(page last regenerated: 5 October 2014)
SPOILER WARNING
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.
| The Eagle Has Landed (1976) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Tom Mankiewicz / Director: John Sturges / Producers: Jack Wiener, David Niven Jr. | |
| Type: War Drama | Running Time: 129 mins |
| In 1943 Adolf Hitler decides to order a feasibility study on whether it would be possible to capture Winston Churchill. His secret police chief Heinrich Himmler privately think the idea is ridiculous but nevertheless needs to go through the motions of evaluating the idea. He puts the study in the hands of Colonel Max Radl who fully expects to report back that Churchill is too well protected.
But as chance would have it a routine report from an embedded spy reports that Winston Churchill will be having a weekend break in a small Norfolk village only a few miles from the sea on the undefended East Coast of England. Normally such a report would be valueless but now it has great significance for it means that Radl is able to report to Himmler that the idea has an opportunity of success. Himmler studies the report which is codenamed "Eagle" and a few days later tells Radl to put it onto operation and provides him with a letter of authorisation signed by Adolf Hitler. Radl assembles a team of experts who will parachute into Norfolk and carry out the abduction. The first team member to go in is a republican Irishman called Liam Devlin who is so opposed to the British that he will work for the Germans. He gains work in the area and prepares for the commando team to arrive. The commandos are led by Colonel Kurt Steiner who insists that his team wear their German uniforms beneath their fake Polish army uniforms so that they will not be arrested as spies if caught. The team land several days in advance of Churchill's arrival and pose as a reserve Polish army brigade on manoeuvres which the unsuspecting villagers accept. But things start to go wrong when one of the soldier's German uniforms is accidentally revealed and Steiner has to drop all pretence and take the villagers prisoner in the church. The vicar's sister Pamela manages to get away and alert an American Rangers base several miles away where her boyfriend Captain Clark is stationed. The Germans put up a good fight but eventually become pinned down in the church by the Americans. Steiner agrees to release his hostages but refuses to surrender preferring to go out fighting. Steiner's men agree to hold the church for as long as they can while Steiner escapes via a secret exit. Steiner hopes to still be able to salvage something from the failed mission and murder Churchill now that the element of surprise has gone and capture is no longer possible. Steiner makes it to the manor house where Churchill is staying and manages to get inside unnoticed - the alert is raised but he manages to shoot the British war leader dead before he is killed himself by Churchill's security. Steiner dies thinking he has changed the course of history - but in fact it was not Winston Churchill at all but a look-alike double who was providing cover while the real Churchill was away on an important secret summit meeting. Back in Germany Himmler hears of the failure of the mission. The authorisation letter he gave Radl had been a fake and Hitler had never authorised the operation beyond a feasibility study. Himmler was intending to take all the credit if the operation had succeeded - but because it failed he has Max Radl arrested for exceeding his orders to the point of treason and executed by firing squad. | |
| Starring: | Michael Caine (as Colonel Kurt Steiner), Donald Sutherland (as Liam Devlin), Robert Duvall (as Colonel Max Radl), Jenny Agutter (as Molly Prior, young village girl who falls in love with Devlin), Judy Geeson (as Pamela, vicar's sister), Treat Williams (as Captain Clark, American Ranger, Pamela's boyfriend), Donald Pleasence (as Heinrich Himmler), Larry Hagman (as Colonel Pitts, Clark's commander) |
| Featuring: | Jean Marsh (as Joanna Grey, German spy who lives in the village), Michael Byrne (as Karl, Radl's assistant), John Standing (as Father Verecker, village vicar), Anthony Quayle (as Admiral Canaris, German, [Small role]) |
| Familiar Faces: | Denis Lill (as British government official), Maurice Roeves (as British officer), Roy Marsden (as SS officer) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel by Jack Higgins |
| Writer: Henry Cross / Director: Terence Fisher / Producers: Robert L. Lippert, Jack Parsons | |
| Type: Sci-Fi | Running Time: 60 mins |
| As the film opens we see people everywhere suddenly keeling over dead with no warning - this causes trains to crash and planes to fall from the sky. In the aftermath everybody everywhere appears to be dead until we see a lone vehicle driving into a small English town. The lone driver is an American test pilot called Jeff Nolan who is beginning to think he is the only survivor of some unknown calamity. He was high in the sky testing an aircraft and when he returned to the ground he found everyone dead. Nolan stops at a hotel and at long last meets a couple of other survivors, Peggy Hatton and Quinn Taggart. They swap stories and realise that they were all in locations isolated from the general atmosphere at the time and so it must have been a gas attack which Nolan suspects must be the prelude for an invasion in a war that has already been won. There are no signals on any radio band except for a pulsating throb.
A couple of additional survivors turn up and together the small group discover they are being stalked by some silver-suited robots looking for and killing any remaining survivors. And then matters get worse when the dead people begin to become reanimated and also come after the survivors with blank white pupilless eyes. Nolan surmises that the robots are being controlled by the throbbing pulse heard on the radio and he and one of the other men use the radio to triangulate the location of the local transmission tower which they destroy just in time to disable the robots which were about to kill the women of the survivors' group. Now that they know how to defeat any robots they might find in other places the film ends with them making tentative plans to locate other survivors and attempt to rebuild their decimated society. | |
| Starring: | Willard Parker (as Jeff Nolan), Virginia Field (as Peggy Hatton), Dennis Price (as Quinn Taggart), Vanda Godsell (as Violet Courtland), Thorley Walters (as Edgar Otis), David Spenser (as Mel Bringer, husband), Anna Palk (as Lorna Bringer, pregnant wife) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Made in Black and White |
| Writer/Director: Don Boyd / Producers: Richard Boyle, Gerry Harrison | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 92 mins |
| Set in an unspecified Far Eastern British colony in 1948. The local people are hankering for independence from British rule and some groups are beginning to show open acts of rebellion including the killing of the current Governor. A diplomat called Nash with responsibilities for Far Eastern colonies returns to the country to make his report on the situation. He is sympathetic to the local people's position and finds the attitudes of some plantation owners such as Harry Rawlins to be reprehensible. Rawlins is a gruff bullysome man who rules his workers with an uncompromising stance which they have to put up with because their livelihoods depend on the pay they get working for him. Nash is determined to expose him in his report though and have him brought to book for the harsh treatments he employs.
Eve Proudfoot is the wife of a plantation owner called Robert - she loves living in this country and only married her husband because she knew she would be able to live here afterwards. She has never loved her husband though or given herself to him and remains a virgin. She once met Nash in London and has set her sights on him ever since. Now that Nash is back in the country they renew their acquaintance and they end up having an affair. To Nash though she means little beyond her physical beauty as he finds her to be a manipulative and dangerous woman and a part of the unjust colonial system he generally despises. But Eve is in love with Nash and thinks she has at last attained what she most wants. So when she discovers Nash lives and loves with a native woman called Sharmani she become insanely jealous. She invites Nash around to her house one evening and shoots him dead. She is arrested for murder but insists she had to shoot him in self-defence when he turned up unannounced and tried to rape her and beyond meeting him at official engagements she claims to have barely known him. Because there is no proof to the contrary her story is believed and the trial is going well for her. That is until Sharmani reveals to Eve's husband and defence lawyer that Nash made an entry in his taped journal shortly before going round to her house that evening indicating a relationship between the two of them and his puzzlement over what her reason for inviting him around later that evening might be concerning. Sharmani and her family want a substantial payment to hand over the tape or they will pass it to the prosecution council. This tape is damning evidence showing that Eve's actions were premeditated and if it were to be presented in court she would surely hang. So her husband Robert agrees to buy the tape from Sharmani's family for the amount they are asking to prevent this happening even though the deal will financially ruin him. Eve is acquitted but feels no gratitude to her husband telling him she wants a divorce. But he refuses and tells her she will love him and remain with him for as long as she lives - and with the tapes now in his possession she is in no position to argue. With no further reason to remain they pack up and soon leave the country bound for England. | |
| Starring: | John Hurt (as Nash), Jeremy Kemp (as Harry Rawlins), Judi Bowker (as Eve Proudfoot) |
| Featuring: | Christopher Cazenove (as Robert Proudfoot, Eve's husband), Anton Rodgers (as Mackintosh, defence lawyer), Vajira (as Sharmani, Nash's local lover) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Screenplay based upon a treatment by Richard Boyle and James Atherton |
• |
Although the country in which the story takes place is not specified the end credits indicate that it was shot on location in Sri Lanka. East of Elephant Rock is the location in the country where the plantations owned by the principal characters are located. |
| The Ebony Tower (1984) | Previous Next |
| Writer: John Mortimer / Director: Robert Knights / Producer: Roy Roberts | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 79 mins |
| David Williams is a young married artist who has had some success exhibiting his paintings but also works as an art journalist. It is in this latter capacity that he has travelled to a private estate in the south of France to interview the once-great and now fairly elderly British artist called Henry Breasley to see the kind of work he is currently producing. Although Henry values his privacy David has been invited to stay for a couple of days to get to know the man and the way he lives his life.
Henry's only companions are two young women called Diana and Anne who greatly admire him as an artist and a man. Diana is beautiful and a highly promising artist in her own right who dropped out of the Royal College of Art (RCA) last Autumn for the chance to work alongside Henry - she helps him greatly by painting background details for his works now that his own faculties are declining and he tires easily. He calls her "Mouse" in honour of her being his muse and he has come to depend on her assistance. Anne is Diana's friend who came to visit her for a week and ended up staying - Henry calls her "Freak" because of her bright red hair. Henry's artistic style is very traditional and he has very forthright negative opinions on abstract art which he believes is a betrayal of basic artistic principals - David's own favoured style is abstract but he remains very measured in the face of Henry's biting criticism. Henry has invented a fictional location called "The Ebony Tower" where everything he detests about modern art deserves to be dumped. The two young women have a very liberated attitude and do what they can to make Henry comfortable and happy which includes sharing his bed at night. Henry confesses to David that he does not know what he would do if Diana should ever decide to leave. David also spends time talking to Diana and sees some of her own works. He is astonished at how good she is and believes she is squandering her talent by remaining with Breasley - but Diana seems locked into the idea that she belongs at his side. At Anne's urging David attempts to help Diana see that she has better options and she should make the break from Henry and come away with him. David is married but he has fallen in love with Diana over the last couple of days and tells her he is prepared to give it all up for her if she comes with him. She could resume her studies at the RCA and be a great success in her own right. When it is time for David to leave he tells Diana that he will wait for her in a bar in town and if she wants to come with him she should meet him there. David waits but she does not show up and when he calls the villa to check on her he speaks to Anne who tells him that Diana is busy in the studio working, as always, alongside Henry. David realises Diana has made her choice and he moves on and returns to his life with his wife wondering what might have been. | |
| Starring: | Laurence Olivier (as Henry Breasley), Roger Rees (as David Williams), Greta Scacchi (as Diana, 'Mouse'), Toyah Willcox (as Anne, 'Freak') |
| Featuring: | Georgina Melville (as Beth Williams, David's wife) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on a story by John Fowles |
| Edge of Sanity (1989) | Previous Next |
| Writers: J.P. Félix, Ron Raley / Director: Gerard Kikoine / Producers: Edward Simons, Harry Alan Towers | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 84 mins |
| In the latter 1800's Doctor Henry Jekyll is a skilled surgeon who has been developing a new anaesthetic that he believes could change his professions entire approach to medicine. He is due to present his findings to a conference shortly and he is busy testing his mixture of compounds to be ready in time when an accidental spillage mixes together quantities of his compound with a liquid chemical which gives off toxic fumes which he breathes in as he attempts to smother the reaction. The overpowering fumes have an injurious affect on his mind and his whole demeanour changes with a wild look coming across his face which has also undergone subtle changes that reflect the new unhinged disposition of the thoughts behind it. The changed Jekyll goes out into the foggy London night and makes his way to the lower districts where the prostitutes work. He is ushered into a high class brothel by a pimp called Johnny and Jekyll has the presence of mind to introduce himself under a pseudonym - he chooses to call himself "Jack Hyde". Outside again he meets up with a street prostitute and goes back to her place where he proceeds to kill her with a scalpel.
Next day Jekyll is his old self again but feels like he has a massive hangover. He remembers everything and treats the experience like an experiment writing up notes on his behaviour while as Hyde under the influence of the fumes. Over the coming days he forces the change into Hyde again and his wife Elisabeth starts to become concerned that he is working too hard into the early hours after she has gone to bed. He explains his late night excursions as being to the hospital to treat a patient called Jack Hyde with a sleeping disorder but of course in reality he is out murdering more prostitutes. The police realise they have a serial killer on their hands and he becomes tagged "The Ripper" who seems to have advanced medical knowledge as his incisions are so skilfully made. Jekyll eventually begins to start spontaneously turning into Hyde without need for a boost from the drug and is finding it hard to keep his condition from his wife and she becomes increasingly concerned about his irritability and unpredictability when one minute he is talking to her like his old self and the next he can't get away fast enough. She thinks he is over-working but he insists that his special patient Hyde needs his full attention each night. There is one prostitute called Susannah he does not kill - he uses her to experiment on by giving her a controlled inhalation of the "Hyde" drug which turns her into a cackling accomplice to his insane and sadistic fancies as they lure Johnny away from the brothel and torture him. Meanwhile Elisabeth finds out that her husband does not go to the hospital at night like he said he did and she tries to find out more about the "Mr Hyde" character who seems to loom so large in Henry's life. Her digging eventually leads her to Susannah's place where she discovers her husband's secret and rushes back home crying - but Hyde follows and in his insane madness kills her. Back to normal again the next day Jekyll reports her death which is blamed on the Ripper maniac and the police renew their vow to catch him eventually. The film ends without any firm resolution to Jekyll's situation with him still free and undiscovered. | |
| Starring: | Anthony Perkins (as Henry Jekyll and Jack Hyde), Glynis Barber (as Elisabeth Jekyll, his wife) |
| Featuring: | Sarah Maur Thorp (as Susannah, a prostitute), David Lodge (as Gabriel Underwood, solicitor and friend), Ben Cole (as Johnny, pimp at brothel), Ray Jewers (as Inspector Newcomen), Jill Melford (as Flora, brothel Madame) |
| Starlets: | Lisa Davis, Ruth Burnett, Carolyn Cortez, Cathy Murphy, Claudia Udy (as Prostitutes) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Another earlier film that attempts to link the fictional Jekyll and Hyde story to the Jack The Ripper mythos is a Hammer Horror film called Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971). |
| Educating Julie (1984) | Previous Next |
| Writer/Director: Gail Hardman / Producer: David Ball | |
| Type: Nudist / Drama | Running Time: 100 mins |
| Julie Potter is a university student studying sociology. The summer break is approaching and the tutor has decided to set everyone a vacation assignment which will count towards his or her final degree classification. The prescribed project topics are allocated by the drawing of lots and Julie is embarrassed and dismayed to discover she has drawn the subject of "Nudity in the Eighties" which amuses her fellow students because Julie is considered to be of a timid disposition.
Julie has no idea where to start and so her boyfriend Steve offers to help her with some of the research. Together they buy a selection of girly magazines from a newsagents and peruse them. Looking at all the lurid pictures Julie cannot begin to think how she is going to write a thesis about its social significance. Then she notices that one of the publications they picked up is of a wholly different type. It is called Health & Efficiency which is a magazine about naturism. This seems to Julie to be a subject matter that she could write something substantive about and decides the best way to find out more would be to actually visit a nudist camp. Julie knows nothing about naturism but suspects they are a secretive bunch who would not appreciate an interloper in their midst who was surreptitiously doing research about them. Julie phones the Central Council For British Naturism to find out where the nearest club is and she and Steve book an appointment to go and look round posing as prospective new members considering joining. When they arrive at the camp Steve suddenly becomes uneasy about entering what might be a den of iniquity and elects to give a false name in case perverse nudists try and pester him at home thinking he is really one of them. Julie finds his paranoia amusing but humours him and is not worried about giving her real name. They are given an introductory talk by the club's manager Tony who likes to explain to newcomers what naturism is all about to dispel any misconceptions they might have about the sort of things that go on. The public notion of naturism being a place where sex maniacs go to enjoy themselves could not be further from the truth and in fact their members are a normal cross-section of society and family groups, who are able to enjoy a wide range of facilities suitable for people of all ages. After the chat comes the tour and Tony tells them they are free to undress if they wish. Julie decides to go for it and take off her clothes whereas Steve prefers to stay as he is. They both head out into the grounds and meet other nudists. Julie surprises herself by feeling quite comfortable and relaxed about being naked whereas Steve sticks out like a sore thumb with his refusal to undress because he still thinks the whole idea of it is just a bit odd. Back home again they have differing views about the experience. Steve thought the whole thing was highly embarrassing whereas Julie was quite taken by it. Steve couldn't understand how some of the women there had the nerve to strip off and thinks that only beautiful people should be seen naked. Julie has realised though that it is not about exhibitionism but about a healthy appreciation of natural living. Julie has become intrigued by the naturist way of life and thinks there is much more still to find out. She decides to go to another sun club and get into proper conversation with the members. Steve decides that once was enough for him and Julie lets him off by agreeing he can do some research for her at a Soho strip club. At the new camp Julie sits with a family group and begins conversationally asking questions about nudism and how they got into it. Before long Julie has to apologetically admit that she is not simply a nosey-parker but is doing a thesis on the subject of naturism. To her delight Julie finds that the people there do not mind talking about their carefree lifestyle at all and are pleased someone is taking an interest. She is referred to the camp archivist who tells Julie about the origins of naturism which started in Germany in about 1900 and then in Britain in the 1920s. She learns that now in the 1980s it is harder to introduce new people to nudism because people fear repercussions should anyone they know on the "outside" find out what they enjoy doing. Julie is offered a complimentary place on a naturist coach holiday to the South of France to further her research at Cap D'agde which is one of the largest naturist resorts in Europe. When she gets there Julie is mightily impressed by the vast naturist complex with every modern convenience and luxury available to enjoy in the hot Mediterranean sun. Julie continues her research which is a lot easier now she does not have to be so secretive about it. She finds everyone is only too happy to be interviewed. And for the rest of the time Julie simply enjoys the experience for herself feeling an uninhibited sense of freedom she has never known before. When Julie returns home she is full of excitement and keen to get her project work finished. Tony from the local sun club contacts her and offers her more access to interview the camp's oldest member Norman who has some wonderful memories for Julie. Julie starts spending a lot of time at the local sun club as she becomes more heavily involved in her naturist project. Steve's inhibitions prevent him from joining her and he begins to feel neglected and resentful that he is seeing so little of her. Discovering naturism has changed Julie and brought her right out of her shell so much so that Steve is beginning to think he has lost her to some kind of strange cult and even becomes suspicious that she might be having an affair with Tony. Steve becomes very depressed and starts drinking heavily until he suddenly realises he does not want to lose Julie and if the only way to keep her is to join her then so be it! Thusly Steve surprises and delights Julie by meeting her at the naturist club sans clothing and announcing he has become a fully paid up member and has overcome his fear of being naked in public. Julie is overjoyed and assures him that Tony is just a friend and she loves Steve and has always wanted him to remain the most important part of her life. To make amends for his foolish behaviour Steve tells her he has booked them a holiday at naturist resort in sunny Florida. They head off to America and arrive at the Paradise Lakes naturist complex and have a wonderfully relaxing and romantic holiday in the sweltering heat where being naked seems so completely natural. Julie reflects on how this summer has transformed her so much by helping her discover her own identity and grow in confidence as a person. They make a promise to themselves that they will return here next summer for a much longer break. On the first day of the new term Julie's professor is very dissatisfied with most of his students' summer project efforts. But he is most disappointed in Julie for she does not seem to have submitted a paper at all. Julie then explains that she decided that since nudity is so visual a concept she thought that the best way to submit her work was with a visual presentation. She puts on a tape and proceeds to show the class a video diary of her summer exploits discovering naturism which she has entitled "Educating Julie" ... | |
| Starring: | Gail Ward (as Julie Potter), Miles Taylor (as Steve, Julie's boyfriend), Phil Banyard (as Tony, local sun club manager) |
| Featuring: | Gary Willock (as Mike Connors, student in Julie's class), Anthony Schaeffer (as Julie's Tutor), Ann Green (as Julie's Mother), Carl Warwick (as Julie's Father), Angie Shaw Wright (as Newsagent), Ray Naden (as Pub Landlord), Ann-Louise Thomson, Sarah Pritchard, Christopher Penney and Richard Comish (as other Study Group Students) |
| Also: | (The nudists Julie meets are simply credited as "Themselves", most of them have speaking/acting roles and are mentioned in the dialogue by their first names, but not surnames - possibly they were their real names - all British unless stated) Liz (early 20s), Steve (Liz's boyfriend), Joyce (Liz's mother), Alicia (Young woman), Terry (Alicia's husband), Mike Farrow (Naturism historian and archivist), Helen (Resort worker), Myra (Holiday host with Emsdale Travel), Adele (Young Frenchwoman), Norman (Oldest member of UK sun club), Jim (American camp rep in Florida) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
From an original story by David Ball |
| Educating Rita (1983) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Willy Russell / Director/Producer: Lewis Gilbert | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 104 mins |
| Frank Bryant is a university professor teaching English Literature. He has a failed marriage behind him and is prone to drinking to drown his sorrows because he finds little to inspire him in his humdrum world. He agrees to take on a mature Open University student called Rita White who is taking a correspondence course. She is a 26-year-old working class hairdresser with no grounding in literature but wishes to improve herself with a formal education.
Rita is loud and opinionated and Frank finds her take on the world quite refreshing at times. It initially seems to Frank that Rita is a hopeless case with an undisciplined mind who is massively deluding herself with her grand aspirations of self-improvement. But even though at first Rita finds it a struggle to get to grips with classical literature and the kind of in-depth analyses expected of a student in order to pass the final exam she has genuine eagerness to learn. Frank's personal problems seem to become less important to him as the challenge of educating Rita to the required standard preoccupies him. Rita has a thirst for knowledge previously untapped and over the duration of the course her innate ability blossoms and she becomes a learned student. And with her new found education her confidence grows and she moves on to better things in her personal life. This includes leaving her electrician husband Denny who never supported her ambitions and was forever trying to discourage her folly as he saw it. Once Frank realises she has outgrown the need for his guidance he takes to heavy drinking again and turning up to lectures drunk. Rita feels dreadfully sad for him but can do nothing to help him. The students complain about Frank's behaviour and the university faculty ask him to take an extended holiday. Frank decides to make a completely fresh start in his life and take up a teaching post in Australia. He asks Rita if she'd like to come with him but she declines as she is on the cusp of her own new beginning with the confidence a classical education has brought her. On the day of Frank's departure her results come through and she passes with distinction - Frank tells her how proud he is of her as she sees him off at the airport. | |
| Starring: | Michael Caine (as Dr Frank Bryant), Julie Walters (as Rita White) |
| Featuring: | Jeananne Crowley (as Julia, Frank's girlfriend, fellow lecturer), Malcolm Douglas (as Denny, Rita's husband, electrician), Maureen Lipman (as Trish, Rita's flatmate) |
| 80,000 Suspects (1963) | Previous Next |
| Writer/Director/Producer: Val Guest | |
| Type: Medical Drama | Running Time: 103 mins |
| Hospital Doctor Steven Monks and his wife Julie are joining in with some New Year party celebrations before heading off on holiday for a well earned break when Steven is asked to take a quick look at a patient displaying unusual symptoms. Steven recognises what he believes are the signs of smallpox infection and the lab tests later confirm this. The patient's son has recently returned from the Far East and has been back in Bath for three weeks seemingly healthy during the disease's infectious stage visiting cinemas and restaurants in a normal way. The Monks' holiday plans are put on hold in case their help is needed.
The medical authorities in Bristol are alerted and the hospital is put under quarantine while attempts are made to trace anyone who visited those entertainment centres on the days in question to present themselves for vaccination. The number of cases spreads and the authorities fear it might get out of hand. Ex-Nurse Julie volunteers to help in the vaccination centres and later she comes down with the disease herself but pulls through in the end. After many weeks the situation seems to be under control except for reports of one rogue carrier on the loose - a promiscuous woman called Ruth who is known to Steven and is the wife of one of his doctor friends - the army are called in to try and track her down to where she has isolated herself to wait and see for herself if she has the disease. Eventually she realises she has caught it and knowing she is a danger to human health she burns herself to death in a hotel fire to eradicate the disease. | |
| Starring: | Richard Johnson (as Steven Monks), Claire Bloom (as Julie Monks), Yolande Donlan (as Ruth Preston), Cyril Cusack (as Father Maguire), Michael Goodliffe (as Clifford Preston) |
| Featuring: | Mervyn Johns (as Buckridge, head of hospital), Basil Dignam (as Medical Health Officer Boswell), Kay Walsh (as Matron), Norman Bird (as Mr Davis, first victim's husband), Norman Chappell (as Welford, Hospital orderly), Ursula Howells (as Joanna Druton, friend of Ruth), Bruce Montague (as Brooks, new houseman) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel The Pillars of Midnight by Elleston Trevor |
• |
Made in Black and White |
| The Elephant Man (1980) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Christopher De Vore, Eric Bergren, David Lynch / Director: David Lynch / Producer: Jonathan Sanger | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 117 mins |
| Set in Victorian times. Dr Frederick Treves is a compassionate surgeon working at the London Hospital. He also lectures at the medical college and is always interested in finding new topics for discussion. At a carnival he comes across a side-show freak act that he finds thoroughly reprehensible because the freak is not a congenital deformity but a man with a serious medical condition. The act is called "The Elephant Man" which is owned by a Mr Bytes who treats his curio little better than an animal. The Elephant Man's name is John Merrick and he is afflicted by hydrous-tumours growing all over his torso and around his head like a fungus as well as suffering from bronchitis. After much discussion Bytes agrees to allow Treves to take Merrick to be treated for the bronchial condition and Treves uses this time to make a full examination and present Merrick as a case study at one of his lectures. Merrick appears at first to be dim-witted and incapable of speech but gradually as he begins to trust Treves he shows himself to be an intelligent and sensitive man who is trapped in a wretched hideous looking body which bars him from engaging in normal human society and earning a conventional livelihood.
Treves allows him to stay at the hospital and gradually introduces him to polite society. His appearance is repugnant but once enough influential people have overcome their initial horror at his disfigurement to engage in polite chit-chat with him, Merrick's sad plight becomes the talk of the town. The rich and famous start clamouring to meet him in order to brag to their friends they have done so. Treves begins to wonder if he is any better than Mr Bytes because Merrick is still being treated as a curio, albeit to a better class of patronage - and Treves has benefited professionally by making a name for himself. But he is reassured of the innate goodness in his actions by Merrick himself who is full of gratitude for the way his life has been changed as he finds wonder and joy in experiencing things that he thought would be always out of reach for him. Queen Victoria sends a personal letter to the hospital expressing her gratitude at their generosity in giving sanctuary to such a poor, unfortunate soul. There is a set-back when an unprincipled opportunistic night porter tries to cash in on his position to invite rowdy working-class rabble to the hospital to make ribald fun of the "celebrity" patient, humiliating and demeaning Merrick and making him realise how precariously brittle his current position is. In this low mood he is persuaded by Bytes to return to the carnival but gets treated worse than ever and eventually runs away causing panic on the streets as people flee from his monstrous appearance. The police eventually bring him back to Treves at the hospital. Merrick's condition is terminal and Treves knows he does not have long to live - so all his new found friends pull out all the stops to make his last days as happy as possible. They take him out to the theatre where he shares the royal box with the Queen's daughter-in-law Princess Alexandra. The lead actress Mrs Kendal dedicates the performance to Merrick amid the resounding applause of the audience. Merrick is utterly enchanted by the show finding it all so very magical. He returns to his room at the hospital full of contentment and dies that evening peacefully in his sleep. | |
| Starring: | Anthony Hopkins (as Dr Frederick Treves), John Hurt (as John Merrick, The Elephant Man), John Gielgud (as F C Carr Gomm, Hospital House Governor), Freddie Jones (as Bytes, carnival owner of Elephant man act), Michael Elphick (as Unscrupulous Hospital Night Porter), Anne Bancroft (as Mrs Kendal, actress) |
| Featuring: | Wendy Hiller (as Mrs Mothershead, hospital matron), Lesley Dunlop (as Nora, nurse at hospital), Hannah Gordon (as Mrs Anne Treves, Dr Treves' wife), Helen Ryan (as Princess Alexandra, Princess of Wales), John Standing (as Dr Fox, fellow surgeon at hospital) |
| Familiar Faces: | Dexter Fletcher (as Young Lad who works with Bytes), Pauline Quirke (as Whore), Patricia Hodge (as Screaming mother at train station) |
| Starlets: | Nula Conwell (as Nurse Kathleen), Carole Harrison (as Tart), Deirdre Costello (as Whore) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Made in Black and White |
• |
Based on The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences by Sir Frederick Treves and in part on The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity by Ashley Montagu |
| Eliza Fraser (1976) | Previous Next |
| aka: The Adventures of Eliza Fraser | |
| Writer: David Williamson / Director/Producer: Tim Burstall | |
| Type: Australian / Drama | Running Time: 112 mins |
| Set in Australia in 1836. British sea captain James Fraser is taking his final voyage before retiring as he prepares to travel home from Sydney. He is accompanied by his much younger wife Eliza Fraser. Against his better judgement Fraser agrees to give passage to Captain Rory McBryde who (we know) is a philanderer wishing to escape the fury of a wronged husband. But Fraser soon regrets his generosity when McBryde continually criticises his old fashioned methods and flirts with Eliza who does nothing to dissuade him. So five days into the voyage Fraser can stand him no more and turns back to let McBryde off at Moreton Bay where he can wait for another ship. Moreton Bay is a penal colony run by Captain Foster Fyans who offers them all hospitality for a few days. Eliza and McBryde decide to make the most of the stopover and plan to spend the night together and she awaits his late night arrival in her bedchamber.
Captain Fyans is a homosexual who uses his position to put pressure on any inmates he fancies to keep his bed warm at night. From a recent batch of inmates he selects David Bracefell who was imprisoned when he deserted his ship to be with a woman he loved. The idea of sleeping with a man repulses Bracefell and he flees Fyans' bedchamber and to escape the guards he hides in a room that turns out to be Eliza's bedchamber. In the dark she thinks it is her expected late-night rendezvous and has sex with him. When she discovers the truth she is sympathetic to his story and helps him escape the camp. Fyans is angry at the prisoner's escape but knows that the harsh Australian bush and wild indigenous savages offers little hope of survival for an inexperienced fugitive. The Frasers resume their voyage home leaving McBryde behind - but some way down the coast the ship runs aground on rocks and the crew abandon for shore. Captain Fraser insists they not attempt to journey over the unforgiving land and instead wait for the correct winds to continue by sea in the long boat. But the crew mutiny with murderous intent and Fraser and Eliza flee into the bush. They are soon surrounded by native aborigines and with stories of brutal cannibalism they think their number is up. But instead the natives are friendly and take the Frasers into their tribe and teach them some of their ways despite the language barrier - the chief even wants to marry Eliza believing Fraser is her father not husband. The confusion is sorted out by David Bracefell who is also living with the natives and has learned their language. The crew meanwhile have been unable to live off the land and have resorted to cannibalism between themselves. A single survivor makes it back to Moreton Bay and Captain Fyans leads an expedition into the bush with McBryde to search for Captain Fraser and Eliza which he hopes will earn him a knighthood. Bracefell makes contact with the expedition via an inmate orderly and in return for a full pardon will retrieve the Frasers into Fyans' safe hands. But the duplicitous orderly double-crosses Bracefell and when the Frasers are returned the pardon is not forthcoming as Fyans made no such promise and Bracefell is re-arrested. Fraser and McBryde are none too pleased to see each other again and arrange a duel over honour. Fyans is determined not to lose Fraser to a duel after rescuing him so decides to have McBryde killed - but in a botched attempt at faking a native assault on the camp Captain Fraser is killed instead by accident. Bracefell is freed by Eliza and returns to the bush. Back in Sydney Eliza now without her husband's income is forced to provide for herself. She goes into partnership with McBryde cashing in on the public interest in her story by giving talks describing her experiences - which she considerably embellishes to make the natives appear fearsome and dangerous - and paints McBryde as a heroic figure. Bracefell turns up trying to expose the lies but eventually the three of them team up to take their lecture tour back to England. | |
| Starring: | Susannah York (as Eliza Fraser), Trevor Howard (as Captain Foster Fyans), Noel Ferrier (as Captain James Fraser), John Castle (as Rory McBryde), John Waters (as David Bracefell) |
| Featuring: | Martin Harris (as John Graham, convict), Bruce Spence (as seduced sentry), Lindsey Roughsey (as Euenmundi, Aboriginal leader) |
| Starlets: | Abigail |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Title caption in full is "A faithful narrative of the capture, sufferings & miraculous escape of Eliza Fraser". |
| aka: The Awakening of Emily | |
| Writer: Anthony Morris / Director: Henry Herbert / Producer: Christopher Neame | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 83 mins |
| It is England in 1928 and young Emily Foster is returning home after an extended period abroad attending finishing school during which she has flowered to the verge of full womanhood. She lives at her family's large country estate where her mother lives by herself with some servants - Emily's father died when she was a baby and Margaret has never remarried. Emily is welcomed back and Margaret arranges a dinner party in celebration inviting some new neighbours, Mr and Mrs Wain, a young American teacher called James Wise whom Margaret things Emily might like, and Richard Walker, a romantic friend of Margaret's. Emily takes a fancy to James and has erotic fantasies about him that evening. She is still largely unaware of the power of her oncoming sexuality but over the next few days discovers that men find her attractive and she becomes more confident and eager to experience the new delights on offer to her.
