her and is told she has no teen-appeal. Susan overhears this although she never meets the lad face-to-face. Later on back in her own hotel room down the hall she sees a young man leaving the producer's apartment carrying camera equipment and assumes it is the son and so leads him back into her suite and seduces him by posing for his camera and then taking him to bed. Then upon successful completion of her seduction she takes him back to the producer's room so he can tell his father how convincing she was. But it turns out that the photographer was not the son after all and just someone running an errand for him. Story 2: George Makepeace is a lonely middle-aged man who has decided to end his life. He has taped up the doors and windows and is in the process of gassing himself when the phone rings and someone asks about a party - a wrong number obviously. Next a young woman called Barbara arrives at the front door for the party. George realises that someone has given his address by mistake but lets her in for some much craved company although he has little in the way of food or drink in the house with which to entertain. She smells gas and sees the duct tape and he explains it away by saying it is the theme of the party - that everyone has to pretend to be a suicide case - as others arrive they are told and they all think it's a great idea and get into the swing of it. Eventually someone finds George's suicide note and reads it out but everyone thinks it's just a joke and his efforts to really get into the "part" - only Barbara sees the truth. When everyone has left George feels more depressed than ever and begins his suicide preparations again - but Barbara has remained behind and got ready for bed with him to show him someone cares. Story 3: A taxi driver has taken a break from work to see a porn movie. His first fare afterwards is a beautiful blonde and he has some fantasies about her. Then the taxi is involved in a collision and the girl runs out without paying her fare. The driver follows her into the woods wanting his money. He finds a futuristic house where girls in bikinis roam and strange erotic scenes play out before his very eyes. But is was all a dream as he sits concussed in his taxi from the collision. | |
| Comment: The stories might be titled "This", "That" and "The Other" - although there is nothing on-screen to indicate that this is the intention. There is a very minor segue between stories. Story 2 starts with Victor Spinetti looking out of his window and seeing Dennis Waterman walking down his street. And in story 3 the drunk who crashes into the taxi driver's cab is someone who was at the story 2 party. Other than that nothing connects them. | |
| Starring: | (Story 1) Vanda Hudson (as Susan Stress), Dennis Waterman (as the Photographer), Gordon Sterne (as the Producer) (Story 2) Victor Spinetti (as George), Vanessa Howard (as Barbara) (Story 3) John Bird (as the Taxi Driver), Yutte Stensgaard (as the passenger) |
| Starlets: | (Story 2) Valerie Leon, Heather Barber, Alexandra Bastedo, Sue Cole, Sheila Ruskin, Siobhan Taylor (Story 3) Angie Grant, Cleo Goldstein |
| This Is My Street (1963) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Bill MacIlwraith / Director: Sidney Hayers / Producer: Jack Hanbury | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 90 mins |
| Margery Graham is a young woman who is unhappily married to an unambitious husband called Sid whom she had to wed when she fell pregnant. She has a 4-year old daughter called Cindy whom she adores but is bored by her life with Sid. Margery's whole life has been spent living in the same row of terraced houses - the only difference is that she now lives next door to her mother Lily rather than with her. Margery feels trapped by her circumstances unlike her younger sister Jinny who moved away to become a schoolteacher.
Harry King is a womanising jewellery salesman and night-club co-owner with a smooth line of chat who lodges at Lily's house and fancies Margery, but she finds his persistent badgering repellent and gives him no encouragement although he is never put off by her lack of interest. One day when young Cindy goes missing Margery panics and Harry shows himself to be considerably level-headed in helping her find the girl who had wandered off whilst playing. Margery is grateful to Harry and finds herself reassessing him and she realises that beneath the cocky exterior he seems to actually be a pleasant and dependable man. Slowly but surely she starts to fall in love with him. This results in an affair and she becomes more and more needful of him thinking that she will end up divorcing Sid and marrying Harry instead. But Harry is not the marrying kind and is really only after a casual fling and she responds by becoming more and more possessive and demanding to try and change his mind. Harry spurns her and once again she is back to her stark reality of being trapped in a marriage to a man she does not love. When Margery's sister Jinny comes back to stay Margery becomes increasingly jealous that Harry's attention seems to have shifted towards her sister and, even worse, before long the two of them have announced they are to get married. Margery is devastated and writes a confession letter about her affair and then makes a concerted effort to kill herself with her head inside a gas oven. Fortunately she is found and saved just in time but her letter is read and her secret affair with Harry is revealed. Jinny decides she cannot marry Harry now she knows how he treated Margery and he is asked to leave his lodgings. Sid decides to make more of an effort to improve himself and get a better job. As the story ends time moves on a few months and Margery is back to full health and she and Sid are making another go of making their marriage work. They have even moved house - although only to the other side of the same street. | |
| Comment: There is another minor side-plot about another young girl on the street called Maureen who calculatingly uses her good looks to have affairs with older married men and enjoy the expensive gifts they shower upon her. But one such man becomes possessively jealous and decides he does not want to share her and deliberately crashes his car at high speed while driving her home to kill them both. She survives but her face is scarred and she has to come to lower her expectations about the type of men who will want to go out with her. | |
| Starring: | Ian Hendry (as Harry King), June Ritchie (as Margery Graham), Avice Landon (as Lily, Margery's mother), Annette Andre (as Jinny, Margery's sister), Philippa Gail (as Maureen) |
| Featuring: | Meredith Edwards and Madge Ryan (as Maureen's parents), John Hurt (as Charlie, youth who works in café with Maureen), Mike Pratt (as Sid, Margery's husband), Tom Adams (as Paul, Jinny's boyfriend), Robert Bruce (as Mark Clayton, married man having affair with Maureen), John Bluthal (as night-club manager), Derek Francis (as Mr Fingus, lecherous department store floor manager where Margery works) Sheraton Blount (as Cindy, Margery's young daughter) |
| NOTES: | |
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Adapted from the novel of the same name by Nan Maynard |
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Made in Black and White |
| This Sporting Life (1963) | Previous Next |
| Writer: David Storey (based on his own novel) / Director: Lindsay Anderson / Producer: Karel Reisz | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 128 mins |
| Frank Machin is a burly working class miner in Northern England who has ambitions to better himself and decides the best way to drastically improve his prospects is to become a member of the City's Rugby team. The City Rugby League Team are keenly followed and all its middle-class team members have local celebrity-status and impressive incomes. Frank boards with a young widow called Margaret Hammond who has two young children. Her husband died working in a factory owned by Gerald Weaver who also owns the rugby team. Margaret is very cool towards Frank always behaving in an offhand manner with no wish to get emotionally involved despite his attempts to be friendly with her.
Frank wangles a try-out with the City team and proves himself very able on the field. The committee realise his huge potential and want to sign him up and he manages to negotiate a large wage. Although he is socially a fish-out-of-water Frank quickly becomes the team's most important star player. He could now afford a place of his own but he continues to live with Margaret and try and melt her resistance because, despite her indifference, he has fallen in love with her. He buys her gifts and eventually she gives into his persistence and ends up sharing his bed as a kind of duty - but still does not show any actual emotional love for him. Margaret begins to be gossiped about as being a kept woman which she resents. She wants Frank to leave but he cannot understand her attitude - he wants to give her a better life and it is only her intransigence that is preventing their relationship from being formalised. She gets hysterical and throws him out and he goes through a bad patch of being depressed and living in a doss house. After a few days he goes back to try and talk sense into Margaret and discovers she has been rushed to hospital - apparently she has been very ill and is suffering from a brain haemorrhage and she soon dies. Frank goes back to the house and cries out in pain at his loss and despair. | |
| Comment: With her continual lack of warmth it is a bit difficult to understand quite what Frank sees in Margaret. Her sudden illness and death seems to come rather out of the blue at the end - unless the idea was that it had been something she had known about for a long time and was trying not to get involved with him because of it. | |
| Starring: | Richard Harris (as Frank Machin), Rachel Roberts (as Margaret Hammond), Alan Badel (as Gerald Weaver, club chairman), William Hartnell (as 'Dad' Johnson, Frank's old-timer friend), Colin Blakely (as Maurice Braithwaite, rugby player, Frank's friend) |
| Featuring: | Arthur Lowe (as Charles Slomer, Rugby committee member), Vanda Godsell (as Anne Weaver, Gerald's wife), Anne Cunningham (as Judith, Maurice's girlfriend), Jack Watson (as Len Miller, Rugby team captain), Harry Markham (as Wade, Rugby committee member) |
| Familiar Faces: | Leonard Rossiter (as Sports Journalist), Frank Windsor (as Dentist) |
| NOTES: | |
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Made in Black and White |
| Writers: Jack Davies, Ken Annakin / Director: Ken Annakin / Producer: Stan Margulies | |
| Type: Comedy | Running Time: 126 mins |
| The year is 1910 and flying machines are the new rage. All over the world pioneers use principles of flight established by the Wright brothers earlier that decade to design and build their own machines and enjoy for themselves the freedom of soaring the skyways.
In England, Coldstream Guardsman and flying enthusiast Richard Mays spends all his spare time working on his aircraft making improvements. He is helped by his girlfriend Patricia Rawnsley who likes getting her hands dirty and helping him in a tomboyish way. But in polite company she is mindful to dress accordingly and maintain the expected ladylike dignity. It irks Patricia that she is not allowed to fly herself because she is a woman and her father Lord Rawnsley refuses to consider it. Although Richard and Patricia are not yet officially engaged there is an understanding supported by her father that they will eventually marry. Richard suggests to Lord Rawnsley, who owns a newspaper, the idea of sponsoring a cross-channel air-race for competitors from around the world to come together and put their flying machines to the test. Lord Rawnsley takes to the idea and puts up a £10,000 prize on behalf of his newspaper. The news is reprinted around the world and entrants from all over Europe and as far afield as America and Japan journey to England with their disassembled machines to take part. The American contestant is Orvil Newton from Phoenix, Arizona who uses his flying machine commercially to take up passengers on thrill rides. But he has fallen on hard times and sees winning the prize money as his only hope. Other competitors are from France, Italy and Germany. Another British competitor is the unscrupulous bounder Sir Percy Ware-Armitage who does not believe in leaving anything to chance and is therefore prepared to cheat to make sure he is the winner. The competitors gather at Brookley Airfield where they reassemble their machines and begin test flights. The route is to be in three legs to allow for refuelling stops. Firstly Brookley to Dover; secondly, after an overnight stop, across the channel from Dover to Calais; then straight on from Calais to the finish in Paris. Patricia meets Orvil and although she finds his brash American manner somewhat uncouth she is charmed by his willingness to take her up for a passenger ride in his machine. These perilous antics displease Lord Rawnsley and it is only Patricia's intervention that prevents Orvil being disqualified. Orvil is very taken by Patricia's untypical female gumption and decides he is going to ask her to marry him when he reaches Paris. Richard takes exception to the presumptuous American and they come to blows over their mutual admiration for Patricia. Both plan to ask Patricia to marry them in Paris. On the night before the start Sir Percy and his put-upon valet Courtney take the opportunity to nobble some of their rivals with laxative-laced refreshments, or by sabotaging their machines. Fourteen competitors start the first leg and eight make it successfully to Dover. Sir Percy surprises everyone by foregoing his overnight rest and announcing he going across the channel in the dark - but actually he is taking no risks and has hired a trawler to ferry his aircraft across the water. Next day the remaining competitors take off across the 22 miles of channel water. Some ditch into the sea and are picked up by rescue boats. The main competitors all make it safely across and after a quick refuelling stop in Calais they take off again for Paris. Sir Percy is many hours ahead and seems sure to win but unfortunately he is blinded by the smoke from a passing steam train and inadvertently lands on its roof unable to take off again and is out of the race. Orvil seems set to be the winner until the Italian competitor runs into trouble with his engine failing and Orvil slows to achieve a daring midair rescue. This allows Richard to shoot ahead and win the race. Richard takes the glory but acknowledges that Orvil should have won and agrees to share the prize money. Patricia has arrived by conventional travel and is happy for Richard but also takes the time to talk to Orvil. It remains slightly unclear at the end which man she has chosen. | |
| Starring: | James Fox (as Richard Mays, flyer), Sarah Miles (as Patricia Rawnsley, Richard's fiancée), Stuart Whitman (as Orvil Newton, American flyer), Terry-Thomas (as Sir Percy Ware-Armitage, cheating flyer), Eric Sykes (as Courtney, Sir Percy's valet), Robert Morley (as Lord Rawnsley, race promoter and Patricia's father) |
| Featuring: | Benny Hill (as Perkins, Aerodrome Fire Chief), William Rushton (as Tremayne Gascoyne, race liaison officer), Tony Hancock (as Harry Popperwell, madcap inventor, flyer), Jeremy Lloyd (as Lieutenant Parsons, flyer), Alberto Sordi (as Count Emilio Ponticelli, Italian flyer), Gert Frobe (as Colonel Manfred von Holstein, German flyer), Jean-Pierre Cassel (as Pierre Dubois, French flyer), Yujiro Ishihara (as Yamamoto, Japanese flyer), Irina Demick (as Various identical looking girls), Flora Robson (as Mother Superior), Karl Michael Vogler (as Captain Rumpelstoss, von Holstein's underling), Zena Marshall (as Countess Sophia Ponticelli, Emilio's wife), Sam Wanamaker (as George Gruber, Orvil's friend), Norman Rossington (as Aerodrome fireman) (in cameo roles) Eric Barker (as French Postman), John Le Mesurier (as French Painter), Maurice Denham (as Trawler Skipper), Gordon Jackson (as MacDougal) |
| NOTES: | |
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This film has a semi-sequel called Monte Carlo or Bust! (1969) in which motorcar enthusiasts compete in a road endurance rally in the 1920s. In the sequel Terry-Thomas plays Sir Cuthbert Ware-Armitage who is the son of his character in this movie - this is despite the sequel only being set about ten years later. Eric Sykes plays his assistant again although with a different name. Both films were by the same writers and director. |
| Writers: (Various) / Directors: (Various) / Producers: (Various) | |
| Type: Anthology / Horror | Running Time: 83 mins |
| Three unconnected spooky stories made by different writers and directors are collected together under the umbrella title of this film.
Mrs Amworth Based on the Story by E.F. Benson; Adapted by Hugh Whitmore / Directed by Alvin Rakoff / Produced by William F. Deneen A quiet village in Wiltshire has recently become stricken with a strange disease which affects the blood. It is put down to an increase in gnats but it has the experts baffled. Meanwhile a newcomer to town called Mrs Amworth is helping to cheer everyone up with her sparky personality and bringing the village to life with her social organising. Villager Mr Benson's nephew comes to stay and he too becomes stricken with the malady which causes the sufferer to become listless and tired. Mr Urcombe, a local believer in the occult, discovers that back in the 1600s their village suffered a similar malady which was put down to witchcraft and blamed on a woman called Elizabeth Chaston who is an ancestor of Mrs Amworth. It emerges that Mrs Amworth is Elizabeth Chaston, an immortal vampire, who every night returns to her grave after feeding. It is her bites that are the cause of the unknown illness. Benson and Urcombe dig up the coffin and kill her sleeping form and soon after that the malady affecting the village is over. The Mannikin Based on the story by Robert Bloch / Directed by Don Thompson / Produced by Jim Hanley When the mother of popular recording artiste Simone McGlore dies she makes one last visit to her childhood home to say her final farewell. Simone hated her childhood because mother and her housekeeping friend Miss Smith made her participate in séances and occult chants. Simone vows never to return again leaving Miss Smith to run the house by herself. But shortly thereafter Simone suffers terrible attacks of pain and seeks medical and psychiatric help from a specialist called David Salter who suggests she may having feelings of guilt for never having loved her mother. Simone feels compelled to return to the old house and Miss Smith performs a ceremony in which a hideous pigmy is born from a hump that develops on Simone's back. David comes to the house with concern for Simone but she insists she is now perfectly at ease and wants to stay in the house with Miss Smith. David leaves but is worried and intends to return with the authorities because he suspects Miss Smith has done something to Simone to change her personality so drastically. But on his drive home the manikin pygmy attacks him from where it has been hiding in the back seat and he crashes and dies. Simone and Miss Smith remain at home content in each others company waiting for the Mannikin to return to them. The Island Based on the Story by L.P. Hartley; Adapted by Robert Fuest / Directed by Robert Fuest / Produced by William F. Deneen A Second World War officer called Lt George Simmonds is on leave and visits his lover Jenny Santander who lives in a mansion on a remote offshore island. Her butler Collins is rather vague about Mrs Santander's whereabouts and Simmonds is asked to wait. He is surprised to encounter Mr Santander whom he believed was away abroad. Santander has an intimidating bearing and seems to know his wife has many lovers of which Simmonds is merely an also-ran. Santander says he has returned because his wife has run up considerable bills and he has come to settle up. Santander leads Simmonds into another room where he finds Jenny seated and dead from a single bullet. After Simmonds has recovered from the shock he finds that Santander has gone and Collins tells him that Mr Santander is far away in South America and couldn't have been here. Simmonds checks his revolver and finds that one bullet has been fired and Collins phones the police to report the murder. | |
| Comment: This anthology film does not have any framing scenes. It is simply three short features placed together with the same narrator introducing each. The first and last were made for British television by HTV and were shown as standalone dramas in 1978. The middle story was a Canadian production. Each lasts about 25 minutes. The supposed common theme of "Dangerous Ladies" falls down somewhat in the final story which does not really feature such an individual. The first story is the best and makes some sort of sense but the other two don't fully explain themselves and have somewhat vague conclusions. | |
| Starring: | ("Mrs Amworth") Glynis Johns (as Mrs Amworth), Derek Francis (as Mr Benson), John Philips (as Mr Urcombe), Pip Miller (as David Salter, Benson's nephew) ("The Mannikin") Ronee Blakley (as Simone McGlore), Pol Pelletier (as Miss Smith), Keir Dullea (as David Priestley), Cec Linder (as Dr Carstairs) ("The Island") John Hurt (as Lt. George Simmonds), Charles Gray (as Morris Santander), Graham Crowden (as Collins the Butler) |
| Featuring: | Ed Deveraux (as Ferryman, story 3) |
| Starlets: | Jenny Runacre (as Mrs Santander, story 3, [seen as a dead body only]) |
| Three for All (1974) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Tudor Gates / Director: Martin Campbell / Producers: Harold Shampan, Tudor Gates | |
| Type: Comedy | Running Time: 85 mins |
| Diane, Shelley and Pet are three girls whose boyfriends are in a struggling pop group called Billy Beethoven. The band are getting fed up with forever being the perennial support act whom the audience deride in their impatience to see the headline act. They urge their manager Jet Bone to do something about it and Jet responds by managing to strike a deal with a travel company who are willing to send the group on an exclusive tour of their Spanish holiday resorts and heavily promote them in the hope of selling more holidays. The promoter Eddie Boys decides they need an image overhaul to hook into the glitterama fad and the boys become glitter cowboys. The girlfriends are looking forward to going to Spain with their boyfriends and are therefore hugely crestfallen when Mr Boys decides that girlfriends would be bad thing and the group should have no distractions while away.
So the three girls are left at home to mope and become so bored that they decide to use their savings to go on holiday to Spain and have some fun by themselves. The girls book a package holiday and are soon off to Torremolinos to stay at the Playamar hotel complex. Unfortunately they keep getting into unfortunate scrapes which involve the police and have to be bailed out by the kindly ex-pat complex security manager Mr Gibbons. Meanwhile Billy Beethoven are making a name for themselves and their gigs are selling out as they start to become a hot property. Back in England their single is released which storms to the top of the hit parade. The girls eventually become such a nuisance to Mr Gibbons that he asks if they wouldn't mind leaving early and since they have found the holiday to be a bit dull anyway they duly go home. When the boys' tour is over they return home to England all thoroughly worn out and are reunited with their girlfriends who are delighted to have them back at last. Mr Boys wants to cash in on the group's new-found fame and send them on an immediate tour of the United States but considers it a nuisance for their fan appeal that they have girlfriends. So to get the girls discreetly out of the way he "rewards" them for their patience in (as he believes) staying at home while the boys were in Spain by giving them an all-expenses paid holiday to Torremolinos at the Playamar hotel! | |
| Starring: | Adrienne Posta (as Diane), Lesley North (as Shelley), Cheryl Hall (as Pet) (Billy Beethoven) Graham Bonnet (as Kook, lead singer), Robert Lindsay (as Tom, drummer) Paul Nicholas (as Gary, guitar), Christopher Neil (as Ricky, guitar) Richard Beckinsale (as Jet Bone, Billy Beethoven's manager), John Le Mesurier (as Mr Gibbons, head of security at Spanish hotel complex), George Baker (as Eddie Boys, promoter), Simon Williams (as Harry Bingley, Eddie's assistant) |
| Featuring: | Jonathan Adams (as Dr Sparks, holidaymaker), Arthur Mullard and Sheila Bernette (as Ben and Rhoda Williams, holidaymakers), Ian Lavender (as Spanish policeman), Roy Kinnear (as Joe Underwood, chat-up pest at night-club), Anna Quayle (as Miss La Pulle, Spanish celebrity), Nicholas Young (as Myron, man at night-club), Roy North (as Ralph, man at night-club) |
| Familiar Faces: | [Small cameo roles] Diana Dors (as Ricky's mother), Hattie Jacques (as Security Official at airport), Liz Fraser (as Airport Passenger), Dandy Nichols (as Lady at night-club), Edward Woodward (as Roadsweeper in London) |
| Also: | Showaddywaddy (guest performance) |
| NOTES: | |
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Although classed as a comedy it is not a joke-strewn sit-com affair played for obvious laughs - but it is far too light and fluffy to be considered as a drama. Also despite the track-record of usually more saucy material from director Martin Campbell and writer Tudor Gates, this one is strictly U certificate stuff. |
| Three Hats for Lisa (1965) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Leslie Bricusse, Talbot Rothwell / Director: Sidney Hayers / Producer: Jack Hanbury | |
| Type: Musical / Comedy | Running Time: 95 mins |
| Johnny Howjego is a chirpy cockney who works at Bermondsey docks in London with his friends Sammy and Flora. Johnny's pin-up girl is Italian film star Lisa Milan and when he hears she is coming to London to promote her new film he decides to take the day off work to see her arrive at London airport. Sammy is keen as well and Flora tags along reluctantly because although she is not interested in Lisa she does secretly admire Johnny, but regretfully knows she is too plain for him to have any interest in her.
The trio manage to persuade their taxi-driver friend Sid to chauffeur them but because of traffic delays they are late and miss seeing the celebrated film star's arrival. Johnny is downcast but his disappointment is short-lived when they are mistaken for members of Lisa's fan club and allowed to meet her in person at a press conference. Lisa even gives Johnny a kiss which absolutely makes his day. With Johnny on cloud nine they begin to make their way home. Lisa Milan has been given a hectic schedule of personal appearances by her UK press officer Mr Pepper and she finds the prospect draining because she has been working non-stop for six months and really wants a day off to go sightseeing - but Pepper tells her that is quite impossible. So when she sees Johnny and his friends passing by in their cab she impulsively gives Pepper the slip and hops into the cab with the three amazed friends. Lisa is a bright and cheerful girl whose fun-loving nature is infectious and she has no trouble persuading the three pals and Sid to help her out and show her around London. They quickly make friends and Lisa tells them about her special liking for collecting unusual hats wherever she goes. However she doesn't buy the hats because that would be too easy and no fun at all - instead she has to steal them! From London she needs a bowler hat, a guardsman's bearskin and a policeman's helmet. Lisa's charm and enthusiasm breaks any reticence the Londoners have about petty lawbreaking and they proceed to help her acquire the first two items on her list from their rightful owners using trickery and deception. The policeman's helmet proves trickier and their first attempt fails when Lisa is recognised. They hide out in the newly built, but not yet opened, GPO Tower where Flora and Lisa exchange clothes so Lisa won't be so recognisable. When Johnny sees Flora in Lisa's posh dress he is taken aback by how pretty she looks. Next day they try again at procuring a policeman's helmet in a busy market, but this time they are caught and arrested. Fortunately the station sergeant is a fan of Lisa's and lets them off and even leaves a helmet "carelessly" on the desk for Lisa to "steal" when he isn't looking. With her fun time over Lisa returns to her hotel to resume her responsibilities. She bids a sad farewell to her new friends and thanks them for being so hospitable towards her. Johnny has decided to ask Flora out on a date now he has seen her in a different light. | |
| Comment: The film is a musical and the characters frequently break out into song and dance routines. | |
| Starring: | Joe Brown (as Johnny Howjego), Sophie Hardy (as Lisa Milan), Una Stubbs (as Flora), Sidney James (as Sid Marks, taxi-driver), Dave Nelson (as Sammy), Peter Bowles (as Pepper, Lisa's UK press agent) |
| Featuring: | Seymour Green (as Signor Molfino, Lisa's father), Josephine Blake (as Miss Penny, Pepper's secretary), Jeremy Lloyd (as Guards Officer), Eric Barker (as Police Station Sergeant) |
| Starlets: | Sandra Hampton and Beth McDonald (as Greta and Doris, Flora's friends) |
| NOTES: | |
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Original story, music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse |
| Writer: Edna O'Brien / Director: Peter Hall / Producer: Julian Blaustein | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 89 mins |
| Steve Howard is a 43-year-old Assistant Sales Director working for a firm that sells domestic appliances. He is married to Frances although their relationship is a bit shaky and they have never been able to have children. They have just moved into a brand new home and everything is in a state of upheaval. Steve spends a lot of time away from home on the road as part of his job and he likes to pick up pretty girl hitchhikers for company and possibly a bit more besides if he gets lucky.
As the film begins he spots a pretty young girl thumbing for a lift. She is called Ella and is nineteen years old with an unconventional attitude almost making him think she is doing him a favour by accepting his offer of a lift. She is very independently minded but comes across as a bit of an enigma not giving much away about herself - she claims to be penniless and only does what gives her pleasure:- travel, conversation, food and sex. Steve buys her a meal which she ravenously consumes and afterwards they go to a hotel that he regularly stays at and they have sex. He discovers she has a notebook and obviously does this sort of thing a lot as she has given her previous conquests scores and comments. She tells him he will get a high score. Next morning she thinks nothing of making him squirm at the breakfast table by talking loudly about his infidelity to make him uncomfortable amongst the other guests nearby as she goads him on the condition of his marriage. Despite this she seems to have him hooked. She then tells him she is staying on at the hotel and has taken a job as a maid and Steve leaves her there and continues his journey home. At home his wife Frances is still unpacking following their recent move. Their marriage is cracking but Frances is convinced a child would fix things - she wants to adopt but Steve is unsupportive saying he doesn’t have the time to sort out the details and she should get on and look into it herself if that's what she wants. After a furious row he goes out again on pretence of another job related trip and goes back to the hotel to find Ella and they have sex again. He finds himself falling for her uninhibited impulsiveness and the inveigling sense of aloof mystery she presents. He then goes off on the road again. A few days later at home Frances has a visitor - it is Ella saying she is just calling on the off-chance that her husband, the nice Mr Howard, might be in because he kindly gave her a lift a while back and said she should look him up if she were ever in the area. She displays a far less self-assured facet to Frances as she gives her a sob story of how she was abused by the manager of the hotel she worked at and had to leave without any pay and has nowhere to go and thought of Mr Howard. Frances knows none of the true story and feels sorry for the girl and offers her a bed for the night. Back at the hotel all Steve knows from the hotel manager is that Ella left suddenly without notice taking her pay out of the till. He is shocked when he gets home to find his mistress in his house with his wife. Steve wants Ella to leave but can't push her too far lest she reveal what has gone on between them. Ella presenting a sweet helpless vulnerability, plays on Frances' compassionate side and manages to stay longer by saying she thinks she might be pregnant by the hotel manager as her period is late. But as a few days pass Frances becomes suspicious that her husband and Ella are the ones that have been carrying on and when the truth emerges and Ella admits the baby is Steve's, Frances suggests to her husband that maybe they could adopt her baby. However, Steve has already made alternate plans and has decided to leave his wife and set up home with Ella. With the marriage well and truly destroyed Ella changes her story and says she has now had her period and there is no baby after all. Frances leaves to go and stay with her mother and when Steve asks Ella why she came to visit his wife she replies she was just curious to see what would happen. Ella leaves with no sense of sorrow or remorse or even wicked pleasure at the havoc she has wreaked in this marriage and it is as though she has done it purely as an experiment. | |
| Starring: | Rod Steiger (as Steve Howard), Claire Bloom (as Frances Howard), Judy Geeson (as Ella Patterson) |
| Featuring: | Peggy Ashcroft (as Belle, Frances' mother), Paul Rogers (as Jack Roberts, hotel manager), Elizabeth Spriggs (as Marcia Hitchins, hotel maid) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on a novel by Andrea Newman. |
| Writer: Robert Westerby / Director: Don Chaffey | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 93 mins |
| It is 1912 and Andrew McDhui is a Scottish vet who has just moved to Argyllshire to set up a local practice in the small village of Inverloch. He is more used to the impersonal business approach of treating farm animals and finds that his brash practical manner does not go down well with the villagers wishing for compassion and understanding where their beloved pets are concerned. Andrew is a widower with a young daughter called Mary to care for - his nurse wife was taken five years ago while caring for the sick in an epidemic. Soon after they move in a ginger cat called Thomasina "adopts" them and soon makes herself one of the family becoming Mary's best friend and playmate.