She starts going out with James who is an adventurer who owns his own two-seater bi-plane and motorcar but she does not yet feel ready to fully give herself to him. She also meets up with neighbour Mrs Augustine Wain who is an artist. Emily feels very attracted to her and she and Augustine strike up a close bond that develops into a lesbian encounter in a shower. Then Emily finds out that her mother has a scandalous means of income and receives payment from her gentleman visitors. Emily flees to the Wain's house shocked at her mother's behaviour. Augustine convinces Emily to forgive her mother and her husband Rupert says he will drive her back home. On the way Emily asks him to stop and propositions him saying that she cannot face her mother until she has really become a woman and known what it is like to lay with a man. Rupert reluctantly agrees to help her and they make love in a field - and Emily returns home no longer a young girl but a knowing woman. | |
| Starring: | Koo Stark (as Emily Foster), Sarah Brackett (as Margaret Foster), Victor Spinetti (as Richard Walker) |
| Featuring: | Ina Skriver (as Augustine Wain), Richard Oldfield (as James Wise), Jane Hayden (as Rachel, the maid), Constantin de Goguel (as Rupert Wain), David Auker (as Billy Edwards, Rachel's boyfriend), Jeremy Child (as Gerald, Richard's friend) |
| Starlets: | Jeannie Collings |
| Writer/Director: José Ramón Larraz / Executive Producer: Antonio Molino Rojo | |
| Type: European / Suspense Thriller | Running Time: 72 mins |
| The version of the film seen was in Spanish with no subtitles. Therefore this summary is based on an impression of what was going on from the visuals alone
Emma is an attractive young woman who is knocked down by a car while crossing the road on a busy London street. She suffers a brain injury and is treated at a psychiatric hospital. She is subsequently prone to bouts of aggression brought about by irrational fears. The woman driving the car is called Silvia who feels very guilty about what happened. Emma does not seem to have any family of her own and so Silvia decides to take on the responsibility of looking after her by adopting her. Emma comes to live with Silvia in her large townhouse. Silvia's husband is away a lot which is fortunate because he does not approve of what Silvia has done. Emma is restless at first and seeks out the company of her friend "Hélène" of whom Silvia disapproves. Eventually Emma seems to be adjusting to her new home life and shows no outward signs of abnormality around Silvia besides being somewhat peevish. But when alone a conflict rages between Emma's rational and irrational thoughts which make her feel isolated and anxious. When Silvia's husband returns home Silvia reluctantly tells Emma she must live elsewhere until he has gone. But one night Emma sneaks back into the house and stabs the husband to death with her scissors. Her mind no longer works by the same rules or restrictions as others and something as unthinkable as this is, to her, a practical common sense way of guiltlessly resolving a problem. Silvia does not condemn Emma for this because she realises Emma sees no wrong in her actions. Instead they pack the body into a large trunk and take it with them to Silvia's remote countryside cottage. There Emma dispassionately chops the body up with an axe and feeds it into the furnace. Emma still does not feel at ease and wants her independence so she stabs Silvia to death and leaves in the car. Bobby and Mary are a courting couple whose liberal-minded outlook allows them to indulge each others fancies. They spot Emma travelling alone and think she seems the kind of scatterbrained chick who would be easily guided into bed with a few stiff drinks. When Emma stops at a petrol station to make a phone call Bobby and Emma hitch a lift. Emma seems inattentive and easily tractable and Bobby soon takes over the driving. He drives them to an old secluded and disused hotel in the middle of nowhere. It is night-time and Bobby breaks in and leads the docile Emma up the stairs as they look for a bedroom. Emma begins to object but Bobby drags her in. He and Mary force her to drink alcohol until she enters a submissive state. Then Bobby undresses her and prepares to have his way. Mary leaves him to it and decides to go and explore the rest of the dark and creepy hotel. When she thinks she has given them long enough she returns to the room to find no one there but with a trail of blood leading away. She follows the blood and is horrified to find Bobby with his throat cut and bleeding to death seemingly in his final dying moments. Mary runs away in panic getting lost in the endless dark corridors as she is stalked by the psychotic Emma. After a few hours she finds a way out and it is now daytime outside. Mary thinks she has gotten safely away into the surrounding woodland until Emma springs out from behind a bush and stabs her to death. Then Hélène shows up after getting Emma's phone call earlier at the petrol station and becoming worried about her. Emma is angry that Hélène is here but Hélène succeeds in calming her down - then a car is heard driving away - it is the badly injured Bobby who is not dead after all. He drives in panic to get away from the mad girl and at the first opportunity he flags down a police car and tells them what has happened. Back at the hotel Emma rushes back inside and Hélène follows thinking Emma will respond to her - but she is wrong and Emma jumps out and stabs her in the back repeatedly until she too is dead. When the police arrive they find Emma in a catatonic state completely inward looking as if in a world of her own. | |
| Starring: | Suzanna East (as Emma), Perla Cristal (as Silvia) |
| Featuring: | Hélène Françoise (as Emma's friend), Ángel Menéndez (as ?Silvia's husband?), Marina Ferri (as ?Mary?), Andrew Grant (as Bobby), Marta Flores, María Victoria Durá, Irene D'Astrea, Gustavo Re, Jorge Rigaud, Juan Aymerich |
| NOTES: | |
• |
There does not seem to be an official translation for the title. The literal translation according to some translation software is Emma, "Dark Doors" which probably doesn't make much sense. |
• |
The version reviewed was in Spanish with no subtitles. The speech was dubbed although it is not clear if it was made in English originally. The external shots were filmed in England and actors Susanna East and Andrew Grant are British (which is the reason for reviewing the film). The cast list does not include character names so it is hard to know who played who except for the main stars. The names of Bobby and Mary were picked up in the dialogue although the husband's name could not be ascertained. Based on cast prominence Ángel Menéndez is probably the husband and Marina Ferri was probably Mary. Hélène Françoise was recognised from another film as the actress who plays Emma's friend although her character name is not picked up in the dialogue - therefore in the above summary I called her Hélène. |
| Emmanuelle in Soho (1981) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Brian Daly, John M East / Director: David Hughes / Producer: John M East | |
| Type: Sex / Drama | Running Time: 65 mins |
| Paul Benson is a struggling photographer living with his wife Kate and their lodger Emmanuelle who is a model. He decides to sell some of his photographs to dodgy photographic agent Bill Anderson who is very disparaging at the quality of his work but buys them anyway for a measly sum and asks Paul to try again and do better next time. This continues for a while as Anderson buys his pictures but tells him he's not getting any better.
Kate, meanwhile, is an actress and has just started working in the cast of a nudie stage revue show called Hang About Sebastian. Then Paul overhears Anderson talking on the phone about how he is playing Paul for a sucker and that his work is actually dynamite and he is selling the pictures on for a mint. So he decides to organise a swinging party inviting Kate's cast-mates and Anderson along. There he captures Anderson on video having a dalliance with his secretary Sheila and uses this to blackmail the married Anderson into giving him a better deal and a partnership in his business. | |
| Comment: Despite Emmanuelle being the title character she doesn't really add much to the main plot. She helps Paul a bit with an early attempt to set-up Anderson for an exclusive modelling contract by some elaborate ruse but this idea seems to just be forgotten along the way when the main "sucker" plot emerges making her contribution to the proceedings all but meaningless other than seeing her naked a lot. | |
| Starring: | Mandy Miller (as Emmanuelle), Kevin Fraser (as Paul), Julie Lee (as Kate), John M. East (as Anderson) |
| Starlets: | Geraldine Hooper, Anita Desmarais (as Sheila), Erika Lea, Cathy Green, Suzanne Richens |
| Also: | Showgirls:- Vicki Scott, Louise London, Natalie Newport, Linzi Drew, Marie Harper, Samantha Devonshire, Carla Lawrence, Ruth Chapman, Kalla Ryan (most or all of the showgirls are seen topless and/or nude as they are rehearsing for a performance that involves wearing and taking off yellow macs a lot - but it's not possible to recognise them or keep track of who is where) |
| Empire of the Ants (1977) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Jack Turley / Director/Producer: Bert I. Gordon | |
| Type: American / Horror | Running Time: 86 mins |
| Prologue: A disposal craft is dumping drums of radioactive waste at sea off the coast of Florida. However one drum washes to shore and over time this corrodes and oozes silver slime. Ants are seen crawling in the slime...(end of prologue)
Marilyn Fryser is a real estate agent who is trying to attract investment for an isolated area of Florida coastline which is to be developed into a resort called "Dreamland Shores". A party of ten or so potential investors are taken by motor yacht up the coastline and dropped off at the beach where they are treated to a gourmet buffet before being shown around the land plot which has all the proposed (but unbuilt) facilities marked out. One investor and his wife go off on their own to look around in the surrounding woodland and are suddenly attacked and killed by murderous ants the size of ponies. And when the other investors get back to the shore they see giant ants destroying their boat. The motor yacht was their only escape route with the only other unappealing option a treacherous trek through the jungle-like everglades where these horrific ants are on the loose. They stay put on the beach and light a fire which keeps the killer ants at bay but after a flash storm the protective fire is put out and they are forced to attempt the land trek. Their numbers are reduced by ant attacks until there are only five that remain. They begin to realise that the ants are allowing them to go in one direction and only attack if they stray - almost as if they are being herded. Eventually they reach a small town and feel they are at last safe. They contact the local sheriff who appears to be helpful at first but when they try to leave town they discover they are being held prisoner. They are taken to a sugar refining plant where they discover that the queen ant has taken residence and has used the same pheromone control she has over her worker ants to enslave the town's entire human population into working to feed her ant colony with refined sugar cane. The survivors are lined up to be indoctrinated by the queen's pheromone spray - but the yacht captain Dan Stokely has a flare in his pocket and uses it to mortally wound the queen - the humans become released from their docile enslavement and the worker ants start attacking all the humans in revenge. Another of the survivors Joe Morrison drives a petrol tanker into the refinery and it blows up the ants and their main source of food - sugar. The immediate crisis is over and the survivors quickly leave town. | |
| Comment: Four of the original party survive the terror and are able to safely leave - although not shown it seems almost certain that there would be other mutant ants elsewhere in the vast jungle-like area that did survive. Marilyn Fryser's final fate is uncertain - she was attacked by the queen as she died and sprayed with her final pheromone command - but what this was for and whether Marilyn lived or died after the explosion is not shown. One can surmise it was a set-up for a possible sequel in which Marilyn had been imbued with queen ant status and become their new leader. Marilyn is an unsympathetic character who it seems is probably trying to swindle the investors with a bogus investment opportunity into worthless land that is not actually going to be developed into a luxury resort. | |
| Starring: | Joan Collins (as Marilyn Fryser, real estate agent), Robert Lansing (as Dan Stokely, captain of motor yacht), John David Carson (as Joe Morrison, guest), Jacqueline Scott (as Margaret Ellis, guest), Pamela Shoop (as Coreen Bradford, guest), Albert Salmi (as Town Sheriff) |
| Featuring: | Edward Power (as Charlie Pearson, Marilyn's assistant) (other guests) Robert Pine and Brooke Palance (as Mr and Mrs Graham), Harry Holcombe and Irene Tedrow (as Mr and Mrs Thompson), Jack Kosslyn and Ilse Earl (as Mr and Mrs Lawson) (in town) Norman Franklin (as The Mayor), Janie Gavin (as Car rental agent) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
The film was "based on a story by H.G. Wells" although (one suspects) not very closely based. Bert I. Gordon supplied the screen story for the film. |
• |
This is an American film that has been reviewed here because of the starring role for British actress Joan Collins who plays her part with an American accent. |
| Novel: Russell Braddon Writer/Director/Producer: Tim Burstall | |
| Type: Australian / Thriller | Running Time: 108 mins |
| As the story opens we see a young blonde woman hitching a lift on a quiet road and being promptly murdered by the driver - his face unseen.
Mark Gifford is then seen arriving at his brother Robert's home - earlier than he had planned catching Robert a bit flustered. Mark has been away at sea for three months where he works as a merchant seaman. Robert is a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair - before his disabling accident he had been a strong and vigorous sportsman. It is not long until the film makes it clear that Mark is the killer - not least because we see him disposing of the body. Robert appears to suspect him and the police are zeroing in on him as a suspect because the latest killing is similar to a string of murders they are investigating which all coincide with periods when Mark is on leave and in the area visiting Robert. But in a final-act plot twist it turns out that the crippled brother is the murderer and Mark was just disposing of the body to protect him. | |
| Comment: It starts off well but the outrageous twist is not really fair on the audience since the film had gone out of its way to indicate that Mark was the culprit and all their conversations with each other were geared towards furthering that belief even though both of them (in their heads) knew the truth and were (in retrospect) speaking in circles and riddles keeping the truth secret (from the viewer) - which when it was just the two of them alone there was no real reason to so do. | |
| Starring: | George Mallaby (as Robert), John Waters (as Mark), Ken Goodlet (as Inspector Cheadle) |
| Featuring: | Belinda Giblin (as Margaret, girlfriend/cousin of the brothers) |
| Starlets: | Delvene Delaney (as Hitchhiking victim) |
| Endless Night (1971) | Previous Next |
| Writer/Director: Sidney Gilliat / Producer: Leslie Gilliat | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 95 mins |
| Michael Rogers is an unambitious drifter who is currently working as a limousine driver for a hire firm. He sometimes has to drive rich patrons around Europe and he has a lot of free time on his hands whilst they are off sightseeing. He is well-educated with a cultural appreciation for fine art and enjoys visiting galleries and auctions where he finds it thrilling to bid for things he cannot afford before dropping out.
On a trip to the Sussex countryside Michael chances upon a beauty spot known as Gipsy's Acre which has a property up for auction although he knows it is beyond his means. He visits a few times and on one occasion he meets a young woman tourist called Ellie. She is an American and they chat amiably and strike up a friendship which begins to blossom into love. Michael thinks he has found the ideal woman but then discovers she is actually Fenella Thomsen, a rich heiress on the verge of coming into her fortune. Her family disapprove of the relationship but Ellie has fallen in love with Michael and the couple proceed to get married in a private ceremony. They buy the Gipsy's Acre site and have an architect friend called Santonix build them a dream house on the land. Michael opens up an antique shop in town to keep himself occupied and the two of them settle down to begin a happy life together which seems perfect - until Ellie's friend Greta comes to stay. Greta is a beautiful German woman who was once Ellie's German language tutor and subsequently became her best friend. Michael soon begins to become bad-tempered and finds Greta's continued presence to be irritating. He makes her feel unwelcome and only relents to her remaining when he sees how much his dislike is distressing Ellie who clearly seems to value Greta's company. Then one day Michael comes home from an auction to find Ellie dead seemingly of shock while out walking. An inquest rules her death to have been accidental. Michael has to go out to America to bury her according to her wishes. Ellie had changed her will and Michael is sole beneficiary of her fortune making him a very rich man. Back in England Michael returns to Gipsy's Acre where Greta has temporarily remained to look after the house in his absence. But rather than Michael giving her her immediate marching orders they fall into each others arms in celebration and have some wild sex. Michael and Greta have been secretly working together and have only been pretending animosity and their relationship predates Michael's first encounter with Ellie. They had met in a museum in Amsterdam and fallen for each other and hatched a scheme to get their hands on the money that Greta's rich German student Ellie was soon to inherit. They had carefully planned out the events and after sufficient time had passed they killed Ellie by adding some cyanide to a slow-release allergy capsule that she regularly took against wasp stings. They knew this wouldn't be suspected by the coroner if there was no evidence of foul play. But Michael soon begins to have pangs of regret and wonders if he has made a serious mistake because he loved Ellie and she clearly genuinely loved him and their happiness had been real. Michael becomes angry with Greta's indifferent attitude towards Ellie's death and blames her for the loss of his happiness. He proceeds to strangle Greta and drown her in the pool. Michael is arrested and admits everything and is committed to an insane asylum. | |
| Comment: The relationship story works well enough on its face value but becomes a bit hard to rationalise when it is revealed that it was all part of a pre-planned scheme devised by Greta and Michael at some unspecified point before he even met Ellie. There are several other plot points that I've omitted in order to keep the summary more concise:- these include a batty old local woman who spreads wild stories about local curses but turns out to have been employed by Michael to scare Ellie, and more involvement of the architect Santonix, Ellie's family, and the family lawyer - additionally there is an emotional trauma from Michael's past which haunts him involving his boyhood best friend who died in a drowning accident on a frozen lake. | |
| Starring: | Hywel Bennett (as Michael Rogers), Hayley Mills (as Fenella 'Ellie' Thomsen), Britt Ekland (as Greta), George Sanders (as Andrew Lippincott, family lawyer) |
| Featuring: | Lois Maxwell (as Cora Walker Brown, Ellie's stepmother), Peter Bowles (as Reuben Brown, Cora's new husband), David Bauer and Helen Horton (as Frank and Beth, Ellie's uncle and aunt), Per Oscarsson (as Santonix, architect), Aubrey Richards (as Dr Philpott, neighbour at Gipsey's Acre), Ann Way (as Mrs Philpott, doctor's wife), Patience Collier (as Miss Townsend, sinister old lady) |
| Familiar Faces: | Windsor Davies (as Local police sergeant), Nicholas Courtney (as Auctioneer, [uncredited]) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel by Agatha Christie |
| England Made Me (1973) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Desmond Cory, Peter Duffell / Director: Peter Duffell / Producer: Jack Levin | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 94 mins |
| Set in Europe in 1935. Anthony and Kate Farrant are a close sibling pair from England who are of very different temperaments. Kate is ambitious and self-assured whilst Tony is a well-meaning drifter who has an endearing charm but lacks confidence in himself and is content to take what comes his way. Kate is protective of her kind-hearted brother - she is always keen to guide his path towards something better and help him out when she can.
Tony has just finished working out East in Hong Kong and has stopped off in France to say hello to Kate on his way back to England. He has nothing lined up for himself and Kate suggests he could come back with her to Germany where her long-term lover Erich Krogh may be able to find him a job in his organisation. Erich is head of an international finance firm called Krogh International based in Germany. Erich is a German Jew and things are getting uncomfortable for those of his ancestry - even those of renown such as himself. Erich can foresee the way his country is going with the tide of Nazism sweeping events along and knows he is in a vulnerable position and so plans to leave the country soon. He is therefore involved in clandestinely transferring his assets abroad so that he will not be financially wiped out when the inevitable asset seizure happens - this activity is strictly illegal and so only his most trusted confidants know - including Kate and his associate Haller. Tony arrives in Germany and soon gets chatting in a bar. One of his first contacts is a down-on-his-luck journalist called Minty who expresses an interest in knowing any titbits about Krogh. Tony also meets a young woman called Liz Davidge from England and they begin an affair. Erich proposes marriage to Kate as a means to protect her from being forced to testify against him if their illegal activities were to be exposed. Later Kate tells Tony her marriage plans and lets slip details of the illegal asset transfer and Tony disapproves of her being involved. When Liz returns to England Tony decides he has had enough of Germany and says he will follow her back to England in a day or so. He bumps into Minty and mentions his sister's upcoming marriage to Krogh. This snippet makes the papers the next day and Krogh realises how indiscreet Tony can be. Erich and his associate Haller know they can handle Minty by paying him off should Tony talk further to him - but they are greatly perturbed at the thought of Tony returning to England where his injudicious chat to London journalists might derail their carefully laid plans. So on the day of his departure they arrange a card game with the intention of putting Tony into their debt so he is unable to leave until he works to pay it off. But Tony unexpectedly wins the game and so when he leaves Erich realises he has little choice but to order Haller to arrange an "accident" for Tony. Haller follows Tony and drowns him in the lake. Following Tony's death Kate decides to leave Erich and return to England. | |
| Comment: I don't recall it being actually mentioned but Kate and Tony might have been twins because when Tony dies Kate feels a shock which makes her feel faint - they were certainly a similar age when they were younger (as seen in the prologue). They might also have had some youthful romantic/sexual attachment too because at one point they kiss in an un-sibling-like way - and Kate does behave in a jealous/resentful kind of way towards Liz. | |
| Starring: | Michael York (as Anthony Farrant), Hildegarde Neil (as Kate Farrant), Peter Finch (as Erich Krogh) |
| Featuring: | Joss Ackland (as Friedrich Haller, Krogh's associate), Tessa Wyatt (as Liz Davidge, Tony's lover), Michael Hordern (as F. Minty, journalist), Michael Sheard (as Fromm, distraught father) |
| Familiar Faces: | Lalla Ward (as Young Kate, 1922 prologue, small part) |
| Starlets: | Mira Nikolic (as Nikki, party girl) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel by Graham Greene |
| Writer: Clive Exton / Director: Douglas Hickox / Producer: Douglas Kentish | |
| Type: Comedy Drama | Running Time: 89 mins |
| Kath is a widowed woman who lives with her ageing father in a house near a church graveyard. While out for a walk she meets a beautiful young man laying bare-chested on a grave and she finds him immensely attractive. The man introduces himself only as Sloan and as they get talking she discovers he is looking for somewhere to stay and offers to rent him a room at her house. Mr Sloan who is fully aware of his own beauty accepts her offer and goes home with her.
Sloan meets Kath's elderly and short-sighted father Dadda who thinks he recognises Sloan but can't quite place him at first but later realises he is the man who killed his former employer a couple of years ago - a crime never solved by the police. Once Kath has Mr Sloan to herself she flirts outrageously. She says she is 39 although is actually 42 and looks even older and although Mr Sloan finds her unappealing he does nothing to discourage her, clearly aware that there are benefits to being lusted over. Kath's older brother Ed arrives and when he hears Kath has taken in a lodger he at first disapproves thinking she is making a fool of herself and goes to Mr Sloan's room to tell him to leave - but his initial reservations are changed when he sees the angelic man laying half naked on the bed. Ed is a gruff ex-Navy man but is a closet homosexual who subtly sounds out the nature of Mr Sloan's inclinations and when he gets no negative responses he decides to allow Mr Sloan to stay. Sloan is not actually gay but clearly knows what Ed has been getting at and decides it suits his purposes to allow Ed to think he might be on offer to gain the advantages of his favour. Ed offers Sloan a job as his chauffeur and pays his rent for him. As things progress Kath continues to flirt more and more outrageously with Sloan and they eventually have sex; Kath and Ed have previously been rivals for the same man when Ed stole a previous boyfriend from her and Kath pleads with Ed not to take Sloan away from her too. Eventually Kath becomes pregnant and Dadda finds out and tells Ed. Ed has discovered that Sloan has been using his car at night for personal use to entertain young women and is annoyed and when he presents proof of this to Kath she too is disappointed. Meanwhile Mr Sloan gets angry with Dadda for telling tales to Ed and they have a fight and when Dadda threatens to tell the police that Sloan is a killer Mr Sloan hits him and Dadda dies of a heart attack. Ed's immediate thought on his father's death is to call in the police to report Sloan for murder but Sloan pleads with him that if they say that Dadda had an accident and fell down the stairs he'll do anything. So the brother and sister strike an arrangement that they will share Mr Sloan and each have him for six months of the year and if Sloan doesn't agree the police will be called in. They have Sloan trapped and he has to reluctantly agree to the horrendous arrangements as he is made to undergo a facsimile of a marriage ceremony to each of the siblings in turn. | |
| Starring: | Beryl Reid (as Kath), Harry Andrews (as Ed), Peter McEnery (as Mr. Sloane), Alan Webb (as Dadda) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
From a play of the same name by Joe Orton. |
| Writer: Peter Shaffer / Director: Sidney Lumet / Producers: Elliott Kastner & Lester Persky | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 132 mins |
| Martin Dysart is a psychiatrist at a hospital for disturbed people. He is asked by his magistrate friend Hesther to take in as a patient a youth called Alan Strang to try and find the root cause of his problems. Alan is accused of seriously maiming six horses at a stables where he worked and shows signs of severe psychosis.
Over a period of consultations Martin uncovers Alan's obsession with horses which he holds in religious reverence because he believes all horses are imbued with the spirit of a god-like being called Equus. His religious upbringing and an encounter when he was a young boy on a beach with a magnificent horse sowed the seeds of his insanity. He took a job at the stables so that he could commune with a horse at night every three weeks in a kind of sexual ritual in which he would worship the animal as he rides it naked. He is tipped over the edge when he has a date with stable girl Jill - he is keen to have sex with her and she is happy to oblige but his sexual repression makes him unable to perform when the time comes, and he goes into a rage gouging out the eyes of the horses in the stables. | |
| Starring: | Richard Burton (as Martin Dysart), Peter Firth (as Alan Strang) |
| Featuring: | Colin Blakely (as Frank, Alan's father), Joan Plowright (as Dora, Alan's mother), Harry Andrews (as stable owner), Eileen Atkins (as Hesther), Jenny Agutter (as Jill) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Equus is the Latin word for Horse |
| Erik the Viking (1989) | Previous Next |
| Writer/Director: Terry Jones / Producer: John Goldstone | |
| Type: Comedy / Adventure | Running Time: 78 mins |
| Set in times past when the Norwegian Vikings were engaged in endless rounds of plundering, pillaging and raping on the coasts of Europe. Erik is a Viking who engages in these activities but is beginning to question the point of it all because the only reason they seem to do it is to steal enough wealth to finance the next plundering expedition. His mind becomes set on finding a way to bring about a halt to the never-ending rounds of warfare and bloodlust in which his people have become immersed. The world is gripped in an ice age and sight of the sun is only a distant memory to the very old. Erik's people believe that the world is in the Age of Ragnarok following a tumultuous battle between the Gods which has resulted in the wolf of Fenrir covering up the sun. Erik visits a wise old woman called Freya who tells him that the Gods can do nothing to help because they are all asleep following their battle. But there is a way to wake them. Freya tells Erik of a mystical Horn that resides in a land called Hibrasil in the midst of the western ocean. This horn has the power to transport the bearer of it to fabled Asgard and wake the Gods from their slumber. Only then will the sky clear and end the Age of Ragnarok.
Erik decides to have a go at finding the horn and mounts an expedition. Most of his fellow Vikings are enthusiastic to have an exciting mission to embark upon even though most think the story to be mere fable. However, the blacksmiths, whose business is making swords, are concerned that if Erik is successful and the age of warmongering comes to an end then swords will no longer be needed and they will be out of business. So their evil leader Lord Halfdan, whose interests are most at risk, takes steps to follow Erik and stop him. As Erik and his crew enter open ocean they encounter a fearsome sea dragon which they only just manage to defeat. They are caught up in its final dying breath which is so powerful it propels their ship through the air like a bullet for many hundred of miles until it comes down in the bay of Hibrasil where they meet King Arnulf and his beautiful daughter the Princess Aud. The Vikings find the people of Hibrasil to be extremely friendly and are astonished to discover they live in a society where there is no crime or violence. Princess Aud tells them that such resorts are prohibited because the tranquillity of the island is maintained by their gods who have decreed that if so much as a single drop of blood should be spilled in anger then the entire island will sink beneath the waves in punishment. Therefore the people have no choice but to be incredibly nice to one another. Lord Halfdan's vessel is seen approaching and the Vikings set to sea to engage it before it reaches land where blood might spill. Erik single-handedly defeats Halfdan's fearsome warriors who it turns out are hopeless combatants because normally their opponents are too frightened to fight them. Halfdan is defeated and the only survivor is an assistant blacksmith called Loki who claims he only joined Halfdan to try and sabotage him. Erik believes him and lets him join his crew. But Loki is treacherous and is really out to undermine Erik's efforts. For saving the island King Arnulf gives Erik the horn. But Loki's nefarious attempts to disrupt things causes blood to be spilled and the island's curse is invoked and it sinks beneath the waves taking the lives of all the islanders except the princess who escapes with Erik and his crew on their ship. Erik blows the horn and they are transported to Asgard where they enter the fabled halls. The horn has awakened the Gods but the deified beings are not as they expected. The Gods are mere children whose main interest is larking around and as such they seem to have no interest in the affairs of the men of Midguard (Earth). In fact now the Vikings have entered Valhalla where those that have been slain in battle reside they are told by Odin they can never leave. But fortunately one of the crew manages to return to the ship and blow the horn once more which transports the Vikings back to Earth and directly to their village. Erik's quest to awaken the Gods was successful and as they look to the skies the clouds are beginning to part and the sun appears signalling the end to the Age of Ragnarork. | |
| Starring: | Tim Robbins (as Erik), Terry Jones (as King Arnulf), Imogen Stubbs (as Princess Aud) |
| Featuring: | Antony Sher (as Loki, blacksmith's assistant), Gary Cady (as Keitel Blacksmith), Tim McInnerny (as Sven the Berserk), Charles McKeown (as Sven's Father), John Gordon Sinclair (as Ivar the Boneless), Richard Ridings (as Thorfinn Skullsplitter), John Cleese (as Lord Halfdan), Freddie Jones (as Harald the Missionary), Samantha Bond (as Helga, rape victim) |
| Star-Turns: | Mickey Rooney (as Erik's Grandfather), Eartha Kitt (as Freya, wise woman) |
| Erotic Inferno (1975) | Previous Next |
| aka: Adam & Nicole | |
| Writer: Jon York / Director: Trevor Wrenn / Producer: Ken Coles | |
| Type: Sex / Drama | Running Time: 83 mins |
| Adam is estate manager to an elderly millionaire businessman called Mr Barnard. On a weekend off he receives word that the old man has died in a boating accident - his body lost at sea and presumed drowned. Barnard's will is to be read the day after tomorrow and Adam returns home with Barnard's business advisor Mr Eric Gold who dispenses some instructions before departing. The main manor house is to be kept locked and no one must enter until the reading of the will - Gold stresses how important this is and that Adam must allow no one in and he hints that Adam may be due something in the will. Adam lives in the nearby Lodge House with the housekeeper Nicole who is his girlfriend. She also has a key to the manor house and Adam stresses to her the importance of keeping it secure and she shows him that she keeps in on a chain around her waist under her clothes.