Elsewhere, in the nearby glen, a beautiful young woman called Lori MacGregor lives alone in a rented croft. She is a happy joyful soul who adores animals but her reclusive nature has given her a local reputation of being a witch and the children all fear her. Lori has a mischievous playful nature and doesn't mind the label she has been saddled with. She compassionately takes in sick and injured animals and nurses them back to health. She has such a natural affinity that even the wildest of animals seem to have an instinctive trust of her knowing they will be safe in her care. When Thomasina falls ill with tetanus after an accident Mary rushes to her father to save the cat. But Andrew is urgently saving the life of the much needed working-dog of a blind man and has no time to treat both and so he has to have Thomasina put down as a danger to health. Mary is so upset that she vows never to speak to her father again. Her child friends hold a funeral service for Thomasina and take her body to the glen for a burial service - but when they see Lori they run off in fear leaving Thomasina's body behind. When Lori examines the cat she is puzzled because Thomasina is not dead but is in a deep sleep with a very weak pulse. Lori takes the cat back to her croft to nurse her back to health. When Thomasina recovers she has forgotten her former life and lives now with Lori in her second life. Mary meanwhile remains unresponsive to her father still believing her beloved Thomasina to be dead. Andrew cannot get through to his daughter however much he tries. The children in the village start spreading stories about Andrew telling everyone how heartless he is that he would even kill his own daughter's pet and that people would be best advised not to take their own pets to him for he would rather kill them than cure them. Andrew's business soon starts to suffer and when he hears embroidered tales of the work Lori does on the glen he decides to go and see her and give her a piece of his mind about her mumbo-jumbo practices. He witnesses her taking an injured badger from a trap and urgently warns her that a wounded badger is dangerous - but in Lori's arms he is astonished to see the animal remains docile and trusting. Andrew helps treat the badger with medicines and Lori is just as impressed by his techniques as he is of her uncanny ability to gain an animal's trust. He decides he quite likes her after all and realises she is doing no harm. Back home Mary falls seriously ill and appears to have given up on life and Andrew thinks of Lori's gift for reaching out to hurt and lost creatures and decides to ask her to take a look at Mary. When he goes to her croft she is not there and he hears a noise from a nearby gypsy circus. Lori has gone there after reports of animal mistreatment and finds the uncaring owner none too fond of her interference as he orders her whipped. Andrew arrives and saves her - they then go to see Mary and it is clear how far gone the little girl is. Back at the croft alone in a thunderstorm Thomasina suddenly remembers her old home and the love she had with Mary and heads back. She meows at the window and Andrew brings her in and as soon as Mary sees that Thomasina has come back she miraculously recovers. Andrew and Lori have fallen for each other and they marry providing Mary with a much-needed mother figure. They become a new family with Thomasina a proud member of it as the cat enters its new third life. | |
| Starring: | Patrick McGoohan (as Andrew McDhui), Susan Hampshire (as Lori MacGregor), Jean Anderson (as Mrs MacKenzie, the McDhui housekeeper), Karen Dotrice (as Mary McDhui, Andrew's daughter) (Mary's child friends) Vincent Winter (as Hughie Stirling), Denis Gilmore (as Jamie McNab), Matthew Garber (as Geordie McNab) |
| Featuring: | Laurence Naismith (as Reverend Angus Peddie), Wilfrid Brambell (as Willie Bannock, veterinary assistant) |
| Also: | Elspeth March (as Narrative Voice of Thomasina) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the novel Thomasina by Paul Gallico. |
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Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber both receive "introducing" credits. |
| The Three Musketeers (1973) | Previous Next |
| Writer: George MacDonald Fraser / Director: Richard Lester / Presented by: Alexander Salkind | |
| Type: Adventure | Running Time: 102 mins |
| Set in early 17th century France. D'Artagnan is a fresh-faced young man from a rural community whose ambition is to become a King's Musketeer. The musketeers are a tight-knit band of swashbuckling adventurers dedicated to serving the king. D'Artagnan has been taught well by his father who was a musketeer himself and has brought his son up to be chivalrous and gallant and to stand up for what is right. D'Artagnan has the confidence of youth and is willing to rise to any challenge.
The king of France is Louis XIII but the real power lies with Cardinal Richelieu whose shred manipulations of the monarch's limited intelligence mean that he wields considerable influence on affairs of state. Louis is married to Anne of Austria whom the Cardinal has misgivings over. The Cardinal also despises the order of musketeers who have unbefitting autonomy in his view and his own guards have orders to hinder them whenever possible. D'Artagnan arrives in the big city but has his hopes of glory dashed when he is deemed by the musketeer's commander to be too young and inexperienced to be considered. Fortunately D'Artagnan comes into the company of the three foremost musketeers Athos, Aramis and Porthos and proves himself capable when he fights by their side in a tussle against the Cardinal's heavy-handed guards. The three musketeers are impressed by D'Artagnan's skill and fortitude and agree to take him under their wing. They find him a servant called Planchet and a lodgings house. The landlord's wife is Constance de Bonacieux who is dressmaker to Queen Anne. D'Artagnan finds Constance very appealing and fancies his chances with her. Queen Anne is having a secret relationship with the Prime Minister of England, the Duke of Buckingham. England is an enemy of France and the Queen is concerned that the Cardinal may find out about her relationship and ruin her. So when the Duke arranges a secret rendezvous she tells him they must not see each other again until circumstances change. As a token of her love she gives the Duke a ribbon with a set of twelve diamond studs. The diamonds were a present to her from the King but he has never shown the slightest interest in her wearing them so she feels safe to present them to her lover. The Duke returns to England with the diamonds. Unfortunately one of the Cardinal's spies reports the assignation and the largess handed over and he devises a strategy with which to expose the Queen's treachery without crossing the line and openly accusing her. The Cardinal plants in the King's mind the idea of holding a grand ball in two weeks time at which everyone should wear their finest things. For the Queen this means she must be seen to honour her husband by wearing his gift to her. The Queen is now in a horrible dilemma and believes her position most perilous. Her dressmaker Constance, in whom she confides, suggests they ask her lodger D'Artagnan to travel across the channel to England and collect the diamonds from the Duke and return with them in time for the ball. The deadline is very tight to achieve this in time, but D'Artagnan is eager to do anything that might impress Constance and is up for the challenge. Meanwhile the Cardinal who is way ahead of the game has envisaged such an attempt and via his chief blade man Rochefort he has despatched a beautiful femme fatale called Lady De Winter to seduce the Duke of Buckingham and purloin two of the diamond studs. The Cardinal knows that even if the queen manages to get the ribbon back in time she will be unable to explain the missing studs. When D'Artagnan meets with the Duke of Buckingham in England and presents a letter from the Queen explaining her predicament the Duke fetches the studs only to find two of them are missing. He recalls a recent dalliance with Lady De Winter and realises what has happened. The Duke therefore calls upon his finest jeweller to make two new matching studs. This delay means there is no time to waste and D'Artagnan returns to France with all due haste with the now compete set of studs. The ball has started and the Queen is under pressure to produce the diamonds and the delaying tactics she has thus far used have been exhausted. She resigns herself to her fate thinking that D'Artagnan has failed. Then at the very last moment he arrives after riding flat out across France for days and the Queen gets her diamonds back and wears them to the ball. The King has been primed by the Cardinal to make sure he counts the diamonds very carefully although the King remains somewhat bemused by his Cardinal's odd advice. When he counts them they are all present and correct and the Cardinal has to quickly backtrack on the accusations he was about to deliver and instead present the two diamonds passed to him by Lady De Winter as some "spares" he generously had made for the Queen. D'Artagnan's bravery is appreciated and with his friends recommendation he is officially invested into the ranks of the musketeers. The Cardinal accepts without rue that he been outmanoeuvred and lost this round, but as a master strategist he knows there will be other opportunities for him to win through in the long term. Lady De Winter however feels vexed by the failure and vows to soon get even with those involved ... | |
| Comment: The ending sets the story up for the sequel which is about Lady De Winter enacting her revenge. | |
| Starring: | Michael York (as D'Artagnan), Oliver Reed (as Athos, musketeer), Richard Chamberlain (as Aramis, musketeer), Frank Finlay (as Porthos, musketeer, [also plays O'Reilly the duke's jeweller]), Raquel Welch (as Constance de Bonacieux, Queen's dressmaker), Simon Ward (as Duke of Buckingham, prime minister of England), Christopher Lee (as Rochefort, cardinal's bladesman), Charlton Heston (as Cardinal Richelieu), Geraldine Chaplin (as Anna of Austria, Louis XIII's wife), Jean Pierre Cassel (as Louis XIII, king of France) |
| Featuring: | Faye Dunaway (as Lady de Winter), Spike Milligan (as Monsieur Bonacieux, D'Artagnan's landlord and Constance's' husband), Roy Kinnear (as Planchet, D'Artagnan's manservant), Joss Ackland (as D'Artagnan's father), Georges Wilson (as Treville, commander of the musketeers), Michael Gothard (as Felton, Duke's servant) |
| Familiar Faces: | Rodney Bewes (as Spy), Frank Thornton (as Man in carriage, [non-speaking cameo]) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas |
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The film has the subtitle The Queen's Diamonds" |
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The end of this film includes a preview of scenes to come in the next film entitled The Four Musketeers (1974) in which the story continues. It features the same cast and was filmed at the same time. Its subtitle is The Revenge of Milady. |
| Writers: Arthur Ross, Jack Sher / Director: Jack Sher / Producer: Charles H. Schneer | |
| Type: Fantasy Adventure | Running Time: 94 mins |
| Prologue
In 1699 Dr Lemuel Gulliver is a hard-working doctor whose livelihood is struggling because his patients are too poor to pay his fees. He is unable to afford to buy a home with his fiancée Elizabeth for when they are married and so he has decided to take a commission as a ship's doctor on board a merchant vessel to pay for it. Elizabeth urges him not to go because of the danger and how much she will miss him - but he has made up his mind and joins up with a ship sailing for the East Indies. Once underway he discovers Elizabeth has stowed aboard but before he can decide what to do about her they are caught in a violent storm and Gulliver is swept overboard... Lilliput Gulliver is washed up onto an unknown island exhausted and when he awakens he finds that he has been tied down by some incredibly tiny people who observe him with wary trepidation. This is the island of Lilliput and to them Gulliver is the size of a giant many hundreds of feet high. Gulliver assures them he is friendly and means no harm and eventually he gains their trust. Gulliver wants to help them prosper by using his Herculean strength to perform tasks beyond their capabilities and turn Lilliput into a idyllic land of promise for them all. In return he asks for their help in building himself a boat to return home. But the Emperor of Lilliput wants to put Gulliver to use as a weapon of war against their hated neighbours on the nearby island of Blefuscu. Gulliver refuses to take sides in a war which is being waged over what he sees as the ridiculous matter of the best way to slice a boiled egg. Eventually Gulliver decides to intervene by towing their opponent's empty vessels away and hopes that by depriving both sides of the ability to attack each other the matter will be resolved. But the Emperor is aggrieved that Gulliver refused to annihilate their defenceless enemies. He accuses Gulliver of treason and orders him killed by the archers. Gulliver is forced to escape to sea in his newly built but unprovisioned rowboat and put himself at the mercy of the Atlantic currents. Brobdingnag Gulliver comes ashore on another island but this time the roles are reversed and the inhabitants here are as tall to him as he was to the Lilliputians. A friendly young girl called Glumdalclitch finds him and takes him to the king's palace where Gulliver is delighted to find his fiancée Elizabeth safe and well. She has been here for some time after falling overboard in the same storm. The king is very friendly and welcoming and has built a small version of his palace for his tiny guests to live in. Elizabeth and Gulliver are considered to be a great novelty and they are provided with every luxury. The king even performs a marriage ceremony so they can live together properly as a couple. The newlyweds are both very happy and Glumdalclitch is given the task of looking after them and making sure they come to no harm. When the queen falls ill Gulliver knows he can use his medical knowledge to help and is frustrated that the palace healer Makovan relies on outmoded restoratives hundreds of years out of date that belong to medieval times. Gulliver uses a modern remedy to cure the queen which pleases the king. But the underhanded Makovan now views Gulliver as a threat to his own position and he convinces the king that Gulliver must have used magic to cure the queen and therefore be a witch. This is a terrible crime amongst these superstitious giants and Gulliver is found guilty and sentenced to death by burning. Rather than have this happen Glumdalclitch comes to her tiny friends rescue and casts them out to sea in her picnic basket which to them is like a large floating barge. Epilogue When the castaways are next washed ashore they wonder where they have ended up this time but are overjoyed to find they are back in good old England and quite near their own town where everything is the proper size. | |
| Starring: | Kerwin Mathews (as Dr Lemuel Gulliver), June Thorburn (as Elizabeth Whiteley, Gulliver's fiancée) |
| Featuring: | (Lilliput) Basil Sydney (as Emperor), Marian Spencer (as Empress), Lee Patterson (as Reldresal, interior minister), Jo Morrow (as Gwendolyn, Reldresal's sweetheart), Martin Benson (as Flimnap, minister of finance), Peter Bull (as Lord Bermogg, Gwendolyn's father) (Brobdingnag) Gregoire Aslan (as King), Mary Ellis (as Queen), Charles Lloyd Pack (as Makovan, healer), Sherri Alberoni (as Glumdalclitch, young girl), Waveney Lee (as Shrike, Makovan's daughter) Noel Purcell (as Capt Pritchard, skipper of merchant vessel) |
| Familiar Faces: | Joan Hickson (as Mrs Gooseberry, patient at Gulliver's surgery, [cameo]) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift |
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The title of the film is a bit misleading by seeming to suggest that Gulliver visits three strange lands. Actually he only visits two with the third presumably being his own land. In the original book Gulliver in fact visits four peculiar places:- the two destinations omitted from this film are the sky-borne island of Laputa, and the land of Houyhnhnms inhabited by intelligent horses. |
| Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Gerry & Sylvia Anderson / Director: David Lane / Producer: Sylvia Anderson | |
| Type: Sci-Fi | Running Time: 89 mins |
| This very basic plot review assumes a pre-existing familiarity with the Thunderbirds characters. The launch of the first manned exploration vehicle to Mars is sabotaged by the Hood causing it to crash. Two years later when the planets are in ideal alignment for another launch the Space Exploration Centre asks International Rescue to oversee security and after foiling another sabotage attempt the launch is successfully made. On Mars the crew encounter a rock based life form which defend their territory and the explorers have to make a hasty getaway. On their return to Earth there is damage to the re-entry vehicle and International Rescue are called in to save the crew. | |
| Featuring: | (voices of) Peter Dyneley (Jeff Tracy) , Shane Rimmer (Scott Tracy), Jeremy Wilkin (Virgil Tracy), Matt Zimmerman (Alan Tracy), Sylvia Anderson (Lady Penelope), David Graham (Gordon Tracy/Brains/Parker), Ray Barrett (John Tracy/The Hood), Christine Finn (Tin-Tin) |
| Star-Turns: | (singing voice) Cliff Richard (as Cliff Richard Jr, puppet version singing with the Shadows) |
| NOTES: | |
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This film is a feature length spin-off from the popular TV classic Thunderbirds which ran for 32 episodes over two series from 1965-66. It was made just after the series ended using the same puppets, sets and models and with the same voice artists and stirring music. It very largely assumes an existing familiarity with the series, and whilst it doesn't do anything special with the characters or advance things in any way it does serve as a perfectly adequate extra episode of the series. There was a further feature film made two years later called Thunderbird 6 (1968). |
| Thunderbird 6 (1968) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Gerry & Sylvia Anderson / Director: David Lane / Producer: Sylvia Anderson | |
| Type: Sci-Fi | Running Time: 85 mins |
| This review assumes a pre-existing familiarity with the Thunderbirds characters. The Thunderbirds' engineer Brains has designed an airship for the New World Aircraft corporation using revolutionary anti-gravity compensators. The airship is a luxury craft that will float around the world providing luxury pleasure cruises. Lady Penelope, Parker, Alan and Tintin join the inaugural flight. Unbeknown to them the crew have been substituted by impostors working for the Hood and they record Lady Penelope's conversations to edit together a message that will lure International Rescue to a rendezvous where the Hood can take over their craft. The plan is foiled but in a gun battle the gravity compensators are damaged and the passengers on the airship have to be rescued by the International Rescue team using an unconventional craft. The title of this movie comes about because Jeff has asked Brains to design a new Thunderbird craft to complement the existing five but he has no idea of what type of vehicle it should be - Brains comes up with various designs that Jeff rejects. Meanwhile Alan travelled to England to join the cruise using an ancient bi-plane and when it comes to the airship rescue it is this plane that is used to rescue the passengers because Thunderbirds One and Two are creating too much turbulence to approach the stricken craft. With the rescue successfully made Brains declares that the bi-plane should be named the honorary Thunderbird 6. | |
| Featuring: | (voices of) Peter Dyneley (Jeff Tracy), Shane Rimmer (Scott Tracy), Jeremy Wilkin (Virgil Tracy), David Graham (Brains/Gordon/Parker), Matt Zimmerman (Alan Tracy), Sylvia Anderson (Lady Penelope), Keith Alexander (John Tracy), Christine Finn (Tin-Tin) |
| NOTES: | |
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This film is the second feature length spin-off from the popular TV classic Thunderbirds which ran for 32 episodes over two series from 1965-66. Although made a few years after the series ended everything is the same as before using the same puppets, sets and models and (with the exception of "John") the same voice artists and stirring music. This second film is in some ways more satisfactory than the first in that it concentrates more on the activities of the Tracy family rather than giving a lot of time over to new one-off unknown characters-in-peril as was the case in the first spin-off film Thunderbirds Are Go (1966). There's nothing remarkable about it as a film but it serves as a perfectly adequate extra episode of the series and was essentially its final ever outing. |
| Tiffany Jones (1973) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Alfred Shaugnessy / Director/Producer: Pete Walker | |
| Type: Comedy | Running Time: 87 mins |
| Tiffany Jones works as a photographic model and lives in a Chelsea flat with her friend Jo and has a brother called Guy who is a photographer. Tiffany is about to find herself caught up in a political struggle for control of an entire country...!
The story starts in Zirdana, a small East European country - a former monarchy whose king was overthrown five years previously by the republican party whose leader Boris Jabal is now the president running the country like a virtual dictatorship. Two Kylak revolutionaries have broken into the presidential palace to find out his plans for an imminent trade talks in London where they believe the president will be arranging for an arms delivery and in some secret files discover a photograph of a woman that they believe must be a secret contact. The photograph is of Tiffany Jones. In England Jabal arrives to conduct the trade talks with businessmen and government contacts but first he instructs his aide to find the woman in the photograph. The reason Jabal had her photo in his files is that he cut it from a newspaper a few years before and has yearned for her ever since. Tiffany is booked for a modelling session under a ruse so that the president can meet her and declare his love for her. She extricates herself from the awkward situation by promising to go to the opera with him the next evening. But a stranger has seen her arrive at the president's country retreat and the next day he books Tiffany for a modelling session so that he can find out more about her. The stranger turns out to be Prince Salvador, the handsome son of the late deposed Zirdanian king who wants to wrest back control of his country. He persuades Tiffany to help him and she says she will try and find out something useful during her date with the president later that day. After her opera date she discovers that the president has a meeting with some American businessmen the following day at 6pm at the Hilton hotel. On her way back home she is kidnapped by the Kylak revolutionaries who are in London posing as cooks and they question her on why her photo was in Jabal's files. She escapes their clutches and reports to the prince about the 6pm meeting who suggests that if the president could be impersonated at this meeting then they would be able to disrupt his plans. So Tiffany phones the president and invites him to be a guest at the garden party of her South London Photographic Model Girls Union earlier in the day. She then returns to the Kylak "cooks" and persuades them to help by impersonating the president and his aide while she keeps the president occupied elsewhere. At the garden party the president is amazed when all the girls start undressing on the pretext that it is too hot. He is persuaded to disrobe himself to go swimming. But when he is ready to leave his clothes mysteriously go "missing" and cause him to be late for his meeting. Tiffany's brother Guy is also there at her request to take candid compromising photos of the president. Meanwhile the cooks meet the American businessmen and arrange for the arms to be diverted to another port where their compatriots can intercept them instead of the president's men. In return the businessmen say they want some "bread" which puzzles the cooks but they agree. The finance minister will arrive at the airfield later that evening to arrange payment. All parties then converge at the airfield. The President, Kylak's, the Prince, Tiffany and Guy - and van loads of bread arrive. Then Prince Salvador armed with the compromising photos that Tiffany gives him takes a plane and flies off to Zirdana to retake his throne by using the photos to discredit the president. | |
| Starring: | Anouska Hempel (as Tiffany Jones) |
| Featuring: | Ray Brooks (as Guy), Susan Sheers (as Jo), Eric Pohlmann (as President Jabal), Damien Thomas (as Prince Salvador), Richard Marner (as President's Aide), Alan Curtis, John Clive, Geoffrey Hughes (as the cooks) |
| Familiar Faces: | Lynda Baron, Sam Kelly, Derek Royle, David Hamilton |
| Starlets: | Penny Irving (uncredited role) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the comic-strip characters created by Pat Tourett and Jenny Butterworth in the Daily Mail |
| Writer: Johnny Speight / Director: Norman Cohen / Producer: Jon Penington | |
| Type: Sitcom Spin-off | Running Time: 96 mins |
| The film begins just before the start of the Second World War. Alf Garnett is a highly opinionated and patriotic man who voices his low opinion of Hitler and the German people. Throughout the low points of the war Alf is there in the pub giving his particular stance on the developing events that prove Hitler is a coward and any British setbacks are all part of shrewd tactics by Churchill. For all his bluster Alf is frightened himself and is the first to the bomb shelters when the sirens sound and panics when he accidentally gets sent draft papers in an administration error.
Time moves on almost twenty years to the 1960s and the Garnetts are still living in the same house and Alf is still just as opinionated - although now without a sharp focus for his bigotry he rallies against any persuasion that is different to his own narrow definitions of acceptability, be that class, colour or political leanings. Against the likely odds for a working class man such as himself, Alf is a stanch Conservative supporter - unlike his grown up daughter Rita who is rooting for Labour in the upcoming general election. Rita is engaged to Mike whom Alf dislikes but tolerates. The family continue to squabble with Alf being at the centre of all disagreements and Rita and Mike often joining in just to taunt him when they find his extreme views incredulous. As events wrap up the street where they live is scheduled for demolition and all the neighbours move out except for the Garnetts because Alf refuses to be dictated to. Eventually left all alone with even his wife gone Alf comes to realise that as much as he dislikes other people he does need their company and cannot live alone and goes to join his family in their new high-rise flat. | |
| Starring: | Warren Mitchell (as Alf Garnett), Dandy Nichols (as Else Garnett), Una Stubbs (as Rita), Anthony Booth (as Mike) |
| Featuring: | Bill Maynard (as Bert, a neighbour), Kate Williams (as Sergeant's Girlfriend), Brian Blessed (as Army Sergeant) |
| Familiar Faces: | Frank Thornton (Valuation Officer), Michael Robbins (Pub Landlord), Geoffrey Hughes (Man in pub) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the popular BBC sitcom that was (initially) made and set in the 1960s. There were 54 episodes from 1965 to 1975. The series came back on ITV for 6 episodes in 1981 entitled Till Death .... And then the characters were revived on the BBC again for a further 47 episodes in a series entitled In Sickness and in Health from 1985 to 1992. |
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This film is basically a prequel to the series showing the lead characters' early life. |
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There was another spin-off film about the Garnett family entitled The Alf Garnett Saga (1972). |
| The Time Machine (1960) | Previous Next |
| Writer: David Duncan / Director/Producer: George Pal | |
| Type: American / Sci-Fi | Running Time: 98 mins |
| George Bailey is a scientist and on New Years Eve 1899 he invites four friends around to reveal to them the details of his latest invention. He claims that he has built a device that can travel forwards or backwards in time. But even though he demonstrates his achievement with a miniature prototype model by making it vanish into the future his friends just think it is a clever parlour trick and dismiss his fanciful theories of time travel.
After they have left George decides it is time for him to try the full size version of his machine for the first time - he has many important questions he wants answered about mankind's future destiny and hopes that wasteful conflicts such as the Boer War which is waging in his time will be infantile relics of the past. He boards the sled-like machine and pushes the control lever forwards to move into the future. He first stops in 1917 and is dismayed to discover that England is at war with Germany. He then moves on to 1940 and witnesses air raids in another war. He then jumps forward to 1966 just as an atomic satellite is about to explode over London and obliterate the city in yet another war (Note: 1966 was still in the future when this film was made). He is appalled at mankind's folly and decides to stop making short leaps and speed onwards into the far far future to see how his race eventually fares. He stops his machine in the year 802701 and finds to his delight a bountiful paradise full of natural splendour. The only man-made construction he sees is a large temple-like structure topped by a massive idol's head - the temple entrance is blocked by a solid metal door with no way of opening it. George explores the countryside and discovers a group of humans called the Eloi who seem to lead a peaceful carefree existence, but they are strangely taciturn and he soon realises that they possess no curiosity about their surroundings. George cannot fathom how they obtain their clothes or food because they have no societal structure or work ethic to sustain them. George despairs at the puerile development of these people who lack any ambition or motivation and he decides he will return home to his own time which for all its faults is better than this. But he discovers his time machine has gone! Tell-tale drag marks show it has been pulled into the temple behind that impassable metal door. Unless he can get his machine back he will be trapped in this time forever. The only Eloi who shows some empathy is a young woman called Weena. She has a naïve innocence of the world around her and does not understand much of what George wants to know - but she shows him an old machine which talks about strange things that none of her people understand. The machine is an ancient knowledge base and George listens to an archive recording that describes the events that led to the current situation. Many centuries ago a cataclysmic war had poisoned the atmosphere and the human race split - some, like the Eloi, remained on the surface and others began living in underground cave systems - those are called the Morlocks. George realises that the Morlocks' emerged from this divergence to become the master race and the Eloi became like lowly pets whom the Morlocks clothe and feed. Then a siren sounds and the Eloi, including Weena, flock towards the Morlock temple. They file through the now open door as if in a trance. Eventually the siren stops and the door closes and all those left outside resume their normal activities as if nothing has happened. George learns that this summons event is a regular occurrence and those that enter the temple never come back. Weena was one of those who entered the temple. George has become very fond of Weena and is determined to rescue her. He finds an airshaft that leads to the subterranean caverns below and descends. To his horror he finds the Morlocks are a cannibalistic race who have evolved into bestial lumbering grotesques without language who treat the peaceful Eloi as food cattle whose passive submissive manner leaves them defenceless to any ill-treatment. George attacks the Morlocks who are not used to resistance and he manages to free Weena and the other prisoners and help them escape up the access shaft. The fight causes the Morlock habitat to catch fire and after the Eloi have all escaped the whole underground complex explodes and the ground caves-in burying the Morlocks. The Eloi people are now free but face the new challenge of becoming self-sufficient. The temple doors are now open and George finds his time machine. He wants to take Weena back to his own century and she is willing to go with him. But suddenly he is attacked by a few surviving Morlocks and is forced to escape in his machine back into the past without Weena. He gets back to his own time five days after he left and meets up with his friends again. He relates his fantastic story but they are not inclined to believe him. George realises he loves Weena and no longer feels he belongs here in Victorian England. So he gathers some instructional books and returns to the far future with the knowledge to help the Eloi build a new world for themselves. | |
| Starring: | Rod Taylor (as George Bailey), Yvette Mimieux (as Weena, Eloi woman), Alan Young (dual roles as David Filby, George's 1899 friend; and James Filby, David's son in 1917) |
| Featuring: | (George's other 1899 friends) Sebastian Cabot (as Dr Philip Hillyer), Tom Helmore (as Anthony Bridewell), Whit Bissell (as Walter Kemp) Doris Lloyd (as Mrs Watchett, George's housekeeper) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the novel by H.G. Wells |
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This American-made film is reviewed here because it was set in England and starred Australian actor Rod Taylor who appeared in many Hollywood movies but also starred in several British productions in the 1960s and 1970s. The other English/Scottish roles were played by American actors. |
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In 1993 Rod Taylor filmed a short follow-up epilogue to the 1960 film as part of TV documentary called Time Machine: The Journey Back. It is set ten years after George left his own time when he returns to his old house in his machine. There he meets up with his friend David Filby (played again by Alan Young) who tries to persuade him to remain but George has made his home in the future now and has only returned briefly to pick up some more books with which to help the Eloi. |
| Writers: Christina Schuch, Ramón Bravo, René Cardona Jr / Director: René Cardona Jr / Producer: Gerald Green | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 84 mins |
| Rich American tourist Steven has arrived at a Mexican beach resort and is staying on a luxury yacht moored offshore. He is there to relax and party but becomes intrigued when he meets a shark fisherman and wants to discover more about it. Initially love-rivals for a beauty called Patricia, he and the Mexican fisherman Miguel soon become friends and the Mexican takes Steven with him and teaches him how to hunt small sharks underwater with spear guns although warns him to always be wary of the larger tiger sharks as with them you only get one chance for a kill before it gets you.
By day they hunt, but by night they party on Steven's boat with some holidaying sisters, Kelly and Cynthia Madison that they pick up on the beach. Later on they jointly meet a British tourist called Gabriella and the three of them hit it off and become inseparable - the two men share her affections and she loves them both equally in return. They involve her in their shark hunting trips and they are all happy in their idyllic if unconventional three-way relationship. But after a month or so of this way of life tragedy strikes when Miguel is killed by a tiger shark. Gabriella decides to leave as the relationship no longer works for her with just two of them. Steven vows to kill the tiger shark and organises the local fisherman to try and hunt it down by day. But at night he still parties and there is another shark-kill involving one of the Madison sisters as they swim out to Steven's boat. Steven is then determined to go down underwater alone to hunt down the killer shark which he successfully does using the skills and advice taught to him by Miguel. | |
| Comment: Although Susan George (as Gabriella) is the top billed star of this movie she is only actually in it for about 25 minutes in the middle portion. The real star in terms of screen time would be Hugo Stiglitz. | |
| Starring: | Hugo Stiglitz (as Steven), Andrés García (as Miguel), Susan George (as Gabriella) |
| Featuring: | Jennifer Ashley (as Kelly Madison), Laura Lyons (as Cynthia Madison), Fiona Lewis (as Patricia), Priscilla Barnes, Pamela Garner (as party girls) |
| NOTES: | |
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The full version of this film is about 40 minutes longer - but was edited down to a shorter version. The short version is the one reviewed here. The longer version tells more of Steven's back story showing the reason he came to Mexico; the Madison sisters are introduced earlier on as they make their way to the resort (as opposed to already being there when first seen in the shorter version); and there is an earlier romance between Miguel and another female character. |
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Although it might be presumed to be a horror/thriller Jaws rip-off kind of film it is actually more of a basic drama about two fisherman friends and the women they meet. The underwater shark fishing is done fairly matter-of-factly and the shark-attack and eventual killing of it is unsensationalised and really only a minor aspect of the movie. |
| Writers: Alfio Valdarini, Carlo Carunchio, Griffi / Director: Giuseppe Patroni Griffi / Producer: Silvio Clementelli | |
| Type: European / Period Drama | Running Time: 100 mins |
| In Renaissance Italy sister and brother Annabella and Giovanni are reunited as grown-ups after he has been far away on his studies. Giovanni has an intense passion for his sister that he has never dared voice to her and he believes that a blood tie is greater than any other bond there could be.
Annabella is beautiful and from a wealthy family and one of the best catches in Italy and has received dozens of offers of marriage from many suitors all of which she has turned down - for such gestures mean nothing to her and she secretly has a yearning for just one man - her brother. When the siblings realise that their feelings for each other are mutual they begin a love affair in secret and have sex and she becomes pregnant. Unaware of this development Annabella's father tells his daughter that since she has not been able to select a suitor for herself he has chosen a suitable husband for her. And when Giovanni makes a religious confession the church puts moral pressure on Annabella to repent for her sins by marrying the chosen man to allow the child to have a name. The man chosen by her father from amongst her suitors is Soranzo a rich landowner who can be harsh towards those who cross him but is caring and considerate towards his friends. He is delighted and happy to marry Annabella but is unaware of her condition as it is too early for anything to show. Soranzo is understanding when Annabella shows reluctance to consummate their marriage for he realises he has been foisted upon her by her father but he fervently hopes to grow into someone that Annabella can learn to love - he is unaware the real reason is that she is still brooding over her secret and forbidden love for her brother, the man she considers as her true husband. Some time later when Annabella appears to come over ill a doctor is sent for and Soranzo is told that his wife is pregnant. He knows it cannot be his and feels immense anger that Annabella's family have tried to use his name to cover her shame and dishonour - he calls her a whore and demands to know who the father is but even though he hurts her she declines to say. Soranzo vows to kill every member of her family in revenge. He sends out an invitation for all members of her family to come to his residence for a celebratory banquet. Giovanni arrives first and secretly meets up with his sister - she tells him what Soranzo has planned and regrets they can never be together again. But perhaps in heaven they can be reunited as lovers as they want. She willingly accepts death at his hands and Giovanni proceeds to cut out her heart and takes it to the banquet hall and before the attendant guests presents it to Soranzo telling him this is the only way he would ever possess her heart and reveals that it was he who was his sister's lover. Whether Soranzo had been intending to carry out his planned retribution or not, this news of further depravity settles it, and the incensed Soranzo proceeds to order his pre-primed servants to massacre all the guests - all men and women of this amoral family who so wickedly tried to ensnare him (although they had no inkling of Annabella's illicit pregnancy and were marrying her off in good faith for the noblest of reasons). And after a fight Soranzo personally kills Giovanni. | |
| Starring: | Oliver Tobias (as Giovanni), Charlotte Rampling (as Annabella), Fabio Testi (as Soranzo) |
| Featuring: | Antonio Falsi (as Bonaventura, Gionanni's monk friend), Rik Battaglia (as the Giovanni and Annabella's father), Angela Luce (as The Father's Woman), Rino Imperio (as Soranzo's manservant) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on a play by John Ford. |
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This Italian production which was in English for the version reviewed is listed here because of the starring roles for British actors Charlotte Rampling and Oliver Tobias. |
| To Sir, With Love (1967) | Previous Next |
| Writer/Director/Producer: James Clavell | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 99 mins |
| Mark Thackeray is a well-educated black man from British Guiana who has been finding it so hard to get a position in his chosen field of engineering that he decides to take a stopgap job as a teacher. He is accepted at the North Quay Secondary School in London which Mark finds to his dismay is a rather rundown establishment with ill-disciplined and unruly pupils. Many of the boys and girls are rejects from other schools and have no interest in getting an education. The school also has a no-punishment policy which makes it virtually impossible for the hard-pressed staff to maintain any sort of order or discipline in their classes.
Mark is assigned a class of fifth formers on their last year before leaving school (aged about 16). He is determined to do a good job but finds that lessons are so disrupted by troublemakers with their smart-aleck remarks that he feels he is achieving nothing with them. After weeks of trying Mark becomes so infuriated with his lack of progress that he vents his fury and tells his class it is time for them to grow up and behave responsibly. He implements a rigid structure of politeness and common courtesy and abandons the normal lesson methodology of rote learning for a more open arena of free discussion of any topic. To his surprise the majority of the class respond to this positively and even the main unruly troublemakers find themselves having to follow suit to avoid being isolated. Mark encourages sensible grown up debate and his class become the best behaved in the school much to the amazement of the other staff. Mark talks to his class about his own humble beginnings which mirror their own and they see how it is possible with sufficient determination to overcome disadvantages and improve oneself. The school year draws to a close and Mark is happy that his class are now much better suited for life in the outside world than they would otherwise have been. He is touched by the gifts they give him at their end of year leaving party to show how much they appreciate all he has done for them. In the meantime Mark has at last been offered an engineering job and has decided to accept it and not stay on at the school for another year. His fellow teachers tell him that is a shame because he has such a clear talent for teaching and they consider the way he turned around the attitudes of his class nothing less than a miracle. Mark eventually decides to stay on at the school when he sees how badly behaved are the batch of kids who will be next year's fifth formers and realises that they need his help more than the field of engineering. | |
| Starring: | Sidney Poitier (as Mark Thackeray) (main pupils) Christian Roberts (as Bert Denham, troublemaker), Judy Geeson (as Pamela Dare, develops a crush on Mark), Lulu (as Barbara Pegg), Christopher Chittell (as Potter, Denham's friend) (main teachers) Suzy Kendall (as Gillian Blanchard), Faith Brook (as Grace Evans, deputy head), Geoffrey Bayldon (as Weston, world-weary), Edward Burnham (as Mr Florian, head master) |
| Featuring: | Ann Bell (as Mrs Dare, Pam's mother), Rita Webb (as Mrs Joseph, market trader) (other teachers) Fiona Duncan (as Miss Phillips), Patricia Routledge (as Clinty, art teacher), Mona Bruce (as Josie Dawes), Dervis Ward (as Mr Bell, PE teacher) (Other pupils): Gareth Robinson (as Titch Jackson), Grahame Charles (as Fernman), Adrienne Posta (as Moira Joseph), Margaret Heald (as Osgood), Lynn Sue Moon (as Miss Wong), Peter Atard (as Ingham) |
| Starlets: | (probably all class pupils) Sally Cann, Chitra Neogy, Elna Pearl, Bonita Shawe, Carla Challoner, Sally Gosselin, Jane Peach |
| NOTES: | |
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From the novel by E.R. Braithwaite |
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Lulu receives an "introducing" credit |
| Writer: Chris Wicking / Director: Peter Sykes / Producer: Roy Skeggs | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 89 mins |
| John Verney is an occult novelist and at a book launch in London he is approached by an anxious man called Henry Beddows who claims to be mixed up in a satanic cult and is in need of help. Beddows' daughter Catherine is a nun in a Bavarian church whom he is not allowed to see except once a year on her birthday when she comes to visit him. This year is her 18th and Beddows has reason to fear for her safety and thinks that Verney will be able to better protect her from the devilry that may befall her. Verney agrees to help thinking that just like most devil-cults it will turn out to be formed of hedonistic thrill seekers with nothing remotely supernatural or dangerous involved - but at the very least may provide him with material for another book.
Catherine's church is called "The Children of Our Lord" and is led by an excommunicated priest with incredible strength of will called Father Michael Rayner. The "Lord" they worship is named Asteroth (or The Devil) but its disciples are brought up to truly believe that they are worshiping a power for good - only Father Rayner and a few select disciples know their true objective. Eighteen years ago Catherine had been born and baptised in her dying mother's blood and then brought up in seclusion - her father Henry Beddows was warned of dire consequences if he ever tried to interfere. And now a new baby has been born - conceived during a Satanic rite nine-months previously - and when the innocently unaware Catherine is re-baptised in that slain baby's blood she will become an avatar for the devil to become incarnate on Earth. The ceremony must be carried out at a particular hilltop abbey in England held sacred because of the unique geology upon which it stands. Verney does as Beddows asks and takes Catherine into his care and his intervention causes immense irritation for Father Rayner who needs Catherine to fulfil the great destiny he has been planning for so many years. Rayner employs methods of the dark arts to exert his will and influence upon Catherine from afar to try to reclaim her. Catherine is an innocent who believes Father Rayner to be a great man and Verney has his work cut out trying to keep her from succumbing to his supernatural calls. Eventually Rayner succeeds in getting Catherine back under his direct purview and because of the warped teachings she received Catherine is willing to embrace her destiny without a proper understanding of the evil that would be unleashed. Rayner brings Catherine to the Abbey built upon a hill of flint where she is lain on an altar slab within a protective circle of blood. Rayner slays the baby and collects its blood and begins his incantations over Catherine's recumbent form but is stopped before concluding by the arrival of Verney determined to stop him and save Catherine. Rayner believes that the blood circle is impregnable but Verney has discovered a way to pass safely across by holding a blood-soaked flint stone. He then hurls this at Rayner who falls to the ground and vanishes as the devil's fury at being outwitted is unleashed. Verney struggles to carry Catherine from the circle - but once he gets outside the danger passes and she is safe. | |
| Comment: Two droplets of blood had accidentally spilt onto Catherine's forehead during the uncompleted "baptism" ceremony. As the film ends she shows no sign of being devil-possessed but the possibility is left open that maybe that token was enough... | |
| Starring: | Richard Widmark (as John Verney), Christopher Lee (as Father Michael Rayner), Nastassja Kinski (as Catherine Beddows), Denholm Elliott (as Henry Beddows, Catherine's father), Honor Blackman (as Anna Fountain, Verney's agent and friend), Anthony Valentine (as David Kennedy, Anna's boyfriend) |
| Featuring: | Michael Goodliffe (as George De Grass, disciple of Father Michael), Eva Maria Meineke (as Eveline De Grass, disciple of Father Michael), Derek Francis (as The Bishop), Isabella Telezynska (as Margaret, pregnant woman) |
| Familiar Faces: | Brian Wilde (as Librarian of Forbidden books), Frances de la Tour (as Salvation Army Woman, [one-scene cameo]) |
| Starlets: | Anna Bentinck (as Isabel, Henry's wife in flashback), Zoe Hendry, Lindy Benson, Jo Peters and Bobby Sparrow (as Girls in Satanic ceremony, [credited but hardly really seen on screen]) |
| NOTES: | |
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From the novel by Dennis Wheatley |
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This turned out to be the final Hammer horror film |
| Writer: John Osborne / Director/Producer: Tony Richardson | |
| Type: Period Drama | Running Time: 123 mins |
| In the mid-1700s Squire Allworthy returns home after several months away to find a baby left abandoned in his bed. Servant girl Jenny Jones admits to being the mother but refuses to name the father. She is dismissed from service and the Squire adopts the baby as his ward and names him Tom Jones.
Tom grows to be a young man with a kind and lively spirit, but with a weakness for the fairer sex which gets him into all sorts of trouble. The Squire's generosity has given him all the privileges of high standing including a good education - although Tom is not an attentive student, unlike his "cousin" Blifil, son of the Squire's sister Bridget, who is the their joint tutors' star-pupil. The Squire has no children of his own and so nephew Blifil is in line to eventually inherit the estate. Tom has a blossoming romance with Sophie Western, the daughter of the neighbouring Squire Western. But her father refuses to consider her marriage to a foundling and instead has decided that Blifil is the most suitable - although Sophie despises him. When Bridget dies she leaves a letter for her brother the Squire Allworthy, but Blifil intercepts it and keeps its contents to himself. From then on Blifil becomes determined to get Tom Jones out of the picture and misses no opportunity to blacken his name - and as Tom's indiscretions mount up the Squire Allworthy is eventually left with no option but to ask Tom to leave and make his own way in the world. Tom heads off on the road to London having several interesting encounters including a dalliance with Mrs Waters, who is the former Jenny Jones, although neither realise who the other is. Sophie follows Tom to London but becomes disappointed when she discovers him womanising and she goes to stay with her cousin Harriet Fitzpatrick. In London Tom's fortunes go through several twists and turns as he tries to get back into Sophie's good books. Eventually Tom has an unfortunate encounter with Harriet's husband who wrongly believes Tom to be having an affair with his wife. The two men brawl and Mr Fitzpatrick is badly wounded resulting in Tom being arrested for attempted murder and sentenced to be hanged. Meanwhile Squire Allworthy finds out about the missing letter from his late sister and demands to know what it said. He discovers it was a confession saying that the baby Tom was actually her son from a pre-marriage affair which she had dared not reveal for fear of ruining her name. Her maid Jenny Jones had agreed to accept responsibility for the baby instead. The Squire is overjoyed to think that Tom is actually his real nephew and being older than Blifil is the rightful heir (and hence the reason that Blifil wanted to suppress the information). Mr Fitzpatrick recovers from his injury and decides to drop the charges and Tom is pardoned. And Sophie's father withdraws his objections to her marrying Tom now that he is known to be a true Allworthy and not a foundling. | |
| Starring: | Albert Finney (as Tom Jones), Susannah York (as Sophie Western), Hugh Griffith (as Squire Western, Sophie's father), Edith Evans (as Miss Western, Squire's sister), George Devine (as Squire Allworthy, Tom's ward), David Warner (as Mr Blifil, Bridget's son), Rosalind Knight (as Harriet Fitzpatrick, Sophie's London cousin), Joan Greenwood (as Lady Bellaston, London socialite) |
| Featuring: | Rachel Kempson (as Bridget Allworthy, Squire's sister), Joyce Redman (as Jenny Jones/Mrs Waters), Jack MacGowran (as Partridge, Tom's faithful servant), Diane Cilento (as Molly Seagrim, disreputable country girl), Wilfrid Lawson (as Black George, Allworthy's gamekeeper, Molly's father), John Moffatt (as Mr Square, Tom's tutor), Peter Bull (as Mr Thwackum, Tom's tutor), Redmond Phillips (as Lawyer Dowling), Patsy Rowlands (as Honor, Sophie's maid), Julian Glover (as Lt Northerton, Tom's enemy nemesis), George A. Cooper (as Mr Fitzpatrick, Harriet's husband), David Tomlinson (as Lord Fellamar, in London), Lynn Redgrave (as Maid at Upton Inn, [small role]), Micheál MacLiammóir (Narrator) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the novel by Henry Fielding |
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Another film version of the same novel reviewed on these pages is The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones (1976) |
| The Tomb of Ligeia (1964) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Robert Towne / Director: Roger Corman / Producer: Pat Green | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 78 mins |
| It is 1821 and nobleman Verden Fell is burying his late wife Lady Ligeia in the grounds which were once an Abbey. A priest objects to this for the grounds are now unconsecrated, but Verden cares little - for to him his wife is not dead. Her strength of will had been so immense that even as the ravages of an illness took her weakening body she swore that she would not die and her will would live on. A glass panel is set into the coffin over her face so it can be verified up to the moment of burial that she has not returned to life. During the proceedings a stray black cat jumps onto the coffin and Ligeia's eyes spring open but this appears to be an involuntary contraction and not a sign of life. She is finally buried in a grave with a headstone that carries the message "Nor lie in death forever".
Some period of time later a foxhunt is underway and a young woman called Lady Rowena rides into the burial grounds and is thrown from her horse. She is found by Verden who carries her back to his Abbey and binds her leg. Verden is living as a recluse in his huge property with only a manservant called Kenrick for company. His morose state makes Rowena feel uneasy, and yet fascinated, and although he is subject to sustained periods of reverie she falls for him and they marry. (It should be pointed out that the redheaded Rowena and the dark-haired Ligeia are played by the same actress) They have a happy honeymoon but when they get back home to the Abbey, Verden returns to his old morose ways - he plans to sell the Abbey but a solicitor friend called Christopher Gough tells him that the deeds are all still in Ligeia's name and he can find no death certificate for her. Verden tells him this was an oversight. Christopher tells him that in order to get one drawn up now an inquest would need to be conducted and his wife's body disinterred. Verden refuses to allow that and so legally Ligeia is still alive and the sale of the Abbey cannot be effected. Verden and Rowena sleep in separate bedrooms and she has some nightmares involving a black cat which in her dreams and in reality keeps jumping out and frightening her. Several times Rowena visits Verden's bedroom at night looking for him and finds him absent or acting strangely and then the next day he has no memory of it. As things progress Rowena and Christopher discover that Ligeia's body has been replaced by a waxwork replica and Verden has her real perfectly persevered body in a secret shrine accessible via a passageway from his bedroom balcony - although he remains unaware of his nightly sojourns because his ex-wife had used her willpower to hypnotise him on her deathbed into these actions. Rowena poses as Ligeia in order to try and break the hypnotic orders. But this only partially works and Verden strangles Rowena seemingly to death believing her to really be Ligeia resurrected and only realises his mistake once it is too late. A fire starts and Christopher manages to get Rowena's body out to safety - but Verden is trapped and suddenly realises that it is that black cat which always seems be around which holds the key - Ligeia had transferred her will into the animal from her coffin. In his final act Verden kills the cat and then dies in the fire alongside the now truly dead body of Ligeia. And outside Rowena, thought to be dead by Christopher, regains her life. | |
| Starring: | Vincent Price (as Verden Fell), Elizabeth Shepherd (as Rowena and Ligeia), John Westbrook (as Christopher Gough) |
| Featuring: | Derek Francis (as Lord Trevanion, Rowena's father), Oliver Johnston (as Kenrick, Fell's manservant), Penelope Lee (as Rowena's maidservant) |
| Familiar Faces: | Richard Vernon (as Doctor), Frank Thornton (as Footman) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe. |
| Writer/Director: Ken Russell / Producers: Robert Stigwood, Ken Russell | |
| Type: Music / Drama | Running Time: 106 mins |
| During World War II while on leave, RAF pilot Captain Walker and his wife Nora are on a romantic mountain-walking holiday and conceive a baby. Shortly afterwards Walker is killed in action. His grieving widow has the baby whom she names Tommy - he is a perfectly normal healthy boy. She brings him up with stories of his brave father. In 1951 when he is 6-years-old Nora takes Tommy to a holiday camp where she falls for a greencoat called Frank Hobbs. They start living together telling Tommy that Frank is an "uncle". But then one night Tommy catches them in bed together and it so traumatises him that he is struck deaf, dumb and blind.
He remains so afflicted into young adulthood and his loving mother and her now-husband Frank continue to look after him in this helpless condition. Then one day when Tommy gets lost in a scrap yard it is accidentally discovered that despite his handicaps he can play a pinball machine better than anyone. Tommy wins in the Pinball World Championships and becomes famous as the Pinball Wizard. Exploitation of his amazing talent brings wealth and riches to his parents who start to live an opulent and extravagant lifestyle. A specialist reviews Tommy's case and says that his sensory deprivation is psychosomatic and it is a only a mental block that is preventing them working properly. Then one day during a fit of anger his mother inadvertently shocks him and his mental blockage is released and Tommy can see, hear and speak again. The miracle of Tommy the Pinball Wizard's recovery becomes headline news and that combined with his physically handsome appearance make him the subject of intense teenage adulation. A cult forms around his image and his parents begin to exploit it with merchandise and evangelical concerts where the sick and infirm gather in the hope of a miracle cure of their own. A phenomenon of Tommy-camps starts in which Tommy's fans gather into communes and worship him as if he were a new Messiah. Tommy's parents continue to mercilessly milk the potential with ever more garish Tommy-merchandising. Until one day the fans begin to see how they have been exploited. They turn into a mob and kill Tommy's parents and disband. Tommy is sad, but now free of all outside influences he begins to live life as he wants to. He climbs up the very same mountain where he had been conceived and starts to enjoy the beauty of life. | |
| Comments: There is no talk-dialogue in this film - the story is told entirely in visuals and the various characters' narrative singing (all of which are pre-recorded by the cast and mimed to in the picture). Of the many songs featured only one is well known outside of its context - "Pinball Wizard". | |
| Starring: | Oliver Reed (as Frank Hobbs, Tommy's stepfather), Ann-Margret (as Nora Walker/Hobbs, Tommy's mother), Roger Daltrey (as Tommy Walker), Barry Winch (as Young Tommy, aged 6) |
| Featuring: | (mainly single-scene roles) Robert Powell (as Captain Walker, Tommy's RAF pilot father), Paul Nicholas (as Cousin Kevin, Tommy's bully cousin), Jack Nicholson (as The Specialist, psychiatrist), Tina Turner (as The Acid Queen, kinky prostitute), Elton John (as Former Pinball champion), Eric Clapton (as Evangelical Preacher, Marilyn Monroe cult), Keith Moon (as Uncle Ernie, Tommy's scruffy uncle), Victoria Russell (as Sally Simpson, young schoolgirl Tommy fan), Ben Aris and Mary Holland (as Reverend and Mrs Simpson, Sally's parents) |
| Starlets: | (all uncredited) Jennifer Baker and Susan Baker (as Twin Maternity Nurses), Imogen Claire (as Specialist's Nurse), Juliet King and Gillian Lefkowitz (as Acid Queen's twin Handmaidens) |
| Tomorrow Never Comes (1978) | Previous Next |
| Writers: David Pursall, Jack Seddon, Sydney Banks / Director: Peter Collinson / Producers: Michael Klinger, J. Melzack | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 102 mins |
| Frank Capell comes back home to his small city district after a period working away to make money to go towards his marriage to nightclub singer Janie Morgan. But he finds their apartment has been rented out to new tenants and he has no idea where Janie has gone. He goes to her former workplace and is told she has left. Bar-room talk is that she has moved on to someone who can properly afford her and question is made of her loose morals. Frank is normally easy going and likeable but this talk of her upsets him and he gets into an all-out brawl and suffers a very sharp blow to his head.