Barnard's two grown-up sons, Martin and Paul, are due to arrive for the memorial service. The brothers don't get on with one another and both disliked their father and can't believe he would have left anything to either of them. But they are united in their dislike for Adam whom they know is their father's illegitimate son and being older than either of them he stands to inherit the lot. However they don't think Adam knows his parentage and they hope to find any paperwork in the main house and destroy it before the secret is revealed. Paul travels up alone and Martin with his fiancée Brenda. None of the three men in the story are particularly pleasant characters and all of them are serial womanisers. Both Paul and Martin have had previous sexual relations with housekeeper Nicole and she and Paul renew their sexual familiarity almost as soon as he arrives. Martin likes to treat his women roughly and Brenda is starting to dislike him and when she meets the gentler Paul she prefers him and they go together. Martin doesn't mind because Nicole is more than eager to take up with him again because she will sleep with anyone. Adam is domineering towards Nicole acting very bossy always ordering her around possessively although he is carrying on with stable girl Gayle who herself is in a lesbian relationship with the other stable girl Jane. All in all just about everyone has sex with each other in the course of the film. Back to the plot though - once Paul and Martin find they are locked out of the main house they conspire to try and find the key and attempt to get it from Nicole but she is true to her instructions and doesn't give in to Martin's persistent attempts to get at it. Adam is forever acting like he's in charge rather than an employee and the brothers fear he already knows of his true heritage. Eventually it is the day of the will reading and Mr Gold opens up the main house. And they discover it was all a practical joke on old Mr Barnard's part. He is still alive and just wanted to see how much his sons really loved him. Martin finds the whole thing highly amusing, Adam storms out in fury with his dreams of inheriting everything in tatters and even Nicole has decided to leave him to be with Martin instead; and Paul didn't even attend the will reading because he has fallen in love with Brenda and stayed in bed with her throughout. | |
| Starring: | Michael Watkins (as Adam), Jenny Westbrook (as Nicole), Chris Chittell (as Martin Barnard, elder brother), Karl Lanchbury (as Paul Barnard, younger brother), Jeannie Collings (as Brenda, Martin's fiancée) |
| Featuring: | Michael Sheard (as Eric Gold, business manager), Tony Kenyon (as Old Mr Barnard), Brian Hawksley (as Vicar) |
| Starlets: | Heather Deeley (as Gayle, stable girl), Mary Millington (as Jane, stable girl, credited as Mary Maxted), Monika Ringwald (as Girl in Hotel Bed), Lindy Benson (as Barnard's blonde), Lyn Worral (as Barnard's blonde) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Chris Chittell is best known today for playing Eric Pollard in ITV soap-opera Emmerdale. |
• |
The version reviewed carried the title Adam & Nicole. |
| Writer: Len Wechsler / Director: Gordon Hessler / Producers: Craig T, Rumar, Lawrence M. Kubik | |
| Type: Adventure | Running Time: 89 mins |
| Pauli and Daniel are young surfer-dude friends in California who love outdoor sporting pursuits and new adventures with the other friends in their group:- Hawk, Tommy D, Baby Pits and Nancy. Pauli is very headstrong and prone to following his own impulsive ideas and he suggests they should go to Mexico and visit a notorious bar called Rosa's. But this idea is too wild for most of his friends and he can only persuade Daniel to go with him.
Pauli and Daniel head off to Mexico and the area of Rosa's bar which is close to the notorious El Diablo prison. The lads meet a local called Montalvo who at first seems charming and helpful and he warns them that Rosa's is not for them since it is where the prison guards go to unwind and release their pent-up frustrations - but the lads are dismissive of this advice and go anyway. That evening Rosa's is in full swing and Pauli takes a fancy to the singer Pilar and asks her to dance. But Montalvo is riled by this because he fancies Pilar himself and he has a word with one of the prison guards called Paco who contrives a fight with Pauli which gives a pretext for his arrest and imprisonment in El Diablo. It then turns out that Montalvo is the Prison Commandant who has a harsh and spiteful nature underneath his veneer of charm. Daniel tries to negotiate Pauli's release but Montalvo is not interested and sets a high bail/bribe level which Daniel does not have. He smashes up Montalvo's office in frustration and then manages to escape which puts Montalvo on his trail wanting revenge on him for the vandalism. Daniel gets shelter from a kind-hearted mother superior in a nearby church and Daniel decides his only option is to try and break Pauli out - he meets another American called Sundance who wants to help because his brother is also a prisoner. Daniel sends for his other friends from California and together they all plan to break in to the prison on the forthcoming night of a fiesta when most of the guards will be occupied at Rosa's. They gain the co-operation of the singer Pilar who agrees to keep Montalvo occupied in her own special way. The gang break into the prison using their rock-climbing skills and successfully overcome the small detail of guards and release Pauli and then fight their way out amid the returning slightly drunk guards and best them by using fighting and skateboarding skills and then make their getaway and return to California. | |
| Starring: | Jimmy McNichol (as Daniel), Timothy Van Patten (as Pauli), Patrick Mower (as Montalvo, prison commandant), Suzanne Danielle (as Pilar) |
| Featuring: | Penelope Horner (as Mother Superior), Luis Barboo (as Paco, head prison guard), John Ethan Wayne (as Sundance), Patricia Quinn (as Rosa) (Rest of the gang of friends) Cathy Wellman (as Nancy), Danny McClure (as Baby Pits), Mike McGill (as Tommy D), Juan Carlos Naya (as Hawk) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Although this doesn't come across much like a British film it had UK backing and a number of the secondary starring cast are British actors albeit playing Mexicans. |
| Escape to Athena (1979) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Edward Anhalt, Richard S. Lochte / Director: George P. Cosmatos / Producers: David Niven Jr, Jack Wiener | |
| Type: War Drama | Running Time: 114 mins |
| Second World War drama set in 1944 on a Greek Island which the German military now occupy. The island houses a prisoner of war camp run by Major Otto Hecht, a courtly officer with a keen interest in antiquities. His orders are to exhume priceless archaeological relics for the German state from the ruins of the nearby temple of Neptune. The specially selected prisoners under his charge have appropriate civilian occupations to assist with the excavations. A British archaeology professor called Blake is one of the prisoners, and others include a wisecracking American comedian (with an interest in archaeology) and an exotic dancer he works with - both entertainers captured from a downed troop ship. Hecht's fairly relaxed manner is offset by the town garrison's harsh disciplinarian SS officer Major Volkmann.
Although the temple relics are interesting and plentiful Hecht knows that the true treasures are to be found in the monastery atop the nearby Mount Athena and he hopes to liberate them from the guardianship of the resident monks to add to his personal collection. The island's Greek resistance who actively oppose the German occupation are led by a man called Zeno. He has radio contact with allied sources and has been informed of a forthcoming allied surge for which the island's submarine base must be put out of action. Zeno knows he needs specialist assistance and so helps the POW's stage a takeover of their prison. This is achieved in a stealthy fashion through ruse, diversion and subterfuge. Once this is accomplished the pragmatic Kommandant Hecht opts to cooperate with his former prisoners because he is still keen to possess the priceless relics to be found atop Mount Athena. The Greeks and POW's mount a series of strikes under Zeno's direction. With Hecht's help they firstly eliminate the SS garrison in a sneak attack so that Volkmann cannot radio for help. Then they split up and one team sets about destroying the fuel dumps to the submarine base while the other team climb Mount Athena. Zeno has allowed the archaeologists to think they are going to retrieve the treasures but once there he reveals the real purpose of the expedition. The monk's temple has been secretly turned into a sophisticated Nazi communication post which also houses a massive missile which is going to be used to wipe out the entire allied invasion fleet in one hit - and so it must be destroyed. Zeno and the soldiers stealthily accomplish their task and also rescue the imprisoned monks, but find the ancient artefacts missing having already been moved by the monks to a safer place. The submarine base and the missile installation are both totally destroyed and the mission is successful. | |
| Starring: | Roger Moore (as Major Otto Hecht, camp kommandant), Telly Savalas (as Zeno, Greek resistance leader), David Niven (as Professor Blake, POW), Elliott Gould (as Charlie, POW, entertainer), Stefanie Powers (as Dottie Del Mar, POW, exotic dancer), Claudia Cardinale (as Eleana, brothel girl) |
| Featuring: | Anthony Valentine (as Major Volkmann, SS commander), Richard Roundtree (as Nat Judson, POW), Sonny Bono (as Bruno Rotelli, cook, POW), Michael Sheard (as Sergeant Mann, Stalag guard) |
| Escort Girls (1974) | Previous Next |
| aka: All Lovers Are Strangers | |
| Writer/Director/Producer: Donovan Winter | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 93 mins |
| Anthology-type tales of various lonely men and women who for various reasons decide to hire an escort for the evening. The tales are entirely separate but told in an interspersed manner rather than as consecutive self-contained stories. Tales vary from a shy man who hasn't dated before; a businesswoman who wants a handsome man to take to a party; a woman who takes a black man to a party to wind-up her racist friends; a man who thinks his luck is in when he takes his escort home only to find himself a victim of a sting; two drunken Scottish men wanting a bit of female companionship in London; and a lonely older woman looking for some comfort from a much younger escort but finds she cannot even entice him into bed for money. | |
| Featuring: | David Dixon, Helen Christie, Marika Mann, Veronica Doran |
| Familiar Faces: | Nicholas Young (from The Tomorrow People) |
| Starlets: | Maria O'Brien, Teresa Van Ross, Barbara Wise, Maggie Walker, Maxine Casson, Barbara Lindley, Karen Boyes, Liz Carson, Sarah Golding, Joy Harrison, Helen Rose |
| NOTES: | |
• |
David Dixon later played Ford Prefect in The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy TV series |
| Eskimo Nell (1975) | Previous Next |
| aka: The Ballad of Eskimo Nell | |
| Writer: Michael Armstrong / Director: Martin Campbell / Producer: Stanley A. Long | |
| Type: Comedy | Running Time: 82 mins |
| Dennis Morrison has just graduated from a Film Director's course and with diploma in hand he eagerly tours the major film studio offices in London looking for work - but with no success. As a last resort he tries a small-time production company called B.U.M. productions run by Benny U. Murdoch who is heavily into exotic movies and has had the idea to make a movie version of an epic poem called "The Ballad of Eskimo Nell". Murdoch offers Dennis the chance to direct it although of course he wants to include plenty of sex and nudity and has already lined up his girlfriend Gladys Armitage for the lead part. All that is required is some backing and he has three investors interested in the project.
Dennis contacts two of his friends to help:- Harris and Clive. Harris is a writer but the only thing he knows about is penguins and has never written a script for a movie. They visit the three investors in turn to discuss the movie and discover that each has unique requirements for the type of movie they want to be made to secure their investment. One wants a kinky film with lots of leather and bondage with his girlfriend Billie in the lead. Another wants it to be a musical Kung Fu movie with his singing protégé Millicent Bindle playing Nell. The final one wants to make a homo-erotic cowboy film with plenty of male spanking and tight jodhpurs and starring a drag artist called Johnny as Nell. Harris is completely at a loss of how to write an all-British pornographic musical kung fu gay western but Murdoch says that he should just write three different versions and they will make all three to satisfy each investor. Murdoch gets them to sign their contracts and they make a start planning and casting the extras. But after the money from the investors is paid into the bank Murdoch scarpers with the lot leaving them with no money to make the film. However their contracts state that they are legally responsible for the money and their investors insist that they make the movie or return the money. To the rescue comes Dennis' girlfriend Hermione who is unaware of all the details of the versions required and believes it to be a "normal" film they are making. Her mother is a member of the Society for Moral Reform and would like to make a good clean family film because they abhor all the smut that gets made these days - the society decides to fund the film starring Hermione in the lead. So now the filmmakers have enough money but also need to make a fourth version suitable for a family audience. In the studio they make the wholesome family version first and then when all the cast have left they wheel out the actors to make the other versions using the same sets. The Moral Society are delighted with the finished film and it gets chosen for a Royal Charity performance. But the inevitable happens and the versions get mixed up and the distinguished VIP audience are shown the pornographic version by mistake leaving the three filmmakers in jail for peddling smut. | |
| Starring: | Michael Armstrong (as Dennis Morrison), Terence Edmond (Clive Potter), Christopher Timothy (as Harris Tweedle) |
| Featuring: | Roy Kinnear (as Benny U. Murdoch), Rosalind Knight (as Lady Longhorn, Hermoine's mother), Katy Manning (as Hermione), Diane Langton (as Gladys Armitage), Beth Porter (as Billie Harris), Prudence Drage (as Millicent Bindle) |
| Familiar Faces: | Christopher Biggins , Richard Caldicot, Nicholas Young, Anna Quayle |
| Starlets: | Mary Millington |
| aka: Stigma | |
| Writer/Director: Joseph Larraz / Production Associates: Antonio Frances, Francisco F. Prida | |
| Type: European / Chiller | Running Time: 94 mins |
| Sebastian is a student in his latter school years who finds it difficult to make friends and spends a lot of time by himself. He is considered a burdensome child by both his mother and his much older brother Joe who acts as his co-guardian following the recent unexpected and sudden death of their father. Sebastian's mother is indulgent of her difficult son and thinks he is just at a difficult age, but Joe is losing patience that he will ever mature into a well-rounded sociable person. Sebastian's father had been a hard taskmaster and Sebastian grew to hate him and was not sad when he died. In fact his father's fatal accident it was almost like a wish come true which he had pictured in his mind so vividly that he knew it what had happened even before his brother broke the news. Joe finds this disconcerting and wonders if Sebastian has a latent psychic ability.
A girl at Sebastian's school called Martha agrees to go out on a date with Sebastian. To give her a thrill he decides to share with her his special place which is at the top of a high gantry pylon strut supporting a cable car system. He likes this birds eye view where big things are made to seem small and insignificant. Martha feels scared as they climb the spiral staircase winding around the outside of the metalwork with nothing other than a hand rail for safety. She wants to turn back and Sebastian becomes angered that she is spoiling it. He tries to kiss her to take her mind off it but this only freaks her out all the more and she rushes back down the stairs. Sebastian feels a surge of hatred towards her and as he watches her she unaccountably falls over the handrail and plunges to her death. Sebastian's lower lip bleeds and he now recalls that the same thing happened when his father died. Although it seems impossible Sebastian starts to believe that he has the power to wish people dead! Joe has a new girlfriend called Angie and he brings Sebastian along with him to a dinner party at her house. Angie's housemate is an older woman called Olga who is a hypnotherapist and is also sensitive to psychic forces. When she meets Sebastian she has feelings of dread that this outwardly shy and unassuming boy represents a danger to anyone who knows him. Angie takes a liking to Sebastian however and can tell he has a small crush on her. She sees him as an insecure teenage boy who needs his confidence boosted by some female company and she is unimpressed by Olga's advice to be wary of him. Angie and Sebastian spend some time together as friends despite Olga's continued warnings that Sebastian has an aura of evil. Sebastian begins experiencing ghostly visions of a beautiful young woman. He does not know her and thinks he may be losing his mind. Meanwhile Joe's attitude towards his younger brother's general behaviour is hardening following a negative report from his school about his inability to integrate with his fellow students. Joe tells Sebastian that when he returns from a business trip he is going to make arrangements to send Sebastian to a boarding school to knock some sense into him. After Joe leaves in his car Sebastian feels intense rancour for his brother and his injurious diktat. And as his feelings of hatred build Joe's car careers out of control and he dies. Sebastian's lower lip bleeds again. Sebastian confides to Angie his concerns that he may be responsible for the recent deaths by thinking ill-thoughts. Angie finds that hard to believe but suggests he let Olga hypno-analyse him to see if there may be a psychosomatic cause. Olga places Sebastian under hypnosis and he regresses to a past life when, nearly 150 years ago in 1830 a boy just like him lived in a large plush mansion called Pinegrove House close to Stonegate with his mother, father and older sister. His life is made a misery by his disciplinarian father who browbeats him into studying ever harder for his schooling while letting his sister pursue leisurely activities of her choosing. The boy is very close to his sister but at the same time he is terrified of her. Sebastian's glimpse into his past life ends abruptly and he is too perturbed to continue. The session has given him plenty to think about because the sister was the same woman who he has been seeing in his visions. Sebastian decides her wants to see what Pinegrove House looks like today. His taxi driver tells him terrible things happened there a long time ago and no one will go near the place. It has been abandoned and left to go to rot. Sebastian breaks in and looks around the eerie mansion and finds the décor and furnishing have remained untouched as they were in the 1830s when the house was last a home, with only layers of dust to mark the passing of time. He finds family portraits that show the family son whom he closely resembles was called Michael and the sister was called Julia. Angie arrives having followed Sebastian and wanting to help him. Sebastian seems to possess knowledge and memories about the house and family that he couldn't possibly have known and together they find indications that Michael and Julia shared the type of love forbidden to brother and sister. Night-time comes and they decide to sleep for the night downstairs in the living room. Sebastian sleeps on the settee and starts to dream about the life of his doppelganger from the early 19th century. Julia is a temptress and enjoys coming to Michael's room at night to have experiences to quench her desires for fulfilment. Although Michael finds it pleasurable he is terrified of what his father would do should they be discovered, because he knows it would be he and not she who would be considered at fault and face his fathers wrath. As the clandestine trysts continue Michael learns to crave his sister's body, so when her engagement to another man is announced it comes as a big shock to him. She tells him that all good things come to an end and their night-time recreations will now have to cease and he should look elsewhere for his pleasures. Michael feels jealousy and rejection at her indifference to the special times they shared. Then his father harangues him over his poor academic performance and tell shim he is to be sent to boarding school, and his mother agrees with the decision. Michael is overcome with rage at being further rejected and treated like he's worthless and can be cast aside when he becomes an inconvenience He fetches an axe from outside and then marches back into the living room with a steely purpose and calmly murders both his father and his mother. Then he head upstairs to where Julia is taking a bath. There is no stopping him as he delivers her a series of fatal blows with the axe. As she dies she tears at his lower lip causing it to bleed. Then back in the present day Sebastian has been so overwhelmed by the rage he experienced as Michael that he grabs Angie and strangles her until she is dead.. His lip is bleeding as he stares into nothingness lost to a world of madness. THE END | |
| Starring: | Christian Borromeo (as Sebastian and Michael), Alexandra Bastedo (as Angie), Emil G. Caba (as Joe, Sebastian's brother), Helga Liné (as Sebastian's mother), Irene G. Caba (as Olga, Angie's psychic friend) |
| Featuring: | Virginie Blavier (as Julia, [?assumed to be Julia by elimination and cast list prominence]), Berta Cabré (as Martha, girl at Sebastian's school [credited as Berta Singerman]), José Caffarel (as Taxi Driver), Craig Hill, Massimo Seratto, Red Mills, Annabella Incontrera |
| NOTES: | |
• |
This is a Spanish film which has been reviewed here because of the participation of the British actress Alexandra Bastedo who was a lead co-star in the 1960s series The Champions. The version reviewed was dubbed into English. |
• |
Joseph Larraz was credited as José Ramón Larraz |
| Book: Marshall Houts / Writer: Paul Mayersberg / Director: Nicolas Roeg / Producer: Jeremy Thomas | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 124 mins |
| Jack McCann is a gold prospector searching in the cold snowy wilderness of Alaska for that one lucky strike that will change his life. He endures the conditions for 15 long years until the winter of 1925 when he falls into a crevice and finds a cave system literally teaming with gold. That moment of discovery and the realisation that his hard endeavours have been so staggeringly rewarded is the happiest most wonderful moment in his life giving him a sense of accomplishment that he will never experience again.
Twenty years later in 1945 he is the richest man in the world living on his own Caribbean island on a private estate called "Eureka". He is married and has a grown-up daughter called Helen whom he dotes on but is dismayed at her choice of husband - a Frenchman called Claude whom he utterly despises and believes is a money-grabbing fool. Jack's friend and adviser Charles Perkins tells him that some Mafia types are showing an interest in buying a part of his island called Lunar Bay upon which they want to build a casino. But Jack is not interested in selling for any reason even though Charles warns him that these people mean business and if they don't get what they want the nice way they usually resort to less friendly measures. Although Jack is envied for being the one that found the wealth others can only dream of, he is not a happy man and although his life since that "eureka-moment" 20 years ago has been comfortable and with moments of happiness, the sense of loss he feels at never being able to recapture that one blissful moment of discovery is profound in his life. And now it is all made worse by a letter he receives from his daughter saying that since he cannot tolerate Claude as a member of the family then she is forced to choose between them and she wants to be with the man she loves, her husband. So with no further prospect of joy in his life Jack sets up a meeting with the Mafia boss and resoundingly declines their offer to buy his land. Then he goes home and waits for them to come round and kill him and at the same time he sets about with an attempt to implicate Claude in his murder. The Mafia thugs unwittingly oblige, killing him in a most brutal manner, and Claude is duly arrested and put on trial and things don't look good for him as all the involved parties seem to have decided on him as the scapegoat and exaggerate his animosity for Jack. Eventually his wife speaks up for him and he is cleared although the judge deports him from the island nevertheless. | |
| Starring: | Gene Hackman (as Jack McCann), Theresa Russell (as Tracy, his daughter), Rutger Hauer (as Claude Maillot von Horn, Tracy's husband), Jane Lapotaire (as Helen McCann, Jack's wife), Joe Pesci (as Mayakofsky, Mafia businessman), Mickey Rourke (as Aurelio D'Amato, Mafia's lawyer), Ed Lauter (as Charles Perkins, Jack's adviser) |
| Featuring: | Corin Redgrave (as Worsley, Claude's defence council), Norman Beaton (as Prosecution council) |
| Starlets: | Ann Thornton (as Jane, red dress at voodoo orgy party), Emma Relph (as Mary, black dress at voodoo orgy party) |
| Every Afternoon (1972) | Previous Next |
| aka: Swedish Wildcats | |
| Writers: Vernon P. Becker, Joseph W. Sarno / Director: Joseph W. Sarno / Producer: Vernon P. Becker | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 90 mins |
| Swedish sisters Susanna and Karin have lived in Copenhagen with their Aunt Margareta since they were young children following the death of their parents. Margareta has had to make many sacrifices to bring up the sisters - but now that the two girls are young women, Margareta has opened a high-class brothel called Maison Margareta where she uses her entertainment skills to put on sexy shows in which the gentlemen customers are encouraged to pay extra to have sex with the performers.
Susanna and Karin have become the star turns of the establishment and participate in the activities out of a sense of loyalty to their aunt. They have always done what their aunt asks of them without question but lately Margareta has been expecting them to do more and more outrageous things and the two sisters are beginning to feel uncomfortable with it and realise that Margareta is using them - however they are dependant on her for a place to live and so continue to comply with the various kinky scenarios that Margareta dreams up. Susanna is good at her job but has to endure some unbearable men including one called Gerhard Jensen who likes to inflict pain while he has sex with her. As a way of taking her mind off her night-time role Susanna chooses to invent daytime fantasies for herself. She currently has pretensions of being a ballerina and during an afternoon walk in the park she meets a pleasant young man called Peter Borg. They get chatting and she tells him she is a ballerina called Natasha and he tells her that he works as a test pilot. He works nights and so comes to the park every afternoon. Soon the two of them are meeting up regularly and start to fall in love. We (the viewer) discover that Peter is not a test pilot at all but is a lowly baggage handler and Gerhard Jensen is his boss. Jensen is involved in a drug smuggling operation and when Peter accidentally finds out about it Jensen warns him not to say a word. Jensen dislikes Peter because he is so incorruptible and therefore cannot be trusted and so he keeps up the bullying and intimidating threats to make sure he doesn't tell the authorities. Meanwhile Peter and Susanna's relationship continues to grow and they become romantic although neither of them suspect that the other has lied about their real professions. When Jensen sees "Natasha" walking with Peter he recognises her from the brothel and after realising that Peter knows nothing about her other life, decides to play a nasty joke on Peter. He arranges a boys' night out at the brothel and ropes a reluctant Peter to come along. At the Maison, Jensen takes great delight in letting Peter discover that his precious "ballerina" girlfriend is actually a whore. Susanna is devastated that Peter has discovered her secret and appeals to him but he storms out and Susanna is then forced to endure another mauling at the hands of Jensen who takes an equal delight in telling her that Peter is not a test pilot but a baggage handler. Later on the police arrive and arrest Jensen and clearly Peter has decided to take his revenge by at last informing on his smuggling activities. Next afternoon Susanna goes to the park as normal hoping Peter might be there but fully expecting him not to be. She realises that the truth of her life is far worse to him than his little white lie was to her. But to her delight he is there and they decide that their love is strong enough to forgive and move on. Susanna decides to stop living and working at her aunt's, put her fantasies aside, and concentrate on loving him instead. | |
| Comment: Susanna's sister Karin features equally at first but about two-thirds through she elopes with a rich man she meets and never comes back into the story. | |
| Starring: | Diana Dors (as Margareta), Cia Löwgren (as Susanna), Solveig Andersson (as Karin), Peder Kinberg (as Peter Borg), Ib Mossin (as Gerhard Jensen) |
| Starlets: | Christina Lindberg (as Helga, girl at brothel), Samira Wale (as Bellydancer) (Brothel girls) Marie Louise Fors (as Bibi), Britten Larsson (as Lisa), Jeanette Swenson (as Barbro) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
This is listed as a UK production although other than the starring role for Diana Dors there is nothing else substantially British about it. It was made in English although some of the actors seem to be dubbed. |
• |
The version reviewed carried the title Swedish Wildcats |
| Eves on Skis (1963) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Craven Walker, Victor Ritellis / Director/Producer: Michael Keatering | |
| Type: Nudist | Running Time: 30 mins |
| Elizabeth and her friends are naturists who believe it is unnatural to hide their bodies beneath clothes and feel happiest when naked and free in natural surroundings. On two previous occasions we have followed the exploits of Elizabeth in sun-drenched tropical climes, but for this third outing she and her friends have decided to go somewhere decidedly different - a snow-capped mountain!
Elizabeth meets up again with her friend Caren who is joined by her younger sister Jill. Elsa has also come along with her fiancé Karl who has organised the trip. They are also joined by a newcomer called Sally. The party arrive at the foot of the Austrian Alps and, fully dressed, trek up the snow-covered slopes enjoying the breathtaking scenery as they ascend. Their destination is a secluded ski-hut set aside for naturists to use. They reach the ski-hut later that day and settle in. They spend the next few days learning to ski from their mountain guide Herbert. A few days later the party go on a mini-expedition further up the mountain slope to further enjoy the exhilarating mountain scenery. They decide to travel without the encumbrance of clothing which is an invigorating experience for all, and not especially cold, because despite the snow the sun's rays are radiantly warming. Back at the ski-hut again they remain naked as they enjoy sunbathing on air mattresses and playing ball games and partaking in physical training exercises, as well as the inevitable malarkey of snowball fights whilst all the time basking in the warmth of the sun. All too quickly their fortnight of fun is nearing its end and soon it will be time too leave. Elisabeth reflects on another exhilarating naturist holiday and wonders where they might end up doing next year ... | |
| Comment: This was the last (and much shorter) instalment of Elizabeth's holidaying experiences. This time Elizabeth is not the only focal character and the narrative voice is shared between Elizabeth, Jill and Karl. There is no live dialogue heard | |
| Starring: | Elizabeth Elcoate Gilbert (credited as Elizabeth), Caren, Karl, Elsa Sullivan (Karl's fiancée, [credited as Elsa]), Jill (Caren's sister), Sally, Herbert (Guide and ski instructor) |
| Also: | (Narrators) Rose Alba (for Elisabeth), Hugo De Vernier (for Karl), Pat Roberts (for Jill) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
In this film the opening credits list Karl, Elsa, Caren and Jill as well as Elizabeth, although do not give surnames. Other participant's names are mentioned in the narration. This helps establish the spelling of Karl and Caren's names for the preceding two films. Elsa's surname was inferred as Sullivan in "Sunswept" by connection to her sister Ingrid Sullivan (who does not appear in this film) |
• |
Elizabeth and some of her friends appeared first in Travelling Light (1960) and then again in Sunswept (1961). |
• |
The real name of the director was Edward Craven Walker who was Elizabeth's husband. |
• |
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), Take Off Your Clothes And Live (1962), My Bare Lady (1963), It's A Bare, Bare World (1963), The Reluctant Nudist (1963). |
| Writer: John Elder / Director: Freddie Francis / Producer: Anthony Hinds | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 83 mins |
| In Germany in the 16th/17th century, Baron Frankenstein and his loyal apprentice Hans are conducting experiments on keeping alive human organs outside the body. The Baron pays a body snatcher to provide him with corpses for him to extract these organs. The experiments go well but the townspeople are troubled by his practices and he is run out of town. He deplores their attitude since he is an honourable scientist trying to expand the horizons of man's knowledge but everywhere he goes he is hounded by ignorant people like these. Forced to abandon everything the Baron decides to return to his old residency in the town of Karlstaad. Ten years beforehand he had been forced to leave that town and told never to return but is hoping the townspeople will have short memories for he needs money and hopes to sell some of the priceless artwork and furnishings he had to leave at his castle. But when he arrives he finds his castle has been looted and everything of value is gone.
Baron Frankenstein tells Hans the story of what happened ten years ago. The Baron's progress was actually more advanced then than currently. He had developed his theory that there was no such thing as a mystical life-force and that being alive was merely a biochemical state which could be re-induced in a dead being. Working alone he had assembled a body from various parts and then using the enormous power of lightning from an overhead storm had channelled the electrical charge into the body and managed to energise his creation into life. But the Creature's hunger had caused it to roam and kill livestock and it was hunted by the townsfolk and shot on a mountainside where it tumbled down a precipice to its death - and the Baron was told to get out of town and never return. Since he resumed his work at the place they have just come from the Baron has never come close to recreating his previous success. The Baron and Hans go down into the town to eat at an inn. Fortunately a carnival is in town and as part of the festivities the practice of mask wearing is commonplace which the pair of them employ to disguise themselves. The Baron sees the Burgomaster (mayor) whom Frankenstein notices is wearing one of his rings. Annoyed at this theft the Baron makes a fuss and is recognised and the two scientists have to flee. They run into a funfair sideshow where a hypnotist called Zoltan is performing his act. The scientists get away but the police chief thinks Zoltan helped them and so arrests him for not having a licence. The Baron goes to the Burgomaster's residency and sees that all his priceless property has been installed there - "confiscated" the Burgomaster tells him when he turns up. The scientists manage to evade arrest and flee to the mountains where a storm is brewing - they need cover and a local deaf mute girl helps them by showing them a cave where they can shelter. Inside Baron Frankenstein is amazed to find the body of his original creation perfectly preserved in glacial ice into which it must have fallen ten years ago. Excited by this opportunity to continue to prove his theories of life he, Hans and the girl melt out the body and take it up to the Baron's castle where he reopens his still reasonably intact laboratory and with the storm overhead reproduces the energising effect that was so successful before. The Creature is restored to life but remains unresponsive - its mind has withdrawn but the Baron feels it is still there and just needs to be triggered back into activity. Then he recalls Zoltan the hypnotist and goes back into town to request his help to reach the Creature's dormant mind. Zoltan is feeling aggrieved because following his arrest the Burgomaster and Police Chief have ordered him to leave town and he only reluctantly agrees to go to Frankenstein's castle to see what can be done. Zoltan is at first appalled when he sees who his patient will be but eventually agrees to try. He successfully reaches the Creature's mind and induces its awareness. The Baron thanks him for his help and expects he'll be on his way. But Zoltan has been clever and during the hypnosis had put the Creature into a state whereby it would obey only Zoltan's commands. He then proposes to Frankenstein that they should put the Creature into a funfair side-show and split the money three ways between himself the Baron and Hans. The Baron has no choice but to pretend to agree to the idea until he can think of a way around it. Meanwhile Zoltan gets drunk and that night decides to take his revenge on the Burgomaster and Police Chief by sending the Creature into town to punish them. The Creature kills the Burgomaster and also a constable it believed was the Police Chief. The real Police Chief hears reports of a monster and knows that the Baron is up to his old tricks and a posse of villagers go up the castle to make arrests. In the castle a now sober Zoltan is panicking at the deaths he caused and orders the Creature to kill Frankenstein who keeps it at bay with fire - and when Zoltan keeps insisting it attack, the Creature resolves its conflict by killing Zoltan. But a fire has been started and although Hans and the deaf mute girl escape, Frankenstein and the Creature are trapped in the castle which then explodes - seemingly killing them both. THE END | |
| Starring: | Peter Cushing (as Baron Frankenstein), Sandor Elès (as Hans, Frankenstein's Assistant), Peter Woodthorpe (Professor Zoltán, Hypnotist) |
| Featuring: | Katy Wild (as Deaf Mute Beggar Girl), Duncan Lamont (as Chief of Police), David Hutcheson (as Burgomaster), Kiwi Kingston (as The Creature) |
| Starlets: | Caron Gardner (as Burgomaster's Wife) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
This was the third of the Hammer Horror Frankenstein movies. The previous was The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958). The next one was Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) |
• |
The events of this film do not follow on precisely from the events of the previous film which, at its conclusion, saw Baron Frankenstein setting up a practice in London after having had his brain transferred into a new assembled body by Hans in a life saving procedure. Yet in this film they are back in Germany on the run with things reset and Hans largely unaware of the advanced nature of the Baron's previous work. The long flashback sequence in this film retells the events of the first film The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) in recreated sequences. The part of Hans is played by a different actor in this film. |
| Writers: Rospo Pallenberg, John Boorman / Director/Producer: John Boorman | |
| Type: Fantasy Drama | Running Time: 140 mins |
| England in the Dark Ages. Extended prologue sequence. Urther Pendragon is a monarch who after a savage battle has formed an alliance with his bitter enemy. However Urther hankers for his enemy's beautiful wife Igrayne and jealousies re-ignite hostilities. Urther has a special sword called Excalibur provided by his trusted adviser Merlin which was forged at the start of time and is delivered to special mortals at times of need via the Lady in the Lake. Urther defeats his enemy and then has his trusted adviser Merlin use his magical abilities to help him appear to Igrayne in her husband's form so that he may lay with her. The dark magic required to accomplish this is dangerous and potent and Merlin only agrees if he can have possession of whatever comes from the union. Urther agrees and has his way with Igrayne while she believes him to be her husband. Her young daughter Morgana watches and sees through the deception but is too young to intervene. Nine months later a son is born whom Merlin takes possession of and names Arthur and eventually leaves in the care of a peasant family to nurture. However Urther's deceptive ways have now made him unworthy of special protection and before long he is ambushed by his enemies and killed - but before he dies he drives Excalibur's blade into a rock so that none but one who is worthy to be king may possess it. End of prologue.