Feeling woozy he discovers that Janie is now working at an up-market hotel complex and that she is living in an expensive beachside cabana and so he heads off there to talk to her. His post-brawl dishevelled and bloody appearance and threatening manner gives rise to a police report. When Frank gets to Janie's cabana he angrily wants to know from her what's going on and who the new man in her life is. A patrolman comes to check out the report and see if Janie needs assistance but Frank's threatening manner causes the cop to draw his gun. In a scuffle Franks gets hold of the gun which accidentally fires and the cop is badly wounded but manages to stagger out to his patrol car and radio in a report. The beachside cabana is soon the site of a major police incident to deal with an armed hostage situation. Frank discovers Janie's new man is the rich hotel owner Robert L. Lyne and realises that the job offer he took was all a set-up by Lyne to get him out of the way so that Lyne could move in on Janie. Frank refuses to give himself up and demands of the police that Robert Lyne be brought here to face him and threatens to kill Janie if his demands are not met. The hostage situation is being handled by Jim Wilson on his final day as a police commander prior to moving onto a new job. Wilson is tired of the high-level corruption in this city and refuses to toe the line his superiors want. Robert L. Lyne is a big-name in the city who has half-the police force in his pocket and orders from above are that his name should be kept out of it and the matter quickly resolved with a show of strength regardless of the consequences to the girl. But Wilson insists on handling matters his own way and slowly attempts to negotiate with Frank who is becoming increasingly stressed and unpredictable. A doctor tells Wilson that the type of head injury that Frank is reported to have sustained in the bar-room brawl might have led to some brain injury because it is known that Frank has always been a reasonable person and this action is totally out of character. After much convincing by Wilson, the owner Robert L. Lyne is persuaded to make an appearance to draw Frank out of the cabana. Wilson is intending to use this opportunity to talk Frank down calmly and rationally - but against his express wishes his superior gives the nod to a police marksman and just as Frank is about to hand his weapon over to Wilson and give himself up he is shot dead. | |
| Starring: | Oliver Reed (as Jim Wilson), Susan George (as Janie Morgan), Stephen McHattie (as Frank Capell) |
| Featuring: | Raymond Burr (as Burke, police chief), John Ireland (as Matt, police captain), Donald Pleasence (as Dr Todd), Paul Koslo (as Willy Graber, Wilson's deputy), John Osborne (as Robert L. Lyne), Richard Donat (as Ray, club barman and Frank's friend), Delores Etienne (Hilde, Janie's maid) |
| NOTES: | |
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Made in Canada as a Canadian/UK co-production and reviewed here because of the involvement of Oliver Reed and Susan George. The two British stars were playing their parts with local accents and not as English people. I couldn't work out if the story was actually set in Canada or in the States - but it seemed more like the latter. |
| Too Late the Hero (1970) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Robert Aldrich, Lukas Heller / Director/Producer: Robert Aldrich | |
| Type: War Drama | Running Time: 128 mins |
| Set in 1942 during the Second World War. Lieutenant Sam Lawson is an American serviceman based on a Southwest Pacific island. He is fluent in Japanese and works in the intelligence division translating intercepted Japanese communications. Lawson volunteered for service as a language specialist to avoid dangerous duty and so when he is given an urgent assignment to join a British combat unit in a front line mission he doesn't like it all - but he is given no choice.
The British occupy a small area on a New Hebridian island which is otherwise Japanese controlled. A US Navy fleet is scheduled to pass within sight of the island soon and so it is vital to put the Japanese communication facility out of action so that the fleet's presence in the area cannot be reported to the mainland and bring about devastating aerial attacks. This requires a small team of men to penetrate the jungle, avoid Japanese patrols, destroy the Japanese radio and then make false all-clear reports on their own radio equipment - which is where Lawson's language skills are needed. Lawson is very gloomy about his prospects for survival. The unit of men proceed into the jungle and have skirmishes with routine small Japanese patrols. The British servicemen are forever grumbling and griping among themselves but push on for many days to achieve their stated objective. Eventually they succeed in destroying the Japanese radio equipment but their own radio is damaged and the false report cannot be made - nor do they have a way of communicating with their own base. On their return journey they discover something unexpected on the island - a camouflaged airfield which had been completely missed by Allied aerial reconnaissance. This changes things considerably because now when the American fleet is spotted the Japanese can strike from here without having to radio a report. It has become vital to get back to the British garrison quickly to report this new intelligence so the fleet can be warned. The Japanese commander Major Yamaguchi knows how vital it is to stop the British soldiers getting back to their base and puts all his resources into capturing them to prevent knowledge of the hidden airfield becoming known to Allied command. His trump card is knowing where the men are headed. Yamaguchi piles on the psychological pressure by broadcasting loudspeaker announcements into the jungle giving them chances to surrender and making promises about fair treatment. The British numbers dwindle as some are killed in skirmishes or unwisely surrender until there are only two left - Lawson, and a strong-minded medical orderly called Private Tosh Hearne. Neither of them are keen on the predicament they find themselves in and the stark choice they now have to make - whether to stay safe by laying low and wait for the fleet to pass or risk everything to try and get the vital news back to base and save the lives of thousands of American naval personnel. In the end they choose to risk it and run the gauntlet from the edge of the jungle to the safety of the British base while being fired upon by Japanese patrol guards in the hope that at least one of them will make it. Ultimately one of them dies and the other survives declaring his dead comrade a hero. | |
| Comment: The ending is filmed in such a way as we cannot immediately tell who has been shot and who survives. There were in fact two versions of the ending made in which they both alternately end up being the survivor. The version reviewed was the one in which Tosh Hearne (Michael Caine) survives. | |
| Starring: | Cliff Robertson (as Lt Sam Lawson), Michael Caine (as Private Tosh Hearne), Denholm Elliott (as Captain Hornsby, leading the mission), Ken Takakura (as Major Yamaguchi, Japanese commander) |
| Featuring: | (Squad) Ian Bannen (as Private Jock Thornton), Ronald Fraser (as Private Campbell), Lance Percival (as Corporal McLean), Percy Herbert (as Sgt. Johnstone), William Beckley, Martin Horsey, Harvey Jason, Don Knight (Base) Harry Andrews (as Colonel Thompson, base commander), Patrick Jordan (as Sergeant Major) |
| Star-Turns: | Henry Fonda (as Captain John G. Nolan, Lawson's commanding officer, [one scene]) |
| NOTES: | |
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Ken Takakura receives an "introducing" credit |
| Writer/Director: Val Guest / Producers: Harry Saltzman, Don Kirshner | |
| Type: Sci-Fi | Running Time: 93 mins |
| A race of advanced aliens called the Alphoids have been observing Earth society for 3000 years and their permanent Earth agent disguised as a human called John Williams makes his regular report to his mother ship. As usual his report is the same - nothing of interest - primitive technology such as nuclear power is about all these humans have managed to achieve. But the Alphoid mothership has monitored something that Williams has missed - some unusual "vibrations" have been detected in one specific part of England that have an extraordinary therapeutic effect on the Alphoids brainwaves. Alphoids thrive on computer-generated tones but have lately become unresponsive to them which is having a debilitating effect on their species. The vibrations coming from Earth have unimagined emotive qualities that are able to reverse the malady. Williams realises his leader means music and he is given the mission of capturing the earthlings responsible for creating these sounds so they can be studied.
The amazing sounds are being made by a pop combo calling themselves "Toomorrow". They are four music student friends from the London College of Arts:- Benny, Karl, Olivia and Victor and their unique sound comes from an electronic synthesiser built by keyboard player Victor which he calls his "Tonaliser". John Williams befriends them and offers the use of his mansion for them to rehearse in. Once there they are beamed up to the mothership and asked to come back to the Alphoid planet to help with the cure. The aliens assure them that they will be returned safely to Earth afterwards and hardly any time will have passed. But the students decline saying the rhythm of their beat cannot just be re-created in a clinical way - it needs the energy of an appreciative live audience to make it flow. So the aliens allow them to return to Earth where they are due to play in a pop festival later - their revised plan is to beam up the entire auditorium during their performance taking both the group and the audience back to their planet. The Alphoids plan works and the entire assemblage are whisked off into space while dancing to Toomorrow's groovy set - then suddenly it is morning and Olivia wakes up in her bed after having had what she says is a crazy dream! But a few things are strangely out of place - was it a dream or did it all really happen? | |
| Comment: The plot is fleshed out with girlfriend problems amongst the three male members of the group; a student protest at the college; and the aliens creation of a woman called "Johnson" to seduce Vic Cooper - only trouble being she has difficulty telling human men apart and tries to seduce everyone. | |
| Starring: | (The Group) Benny Thomas (as Benny), Karl Chambers (as Karl), Olivia Newton-John (as Olivia), Vic Cooper (as Vic) Roy Dotrice (as John Williams, human disguised alien on Earth) |
| Featuring: | Tracey Crisp (as Suzanne Gilmore, music teacher, Benny's girlfriend), Imogen Hassall (as Amy, dance student, Victor's girlfriend), Roy Marsden (as Alphoid Leader, [however he is always in alien make-up and unrecognisable]), Carl Rigg (as Matthew, leader of student action committee, Olivia's boyfriend) |
| Starlets: | Margaret Nolan (as Johnson, seductive woman created by the aliens), Maria O'Brien (as Françoise, dance student), Kubi Chaza (as Sylvanna, Art model, Karl's girlfriend) |
| NOTES: | |
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Benny Thomas, Karl Chambers, Olivia Newton-John and Vic Cooper all receive "introducing" credits. They were the four members of the pop group Toomorrow and their character names in the story (including where mentioned their surnames) are the same as their real names. |
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The nudity indicated is distant rear nudity in both cases - there are quite a few scenes of near nudity but they are always carefully shot to avoid anything revealing reaching the screen - the distinct impression was that the film wanted to show more but was forced to hold back - whether a racier version of some scenes were also filmed is not known (unless of course the version reviewed was an edited one) - none of those "nearly" scenes involve Olivia Newton-John. |
| Writer: Leo Golding / Director/Producer: Michael J. Murphy | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 87 mins |
| Anna Bell is a chart topping pop star whose name is forever in the media spotlight because of her wild social life and frequent drunken escapades. After a breakdown she is seeking to rebuild her career by getting away from all the bad influences in her life and live like a normal person for a while. She has bought an isolated cottage near the sea to relax by herself and write some new songs.
A local handyman called Mathew offers to carry out some repairs on the cottage and when he proves to be hardworking and reliable Anna finds more work for him to do. Mathew is a quiet and unpretentious young man who confesses to being a fan of hers and is at first a bit in awe of her. He appeals to her because he is politely unassuming and not linked to her egotistical showbiz world in any way. After a while she makes a pass and they begin a passionate romantic affair. Anna's cottage is in the vicinity of a recent unsolved murder of a young village girl and Anna's manager Mike worries that his moneymaking client might not be safe. So he sends her sister Fiona and flamboyantly gay choreographer Guy to keep her company. But Fiona's critical nature and Guy's tendency for making acerbic remarks fray at Anna's nerves and she starts drinking again. Once again Anna's petulant side emerges and she starts behaving like a spoilt brat. She wants her new lover Mathew around to support her but he shrinks away into a polite introverted shell whenever they are not alone. Early one morning when Guy is taunting Mathew with his droll wit, Mathew snaps and kills him. Mathew tells the others that Guy suddenly decided to leave on the early morning bus. But Fiona becomes suspicious and goes to the police with Anna to report her misgivings about Mathew. The inspector has a photofit of their suspect for the village girl murder and it looks just like Mathew! Anna is appalled that she could have been so taken in by a vicious killer. Mike hires a guard for Anna's cottage to keep her protected from Mathew who has now disappeared. Mike lies to Anna and tells her that Mathew has been caught and is safely in police custody and this helps to calm her. Mike also arranges for Anna to play a local gig to take her mind off the problem. The gig goes well but when Anna sees Mathew in the crowd she knows that Mike lied - her anxieties return and she decides that she will leave the next day. But next day Mathew makes a reappearance at the cottage - he kills both the guard and Fiona and tells Anna he loves her and wants them to live together like a couple so he can keep her safe. Anna's fragile stability snaps and she knocks Mathew out. She ties him up and when he comes around she subjects him to days of torturous mental and physical abuse for how he tricked her and what he did to her friends. Her psychotic side shows no mercy as she starves him and taunts him with her sexuality. When Mike shows up to see what has become of her she has become so psychotic that she shoots him dead with the murdered guard's gun. More days pass and Anna drinks herself into a downward spiral of inexorable madness whilst the tormented Mathew has become too weak with hunger to move. Finally Anna takes the helpless Mathew down to the beach and lays beside him and waits for the waves to come over them so they can die together. | |
| Starring: | Debbi Stevens (as Anna Bell), Rob Bartlett (as Mathew), Patrick Olliver (as Guy, choreographer), Catherine Rowlands (as Fiona, Anna's sister) |
| Featuring: | Philip Lyndon (as Mike, Anna's manager), Alan Jansen (as Craig Cane, Anna's ex-boyfriend) |
| Starlets: | Sarah Payne (as Village Girl), Jessica Day, Denise Burden and Elise Meldrum (as Anna's backing singers) |
| Writers: Ernesto Gastaldi, Sergio Martino / Director: Sergio Martino / Producer: Carlo Ponti | |
| Type: European / Thriller | Running Time: 91 mins |
| Set in Italy at Rome University. Jane is a mature American student taking art history in the class of handsome Professor Franz. Jane has a special relationship with him and they occasionally go on dates. One of Jane's friends called Daniela is being pestered by a male student called Stefano who keeps following her and she thinks he's creepy. Elsewhere a mysterious doctor called Roberto is seen wandering around with unknown intent.
Then a murder takes place of a girl student who is found strangled by a red necktie and brutally stabbed. The viewer does not see the killer's face because he is wearing a white ski-mask but it is shown he is thinking of a smashing a child's doll at the same time. Before long another girl student is killed in a similar grisly manner and the police believe they have a serial killer on their hands. They appeal to the students to try and remember if they've seen anyone who wears a red scarf. Daniela is sure she's seen someone with a red neckerchief but cannot remember who. Then she gets an anonymous threatening call warning her not to tell the police anything. This scares her and her uncle Nino suggests that she and Jane and two other friends Katia and Ursula go away to the family estate in the country. At the family home Daniela's anxiety wanes until she discovers that Stefano has followed them and is determined to tell her something, but she refuses to listen to him. We see that someone is prowling around the house looking in through windows and later we see that the prowler kills Stefano who had clearly discovered the identity of the killer and was trying to warn Daniela. Jane sprains her foot and has to stay in bed asleep on painkillers which are prescribed by the town's doctor called Roberto - the very same one that had been seen at the university village by the viewer although he is not recognised by the girls. When Jane awakes the next morning she goes downstairs and finds all three of her friends have been brutally murdered. Even worse the killer is still in the house. Jane hides as she watches the killer cut up the bodies and then drag them outside to be buried. She realises the killer cannot have known she was in the house and decides to stay hidden in a bedroom until he has gone. But the killer gets suspicious and starts looking around - he finds her and Jane sees who he is ... Professor Franz! When Franz was a boy his brother had died trying to retrieve a little girl's doll from a cliff ledge in return for her promise to play "doctors" with him. Since then Franz has hated dolls and women who use their sexuality to manipulate men. He thinks of young women as filthy dollies who flatter and flirt in order to gain favour. Franz thought that Jane was different from the others but can now see she is exactly the same and must therefore die too. Jane runs to try and get away but is handicapped by her injured foot. Just then Doctor Roberto arrives to check up on Jane's condition and he steps in to save her and fights with the frenzied killer. Their struggle takes them to the edge of the cliff and Franz falls to his death. THE END | |
| Comment: The identity of the culprit is kept from the viewer with several red herrings making it seem likely that the perpetrator is someone else. Possibly Stefano who wears a red scarf; or Dr Roberto who is seen buying a new scarf at a market. Even Daniela's uncle is presented in a sinister manner as if he might have an unhealthy interest in his niece and have an ulterior motive for sending her away to a remote location - but that comes to nothing. | |
| Starring: | Suzy Kendall (as Jane), Tina Aumont (as Daniela), Luc Merenda (as Roberto, handsome doctor), John Richardson (as Franz, Jane's art professor) |
| Featuring: | Carla Brait (as Ursula, friend of Jane and Daniela), Angela Covello (as Katia, friend of Jane and Daniela), Roberto Bisacco (as Stefano, student who pesters Daniela), Patrizia Adiutori (as Flo, first victim), Cristina Airoldi (as Carol, second victim), Ernesto Colli (as Gianni Tomasso, market scarf seller), Carlo Alighiero (as Nino, Daniela's uncle), Luciano De Ambrosis (as Inspector Martino), Enrico DiMarco (as Delivery man), Rosaria Della Femmina (as Prostitute) |
| NOTES: | |
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This Italian film is reviewed here because of the starring role for British actress Suzy Kendall, although she was playing an American. The original Italian title is I Corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale. The version reviewed was dubbed into English although a couple of scenes were still in Italian perhaps meaning that it was taken from a longer print which included scenes that were never dubbed into English. |
| Torture Garden (1967) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Robert Bloch / Director: Freddie Francis / Producers: Max J. Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky | |
| Type: Horror / Anthology | Running Time: 96 mins |
| An anthology of horror tales linked together by a framing story.
Framing Story. At a funfair there is a sideshow called Torture Garden which features waxwork depictions of gruesome torture. At the end of the regular performance the showman Dr Diablo tells his audience that for an extra fee he can show them a more persuasive horror in a private exhibit that will guarantee to chill or they will get a full refund. Four people are intrigued enough to hand over a £5 fee - a very large amount compared to the 2'6 (25p) for the regular exhibit. Inside is a statue of Atropos, the goddess of destiny who holds thin threads in one hand, each one representing a human life, and in her other hand some shears demonstrating her ability to cut short a human life with a mere slice. Each patron in turn is invited to stand before the statue where a possible future will be laid out before them showing the hidden horror of their own evil. (In the following descriptions the first named person is the subject) Story 1 - Enoch Colin Williams is having money problems and visits his elderly uncle Roger hoping for an advance on his inheritance. Uncle Roger has lived alone for thirty years in his large house without working so Colin is sure he must be quite well off. The house was previously owned by an old lady that some said was a witch and Colin thinks that Roger must have found some sort of treasure hoard after he first moved in which he has been living off ever since - because he only ever pays for things with gold coins. Roger seems afraid to discuss the matter and claims there is no money. Colin gets angry and abusive and Roger dies of a heart attack. When the formalities are over Colin ransacks the house looking for the supposed secret hoard. He eventually finds a secret basement and notices a disturbed patch of earth. He digs up a coffin and opens it and is astonished when a live cat jumps out. He tries to catch the cat but its eyes mesmerise him and its force of will speaks directly into his head. It names itself Bactharus and it claims that if Colin follows its orders then he will be rewarded. Bactharus needs to feed on human flesh and Colin is compelled to kill and finds he cannot resist the commands that sear into his brain. In return he is rewarded with gold coins. Uncle Roger had managed to trick the cat and bury it alive years ago but now Colin has freed the evil creature which he realises must be the old witch's familiar. After several murders Colin tries to leave the house but a policeman arrives and finds the dead bodies and he is arrested. No one believes his wild gibbering about a cat that made him do it and they think he's gone mad. But Bathurus is in the cell with him and is hungry and when Colin cannot comply the cat turns on him and eats him instead and then moves on to find a new human to enslave. Story 2 - Terror Over Hollywood Carla Hayes is a budding actress who is ruthlessly ambitious. She hijacks a date that her flatmate has with film director Mike Charles so that she can push herself forward and get noticed by some of his Hollywood contacts. At the restaurant she meets Hollywood producer Eddie Storm and the evergreen box office sensation Bruce Benton who has been a top box office star for decades without ever seeming to noticeably age. Carla piles on the charm and gets a part in Bruce's next picture. Mike Charles is out of favour with his peers and is finding it hard to get work and in an angry confrontation with Storm he threatens to expose a big secret he knows about Bruce Benton. Mike is later killed by one of Storm's flunkies making it look like suicide. After a days filming Carla sees Bruce driven away in a car by some hoodlums and shot dead with a bullet in his forehead. But soon after she is astonished to find he is back at work with not a mark on him. She is fobbed off with a story about how it was his double that was killed but she is pretty sure it was really him. She does some digging in the newspaper archives and discovers that many years ago Eddie Storm too had survived a seemingly fatal accident. She confronts Bruce and accidentally scratches him revealing metal underneath and discovers he is a robot. Eddie tells her that all of Hollywood's ambitious elite have had their brains implanted into synthetic bodies because it is the only way to stay looking young and vital as the audience expect. But her knowledge is dangerous and she must be disposed of or undergo the same conversion process herself. And as the story ends Carla has become a star herself with her conversion successfully accomplished. Story 3 - Mr Steinway Dorothy Endicott is a young music journalist who goes to the home of concert pianist Leo Winston to interview him. He is a shy young man who still talks fondly of his late mother who had always looked after him and had bought him his grand piano. She always shielded him from female company who she thought of as a distraction from his career. Leo calls the piano Aterpe and talks about it as if it were a person using the female pronoun. Dorothy falls in love with Leo and he with her. They start going out together but as Dorothy starts to make more and more demands on his time his piano playing begins to suffer. The way Leo seems to describe it is that the piano normally virtually plays itself but it has become jealous of the time he spends with Dorothy and is now refusing to cooperate. Dorothy believes that Leo is overworked and suggests he cancel his concert tour and they go away on holiday together. He goes upstairs to pack leaving Dorothy alone with "Aterpe". The piano begins playing the funeral march by itself and then starts moving around the room under its own volition. It blocks Dorothy's exit and then rams her against the window and she falls to her death - all under the watchful eye of a portrait of Leo's late mother. Story 4 - The Man Who Collected Poe Ronald Wyatt is an enthusiast of the works of 19th century horror writer Edgar Allan Poe. When he visits an exhibition he is amazed by the rare first editions on display from the collection of Lancelot Canning who is considered to have the finest Poe memorabilia in the world. The two men get talking and Canning invites Wyatt to his home to view the rest of his extensive collection. At Canning's home Wyatt is staggered by the items that Canning has amassed - Canning explains it was a collection begun by his grandfather. Eventually Canning decides to show Wyatt his special archive in a locked cellar. This contains unpublished manuscripts in Poe's own hand. But when Wyatt examines the paper more closely he notices that the paper is too modern to have been used by Poe even though he recognises the handwriting from Poe's known letters. Canning tells him that his grandfather had been a grave robber in America and had dug up Poe's remains and used occult magic to reanimate them. Canning is sceptical and decides to search the basement. He finds another door and goes inside and finds Edgar Allan Poe himself sitting at a desk. Poe is world weary of his eternal immortality and so Wyatt agrees to help release him by setting fire to the room but this was a trick because anyone who helps someone break their pact with the devil becomes trapped themselves. Back to the frame: After each episode the subject comes out of the trance shocked at the possible future that could befall them but with the forewarning they have the chance to make sure they avoid it happening. And when all the visitors have left the exhibit Dr Diablo reveals himself to the viewer as being the Devil who has decided to give some people a fair chance of avoiding his clutches. | |
| Starring: | (Framing story) Burgess Meredith (as Dr Diabolo) (Story 1) Michael Bryant (as Colin Williams), Maurice Denham (as Uncle Roger) (Story 2) Beverly Adams (as Carla Hayes), Robert Hutton (as Bruce Benton, famous actor), John Phillips (as Eddie Storm, film producer) (Story 3) Barbara Ewing (as Dorothy Endicott), John Standing (as Leo Winston, pianist), Ursula Howells (as Maxine Chambers, Leo's manager) (Story 4) Jack Palance (as Ronald Wyatt), Peter Cushing (as Lancelot Canning, Poe collector) |
| Featuring: | (frame) Michael Ripper (as Diablo's stooge, framing story) (Story 2) Bernard Kay (as Dr Heim, surgeon, David Bauer (as Mike Charles, out of favour film director), Nicole Shelby (as Millie, Carla's flatmate) (Story 4) Geoffrey Wallace (as Edgar Allan Poe) |
| NOTES: | |
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Barbara Ewing receives an "introducing" credit |
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The story titles used above are not seen on screen or on the credits. They have been garnered from a reference book. The latter three titles make sense although I don't understand the significance to the story of the first one |
| A Touch of Love (1969) | Previous Next |
| aka: Thank You All Very Much | |
| Writer: Margaret Drabble / Director: Waris Hussein / Producers: Max J. Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 102 mins |
| Rosamund Stacey is a young woman working hard on a thesis for a PHD. But as we join the story she is feeling depressed because she has found out she is pregnant and is contemplating apocryphal remedial action to try to induce a miscarriage. She is jolted from her heavy mood when her friends come round unexpectedly and after they have left she has resolved herself to have the baby and keep it. Rosamund is a hesitant person who lacks social confidence - although once she makes her mind up about something she becomes steadfastly single-minded in her determination. Her friend Lydia cannot believe she wants to have the child and tries to remind her how a baby will change her life and prevent her from fulfilling her academic ambitions - not to mention the social stigma of single-motherhood. Rosamund declines to tell her friend who the father is - although she says it is not either of their two other friends Joe or Mike whose healthy interest in her she has been able to assuage by implying she is sleeping with the other. Nor is it her sometime boyfriend Roger whom she has never slept with - although when good-natured Roger discovers she is pregnant he offers to marry her but Rosamund decides she cannot burden him and they amicably split up.
All she will say is that the father is someone she hardly really knows. We discover in flashbacks that his name is George, a pleasant young man who works as a TV news announcer. They chanced to meet in a canteen and struck up a friendship which led to one night together and then they saw no more of each other. She decides not to tell even him that she is expecting. Rosamund is fortunate in that she has no real money worries - she lives for free in her parents' apartment while they are away on an extended humanitarian trip to Africa and she decides not to write and tell them about her condition knowing they would not approve. She continues her pregnancy to full term while carrying on with her studies and has a baby girl whom she names Octavia. She obstinately and forcefully withstands persistent badgering by the nursing authorities to have the baby adopted away and dismisses their suggestions that she would not be able to cope alone as a single mother. Rosamund is determined to prove everyone else wrong and brings up her baby while continuing to study. When Octavia is a little older a routine medical examination reveals that she has a congenital heart defect that must be operated upon immediately and Rosamund goes through an anxious period of waiting before Octavia pulls through safe and well. During her vigils at Octavia's hospital bedside Rosamund finds time to complete her thesis and months later is awarded a doctorate. Some time later, after Rosamund has found herself a good job writing articles which allows her to care for Octavia at home, she bumps into George again and invites him to see her baby girl. He is delighted for her and she is inwardly pleased that Octavia is being held by her father - but she keeps it a secret and does not tell George she is his little girl. He comments that she seems to have everything in life going for her and the only thing she appears to lack is a husband although he always got the distinct impression that that kind of dependence was not in her temperament. As he leaves she agrees that self-reliance is just her nature and there's nothing one can do about that. | |
| Starring: | Sandy Dennis (as Rosamund Stacey), Eleanor Bron (as Lydia Reynolds), Ian McKellen (as George Matthews) |
| Featuring: | John Standing (as Roger Henderson), Michael Coles (as Joe Hurt), Roger Hammond (as Mike), Maurice Denham (as Dr Dick Prothero, heart surgeon), Deborah Stanford (as Beatrice, Rosamund's elder sister), Kenneth Benda and Peggy Thorpe-Bates (as Mr and Mrs Stacey, Rosamund's parents), Rachel Kempson (as Nursing Sister) |
| NOTES: | |
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Adapted by Margaret Drabble from her own novel The Millstone. |
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The version reviewed carried the American title of Thank You All Very Much. |
| A Touch of the Other (1970) | Previous Next |
| aka: House of Hookers | |
| Writer: Frank Wyman / Director: Arnold Louis Miller / Producer: Arnold and Sheila Miller | |
| Type: Crime Drama | Running Time: 81 mins |
| Delger is happy-go-lucky sort of chap who helps out a casual friend called Ian Donaldson who is in need of some quick cash for undisclosed reasons and in return Donaldson allows Delger to use his office/apartment for the remaining six months of its lease. The office is based in the Soho district of London but Delger has no idea of what to do with it so he puts up some cards around town saying "Delger gets things done - If you're in a fix give me a call", and he waits to see what comes in. In the meantime Delger discovers that the other offices in the building are used by prostitutes under the fronts of being a masseuse service or giving language lessons. He strikes up a neighbourly rapport with Elaine the "French teacher".