Nearly twenty years go by and the land still has no king to unite it. Regular jousting tournaments are held to determine the bravest knight with the victor earning the right to attempt to draw the sword from the stone - because the man that can do this will be the rightful king. However all who try fail to even so much as budge the sword from its resting place. Then a youth acting as squire to his older brother knight realises he has forgotten to bring his brother's sword to the tournament and in desperation pulls at Excalibur and it emerges for him like a knife from butter. His name is Arthur and he is hailed as the new king. Arthur is a kind and generous ruler and his policies reunite the kingdom bringing prosperity and happiness to all. He forms a roundtable of the greatest Knights in the land to serve him including Sir Lancelot the bravest of them all. Arthur marries the beautiful Guenevere - she and Lancelot find they have a secret longing for one another but they manage to resist their temptations. Meanwhile Arthur's half-sister Morgana has also grown up and has become skilled in the ways of sorcery herself. She becomes Merlin's apprentice but eventually she becomes too powerful and Merlin recognises the danger she represents to Arthur. He tries to trap her in a spell but she outmanoeuvres him and it is Merlin who becomes suspended in a stasis instead. Lancelot and Guenevere give in to their desires and Arthur finds out - in his fury he banishes the pair and discards Excalibur and his kingdom begins to crumble and his health decline. Morgana is able to rise to a position of power - she tricks Arthur into having sex by appearing to be his wife and bears herself a son who will be heir whom she calls Mordred. She builds herself an army of knights and the land descends once more into anarchy and ruin with disease and poverty rife with that golden age brought about by Arthur now only a distant memory. Arthur's only hope is to send his Knights on a quest to find a magical relic called the Holy Grail. Decades of fruitless searching ensue during which the people suffer terrible hardship and Morgana builds up her power base with her son who has now grown to manhood. She creates a magically protected a golden suit of armour for him which makes him invulnerable to any weapon forged by man. The lowliest knight Sir Percival at last finds the grail and brings it to the frail Arthur - one sip from the mystical chalice and Arthur becomes reinvigorated and sets about to restore his kingdom to its former glory. He visits Guenevere at a priory, where she has taken refuge, to forgive her and she presents him with Excalibur which she had been holding in safekeeping for him all these years. Arthur leads his Knights into battle against Morgana's forces. (Meanwhile Merlin manages to visit Morgana in her dreams and trick her into sleep-muttering a powerful spell which destroys her and he is released). The battle is evenly matched and nearly all combatants from both sides are killed leaving the respective leaders Arthur and Mordred (in his special golden armour) to face one another in combat. Arthur manages to kill Mordred with Excalibur because it is not a weapon forged by man - however Arthur is mortally wounded himself and in his dying moments he orders Sir Percival to take Excalibur and return it to the lake whence it came so that it may one day be once again delivered into the hands of someone worthy to wield it. | |
| Starring: | Nigel Terry (as King Arthur), Nicol Williamson (as Merlin), Helen Mirren (as Morgana), Nicholas Clay (as Sir Lancelot), Cherie Lunghi (as Guenevere), Gabriel Byrne (as Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father) |
| Featuring: | Paul Geoffrey (as Sir Perceval), Keith Buckley (as Sir Uryens), Liam Neeson (as Sir Gawain), Robert Addie (as Mordred, Morgana's son), Katrine Boorman (as Igrayne, Arthur's mother), Patrick Stewart (as Leondegrance, Guenevere's father), Clive Swift (as Sir Ector, Arthur's foster father) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Adapted from Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur by Rospo Pallenberg |
| The Executioner (1970) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Jack Pulman / Director: Sam Wanamaker / Producer: Charles H. Schneer | |
| Type: Spy Drama | Running Time: 105 mins |
| British born John Shay was raised and educated in the United States when he remained there as a child after being evacuated during the war. But as an adult he returned to his native country of England and began working in British Intelligence. Because of his upbringing he was educated outside of the public school system which was the route most of his contemporaries took and because of this he is used to working independently and relying on his own instincts without any of the old school tie mentality which he often comes up against.
John had been running a spy-ring in Czechoslovakia when the whole network collapses seemingly because of a rogue agent turning traitor. Shay is forced to return to England and although suspicion for the collapse falls upon one of his top local recruits, Shay knows his man was set-up by the Russians to deflect attention away from whoever really betrayed his spy-ring - and that culprit could only have been someone high up at the London end. Shay's superiors, Vaughan Jones and Colonel Scott, refuse to entertain such a theory and declare his Czech operation to be marked "failed and closed". Shay is assigned a new low-level task of checking the security arrangements of a government chemical research lab run by Professor Philip Crawford who is helping to develop an improved rocket fuel for NASA. But in the meantime Shay cannot dismiss his concerns about a mole in their organisation. His girlfriend Polly Bendel works in the service's records department and he asks her to smuggle out all files from the last five years that have also been designated "failed and closed". There are about a dozen such cases and all have one name in common - a man called Adam Booth who works alongside Jones and Scott. Shay knows the Booth family well and once had an affair with Adam's wife Sarah. Later on while out dining with Polly, Shay sees Philip Crawford out on a date with Booth's wife Sarah and realises they must be having an affair. Then Shay gets a tip-off that a Russian KGB agent has defected to the USA in Istanbul and he flies out to interview him. The Russian tells him that there WAS a high level source in London but does not know any names although he supplies enough information which Shay is able to piece together to convince him that Booth is the traitor. Shay takes his overwhelming suspicions to Jones and Scott who have no choice but to hold an official enquiry. But when they decide the charge is completely unsubstantiated and clear Booth of any wrongdoing, Shay becomes convinced that neither of them can be trusted either. Then Shay gets a late night call from Crawford saying he has caught Booth at his house searching his secret rocket fuel papers and has knocked him out and then kept him unconscious with drugs. Booth even has plane tickets to Athens in his pocket as if he was intending to immediately deliver the stolen material to a Kremlin contact. This all appears to be overwhelming evidence that Booth is a traitor but Shay knows it is no good going to his superiors again for they will just invent some plausible explanation for his presence in the scientist's home - such as it being a domestic dispute between Crawford and Booth over the scientist seeing his wife Sarah - and that Crawford and Shay had then taken advantage and set-him up to appear to be a traitor. So seeing no other alternative but to deal with the problem himself Shay takes the unconscious Booth into the woods and shoots him dead and then he and Crawford dispose of the body. Shay then uses the plane tickets to pose as Booth and make contact with whomever he was going to see. This leads to his capture by KGB Agent Bilkov who at first thinks he has Booth himself but when he learns Shay has taken his place he reveals that Booth was not a double agent working for them after all but a triple agent working for the British while pretending to be a double agent and using this to feed the Russians misleading information that has cost his country countless millions in counter-planning. The Russians have only recently discovered how they have been fooled for so many years and were intending to eliminate Booth on this trip - a job now done for them. Shay is horrified to learn how wrong he has been about Booth and is mortified that he has actually murdered one of Britain's top agents - he now realises that Jones and Scott were acting to protect their top loyal asset by exonerating any suspicion of wrongdoing. There is much bloodshed as Shay manages to get out of his current predicament as a KGB prisoner and eventually back to England. He is dispirited and discouraged until Colonel Scott reveals to him one further twist - Booth WAS actually a traitorous double agent, but the British had discovered this long ago and had been using him to feed false information to the Russians without Booth realising. So although Booth had essentially become a triple-agent it was without his knowledge and he believed he was passing on useful information. Scott and Jones had been treating Booth as being above suspicion in the old-school tie manner in the hope he may still prove useful in the future but they had not reckoned on the tenacity of a certain John Shay to enter the fray. | |
| Starring: | George Peppard (as John Shay), Judy Geeson (as Polly Bendel, Shay's girlfriend), Keith Michell (as Adam Booth), Joan Collins (as Sarah Booth, Adam's wife), Charles Gray (as Vaughan Jones, Shay's boss), Nigel Patrick (as Colonel Scott, Jones' boss) |
| Featuring: | George Baker (as Professor Philip Crawford, rocket fuel scientist), Oskar Homolka (as Racovsky, KGB defector), Peter Dyneley (as Balkov, KGB agent), Peter Bull (as headmaster at Booth's old school) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
From a story by Gordon McDonell |
| aka: House on Straw Hill | |
| Writer/Director: James Kenelm Clarke / Producer: Brian Smedley-Aston | |
| Type: Horror / Chiller | Running Time: 79 mins |
| Paul Martin is an author who rents a secluded house in the country to write his second novel. Following the success of his first novel, and to speed things along, his publishers send him a secretary called Linda to type up his words as he dictates them to her. She is not what she seems however and is an erotically charged, emotionally deranged killer. Her late husband took his own life after Paul purloined his manuscript and published it as his own work and now she wants to avenge him and she doesn't care about killing innocents who are in her way - as the housekeeper and Paul's girlfriend tragically discover. | |
| Comment: In this film it's difficult to know with whom your sympathies are supposed to lie. Paul is somewhat strange himself with his paranoid obsession with security and privacy and flashes of gruesome nightmarish daydreams of blood and injury he keeps having. We have to assume he IS guilty of the literary theft that Linda accuses him of and so we want him to have some sort of comeuppance. Yet she goes far too far in killing other people who get in her way and is obviously a bad person herself - so do we want her to succeed with her vengeance or fail? If that dilemma is the purpose of the film then it succeeds. Ultimately the resolution is a let-down/cop-out though because the showdown between the two in the film's climax is too abruptly resolved mere moments before the end by a sudden and improperly established third-party intervention - which is a bit unsatisfactory and convenient. | |
| Starring: | Udo Kier (as Paul), Linda Hayden (as Linda the secretary) |
| Featuring: | Fiona Richmond (as Paul's girlfriend) |
| Familiar Faces: | Karl Howman (in a small role as a youth) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
The House of Straw Hill (an alternate title for the film) is spoken by a character to describe the house where they are staying. Presumably situated in a place called "Straw Hill". The nearby railway station is Hatfield Peverel. |
| Expresso Bongo (1960) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Wolf Mankowitz / Director/Producer: Val Guest | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 101 mins |
| Johnny Jackson is a small-time manager of music acts who is big on ideas and ambition but lacking any acts with any major potential. He nevertheless uses all his persuasiveness to push forward his beat group clients and get them gigs in coffee bars playing to the teenagers. At one such Expresso bar he spots a teenage youth playing the bongos and singing with such a golden voice that Johnny knows he has discovered a major talent in the offing. The lad's name is Bert Rudge who remarkably considers drumming to be his real talent with singing being just a sideline - Johnny convinces him it is his winning voice that needs to be cultivated. Bert is a fairly naïve youth who is eager but has no idea he is anything special.
Johnny brings his coercive talents to bear to get Bert to sign a contract splitting his earnings 50-50 with Johnny. Unfortunately Johnny cannot railroad Bert's overly suspicious working class parents to agree to countersign permission for their underage son so Johnny decides to dispense with that formality. (NOTE: Underage means under-21 in this case). Johnny decides that Bert Rudge is not a good name for a pop star and so renames him Bongo Herbert. Johnny then begins a campaign of bringing his new wonderboy client to the attention of the music industry and public. He uses all manner of devious tactics to hoodwink a record label boss into signing up his boy by making it seem that other companies are clamouring for a deal. He wangles Bongo a spot on a TV documentary about youth culture and then uses this as a launch pad for wider fame and before long Bongo's first record is rising up the hit parade. At a variety performance Bongo meets an American singer called Dixie Collins who is hoping to revive her flagging Stateside career with a resurgence in her British sales. She realises that if she helps Bongo's career along with her star name then her own profile will be raised and she starts to take a great interest in him. Bongo is overawed by her attention and becomes her constant companion. Johnny begins to feel shut out and starts trying to regain control of his money-spinner. When Dixie discovers what an exploitative management contract Bongo signed with Johnny she decides to look into it and finds out that Bongo's parents never gave their consent and so the contract is worthless. She therefore gets her own agent to sign him up instead on a fairer basis. Even though it was Johnny's steadfast efforts that made Bongo into a superstar he is squeezed out with nothing he can do about it. Johnny is stoical and realises it is all part of the business he is in and goes back to his old routine looking out for the next big thing. Meanwhile Dixie's strategy of using Bongo to raise her own profile also backfires - she had been hoping to re-launch her own TV show with Bongo as her regular guest - instead Bongo is given his own show with Maisie offered just a couple of guest slots. | |
| Starring: | Laurence Harvey (as Johnny Jackson, pop act manager), Sylvia Syms (as Maisie King, announcer/singer at strip club), Cliff Richard (as Bongo Herbert, teenage singer), Yolande Donlan (as Dixie Collins, American singer) |
| Featuring: | Burt Kwouk (pedestrian, passing cameo) |
| Featuring: | Meier Tzelniker (as Gus Mayer, record label boss), Ambrosine Phillpotts (as Lady Rosemary, Dixie's publicity agent), Susan Hampshire (as Cynthia, Rosemary's daughter), Peter Myers (as Cynthia's boy friend), Eric Pohlmann (as Leon, café owner), Wilfrid Lawson and Avis Bunnage (as Mr and Mrs Rudge, Bongo's parents), Susan Burnet (as Edna Rudge, Bongo's sister), Gilbert Harding (as BBC TV presenter, [Himself]), Kenneth Griffith (as Charlie, stagehand at strip club) |
| Starlets: | Norma Parnell (as Secretary), Lisa Peake (as Chinese Rose, ticket kiosk clerk at strip club), Katherine Keeton (as Alma, named strip dancer) (Unnamed dancers at strip club) Paula Barry, Rita Burke, Patty Dalton, Pamela Morris , Sylvia Steele, Maureen O'Connor |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Made in Black and White |
• |
Based on a play by Wolf Mankowitz and Julian More |
| Writers: Vicente Aranda, Antonio Rabinad / Director: Vicente Aranda / Producer: (not known) | |
| Type: European / Drama | Running Time: 91 mins (without credits) |
| Carlos is the editor of a book publishing company that specialises in suspense thrillers. One day he receives an unexpected package which to his horror contains a dismembered human hand! He thinks at first it might be a wax fake sent as a stunt by one of his writers, but he soon realises it is real and has a horrible suspicion whose hand it is. He goes into some woods and buries the box containing the hand because the truth of the situation is too awful to face.
Carlos goes home to his wife Teresa only to find that the mystery has deepened. His wife has read a telegram which arrived for him from someone called "Parker" asking what body part he wants next. Carlos attempts to explain it away as a communication from an eccentric author, but Teresa remains suspicious. Next day at work Carlos receives another package, but rather than open it he takes it into the town centre and abandons it on a seat. When he gets home that evening he finds the same package waiting for him with Teresa intensely curious as to its contents. His wife has opened it and it contains a photograph of a woman and a cryptic note about spurned love. The next package has been left for him at the post office and he goes to collect it. When he returns to his office he finds Teresa waiting. She has been following him and watched him collecting the parcel. And what's more she observed the woman "Parker" from the photograph who was also closely watching his movements. Afterwards Parker had driven off in an expensive limousine. Carlos still will not tell his wife what is going on and continues to try and fabricate an elaborate explanation for the strange goings on. When Carlos next returns home Parker is waiting for him and he silently gets in her car and lets her drive him to her large mansion. He has been here before with someone else but has never met Parker. Her actions up to this point have been to gain his attention and she has brought him here so he will remember the terrible thing he did to a very close friend of hers several years ago. He struggles to recall any details so she gives him a mind-expanding drug to help him remember everything. In a semi-hypnotic state he wanders up the stairs along endless corridors following the voice of a young woman recounting a melancholy valedictory on the hopelessness she feels about her life, speaking as if directly to him. He finds the voice comes from a tape recorder beside a fridge inside of which he finds the naked dead body of a young woman sitting curled up in a foetal position. The memories come flooding back ... (Flashback) Her name was Esther Casino and Carlos met her in a café where she was in a morose state. He asks her out for dinner to cheer her up and they end up having sex and becoming lovers. Esther's love for Carlos seems to give her a new zest although underlying her every moment there remains an unexplained burden weighing her down. She has a fatalism about her that unnerves Carlos and he is convinced she would kill herself just for something to do if he gave her the slightest encouragement. Carlos had been expecting to have a casual affair, but Esther quickly became obsessed by him and her need grew so great that Carlos was scared off and ended their affair. That was the last he saw of her until he opened the fridge door. (End of flashback) Carlos returns home and confesses all to his wife about his affair of two years ago. Teresa is pragmatic and says she already knew about his mistress because she had had him followed by a private detective, but chose to do nothing about it. Teresa goes to see "Parker" to try and get to the bottom of the mystery. Parker explains to Teresa that Esther Casino had been very ill before she met Carlos. She had been suffering from terminal leukaemia but had been given hope by a doctor called Barres who professed to have developed a miracle cure. He had given her a course of tablets and her condition seemed to have improved. This made Dr Barres famous and for a time Esther's story had been big news. But actually Esther was being duped by the manipulative Dr Barres with medication that only masked her symptoms. Parker first met Esther by chance in a bar and realised what was going on and helped her get away from the clutches of the controlling charlatan Dr Barres and invited her to live with her at her mansion. During this time Esther met Carlos and Parker could see how her love for him had greatly improved her like a tonic all of its own. But when Carlos dumped her a month or so later Esther never properly recovered and went into a long period of decline and some time later killed herself. Parker vowed revenge on the man who had destroyed Esther's happiness so indifferently and began sending the bizarre packages to him. But she has now come to see that Carlos is just a foolish man who was unaware of the consequences of his actions. Parker, whose real name is Lucia Fonte, makes an offer to Teresa and after some deliberations Teresa accepts and they drive off together heading for Parker's other home in Paris. | |
| Comments: We don't discover what Parker's offer to Teresa was. Although nothing is explicitly stated it can probably be assumed that Parker was in love with Esther herself. Neither the editor or his wife are given names so I've called them "Carlos" and "Teresa" after the actors that play them. | |
| Starring: | Carlos Estrada (as The Editor), Teresa Gimpera (as The Editor's Wife), Capucine (as Parker, aka Lucia Fonte), Judy Matheson (as Esther Casino) |
| Featuring: | (There is a supporting cast but it is not certain whom most of them played) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
This Spanish film has been reviewed here because of the co-starring role for British starlet Judy Matheson. Its original Spanish title was Las Crueles. Other English titles it may be known as are:- "The Cruel Ones"; "The Cruel Women" and "The Exquisite Corpse". |
• |
The version reviewed was in English (not dubbed). It bore no title or opening/closing credits, therefore the production credits were taken from another source. |
| Eye of the Devil (1967) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Robin Estridge, Dennis Murphy / Director: J. Lee Thompson / Producers: John Calley, Martin Ransohoff | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 86 mins |
| At his home in present-day London, rich landowner Philippe de Montfaucon receives word that the vineyards at his family estate in France have failed for the third year in a row. Ashen-faced he makes preparations to return but forbids his wife Catherine and two young children Jacques and Antoinette to accompany him because, he says, the villagers dislike outsiders in such troubled times.
But soon after he has left the children are so missing their father that Catherine decides to go anyway. The de Montfaucon's own a magnificent castle and Catherine is grudgingly welcomed to stay. But she finds everyone exudes an air of mystery and menace and all seem to know something they are not telling her. She is especially concerned with the de Caray's - a brother and sister who freely live on the estate - the brother Christian is an archer and the sister Odile is enigmatic and mysterious and seems able to induce people into hypnotic trances with her voice and an eye pendant she wears. Catherine witnesses secretive religious rites conducted by hooded men in black capes. Several times Catherine is put dangerously close to death, possibly just to scare her away, but loyalty to her husband makes her remain. Philippe is vague and mysterious about the reason for his hasty return - his words to her suggest he is fulfilling a destiny required of him as head of the de Montfaucon house but doesn't say what it entails. Research shows Catherine that prior heads of the family have met strange unexplained deaths down through the centuries and she fears for her husband's life. But as things come to a head she is held prisoner in the castle as she watches her husband lead a procession off into the woods. She escapes her confinement but is not in time to prevent Philippe being slain by one of Christian's arrows as he fulfils the destiny set down in ancient local beliefs to give his blood to the soil and restore the fruitfulness of the land. As the grief stricken family prepare to leave the young son Jacques is secretly indoctrinated into the tradition by the priest for whenever in the future it becomes his turn to fulfil the family destiny. | |
| Starring: | Deborah Kerr (as Catherine de Montfaucon), David Niven (as Philippe de Montfaucon), Flora Robson (as Countess Estell, Philippe's aunt) |
| Featuring: | Donald Pleasence (as the priest), Edward Mulhare (as Jean-Claude, family friend), Sharon Tate (as Odile de Caray), David Hemmings (as Christian de Caray) |
| Familiar Faces: | John Le Mesurier (Doctor) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Made in Black and White |
• |
Based on the novel Day of the Arrow by Philip Loraine |
• |
Sharon Tate receives an "introducing" credit. |
| Eye of the Needle (1981) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Stanley Mann / Director: Richard Marquand / Producer: Stephen Friedman | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 111 mins |
| It is 1944 in Britain during the Second World War. German High Command has a valuable spy asset based in Britain who entered the country before the war began in order to establish himself. His codename is "The Needle" and he calls himself Henry Faber. He speaks perfect English and has been able to blend in and gain trusted positions in reserved occupations such as railway stationmaster that has enabled him to pass back to Germany important information on troop movements using a shortwave radio. Faber is given a special mission by German High Command to travel to East Anglia and make an assessment of the state of readiness of the troops and military equipment that has been observed there by aerial reconnaissance. This is believed to be the force expected to soon attempt an invasion of the European mainland. Faber is to take photos and then travel to Scotland to be picked up by U-boat and deliver the intelligence to Hitler personally. No further radio communication is permitted for this crucial task.
When Faber infiltrates the East Anglian base he discovers that it is all a sham - the military equipment on the airfields are plywood constructs built as a deception meant to look convincing from the air - meaning the real invasion point must be planned for another location along the French coastline which the High Command will not be so well prepared to defend because the troops will have been committed to the wrong area. Faber knows he has to get this vital information into Hitler's hands as soon as possible. British Intelligence quickly discover that their grand deception is in danger of being exposed and that there is a rogue spy on the loose with information critical to the war effort who must be hunted down at all costs before he has a chance to report the information. Faber just manages to give his pursuers the slip at the railway station and board a train for Scotland. He knows he is a hunted man and when he gets to the Scottish coast he steals a fishing trawler with the intention of making radio contact with the U-boat while at sea. However a terrible storm soon develops and his boat is smashed to pieces on some rocks and he is washed on to a small offshore island - aptly named Storm Island. He is found by island residents Lucy and David Rose and taken into their home to recover from his ordeal. The Rose's have lived on the island for four years ever since David lost his legs in a car accident on the day of their wedding. He had been an RAF pilot before that and now works shepherding sheep. The only other residents on the island are their young 4-year-old son Jo and the lighthouse keeper called Tom who has at his cottage the island's only radio transmitter - although it was damaged in the storm. Faber maintains a convincing English cover and gains the couple's confidence. Lucy is drawn to him because her husband has been remote ever since his accident and she misses the closeness and tenderness of properly being with a man. While David is out during the day they begin to have an affair. Faber desperately needs to use the lighthouseman's radio to signal to the U-boat for a pick-up. He goes with David to Tom's cottage to assist with repairs. But David has become wise to him and accuses him of being a spy. They fight but without legs David is no match and Faber kills him and throws him over the cliff. He also kills Tom and then repairs the radio but has to wait for the designated contact window when the U-boat will be listening for a signal. He returns to the Rose's house telling Lucy that he has just left David drinking with Tom and thought it best to leave him overnight. However unknown to him Lucy has discovered David's body at the base of the cliff and had thought it was a terrible accident which she was just about to tell Faber all about before he blurted out his lie to explain David's absence - she therefore knows he must be the one responsible for David's death and she will be in extreme danger if she lets on that she knows. She covers up her shock and grief and has sex with Faber again that evening. She waits for him to fall asleep and then sneaks out and drives up to the cottage with Jo to send out a radio SOS to the mainland - she takes David's service revolver with her. Faber hears her go and realises she is on to him and chases on foot to stop her using the radio. Fortunately for him Lucy does not know how to use the radio properly and she only has time to send out a basic message before he arrives and overpowers her. In her panic she unknowingly drops the revolver and cannot find it again and Faber never knows she had it. Despite her best attempts to sabotage his efforts Faber manages to broadcast his pick-up signal and as he leaves her he muses that it is strange to think the entire course of the war hinged on the outcome of tonight's events and the struggle just played out between the two of them. He leaves her alive believing her to be no further danger to him and heads down to the beach to use a row-boat to make his U-boat rendezvous. Even though she is now safe Faber's parting words have made her realise how important it must be to stop him for the sake of the war - she finds the revolver she dropped earlier and chases after him. She hates the idea of trying to kill and cannot shoot straight but as she closes in on him she finally manages to shoot him in the chest and kill him. | |
| Comment: Although I've bypassed it above and jumped straight into the main story in order to cut down the length a bit, there is actually an extended 1940 prologue in which we see Faber in his stationmaster job - and also see Lucy and David getting married and then having their car accident. | |
| Starring: | Donald Sutherland (as Henry Faber), Kate Nelligan (as Lucy Rose), Christopher Cazenove (as David Rose), Ian Bannen (as Inspector Godliman, Scotland Yard investigator) |
| Featuring: | Philip Martin Brown (as Billy Parkin, station worker), Alex McCrindle (as Tom, Lighthouseman) |
| Familiar Faces: | Bill Fraser (as Motorist who gives Faber a lift), Bill Nighy (as Airman, small role), Rik Mayall (as Sailor on train, cameo) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel by Ken Follett |
• |
Philip Martin Brown receives an "introducing" credit. He played a young work colleague of Faber's at the railway station in 1940 and later in 1944 is instrumental in helping the authorities with their investigations into the Needle's real identity. |
| Eyewitness (1970) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Ronald Harwood / Director: John Hough / Producer: Paul Maslansky | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 91 mins |
| Ziggy Armstrong-Smith is an 11-year old boy who lives in Malta with his grandfather and older sister Pippa. They live in the grandfather's lighthouse and without much companionship Ziggy has developed a keen imagination and is forever telling tall tales of something odd he has supposedly seen. His family have become accustomed to his habitual fantasy lies and now take much of what he says with a pinch of salt.
An African president is paying the island a state visit and Ziggy and Pippa have gone into town to join the jubilant crowds watching his drive through parade. The president is accompanied in his open-top car by Malta's military chief of police Inspector Galleria who is responsible for the security arrangements. Ziggy cannot see the view very well so he sneaks into a building and goes to the first floor to get a better vantage point. Then as the motorcade passes by the president is shot and killed by a sniper with a silenced rifle. Ziggy shockingly realises the assassin is in the room next to him and tries to get out quickly - but as he flees he comes face-to-face with the man - it is a policeman and he gets a good look at Ziggy before the boy runs away. The policeman's name is Paul and he is working in league with his partner Victor - as policemen they are above suspicion and bogusly join in the hunt for the killer. The crowd are in pandemonium and Pippa realises she has lost Ziggy. She had been busy flirting with a charming tourist called Tom Jones and hadn't even noticed Ziggy's absence. But as the push of the panicking crowd carries them away she is fearful of her brother's safety. Tom tries to reassure her and suggests he will find his own way home once the panic is over. Tom drives her back to the lighthouse. However Ziggy is far from safe as the two policeman are desperately hunting for him to eliminate him as the only witness. They nearly catch him a few times but eventually he manages to evade them and make it back home to the lighthouse. Pippa scolds him for wandering off and scoffs at his story of seeing the gunman who was a policeman, writing it off as another one of his typically made-up tales designed to get him out of trouble - he is grounded and sent to his room. Events proceed with the killers becoming more desperate to find the boy as they kill again to eliminate people he may have told. We learn they are not real policemen but are brothers from an underworld gang employed to make a professional hit. However their real target was actually Inspector Galleria who had made underworld enemies with some of his recent arrests - the intention had been to kill the Inspector on the president's motorcade so it would seem like a botched presidential assassination attempt - however the gunman botched the botch and actually hit the president by mistake. Ziggy is afraid the policemen will find him at the lighthouse and gets out via his window. By now Grandfather has begun to believe Ziggy's story which wasn't on the grand-scale of most of his lies. He, Pippa and Tom work out where Ziggy may have gone and join him in a nearby fort. However the bogus policemen are on the trail as well and the ex-military Grandfather becomes involved in a battle of tactics to keep them from entering - Bogus policeman Victor is killed in the battle. Eventually Ziggy, Pippa and Tom are chased in their car by the now furiously murderous Paul to a cliff edge where he tries to ram their vehicle over the edge until he is shot dead by a police marksman when Inspector Galleria and his men arrive after at last piecing the clues together. | |
| Comment: In the above summary Ziggy's age has been assumed to be the same as Mark Lester's at the time. | |
| Starring: | Mark Lester (as Ziggy Armstong-Smith), Lionel Jeffries (as Grandpa), Susan George (as Pippa, Ziggy's sister), Tony Bonner (as Tom Jones, tourist who befriends Pippa), Peter Vaughan (as Paul Grazzini, killer), Peter Bowles (as Victor Grazzini, killer's brother), Jeremy Kemp (as Inspector Galleria, police chief) |
| Featuring: | Betty Marsden (as Lighthouse housekeeper), David Lodge (as Local Policeman), Maxine Kalli (as Ann-Marie, Ziggy's young girl friend) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel Eyewitness by as Mark Hebden |
| Writer: Peter Welbeck / Director: Don Sharp / Producer: Harry Alan Towers | |
| Type: Adventure | Running Time: 92 mins |
| It is the early part of the 1900s (1920s?) and in Imperial China the fiendish criminal Fu Manchu appears to have at last been brought to account. He has been tried and publicly executed by beheading and Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Nayland Smith was present to witness the final demise of his evil adversary.