There are no takers to Delger's adverts except for two police detectives who come round to see what line of business he is in - they seem most interested in what his links to Donaldson are but Delger cannot provide them with much help. But this interest quirks Delger's curiosity and with nothing else to do he decides to look into Donaldson's business contacts to see exactly what it was he did. He finds a phone number of a nearby strip-club amongst Donaldson's papers and then brashly barges into the club's back-offices to see the owner of the club to try and get information from him. But the owner knows nothing about Donaldson and Delger leaves none the wiser. Unfortunately this dead-end enquiry opens up a whole load of trouble for Delger when the club owner phones a crime boss called Traylor to whom he pays protection money and complains about Delger's unwanted intrusion. So Traylor sends his thugs to fetch Delger and he gives him a strong warning not to be so nosy and then has the thugs give him a working over back at his office. Wendy the masseuse hears all the noise and after the thugs have gone she soothes his bruises with some tender care which leads to sex. Later on Elaine also visits him and sleeps with him and she and Wendy are quite happy to share Delger liking his good natured wit. They warn him about their pimp boss Max Ronlow who they say is a nasty piece of work. Although when Delger later meets Max he doesn't appear that imposing - he is a slightly effeminate homosexual who seems undeserving of the reputation the girls have saddled him with. Max has a small job for Delger and asks him to courier an important envelope to a house in the suburbs for £50. Delger is suspicious but his curiosity is raging and so he agrees to do it. But when he arrives at the house it is a set-up - he is knocked out and when he regains consciousness he is alone in the house with a dead body and a gun - the body is that of Ian Donaldson and he realises that he is being framed for murder. Fortunately Wendy followed him and provides him with a quick getaway just before the police arrive. Delger goes round to Max's place and angrily demands more information while Wendy waits outside. Max is easily intimidated and tells what he knows:- Donaldson was involved in a jewel heist and kept the jewellery for himself and needed the money he had from Delger to leave the country while crime boss Traylor was looking for him. But Traylor caught him and held him prisoner and then after Delger started stirring things up Traylor decided it would be simpler to have Donaldson killed and neatly implicate Delger in the process. Max was just working under Traylor's instructions by setting Delger up. Then Traylor's thugs come round to dispose of Max in case he squeals and they try and abduct Delger to take him back to Traylor to be dealt with - but fortunately Wendy has called the police who arrive just in time to arrest the thugs. This ties things up nicely and Traylor too is arrested on murder charges leaving Delger and the two girls to share some quality time together in bed back at his apartment. | |
| Starring: | Kenneth Cope (as Delger), Shirley Anne Field (as Elaine), Helene Francoise (as Wendy) |
| Featuring: | Martin Wyldeck (as Traylor), Noel Davis (as Max Ronlow), Timothy Craven and Vasos Koulolia (as Traylor's thugs), Jon Laurimore (as Detective Masters), Paul Stassino (as Mike Connelly, strip-club owner) |
| Starlets: | Renny Lister (as Sheila, Traylor's girl), Gypsy Kemp (as Shirley, Traylor's girl), Brazil (as Black Stripper), Benita (as White Stripper) |
| NOTES: | |
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Helene Francoise receives an "introducing" credit. |
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Director Arnold Louis Miller credited as Arnold Miller. |
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Kenneth Cope sings the theme tune I Can Get Things Done. |
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House of Hookers was the title on the version reviewed. |
| A Touch of the Sun (1979) | Previous Next |
| aka: No Secrets! | |
| Writers: George Fowler, Peter Curran / Director: Peter Curran / Producer: Elizabeth Curran | |
| Type: Comedy | Running Time: 85 mins |
| Captain Daniel Nelson is a hapless American marine working at a small space control centre coordinating the launch and re-entry of a manned space rocket mission. He works for the brusque General Spelvin who has no time for fools but feels he has been lumbered with one in the form of the accident prone Captain Nelson.
After the launch there is a period of five days liberty before the spacecraft returns and Nelson finds himself in the company of a beautiful woman called Natasha who has rather unexpectedly taken a fancy to him. However what Nelson does not realise is that Natasha is an agent for a foreign power and is attempting to manipulate events to her leader's advantage. Natasha arranges an accident for General Spelvin which puts him in hospital. This means that Captain Nelson has to take charge of the splashdown procedure. Nelson hopes it will all go smoothly but unfortunately the control signals go awry and Nelson does not know what to do to override the rogue intervention and the spacecraft comes down somewhere in Africa. General Spelvin would have been able to manage the situation which was why he was put out of commission. Word is received from a small state in Zambia ruled by an Emperor Sumumba that they have seized the capsule and its crew and want a ransom of $25 million for their safe return. Captain Nelson and a CIA operative called Jim Coburn are sent to Africa to negotiate. They land in Zambia and travel into open country where they find the Zawi tribe. A British commissioner called Potts lives amongst them and for a suitably large fee he agrees to guide them to the state ruled by Emperor Sumumba. When they get to the small state, the two Americans find that the Emperor has some incredible technology at his disposal far more advanced than any other nation. He can erect an invisible force field around his empire making it impervious to any attack. Nelson and Coburn become hostages too as Sumumba keeps raising the ransom fee secure in his invulnerability to any attacks by America's sixth fleet. He also has a Sun Gun which can vaporise any target as he demonstrates by destroying the disputed space capsule. But Sumumba's tribe and the Zawi tribe are enemies and (for another large fee) Potts leads his tribe to stealthily take over the Emperor's command centre and disable the defences. The American war planes attack and lay waste to the area forcing Sumumba to surrender. The astronauts are rescued and returned home. Potts wants a ride home too and Coburn charges him a fee equivalent to all the money he extorted from them for the various services he provided. | |
| Starring: | Oliver Reed (as Captain Daniel Nelson), Peter Cushing (as Commissioner Potts), Keenan Wynn (as General Spelvin), Sylvaine Charlet (as Natasha Alexandrovitch), Bruce Boa (as Jim Coburn, CIA agent), Edwin Manda (as Emperor Sumumba) |
| Featuring: | Wilfrid Hyde-White (as M-1, London intelligence chief, [one-scene]), A.M. Phiri (as Chief Zawie) |
| Familiar Faces: | Melvyn Hayes (as Gay "Tarzan", [credited as Melvin Hayes]) |
| Starlets: | Hilary Pritchard (as Miss Funnypenny, M-1's secretary, [one-scene]) |
| NOTES: | |
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Edwin Manda receives an "introducing" credit |
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The version reviewed carried the title No Secrets! |
| The Touchables (1968) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Ian La Frenais* / Director: Robert Freeman / Producer: John Bryan | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 88 mins |
| Sadie, Melanie, Busbee and Samson are four lively and energetic girlfriends who get a buzz out of engaging in high-spirited hi-jinks. When we first see them they are stealing a statue of Michael Caine as Harry Palmer from a waxwork museum - for no other reason than they want to. It seems clear that this is a typical activity for the fun-loving foursome. Melanie's boyfriend is a rich white wrestler called Ricki whose sporting nemesis is a black wrestler called Lillywhite (who wrestles as The Hood). Lillywhite has a sideline as a gangster who runs a protection racket who has spotted a celebrity spectator called Christian at the latest wrestling tournament and decides to extort money from his manager Kasher to ensure his client's safety.
Christian is an actor who has become a youth icon and the four girls decide it would be a lark to kidnap him and make him their sex-slave. They dress as nuns and abduct him from the next wrestling bout and take him off to a large plastic domed arena in a remote country location near a lake. They keep him there for a couple of weeks initially tied up but then he is let loose and he stays with them reasonably willingly treating it all as an extended holiday as they toy with him. No one else knows where Christian has gone but when Melanie returns to London to get supplies she is followed back to the dome and they are all captured by Lillywhite's men who then demands a ransom from Kasher. Samson manages to escape the dome and tells Ricki that they need his help and he speeds off to rescue his girlfriend Melanie and the others. Lillywhite follows close behind and things climax with a big punch-up at the dome which the good guys win. | |
| Comment: A fairly strange film with a quartet of lead characters whose behaviour is never really explained. They just seem to act on whimsy with no criminal intent or attempt at financial gain. | |
| Starring: | Judy Huxtable (as Sadie), Ester Anderson (as Melanie), Marilyn Rickard (as Busbee), Kathy Simmonds (as Samson), David Anthony (as Christian) |
| Featuring: | Ricki Starr (as Ricki, white wrestler), Harry Baird (as Lillywhite, black wrestler), James Villiers (as Twyning, Lillywhite's assistant), John Ronane (as Kasher, Christian's manager) |
| Familiar Faces: | Joan Bakewell (as TV Interviewer) |
| NOTES: | |
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*Based on a script by David & Donald Cammell, from an original idea by Robert Freeman. |
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Marilyn Rickard is also known as Monika Ringwald. |
| Tower of Evil (1972) | Previous Next |
| aka: Horror on Snape Island | |
| Novel: George Baxt / Writer/Director: Jim O'Connolly / Producer: Richard Gordon | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 90 mins |
| A fisherman called Hamp Gurney and his father John have arrived on Snape Island to check on the whereabouts of some tourists. Snape Island is a small and remote isle far out at sea that houses a lighthouse which was abandoned thirty years previously due to subsidence and is now derelict. Four young American tourists were staying there but have not been heard from. The fishermen find horribly murdered bodies of three of them. The fourth, a girl called Penelope Reed, leaps out at the older fisherman and stabs him to death in a state of abject terror. Penelope is suspected of the other three murders as well but she is in no fit state to stand trial and is sent for psychiatric assessment. She is in a state of catatonic stupor due to the shocking events she has witnessed and the doctor attempts to release her memories hypnotically - we then see some flashbacks which show the four friends arriving on the island and being brutally murdered one-by one by someone unseen which Penny witnesses.
The aforementioned is mainly just a prelude to the main story which involves a team of four archaeologists attached to a museum who are travelling to Snape Island because an artefact has been found there which indicates that an ancient civilisation called the Phoenicians may have stopped off on the isle to bury a dead ruler along with hoards of treasure. The young archaeologists are Adam Masters, Rose Mason, Dan Winthrop and his wife Nora. They are accompanied by an investigator called Brent hired by the parents of Penny Reed to try and prove that their daughter was not responsible for the murders of her friends. Taking the scientists to the island are fisherman Hamp Gurney and his nephew Brom. Hamp tells the others that his brother Saul and Saul's wife Martha used to live on the island but died six months ago believed lost at sea - they once had a child called Michael who died many years ago. Events take a sinister turn that evening when their boat - the only way off the island - is blown up - and their only radio equipment smashed. When a rotting body is found Hamp agrees it is probably his sister-in-law Martha. The reason the couple were living in solitude was that Saul had gone mad and Martha was caring for him. The scientists suspect that Saul is not dead and is still living on the isle somewhere. They think he may be in a cave system somewhere under the lighthouse and split into groups to try and find the entrance. After a few more deaths they find the caves and in them the Phoenician treasures they had come to search for. They discover Saul who is a raging hermit-like incoherent madman There is a final showdown and Saul is killed. Believing it all to be over they feel safe but there is another attack at the lighthouse by a younger madman who is identified as the thought-to-be dead son Michael. He is killed in a fire but this ignites a paraffin reservoir tank and the whole lighthouse blows up as the survivors of the whole ordeal watch from a safe distance. | |
| Starring: | Bryant Haliday (as Brent, Investigator), Jill Haworth (as Rose Mason, Scientist), Mark Edwards (as Adam Masters, Scientist), Anna Palk (as Nora Winthrop, Scientist), Derek Fowlds (as Dan Winthrop, Scientist), Jack Watson (as Hamp Gurney, Fisherman), Gary Hamilton (Brom Gurney, Fisherman's nephew) |
| Featuring: | Candace Glendenning (as Penelope Reed, American), Robin Askwith (as Des, American), Seretta Wilson (Mae, American), John Hamill (as Gary, American) |
| Star-Turns: | Dennis Price, Anthony Valentine |
| NOTES: | |
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Gary Hamilton receives an "introducing" credit. |
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Robin Askwith and Candace Glendenning are playing Americans and both sound as if they are dubbed. |
| aka: Macbeth | |
| Writers: Roman Polanski, Kenneth Tynan / Director: Roman Polanski / Producer: Andrew Braunsberg | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 134 mins |
| In Scotland in 1040 a rebellion against the king by a nobleman in league with the Norwegians is crushed in a battle. One of the king's kinsmen called Macbeth is instrumental in achieving victory and King Duncan bestows the title Thane of Glamis on brave Macbeth. Whilst travelling home Macbeth and his best friend Banquo shelter from a storm and happen upon a trio of weird witchlike women who make some startling predictions. They hail Macbeth as the future Thane of Cawdor and then as king. For Banquo they declare he will beget kings.
The two friends laugh it off until shortly afterwards Macbeth is given a further more prestigious honour of the Thanage of Cawdor as well. Macbeth privately considers the rest of the sisters' strange prophecy and wonders if he is indeed to become king at some point. His ambitions are piqued but he knows not whether he need only sit back and wait for the event to befall him or if he has need to cause it to come about by precipitous action. King Duncan is a relatively young man and has already named his successor as his son Malcolm, so Macbeth infers the event must be prompted to hasten its arrival. Macbeth confides in his wife Lady Macbeth who shares his lofty ambitions and together they decide on what must be done when shortly they will play host to the king at their castle. At Macbeth's castle Duncan feels himself among friends and so at night his bedchamber is only lightly guarded. Lady Macbeth drugs the guards' drinks and once they are soundly asleep Macbeth sneaks into Duncan's bedchamber and stabs him to death. With the foul deed done he returns to his wife still holding the bloody knife. Lady Macbeth realises that it is damning evidence so she returns to the scene and uses the king's blood to stain the guard's clothing and implicate them in the murder with the knife left by their side. Next morning the king's murder is discovered and the guards are slain in feigned anger by Macbeth when their guilt seems unequivocal. No one can quite understand what the guards hoped to gain by the act and some believe they were stooges. The king's sons flee to England and Ireland in concern of a similar fate befalling them. However their sudden flight gives rise to suspicion of their complicity in the affair and so a new king has to be chosen. As the late king's nephew, Macbeth is the most senior kinsman and is the natural choice and he is crowned as King of Scotland. Now crowned monarch Macbeth considers any remaining risks to his position. He recalls the witches' additional prophecy that loyal Banquo's offspring would one day wear the crown. Macbeth cannot allow that to happen so he sends some assassins to murder Banquo to prevent him having any further children. Banquo's one existing son Fleance escapes but Macbeth considers him too young to be of any threat for now and can be dealt with later. Macbeth finds it hard to bear the guilt of his actions and he starts to see visions of the dead Banquo haunting him. He begins to behave erratically in front of his courtiers and his popularity wanes and he fears insurrection. Macbeth returns to the witches' coven eager to know his future destiny. What they tell him cheers him for according to the witches he cannot be killed by one of woman born and he is safe until Birnam Wood should approach Dunsinane Castle. All men are borne of woman and woodland trees cannot become mobile so Macbeth feels he has become inviolable. Macbeth's increasing cruelty over the next seventeen years causes the abandonment of many former loyal subjects and friends such as Macduff who takes flight to England. In retribution for this treachery Macbeth has Macduff's wife and children slaughtered. Lady Macbeth becomes racked by the guilt of what was done to achieve their position. She has bouts of sleepwalking in which she tries vainly to wash the now imagined blood from her hands. She later kills herself. Macduff meets up with exiled Malcolm and with an army provided by the English they make plans to march on Scotland and depose Macbeth. On their way they pass through Birnam Wood and cut down the small trees which they carry to help disguise their numbers. When Macbeth spots the trees advancing towards his castle he fears part of the prophecy is coming true. However he has confidence that he can overcome any enemy in battle since he cannot be killed. When Macduff and Malcolm reach Macbeth's castle they find it abandoned by all except Macbeth who stays to defiantly confront his would-be usurpers. Macbeth and Macduff clash swords with Macbeth confidently knowing he has the upper hand and announcing to everyone exactly how he knows that is true. His life cannot yield to any man borne of woman. But then Macduff reveals that his birth was not of natural means and instead he was cut from the womb with a knife. Macbeth had not considered this undermining technicality and it shakes his confidence enough that Macduff is able to deliver a killing thrust. Macbeth is beheaded and his head erected on a pike to resounding cheers. Malcolm is crowned as the new rightful King of Scotland. | |
| Starring: | Jon Finch (as Macbeth), Francesca Annis (as Lady Macbeth), Martin Shaw (as Banquo, Macbeth's best friend), Terence Bayler (as Macduff, kinsman), Nicholas Selby (as Duncan, King of Scotland) |
| Featuring: | John Stride (as Ross), Stephan Chase (as Malcolm, Duncan's son), Paul Shelley (as Donalbain), Maisie MacFarquhar (as First Witch, old), Elsie Taylor (as Second Witch, old), Noelle Rimmington (as Third Witch, young), Noel Davis (as Seyton), Sydney Bromley (as Porter), Richard Pearson (as Court physician), Patricia Mason (as Gentlewoman), Michael Balfour and Andrew McCulloch (as Assassins of Banquo), Keith Chegwin (as Fleance, Banquo's son), Andrew Laurence (as Lennox), Bernard Archard (as Angus, English ally), Bruce Purchase (as Caithness), Frank Wylie (as Menteith), Diane Fletcher (as Lady Macduff, Macduff's wife), Mark Dightam (as Macduff's son) |
| Starlets: | Lynette Reade (as Witch, [uncredited, one of 20 or so extras playing naked coven witches]) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
From the play by William Shakespeare |
| Writers: (see below) / Director: Blake Edwards / Producers: Blake Edwards, Tony Adams | |
| Type: Comedy | Running Time: 92 mins |
| In the Middle Eastern nation of Lugash the famous Pink Panther diamond is stolen once again. The president of Lugash immediately requests the assistance of the formidable French detective Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau whose world-renowned brilliance has managed to recover the diamond twice before. Clouseau's superior, Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus, now back at duty after a period of mental illness, despairs at Clouseau's public reputation because he knows that Clouseau is in fact an inept bumbler who only solves cases through dumb good luck.
The Lugash president is soon advised that he has been hasty in sending for Clouseau because the insurance payout on the stolen diamond has been beneficial. Should Clouseau actually recover the diamond then those monies would have to be repaid and that would be a disaster for the country's finances. The president therefore orders that Clouseau should be eliminated. Clouseau decides to go to Lugash after a brief visit to Sir Charles Litton, the once-notorious Phantom who first stole the gem, to check his alibi, which turns out to be sound. Chief Inspector Dreyfus receives intelligence that assassins will target Clouseau if he goes to Lugash. Dreyfus is delighted by this news and does not inform Clouseau of the danger. News later comes through that the plane Clouseau was travelling on has gone missing over the ocean. French television journalist Marie Jouvet decides to investigate Clouseau's disappearance and perhaps find him because the detective is a celebrated national hero with several medals for gallantry. She travels around interviewing people who knew Inspector Clouseau gaining insight into his past glories. The French mafia are having a boom period since Clouseau's departure from the scene with its members feeling liberated by the significantly reduced risk of being caught. Therefore the last thing mafia boss Bruno Langois wants is for Marie Jouvet to have any success in locating the missing Clouseau. He decides she must be "persuaded" to desist. Marie interviews Sir Charles Litton who was rumoured to be the infamous Phantom together with his wife Simone, who was once married to Jacques Clouseau himself until their divorce twenty years ago. On her way home Marie is kidnapped by the mafia and taken to Bruno's villa. He tries to tell her to ease off with the Clouseau thing but she proves a fiery defender of journalistic freedom and refuses to be intimidated and he has to give up and let her go. Marie goes to interview Clouseau's elderly father at his vineyard to gain further insight into the legend. She is told of his exploits during the war. Marie has given up on trying to actually locate Clouseau but she collates all her findings into a fine tribute programme speculating that perhaps the great man is still alive somewhere in the world remaining hidden for some as yet unknown reason. And as the film ends we see Inspector Clouseau is still alive stranded on a desert island ... | |
| Comment: Peter Sellers had passed away when this film was made so his footage is taken from unused scenes from earlier films and combines that with new scenes featuring other actors. | |
| Starring: | Peter Sellers (as Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau, [in clips and deleted scenes from previous movies]), Herbert Lom (as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus), Joanna Lumley (as Marie Jouvet, French TV journalist) |
| Featuring: | David Niven (as Sir Charles Litton), Capucine (as Lady Simone Litton, Sir Charles' wife and former wife of Clouseau), André Maranne (as Sergeant Francois Duval, Surete detective), Richard Mulligan (as Clouseau's Father), Robert Loggia (as Bruno Langois, mafia crime boss), Burt Kwouk (as Cato Fong, Clouseau's manservant), Harvey Korman (as Prof. Auguste Balls, disguise shop owner), Liz Smith (as Marta Balls, Balls' wife), Danny Schiller (as Cunny, Balls' assistant), Graham Stark (as Hercule Lajoy, Clouseau's former assistant), Ronald Fraser (as Dr Longet, Dreyfus' psychiatrist), Harold Kasket (as President Sandover Haleesh of Lugash), Peter Arne (as Colonel Bufoni, president's adviser), Marne Maitland (as Deputy Commissioner Lasorde, Dreyfus' superior), William Hootkins (as Taxi Driver, kidnaps Marie Jouvet), Denise Crosby (as Denise, Bruno's girlfriend), Madlena Nedeva (as Dreyfus' wife), Arthur Howard (as Bruno's butler) |
| Also: | (archive footage only) Leonard Rossiter (as Scotland Yard Superintendent Quinlan) |
| NOTES: | |
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Written by Frank Waldman, Tom Waldman, Blake Edwards and Geoffrey Edwards |
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The story continues in Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) which contains all new material as the hunt for Clouseau continues. The previous Pink Panther film featuring Peter Sellers' last proper appearance was Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978). |
| Writer: David Osborn / Director: Sidney Hayers / Producer: George H. Brown | |
| Type: Adventure | Running Time: 101 mins |
| Set in Canada in the late 1800's. In a small coastal town in British Columbia the frontiersmen look forward to the annual arrival of a steamer which brings with it supplies and women. The women are mostly petty criminals whose fines, bail and passage have been paid for by the men in return for a guarantee of marriage.
The town's most well-to-do family is that of the Trader who lives with his wife and daughter in a luxurious house. Also living with the Trader's family is a young woman called Eve who was struck dumb as a child when she witnessed her entire family massacred by Indians. The Trader kindly took her in ten years ago and she stays with them as a kind of maidservant. Also arriving in town is Jean La Bête, a reclusive fur trapper who lives like a hermit way down river and only shows up occasionally to sell his animal furs. The Trader is distressed to see him because he had ardently hoped the La Bête were dead because the Trader owes him a lot of money he had been holding on account - and without that money the Trader's finances look shaky. La Bête is a burly and easily enraged man whom one does not argue with and when he demands his money the Trader has to hand over $1000. The Trader's wife is infuriated by this because that money had been earmarked for them being able to leave this miserable place for somewhere better. When she finds out that La Bête needed the money to "order" a wife on next year's supply steamer she proposes that if he returns the money he can have Eve immediately without having to wait a whole year - La Bête agrees. Eve feels betrayed and terrified but has no way of voicing her refusal as she is dragged off by the powerful La Bête. He takes her in his canoe the hundreds of miles upriver back to his log cabin in the mountain-bracketed forests to live with him. Eve is a very reluctant wife and although she cooks and cleans for him and puts up with his obnoxious habits, she refuses any intimate contact. Although frustrated by her refusals the Trapper never goes as far as to force himself on her and he contents himself with her silent companionship. As the months go by La Bête teaches her his skills of hunting and trapping. Winter snow arrives and one day when the Trapper is stalking a cougar he gets his foot caught in one of his own bear traps and badly injures himself. He manages to free his foot from the metal clamp but has to hobble and as night falls he is stalked and attacked by a pack of wolves. He fights back ferociously but is weakening against the onslaught when he is saved by Eve who ventured out into the night with the spare rifle to see what had become of him. La Bête's foot becomes infected and he tells Eve she must chop his leg off to the knee with the axe to save his life. As he convalesces their roles become reversed and Eve goes out to hunt and La Bête minds the home - he eventually fashions a wooden stump for his leg so he can get around and resume his hunting. One night Eve mellows and they become intimate but the next day she is appalled and leaves him to return to the town - his disability does not allow him to stop her and he watches her go not expecting he will ever see her again. Eve is welcomed back in town and before long is engaged to be married to a local lad with the prospect of a comfortable life. But on the day of the wedding she has second thoughts and realises she misses La Bête and the exciting basic existence he offers. She leaves town and returns to him and he wordlessly accepts her back and they continue with their life now that she accepts this is what she really wants. | |
| Starring: | Rita Tushingham (as Eve), Oliver Reed (as Jean La Bête) |
| Featuring: | Rex Sevenoaks (as The Trader), Barbara Chilcott (as Trader's Wife), Blain Fairman (as Clerk, young man who is sweet on Eve), Linda Goranson (Sarah, the Trader's daughter), Jo Golland (as Baptiste, another fur trapper), Jon Granik and Merv Campone (as Indians), Reginald McReynolds (as Steamer Captain), Walter Marsh (as Town Preacher) |
| NOTES: | |
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Rita Tushingham as Eve does not utter a single word in the entire film. |
| Travelling Light (1960) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Victor Hewitt / Director/Producer: Michael Keatering | |
| Type: Nudist | Running Time: 49 mins |
| Living in the modern world (in the late 1950s) in Britain can be stressful and demanding on busy working people whose lives are being changed by the unstoppable march of progress. It is no wonder then that some people like to use their leisure time to relax and get away from it all in the natural world around them. Elizabeth is one such person who, as a perfectly normal woman, finds it invigorating to sunbathe naked in remote beauty spots when no one else is around to see her.
On one such occasion she is relaxing naked on a grassy sand dune by the sea when she is surprised to be discovered by a trio of people. At first Elizabeth is a bit embarrassed to have been caught out, especially since one of them is a man, but is then amazed when all three of them proceed to take off their clothes as well without shame or modesty. They begin playing catch with a beach ball and Elizabeth soon finds herself shedding her remaining inhibitions and joining in with their game and enjoying the additional feeling of liberation it brings her. These like-minded people introduce her to a new word - "naturism". Her new friends are two sisters, Ingrid and Helga, and Ingrid's fiancé Robert. They tell her about a naturist camp in Corsica where they are going on their holidays and Elizabeth thinks it sounds such fun that she decides she will go too and meet up with them there. Eight months later Elizabeth eagerly heads off to the Mediterranean island of Corsica and arrives at the naturist colony of Villata with its golden beaches and clear blue sea. Her friends have been delayed by a shipping strike but she meets another young woman from England called Caren, also on her first trip to the camp, and they quickly make friends. After being shown around the camp they shed their clothes and put up their tents. They settle into the relaxing carefree lifestyle that the idyllic location has to offer. Elizabeth finds it all very enchanting and the perfect way to release her tensions under the penetrating rays of the warm sun. Elizabeth and Caren make friends with another new arrival called Yannick who turns out to be a superb underwater swimmer. Then at last Elizabeth's other friends arrive at the camp and everyone is together again. The golden days that follow are full of laughter and happiness for Elizabeth and she feels healthier and more zestful that she ever has before. On the final day everyone decides to visit a small nearby island and explore the ruined watchtower which according to legend will assure one a lifetime of happiness. Elizabeth ends her holiday feeling fully at peace and hoping that her life will indeed be a happy one and she will one day return here to this glorious paradise. | |
| Comment: The film is not a plot driven drama and is closer really to a travelogue. What we hear is Elizabeth's enthusiastic narrative voice describing her adventures and the friends she makes as she shares with us her feelings of joy about her experiences. There is no live dialogue heard. | |
| Starring: | Elizabeth Elcoate-Gilbert (credited as Elizabeth) |
| Featuring: | Yannick Philouze (credited as Yannick), Ingrid Sullivan, Elsa Sullivan (called Helga in narration), Caren, Robert, Raymonde, Karl |
| NOTES: | |
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Only Elizabeth and Yannick's names are listed in the credits. Their full names are identified on IMDB although on the credits and soundtrack only first names are used. Elizabeth is credited as "the well known naturist" and Yannick as "the fabulous new sub-aqua star" (who also receives an "introducing" credit). Ingrid's surname is credited in the sequel "Sunswept" for her musical contribution and therefore by connection must also be the same for her sister. The first names of the others taking part are heard in the narration. The spelling of Caren's name is established in the credits of the third film "Eves on Skis". |
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Elizabeth's narrative voice is not provided by Elizabeth herself. In this film the voice artiste goes uncredited, but in the sequel "Sunswept" it is credited as Lisa Rayne (assuming it is the same voice, as it seems to be). Ingrid's sister is referred to as Helga in this film although she is called "Elsa" in the two subsequent films. |
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Elizabeth and some of her friends appear again in the follow up film Sunswept (1961) and then again in Eves on Skis (1963). |
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The real name of the director was Edward Craven Walker who was Elizabeth's husband. |
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This is one of a string of British films from around this time that managed to get around strict censorship rules on nudity by featuring stories involving naturism activities. The others were:- Nudist Paradise (1959), Nudist Memories (1959), For Members Only (1960) (aka The Nudist Story), Some Like It Cool (1961), Nudes of the World (1961), Sunswept (1961), Naked - as Nature Intended (1961), World Without Shame (1962), Take Off Your Clothes And Live (1962), My Bare Lady (1963), Eves on Skis (1963), It's A Bare, Bare World (1963), The Reluctant Nudist (1963). |
| Writer/Director/Producer: René Cardona Jr | |
| Type: Adventure | Running Time: 105 mins |
| Set in 1958 in an unspecified South American country deep in the Amazon jungle. A man known as Gringo is returning to a place he visited six years ago when he only narrowly escaped a horrific death by head-hunters which claimed the lives of his five friends whilst they were searching for treasure. Gringo suffered madness over what he witnessed and only now has he sufficiently recovered to return for reasons as yet undisclosed. Also arriving at the same time are two greedy opportunists called Zapata and Haro who have been following the trail of a shipment of specialist equipment because they know its only use can be for gold mining and they want to find out who collects it and get in on the action. The equipment is collected by a German called Klaus von Blantz and his native wife Morinba and taken away on mules. The two men persuade Gringo to act as a guide for them so they can follow the German into the jungle. They are unaware that Gringo has his own mission and will lead them to a different kind of treasure.
Elsewhere a team surveying the area for oil stumble across some buried diamonds in a grave and decide their efforts would be better employed searching for more. The team consist of Dick and his girlfriend Barbara and their hydroplane pilot Clark. Whilst Clark is away getting supplies Dick and Barbara have to hide in a cave by a waterfall to avoid being caught by a tribe of head-hunters. In the cave Barbara finds a river which is bedded by loose natural diamonds. This natural treasure is what Gringo found all those years ago and is also where he is now heading back to with his two companions. Meanwhile Klaus is exploiting his own discovery of a gold mine with which he plans to finance the revival of the glorious Third Reich. Klaus is very secretive and is determined that no one else will discover the location of his mine. The only other person who knows is his wife who is acting as his guide. Barbara hears shots in the jungle and thinks Clark has returned and goes to meet him but instead it is Gringo and his companions. They team up and she leads them back to the cave where they discover that Dick has been found and killed by head-hunters. Zapata and Haro cannot believe the fortune in diamonds just lying around on the riverbed and they start gathering as much as they can. Meanwhile Gringo goes to a secret location to recover a cache of diamonds he stored away on his last visit - this is what he came for and he is soon ready to leave with Barbara with or without the two fortune hunters who want more time to gather the diamonds. Left alone Zapata and Haro panic that they will become lost without Gringo to guide them and they try to double-cross each other for their shares. Zaputa outsmarts his buddy and leaves Haro tied up for dead in the cave where he is eaten by flesh eating crabs. Zaputa catches up with Gringo and Barbara to rejoin them for the trip out of the jungle. Zaputa tries to rape Barbara and Gringo fights him off but is no match for the stronger man and he has to be saved by Barbara who shoots Zaputa dead. Barbara and Gringo become lovers on their raft trip back to civilisation. Elsewhere, when Klaus and Morinba have packed up the powdered gold they have collected, Klaus cold-bloodedly shoots his wife dead not wishing anyone else to know the location of his mine. He then travels out of the jungle alone. He is stopped on his way by a tribal chief named Paco who controls the area and demands explorers pay a tax levy on any discoveries made in "his" jungle. Klaus tries to pretend his gold dust is merely worthless dirt samples for analysis. But Paco is no fool and has Klaus killed and strung up as an example to any who defy his law. When Gringo and Barbara arrive at Paco's village they don't make the same mistake and duly part with a large proportion of the diamonds in levy and are allowed to continue on their way with only a disappointingly small handful of their booty to show for their efforts. But Gringo had slyly held back many diamonds hidden in his rifle and so they are still sitting on a fortune. As lovers they start planning all the things to do with the diamonds which they share equally. However Barbara has no intention of staying with Gringo and once she has her share she scoots off with Clark when he returns with the hydroplane. But once she is in the air she discovers that Gringo outwitted her and her pouch does not contain any diamonds. He has kept them in case she tried something like this because he was only willing to share it all with her if she stayed with him. Gringo emerges as the ultimate winner with a fortune in diamonds to lavish upon himself. | |
| Starring: | Stuart Whitman (as Gringo), Pedro Armendariz (as Zapata) Donald Pleasence (as Klaus von Blantz), Sonia Infante (as Morinba, tribeswoman, wife of Klaus) Ann Sidney (as Barbara), Clark Jarrett (as Dick), Bradford Dillman (as Clark, hydroplane pilot) |
| Featuring: | Emilio 'El Indio' Fernandez (as Paco, tribal chief), John Ireland (as Local Priest), Jorge Luke (Unknown character) |
| NOTES: | |
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This Mexican film was reviewed here because of the involvement of British actors Donald Pleasence and Ann Sidney. It was made in English. |
| The Trespasser (1981) | Previous Next |
| Novel: D.H. Lawrence / Adaptation: Hugh Stoddart / Director/Producer: Colin Gregg | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 93 mins |
| Period drama set in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Helena is a young woman who has fallen in love with her violin tutor Siegmund after being his pupil for seven years ever since she was a young girl. Siegmund is a married man in his late 30s who has been with his wife Beatrice for twenty years - but now the marriage has grown stale and become loveless. He and Beatrice have three children but he does not feel they love him all that much and that he is tolerated as a member of the household only on the strength that he is the breadwinner. He is therefore an unhappy man and has found himself falling in love with his pupil Helena who offers him a pure love that he craves.
Sigmund is a member of an orchestra and at the end of the current season he tells his family he is going away alone for a rest - but actually he and Helena take a five-day holiday together on a secluded part of the Isle of Wight where they can be alone and properly enjoy each others company. They have a sexual relationship and both are incredibly happy and wish this idyllic time would never end. But as the final day draws closer a cloud looms over their happiness as Siegmund dreads the necessity of going back to his humdrum and loveless life and Helena resents that he has to. When Siegmund gets home nothing has changed and his family are barely speaking to him. He sees no escape from the situation and while in a severe state of depression he hangs himself. | |
| Comment: I'm not all that sure why it is called "The Trespasser". It has nothing to do with the typical meaning of the word - perhaps there's some vague relevance concerning the intrusion of the young woman on the older woman's marriage but it is certainly not a title that gives away much indication of what it is really about. | |
| Starring: | Alan Bates (as Siegmund), Pauline Moran (as Helena) |
| Featuring: | Dinah Stabb (as Louisa, Helena's friend), Margaret Whiting (as Beatrice, Siegmund's wife), Catherine Hall (as Vera, Siegmund's grown-up daughter), Leilah Flanagan (as Gwen, Siegmund's young daughter), Daniel Chasin (Frank, Siegmund's young son), Betty Hardy (as Mrs Curtis, holiday home landlady) |
| Trial by Combat (1976) | Previous Next |
| aka: A Choice of Weapons | |
| Writers: Julian Bond, Steven Rossen, Mitchell Smith / Director: Kevin Connor / Producers: Fred Weintraub, Paul Heller | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 85 mins |
| In a prologue we see a joust taking place in what seems to be medieval times: - A frightened and inexperienced knight is being forced to fight for his life against an experienced champion with victory his only chance of survival in a "trial" by combat. However once the novice has been slain we discover we are actually in modern times and the assembled knights are re-enacting long gone traditions. They are known as the Knights of Avalon formed as a noble order to uphold the spirit of a chivalrous age by their now elderly founder Sir Edward Gifford. But now that noble tradition is secretly being perverted by the order's grandmaster Sir Giles Marley to pursue his own views of justice. Sir Giles believes that the British legal system has gone soft and too many low-life criminals are getting away with their crimes on technicalities - therefore he and his loyal cronies from within the noble order have taken it upon themselves to capture these men and put them through a combat trial which to the accused means almost certain death. Their bodies are then wrapped in a red banner and dumped and these unsolved murders have been dubbed by the police as victims of the "Red Banner Butcher".
When honourable Sir Edward Gifford discovers what Sir Giles is up to and becomes morally outraged he is murdered and his death brings home his wayward son Sir John Gifford from America. John was brought up to be an English gentleman by his father but disliked the lifestyle and fled to America in his teenage years to live with his mother. John has now returned to try and get to the bottom of his father's murder. He is assisted in this by his father's friend Colonel Bertie Cook, a former Commissioner of Police at New Scotland Yard who still has sufficient clout there to be allowed access to the ongoing investigation. Bertie is also privately interested in solving the Red Banner Butcher Murders which the police are getting nowhere with. Bertie has an ebullient personality that endears him to most but annoys his successor in the post Oliver Griggs who would rather he didn't interfere. Sir Edward's murder is being blamed upon Ben Willoughby the gamekeeper who discovered his body but went on the run shortly afterwards when he became chief suspect. As the "Red Banner" murders continue Bertie decides to tail a particular gangland villain called Sidney Gore whom he feels sure will be the next target. Sure enough Gore is abducted and Bertie follows them back to Mordred Castle, home of Sir Giles. Bertie phones Oliver Griggs to let him know and send reinforcements. Bertie is captured by Sir Giles men but is confident that the police are on their way - until Griggs arrives alone and is revealed to be an Avalon Knight himself loyal to Sir Giles and Bertie is imprisoned in the dungeons. Meanwhile John locates the fugitive Ben Willoughby who is in hiding for fear his story won't be believed. Ben tells John about seeing Sir Edward being murdered by Sir Giles' men. John goes to Mordred castle to confront Sir Giles but is captured himself. John demands a Trial by Combat in return for the release of Bertie which Sir Giles cannot refuse and he gives his word to release Bertie if John proves victorious. John's combat training in his younger years serves him well and he proves an able fighter against the best Sir Giles' fighters have to offer and he defeats the champion. But Sir Giles fails to keep his word to John and decides to personally try to kill him - but in his rage Sir Giles becomes impaled on the drawbridge portcullis which is suddenly lowered by the vengeful Ben as Sir Giles is galloping through on his horse. | |
| Comment: Also becoming embroiled in the story is a plucky young American architectural student called Marion Evans who works at Mordred Castle and tries to help Bertie but ends up being imprisoned with him - and she also provides a love-interest for John. | |
| Starring: | John Mills (as Colonel Bertie Cook), Donald Pleasence (as Sir Giles Marley), David Birney (as Sir John Gifford, son of Sir Edward), Barbara Hershey (as Marion Evans, American student) |
| Featuring: | Brian Glover (as Sidney Gore, underworld gangster), Margaret Leighton (as Sidney Gore's mother), John Savident (as Oliver Griggs, Police Commissioner), Neil McCarthy (as Ben Willoughby, gamekeeper), Roy Holder (as William Renfield, first victim), Diane Langton (as Barmaid), Bernard Hill (as 'blind' Freddie, beggar) |
| Star-Turns: | Peter Cushing (as Sir Edward Gifford, [short appearance only]) |
| NOTES: | |
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Story by Fred Weintraub and Paul Heller |
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The version reviewed carried the title A Choice of Weapons. |
| Triple Cross (1966) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Rene Hardy / Director: Terence Young / Producer: Jacques-Paul Bertrand | |
| Type: War Drama | Running Time: 120 mins |
| Starting in 1939 with war looming. Eddie Chapman is a brashly confident and resourceful cat burglar who is responsible for a successful series of daring jewel thefts around London. When he goes on holiday to Jersey the police eventually catch up with him and he is thrown into the local jail where he spends ten months in solitary with no outside news. He does not even know war has broken out until the Germans arrive and take over Jersey.
Chapman demands to see the new commandant and makes an offer of his services (for a suitable fee) to work for the Germans which he views as a better alternative to rotting away in prison. The Germans view his impressive criminal record and take stock of his cocky self-assuredness and decide that he has the necessary motivation and ability to work for them as a spy. Chapman is taken to a château in France where he is given intense training in espionage skills. His commander is Baron Von Grunen and he receives special attention from beguiling beauty Countess Helle Lindstrom who helps train the English spies. After passing a test to assess his loyalty Chapman is sent on a mission to England to blow up a factory that manufactures aircraft parts. Upon arrival by parachute Chapman makes immediate contact with the British military leaders to let them know about his mission and offer his services (for a suitable fee and a full pardon) to double-cross the Germans. He also passes on what he has learnt about other spies working for the Germans. After deep consideration on his reliability the war cabinet decide to trust Chapman and use him as an asset - but to maintain his usefulness to the Germans he must successfully carry out his mission so they allow Chapman to proceed with his sabotage mission but instead destroy hastily constructed decoy buildings designed to fool German air reconnaissance photos into thinking the target is destroyed. Chapman then returns to Germany as per his orders. He is initially viewed with suspicion as it seems somewhat coincidental that a number of their valuable spies had been captured after he went to London. But Chapman manages to convince the Germans that had been nothing to do with him and he is given a medal for his bravery and becomes a trusted member of the Baron's military staff and has an affair with the Countess. During this time Chapman is able to pass back important information to London via the French resistance. (time passes) When word comes that the Allies have landed at Normandy the Baron sends Chapman on another mission to England to send back coded radio reports on troop movements. Chapman arrives back in London and briefs the war cabinet on the current state of confusion in the German command. The war chiefs use Chapman to pass back bogus troop movement information to the Germans in order to draw bombing raids into unimportant areas. When victory comes in 1945 Chapman is given a full pardon from his pre-war crimes although he is told ironically the records office was bombed early on in the war and so his records had been lost anyway! | |
| Comment: Several years pass during the film from early on in the war to much later - although precisely what goes on in the "unseen" time is not made entirely clear. | |
| Starring: | Christopher Plummer (as Eddie Chapman), Yul Brynner (as Baron von Grunen, German commander), Romy Schneider (as The Countess), Trevor Howard (as Head of British War Cabinet), Gert Frobe (as Colonel Steinhager, German security officer) |
| Featuring: | Claudine Auger (as Paulette, French resistance), Harry Meyen (as Lieutenant Keller, SS officer) |
| NOTES: | |
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Additional dialogue by William Marchant; based on the book The Eddie Chapman Story by Frank Owen |
| The Triple Echo (1972) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Robin Chapman / Director: Michael Apted / Producer: Graham Cottle | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 88 mins |
| Set in the Wiltshire countryside during the early 1940s wartime years. Mrs Alice Charlesworth keeps her farmlands ticking over in the absence of her husband Jack who went off to fight in the war and is now a prisoner of the Japanese. Alice manages to cope quite well and is handy with a shotgun which she uses to control pests.
One day she comes across a young soldier wandering across her fields looking for a shortcut to the main road. They get chatting and he seems a nice enough young lad so she invites him back to her farmhouse for some tea. His name is Gunner JL Barton from the Royal Artillery stationed at a nearby camp to provide support for a second front. He is very bored with all the routine soldiering and thinks he's wasting his time. In civilian life he works on his father's farm in Oxfordshire and thinks he would be far more useful working there. After tea he goes on his way but not before promising to come back the next day to help her fix her tractor which packed up on her the previous year. Barton comes as promised and fixes the tractor and soon his visits become a regular thing. He has leave due but instead of going home he spends his time with her on the farm and although she is somewhat older than him before long they have begun a love affair. At the end of his leave period he tells her he's not going back - he has had enough of pointless square-bashing and fatigue washing. She tells him he's taking a big risk becoming a deserter but when he seems determined she agrees to help. The first thing that needs to be done is to decide who they shall say he is - because he'll be noticed by local people who will talk. A young man would need a good reason not to be in the forces so she suggests he dress up in women's clothing so he can be passed off as her sister on an extended visit. Barton bristles at this idea but goes along with it and takes to wearing make-up and feminine attire whenever he is out working the farm. Some soldiers from the nearby base come by the farm and the officer in charge stops to ask Alice for some directions. The sergeant accompanying him is a gruff, vulgar man with an uncouthly arrogant manner and when he sees Alice's "sister" in the distance he becomes very interested at the discovery of two unattached women living so relatively near to the base. Alice is as stand-offish as she can be in order that the soldiers will move on as quickly as possible since wants to avoid them having any close contact with Barton. The sergeant eventually leaves thwarted by Alice's doggedness but it is clear that he has not given up and considers it a challenge to break down the resistance she is displaying for both herself and her sister. As the weeks go by the sergeant and his corporal friend Stan, whom the sergeant has let in on his "secret", pay more visits to ask the women to the camp dance. The sergeant is persistent but Alice manages to avoid him meeting Barton whom Alice claims is unwell. Months go by and the pressure of it all gets to Alice and she and Barton begin to have rows and grow tired of each others company - he starts to think that he has become a prisoner who is not allowed to have any fun. He has had brief chats with the sergeant acting in a shy demure way and the sergeant didn't suspect a thing as he plied her with his particular brand of brutish "charm". Barton was actually flattered by the attention and is considering going to the dance with him because he thinks his disguise is good enough and doesn't see why he shouldn't have some fun for a change. Alice is incredulous that Barton could think that a man like the sergeant only wants to dance and has nothing else in mind but Barton is convinced he can handle the sergeant. So Barton dresses up in a posh frock and is escorted to the dance by the sergeant. Once there Barton soon realises Alice was right and he cannot handle things. The sergeant gets very fresh and refuses to take no for an answer and drags "her" into a side room for some nooky and Barton can think of nothing to stop him. But as the sergeant's ardour increases and he starts groping around towards Barton's nether regions he is stunned into inaction by what he finds. Barton uses that moment to flatten him and flee from the base. The sergeant is furious at having been so humiliated and wants to give immediate chase but Stan says they should do it by the book and see if he's an AWOL soldier. They check the files and a photograph of Barton confirms who he is. The next morning a unit of military police are despatched to mount a search of the area surrounding Alice's farm. Barton has made his way back to the farm and Alice says she will protect him and he should flee to the hills and hide. But he is soon caught and dragged back to the farm to be arrested by the sergeant and taken for court martial and likely execution. But Alice who cannot bear to see the boy suffer chooses to make it quick for him and from her farmhouse top window shoots Barton dead with her rifle. | |
| Comment: Although the film ends at the shooting and we don't find out any more - presumably Alice would have then been arrested for murder. | |
| Starring: | Glenda Jackson (as Alice Charlesworth), Oliver Reed (as Sergeant), Brian Deacon (as Gunner Barton) |
| Featuring: | Gavin Richards (as Stan, corporal friend of sergeant), Anthony May (as Tank Officer) |
| Starlets: | Jenny Lee Wright (as Christine, Stan's girlfriend at the dance) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the story of the same name by H.E. Bates. |
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The reason for the story's title isn't explained in the film and I can't divine any relevance it may have to the plot that unfolds. |
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The sergeant's first name is revealed as "Arthur" in the dialogue but his surname is not used. |
| Writer: Aben Kandel / Director: Freddie Francis / Producer: Herman Cohen | |
| Type: Sci-Fi | Running Time: 87 mins |
| Student Malcolm Travers and his two friends Cliff and Bill are pot-holing in the Derbyshire Peak District when they come across a newly opened fissure leading to a previously undiscovered cave system. Bill goes on ahead alone and is ferociously killed by some sort of man-like creature. Cliff sees it too and manages to escape but goes into shock and Malcolm takes him to a nearby medical research clinic for treatment.
The Brockton Research Centre is run by anthropologist Dr Brockton and she is intrigued by the tales of a man-like creature in the caves and believes it could be the scientific discovery of the age - the evolutionary missing link between ape and man that has somehow survived for untold millennia. She persuades Malcolm to take her into the caves and she manages to get a photograph. It is a Neanderthal-like creature with a primate face and chest and a hairless body. Dr Brockton dubs the primitive cave dwelling creature "Trog" (for troglodyte) and theorises that it survived in suspended animation entombed in ice from the last ice age and in the cool underground conditions has only recently thawed out. The police want to kill it as a dangerous creature that has already killed but Brockton persuades them to let her tranquillise it and take it back to her centre for study. Still dangerously savage and immensely strong Trog is kept locked in a cage but Brockton manages to tame him by appealing to his curiosity. Trog shows signs of intelligence and ability to learn and overcome his savage impulses if handled correctly with no hostility. There is intense media interest in the discovery which has rocked the scientific community - but locally, a landowner called Sam Murdock is appalled at the development on both religious and business grounds - he does not believe in evolution and is angered that the find is preventing him selling his nearby land to a developer. Murdock whips up local disapproval and a court hearing is convened to decide if Trog should be classed as a dangerous wild animal and destroyed. Brockton manages to convince the magistrate that Trog is a sentient being and she is allowed to continue to study him providing she guarantees he will be locked up and guarded at all times. Murdock is angered at this decision and at night he breaks into the clinic, disables the guard and lets Trog loose. Trog becomes enraged and kills Murdock and then flees into the outside world. He sleeps in the forest and then next day comes upon a children's play area and takes a little girl who reminds him of a doll that Brockton was using to teach him with. Trog is gentle and does not harm her but takes her back to his cave system. The police and army are called in and surround the cave entrance with the objective of rescuing the child and killing the creature although they are unclear how to proceed without endangering the girl. Dr Brockton goes into the cave alone and using soothing words manages to persuade Trog to give her the girl. Dr Brockton hopes that this will show that Trog is not a danger unless provoked but the authorities are no longer interested in her appeals and proceed with their plans - the army storm the caves and shoot Trog to death. | |
| Starring: | Joan Crawford (as Dr Brockton), Michael Gough (as Sam Murdock, disgruntled local man), Kim Braden (as Anne, Dr Brockton's daughter and clinic assistant), David Griffin (as Malcolm Travers, student pot holer), Joe Cornelius (as Trog) |
| Featuring: | Bernard Kay (as Police Inspector Greenham), John Hamill (as Cliff, pot-holer), Geoffrey Case (as Bill, pot-holer), Thorley Walters (as Local Magistrate), Jack May (as Dr Selbourne, Dr Brockton's disgruntled employee), Robert Hutton (as Dr Richard Warren, visiting American surgeon), David Warbeck (as Alan Davis, TV Presenter), Chloe Franks (as Little Girl that Trog abducts) |
| Starlets: | Rona Newton-John (as Lady Reporter), Cleo Sylvestre (as Clinic Nurse) |
| NOTES: | |
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Original story by Peter Bryan and John Gilling |
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The Peak District location is not mentioned but is an assumption based on a local TV station covering Trog's discovery being named "Peak Television". |
| Writers: Alan Hopgood, Richard Franklin / Director: Richard Franklin / Producers: Richard Franklin, Ron Baneth | |
| Type: Australian / Comedy | Running Time: 98 mins |
| It is Australia* in the 1800s where American cowboy-ing is the way of life. Dead Eye Dick is a lowly would-be bandit down on his luck but with a particular ambition he is actively pursuing. For weeks he been secretly following around a Casanova cowboy called Mexico Pete and observing his dalliances with prostitutes and lonely housewives. When Pete falls foul of a returning husband Dick saves his life and they go on the run together.
Pete is grateful to Dick for saving him but rather disgruntled that his bedroom activities have been under observation. Dick shows him a photo of his dream woman - a slender beauty called Eskimo Nell from Alaska whom Dick describes as a "Womper" which is a word for a woman who can provide the ultimate sexual experience a man can enjoy. Dick has been assessing Pete for his prowess for he hopes he will accompany him in his search for Nell and be able to use his sweet talking ways to help him win her over. They head off for the colder regions relating reminiscences of past encounters and having several new adventures along the way until at last they reach the snowy lands and find the Eskimo Nell hotel. This is the source of the photograph and the barman confirms that Nell will arrive later and Dick is eager with anticipation and Pete is quite keen to see what this wondrous "womper" woman looks like in the flesh. But when she arrives Nell is a chubby whore whom the local men pay to have sex with in her upstairs boudoir. Pete looks at her aghast for she is nothing like the woman in the photograph and he cannot understand why Dick does not think similarly. But Dick has become so blinded by the quest for which he has been saving himself for so long that he sees Nell as the woman from the photo. Pete declines his turn with Nell and when it is Dick's opportunity to go with her he hands over his money but then gets so nervous that he turns away and can't go through with it. He gets into a fight with other men queuing and is badly hurt. As Dick lays weakly dying Pete promises to take Dick's turn and overcomes his revulsion to have sex with the unappealing woman while Dick looks in through the window still seeing Nell in the way he has always pictured her. After Pete has finished he tells Dick it was fantastic just like he said it would be and Dick dies of his injuries a happy man. | |
| Comments: *It's not entirely clear where the story is really set. It seems to be some sort of amalgam of Australia and the American Wild West where they have Australian and American references mixed together as if it is all one big country. | |
| Starring: | Max Gillies (as Deadeye Dick), Serge Lazareff (as Mexico Pete) |
| Featuring: | Grahame Bond (as Bogger, gold mine worker), Anthony Bazell (as Prof Brayshaw, barber), Ernie Bourne (as The Barman), Paddy Madden (as Real Eskimo Nell), Paul Vachon (as The Alaskan Kid) |
| Starlets: | Elli Maclure (as Elly, prostitute), Kris McQuade (as Lil, prostitite), Abigail (as Esmerelda, magician's assistant), Victoria Anoux (as Dream Eskimo Nell), Elke Neidhart (as unfaithful wife) |
| The Trygon Factor (1966) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Derry Quinn, Stanley Munro / Director: Cyril Frankel / Producer: Brian Taylor | |
| Type: Crime Drama | Running Time: 83 mins |
| A spate of daring jewel thefts have been taking place and Scotland Yard's Superintendent Cooper-Smith has personally taken on the case following up on a lead started by one of his men who has mysteriously gone missing. This lead takes him to the stately home of Emberday Hall part of which houses a priory of nuns called the Sisters of Vigilance. The sisters have their own cottage industry making their own brand of pottery using the Trygon symbol of the Emberday family. Cooper-Smith is shown around and everything appears to be above board. But Cooper-Smith still has nagging doubts and so he books in at the local hotel where he flirts outrageously with the young French receptionist Sophie who in turn takes quite a shine to him and becomes keen to help with his investigations.