Months later back in London, Smith is becoming concerned about a rising crime wave across Europe which he perceives to be of an organised nature as if controlled by one mastermind - and if he didn't know him to be dead his chief suspect would be Fu Manchu. Smith makes some enquiries and discovers that a Chinese actor famous for his Fu Manchu impersonations has not been seen for many months. Smith realises that the cunning criminal must have hypnotised the actor and effected a substitution and the man seen executed was in fact the replacement. And sure enough we soon discover that Fu Manchu is alive and operating with his daughter Lin Tang from an underground base beneath the Thames. A death in London of a scientist's chauffeur leads Smith and his friend Dr Petrie into the investigation of a kidnapped scientist called Professor Muller. The professor's assistant Carl Jannsen explains to Smith that the research they were conducting involved the distillation of a liquid made from rare black berries from a Tibetan mountainside that is the most deadly poison ever created. However it only retains its lethal qualities in below freezing temperatures - above freezing it is harmless. Only the Tibetan monks knew the ancient secret of retaining its potency above freezing. The monk's secret was discovered by a British expeditioner in 1910 but that knowledge is kept safely locked away in a museum vault amongst the expedition papers. The megalomaniacal Fu Manchu announces his presence to the world declaring that he will soon be making demands that must be obeyed and to demonstrate his power he aerial sprays a small English town with the poisonous liquid on a cold morning while temperatures are still below freezing. Everyone in the town dies in an instant. But to be truly all-powerful Fu Manchu knows he cannot rely on it being cold so he steals the 1910 expedition papers from the museum and sets Professor Muller the task of utilising the ancient knowledge to adapt the liquid to retain its toxicogenic qualities at all temperatures - using the professor's captured daughter Maria to force cooperation. Elsewhere Smith and his colleagues manage to work out where Fu Manchu's base is located by triangulating recent activity. With military support they mount an attack and manage to rescue the prisoners and flood the base thereby destroying Fu Manchu's work and supply of berries. The Chinese criminal survives this set-back and heads off to Tibet to get a new supply of berries armed with the secret of how to effectively distil the devastating poison and renew his global threat. Smith and Petrie follow him to the Tibetan monks' palace temple upon the only mountainside the rare berries grow. The monks are unaware of Fu Manchu's evil intentions and are quite happy to supply him with berries. Smith and his colleagues manage to substitute themselves for some berry-gathering monks and deliver to him a casket of berries which Smith has packed with high-explosives on a timer. After delivery they quickly depart to a safe distance and watch as the palace erupts in a huge fireball explosion - destroying too in its swell the berry-rich mountainside. Moments before the blast Fu Manchu had realised that something was seriously wrong - but did he and his daughter have enough time to somehow save themselves? - inevitably if they did then the world shall hear from Fu Manchu again. | |
| Starring: | Christopher Lee (as Fu Manchu), Nigel Green (as Nayland Smith), Howard Marion Crawford (as Dr Petrie, Smith's friend), Tsai Chin (as Lin Tang, daughter of Fu Manchu) |
| Featuring: | Joachim Fuchsberger (as Carl Jannssen, Professor Muller's personal assistant), Karin Dor (as Maria Muller, professor's daughter), Walter Rilla (as Professor Hans Muller, kidnapped scientist), Harry Brogan (as Professor Gaskell, academic studying expedition papers at museum) |
| Familiar Faces: | James Robertson Justice (as Sir Charles Fortescu, Director of Museum of Oriental Studies, [short appearance]) |
| Starlets: | Deborah De Lacey (as Dacoit Girl who tries to defy Fu Manchu) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the characters created by Sax Rohmer |
• |
This was the first in a series of five 1960's Fu Manchu films starring Christopher Lee. Each also featured Tsai Chin as his daughter and Howard Marion Crawford as Dr Petrie the friend of Fu Manchu's greatest opponent Nayland Smith. The role of Smith himself was played by three different actors - Nigel Green played him in the first film, next Douglas Wilmer for two films and then Richard Greene for the final two. The sequence of the five films were as follows:- The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966), The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967), The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968), The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969). |
| Fahrenheit 451 (1966) | Previous Next |
| Writers: François Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard / Director: François Truffaut / Producer: Lewis M. Allen | |
| Type: Sci-Fi | Running Time: 108 mins |
| Set in the near future in a society in which the ownership of books is against the law. Books or reading material of any kind are banned by the government who supply citizens with all their entertainment and educational needs via household view screens. Books of fiction in particular are considered to be the most dangerous because they provide unhelpful glimpses into other ways of life that merely serve to make people feel unhappy and become anti-social.
Most citizens are ingrained by the new dictums and accepting of the fact that books are sick and evil objects that only cause misery. But some citizens still hold a strong passion for books and hoard them at home like illegal contraband. They are forced to devise ingenious hiding places to keep their collections secret because other citizens are encouraged to report anyone they suspect of owning books. When book ownership is suspected a specialist team of firemen are sent to search for them and burn any books they find. One such fireman is Guy Montag who believes strongly in the virtue of what he does. His good work has him set for promotion soon. His wife Linda is fully integrated into the new way of living and has become dull and docile spending her day watching the viewscreen. Guy meets a young woman called Clarisse who lives nearby and looks rather like Linda but has an independently minded spirit. During a conversation she implants some lingering doubts in his mind that trigger his curiosity about what is contained in the books he burns. So next time he attends a book burning he smuggles one home and starts reading. Guy soon becomes hooked on books and the wonderfully vivid alternative possibilities they portray. He starts collecting and reading as much as he can, finding himself amazed by the stories in the literary classics that reach out to him and let him catch up with a remembrance of past times. Guy's obsession makes him careless and his wife finds out what he is doing. At first she tries to simply ignore it but in the end she can no longer tolerate his disgusting habit and she reports him. Guy has to go on the run from the authorities who have decided to make a public example of him. He recalls a renegade community that Clarisse mentioned who live in isolation in abandoned forest wastelands and he manages to escape the city and find them. The social community are an assortment of hundreds of likeminded people who are fugitives from society due to the non-conformist attitudes to which they adhere. All are passionate about books and the power that words have to make them feel great joy. Each person in the community goes by the name of a classic work of literature which they have memorised and joyfully recite whenever required in order to keep the works alive. The books themselves are then destroyed to prevent the authorities from having grounds for arrest - but their heritage will never be lost and one day when things have turned around they can be published again. Guy is invited to join the community of the book people and is given a book of his own to memorise. | |
| Starring: | Oskar Werner (as Guy Montag), Julie Christie (as Linda Montag and Clarisse), Cyril Cusack (as The Captain, Montag's boss) |
| Featuring: | Anton Diffring (as Fabian, fire station commander), Bee Duffell (as Self-sacrificing book lady), Alex Scott (as Main Book Person) |
| Familiar Faces: | Mark Lester (as Schoolboy, [cameo]) |
| Starlets: | Ann Bell, Caroline Hunt and Anna Palk (as Linda's friends) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel by Ray Bradbury |
• |
There are no written credits on the film. Instead they are read out by a narrator at the start of the film (possibly Michael Jayston?) |
• |
According to the film 451°F is the temperature at which book paper catches fire |
| Family Life (1971) | Previous Next |
| Writer: David Mercer / Director: Kenneth Loach / Producer: Tony Garnett | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 103 mins |
| Janice Baildon is a young woman who finds it hard to make her own decisions in life. She is quiet, withdrawn and closeted by her parents who have their own set ways about how a person should behave which take no account of the changing attitudes of society. Any efforts Janice takes to break free and live her life in a different way are seen by her parents as immature and disrespectful to them and a sign of illness on her part. Janice is too meek to speak up for herself about how she wishes to live her life and feels herself to be in a mental quandary of wanting to do other things whilst simultaneously not wanting to antagonise her parents and face their stern reproach and accusations of her wicked ingratitude for all the sacrifices they have made in life on her behalf. Consequently she withdraws more and more into a nervous shell that eventually convinces her parents to get her medical help.
Janice spends time with psychiatrists as her condition comes under their analysis and she is diagnosed with a schizophrenic condition and an underdeveloped understanding of emotional connections. She spends some time in an experimental ward for gradual rehabilitation in a relaxed group therapy environment which seems to do her some good - but when this closes down in a budget cut she is moved onto to a more traditional regime of electric shock therapy and drugs. She is released back to her parents' charge and for a time her condition is managed by drugs. She gets various jobs but cannot seem to hold onto them for very long. Janice has an older sister called Barbara who grew up in the same house and knows only too well what their parents were like. But Barbara managed to escape out into a marriage and become her own person before their nagging and hectoring got to her as it has to Janice. Barbara blames the parents for Janice's present condition and begs Janice to come stay with her instead because her constant exposure to them is only making her worse - but Janice cannot decide because any effort to be her own person now seems unreal and it is easier to do what her parents tell her is best for her. Janice is sent back into hospital as a voluntary patient but hates it and her friend Tim takes her away to live with him. But her parents decide this is just a further indication of the growing irresponsible decline in her behaviour they have been talking about and they have her committed to a psychiatric hospital as a compulsory patient. Once institutionalised she gradually becomes ever more withdrawn and unresponsive and seems to have given up on ever having a proper life at all. | |
| Comment: The style of the film is similar to that of a fly-on-the-wall documentary. | |
| Starring: | Sandy Ratcliff (as Janice Baildon), Bill Dean (as Janice's father), Grace Cave (as Janice's mother) |
| Featuring: | Michael Riddall (as Dr Donaldson, group therapy psychiatrist), Hilary Martyn (as Barbara, Janice's elder sister), Malcolm Tierney (as Tim, Janice's boy friend), Alan MacNaughtan (as Mr Caswell, consultant), Johnny Gee (as Kenny, patient) |
| The Family Way (1966) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Bill Naughton / Director: Roy Boulting / Producer: John Boulting | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 110 mins |
| Virginal twenty-year-old Jenny Piper is getting married to her long-term boyfriend Arthur Fitton. They both come from poor families but have managed to save up enough to book and pay for a two-week honeymoon in Majorca after which they will return and live with his parents. The marriage goes ahead as planned - but then they discover that the travel agent they booked with was a swindler and has run off with everyone's money and there is no holiday to go on.
The newlyweds therefore have to begin their married life in Arthur's family home under the spotlight of Arthur's boisterous father Ezra in whose critical shadow Arthur always feels somewhat inhibited. Sweet-natured Jenny is unflustered by the set-back and just wants to be with the man she loves wherever they may be. They have never had sex before and are nervous about the approaching big moment - and so when a best-man's prank causes their bed to collapse and Jenny finds it hilarious, Arthur is so put off that he is unable to "perform" that night. Jenny says it doesn't matter and there is plenty of time for all of that. But as the days and then the weeks go on and Arthur is still unable to rise to the occasion he becomes ever more agitated that something is wrong with him. He also feels restrained by the thin walls in their house which give very little audio privacy - but their situation does not warrant any housing assistance and they are stuck where they are for the time being. Jenny is unconcerned by Arthur's inability to perform but since it is clearly troubling him she persuades him to visit a marriage counsellor to talk through his difficulties. Unfortunately while Arthur is in session with the counsellor, a cleaning lady who lives near to his family and knows him is scrubbing the floor outside the room and overhears about his impotence problem and spreads the word amongst her gossipy friends in the neighbourhood. A while later Arthur is shocked to discover that everyone seems to know about his personal problems and is furious because it could have only come from Jenny. Unaware of the gossiping cleaning lady Arthur confronts Jenny in their bedroom and when she says she only told her mother, Arthur angrily raises his voice lambasting her stupidity and pushes and holds her down on the bed seemingly about to hit her in his fury at his public humiliation - but then this moment of closeness changes into tenderness and passion as Arthur suddenly finds his inhibition has gone and they at last have sex - dispelling all the gossipy rumours about them once and for all. Then they get a refund on their travel agent loss from the travel industries insurance company; and are also offered a house to live in which Ezra agrees to help them pay for - and their life is back on track. | |
| Starring: | Hayley Mills (as Jenny Fitton, née Piper), Hywel Bennett (as Arthur Fitton) (Jenny's family) Avril Angers (as Liz, mother), John Comer (as Leslie, father), Wilfred Pickles (as Fred, uncle) (Arthur's family) John Mills (as Ezra, father), Marjorie Rhodes (as Lucy, mother), Murray Head (as Geoffrey, brother) |
| Featuring: | Barry Foster (as Joe Thompson, Arthur's boss), Liz Fraser (as Molly, Joe's wife), Lesley Daine (as Dora, Jenny's friend), Ruth Trouncer (as Marriage Guidance Counsellor) |
| Familiar Faces: | Diana Coupland (Nosey Neighbour, small role), Windsor Davies (Man in crowd, uncredited cameo) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Full writing credits: Screenplay by Bill Naughton, adaptation by Roy Boulting and Jeffrey Dell, from Bill Naughton's play All In Good Time. |
• |
This film was a remake of a 1961 television play called "Honeymoon Postponed" in the ITV Armchair Theatre series. Jenny and Arthur were played by Lois Dane and Trevor Bannister. |
| aka: Die! Die! My Darling! | |
| Writer: Richard Matheson / Director: Silvio Narizzano / Producer: Anthony Hinds | |
| Type: Chiller | Running Time: 92 mins |
| American Patricia 'Pat' Carroll arrives in London with her British fiancé Alan Glentower where they are soon to marry. But she first has a small duty to perform - her previous boyfriend Stephen Trefoile had tragically died in America and his mother had asked that Pat visit her for an overnight stay when she next came to England. Alan is reluctant that she go but Pat considers it a final obligation to the memory of her previous relationship.
Pat travels to the small village where Mrs Trefoile lives in an isolated house by a river. Pat has never previously met her and finds her to be pleasant enough at first and clearly deeply affected by the death of her son whom she obviously held in very high regard. Mrs Trefoile lives with her housekeeper Anna and handyman Harry who are married; along with a simpleton called Joseph. Mrs Trefoile proves to be a staunchly religious person and insists on certain proprieties being observed - Pat must not wear make-up and they have a long bible-reading before dinner. Pat humours her and goes along with it all for the sake of her host's sensibilities. Mrs Trefoile has clearly not accepted her son's departure from home and believes he strayed from the true path after being corrupted by evil - but it is now her responsibility to salve his soul. Mrs Trefoile asks Pat some strange and personal questions such as whether she is a virgin and since it is clear to Pat she must have considered Stephen to be some sort of saint she tells a white lie and affirms it which pleases Mrs Trefoile greatly. When they visit church Mrs Trefoile espouses the view that the rector is a vile and wicked man for remarrying after his first wife died and that it is an evil sin to marry again even following a death - for then one will have more than one spouse waiting for them in heaven. Pat begins to realise that Mrs Trefoile considers her to have been essentially wedded to Stephen and clearly expects Pat to remain chaste for the remainder of her life so that when she reaches heaven she will be reunited with Stephen in an "uncontaminated" state. Pat has had enough of this hyper-evangelical nonsense and tells Mrs Trefoile that she would not have married Stephen even if he hadn't died and she goes to her room to pack - but then finds that she has been locked in. Mrs Trefoile tells her that if she has no intention of remaining faithful to Stephen then she will have to keep her here and ensure that she remains untainted. Mrs Trefoile produces a pistol to keep Pat at bay and has the tacit support of her staff Harry and Anna in preventing her escaping. Pat is defiant at first but cannot overcome the three of them. Mrs Trefoile believes she has received the instruction of God to follow this course of action and it is her duty to cleanse Pat's soul by starving her into submission until she loses her obstinate streak and accepts that what Mrs Trefoile is doing is right and proper for the salvation of Pat's soul. Days go by and Pat becomes weaker and tries to shock Mrs Trefoile by revealing that she is not a virgin after all. Mrs Trefoile is appalled at this admission and sees it as more evidence of Pat's shocking moral depravity and affirmation that she is following the correct course of action. Pat's further revelation that she is now engaged to another man takes Mrs Trefoile aback since she knows that sooner or later this man will come looking for her. By threat of slashing her face Mrs Trefoile forces Pat to write a note to Alan to mollify any immediate concerns he may have. Mrs Trefoile insists Pat repent her sins, but Pat tells her she is a sick and twisted woman who is out for revenge because Stephen was taken from her and she holds Pat to blame. She tells Mrs Trefoile that Stephen didn't die in an accidental car crash but deliberately killed himself - and that it was Mrs Trefoile's mania that so wrecked his mental stability that she essentially drove him to it - and now that Pat has met his mother she can see what he meant. After many more days of captivity Alan eventually comes calling and Mrs Trefoile puts on her "charming" act telling him that Pat had a lovely few days with her and then left. Alan departs rather puzzled as to what could have become of Pat. He goes to the village pub and sees that a barmaid is wearing one of Pat's broaches. Handyman Harry had stolen it from Pat's suitcase and given it to the barmaid as a gift. Alan rushes back to the house knowing something is clearly wrong. Meanwhile Mrs Trefoile knowing that Alan will not be kept away for long before coming back decides that if she cannot keep Pat shut away until her natural death then the only choice is to kill her now so that Stephen can be united with her in heaven before she has a chance to sully herself with a husband. Pat is concussed after falling down the stairs tied and gagged in an earlier failed attempt to attract Alan's attention and so Mrs Trefoile can easily drag her to the basement where she keeps a shrine to Stephen and intends to murder Pat. Alan breaks in and manages to rescue Pat before the deed is done and Mrs Trefoile falls down to her knees in front of a large portrait of Stephen sobbing her failure. Then after a view of Alan and Pat driving safely away we return to Mrs Trefoile who suddenly falls down dead with a knife in her back. (although we don't see this mortal blow occur) THE END. | |
| Comment: To keep the word-count down I've concentrated solely on the Mrs Trefoile side of things in the above summary - but Harry and Anna have important roles too. Harry has been with Mrs Trefoile for sixteen years because he is a distant relative and expects to inherit from her. He has a criminal past and so helps Mrs Trefoile imprison Pat because he cannot afford for Pat to escape and call in the police. Anna is distressed by what they are doing to Pat but helps for the sake of her husband. Mrs Trefoile shoots Harry dead when he becomes too defiant and it is the shock of discovering his body in the basement which causes Anna to eventually kill Mrs Trefoile with a knife in her back (at least it is presumably Anna who did it because it couldn't have been self-inflicted and Anna seemed suitably motivated - although as just mentioned we don't see anybody actually wield the knife on-screen). I didn't pick-up on what the simpleton Joseph's connection to Mrs Trefoile was but his function in the story can easily be disregarded as not all that essential. | |
| Starring: | Tallulah Bankhead (as Mrs Trefoile), Stefanie Powers (as Patricia Carroll), Peter Vaughan (as Harry, handyman), Yootha Joyce (as Anna, housekeeper, Harry's wife) |
| Featuring: | Maurice Kaufmann (as Alan Glentower, Patricia's fiancé), Donald Sutherland (as Joseph, simpleton who lives with Mrs Trefoile) |
| Familiar Faces: | Diana King (as Villager), Henry McGee (as Vicar, uncredited cameo) |
| Starlets: | Gwendolyn Watts (as Gloria, barmaid) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel Nightmare by Anne Blaisdell |
• |
The version reviewed carried the American title of Die! Die! My Darling! |
| Fanny Hill (1983) | Previous Next |
| aka: John Cleland's Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure | |
| Writer: Stephen Chesley / Director: Gerry O'Hara / Producer: Harry Benn | |
| Type: Sex / Period Drama | Running Time: 86 mins |
| Following the death of her parents young Francis Hill decides to go to London seek her fortune. Her friends call her Fanny and she comes from a poor but honest background and is innocently trusting and naïve of the many pitfalls that she may encounter. When her 200 mile journey by stagecoach is complete and she arrives in London her first bitter experience is that of a ruffian stealing her belongings including what little money she came with so she goes to an Intelligence Office to seek employment. There her beauty catches the eye of a local Madame called Mrs Brown who invites her to "work" for her although she keeps the true nature of the job to herself allowing Fanny to believe she will be working as a maid. Mrs Brown instructs the other girls to indoctrinate Fanny to the pleasures of the flesh and on her first night Fanny experiences her first lesbian encounter with a girl called Phoebe.
Mrs Brown knows she can command a high-price from gentleman callers for Fanny's innocence with her untouched purity being a valuable commodity. Although Fanny is harder to tame in that regard than Mrs Brown hoped for and she runs off with a respectable gentleman at the brothel called Charles who wooed her romantically. Charles is the son of a rich ship builder and he and Fanny set up a house together and she has some happy times and eventually falls pregnant. Then Charles' father finds out about the affair and sends his son away to India leaving Fanny alone. She loses the child and cannot pay the outstanding rent to the landlady. So she becomes a mistress to a rich gentleman called Mr H. He allows her to live in his country retreat and she lives like a lady. But when she finds him sleeping with a maid she decides to get her own back by sleeping with the stable lad. Unfortunately when Mr H finds out he has her thrown out. Back on her own again she meets up with some of her old brothel friends from Mrs Brown's low-class establishment and they tell her they have moved on to a much more respectable house run by a Mrs Cole. Fanny becomes one of Mrs Cole's girls entertaining rich and noble men. One elderly gentleman, Mr Barville, takes a liking to Fanny and she shows him considerable kindness despite his frailty - so much so that when he dies he leaves his entire estate to Fanny making her a wealthy woman. Fanny is staying at a hotel for a night when by some incredible chance her lost-love Charles comes knocking. He has at last arrived back from India and has been desperately looking for her and about to give up. So they get back together and that's where it ends with a happy resolution. | |
| Comment: The story is narrated retrospectively by a more worldly-wise Fanny as she describes the experiences of her younger naïve self. | |
| Starring: | Lisa Raines (as Fanny Hill) |
| Featuring: | Shelley Winters (as Mrs. Cole), Paddy O'Neil (as Mrs Brown), Jonathan York (as Charles), Neil Phelps (as Mr H), Liz Smith (as Landlady) |
| Star-Turns: | Oliver Reed, Wilfrid Hyde-White (as Mr Barville) |
| Starlets: | Maria Harper (as Phoebe), Angie Quick, Vicki Scott, Susie Silvey, Lorraine Doyle |
| The Fantasist (1986) | Previous Next |
| Writer/Director: Robin Hardy / Producer: Mark Forstater | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 94 mins |
| In a prologue we see a young woman being phoned by a persistent anonymous caller whose words are compellingly romantic belying the somewhat sinister underlying implications that the man has been stalking her and knows everything she does. Not long afterwards the man calls at the door and subjects her to a brutal stabbing attack and later her dead body is found stripped naked laying on her front on her sofa. We do not see her attacker's face. End of prologue.
Patricia Teeling is a young woman living in rural Ireland who decides to take a year away from her uncle's farm after passing her agricultural degree to work in the city as a teacher. She moves into an apartment in Dublin where she meets Danny Sullivan and his wife Fionnuala from the floor below hers. Danny is a writer and his wife an artist although they have drifted apart and now are merely tolerant of one another for the sake of convenience. Danny is an American and Patricia finds him pleasant and charming company and he clearly likes her and they begin to see each other socially. Media outlets are warning the women of Dublin to be wary of a serial killer who may make first contact via the phone. When Patricia is round at Danny's holiday home she catches him making an obscene phone call but he claims it is a joke on his wife. She rushes away back to her apartment somewhat surprised that he made no attempt to stop her. Next day she finds Fionnuala stabbed to death and laying naked on her front on a sofa. Patricia meets Inspector Seamus McMyler who is in charge of the serial killer investigation. She does not mention Danny's phone call because she does not believe he could be the killer since he is too sensitive and innocent to be that brutal and were he to be the culprit he wouldn't have let her leave after she caught him making the crank call. But as the victim's husband, Inspector McMyler is duty bound to keep an eye on him and treat him as a possible suspect anyway. Patricia then begins to receive anonymous phone calls from a man with a rich eloquent English voice using soothing words and poetic phrases that she finds strangely gripping. She does not report it in case it is merely Danny playing a joke. (Note: we know it is the same caller's voice that the woman in the prologue heard). Over the next few months she goes out with Danny some more and is reassured to notice that Inspector McMyler is never far away keeping a close eye on him. One night she gets another anonymous call from the same poetically attuned man but now his tone has become a bit more sinister and she becomes unnerved. Later on she thinks someone is trying to break into her apartment and she escapes out of her window and wanders the streets in panic. To her relief she chances to meet Inspector McMyler who takes her back to his private apartment to calm down. He is pleasant and reassuring company. But when she is ready to leave he asks that she first see his little collection and takes her into a room set up as a photographic studio. On the wall are pinned hundred of photographs of herself and she suddenly realises that he is the one. He had not been following Danny around but was obsessively following her. McMyler delightedly admits he is the literary caller as he locks the door. He has spent such a happy few months following her around and has fallen obsessively in love with her. McMyler's demeanour has become more focused and sinister as he asks that she do him a big favour before she goes and to pose for him in the manner of his favourite painting Amourphis by François Boucher from the 1700s - depicting his ideal of Irish womanhood pictured in a naked prone repose. The artist's model had been Mary Louise O'Murphy, a mistress of Louis XV of France. McMyler is toying with a knife and so Patricia knows her only chance is to play along. She strips off and adopts the required pose causing McMyler to become feverishly excited as he asks her to look into the camera imagining that he is the king himself. McMyler then comes to sit beside her still playing within his fantasy and Patricia sees that as the key to her getting away. She takes sexual control of the situation and gives him half-an-hour of pleasure and at the end of it he is in no condition to stop her leaving. Patricia rushes home to have a cleansing bath and then writes a letter to McMyler's sergeant telling him that McMyler is the killer. She posts it and then takes the night ferry to England to get as far away as she can. She thinks she is safe but McMyler has followed her onto the ferry and tries to kill her. They struggle on the deck and in a lucky blow she catches him off balance and he goes over the side and drowns and she is safe. | |
| Starring: | Moira Harris (as Patricia Teeling), Christopher Cazenove (as Inspector Seamus McMyler), Timothy Bottoms (as Danny Sullivan, American writer) |
| Featuring: | Mick Lally (as Lar, Patricia's kindly uncle), John Kavanagh (as Robert Foxley, teacher at Patricia's school), Bairbre Ni Chaoimh (as Monica Quigley, Patricia's flatmate), Deirdre Donnelly (as Fionnuala Sullivan, Danny's wife), James Bartley (as Hugh Teeling, Lar's son), Liam O'Callaghan (as Det Sgt Farrelly), Agnes Bernelle (as Mrs O'Malley, victim's mother) |
| Familiar Faces: | Dervla Kirwan (as Fiona, teenage pupil in Patricia's class, non-speaking cameo being told off for having make-up in school, [credited as Dearbhla Kirwan]) |
| Star-Turns: | Gabrielle Reidy (as Kathy O'Malley, victim) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Moira Harris receives an "introducing" credit |
• |
Based on the novel Goosefoot by Patrick McGinley |
| Writer: Ross Dimsey / Director: Richard Bruce / Producer: Antony I. Ginnane | |
| Type: Australian / Anthology / Sex | Running Time: 86 mins |
| A collection of 10 pornographic shorts loosely themed together by a cod-German professor who presents them as examples of his female patients' fantasies using a lot of psychobabble as he attempts to explore the innermost workings of the female mind. The very basic stories have no inherent charm and are just there for the nudity and sex scenes which have little value without the framework of a mainstream film storyline or tongue-in-cheek comedy appeal that the British/Australian sex comedy features provided - and it ends up being very dull to watch. Most are dialogue free and last about 5-8 minutes each. The impression is that they are specially made for this film and not pre-existing material repackaged. | |
| Comment: Although reviewed here due to it being an apparent Australian production it seems to only be the framing sequence that is in any way Australian - the "fantasies" are all populated by American porn actors/actresses who mainly did this sort of thing all the time (or did nothing else but this) and so there is little value in listing their names here. All in all its credentials as an "Australian" film are very slender. | |
| Link: There was a follow up film called Fantasm Comes Again (1977) which basically provided more of the same but was a slightly better effort. | |
| Featuring: | (Australian framing sequence) John Bluthal (as German psychiatrist presenting the fantasies, uncredited in film) |
| Fantasm Comes Again (1977) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Robert Derriere / Director: Eric Ram / Producer: Antony I. Ginnane | |
| Type: Australian / Anthology / Sex | Running Time: 98 mins |
| A collection of 10 pornographic shorts themed together by a pair of Australian advice columnists who are selecting letters from their postbag to include in the next edition of their magazine.
This is a follow-up to film to Fantasm (1976) which was a very poor effort. This one is a slight improvement because the framing sequence is more interesting with some dialogue and bantering between the old editor called Harry, who is retiring after fifteen years on the same job, and his replacement Libby whom he is training up to take over from him. The actual segments which illustrate the letters they select are also slightly more interesting because this time they have internal dialogue and vague story-lines although overall they are not very entertaining being only there for the sex and nudity. Once again the segments are made in the USA featuring American porn stars although this time there are a couple of actresses who were light porn/B-Movie crossovers stars such as Cheryl (Rainbeaux) Smith. The segments are about 5-8 minutes long and seem to be specially made for this film. It is only the framing sequence that is made in Australia although overall it is classed as an Australian film and that was the reason for reviewing it. Because all the segments feature American porn actors/actresses who mainly did this sort of thing all the time, or did nothing else but this one film, there is little value in listing their names here. | |
| Featuring: | (Australian framing sequence) Clive Hearne (as Harry, retiring editor), Angela Menzies-Wills (as Libby, trainee) |
| Writer: Frederic Raphael / Director: John Schlesinger / Producer: Joseph Janni | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 159 mins |
| Set in the 1860s. Gabriel Oak is a shepherd who owns his own herd and has high hopes of making a success of himself. He has noticed a young woman working at a neighbour's farm called Bathsheba Everdene. She has an independent spirit which he admires and so he proposes marriage believing his prospects are good. She is flattered but does not believe she is the right woman for him. Soon after that Bathsheba has to leave the area after receiving news of a family bereavement.