Matriarch of the Emberday family is Livia who has granted the nuns the use of her priory. The Emberdays are preparing for an upcoming funeral of a remote uncle whose body is arriving soon in a coffin from abroad. It quickly becomes clear (to the viewer) that the nuns are phoneys and merely a cover for a criminal operation masterminded by Livia and the head "nun" Naomi Hamlyn. The stolen jewels are being embedded in the nuns' pottery products and smuggled away out of the country using the export business of Naomi's husband Hubert. The upcoming funeral is another sham and the coffin has been used to smuggle in a very much alive body of expert safecracker Emil Clossen. The gang have an ambitious plan to steal vast quantities of gold from a bank vault and melt it down and smuggle it out piecemeal in the pottery. The gang are entirely ruthless and kill all the bank staff with gas and then after a successful robbery the unsuspecting henchmen all get the same treatment - even Emil is disposed of once he has done his job. Cooper-Smith has had his suspicions about the priory but without any actual evidence he has been unable to get a search warrant signed off by his boss out of respect for the religious sanctity of the priory. But when receptionist Sophie goes to the priory alone to try and find some evidence she is captured and Cooper-Smith uses that as an excuse to snoop around for himself. He uncovers the entire operation in progress and after a brief setback manages to put a stop to the criminal goings-on and rescue Sophie. | |
| Starring: | Stewart Granger (as Superintendent Cooper-Smith), Cathleen Nesbitt (as Livia Emberday), Susan Hampshire (as Trudy Emberday, Livia's daughter), James Culliford (as Luke Emberday, Livia's son), Brigitte Horney (as Sister General/Mrs Naomi Hamlyn), Robert Morley (as Hubert Hamlyn, Naomi's husband), Sophie Hardy (as Sophie, Hotel Receptionist), Colin Gordon (as Dice, Cooper-Smith's colleague) |
| Featuring: | Caroline Blakiston (as White Nun), Richardina Jackson (as Black Nun), Eddi Arent (as Emil Clossen, jewel thief), Diane Clare (as Clare O'Connor), Allan Cuthbertson (as Detective Thompson), Yuri Borienko (as Nailer, nun's main henchman) |
| Star-Turns: | James Robertson Justice (as Sir John, Cooper-Smith's boss) |
| Starlets: | Carmen Dene, Monika Dietrich, Carol Dilworth and Karen Young (as Photographic Models) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on an original story by Derry Quinn |
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Looking at the IMDB credits there must have been a simultaneous German version of this West German/UK Co-production. In that version it would seem that a German actor called Siegfried Schürenberg took on the role played in the English version by James Robertson Justice - this would have been fairly straightforward as he only appears in two scenes. It is unclear if the rest of the film was reshot in German by the British cast, or dubbed later, or left as is with subtitles added - nor if there were any other substantive differences in the way any of the other scenes were shot or edited together. |
| Turkey Shoot (1982) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Jon George, Neill Hicks / Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith / Producers: Antony I. Ginnane, William Fayman | |
| Type: Australian / Thriller | Running Time: 83 mins |
| Set in the near future or alternate-present of Australia where a radical political regime has seized power and is clamping down hard on any who oppose its ideology. Protestors, rioters or anyone remotely associated with them are labelled as traitors and sent to brutal concentration camps to receive corrective re-education on their deviant attitude.
One such behaviour modification centre is Camp 47 situated somewhere remote and run by Charles Thatcher and his team of sadistic guards. The camp's three latest arrivals are Paul Anders (a freedom fighter who refuses to buckle to the system); Chris Walters (an innocent and scared young woman who was arrested merely because a known rebel randomly ran into her shop to hide), and Rita Daniels (an attractive young woman falsely accused of being too promiscuous). Inmates are told they must obey all the rules without question or face severe punishment and then maybe at the end of their detention they will be deemed fit to re-enter society if they have demonstrated appropriate attitude readjustment. Most detention camps around the country are severely overcrowded with all those citizens whom the totalitarian regime regards as misfits and troublemakers - except for Camp 47 which has solved its overcrowding issue in a unique way. For society's rich and privileged elite, Charles Thatcher arranges regular gatherings for those interested in the thrill of unusual bloodsports. Thatcher allows his amoral guests to pick a quarry from his phalanx of inmates according to their particular "tastes" and he also picks out a troublesome one for himself that needs extreme sanction. Then those chosen inmates are issued with Freedom Identity Passes and told they will be allowed to leave if they participate in a chase and make it through one day without being caught. Paul, Chris and Rita are amongst those selected for the latest hunt and they quickly realise that the hunters will be trying to kill them not just catch them. The hunted inmates are given a few hours head start and make for the surrounding countryside of forests and mountainous terrain. They have no weapons or provisions and must survive on their wits. Thatcher and the three hunters are equipped with any weapons they choose and fair-play is not a word in their vocabularies - all they are interested in is the perverse thrill of stalking down their live human targets and making a kill in this ultimate "Turkey Shoot". The hunt starts off as expected with Thatcher tracking down and killing his chosen troublemaking quarry and Rita too is mercilessly killed by her stalker - but Paul Anders proves to be a challenge and achieves something never managed before - he kills his pursuer and armed with the man's weapon sets about in a pre-emptive hunt of the other hunters. He saves Chris from death at the hands of her depraved pursuer and together they use a bulldozer car to crash back into the camp compound and release all the other detainees. A pitched battle between guards and prisoners ensues which the desperate detainees seem to be winning. The enraged Thatcher is killed in the exchange of fire. The alarm is raised and the national government become alerted that law and order has broken down in Camp 47. So an uncompromisingly drastic standing procedure is instituted to deal with the situation and warplanes are scrambled to carpet bomb the camp and eradicate all resistance irrespective of any staff or guards who will also die. The camp is destroyed by the jets but fortunately many of the detainees have made it to a safe distance including Paul and Chris who both survive and are in possession of their freedom identity passes. | |
| Starring: | (Prisoners) Steve Railsback (as Paul Anders), Olivia Hussey (as Chris Walters), Lynda Stoner (as Rita Daniels) (Hunters) Michael Craig (as Charles Thatcher, camp master), Carmen Duncan (as Jennifer), Noel Ferrier (as Secretary Mallory), Michael Petrovitch (as Tito) |
| Featuring: | (Guards) Roger Ward (as Ritter, chief guard), Gus Mercurio (as Red) (Other Prisoners) John Ley (as Dodge), Bill Young (as Griff) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on a story by George Schenck, Robert Williams and David Lawrence |
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Olivia Hussey's topless nudity is seen as a close-up and so may or may not be a body double. There are several versions of this film - two have been seen:- one of which had the Olivia Hussey nudity removed (although retained the rest). |
| Tuxedo Warrior (1982) | Previous Next |
| Writer/Director: Andrew Sinclair / Producer: Geoffrey Rose | |
| Type: Action | Running Time: 89 mins |
| Married couple Lisa and Wiley are in trouble and on the run from both gangsters and the law. Lisa is a gambling addict who lost a lot of money at a casino and so IT specialist Wiley used his computer skills to steal some money from the bank he worked for. With their options limited they decide to escape abroad and go to Zimbabwe in South Africa where Lisa used to live for a time.
In Zimbabwe in a town near the Victoria Falls, the local white police chief Andy is about to retire and hand over to his fiercely stringent replacement, Inspector Nderi. Andy has heard that a gang who stole some diamonds are heading their way and is keen to make a final important arrest. One of the gang of four diamond thieves decides to double-cross his partners-in-crime and he runs off with the jewels while the others are sleeping. They give chase and the runaway is injured but makes it to the Omega Bar where he asks tough guy bar owner Cliff for help. Cliff safely hides the diamonds but the gang catch up and kill the runaway and are then arrested when the police show up. The diamonds are not found and Cliff denies any knowledge of them. The tourist bus arrives and on it are an American wildlife photographer called Sally and fugitives Lisa and Wiley. Both women are former lovers of Cliff although Lisa had no idea that Cliff was now manager of this bar. Her reason for coming here was to join a marathon poker game held at this venue in order to win enough money to repay their debts. Old emotions are reignited as Lisa and Cliff reflect on their former intense affair. Lisa had been so overwhelmed by Cliff's powering dominance that she had felt her individuality slipping away and had to leave. The ensuing emptiness they both felt had pushed her into gambling and turned Cliff to drinking to drown his sorrows. He abandoned his former life as a construction engineer and bought this bar. Lisa and Cliff briefly resume their passion although Cliff finds himself spoilt for choice because Sally also pursues him romantically. There is an international warrant out for Wiley's arrest and Lisa asks Cliff to help them get out of the country. Cliff's situation is also precarious because the new inspector has said he will crack down hard on Cliff's illegal gaming table sideline. Cliff makes a deal with Andy that he will hand over the diamonds in exchange for their three passports which were previously confiscated by the police. However Andy has become greedy and at the exchange point he wants both the diamonds and to kudos of making an arrest. But Nderi has set up an ambush to catch Andy whom he suspects of being corrupt and a shoot out commences. Cliff manages to get the passports back to Lisa and Wiley who drive off and make it across the border. But Cliff and Andy are captured and arrested by Nderi and his men. THE END | |
| Starring: | John Wyman (as Cliff), Carol Royle (as Lisa), Holly Palance (as Sally, American wildlife photographer), John Terry (as Wiley, Lisa's husband), Roy Boyd (as Chief Inspector Andy), Ken Gampu (as Inspector Nderi) |
| Featuring: | Cliff Twemlow (as Chaser, tough guy), James Coburn Jr (as Grigg, diamond gang leader), Josh Makawa (as Section Officer, Andy's subordinate) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the novel Tuxedo Warrior by Clifford Twemlow |
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The "Tuxedo Warrior" of the title is presumably tough-guy Cliff who wears a white suit throughout as part of his bar management duties. The film gives him plenty of opportunities to get into fistfights with a number of opponents. |
| aka: The 13 Chairs | |
| Writers: Marc Behm, Denis Norden, Nicolas Gessner / Director: Nicolas Gessner / Producer: Edward J Pope | |
| Type: Comedy | Running Time: 90 mins |
| Mario Beretti is a hard-up barber in Italy who suddenly receives some good news from his lawyer - his Aunt Laura in England has died and left him her entire fortune. To celebrate he gives the bald lawyer a complimentary scalp treatment with a cocktail of hair products he has just cleaned up off the floor after they spilled together in an accident.
But Mario's elation at having come into money is short-lived because when he arrives at his Aunt's property in England he finds it shabby and rundown. Most of the contents have been sold off to pay for the medical expenses she required in her latter years. All that is left that has any possible value are thirteen 18th century Hepplewhite dining chairs. Downhearted Mario takes the chairs to a local antique shop to be sold on a commission basis. He stays in his aunt's property overnight and the next morning discovers a note she has left him which tells him that she had secretly stashed away £100,000 which she has hidden in the seat upholstery of one of the chairs. Mario rushes round to the antique shop to retrieve his chairs but is told they have already been sold. An American girl called Pat who works at the shop agrees to supply him with the names of the customers in return for a fifty percent cut. Mario agrees and the two of them team up in the hunt for the chairs. There follows a series of incidents as they track the paths that the chairs have taken as they are bought by antique galleries and resold to customers; or turn up in auctions. Mario and Pat journey far and wide to locate each chair and rip open its seating material hoping it will be the one. Their travels take them to foreign embassies, brothels, and gothic theatres. On the way they pick up a rival called Jackie who overhears them talking about the hidden money and starts trying to track down the remaining chairs himself. The final quartet of chairs are traced to Italy where they were bought by an Italian politician called Carlo Di Seta who has divided them between his office and villa. Mario and Patricia inveigle an invite to the villa to check out those two chairs. They have to contend with Carlo's teenage daughter who is engaged to a man she does not love and has figured the only way to break off the engagement is to lose her virginity to another man. When her boyfriend Pasqualino fails in this regard she sets her sights on Mario telling him she'll get him into her father's office if he'll help her out by sleeping with her. Finally Mario is in Carlo's office and has already checked out one of the chairs so the final chair must be the crucial one. But he is interrupted in his inspection so he throws the chair out of the window where Pat is waiting below. But unfortunately it lands in the back of a truck collecting junk items for charity which drives away and they lose it. Next day there is a heart-warming news story of an orphanage receiving a huge windfall of £100,000 hidden in a chair by a mystery benefactor. Mario and Pat resign themselves to having failed and go their separate ways. Mario returns to his barber's shop in Italy only to find he has some more good news from his lawyer who now has a full head of hair. Mario's accidental hair product mixture has proved to be a wonder formula for restoring hair growth and all the top pharmaceutical companies want the formula for which they are prepared to pay millions. Mario is able to repeat the cocktail successfully and is set to become a millionaire. | |
| Starring: | Vittorio Gassman (as Mario Beretti), Sharon Tate (as Patricia), Tim Brooke-Taylor (as Jackie, camp antique dealer), Vittorio De Sica (as Carlo Di Seta, The Commendatore), Ottavia Piccolo (as Stefanella, Commendatore's daughter) |
| Featuring: | Orson Welles (as Markau, Theatre of the Macabre), Terry-Thomas (as Albert, furniture van driver), John Steiner (as Stanley Duncan, gallery owner), Mylène Demongeot (as Judy, prostitute), Grégoire Aslan (as Psychiatrist in antique shop), William Rushton (as Lionel Bennet, Jackie's friend), Lionel Jeffries (as Randomhouse, Mario's lawyer), Catana Cayetano (as Veronique, secretary at African embassy in Paris), Claude Berthy (as Francois, Stefanella's fiancé), Marzio Margine (as Pasqualino, Stefanella's boyfriend), Alfred Thomas (as Mbama, embassy butler), Antonio Altoviti (as Greenwood, antique shop owner where Pat works) |
| Familiar Faces: | Cardew Robinson (as Car Park attendant) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the novel Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov |
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Denis Norden is credited as "Dennis Norden" |
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This Italian/French co-production is reviewed here because it is partly set in England and has a few British actors taking part |
| aka: Lola | |
| Writer: Norman Thaddeus Vane / Director: Richard Donner / Producer: Clive Sharp | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 88 mins |
| Sixteen-year-old British schoolgirl Lola Londonderry is head over heels in love with her much older boyfriend Scott Wardman. Scott is a 38-year-old American writer of erotic fiction who is over in England to write his next novel. His books are considered so shocking that they are banned in the UK and when Lola's father catches her reading one at the breakfast table hidden behind a school textbook the details of the relationship come out.
Later Lola diverts from her journey to school to be with Scott. Lola is deeply in love with Scott with a girlishly innocent enthusiasm for romance wrapped up in an incredibly optimistic charm that shines through her every word and action brightening up even the dullest of moods. Scott finds her an incredible boundless force and is swept up by the love she shows for him. He is not so pleased however when he finds out that her well-connected father has discovered their affair and although she is of legal age in England the age difference is something he is all to aware might raise the wrong eyebrows. And as he expected he is soon visited by the police who have had reported to them by the home office an irregularity in his visa and he is given 24-hours to leave the country. Lola leaves in floods of tears vowing she won't let them take him away from her. Next day she has done her research and tells him they should get married. 21 is the legal age for this in England, but in Scotland she can marry at 16 without parental consent. So they head up to Glasgow and register their marriage. Because of Scott's notoriety as an author their situation becomes a national story and the age difference a butt of many a comedians' joke. She returns to school a married woman and all her friends are jealous but very excited for her. Scott then takes her home with him to New York to live. His parents are crestfallen when they see how young his new British bride is and one of the first things he has to do under state law is enrol her in school which she must attend until 18. His lawyer is dismayed that he hasn't finished his new novel and points out the shaky state of his current finances with which he can barely support himself let alone a young bride. But he believes that with her in his life he will now have the motivation to buckle down and get the novel completed. At school Lola gets swept up in the jolly thrill of a demonstration march without really understanding any of the issues. The situation seems to be turning ugly and Scott wades in to pull her out but accidentally strikes a policeman and ends up with thirty days state detention. Left to her own devices Lola rents a grand apartment for a knock down price from a landlord who thinks his luck is in with this flighty young chick living alone in his apartment - she, in complete naivety of what he was thinking he might get in return, effectively completely cons him and has signed the lease for a fraction of its worth before she casually mentions she is married. She decorates it and buys a cat and gets it all ready for Scott's release. She is so ecstatic with delight when he is released early with remission and shows him round. He likes it and they start living there together and he resumes work on his novel. But although he has the days to himself while she is at school once she is home he begins to find her continual craving for his attention an annoyance when he needs peace and quiet to write in - he cannot get her to understand he needs to work to pay their bills and her always-on personality and petulant displays of disappointment begin to wear on him. They start to have arguments and he shouts at her and she suddenly realises with heartbroken eyes that they are going to be divorced and all the people who had said it'll never last were right. She leaves in the night with just a note asking him to look after her cat since American cats aren't allowed in England - and she symbolically disconnects herself from him with her own private ritual by uttering "I divorce thee" three times - and then she heads home to England and resumes her life. | |
| Starring: | Charles Bronson (as Scott Wardman), Susan George (as Lola Londenderry), Orson Bean (as Hal, Scott's friend and lawyer) |
| Featuring: | Honor Blackman (as Lola's mother), Michael Craig (as Lola's father), Trevor Howard (as Lola's Grandfather), Paul Ford (as Scott's Father), Kay Medford (as Scott's Mother), Jack Somack (as New York Landlord) |
| Familiar Faces: | Sue Lloyd (as Ursula, Scott's old girlfriend, cameo), Jimmy Tarbuck (himself), Norman Vaughan (himself) |
| Star-Turns: | Jack Hawkins (Judge), Robert Morley (Judge), Lionel Jeffries (Family Solicitor) |
| Starlets: | Marcia Garton, Cathy Jose, Nina Monique, Anne Sheward, Stephanie White, Sheila Dunion, Doy Young (as Lola's British school chums), Annette Montgomery, Debbie Slater (as Grandpa's two Au Pairs) |
| NOTES: | |
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The version reviewed carried the title of Lola |
| Twins of Evil (1971) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Tudor Gates / Director: John Hough / Producers: Harry Fine, Michael Style | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 83 mins |
| Set in Europe in the nineteenth century in Karnstein which is a town that has a history of being beset by evil. The locals are currently experiencing a series of hideous deaths of some local men whose bodies bear what they believe to be the mark of the devil on their necks. Gustav Weil is a devoutly religious man who wants to rid his town of evil and has formed a brotherhood whose mission it is to stamp out incidents of evil. But he and his puritan followers have a misguided understanding of the problem they face and believe witchcraft is involved and suspect any young girl who is unmarried and possibly a bit free with her favours to be a witch who they summarily burn at the stake. This fervent endeavour causes just as much fear among the townsfolk for the safety of their kin as does the evil which the brotherhood are attempting to eliminate. Weil's nemesis in the town is the arrogant Count Karnstein who lives in Karnstein castle and whose debauched behaviour offends the sensibilities of the townsfolk but they cannot rid themselves of him for he is under the protection of the emperor himself.
Amid this climate of general fear arrive twin girls Maria and Frieda Gellhorn who are the young nieces of Gustav Weil. They have been recently bereaved of their parents and have come to live under the guardianship of their uncle Gustav and his wife Kathy. Although they look identical their personalities differ markedly. Maria with her trusting unsuspicious nature is content to follow rules, accept restrictions, and to fit in. Frieda however has a fiery anger in her spirit and is impatient to try new adventurous things, but has an uncaring attitude about other people's feelings, and a callous determination to be free of the stifling situation she finds herself in as soon as an opportunity arises. Gustav Weil has returned home after just having had a run-in with Count Karnstein who was visiting a village prostitute called Gerta whom the brotherhood had been planning on burning that evening. The Count had laughed in their faces making fun of Weil's ridiculous religious beliefs knowing that Weil dare not touch him lest the emperor send his men to burn down the village in vengeance. Downstairs Weil is with his wife venting his annoyance at Karnstein and reiterating the type of man he is and the debauched gatherings he holds at his castle, painting him as the very epitome of moral corruption - and upstairs Frieda is overhearing his tirade and her eyes light up because what is being described as being so bad sounds like just the sort of thing she craves and so she resolves to meet Count Karnstein for herself. At the castle the Count is being entertained by a charlatan show of devil worshipers but he grows weary of the playacting and dismisses all the actors except the girl playing the sacrifice victim. He is after something new and the petty pleasures of the flesh are no longer satisfying him. So he calls upon the devil himself offering his soul if he is given the power to do true evil and he stabs and kills the girl laying on a central tombstone as a gesture of his commitment. Nothing appears to happen at first but as the girl's blood seeps into the tomb upon which she lays a ghostly presence arises and the spirit of the vampiric Mircalla Karnstein is temporarily reborn and in return for his soul she converts him into a vampire. The twins are enrolled at the local school for young ladies and they meet Anton the choirmaster who immediately likes Frieda's spirit which marks her out as different although he is unaware of the malice that underpins her individualistic views. Anton is an expert on local history and has made a study of supernatural folklore and is continually dismayed by the methods Gustav uses to combat evil which he knows would be ineffective anyway if he was burning the correct victims. But his voice is never listened to by the village elders when he speaks of vampires and not witchcraft being the evil at work in these parts. That night Frieda sneaks out of the house - she has a dominance over the meeker Maria and is not above bullying her sister into submitting to her demands to cover for her should their aunt or uncle discover her missing. Frieda is in luck because the Count has heard about the twins arrival in town and is keen to meet one or both of them himself and his mute manservant Joachim discovers her walking in the woods and brings her to the castle. Frieda has dinner with the Count and his faithful servant Dietrich and also Gerta the prostitute. The Count spots in Frieda an evil streak similar to his own and when he suggests they "punish" Gerta she is eager to help because she experiences a deep pleasure in seeing others suffer. But the Count tells Frieda that pleasure must be paid for and she tells him she will do anything - and so he bites her and turns her into a vampire too. She revels in it and as her first victim she kills Gerta. Frieda continues to reside at her uncle's house and although Maria notices a change in her attitude, almost like she's a different person, she doesn't know why. Maria is becoming fed up with continually having to pretend to be her sister to cover for her absences but Frieda finds it easy to force her timid sister into continuing to be her unwitting ally. Frieda goes out every night to feed and be with the Count - until one night while out drinking the blood of a victim Frieda is caught in the act by the brotherhood and captured and put in a dungeon. Gustav is shattered to think he had been sheltering in his home the very evil he despises and the brotherhood arrange a gathering to decide on his niece's fate. But the Count is not about to idly sit by and watch his new beloved be slain so he abducts the sleeping Maria from her bedroom and substitutes her for her evil twin in the dungeon leaving Frieda free again to pose at being sweet innocent Maria whilst Maria herself is left to suffer whatever fate is going to be in store for Frieda. The brotherhood find Frieda guilty and decide to burn her immediately. Meanwhile Anton has gone to Gustav's house to see the girl he thinks is Maria to check up on how she is coping with the news of her sister's evil. But to his surprise "Maria" seems more intense than he remembers and she seduces him - but while he is holding her close he glances in a mirror and sees only himself and realises that she is Frieda the vampire twin and not Maria. They fight but he manages to escape her bite and rides as fast as he can to the site of the burning to try and stop Maria from being executed. He arrives just in time and convinces Gustav of the substitution by using a crucifix from which Maria remains unflinching. Now Anton is listened to and he explains that a vampire cannot be killed by being burnt but need to be staked through the heart or beheaded. He convinces them to go after Count Karnstein and rid themselves of his evil and the brotherhood are now angered enough at the Count's continued evil practices that they are prepared to defy the will of the emperor. The puritans storm the castle to which Frieda has also now fled. Frieda is beheaded by Gustav leaving the Count to stand alone using Maria as a hostage. Gustav challenges the Count to fight him but Karnstein is too powerful and Gustav is killed - but just as the Count is about to kill Maria, Anton impales him with a thrown spear-stake and Count Karnstein dies. | |
| Comment: The one part of the plot that doesn't quite hang together is the identity of the vampire who committed the initial murders. The viewer's assumption from the start is that Count Karnstein is a vampire from the outset and so it must be him - but as we later find out this assumption is wrong because this Count is not yet a vampire and only becomes one part way into the film so it could not have been him responsible for the earlier vampire-like deaths. And so the original killer that the puritans were after is never revealed or resolved. | |
| Starring: | Peter Cushing (as Gustav Weil), Madelaine Collinson (as Frieda Gellhorn, evil twin), Mary Collinson (as Maria Gellhorn, good twin), Damien Thomas (as Count Karnstein), David Warbeck (as Anton Hoffer, schoolteacher) |
| Featuring: | Dennis Price (as Dietrich, the count's servant), Isobel Black (as Ingrid Hoffer, schooteacher, Anton's sister), Kathleen Byron (as Kathy Weil, Gustav's wife and the twin's Aunt) |
| Starlets: | Katya Wyeth (as Countess Mircalla), Judy Matheson (as Woodman's Daughter), Luan Peters (as Gerta), Kirsten Lindholm (Young girl burnt as witch), Maxine Casson, Vivienne Chandler, Doreen Chanter, Irene Chanter, Jackie Leapman, Annette Roberts (as six schoolgirls), Cathy Howard (as Girl on tomb), ?Maggie Wright? (as Alexa) |
| NOTES: | |
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In The Vampire Lovers Mircalla's tombstone indicated she dies in 1545 - but in this film a bust of the countess has a plaque stating she died in 1547 |
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It's not entirely clear how old the twins are meant to be. They appear to be young adult women and yet they are enrolled in a school upon arrival in town although it may be some sort of finishing school perhaps. The choirmaster Anton certainly seems free to have romantic notions about his pupils which his schoolmistress sister finds nothing wrong with when she notices his interest in Frieda. |
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Maggie Wright is listed on the credits as playing "Alexa". However there is no one in the film who is heard being called Alexa. But since the end credits are helpfully in appearance order her contribution to the film appeared to be that of the girl laying on the tomb being toyed with by Count Karnstein. This seemed plain because her indicated appearance position is book-ended by other character's first appearances making the tomb girl the only possibility for being "Alexa". However this girl has now been identified as an uncredited role for starlet Cathy Howard and she has been visually identified as such through a credited appearance in another film. Maggie Wright's role in this film is therefore unaccounted for and possibly is missing altogether - she is fairly familiar from various other films of this period but cannot be spotted anywhere else in this film. So either there is another version of Twins of Evil in which she does appear or her filmed part was cut late in the day and the credits never readjusted. |
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This film is the third in Hammer's trilogy of films about the Karnstein family. The first two films were The Vampire Lovers (1970) and Lust For a Vampire (1971) which were mainly about Mircalla Karnstein, the female vampire who makes a brief appearance in this film. The Karnstein family are also referred to in Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter (1974). |
| Twinsanity (1970) | Previous Next |
| aka: Goodbye Gemini | |
| Writer: Edmund Ward / Director: Alan Gibson / Producer: Peter Snell | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 89 mins |
| Jacki and Julian are girl-boy twins now into young adulthood who have just arrived in London to live in a large town house. They are playful and fun-loving and are incredibly closely bonded to each other. Of the two Julian is more insular and would be content to spend all his time alone in her exclusive company whereas she is a bit more adventurous and doesn't mind meeting other people as well.