Disaster strikes Gabriel's farm when his sheep escape their pen at night and his over-enthusiastic sheepdog herds them over a cliff to their death. Gabriel's bright prospects are instantly ruined and he has to take to the road and look for work as a jobbing farm labourer. He ends up at the farm of Wetherbry where he is surprised to find that Bathsheba Everdene is the owner having inherited the property from her late uncle. She is happy to take him on knowing what a keen and knowledgeable land manager he is. But all mention of possible marriage is forgotten as their situations have taken markedly different turns of fortune. Bathsheba runs the farm with a light hand maintaining a happy family atmosphere amongst all her workers with her cheerful personality. The even-tempered Gabriel proves himself to be her most reliable and trusted worker and soon rises up the ranks to be head foreman. Bathsheba's neighbour is William Boldwood, a dour middle-aged bachelor who has never found the time for marriage. He becomes infatuated by Bathsheba and proposes marriage. But she cannot decide and keeps delaying making any decision. Then another man comes into her life. A dashing soldier called Sergeant Frank Troy who sweeps her off her feet with his bold dynamic flair. But underneath his surface charm Troy has a callous streak. He had previously fallen in love with a simple servant girl called Fanny Robin whom he was going to marry but cast her aside when she inadvertently made a fool of him. She left town soon after. Bathsheba turns a deaf ear to stories of Troy's womanising and the less-savoury aspects to his character and they get married. Boldwood is deflated by the news but there is nothing he can do about it. Troy soon falls into his old ways and becomes a burden on Bathsheba's finances with his excessive gambling. The marriage turns sour for both of them and when Fanny returns replete with the expectancy of Troy's forthcoming child he realises it is Fanny he truly loves. When Fanny dies in childbirth Troy is so devastated that he takes himself down to the coast and swims out to sea. When his clothes are found on the beach it is assumed he has drowned although no body is found. Bathsheba believes she is now a widow although with no body she must wait six years for Troy to be declared legally dead. William Boldwood thinks his luck has changed and attempts to educe a promise from Bathsheba that she will marry him at the end of those six years. Bathsheba makes him wait many months until she eventually decides to agree to his proposal. Boldwood is so elated that he holds a ball to announce his happy news. But much to his horror Frank Troy chooses that occasion to make a dramatic reappearance having faked his apparent death those many months ago. He reclaims Bathsheba and Boldwood is so unhinged by this sudden and unexpected reversal of fortunes that he shoots Troy dead. Boldwood is arrested for cold-blooded murder with the expectation of a death sentence. Bathsheba is now a widow without question and her only suitor has ruined himself. Gabriel Oak remains a staunch bedrock in Bathsheba's life, always there to help her - but he has decided to move on. Bathsheba finds she is appalled at the prospect of losing him and she suggests that they marry. Gabriel agrees and together they make the perfect team which combines her wealth and land with his dedication and skills. | |
| Starring: | Julie Christie (as Bathsheba Everdene), Alan Bates (as Gabriel Oak), Peter Finch (as William Boldwood), Terence Stamp (as Sgt Frank Troy) |
| Featuring: | Fiona Walker (as Liddy, Bathsheba's maid companion), Prunella Ransome (as Fanny Robin, servant girl, Sgt Troy's sweetheart), Alison Leggatt (as Bathsheba's aunt), Harriet Harper and Denise Coffey (as Temperance and Soberness Miller, sisters, farm workers) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
From the novel by Thomas Hardy |
• |
Prunella Ransome receives an "introducing" credit |
| Farewell, My Lovely (1975) | Previous Next |
| Writer: David Zelag Goodman / Director: Dick Richards / Producers: George Pappas, Jerry Bruckheimer | |
| Type: American / Crime Drama | Running Time: 91 mins |
| Philip Marlowe is a private detective in 1940s Los Angeles who scrapes a living taking on routine missing persons cases. Marlowe is contacted by a two-bit hoodlum called Moose Malloy, fresh out of jail after serving seven years for armed robbery. Moose is an intimidating man-mountain but he still has a soft spot for his girl Velma Valento even though she never wrote or visited during his time inside. Moose wants Marlowe to find Velma although the only lead he has is that she used to work as a singer and dancer at a club called Florians. Moose is laying low because someone is trying to kill him and will contact Marlowe for an update when he can.
Marlowe soon finds out that Florianshas changed ownership and is now a black-only bar. He traces a musician called Tommy Ray who used to work there and asks about Velma. After considerable urging and a return visit Tommy supplies Marlowe with a photo of Velma. Marlowe shows this to a theatrical agent who tells him the girl in the picture was known to him as "Linda". Marlowe quickly discovers that Linda is now a patient in a mental hospital and a virtual vegetable. He visits and verifies that the picture is of her. Marlowe concludes that Linda used the name Velma professionally and was never able to contact Moose because she became so ill. But when Marlowe reports his findings and shows Moose the photo, the lovelorn hoodlum gets angry because it is not a picture of his Velma! Marlowe is confused - why did Tommy Ray give him the wrong picture. He returns to see Tommy but the man has mysteriously gone missing. Marlowe is hired for another job by a philanderer called Lindsay Marriott. A lady friend of his has had her jade necklace stolen and the thieves have demanded a ransom. Marriott has agreed to pay and wants Marlowe to provide protection for him during the exchange. But when they arrive at the remote rendezvous point Marlowe is knocked unconscious and Marriot is killed. Marlowe feels he let Marriot down and becomes determined to find out more. He visits the home of Judge Grayle, a powerful political figure and well-known collector of rare jade. Marlowe meets the judge's beautiful and much younger wife Helen Grayle who radiates irresistible sex appeal. Helen has a rapacious appetite for the company of men and makes no attempt to hide her infidelity from her now-frail husband who turns a blind eye so as not to lose her. Helen admits she knew Marriott and regrets his death and would be willing to pay Marlowe handsomely to discover who killed him. Back at his office Marlowe is abducted by some hoodlums and taken to a bawdyhouse owned by sadistic brothel madame, Frances Amthor, who demands he tell her the whereabouts of Moose Malloy. Marlowe is kept locked up and drugged for a week as she and her strong-arm boys try to get him to talk. Marlowe finds out that Tommy Ray was also brought here and is now dead. Eventually Marlowe manages to escape wondering what can be so important about Moose. Then Marlowe is contacted by top gangster Laird Brunette who runs a string of no-limits gambling joints. Brunette also wants to speak to Moose and is willing to pay $2000 if Marlowe will bring him out to his yacht for a chat. Marlowe promises to do what he can although really he has no intention of betraying his client. When Marlowe was first looking for Velma he spoke to Mrs Florian, the ex-wife of the club owner, who also knew Velma - but to no avail. But now she contacts him to say that Velma has been in touch and would like to speak to Moose on the phone, so Marlowe arranges for Moose to take the call. It is clear Moose recognises her voice and is overjoyed at hearing from her and immediately agrees to meet with her at a place she specifies. Marlowe accompanies him and only just manages to save them both from a deadly ambush. Marlowe tells Moose that Velma set him up, but Moose won't believe it and knows she must have been forced into it somehow. When Marlowe returns to see Mrs Florian he finds she has been killed. Marlowe tells Moose that the only way to solve the mystery is to go over to Brunette's yacht and find out why he wants to talk to Moose so badly. They sneak onto the yacht without announcing their arrival and put the guards out of action. Marlowe and Moose burst into Brunette's office with guns ready and demand some answers. But then in walks a woman known to both Marlowe and Moose. Marlowe knows her as Helen Grayle, but Moose knows her as... Velma! It becomes clear to Marlowe what has happened. Velma had used Moose from the very start by pretending to be his girlfriend. After he robbed the bank at her urging she informed on him and kept the money while he took the rap and was sent to jail. She then changed her name and did rather well for herself by marrying the influential Judge Grayle. But when Moose was released and wanted to find her again she knew he was a danger to her. So she has been using her alluring appeal to manipulate men into doing whatever she asks of them and have anyone who knew her as Velma disposed of. Lindsay Marriott and the fake photo that Tommy Ray was forced to provide were just diversions to keep Marlowe busy following the wrong tracks. Marlowe tries to tell Moose the truth of it, but he won't hear anything bad said about his Velma. And she is easily able to convince Moose that is all a big lie and she is blameless and now they are back together they can start again. But as soon as Moose puts down his gun to embrace her she shoots him dead. She tries to shoot Marlowe too but he ducks and shoots her dead instead. The police arrive to wrap things up after Marlowe earlier tipped them off that they would be needed. | |
| Starring: | Robert Mitchum (as Philip Marlowe, private detective), Charlotte Rampling (as Helen Grayle), Jack O'Halloran (as Moose Malloy, Marlowe's client), John Ireland (as Detective Lieutenant Nulty), Sylvia Miles (as Mrs Florian, washed out former showgirl) |
| Featuring: | Anthony Zerbe (as Laird Brunette, gangster), John O'Leary (as Lindsay Marriott, Marlowe's second client), Harry Dean Stanton (as Detective Billy Rolfe), Kate Murtagh (as Frances Amthor, brothel Madame), Walter McGinn (as Tommy Ray, former band leader at Florians), Jim Thompson (as Judge Grayle, Helen's elderly husband), Jimmie Archer (as Georgie, news vendor who helps Marlowe), Logan Ramsey (as Police commissioner), Andrew Harris (as Johnny Ray's young son), Noelle North (as Runaway teenage girl) |
| Familiar Faces: | Sylvester Stallone (as Jonnie, Frances' hoodlum, [small role]) |
| Starlets: | Rainbeaux Smith (as Doris, prostitute at Frances' bawdyhouse), Karen Gaston (as Prostitute), Olivia Enke (as Prostitute, [uncredited]), Su Ling (as Prostitute, [uncredited]), Susan Stewart (as Prostitute, [uncredited]) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel by Raymond Chandler |
• |
Jack O'Halloran receives an "introducing" credit |
• |
This American film is reviewed here, firstly because it features Charlotte Rampling, and secondly because its follow up The Big Sleep (1978), which also starred Robert Mitchum as Marlowe, was a UK production made and set in England. Although the two films do not share a continuity because the second film had a modern day 1970s setting and therefore the only thing that really makes them a pair is Robert Mitchum's involvement. |
| The Fast Kill (1972) | Previous Next |
| aka: Hard Recoil | |
| Writer: Martin Gillman / Director/Producer: Lindsay Shonteff | |
| Type: Action | Running Time: 84 mins |
| Max Stein is a steely villain who specialises in masterminding daring robberies. To help him with the organisation and planning he has teamed up with his current girlfriend Angelique Dumas who is estranged from her unstable husband Charles. Max's objective is to steal a shipment of uncut diamonds. The difficulties involved in surmounting the security precautions would deter most but to Max they are merely obstacles to be overcome in pursuit of a goal. So he sets about assembling a team of four experts. Some agree immediately whilst others have to be craftily manipulated into deciding to take part using nefarious tactics which demonstrate Max's ruthless determination to succeed at any cost.
The warehouse and safe are heavily reinforced so Max recruits the best explosives man he can find. The alarms are hard-wired to the police station and cannot be disabled so Max recruits two cold-blooded weapons experts to mow the policemen down with machine guns as they arrive to eliminate that immediate threat. Then they have a four-minute window to make it out of the city before the security roadblocks are in place - so Max recruits an expert rally driver whom Angelique recommends to speed the gang away through twisting back streets. Max keeps the arrangements very businesslike and promises his experts half-a-million pounds each for their work. He gives them plenty of opportunities to opt-out but after he has given them the details of his plan they all agree to participate. The robbery proceeds without a hitch and the four specialists steal the diamonds and make it safely to an airfield where they meet up with Max and Angelique who have been waiting risk-free. They all fly off to Jersey and then take a boat to France where Max tells them they will be meeting up with a diamond broker called Miller who will buy the stones and then the experts will be paid their fees. However Max has no intention of remunerating his recruits. Miller is not a diamond merchant but a killer hired to dispose of them when they arrive at the remote rendezvous point in some woods. Three of the specialists are taken completely by surprise and killed, but the rally driver Jeremy Dryden manages to get away after being tipped off by Angelique who is aware of the planned treachery. She and Dryden are secretly having an affair and have been making plans of their own to double-cross Max. Max and Angelique return home to their mansion. Max wanted to possess the diamonds for their beauty and never had any intention of selling them. Max works out that Angelique intends to betray him with her secret lover Dryden and so he kills her. Max then lays in wait for Dryden's arrival so he can tidy up the final loose-end. The two men battle it out in a fight that ends up on a nearby beach where eventually Dryden manages to get the upper hand and succeeds in killing Max. Dryden is the only survivor and he returns to the mansion to collect the diamonds. But in the meantime Angelique's ex-husband Charles has come home and found her dead and he is so enraged that he stabs Dryden to death. | |
| Starring: | Tom Adams (as Max Stein) (gang members) Susie Hampton (as Angelique Dumas, Max's girlfriend, co-organiser), Michael Culver (as Jeremy Dryden), Peter Halliday (as Fred Chalmers), Patricia Haines (as Victoria Leach), Ray Chiarella (as Kevin Klaus) |
| Featuring: | Clive Endersby (as Charles Dumas, Angelique's ex-husband), Sean Hewitt (as Gamal, villain), Sheila Dunn (as Caron Dryden, Jeremy's wife), Graham Ashley (as Miller, assassin/diamond broker), Harry Shacklock (as Kroll, warehouseman) Starlets: Felicity Oliver (as Victoria's Friend, [on credits but not in version reviewed]), Claire Marshall (as Sally, [on credits but not in version reviewed]), Adrienne Conway (as Chalmer's Girl, waitress) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
The version reviewed carried the title The Fast Kill. There were some names on the credits who never appeared in the film (Felicity Oliver and Claire Marshall) which suggests it may have been an edited version. This is supported by a trailer for the Hard Recoil titled version which shows some scenes that weren't in the Fast Kill version reviewed. |
| Father Dear Father (1972) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Johnnie Mortimer, Brian Cooke / Director: William G Stewart / Producer: Peter J Thompson | |
| Type: Sitcom Spin-off | Running Time: 94 mins |
| Patrick Glover is a rich and successful author who is divorced from his wife Barbara but by mutual consent his two daughters live with him. Anna is 18 and Karen 17 and are both blonde and beautiful and well-adjusted young women and Patrick realises that he cannot provide all the advice girls of that age require and what they need is a new mother figure in the house. So he decides to re-marry and asks his agent Georgina (Georgie) Thompson the big question.
Other plot strands involve Anna wanting to move out and find a flat of her own - but the only place she can afford is a somewhat tiny upstairs box room flat and she doesn't want her father to see it leading to misunderstands when he visits and thinks that the more spacious downstairs flat is hers which she seems to be sharing with a man; Also Karen wants to marry her clumsy and accident prone boyfriend Richard and they decide to elope but don't get very far because of his unreliable vehicle; And Patrick's ex-wife has a spat with her new husband Richard and comes back to stay with Patrick and he has to keep her and Richard apart when he too comes to visit. Finally everyone comes back together for Patrick and Georgie's wedding day but in the end they decide not to go through with it as it is all being done for the wrong reasons. | |
| Starring: | Patrick Cargill (as Patrick Glover), Natasha Pyne (as Anna Glover), Ann Holloway (as Karen Glover), Noël Dyson (as Nanny), Ursula Howells (as Barbara, Patrick's ex-wife), Richard O'Sullivan (as Richard, Karen's boyfriend) |
| Featuring: | Jill Melford (as Georgie, Patrick's publisher), Donald Sinden (as Philip, Patrick's brother), Beryl Reid (as Mrs Stoppard, Georgie's office cleaner), Jack Watling (as Bill, Barbara's new husband), Clifton Jones (as Larry, flat neighbour), Elizabeth Adare (as Maggie, flat neighbour) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the ITV sitcom that ran from 1968 to 1973 for 45 episodes with the same principal cast of Patrick, his two daughters and Nanny. |
| Writer: Lorenzo Semple Jr / Director: Leslie H. Martinson / Producer: John Kohn | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 95 mins |
| While American skydiver Fathom Harvill is in Spain competing in a skydiving competition she is approached by a member of the British security services called Flight Lieutenant Timothy Webb who asks if she will meet with his superior officer Colonel Douglas Campbell because they are in urgent need of her specialist assistance in a top-secret operation. She is told that a maritime incident had caused an H-bomb to become lost at sea and when it was recovered a vital component named "Fire Dragon" was found to be missing. This component in the wrong hands could have disastrous consequences and an intercepted communication has indicated that enemy agents have gotten hold of it and plan to sell it. The ringleader is thought to be a traitor called Peter Meriwether who has defected to the Red Chinese and although the British planted a microphone bug in his villa it has malfunctioned and they need Fathom to skydive into his impregnable hilltop residence claiming a plausible navigational mishap and reactivate it.
Fathom agrees to help because the stakes are so high and lands in the villa's grounds. Merriwether is suspicious but after searching her is forced to believe her story and lets her leave. The bug has been successfully reactivated and Campbell and Webb overhear some conversations which lead them to believe the device is in the hands of a rich foreign national called Sergi Serapkin. Because Serapkin is such a ladies man the British agents impose upon the beautiful Fathom to help them again to discover more. She agrees and is drawn deeper into the intrigue. As things continue Fathom is eventually captured by Peter Merriwether with no plausible excuses to save her. But when Fathom accuses Merriwether of trying to sell nuclear secrets he is perplexed and tells her that the "Fire Dragon" has nothing to do with nuclear weapons and is in fact a precious Chinese antiquity. Merriwether tells her he is actually a private detective working for the Chinese to recover the relic and it is in fact Campbell and Webb who are the criminals trying to get hold of it for their own monetary gain. Merriwether is so convincing that Fathom believes him and realises she has been duped by the two British men. This see-saw of loyalties continues as each time she meets one of the two parties they manage to persuade her it is the other who has misled her until she really does not know who to believe any more. Eventually Fathom gets hold of the Fire Dragon itself and sides with Campbell and Webb who she becomes convinced are the real good guys and she flies off with them in a light aircraft. But she has made a serious error and once in the air she discovers that they are the real criminals and intend to dispose of her now she has served her purpose. Merriwether (who really is a private detective hired by the Chinese) gives chase in another plane and there is a mid-air gun battle. Campbell is killed and Fathom manages to wrest control of the plane from Webb who bails out. Fathom personally returns the antiquity to Merriwether's Chinese client. | |
| Starring: | Raquel Welch (as Fathom Harvill), Tony Franciosa (as Peter Merriwether), Ronald Fraser (as Douglas Campbell), Richard Briers (as Timothy Webb, Campbell's aide), Clive Revill (as Sergi Serapkin, collector or rare antiquities) |
| Featuring: | Greta Chi (as Jo-May Soon, Red Chinese agent), Tom Adams (as Mike, hotel proprietor), Elizabeth Ercy (as Ulla, hotel owner's assistant), Ann Lancaster (as Mrs Trivers, Merriwether's housekeeper), Reg Lye (as Mr Trivers, Merriwether's assistant), Tutte Lemkow (as Mehmed, Serapkin's manservant) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
From the novel by Larry Forrester |
| Fear in the Night (1972) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Jimmy Sangster, Michael Syson / Director/Producer: Jimmy Sangster | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 89 mins |
| SPECIAL ALERT FOR A TWIST IN THE TALE Prologue - the camera takes us around a deserted boys' boarding school where we hear the sounds of what it is like when busy - and then into the school grounds where we see the feet of a man hanging from a tree - but we do not see his face. The story leading up to this incident is then told in the rest of the film... Peggy is a young 22-year-old woman who has just married a schoolmaster called Robert Heller after a whirlwind romance of just four months. Robert is currently away to see out the end of his current school term and she is at her bachelorette lodgings in London packing her things and making preparations to leave the next day when Robert will be picking her up to take her to begin her new life as a schoolmaster's wife in a boys' boarding school in the country. Robert calls her from the school saying they are just having the end of term feast and from what she can hear it sounds like a noisy affair. After the call she is suddenly attacked from behind in her bathroom by an unseen intruder who wears a heavy black gloves - she struggles and is shocked when the assailant's left arm comes off and falls to the ground - it is a false limb. She passes out and when she comes to she is being cared for by her kindly landlady and a doctor who can find nothing to indicate the presence of an intruder although they are full of sympathy for her experience. The landlady takes the doctor to one side and explains that six months ago Peggy had a period in psychiatric care after she suffered a nervous breakdown and had been imagining things but she had been thought to be fully recovered. But Peggy swears this incident really did happen and so the police are called and a report is filed. Next day Robert arrives and is full of concern for his new wife's terrible ordeal as he drives her to the country. But she acts brightly as she tries to put the horrible incident behind her and enjoy the start of this new chapter in her life. They are to be living in a cottage just by the school which was built 60 years ago in a mock Tudor style. Robert shows her around the school which is now empty since term has just ended. Peggy thinks it is amazing that everything is kept so neat and tidy and nothing at all like she remembers school - but she expects it is quite different when the boys are here in term time. Robert tells her that the school and all its grounds are owned by the headmaster Michael Carmichael who lives in a private wing with his wife Molly and he is consequently quite rich - or would be if he ever sold the place. Peggy is still a bit unnerved by her attack but Robert assures her that she's miles away from London now and quite safe. Next day Robert has to go off to do some work and Peggy has another look around the school by herself. Strangely she thinks she hears the noise of a busy classroom and is puzzled because she thought all the boys had departed - she goes in and it's empty and the noise has stopped. Then she meets the headmaster Michael who seems a nice kindly gent as he takes her on a tour and it is plain to see how proud he is of the place and how much he enjoys teaching. We see that the Headmaster has a false arm and wears similar gloves to Peggy's assailant - but she doesn't notice at this time. When she gets back to her cottage she is suddenly attacked from behind by a man with a false arm and thick gloves and she knows it must be the same man again and she passes out. When Robert gets back he can find no evidence of an attacker and asks her if she's sure - it is clear he is beginning to wonder if she is imagining things and he persuades her to think about it more carefully before they call in the police. Next day they go out in a jeep touring the grounds as Robert performs his other duties as the estate manager - there is a shotgun kept in the jeep that is used to shoot foxes and rabbits. They meet the headmaster's young wife Molly who is out shooting and gives Peggy a present of a rabbit she bagged. Peggy gets the impression that Molly doesn't like her very much. Robert has to go to a teaching conference on behalf of the school and is going to be away overnight. He hates to leave her while she's feeling so anxious but cannot get out of it. He suggests she take the shotgun for protection if she is worried about the assailant. She takes his advice and later on that evening a man gets into the cottage and appears to be coming menacingly towards her - he is just like the assailant and she realises it is the Headmaster as she blasts him with one barrel. He falls and she thinks he's dead at first but he seems to recover quickly and she runs out of the cottage and into the school where the Headmaster follows her as she tries to barricade herself into a dormitory - but the Headmaster breaks in and she shoots him again with the other barrel at almost point blank range. We do not see what happens immediately after that. Next day when Robert comes home he finds Peggy sitting in the school dormitory alone - there is blood on the floor but no sign of anything that could have caused the spillage. Peggy is looking very despondent and appears unwilling to answer Robert's concerned questions about what happened. Back at the cottage there is more blood and Robert notices that both barrels of the shotgun have been fired. He cannot get any sense out of Peggy so he looks around the school and grounds searching for a body or someone seriously wounded. Robert comes back none the wiser and decides it is time to explain a few things to his new wife. This place is not a real school. It once used to be but nine years ago there was a terrible fire and several boys were killed and the place closed down. The Headmaster was injured in the accident and Robert was one of the medical students who cared for him. They became friendly and when the Headmaster had recovered Robert came to work for him. The Headmaster was so wracked with guilt that he couldn't bring himself to reopen the school but he had the damage repaired and now just runs the place as if it were an active school without any pupils or teachers and he just wanders around all day playing at being headmaster and listening to tapes of busy classroom activity. Robert tells Peggy that Michael came to depend on him so much that when Robert married her he must have become jealous and wanted to kill her. So it's understandable if she acted in self-defence and so if she can just tell where the body is he can sort the whole matter out. But Peggy declines to answer remaining unresponsive. SPOILER ALERT FOR TWIST IN THE TALE. It turns out that Robert and the headmaster's wife Molly are lovers. They conspired in an elaborate plot to kill Molly's husband Michael and then live together on the rich proceeds of his estate. As part of the plan Robert quickly courted and married Peggy, a vulnerable woman with a history of mental instability and then made her think she was being attacked by a one-arm man and with her background it would be thought she was suffering a relapse. It was Molly who posed as the attacker in Peggy's London lodgings wearing similar attire to the Head and then it was Robert doing similar who attacked her the second time in the cottage. Then after getting her into a frightened and nervous state he planted the idea that she should protect herself with the shotgun with which she would hopefully kill the innocent headmaster in her "delusional" state. The plan has worked perfectly as conceived - the shotgun was fired and there is blood - so where is the body? Molly questions why Michael needed to devise such an elaborate scheme and why he couldn’t have simply have arranged a convenient "accident" in the woods. But Robert believed that it would be better if there was a specific murderer to pin it on. Robert drops all pretence with Peggy and he and Molly capture her and tie her up and then torture her into telling them what happened but she remains tight-lipped, not defiantly so, but just seeming not to care. They decide they will therefore kill her and make it look like suicide leaving a typed "confession" saying she killed Michael - and then leave it up to the police professionals to actually locate the body. Molly wants one more try at torture because as a woman she knows how to really hurt a fellow woman without leaving any telltale marks - she goes away to get some implements. Then the Headmaster's voice is heard through the school's loudspeakers talking directly to Robert - he is not dead after all and Robert is so angry that he grabs Peggy and goes searching for the source of the broadcast. The staffroom has all the chairs covered with dustsheets and Michael thinks he's in there because the voice says he can see him. The Headmaster explains he knew all about the affair Robert was having with his wife and their secret plotting sessions. And so as a precaution he put blanks in the shotgun and when he approached Peggy he had only wanted to talk to her to explain things when she shot him - ineffectively as it turned out. The Headmaster explains he had then used blood from the dead rabbit to make it appear that someone had been wounded. Robert thinks the voice is coming from a dustsheet-covered armchair and blasts at it with his shotgun and is delighted when he sees blood - but when he pulls the sheet aside it is the now-dead Molly where she had been sitting tied and gagged and the voice was coming from a speaker. Robert grabs a rope and drags Peggy outside determined to carry out his plan to kill her in an apparent suicide - but outside he is attacked from behind by the Headmaster - and the film ends as it began with the sight of a man's legs hanging but this time we see it is Robert who has been hanged. Finally as the police are called and Peggy prepares to leave we hear that Michael is continuing as before listening to his schoolroom tapes and acting out his fantasy headmaster role. | |
| Starring: | Judy Geeson (as Peggy Heller), Ralph Bates (as Robert Heller), Peter Cushing (as Michael Carmichael, the Headmaster), Joan Collins (as Molly Carmichael) |
| Featuring: | Gillian Lind (as Mrs Beamish, Peggy's landlady), James Cossins (as a Doctor) |
| Fear Is the Key (1972) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Robert Carrington / Director: Michael Tuchner / Producers: Alan Ladd Jr, Jay Kanter | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 100 mins |
| Prologue: Marine salvage expert John Talbot is in radio communication with a light aircraft that appears to be on a perilous mission carrying some sort of valuable cargo. On board is his wife and young child and it seems they have made it to safety when suddenly the pilot (Talbot's brother) reports they are under attack and the plane goes down ... (end of prologue).
(Three years later) John Talbot is in Louisiana in America and seems to have fallen on rough times and taken to drinking. He gets into a bar fight and is arrested by local police. In court it is found that he has a criminal record in Europe and is wanted by Interpol so the judge orders he be detained for extradition. Talbot reacts by grabbing a guard's gun and shooting dead a policeman. He then randomly takes a young woman hostage from the public gallery and escapes with her in a car. The woman's name is Sarah Ruthven and she is petrified by the long hair-raising stunt-filled chase sequence that follows. Eventually Talbot gives the police the slip and they end up at a riverside shack. But they have been tracked by a bounty hunter called Herman Jablonsky who plans to turn Talbot over to the police for the reward. But he also has a valuable prize in Sarah because she is the daughter of a wealthy oil tycoon who will give an even greater reward for her safe return. So firstly Jablonsky takes them both to the Ruthven mansion to collect his reward where he also meets Mr Ruthven's associate Mr Vyland. Jablonsky next intends to hand Talbot over to the authorities but Vyland decides they can use Talbot's salvage skills for a special project they have in mind and they agree to pay Jablonsky his bounty fee for Talbot if he overlooks the criminal matter. We now find out that Talbot and Jablonsky are actually working together and the whole affair up to now was all an elaborate set-up to get Talbot inside the Ruthven mansion. Talbot's criminal past was falsified and even the police shooting in the courthouse was faked to add believability. Sarah was not taken at random but specifically chosen to facilitate matters after having been invited to the courtroom that day by the judge who was in on the deception. Talbot makes a secret nocturnal excursion from his holding quarters to discover what the criminals' plans are and manages to make radio contact with his superiors to let them know what is going on. It seems that Vyland is in charge of a ruthless criminal network that has duped Ruthven into believing he is a legitimate business investor with an interest in making use of one of his off-shore oil rigs for some exploration work. Vyland's organisation has appropriated a classified specialist deep-sea exploration mini-submersible called Fathom from a maintenance facility. He needs Talbot to complete the repairs and then pilot it from Ruthven's rig to the target site. The purpose of the undertaking is to recover some valuable cargo from a sunken plane. Talbot plays along but rewires some essential circuitry so that only he can operate Fathom correctly. Once they have reached the seabed and located the sunken plane wreck Talbot reveals to Vyland that the victims aboard it are his own family and he is out for revenge. He turns off the submersible's life support systems and demands a confession from Vyland before he will switch the systems back on. As the oxygen starts to run out a desperate Vyland is forced to confess that the plane was downed on his orders because it was carrying a shipment of emeralds and gold worth $85million that was being legitimately paid by Columbia into the International Monetary Fund. The relayed confession is recorded by the authorities over the communication circuits. Vyland then attempts to kill Talbot but in the struggle is himself shot. Talbot restarts the life support and returns to the surface. | |
| Starring: | Barry Newman (as John Talbot), John Vernon (as Vyland), Suzy Kendall (as Sarah Ruthven), Dolph Sweet (as Herman Jablonsky) |
| Featuring: | Ben Kingsley (as Royale, Vyland's cohort), Ray McAnally (as Alexander Ruthven, Sarah's father), Peter Marinker (Larry, Vyland's henchman) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel by Alistair MacLean |
| Writers: Gino Capone, Stelvio Massi, Franz Antel / Director: Stelvio Massi / Producer: (not shown on credits) | |
| Type: Crime Drama / European | Running Time: 85 mins |
| Wally Bowman is an Italian Private Detective based in Rome who gets a job from a rich banker in Austria that wants Wally to locate and return his estranged daughter Ana Lisa who is believed to be somewhere in Rome. Wally finds she has joined a Hari Krishna group but discovers he is not the only person looking for her. Wally gets to her first but when she escapes from him she is promptly kidnapped. Wally follows a lead onto where she has been taken and he journeys to Vienna to continue his investigations.
In Vienna he teams up with an old friend of his called Karl Korter who is the Viennese police chief. But their work is over almost before it starts when the kidnapped girl's father Herr Von Straben informs them his daughter has returned and so he no longer needs them to work on the case. Wally believes that Herr Straben is lying and is probably dealing with the kidnappers privately and has been told not to involve the police. But with his services no longer required he prepares to leave although he has time to do a favour for Karl who wants him to pacify an insistent woman who is continually pestering him that her 14-year-old daughter Gina was murdered although all the evidence shows that she died in a traffic accident. While checking out the woman's story Wally is attacked and beaten up and he realises he has stirred up someone who doesn't want the girl's death investigated. One of his attackers is identified as a man who is known to have sexually assaulted minors so Wally goes to the morgue to check Gina's autopsy report which shows she was a virgin. Wally wonders if there was some sort of cover-up by the pathologist Dr Zimmer and so decides to test his theory by visiting this doctor posing as the girl's uncle and spinning him a false story that Gina was thought to have been stranger-raped before she went missing and died and it's therefore odd that her autopsy showed her to be a virgin and the family intend to exhume her body to double check. He hopes this may shake up some concerns if the doctor was involved in a cover-up regarding her virginal state. Wally follows another lead to a night-club where he watches the beautiful star stripper Brigitte. But when he makes some enquiries he is ejected and told not to return. Wally talks to a schoolgirl friend of Gina called Renate who is 13 and who seems quite prepared to have sex with him and assumes at first that's why he wants to talk to her. Wally gathers that having sex with grown men is something she is quite used to - but Renate refuses to discuss Gina. Wally goes back to the Queen Anne night-club and gets talking to Brigitte and then drives her home but there are some hoodlums laying in wait who beat him up as a further warning to stay out of it. But he is not discouraged and takes Brigitte to a high class restaurant where Dr Zimmer is dining and while he is out of the room he sees Dr Zimmer making contact with Brigitte and establishes a connection. But later when Dr Zimmer is found dead Wally seems to have run out of leads. So he waits outside Renate's school and is amazed when he sees Brigitte pick her up and drive her home. He later questions Renate who tells him that Brigitte is a nasty woman who was nice at first giving her expensive gifts and treats but then made her do things with men back at her large white house although she does not know exactly where it is located. And Renate tells him that the dead girl Gina was also induced into Brigitte's lurid den to have sex with men. Wally thinks the two cases he has been working on are linked and he goes back to see Herr von Staben who admits he is about to pay a ransom for the return of his grown up daughter Ana Lisa. Wally waits as Von Straben delivers the ransom to the allotted location and then follows the man who picks up the package. This leads him to a large white house like the one Gina described. Inside Wally finds Ana Lisa but she is already dead. He discovers Brigitte is the mastermind behind it all but while he is questioning her he is knocked out by an unseen assailant and Brigitte is shot dead. When Wally regains consciousness he looks around the house and discovers a hidden room behind a two way mirror with camera equipment. He also finds copies of photographs of his original client Herr von Straben pictured in a compromising act with a young underage girl who is identified as the dead girl Gina. Von Straben is challenged and he admits killing Brigitte who was a vile woman. He explains that she exploited his momentary weakness when she introduced him to a seemingly willing minor at her house and she then blackmailed him with photos of the occasion - but when he refused to pay she arranged for his daughter Ana Lisa to be kidnapped instead. It was Brigitte who had Gina killed in a seeming traffic accident when she threatened to tell her mother all about it. Von Straben makes this confession while taking a pill which turns out to be a cyanide tablet and he dies. | |
| Starring: | Maurizio Merli (as Wally Bowman), Joan Collins (as Brigitte), Gastone Moschin (as Karl Korter, Austrian police) |
| Featuring: | Franco Ressel (as Dr Zimmer, coroner), Alexander Trojan (as von Straben, Ana Lisa's father), Annarita Grapputo , Heidi Gutruf, Claudio Messner, Jasmine Maimone |
| NOTES: | |
• |
This Italian/Austrian film has been reviewed here because of the involvement of British actress Joan Collins. The original Italian title is Poliziotto senza paura and some known alternate English titles are Fatal Charm and Magnum Cop. The title on the version reviewed was Fearless although this was displayed on an overlaid black box that served to obscure whatever the original title had been underneath. |
• |
The credits do not contain character names so it is unknown who played who amongst the lesser characters. The actress playing "Ana Lisa" also has a nude scene and she is probably either Annarita Grapputo or Heidi Gutruf - going on role size and prominence in the credits one of them is probably Ana Lisa and the other Udi who was Karl's personal assistant. |
| aka: Dance of the Vampires | |
| Writers: Gerard Brach, Roman Polanski / Director: Roman Polanski / Producer: Gene Gutowski | |
| Type: Comedy Horror | Running Time: 102 mins |
| A celebrated bat researcher called Professor Abronsius and his faithful student Alfred arrive in snowy Transylvania following up on some investigations into the truth behind the vampire legend. They stay at a local tavern where the innkeeper Shagal has garlic hanging everywhere and does not permit his beautiful young daughter Sarah to venture out - although he denies any knowledge of there being a castle in the area for which the investigators are searching. Young Alfred takes a shine to Sarah and when she is abducted by a vampire he and the professor resolve to rescue her.
Shagal was also attacked and has been turned into a vampire and the investigators follow him when he leaves the tavern and are led to the location of the gothic castle they seek. They make their way inside and meet Count von Krolock who welcomes them and claims to be a fan of the professor's books about bats. The Count provides them with guest bedrooms to stay the night and next day they look around and find Sarah who is looking forward to a ball that evening and doesn't appear to realise she is in any danger. That evening the Count awakens as does a hoard of his vampire kin who have awoken for the grand ball where they will feast on the humans in the castle. The Professor and Alfred rescue Sarah from the ballroom and make their escape chased by the vampires which they manage to evade. But (in a twist ending) as they are riding away from the castle in a sleigh Sarah, in the back seat with Alfred, reveals that she is already a vampire and bites the young student while the professor drives the sleigh on unaware that he about to be instrumental in spreading the vampire curse out into the larger world. | |
| Starring: | Jack MacGowran (as Professor Abronsius), Roman Polanski (as Alfred), Alfie Bass (as Shagal, Inn-Keeper), Sharon Tate (as Sarah, Shagal's daughter), Ferdy Mayne (as Count von Krolock) |
| Featuring: | Iain Quarrier (as Herbert von Krolock, the count's son), Jessie Robins (as Rebecca, Shagal's wife), Terry Downes (as the Count's hunchback servant), Fiona Lewis (as Magda, Maid at the Inn) |
| Familiar Faces: | Ronald Lacey (Village idiot) |
| Writer: (no writer credit) / Director/Producer: John D. Lamond | |
| Type: Australian / Sex / Drama | Running Time: 91 mins |
| Felicity Robinson is a teenage schoolgirl on the cusp of womanhood who goes to an Australian convent school for girls. All she can think about is sex and wonder at the erotic sensations she is beginning to feel. She has some experimental fumblings with her friend Jenny and begins to realise how attractive she is becoming to men.
For the holidays her absent father gifts her a holiday in Hong Kong where she stays with a liberal-minded couple called Christine and Stephen. Christine takes Felicity in hand and tries to help by introducing her to a known philanderer at a party. Felicity loses her virginity but does not find the quick passionless encounter a very satisfactory experience. Christine next introduces Felicity to her female friend Me Ling who shows Felicity around the pleasure spots of the city including a luxury massage treatment and a Chinese pleasure junk. Whilst out by herself Felicity is almost mugged by some locals but is saved by a passing motorcyclist called Miles. He is an adventure photographer working in the area and the two of them proceed to become friends and have an affair and Felicity finds the sex they have much more meaningful because she has fallen in love with him. When Miles has to move on to his next assignment Felicity is unhappy and tries to cope by having casual sex with strangers - but it is not the same. So she follows Miles to his new location and they resume their loving relationship. And she realises that she can only properly enjoy sex when there is mutual affection involved as well. | |
| Starring: | Glory Annen (as Felicity Robinson), Christopher Milne (as Miles), Joni Flynn (as Me Ling), Marilyn Rodgers (as Christine, holiday hostess in Hong Kong) |
| Featuring: | Jody Hanson (as Jenny, Felicity's schoolfriend), Gordon Charles (as Stephen, Christine's husband), David Bradshaw (as Andrew, man at party) |
| Writers: Lewis Coates, Nat Wachsberger / Director: Lewis Coates / Producers: Nat Wachsberger, Patrick Wachsberger | |
| Type: European / Sci-Fi | Running Time: 91 mins |
| Space pilot Stella Star and her navigator Akton are two smugglers who ride the spaceways in search of profit. Their combined skills mean they have never been captured and are consequently on the galaxy's most wanted list. The Chief of the Imperial Police Thor, and his robotic assistant Elle, are forever on their trail trying to capture them and bring them to justice. Stella and Akton however do not see themselves as criminals and view the police as the bad guys always trying to interfere as they go about their business. The pair have a highly developed sense of honour and always help those in trouble whatever the danger to themselves.
After escaping into hyperspace from the latest Imperial effort to capture them, Stella and Akton come across a drifting Imperial launch in a remote region of space. According to their strong moral code they check it out to see if they can help. They discover aboard one survivor who seems to have lost his sanity. But this time the duo's rectitude has become their downfall and they find themselves surrounded by Imperial navy vessels who followed their fission trail. They are captured and sentenced to a life of hard labour on separate prison planets. But very soon they are unexpectedly released on orders of the Emperor of the First Circle of the Universe himself who requests their help on an important mission. The Emperor rules with a benign hand which commands him unstinting loyalty and respect amongst his subjects. Stella and Akton are grateful for his mercy as they are brought before his august presence. The Emperor tells the two adventurers that the Empire is in great danger. The long-standing peace of the universe is threatened by a megalomaniacal warmonger called Count Zartharn who currently rules the outlying Dark Worlds. Recent reports have suggested that the Count has developed a terrifying weapon of immeasurable power capable of destroying anything it targets. It is so vast that it is located on a planet somewhere deep in the Count's domain galaxy - but its reach, when active, will be limitless. The Emperor despatched his best people on an urgent top-secret mission to try to discover the location of that world amongst the mysterious Haunted Stars, and destroy the weapon. The launch that Stella and Akton found was an auxiliary craft from that secret mission and the survivor reported that they had been close to finding the planet when they were attacked. The Emperor asks Stella and Akton to lead a new mission to complete the task and find and destroy the Count's weapon and if possible find any survivors of the first mission - above all its commander - for he was the Emperor's only son. Stella and Akton are accompanied by Chief of Police Thor and police robot Elle who are now working alongside their former quarry in partnership. Akton, the pathfinder, plots a course into the heart of the Haunted Stars and pinpoints the locations of other crashed launches which they decide they must systematically check out. On the first planet they search they are attacked by a tribe of Amazon women loyal to the Count and only just manage to escape. The next planet is an ice world and again no survivors are found. But here their supposed ally Thor is revealed to be an agent of Count Zartharn who tries to abandon Stella and Elle on the ice planet after overpowering Akton. But fortunately Akton has untold resilience and manages to kill Thor and rescue Stella and Elle from an icy doom. The trio next head to the planet named Deomondia where the third and final launch landed. Stella and Elle scout the Imperial launch's crash site where they are attacked by the indigenous creatures of the planet who are troglodyte cavemen. The savages smash the robot Elle to pieces and capture Stella for food. But then Stella gets help from a stranger who manages to rescue her and together they shelter from the danger in a cave system. The stranger's name is Simon and he is the only survivor of the Imperial mission and what's more he is the Emperor's son. But the mission failed and they never discovered upon which planet the Count's ultimate weapon was located. The Neanderthals attack again and this time Akton comes to their aid with a light sabre and reveals that he has deduced that they are on the right planet already. The weapon is located deep underground and Akton says they must destroy it. They travel down into the internal workings of the Count's secret domain where a massive machine complex operates capable of generating untold forces sufficient to destroy entire planets. But before they can destroy it Count Zartharn himself arrives with a squad of guards and captures them. The Count is triumphant in his victory and now intends to use his machine to destroy the Emperor himself. The Count has sent word to the Emperor that his son is alive knowing that the Emperor himself will come to fetch him. But it is a trap and the Count has programmed the whole planet to self-destruct just as the Emperor arrives. He no longer need this planet because he has now incorporated his weapon into his mobile space fortress so he is quite willing to sacrifice it to kill the Emperor. The Count leaves Stella, Akton and Simon to their doom guarded by two golem robots as he leaves laughing in evil triumph. Akton sacrifices his life to overpower the robots to give his friends a chance to escape. Then the Emperor arrives to be reunited with his son unaware that he has walked into a death-trap. There is no longer sufficient time to get away before the countdown expires. So the Emperor orders his battle cruiser to envelop the planet in a stasis field that slows down time allowing them to get away before the planet self-destructs. The Emperor orders an all out fighter attack against the Count's space fortress to stop him using his ultimate weapon against them. But the evil Count's defences prove too strong and the Emperor's forces are decimated. It seems there is nothing that can prevent the Count's inexorable march to power. Until the Emperor comes up with a radical plan to use a floating Imperial city to hyperspatially ram the space fortress in a procedure known as starcrashing. Sacrificing a city is a heavy price to pay but the Emperor can see no other option but one borne of desperation. Stella volunteers to pilot the city and she is helped by Elle who has been repaired. Stella and Elle activate the engines of the quickly evacuated space city and steer it into hyperspace only to emerge into normal space when it is too late for the Count to react. With the course set Stella and Elle eject themselves into space and are picked up by Simon in a rescue ship. The city crashes into the Count's fortress and both he and his evil plans for universal domination are foiled. | |
| Starring: | Caroline Munro (as Stella Star), Marjoe Gortner (as Akton), Judd Hamilton (as Elle, police robot, [voiced by Hamilton Camp]), David Hasselhoff (as Simon, Emperor's son) |
| Featuring: | Christopher Plummer (as The Emperor), Joe Spinell (as Count Zartharn, evil leader of the dark worlds), Robert Tessier (as Thor, chief of imperial police) |
| Starlets: | Nadia Cassini (as Corelia, Queen of the Amazons) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Additional dialogue by R.A. Dillon |
• |
This Italian film was reviewed here because of the starring role of British actress Caroline Munro. Its original Italian title was Scontri stellari oltre la terza dimensione. |
• |
The version reviewed was dubbed into English and carried the title of Female Space Invaders although there is no story element justifying that title. Some of its known alternative English titles of The Adventures of Stella Star or Starcrash are better. |
| Writer: David Franden / Director: Jeremy Summers / Producer: Michael Holden | |
| Type: Music / Drama | Running Time: 87 mins |
| Liverpudlian Gerry Marsden, his brother Fred and their two friends Les and Chad have formed together into an affable musical beat group. They play at small gigs and are held in popular local acclaim, but they do not yet have a manager.
Gerry and Fred are art students along with Gerry's girlfriend Dodie Dawson. She is very determined to boost Gerry's group into the limelight which she thinks their talent richly deserves. Dodie uses her charm to persuade a local pop group manager called Jack Hanson to hear them play and he is impressed enough to sign them up on the condition they win a local battle of the bands competition. Hanson buys them new instruments and smart suits to overhaul their image. On the day of the competition hosted by Jimmy Savile the boys arrive in plenty of time for their slot but unfortunately their new instruments are accidentally taken away by a courier service delivering things to the city airport. Gerry and his friends have a mad dash across the city to recover their instruments and return in time to compete whilst Hanson does his best to push back their position in the running order with help from his celebrity friends including Cilla Black. At last Gerry and the Pacemakers get on stage and resoundingly win the show which qualifies them to represent Liverpool in a forthcoming European version of the competition. (Although the film ends at their initial local success with the prospect of wider fame still to come). | |
| Comment: Gerry & co play themselves in a kind of biopic of their early days - although whether the story told has any basis in fact or if it's all invention I don't know. The dash across the city to recover their instruments is played out in the style of a keystone cops silent movie. | |
| Starring: | (Gerry and the Pacemakers) Gerry Marsden, Freddie Marsden, Leslie Maguire, Les Chadwick (as themselves) Julie Samuel (as Dodie Dawson, Gerry's girlfriend), T.P. McKenna (as Jack Hanson, pop group manager), Mona Washbourne (as Aunt Lil, whom Gerry lives with) |
| Featuring: | George A. Cooper (as Mr Lumsden, Lil's boarder), Patricia Lawrence (as Miss Kneave, Lil's boarder), Deryck Guyler (as Art teacher), Eric Barker (as Colonel Dawson, Dodie's father) |
| Familiar Faces: | Jimmy Savile (as Himself, compère of competition), Cilla Black (as Herself, star guest performer at competition, [singing and acting role]) |
| Starlets: | Margaret Nolan (as Art class model), Dorothy Sue (as Waitress) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Made in Black and White |
• |
Based on an idea by Tony Warren |
• |
Julie Samuel receives an "introducing" credit |
| The Fiction-Makers (1968) | Previous Next |
| Writer: John Kruse / Director: Roy Ward Baker / Producer: Robert S. Baker | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 99 mins |
| Simon Templar is a handsome debonair hero who takes on dangerous assignments that appeal to his sense of fair-play and justice, particularly when beautiful women are involved. He does not work for any agency but himself and operates with the codename of "The Saint".
Simon has just attended the premiere of the latest film to be adapted from the highly successful "Charles Lake" spy-thriller novels by Amos Klein. The author himself is an enigma who shies away from any publicity and no one even knows what he looks like except his publisher Finlay Hugoson, who is an old friend of Simon's. Klein's next highly anticipated novel is soon to be published and Hugoson's offices have been raided and Amos Klein's address stolen. Hugoson asks Simon if he will travel down to Klein's cottage and provide protection. When Simon arrives at the author's home he is surprised to find Amos is in fact an attractive young woman who works under the male pen name of Amos Klein. Her lively imagination drives her intricate plots and she enjoys getting her hero into scrapes and then thinking out ingenious solutions. Her stories involve her hero's battles against a criminal organisation called "SWORD" headed by a leader called Warlock. Amos Klein tells Simon he can call her "Joyce Darling". Soon after Simon's arrival Joyce's cottage is raided and Simon and Joyce are overpowered and taken to a heavily guarded mansion headquarters. Their abductors mistakenly believe Simon is Amos Klein and Joyce his secretary - and to protect Joyce's secret Simon does not contradict them. Their captors have modelled themselves entirely upon Klein's dastardly fictional organisation of SWORD (Secret World Organisation for Retribution and Destruction) and have adopted the names of the principal members. Their leader therefore calls himself Warlock. They much admire Amos Klein's ability to work out ingenious solutions to any problem and have kidnapped "him" to devise for them a method of carrying out an audacious robbery of a high-security underground vault where many countries and rich individuals store their wealth. The Hermetico complex is formed around an ex-colliery and is protected by the latest in sophisticated security measures - some of which are quite deadly. Warlock has managed to get hold of the blueprints and sets Simon (as the thought-to-be Klein) and his "secretary" the task of working out a way to circumvent the measures - failure to cooperate will result in unpleasant consequences. Simon and Joyce make a play of cooperating while actually working out a way to escape the mansion. They manage to nearly get away but after a long chase they are recaptured - and their ingenious escape only further persuades Warlock that Amos will be able to help them. Eventually Simon and Joyce come up with a series of clever ways to overcome the deadly Hermetico security measures which training exercises seem to show will work. But then the criminals discover that Amos is really the famous Simon Templar and insist he lead the raid and take the brunt of the risk - and to ensure his cooperation Joyce will remain at the mansion and die by death-ray beam if he fails. Using the tactics they devised Simon and the SWORD team manage to infiltrate the impregnable base overcoming infrared beams and security personnel. But then Simon makes a break for it and traps the criminals in the base to be captured by the authorities - all except for Warlock who follows. Simon speeds back to the mansion to save Joyce only to find she has managed to use her own wiles to escape her immediate danger. Then Warlock catches up with them and he and Simon have a fight - at the end of which Warlock is caught by the death-ray beam and dies. | |
| Starring: | Roger Moore (as Simon Templar), Sylvia Syms (as Joyce Darling/Amos Klein), Kenneth J. Warren (as Warlock, leader of SWORD), Justine Lord (as Galaxy Rose, SWORD agent) |
| Featuring: | Peter Ashmore (as Finlay Hugoson, publisher), Caron Gardner (as Carol Henley, actress from Chales Lake films), Frank Maher (as Rip Savage, actor who plays Charles Lake in movies), Philip Locke, Tom Clegg, Nicholas Smith and Roy Hanlon (as four other SWORD Agents), Graham Armitage (as Head of Hermetico) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
This film was originally made as a two-part story (also called "The Fiction Makers") broadcast in December 1968 as part of the sixth series of The Saint TV series. Some additional scenes were shot especially for the film which were written by Harry W. Junkin. |
• |
The director was credited as Roy Baker |
| Fiend Without a Face (1958) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Herbert J. Leder / Director: Arthur Crabtree / Producer: John Croydon | |
| Type: Sci-Fi | Running Time: 71 mins |
| At a US Air Force base in the Canadian province of Manitoba, the military are testing a powerful new radar system with a greater range than ever previously possible. The base has an atomic reactor which is used to supply the vast power requirements of the radar system. However the technicians find that above a certain power threshold the range of the radar does not increase - as if the additional power is somehow being siphoned away.
When a series of unexplained deaths begin to occur nearby, the local people of Winthrop town are in uproar blaming the tragedies on nuclear fallout caused by the Air Force's atomic reactor. The deaths all seem to occur when the reactor is being used at maximum. The victims all expire with a look of sheer terror on their faces and when a post-mortem is carried out their brains and spinal columns are found to be entirely missing. Major Jeff Cummings from the base is tasked with looking into the matter in order to convince the locals that the deaths are not down to some sort of military experiment gone wrong. More deaths occur and (we see that) the victims are being stalked by some sort of invisible entity. In the course of his inquiries Jeff meets the elderly Professor Walgate and his young assistant Barbara Griselle. Walgate is a brilliant but eccentric scientist whose particular interest is in thought power. Walgate confesses that he had long been attempting to put his theories into practice by building some apparatus to focus his thoughts into moving an object with brainpower alone. But he always met with failure until one night when the power of his equipment is unexpectedly boosted during an electrical storm and Walgate manages to move an object just by thinking. With this encouraging development he adapted his equipment to channel the excess power generated by the military radar dish. Walgate goes on to explain that he managed to so focus his thoughts that a non-corporeal intelligence was created with an independent life of its own. But the thought creature turned out to be evil and to sustain itself it must feed on the brains of the living. The thought monster has become a mental vampire and has now spawned more of its kind with the same deadly hunger. The invisible mental fiends take over the atomic reactor and boost its output to maximum to feed themselves. This has the effect of manifesting the creatures into a visible form - that of a horrific disembodied brain which slithers around on an attached spinal cord in a snakelike manner while it hunts down and attacks further victims. Hordes of these creatures lay siege to the professor's house where Jeff and some associates are trapped. Fortunately the now visible creatures are easy to kill with guns but there are just too many of them and they look likely to overwhelm the house's occupants. Jeff realises the only way of defeating the menace is to shut down the reactor and so he makes a break for the base and uses explosives to blow up the reactor. Once the power has ceased the creatures all die. | |
| Starring: | Marshall Thompson (as Major Jeff Cummings), Kynaston Reeves (as Professor Walgate), Kim Parker (as Barbara Griselle, Walgate's clerical assistant) |
| Featuring: | Terence Kilburn (as Captain Al Chester), Stanley Maxted (as Colonel Butler, Jeff's commander), Robert MacKenzie (as Constable Howard Gibbons, town lawman), James Dyrenforth (as Mayor Hawkins, town mayor) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Made in Black and White |
• |
Based on a short story by Amelia Reynolds Long |
• |
The film has no British actors and is set in Canada with American centric institutions and characters. However it is included because it is listed as a UK film and was filmed in England. |
| Writer: Brian Comport / Director/Producer: Robert Hartford-Davis | |
| Type: Chiller | Running Time: 88 mins |
| Kenny Wemys is a socially repressed young man who lives alone with his elderly mother Birdy and has been brought up with a strong religious idealism. Birdy has dedicated her life to God and handed over part of her home for use as a chapel by a religious cult known as the Christ's Children Evangelical Crusade. The Crusade's services are conducted by a fervid minister who stirs the small band of devoted parishioners up into a frenzy of religious outpouring with his stark evangelical words warning of hell and damnation to any brethren who stray from the true path. The religion's leader is based in Arizona USA and tapes of his inspirational words are played at every service.
Kenny works as a private security guard for a firm of security specialists and also as a part-time bathing pool attendant. In the area of his security patrols a number of women have been recently murdered and (as we see in the prologue) a new naked victim has just been killed making her the third to be found in three months. We soon find out that Kenny is the killer and has made tapes of his victims' final conversations. Kenny has a belief that he is helping these shameful and sinful women by sending them to a better place reborn pure of soul and spirit. Birdy has diabetes and needs a regular injection of insulin which a district nurse comes to administer. A new nurse called Brigitte Lynch has just taken over the round and Birdy is very wary of her afraid that the minister will find out - because the religion forbids any form of medical intervention. Brigitte, for her part, thinks Birdy may be mentally ill and being taken financial advantage of by the crank religion she is so devoted to. Back home Brigitte suggests to her journalist sister Patricia that there may be an exposé for her in reporting on the practices of this manipulative religious cult. Meanwhile Kenny has stepped up his murderous activities, killing several new victims and Birdy begins to suspect her son may be responsible but covers for him believing that what he is doing is God's work and her overriding love for him blinds her to the horror of his activities. Patricia poses as a woman requiring spiritual guidance and seeking to join the church - she discovers she has to make significant sacrifices if Christ is to help her which involves a sizeable financial contribution towards the cause and a devotion and obedience to the words of the minister through whom the Lord speaks. Patricia goes through the sham of being anointed by Birdy. Later back at home she agrees with Brigitte that the religion is potty and she needs to get in and have a proper look around - So Brigitte agrees to sneak her in to the house when she is next there to give Birdy her insulin. Patricia finds the basement and all the Leader's tapes but has to get out quick when Kenny returns. The tapes are evidence of twisted manipulation that she will need to take to the police. Meanwhile Birdy makes a sinful admission to the minister that she enjoyed touching the new parishioner Patricia when anointing her and the Minister tells her she must atone by fasting for seven days. For Birdy with diabetes this is a death sentence but she cannot admit to her illness for that would mean admitting to taking medication which is an even greater sin - so she goes to bed to die. Patricia returns to the house to purloin the tapes but finds another secret room containing women's bloodstained underwear and realises she has uncovered a bigger story - the lair of the serial killer - but Kenny finds her and shuts her up in the room. Then Kenny realising his beloved mother is now very sick prepares to give her an insulin injection in defiance of the religious dictums of the minister - but the minister finds out what he is about to do and the two of them have a furiously brutal fight around the house. Kenny wins out and hoists the minister up in the chapel crucifying him on the large symbolic cross of their religion. Patricia at last manages to free herself from the secret room and along with Brigitte and her boyfriend who have just arrived looking for her see the aftermath of it all with the dead minister, Kenny collapsed in whimpering madness, and Birdy having died of her low blood-sugar levels. | |
| Starring: | Tony Beckley (as Kenny Wemys), Ann Todd (Birdy Wemys, Kenny's mother), Patrick Magee (as The Minister), Madeleine Hinde (Brigitte Lynch, district nurse), Suzanna Leigh (as Patricia Lynch, journalist and Brigitte's sister) |
| Featuring: | Ronald Allen (as Paul, doctor and boyfriend of Brigitte), Percy Herbert (as Prostitute's client), David Lodge (as CID Inspector), Maxine Barrie (as Inspirational Singer in Church congregation) |
| Starlets: | (Victims) Diana Chappell (as Poolside girl, whom Kenny tells to cover up), Jeannette Wild (as Prostitute), Susanna East (as Teenage girl, who has an after-hours jolly with Kenny at the pool), Hani Borelle (as Riverside Victim, in prologue, non-speaking part) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
The version reviewed here was the full version - but there is also a slightly trimmed version that shows less nudity in the "Riverside Victim" prologue scene and no nudity when the "Prostitute" is discovered in the cement. |
| Writers: Jim Moloney, Rudy Dochtermann / Director: Piers Haggard / Producers: Zev Braun, Leland Nolan | |
| Type: Comedy | Running Time: 95 mins |
| It is 1933, and in a Himalayan monastery Chinese master criminal Fu Manchu is celebrating his 168th birthday. His great age has been achieved with a special Elixir Vitae from which he must sip annually to restore his youthful vigour. But when a clumsy menial drops the remaining elixir Fu Manchu faces death unless he can swiftly prepare a new brew. Unfortunately the formula's constituent parts are items of the rarest and most particular kind that are hard to come by because they are singularly prized objects. But Fu Manchu knows that with his criminal brilliance he has the means to obtain the required ingredients and combine them to create his much needed elixir. Fu Manchu will start to age rapidly without a new infusion and can last only a few more months without it. He is able restore himself temporarily with electric shocks but each time they need to be stronger than the last.
The first target ingredient is the famous Star of Leningrad diamond on loan from Russia in a Washington museum. It is one of a pair of identical canary diamonds whose twin was gifted by Czar Nicolai to his cousin King George V of England. Fu Manchu's skilful henchman Tong manages to steal the Russian jewel but in order to successfully prepare the new elixir Fu Manchu will need both diamonds. The other ingredient needed is an Egyptian mummy. The diamond theft is an embarrassment to the Americans who desperately want it recovered and returned to the Russians. The thief left a calling card so the FBI know that Chinese gangs were behind it. Two FBI agents are sent to England to consult with retired detective superintendent Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard who has specialist knowledge of Chinese criminals. Nayland Smith looks at the evidence and concludes it to be the work of his former foe the insidious Dr Fu Manchu. The fact that Fu Manchu would be surely dead of old age by now only convinces Nayland Smith that the arch criminal must have discovered an elixir of life. He recalls that many years ago there was a robbery of two matching diamonds and an Egyptian mummy which Nayland Smith now believes Fu Manchu stole to create an elixir. And now it seems apparent he has run out and needs to make some more. When a London museum has an Egyptian mummy stolen, Nayland Smith's theory is confirmed and he knows that the next target will surely be the King George V Diamond held securely in the Tower of London. But Nayland Smith knows that Fu Manchu will use nefarious tactics and will probably try to abduct the King or Queen and hold them to ransom for the diamond. So he arranges with Sir Roger Avery, head of Scotland Yard, for a female constable to be used as a decoy to draw Fu Manchu out by impersonating Queen Mary at public events. The officer chosen is Alice Rage who takes to her royal impersonation with aplomb. Several failed efforts are made to abduct the queen but the culprits always manage to evade police capture. But then Fu Manchu at last succeeds in abducting the queen under the police's very noses and feels triumphant only to discover that his captive is undercover policewoman Alice Rage. However Fu Manchu finds he quite fancies her and turns on the full force of his charm which Alice falls for and switches sides to work for him. Together they hatch a plan to coerce Sir Nules Thudd, the man in charge of security at the Tower of London, to let them into the tower by exploiting his gastronomic weakness for exotic Chinese food. Thus Fu Manchu steals not only the canary diamond but all of the British crown jewels as well. Fu Manchu heads back to Tibet with his horde and Nayland Smith and his associates give chase in Nayland Smith's specially adapted flying house. Once home Fu Manchu prepares his new elixir which unaccountably does not work! What Fu Manchu does not realise is that Nayland Smith substituted the canary diamond for a fake and he has the real one with him. When Nayland Smith arrives in Tibet he and his party are captured by the Chinese criminal. Nayland Smith offers to give Fu Manchu the real diamond in return for the crown jewels and the criminal agrees. Fu Manchu takes the real diamond and prepares the concoction and restores his youth. Fu Manchu keeps his promise and returns the rest of the jewels. Moreover Fu Manchu knows he needs a worthy adversary to make his criminal endeavours seem more of a challenge and unfortunately Nayland Smith is getting on a bit now and will soon be unable to fulfil that role. So he gives some elixir to his archenemy so that his youth can also be restored and be ready when Fu Manchu unleashes upon the world his next evil plan for global domination. He gives Nayland Smith a taster of what is to come as he starts performing a rollicking musical number - he plans to take over the world with something called "Rock and Roll"! | |
| Comment: Although Peter Sellers plays both of the lead roles nothing is made of their resemblance. | |
| Starring: | Peter Sellers (as Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith, [dual roles]), Helen Mirren (as Alice Rage), David Tomlinson (as Sir Roger Avery, head of Scotland Yard, commissioner), Sid Caesar (as Joe Capone, FBI agent), Simon Williams (as DI Robert Townsend, Sir Roger's dippy nephew), John Le Mesurier (as Perkins, Nayland Smith's butler) |
| Featuring: | Stratford Johns (as Ismail, Fu Manchu's lackey), Steve Franken (as Pete Williams, FBI agent, Joe's partner), John Sharp (as Sir Nules Thudd, in charge of the Tower of London), Clément Harari (as Doctor Arnold Wretch, Fu Manchu's evil scientist), Lee Kwan-Young (as Tong, Fu Manchu's dacoit henchman), Rene Aranda (as King George V) |
| Starlets: | Clive Dunn (as Keeper of the Keys, Tower of London), Burt Kwouk (as Fu Manchu's Clumsy Servant) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on characters from the Sax Rohmer novels |
| The Fight for Rome (1968) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Ladislas Fodor, David Ambrose / Director: Robert Siodmak / Producer: Artur Brauner | |
| Type: Historical Drama | Running Time: 94 mins |
| The version reviewed was dubbed into German with no subtitles. So the following summary is an interpretation of what appeared to be going on from the visuals with supplementary guidance from an outline synopsis of the novel to help understand some of the minutiae.