They go out to a pub and meet a man called Clive who takes a fancy to the outgoing and charming Jacki. Clive introduces his friend Denise to Julian to make up a foursome. Julian is very protective of his sister and feels jealousy when she is with other people especially men whilst he is fairly offhand and dismissive with Denise and becomes rather morose with anyone but his sister. Nevertheless the four of them form a friendship of sorts mainly held together at Clive and Jacki's end and attend a party or two as Clive's guests. It emerges that Clive is in trouble and owes gambling money to an east-end hard man called Rod Barstowe. Unable to raise the money himself Clive turns to desperate measures. He invites Julian out on the promise of a good time and takes him back to a hotel room where he has a couple of prostitutes waiting who lavish attention on Julian until he realises that they are actually transvestite men. Clive then tries to blackmail Julian with photos of the incident - on shame of having Jacki find out about it. But Jacki finds out anyway and the twins, whose first loyalty is always to each other, decide to pretend they are going to help Clive but need him to play a game with them first. They bet he cannot tell them apart and they cover themselves in white sheets and blindfold Clive. During the game one of the twins stabs Clive to death. Jacki flees the scene traumatised and is found by a kindly man called James Harrington-Smith who takes her back to his flat believing she is a straightforward damsel-in-distress. He is the local MP and had previously met her at one of the parties she attended with her brother. But when he hears on the news that the police are looking for the twins on a charge of murder he realises his political future is at stake if it is revealed that he has been harbouring a wanted murderesses. Jacki had thought they were only going to frighten Clive and it was Julian who actually stabbed him. She wants to find Julian but doesn’t know where he is. She eventually tracks him down to a grimy hotel room where she tries to calm him down and plan their next course of action. But he has gone mad and tries to make her promise to do whatever he says forever more and he wants no one in her life but him - then in his mad possessiveness he strangles her. Then he turns on the room's gas fire unlit and gasses himself to death as he cradles her dead body. The End. | |
| Comments: It is not totally clear what the domestic arrangements of the twins are. Very little of their back-story is revealed. At the start when they arrive in London they make a comment that suggests they have been living in Mexico with their father and London is a big-adventure for them as if they have never been there before or not for a long time. But who owns the London house they are living in is not clear. | |
| Starring: | Judy Geeson (as Jacki), Martin Potter (as Julian) |
| Featuring: | Alexis Kanner (as Clive), Marion Diamond (as Denise), Michael Redgrave (as James Harrington-Smith MP), Mike Pratt (as Rod Barstowe) |
| Familiar Faces: | Brian Wilde (from Porridge) |
| Starlets: | Carolyn Jones (uncredited girl in bed at party) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the novel Ask Agamemnon by Jenni Hall. Agamemnon was the name of Jacki's black teddy bear. |
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Carolyn Jones's identification is based on probable recognition - it looks very much like her. This is of course the British actress with that name who appeared in Crossroads, and not the American actress who was in The Addams Family. |
| Twisted Nerve (1968) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Leo Marks, Roy Boulting / Director: Roy Boulting / Producers: George W. George, Frank Granat | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 112 mins |
| Susan Harper is a young woman studying to be a teacher and while she is out shopping she smiles at a young pleasant looking man. She is unaware that he has pocketed a toy duck without paying and as she leaves the store he follows close behind and store detectives apprehend them both thinking they are working as a team. In the manager's office it becomes clear that the man is a bit simple and exudes a sweet childlike innocence referring to himself in the third-person as "Georgie". The manager realises Susan has been involved by mistake and she gives him her name and address for future reference and even buys the toy duck for Georgie feeling sorry for the poor unfortunate man who is obviously quite harmless and uncomprehending that he has done anything wrong - then she leaves thinking no more of it. However, prior to this we have seen "Georgie" while he was visiting his disabled Mongoloid brother in an institution. His name is actually Martin and he has a quite normal level of intelligence and so we are aware that he is merely affecting this simpleton act.
At home Martin Durnley is a 22-year-old loner who lives with his mother and his stepfather Henry Durnley who has no time for the lad whom he feels keeps spurning any opportunities put his way. Henry knows Martin is a highly intelligent young man but he prefers to sit alone in his bedroom and has no friends. Alone in his room Martin thinks about the girl who was nice to him and makes some plans to meet up with her again. Susan lives with her mother Joan during her college holidays. They live in a large house and take in paying guests. Susan works in the local library and she is quite surprised but delighted to have a visit from "Georgie". He tells her he remembered her address when she gave it to the shop manager and has followed her here to repay her for the toy. Susan finds "Georgie" ever so sweet and in need of looking out for. She talks to him as if he were a well behaved child and in the course of their chat she mentions her mother takes in paying guests and he tells her he lives with his Daddy in a hotel. Back at the Durnley home Henry decides to give his step-son Martin an ultimatum. He sets Martin up with a wonderful job opportunity in Australia but when it is rejected he tells Martin that in that case he can leave home and try and make it on his own. Martin formulates a clever plan to both get closer to Susan and deal with the step-father he hates. He books in at a hotel and writes a letter to his mother saying he is writing from Paris - then he pays the concierge to have the letter posted in Paris giving a plausible reason why he needs it done. Then he turns up at the Harper guest house as the childlike "Georgie" with a letter from Georgie's "father" (that he wrote himself) asking if his son can stay there for a week while he is away on a business trip. Joan Harper is a bit reluctant at this strange request thinking she doesn't want to be burdened with such a responsibility but her daughter Susan convinces her that Georgie is really quite sweet and will be no trouble. And Martin as "Georgie" is the perfect guest - he is polite and helpful in his childlike way and Joan starts to really take to him. All the while Martin is revelling in the close proximity he is able to get to Susan as she mothers him taking him completely at face value - Martin secretly smirks to himself at how well he has taken them all in. One night after allowing his Paris posted letter time to get home to his parents' house he sneaks out of the guest house and travels back home on a night he knows his stepfather will be arriving home late after a work's dinner function. Martin murders Henry in the garage as he's putting away his car and then he sneaks back into the guest house and resumes his role as Georgie - knowing that his mother will tell the police what she believes - that he is away in Paris. Next day "Georgie" and Susan go for a swim in a river and he tries to kiss her. She finds this repulsive and has no such feelings for him whom she thinks of as a child - but she forgives him for he can't have known that what he tried to do was bad. However she has now become acutely aware that although he is childlike in manner he has the normal bodily urges of a man and so she tells her mother that it's probably best if he leaves their house now. Joan isn't so sure though - she has become quite fond of Georgie and has taken a fancy to the muscular body that he displays with a childlike lack of inhibition. While tidying up Georgie's room Susan finds things which cause her suspicion and she discovers a link to someone called Durnley whom she recalls was the murdered man on the news recently - and Martin has books which are far beyond his reading comprehension level. She visits Mrs Durnley to see if she knows anything about "Georgie" and discovers through family photographs that Georgie is in fact her quite normal son Martin. Mrs Durnley's first son was Mongoloid and she had been warned not to have another child but went ahead anyway and was so relieved when Martin turned out to be normal. Susan's doctor friend who is another paying guest tells her that Martin is possibly autistic and was over-mothered by the relieved Mrs Durnley giving Martin a wish to remain childlike with an inability to accept that he is now a grown man - and he warns her that Martin could potentially be very dangerous. Back at the guest house Joan makes a play at seducing the vulnerable lad Georgie while he is chopping her some wood in the shed not realising that she is talking to a man of quite normal intelligence who is perfectly aware of what she's doing. When Joan mentions that Susan had been talking earlier about someone called Durnley, Martin snaps and kills Joan with the axe. Then when Susan comes home he corners her in her bedroom dropping all pretence of his "Georgie" persona and says he wants to marry her and that he loves her. He presses her against the wall and forces his kisses on her but suddenly when he sees she is petrified of him he falls down into a state of mental collapse and cries pitifulingly at her feet. And as the police arrive to take him away for the murders of his stepfather and Susan's mother he is gibbering incoherently and appears to have regressed for real into his childlike Georgie persona. | |
| Starring: | Hayley Mills (as Susan Harper), Hywel Bennett (as Martin Durnley and 'Georgie'), Billie Whitelaw (as Joan Harper, Susan's mother) |
| Featuring: | Phyllis Calvert (as Enid Durnley Martin's mother), Frank Finlay (as Henry Durnley, Martin's step-father), Barry Foster (as Gerry Henderson, paying guest), Salmaan Peer (as Shashie Kadir, paying guest), Timothy West (as Superintendent Dakin), Gretchen Franklin (as Clarkie, the cleaner), Richard Davies ('Taffy' Evans, detective), Timothy Bateson (as Mr Groom, Library manager), Robin Parkinson (as Shop Manager) |
| NOTES: | |
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Adapted from a screen story by Roger Marshall. |
| Two a Penny (1967) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Stella Linden / Director: James F. Collier / Executive Producer: Frank R. Jacobson | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 94 mins |
| Jamie Hopkins is a smartly dressed sassy art student living in 1960s London. He is capable of displaying immense surface charm but underneath has a manifestly selfish drive. He lives cheaply with his mother but he is nevertheless always short of cash and borrowing from friends and making excuses about paying overdue bills. His financial situation becomes so desperate that he decides to approach slimy Alec Fitch who deals drugs from his boutique. Jamie offers to do anything for some readies but Fitch has little tolerance for presumptuous upstarts. Jamie is given one chance to prove himself by delivering a drugs order and returning with the payment - but he raises Fitch's displeasure when he holds onto the payment too long whilst seeking to use it as stake money to make some extra profit for himself.
Jamie has a girlfriend called Carol Turner who loves Jamie in spite of the blithe manner in which he treats her. She is fairly demure and reticently lacking in self-confidence - her wish to have a sharing meaningful relationship is unrewarded and she is disheartened that that all Jamie ever seems to want from her is sex. She has the feeling that something important is missing from her life and begins looking towards the church for the answers. Jamie is scornful of Carol's growing religious interest and adheres to his view that such beliefs are archaic nonsense that have no place in the modern world. He nevertheless agrees to go with her to a rally at Earls Court arena where evangelist Billy Graham is holding a crusader gathering. Jamie sees right through the showman's nonsense but Carol's eyes are opened to God and she is overcome with inner revelation. She joins a Christian social club attached to her church and meets a new circle of like-minded individuals. Jamie becomes resentful of the time she spends with her new friends and this leads to them splitting up. Jamie approaches Fitch wanting a second chance to prove himself which the drug dealer is loath to provide until Jamie mentions that his mother works as a psychiatrist's receptionist. Fitch tells him that the kind of psychedelic drugs that physiatrists use are lucrative money-spinners and if Jamie can get hold of some of these Fitch will pay well. Jamie gets copies made of his mother's work keys and then gets himself a part-time job at the surgery where his unsupervised access to the room housing the medicine cabinet provides him the opportunity to purloin some drugs. Jamie tries to sell them privately but finds that Fitch's customers are not willing to deal unless Fitch is involved. Jamie tries to set Fitch up by giving him the keys so he can rob the surgery himself and then anonymously phones the police with a tip-off about an imminent burglary. Jamie's stratagem is to simultaneously put Fitch out of the picture and allow the robbery to mask the missing drugs. But the wily drug dealer proves far to savvy to fall for such an amateurish ploy and Jamie is left in possession of drugs that he cannot sell and cannot return because he has handed over the copied keys to Fitch. He is forced to confess all to his mother and get her to secretly replace them before they are missed. His mother does this of necessity but is so angry with him for risking her job which has provided so well for them over the years that she throws him out of the house to fend for himself. Carol and Jamie eventually drift back together and seem to reach a middle-ground understanding about their differing spiritual views. Jamie starts to see how poorly he has treated her recently as he begins to contemplate his general outlook on things and consider if perhaps Carol's inner discovery of God which seems to have brought her a newfound contentment might be something that could help him as well. | |
| Comment: It's not altogether clear quite what Jamie needs to quickly raise so much money for that he will resort to crime to get it. He seems to have a set of unfocused lofty ambitions of being successful in the entertainment world but we never see anything that suggests this is anything other than wistful fantasy on his part. | |
| Starring: | Cliff Richard (as Jamie Hopkins), Ann Holloway (as Carol Turner, Jamie's girlfriend), Dora Bryan (as Ruby Hopkins, Jamie's mother) |
| Featuring: | Avril Angers (as Mrs Burry, Carol's landlady), Geoffrey Bayldon (as Alec Fitch, drug dealer), Peter Barkworth (as Vicar), Donald Bisset (as Dr Berman, psychiatrist), Mona Washbourne (as Mrs Duckett, shop customer), Norman Mitchell (as Doorman at Billy Graham rally) |
| Also: | Billy Graham (as Himself/Evangelist, [specially filmed at an actual rally event, but with no acting role]) |
| NOTES: | |
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Ann Holloway receives an "introducing" credit |
| Writer: Wolf Mankowitz / Director: Terence Fisher / Producer: Michael Carreras | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 87 mins |
| Set in London 1874. Dr Henry Jekyll is a research scientist who is studying the nature of man's inner personality and how the rigid strictures of society might inhibit the true nature of the individual. Jekyll believes there is a hidden power within man awaiting release and it is his duty as a scientist to discover that inner potential.
Jekyll's controversial theories opened him to ridicule and he resigned from professional life to devote himself to pure research. He lives in a large house and has sufficient independent means to be able to fund his work which totally consumes him. He lives like a recluse in his laboratory neglecting his wife Kitty and finding social interaction an awkward and uncomfortable process. With no affection forthcoming from her marriage Kitty has long given up on Henry and has secretly taken a lover called Paul Allen. Paul is one of Henry's only remaining friends although Henry does not know of the affair. Paul is an inveterate gambler who relies heavily on his friendship with Jekyll for loans to bail him out of trouble and support his expensive social life. Jekyll has developed a potion that he believes will release the repressed personality he has theorised. Animal testing has gone well and he is ready to try it on a human subject - himself. He injects the formula and becomes wreaked with an inner turmoil as his hidden-self is awakened. The emergence manifests itself physically as well and where once stood a heavily-bearded, gruffly-voiced and stiff-mannered scientist, now stands an unrecognisably different clean-shaven, sprightly-mannered and softer-spoken gadabout eager to have some gallivanting fun. The new side of Jekyll calls himself Edward Hyde and instructs a cabby to take him to an opulent nightspot where he can taste the highlife. At the Sphinx Club he finds his wife out with Paul Allen and realises her infidelity. But the couple don't recognise him so he introduces himself as an acquaintance of Henry's as if a stranger to them. His charm turns Kitty's head and she is drawn to his brash confidence. Hyde finds his wife desirable but to her he is a stranger and she loves Paul. Later Hyde reverts back to Jekyll when the potion's effect wears off (including his beard returning) and he writes up his experiences in his journal. As Jekyll he tries to make an emotional connection with his wife but she cold-shoulders his clumsy overtures. Jekyll carries on with his experiments and becomes Hyde every night. As Hyde he becomes addicted to hedonistic pleasures in the company of tarts but wants mostly what he cannot get - Kitty - but she still loves Paul despite his many faults. Hyde has shown himself to have a hard and calculatingly callous side concealed beneath his veneer of charm and sophistication and he embarks on a strategy to achieve his goal. He agrees to be Paul's guarantor for his gambling promissory notes. When these have mounted up considerably Hyde presents them to Kitty and says she can buy them back and save her lover from social ruin if she agrees to sleep with him in return. Kitty is appalled by this unspeakably degenerate suggestion and storms away vowing she never wants to speak to him again. When he reverts to being Jekyll the scientist is so appalled by his alter-ego's actions that he vows never to use the potion again and destroys all the supplies and formulation notes. But he finds that Hyde is still within him and is able emerge by sheer strength of will. Hyde decides he must be free of Jekyll by destroying his life. He lures Paul to a private meeting to discuss money matters and kills him. Then he allows Kitty to discover her lover's body and she is so upset she throws herself off a balcony and kills herself. Then Hyde returns to the laboratory and shoots a passing tradesman placing his body at Jekyll's desk and then setting the whole place on fire. The resulting inferno renders the body unrecognisable and as Hyde had planned it is assumed at the inquest that Jekyll had committed suicide after killing Paul Allen due to a delusional madness brought on by an addiction to experimental drugs. Hyde is at the inquest to give evidence and as the verdict is given he is inwardly triumphant that he is now free of any ties and can live out the rest of his life in a pleasure-filled luxury with Jekyll's money which as Jekyll's "friend" he had previously arranged for himself to inherit. Although Hyde is the stronger personality Jekyll is still suppressed within him. The scientist makes one final massive effort to re-manifest and thus in front of an astonished assembly of courtroom officials and despite Hyde's agonised attempts to stop it happening he changes back to Jekyll and the truth is revealed. Jekyll is arrested and has condemned himself to death for the murders his alter-ego carried out but in his self-sacrifice has assured that Hyde will die with him. (Comment] The heavy beard does admittedly make Jekyll look drastically different from Hyde but one must assume that Jekyll has always had it for his wife and friends not to have known it was still him when seen clean-shaven - unless of course the physical difference is meant to be more marked than that shown to the viewer. | |
| Starring: | Paul Massie (as Dr Henry Jekyll and Mr Edward Hyde), Dawn Addams (as Kitty Jekyll), Christopher Lee (as Paul Allen) |
| Featuring: | David Kossoff (as Dr Ernst Littauer, Jekyll's academic friend), Norma Marla (as Maria, night-club dancer), Francis De Wolff (as Police Inspector), Percy Cartwright (as Coroner) |
| Familiar Faces: | Oliver Reed (as Man at nightclub, [small role]) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (although the film does not credit him). |
| Two for the Road (1967) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Frederic Raphael / Director/Producer: Stanley Donen | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 106 mins |
| Mark and Joanna Wallace have been married for ten years and their relationship has become very strained and argumentative. He is a successful architect and forever busy. They are currently on holiday in Europe and as they travel they reminisce on the key points over the span of their relationship which have all seemingly taken place whilst they were on holiday.
They first met when Mark was hiking across Europe studying classical architecture and Joanna was with a group of singing friends in a mini-bus whom Mark helps out. When all her friends came down with chicken pox, Mark and Joanna set off by themselves and fell madly in love. On their next vacation they have married and are taking an ill-advised holiday with some friends which shows them some of the pitfalls of long-term married life; later Joanna announces she is expecting a child; on another holiday they meet a man who is impressed enough by Mark to give him a job designing a holiday home complex. As the years progress we see their relationship begin to deteriorate as Mark becomes busier and busier and Joanna has an affair. Back in the present they wonder how and why they have stayed together and eventually realise that despite the loss of deep affection they still have high regard for one another and are still in love. | |
| Comment: The film flits back and forth between the different periods in their life in a non-linear way - sometimes fairly randomly and other times to juxtapose how much they have changed as people - turning into the very sort of jaded couple that their earlier love struck selves could not fathom. | |
| Starring: | Albert Finney (as Mark Wallace), Audrey Hepburn (as Joanna Wallace) |
| Featuring: | Eleanor Bron and William Daniels (as Cathy and Howard Manchester, holiday share couple), Claude Dauphin (as Maurice Dalbret, Mark's business partner), Nadia Gray (as Françoise Dalbret, his wife), Georges Descrières (as David, has affair with Joanna) |
| Starlets: | Jacqueline Bisset and Judy Cornwell (as Joanna's singing tour friends) |
| Writer: Evan Jones / Director: Ted Kotcheff / Producer: J. Barry Kulick | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 107 mins |
| Andrew McKenzie is a smart well-spoken Oxford educated solicitor who is trying to find himself a flat to rent in London. Unfortunately because he is a black man from Jamaica he instantly falls foul of the common belief that black people are nothing but trouble and consequently has no luck. That is until he answers a flatshare advert placed by Roderick Pater. Roddy is a white man who works in advertising and comes from a privileged background. Roddy is undergoing an emergent shift in attitudes and decides that Andrew would be a suitable flatmate to cement his growing liberalisation.
Roddy has a beautiful aristocratic fiancée called Ethne but finds her snobbish attitudes at odds with his own and knows that he will never feel comfortable mixing in her social circles. Roddy feels he needs to become more open-minded and associating himself with Andrew and his kin is the best way he can think of to show how broad-minded he has become. Andrew has a fiancée called Caroline who is a model from Jamaica who encourages Andrew to try and better himself. But Andrew has become jaded by his failure to get his foot in the door. He has the same education, accent and wardrobe as everyone else but still no one will give him a chance because of the colour of his skin. Roddy goes with Andrew and Caroline to a Jamaican Steel Band dance where he meets a white woman called Jane who seems to have no trouble mixing with the black folk. At first she thinks that Roddy is faking tolerance to impress her but when she discovers he shares with Andrew she reassess him and agrees to go out with him. Roddy soon realises that Jane is the girl for him and breaks up with Ethne. But then he sees Jane in the company of an older black man to whom she is showing affection and suddenly he no longer knows where he stands. Roddy is ashamed of his own heritage. His parents own a huge mansion but are too poor to maintain it and reside in the former servant's quarters leaving the rest of the house neglected. Roddy's sense of shame has led him to try and abandon his middle-class roots which other white people have difficulty accepting. Andrew finds this especially ironic because his efforts to enter middle-class society are met with equal and opposite difficulty. Roddy discovers that Jane's mystery date is in fact her step-father and the affection he saw was of the normal father-daughter kind. Jane's real father died when she was a youngster and her mother Helen remarried a black man called Charles Marriott. This socially controversial union created many problems for Jane as she was growing up and brought her face to face with prejudice which led to her being an advocate of tolerance towards black people. When Roddy's bigoted landlady evicts Andrew for reasons that she would never have thought to employ against a white tenant, Roddy gets his own back by holding a raucous party for all his black friends. But as he gets drunk and tries to join in with their fun he finds that they don't really want him. He has an emotional breakdown in his bedroom and is comforted by an openly gay black man. This seems to awaken feelings in Roddy that he is uncomfortable with. The police arrive and break up the noisy party and Roddy is left to wrestle with his thoughts and try to understand himself. | |
| Comments: It's a bit unclear at the end if we are supposed to construe that Roddy has homosexual leanings or not but that could be how it was supposed to be interpreted. | |
| Starring: | Robin Phillips (as Roddy Pater), Hal Frederick (as Andrew McKenzie), Judy Geeson (as Jane Archer, Roddy's new girlfriend), Esther Anderson (as Caroline Harcourt, Andrew's fiancée), Norman Rossington (as Phil Carter, Roddy's friend and colleague), Hilary Dwyer (as Ethne Burrows, Roddy's posh fiancée) |
| Featuring: | Rachel Kempson (as Mrs Ashby-Kydd, Roddy's landlady), Ram John Holder (as Marcus, camp black man), Elspeth March and Philip Stone (as Ethne's parents), Avice Landon and David Markham (as Roddy's parents), Shelagh Fraser (as Helen, Jane's mother), Earl Cameron (as Charles Marriott, Jane's black stepfather) |
| Starlets: | Daisy Mae Williams (as Amanda, Phil's black girlfriend) |
| NOTES: | |
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Based on the novel by David Stuart Leslie |
| Two Left Feet (1963) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Roy Ward Baker, John Hopkins / Director: Roy Ward Baker / Producer: Leslie Gilliat | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 89 mins |
| Alan Crabbe is a 19-year-old working for a small removals firm. He is somewhat inexperienced with girls although he puts on a front of being one of the lads when he is with his older workmates. A new glamorous waitress called Eileen starts work at their local café and Alan gets ribbed by his mates into asking her out. She's a bit older than him and well used to deflecting good-natured laddish behaviour but she sees Alan is a bit different from the rest and agrees to go out with him.
Whilst Alan is normally able to handle himself well enough he remains a bit unsure of himself in unfamiliar situations and lets Eileen make the decision of where to go. She suggests a dancing venue called the Floride Club and Alan finds himself hit for a hefty membership fee to get in. Once inside his dancing skills prove lacking and Eileen is soon off dancing with another couple of guys they meet there called Brian and Ronnie. Alan is a bit irked at this development and picks out a pretty girl to dance with to try and make Eileen jealous in return - although she barely notices. Alan soon comes to realise, as he walks Eileen home, that he is not on a promise with her as he had thought and all she seems to be after is someone to pay her way - their relationship becomes acrimonious and she starts going steady with Ronnie instead. As chance would have it Alan meets the pretty girl he danced with again when his job takes him to her house to do some removal work. Her name is Beth Crowley and her father is in the news after committing suicide due to a scandal that has brought shame on her family. Alan feels sympathy for the sad and demure young girl and asks her out to try and cheer her up. They get along well and soon become a couple. Since Alan is now a member of the Floride Club they continue to frequent it where they remain loose friends with Brian and his girlfriend Mavis, and Ronnie and the redoubtably predatory Eileen. Quick-tempered Ronnie becomes very jealous when Eileen starts coming on to Alan again and threatens violence which Alan is able to assuage on this occasion as he is no pushover and can handle himself well enough when tempers flare. Alan and Beth's relationship continues to flourish and they seem well suited. They attend Brian and Mavis' wedding and during an overnight stay at Mavis' uncle's house Eileen entices Alan into her bedroom and seduces him with a hard-luck story of unfulfilled showbiz ambitions that appeals to his sympathetic nature. Ronnie catches them kissing causing a fight to break out. Beth is appalled at Alan's disloyalty to her and they split up. Alan is at home feeling down in the dumps and his policeman father has a chat with him saying that in his day life's choices were few and mostly made for him - but now for Alan's generation those choices are many and left up to the individual to make for themselves and things are therefore ironically a lot tougher. After this pep talk Alan goes to visit Beth to apologise and see if they can try again and as the film ends they seem to be making tentative steps towards a romantic reconciliation. | |
| Starring: | Michael Crawford (as Alan Crabbe), Nyree Dawn Porter (as Eileen), Julia Foster (as Beth Crowley), David Hemmings (as Brian), Michael Craze (as Ronnie) |
| Featuring: | Dilys Watling (as Mavis, Brian's girlfriend), Michael Ripper (as Uncle Reg, Mavis' uncle), David Lodge (as Bill, Alan's workmate) |
| Star-Turns: | Bernard Lee (as Mr Crabbe, Alan's father - only appears for a few minutes near end but in a large role in that scene) |
| NOTES: | |
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Made in Black & White |
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The director and co-writer is credited as Roy Baker before he adopted usage of the middle name "Ward". |
| Writers: Corrado R. Boccia, Kitty Aldridge, Neal Sundström / Director: Neal Sundström / Producer: Ronnie Isaacs | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 102 mins |
| Tamsin Blake is a jet-setting fun-loving young woman with an artistic temperament who has a journalistic background and her latest venture is a series of documentaries. She has been receiving hassle about her latest project and feels the need to get away from it all for a while. Her only remaining family connections are her late mother's sister Gelda and Gelda's husband Robert who live in Botswana in South Africa - so she decides to pay them an extended visit.
Gelda and Robert Hemming live a quiet remote life since they emigrated 35 years before and haven't seen Tamsin since she was a precocious whirlwind of a child 15 years beforehand who earned herself the nickname of "Tyger". Gelda is rather set in her ways and somewhat dreads the coming intrusion but Robert remembers the girl fondly and looks forward to her arrival. Tamsin arrives and is soon firm friends again with Robert whom she admired when she was a young girl visiting with her mother so long ago. Tamsin's outspoken views and carefree attitude disturb Gelda's serene and ordered normality. She reminds Gelda too much of her sister Elizabeth (Tamsin's mother) at that age - Elizabeth had been an outrageous party-girl but her personality had become self-destructive and she took delight in belittling and humiliating everyone with her clever raucous observations and views as if she were the only person in the world capable of intelligent thought. Gelda sees the same sort of personality-type emergent in Tamsin when she meets Gelda's pastoral friend Father Clive and expounds her strong atheistic views to him over dinner just for the fun of it to kick up a bit of dust. But Robert finds Tamsin a delightful breath of fresh-air in his uneventful but happy life - they have deep conversations of introspective mutual self-analysis and discover things about themselves. When Tamsin is ready to leave even Gelda has been charmed by her and is somewhat sorry to see her go - the world has moved on since her sister's youth and women can be more individualistic now - something Gelda reined in and kept reined in because she was once like that too she admits to Tamsin. And after Tamsin has gone Gelda and Robert find themselves re-invigorated by her visit and less inhibited in their ways as they recapture their long-suppressed excitement and passion for each other. | |
| Starring: | Kitty Aldridge (as Tamsin), Michael McCabe (as Robert), Lynn White (as Gelda) |
| Featuring: | James White (as Father Clive), Candice Hillebrand (as Young Tamsin) |
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