Set in the AD 500s after the might of the Roman Empire has been shattered and what remains is a shadow of its former self, no longer to be feared by its neighbours. In neighbouring Constantinople, emperor Justinian of the Byzantine Empire realises there is an opportunity to seize Rome and restore its empire under his rule. Meanwhile, in a part of Italy autonomous from Rome, King Theodoric founder of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom is approaching the end of his days with his two grown up daughters Amalaswintha and Mathaswintha at his bedside. When the king dies he passes his legacy onto his only male heir Athalaric. But because the legatee is underage his mother Amalaswintha assumes regency. Amalaswintha states her intentions to attempt to bind together the Ostrogoths with the rival Byzantine Empire in a peaceful union. These are words of treason to the staunch patriots in her court who hold their independence dear. When the boy king dies Amalaswintha becomes rightful queen with no other male heirs. Mathaswintha openly displays her antipathy towards her sister and is accordingly exiled to live in seclusion for her disloyalty. A concord between Ostrogoths Witichis, Teja, Totila and Hildebrand reaches agreement that they will secretly work to oppose the queen's policies. And in Rome, a prefect called Cethegus has plans afoot that he hopes can help to restore and rebuild Rome to its past glories. He is politically astute and recognises the tensions between the two powers that have emerged in Rome's decline - the Ostrogoths and the Byzantines. Cethegus therefore begins a series of diplomatic initiatives to both of its leaders attempting to bring them into conflict with one another by creating suspicions and uncertainties. Cethegus learns that the emperor's wife Theodora has a lot of influence over her husband's decisions. She is very seductive and makes sexual overtures towards him. He is astute enough to know that is a dangerous road, but he decides to play her game and allow the seduction to happen and give her what she is after to smooth the wheels for her husband's cooperation. The Ostrogoth Totila meets and falls in love with a woman he saves from an escaped lion in the market. She is called Julia who happens to be the daughter of Cethegus. The canny Roman prefect permits the relationship to flourish thinking it may be of use to him. Cethegus' spies learn of the secret pact against Amalaswintha and he decides to warn the Queen that her life is in danger and she should go into hiding. Cethegus needs Amalaswintha alive because her policies suit his own agenda. So he arranges for the queen's disgraced sister Mathaswintha to give shelter to the queen within her exile residency. Mathaswintha extends her sister every courtesy and Amalaswintha is humbled by her sister's generosity and forgiveness. But as soon as opportunity arises Mathaswintha arranges a fatal accident for her hated sister and hence she becomes queen herself. Cethegus realises he has made a tactical error and allowed a more militant faction of Ostrogoths to gain power . He returns to Byzantine and via Empress Theodora persuades the emperor to supply troops to help ward off the threat. Now Mathaswintha is queen and the former conspirators give her their support. However it is decided that one of them should marry her and be the king and the one chosen is Witichis. Together they assemble an army to begin an invasion of Rome. Cethegus has assembled a mighty army of his own with help from the Byzantium emperor whose own General Belisarius commands. Cethegus watches from a mighty fortress believing that the under strength Ostrogoths have no chance. However the Goths use some surprising tactics by setting fire to the fields and conducting the battle under cover of thick black smoke making it hard to see what is going on. Thus the Ostrogoths gain the upper hand. Witichis and Belisarius fight each other in combat and Witichis defeats the great general. The Goths raise their king aloft as a great conqueror believing this victory is just a vanguard of what is to come. But inside the fortress walls Cethegus has been holding back another army of troops and he gives them a rousing speech in honour of the fallen general preparing them for the main battle still to come ... (END OF PART 1) | |
| Starring: | Laurence Harvey (as Cethegus, Roman prefect), Harriet Andersson (as Mathaswintha, Ostrogoth), Honor Blackman (as Amalaswintha, Ostrogoth), Robert Hoffmann (as Totila, Ostrogoth), Michael Dunn (as General Narses, Byzantine), Ingrid Brett (as Julia, Cethegus' daughter), Orson Welles (as Emperor Justinian, Byzantine), Sylva Koscina (as Empress Theodora, Justinian's wife), Florin Piersic (as Witichis, Ostrogoth), Emanoil Petrut (as Teja, Ostrogoth), Friedrich von Ledebur (as Hildebrand, Ostrogoth) |
| Featuring: | Lang Jeffries (as General Belisarius, Byzantine), Eva Strömberg (as Rauthgundis, Witichis' wife), Mircea Anghelescu (as Aligern, Ostrogoth), Ion Dichiseanu (as Prince Furius), Adela Marculescu (as Aspa, Mathaswintha's maid servant) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
From the best seller by Felix Dahn |
• |
The story continues in The Fight For Rome II (1969) which was filmed at the same time. |
• |
The version reviewed was dubbed into in German with no subtitles and carried the German title of Kampf um Rom |
| Writers: Ladislas Fodor, David Ambrose / Director: Robert Siodmak / Producer: Artur Brauner | |
| Type: Historical Drama | Running Time: 76 mins |
| The version reviewed was dubbed into German with no subtitles. So the following summary is an interpretation of what appeared to be going on from the visuals with supplementary guidance from an outline synopsis of the novel to help understand some of the minutiae. The story continues directly on from The Fight For Rome. This summary does not attempt to reintroduce situations or characters already mentioned and should therefore be read in conjunction with the preceding one.
The city fortress that Cethegus and his Roman troops are occupying is still under siege and King Witichis' army are setting up camp nearby preparing for a long campaign. Witichis and his inner circle of Totila, Teja, Hildegard and Mathaswintha have tactical discussions on how to conquer the Roman garrison. Mathaswintha is privately troubled because the defeat of Rome is not the direction she wished to follow and she does what she can to brew disagreement between the other members of the war council Meanwhile inside the city, Cethegus' soldiers are busy preparing defensive measures for when the enemy attack. Mathaswintha communicates with Cethegus via her servant girl Aspa to let him know the intentions of his enemies and he takes measures to counter them. The Ostrogoths begin their full-scale assault of the fortress perimeter The frontal assault is met with spears, burning oil and flaming missiles launched from catapults inside the compound. The attackers are multitudinous and are counting on being able to overwhelm the defences as they scale the side with ladders and mobile platforms. The battle continues on many fronts with a whole array of tactics employed by both sides to prevail in the struggle. Close combat begins as the attackers breach the perimeter gates. King Witichis is badly wounded in the midst of the fighting and has to withdraw himself. The attack is called off because the enemy are defending well and too many men are being lost for very little headway. Mathaswintha attends her fallen husband's deathbed and is heard inadvisably admitting she passed vital intelligence of their tactical intentions to Cethegus. Teja kills Mathaswintha for her duplicitous actions. Totila is chosen to be Witichis' successor. Meanwhile the Byzantium Emperor learns that his wife Theodora has become involved with Cethegus and he loses his trust in her and banishes her from his court. She subsequently kills herself. General Narses advises the Emperor that the time is near to make a move whilst the Romans and Ostrogoths are severely weakened in mutual combat. But until then they will continue to offer seeming support to Cethegus to ensure he has enough troops to engage his enemy. Cethegus plots with a man called Prince Furius who comes from a neighbouring land which is a friend and ally of the Ostrogoth royal family. Cethegus has offered Furius the hand of his daughter Julia in return for his cooperation. Julia is unaware of the reasons for her father's giving of her, but knows she does not want to marry Furius. So she deserts the fortress and joins the Goth camp to be with her true love Totila. When Furius arrives at Totila's camp he is greeted as a trusted friend and allowed to be present as the war council are discussing their surprise tactics for the upcoming battle. Furius later briefs Cethegus on his enemy's intent confident that he will have Julia once her new allies crumble in defeat and she realises her folly. Cethegus decides to abandon the fortress and allow Totila the seeming victory while preparing his forces, combined with those he has been sent by General Narses, to meet the Goths on the field of battle. Prince Furius has briefed him on the special tactics that the Goths have devised. When the two armies meet in battle the Goth's surprise tactics do not work as expected and Totila immediately realises they have been betrayed by Prince Furius. Totila and Furius fight out their differences and Furius is killed. But then Totila is targeted by an enemy archer and killed. Julia is riding with Totila and is bereft over her lover's death. She takes his distinctive cape and dons it herself and then rides away from the battle. Cethegus is unaware of his enemy's death so when he spots a distinctive rider he gives chase believing it to be Totila. Cethegus throws his lance and downs the rider. But when he turns the fallen body over he is devastated to discover he has killed his own beloved daughter. With Julia's death Cethegus has lost his desire to rebuild the Roman Empire and kills himself. But for General Narses of the Byzantine Empire the battle has only just begun as he amasses his vast army ready to sweep away the remaining battle weary opponents and conquer the whole of Italy. | |
| Starring: | Laurence Harvey (as Cethegus, Roman prefect), Harriet Andersson (as Mathaswintha, Ostrogoth), Robert Hoffmann (as Totila, Ostrogoth), Michael Dunn (as General Narses, Byzantine), Ingrid Brett (as Julia, Cethegus' daughter), Orson Welles (as Emperor Justinian, Byzantine), Sylva Koscina (as Empress Theodora, Justinian's wife), Florin Piersic (as Witichis, Ostrogoth), Emanoil Petrut (as Teja, Ostrogoth), Friedrich von Ledebur (as Hildebrand, Ostrogoth) |
| Featuring: | Eva Strömberg (as Rauthgundis, Witichis' wife), Mircea Anghelescu (as Aligern, Ostrogoth), Ion Dichiseanu (as Prince Furius), Adela Marculescu (as Aspa, Mathaswintha's maid servant) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
From the best seller by Felix Dahn |
• |
This film is a continuation of The Fight For Rome (1968) which was filmed at the same time. Part 2 has a much shorter running time than Part 1 - and that even includes a 7-minute recap of the events of the first film |
• |
The version reviewed was dubbed into in German with no subtitles and carried the German title of Kampf um Rom II |
• |
Although Honor Blackman's name again appears in the opening credits she does not appear anywhere other than in the recap - mainly because her character died in the first film |
| The Final Programme (1973) | Previous Next |
| Novel: Michael Moorcock / Writer/Director: Robert Fuest / Producers: John Goldstone, Sandy Lieberson | |
| Type: Sci-Fi | Running Time: 85 mins |
| Jerry Cornelius is a Nobel prize winning scientist who lives sometime in the near future when a third world war is in progress and the end of the world is predicted to be not far off. Jerry's father Alexander was also a scientist and he has just died in Lapland after having spent the past 9 years working in the field of advanced genetics. At his funeral one of Alexander's colleagues Dr Smiles asks Jerry if he can return Alexander's notes which he kept at his house in England including a microfilm which is vital to the continuation of the research. But Jerry, who has no idea what his father's research had been about, is not sure if he can help as the house is occupied by his unhinged brother Frank - but he agrees to get Smiles and his colleagues into the heavily defended house to look for it. Jerry meets the mysterious Miss Brunner who is the leader of the scientists and she accompanies them.
They manage to get into the house and after a gunfight between feuding brothers Frank and Jerry, they almost get the microfilm - but Frank turns the tables on them and gets clean away with it. Although he has no idea of why they want it he assumes it must be something of value and so he tries to sell it. Jerry and Miss Brunner are laying in wait for him as he meets with the potential buyer and eventually Frank is killed and they get the film. Miss Brunner then takes Jerry to the underground research centre in Lapland and reveals the nature of his father's work. Alexander Cornelius had been working on what they call "The Final Programme". The operation is run by the most complex computer in the world whose purpose is to contain the sum total of all human knowledge - its processing power is driven by two disembodied human brains of eminent scientists. Alexander's other achievement is an incubation chamber in which two specially chosen people will be merged into a new human who will be an immortal self-replicating hermaphrodite that will retain the knowledge gathered in the computer and be able to pass it on down the generations as inherited wisdom. The chamber requires immense power and the reason they are in Lapland is that the sun never sets for six weeks at this time of year and they have been storing the sun's energy inside a giant prism. Miss Brunner is the chosen female and Jerry discovers that his father's microfilm has revealed it is he that is the chosen male. Jerry and Miss Brunner enter the chamber and have sex as the stored energy of the prism is let loose. This immense heat kills all the scientists outside but when the process is complete a new man emerges from the chamber. It is hairy and with a stooped back and looking in every way like a Neanderthal man as it walks out into the outside world to start building a new age. | |
| Comment: As far as useful plot development goes nothing really happens for the first hour - they are just trying to obtain the microfilm which could have been done away with inside of 10 minutes - so the film doesn't really start going anywhere until the last 25 minutes once they have that microfilm and Jerry discovers what his father's work was all about. Miss Brunner has some sort of power that isn't well realised on screen to somehow "consume" her lovers - it is shown with her hand bearing down on them in a slow-motion effect and then cuts away - and it is left largely to the viewer to wonder what happened next until Jerry later makes some remark about this ability which explains things a bit. | |
| Starring: | Jon Finch (as Jerry Cornelius), Jenny Runacre (as Miss Brunner) |
| Featuring: | Graham Crowden (as Dr Smiles), Derrick O'Connor (Frank, Jerry's brother), Patrick Magee (Dr Baxter, potential buyer of microfilm), Sterling Hayden (as American commander), Hugh Griffith (as Professor Hira, Jerry's mentor), Harry Andrews (as Cornelius home manservant), Gilles Millinaire (as Dimitri, Miss Brunner's chauffeur), Ronald Lacey (as Shades, black market arms trader), Mary MacLeod (as Nurse) |
| Familiar Faces: | Sandra Dickinson (Waitress) |
| Starlets: | Julie Ege (as Miss Dazzle, cameo), Sandy Ratcliffe (as Jenny, victim of Miss Brunner's consumation power), Sarah Douglas (Catherine, Jerry's sister) |
| Find the Lady (1976) | Previous Next |
| Writers: David Main, John Trent / Director: John Trent / Producers: Gerald Flint-Shipman, John Trent, David Main | |
| Type: Comedy | Running Time: 85 mins |
| Bumbling detectives Broom and Kopek are assigned the task of looking into the activities of a couple of crime syndicate mobsters called Leo Legarrio and Vito 'Trigger' Vitalli who have recently arrived in the area. The criminals are spotted watching a concert hall where a young heiress called Victoria is practicing her opera singing. She is carrying out the wishes of her late father that she become an opera singer, but she knows she is not good enough because she lacks the ability to sing and dance at the same time. She much prefers her other job in a nightclub managed by her boyfriend Rick where she works as a straightforward troupe dancer supporting a drag-artiste act.
Victoria will soon come into her fortune which her uncle, J K Lewenhak, currently controls. He wishes to protect his financial future and has hired the mobsters to kidnap Victoria so he can secure himself a large ransom payment. But the mobsters are incompetent and without realising it kidnap the wrong girl although they report their success to Lewenhak and supply him with a ransom demand note that he can show to the police. Broom and Kopek get involved in this investigation as well. Meanwhile Victoria, unaware of all this, decides to pretend that she has been kidnapped so she can get out of having to perform in the opera and so independently she sends her uncle another ransom note which makes the case more perplexing for the incompetent investigators. Then Victoria is really kidnapped by an obsessed stalker and she is reported missing again making it seem as if she has been kidnapped three times. Victoria manages to escape from the stalker only to be recaptured by the mobster Trigger and taken to his funfair crazy house hideaway. The investigators get a lead on her whereabouts and all parties with an interest in the matter converge on the funfair resulting in a long knockabout hunt and chase sequence amid the funhouse attractions until at last Victoria is rescued and the criminals are captured. | |
| Starring: | Lawrence Dane (as Detective Sgt Roscoe Broom), John Candy (as Detective Kopek), Alexandra Bastedo (as Victoria), Peter Cook (as J K Lewenhak, Victoria's uncle), Dick Emery (as Leo, gangster), Mickey Rooney (as Trigger, gangster) |
| Featuring: | Ed McNamara (as Kominsky, police chief), Tim Henry (as Rick, Victoria's boyfriend), Richard Monette (as Bruce La Rousse, drag artiste), Elizabeth Murphy (as Ruby, dancer), Laurie Seto (as Flanagan, electronic surveillance expert), Bob Vinci (as Gino Frescobaldi, concert hall music director), John Bethune (as Henry, Lewenhak's chauffeur) |
| Starlets: | Anne-Marie Sten (as Leggy Dancer), Gloria Sauve (as Matty, wrongly kidnapped woman) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
This film was mainly a Canadian production but is reviewed here because it was a UK co-production and featured British actors Peter Cook, Dick Emery and Alexandra Bastedo. It was a sequel to It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (1975) which also featured the detectives Broom and Kopek played by the same actors. However that earlier film was an entirely Canadian production with no British connection. |
| aka: The Great Train Robbery | |
| Writer: Michael Crichton (based on his own novel) / Director: Michael Crichton / Producer: John Foreman | |
| Type: Crime Caper | Running Time: 105 mins |
| It is England in 1855 and a charismatic gentleman thief named Edward Pierce has set his sights upon achieving a most daring robbery. Every month a large quantity of gold bullion is transported by train from London to Folkestone for shipment abroad to pay the wages of the troops fighting in the Crimean war. The security arrangements for the train journey are considered to be more than sufficient with the bullion stowed in the guard's van in a pair of heavy-duty safes that require four separate access keys. These keys are kept in the custody of highly trusted officials from the bank and train company throughout the month.
Pierce conceives a plan to steal the gold during the train journey which has never been attempted before because of the seemingly impossible task of breaking into the impregnable safes while en route. To assist him Pierce recruits his like-minded girlfriend Miriam, who is a skilled actress; and Robert Agar, a screwsman who specialises in duplicating keys. First of all the team of resourceful crooks set about gulling the two bank keyholders by inveigling themselves into their circles of association until they discover where the keys are kept so they can copy them. Then they have to break into the tightly-secure railway office to copy the other two keys. Pierce has bribed the train guard to allow Agar access to the guard's van while they are underway and all preparations seem to be going smoothly until the police get wind of a robbery attempt and increase security arrangements by additionally keeping the guard's van locked during the journey. This adds a further level of unforeseen difficulty but Pierce is determined to carry on and their plan is adapted to cope. Agar is pre-smuggled into the guard's van by posing as a corpse in a coffin so he can open the safes using their duplicate keys and unload the gold once the journey begins. Concurrently Pierce, who boarded as an ordinary passenger further down the train, makes a perilous escapade over the carriage rooftops while the train is speeding along in order to unlock the guard's van from the outside. The operation goes well and the gold is hurled from the train in bags to be picked up by an accomplice. But at Folkestone station the police are waiting - they recognise Pierce and arrest him although his accomplices get away. Pierce is tried and sentenced to a long prison stretch - but upon his conveyance from the courthouse to the prison his loyal cohorts execute a well-planned action to liberate him from justice and they all make a successful getaway. | |
| Starring: | Sean Connery (as Edward Pierce), Donald Sutherland (as Robert Agar), Lesley-Anne Down (as Miriam) |
| Featuring: | Alan Webb (as Edgar Trent, safe keyholder), Malcolm Terris (as Henry Fowler, safe keyholder), Robert Lang (as Police Inspector Sharp), Michael Elphick (as Burgess, bribed train guard), Wayne Sleep (as Clean Willy Williams, climbing expert), Pamela Salem (as Edgar's wife), Gabrielle Lloyd (as Elizabeth Trent, Edgar's unmarried daughter), James Cossins (as Police Inspector Harranby), Brian Glover (as Ratting organiser) |
| Familiar Faces: | (cameos) Peter Butterworth and Donald Hewlett (as Gentleman's club members) |
| First Man Into Space (1959) | Previous Next |
| Writers: John C. Cooper, Lance Z. Hargreaves / Director: Robert Day / Producers: John Croydon, Charles Vetter Jr | |
| Type: Sci-Fi | Running Time: 76 mins |
| Lieutenant Dan Prescott is a test pilot for the US Navy Air Development Centre conducting solo test flights that take him to the fringes of the atmosphere and into space. His brother Commander Charles Prescott is the mission control commander at the base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The latest mission takes Dan higher than any man has ever flown before. As he reaches the edge of space he feels a euphoria that overwhelms him and succumbs to a mad impulse to go higher burning up all his remaining fuel giving him none for a controlled safe return landing. He is in space orbiting Earth when his craft passes through a strange mist before the orbit decays and the spaceplane returns to Earth. The spaceplane crashes over the border in Mexico and Charles goes out to inspect the site knowing that his brother could not have survived. The wreckage is coated with some kind of unknown super-hard rocky encrustation that defies analysis - there is no sign of Dan's body. In the area strange reports begin to come in of cattle being killed and drained of blood - and at a hospital a blood bank is raided and a nurse killed. The wounds show signs of silvery dust fragments that match the encrustation found on the plane wreckage. Charles begins to think that Dan may have somehow survived and become coated with the same substance that covers the plane whose resilience protected him from the impact of the crash landing but has turned him into a super-strong killer with a craving for blood. The trail of death shows that Dan seems to be headed back to Albuquerque and must have some reason and purpose still intact within him. Dan's skin has become covered in the super-hard rocky substance and bullets bounce off him but it is blocking his breathing passages and his breath is very laboured - the substance has raised the nitrogen level in his blood making him feel like his veins are empty and creating the blood-craving that is blocking most of his higher reasoning. But he somehow retains the instinct to know that his only hope is to head for the navy's test centre where he can be placed in a pressurised chamber and receive treatment. But when he arrives his hands have become so clumsy that he cannot work the controls and Charles has to go in with him. The rarefied air in the chamber returns Dan to his senses and he is able to communicate rationally to explain himself and suggest that this coating is a discovery that could be used to protect future craft from the stresses of space travel. Unfortunately because Charles is in the chamber the air cannot be depressurised low enough without killing him and so Dan eventually dies because of his inability to breath properly through the rocky coating. He is considered a hero who accepted the risk that brave men take in ventures such as the conquest of space. | |
| Starring: | Marshall Thompson (as Commander Charles Prescott), Bill Edwards (as Lieutenant Dan Prescott, test pilot), Marla Landi (as Tia Francesca, Aviation Medicine scientist, Dan's girlfriend) |
| Featuring: | Robert Ayres (as Captain Ben Richards, Charles' commander), Bill Nagy (as Assistant Chief Wilson, New Mexico State police), Carl Jaffe (as Doctor Paul von Essen, Aviation Medicine expert) |
| Familiar Faces: | Roger Delgado (as Mexican Consul) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Made in Black and White |
• |
Although this movie was set in America and featured all American characters, it was made in the UK for the American B-Movie market which is why it is reviewed here. It is not clear if all the actors are actually American or whether some are British actors playing Americans since there are no familiar British faces amongst them - with one exception - Roger Delgado (later to become The Master in Doctor Who) has a role as a Mexican consul. |
| Writers: Nigel Kneale, Jan Read / Director: Nathan Juran / Producer: Charles H. Schneer | |
| Type: Sci-Fi | Running Time: 98 mins |
| In the present day (1964, or near future thereof) the world watches as an historic expedition nears its climax - man's first journey to the moon. The UN1 lunar lander successfully touches down and the multi-national crew set forth upon the Moon. They start to explore and soon discover something most unexpected - a British flag! And with it is a proclamation claiming the Moon on behalf of her gracious majesty Queen Victoria in the year 1899 and signed by a woman called Catherine Callender from Dymchurch, England. It seems unbelievable that a completely unknown about Moon mission could have been accomplished so long ago and yet the proof seems plain to see. Investigators on Earth descend on Dymchurch to try and find out more - via the parish records they discover that Catherine Callender is now dead but her elderly husband Arnold is still alive and in a nursing home nearby. They visit him and he has an incredible story to tell... (the rest of story is a flashback to the events of 1899).
Arnold Bedford is a struggling playwright who, with mounting debts, has rented a cottage in Dymchurch hoping for some peace and quiet to continue writing. His American born fiancée Catherine Callender visits him but he reveals none of his financial troubles to her instead claiming the cottage is his own inheritance from an elderly relative. Their near neighbour is an eccentric inventor called Joseph Cavor who excitedly shows Arnold his new discovery which he calls Cavorite. It is a specially formulated substance that has gravity-defying properties and if an object is painted with the substance it becomes shielded from the effects of gravity making it lighter than air. Arnold can see the commercial potential of such a discovery and is keen to get involved as an investor to solve his financial woes - but Cavor's only ambition is to use the substance to facilitate a trip to the Moon and he wants Arnold to come with him. Joseph has already built the space capsule to carry them which has external blinds which will be painted with Cavorite and the raising and lowering of these will regulate the anti-gravity thrust. Catherine is appalled that Arnold is considering such a risky venture but he insists it is only for a couple of weeks and when they are back and he has helped Cavor get this lofty ambition out of his system they can start exploiting Cavorite for more commercially lucrative purposes. On the day of their departure Catherine discovers Arnold's lies about the cottage ownership and storms around to Cavor's house to confront him - but her timing is inopportune and to avoid her being injured in the take off blast she has to be pulled on board and unexpectedly finds herself on her way to the Moon with them. They arrive on the Moon and Catherine writes out a proclamation dictated by Cavor claiming the Moon for the Queen. Cavor and Arnold then venture out in modified deep-sea diving suits to explore. They plant the British flag and proclamation and then discover something quite amazing - evidence of life! A shaft with a mechanical canopy opens and they fall down and at the bottom there is a breathable atmosphere, hideous cave monsters, and a form of intelligent life that resemble man-size locusts which Cavor names "Selenites". They have technology far in advance of that on Earth with their energy generated by a giant revolving crystal powered from the sun's rays. The Selenites capture the Earth people and also bring the spacecraft down from the surface to disassemble and study. The Selenites wish to learn more about the nature of Earth society and Cavor tells then about the good things as well as the bad things such as wars. The Selenite leader is most concerned about the latter and fears that if men were to hear about the moon-dwellers they will come under attack. Cavor assures them that he is the only one who knows the secret of Cavorite and so attack will not be possible and he promises not to tell anyone back on Earth about them. But the Selenite leader decides that the only way to truly assure this is to not allow them to ever leave. Arnold acts to fight their way out - helped considerably by a power shutdown during a lunar eclipse which renders the Selenites temporality immobile giving the Earthmen time to make their spacecraft ready for lift off. But Cavor decides he must stay behind and not risk the chance of the war which the Selenites fear - he hopes to make friends with them and foster better understanding. With the Selenites now active again Arnold has no choice but to accept Cavor's decision to remain and he takes off with Catherine for the return journey to Earth. (Back to the present as Arnold finishes off his story) Arnold and Catherine splash down off the coast of Zanzibar and have to abandon the vessel which sinks without trace. When they are found they have no proof of their incredible story and so no one believes them. They returned to England and later got married. As Arnold grew older he continued to try and warn the authorities of the dangers to be found on the Moon but he was dismissed as a crank and it is only now in his dotage that at last proof has been found and his story is being listened to seriously. Nursing home staff had known of his Moon obsession and had shielded him from the news coverage so he had not known of the modern Moon landing expedition but now he knows he fears a disastrous clash of cultures is imminent. Back on the Moon the modern explorers find the same shaft that their Victorian counterparts did. But instead of an active working technology and a thriving community they find everything crumbling in decay. The Selenites are all dead and their entire society extinct - and the cause of their devastating civilisational collapse is considered to be a contaminating virus picked up from one of the Victorian visitors to which the moon dwellers had no immunity. | |
| Starring: | Edward Judd (as Arnold Bedford), Lionel Jeffries (as Joseph Cavor, inventor), Martha Hyer (as Catherine Callender) |
| Featuring: | (all small roles) Miles Malleson (as Dymchurch Registrar), Norman Bird (as Stuart, Cavor's gardener), Erik Chitty (as Cavor's hired help), Peter Finch (as Bailiff), Sean Kelly, Gordon Robinson and John Murray Scott (as Lunar Landing Crew) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
From the story by H.G. Wells |
| Five Days One Summer (1982) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Michael Austin / Director/Producer: Fred Zinnemann | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 103 mins |
| It is 1932 and Doctor Douglas Meredith is in Switzerland for a climbing holiday with his considerably younger wife Kate. He has known Kate since she was a little girl when she secretly loved him - then he went away for 10 years to India and when he returned to England he had a wife and rediscovered Kate who had since become a woman. They had an affair and are now on holiday together.
They arrive in the small Swiss mountain town and stay at a hotel where Douglas hires a local guide to take them onto the mountains. Their guide is a young man called Johann who finds Kate very appealing. On the first day they make an easy climb to give Kate some practise as she has never climbed before. Douglas has had some experience and was a doctor on the 1924 Everest expedition. On the second day an unplanned trip down an ice crevice to retrieve a dropped ice-pick solves a forty year old local mystery when the body of a missing bridegroom is found embedded in the ice. Kate and Johann feel attraction to one another and she admits that she and Douglas are not actually married. And later we discover that Kate is Douglas's niece but they love one another. Johann feels it is not right that Douglas is stealing her youth from her when she does not even belong to him by marriage. Kate tells Douglas that when the holiday is over she intends to stay behind after he has gone - he forbids it but she seems determined. On the final days of the holiday Douglas wants to climb a difficult peak. It is too dangerous for Kate to attempt so she stays behind at the way-station and Douglas and Johann set out alone. At the top Johann tells Douglas how he feels about Kate and Douglas gets angry and tells him he doesn't understand if he imagines that what is between himself and Kate is merely some sort of fling. Despite the ill-feeling they continue to co-operate responsibly with the climb. But on the way down they experience problems when a slip rope fails to disengage on a sheer drop and as they tug it harder it starts a rockfall. From a distance we see that one of the men has been swept away to his death but don't know which one. When the climbers are overdue a search team is organised and then one sole figure is seen returning in the distance. Kate cannot make out if it is Douglas or Johann and has mixed feelings on which she would like it to be. Eventually we find out it is Douglas who survived. Douglas has to stay behind for the inquest and with Johann dead Kate no longer has a reason to stay so she leaves for home telling Douglas she won't be there when he gets back having decided that she does need to start a life of her own away from him. | |
| Starring: | Sean Connery (as Douglas Meredith), Betsy Brantley (as Kate), Lambert Wilson (as Johann Biari, guide) |
| Featuring: | Jennifer Hilary (as Sarah Meredith, Douglas' wife in flashbacks), Gérard Buhr (as Brendel, hotel owner), Anna Massey (as Jennifer Pierce, guest), Sheila Reid (as Gillian Pierce, guest) Isabel Dean (as Kate's mother in flashbacks) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based in part on a short story by Kay Boyle entitled Maiden Maiden |
• |
Betsy Brantley and Lambert Wilson both receive "introducing" credits |
| Writer: Dalton Trumbo / Director: John Frankenheimer / Producer: Edward Lewis | |
| Type: Historical Drama | Running Time: 126 mins |
| In Russia in the early part of the 20th century a Jewish carpenter called Yakov Bok travels from his village to the city seeking work for his handyman skills. But he finds the authorities clamping down hard on the rights of Jews fearful of a popular uprising. In order to remain at liberty Yakov poses as a Christian and takes a job with an influential citizen called Lebedev living in his house whilst he decorates the rooms. However his daughter Zinaida regards him as a candidate to share her bed and sets about to seduce him. He succumbs to the temptation to get much friendlier with her but then changes his mind at the last moment leaving her frustrated. Lebedev is pleased with Yakov's work and realising he is an intelligent man offers him a job at his brickworks doing the accounts. At the works Yakov has to chase off some unruly teenagers and also contend with the dishonest and aggressive foreman Proshko.
Some time passes and soldiers come to arrest Yakov - he is uncertain why at first - then he discovers he is being charged with the rape of Zinaida and also that as a Jew he took up illegal residency in their household. The case is brought before the prosecutor to assess the charges and Zinaida speaks against him although Yakov denies it. Yakov manages to be the more persuasive and the sex charge is dropped. But in the meantime another charge is brought - that of murder! One of the teenagers in the gang he chased off has been discovered dead and the authorities have found witnesses prepared to swear that Yakov was fixated by them and threatened to kill them if they came back. Yakov is locked up in a prison pending investigation and trial. Because there is no clinching evidence against him the prison guards are given free reign to brutalise him in an effort to get him to confess although he stoically refuses. His defence attorney Bibikov makes some slow progress and seems to be making some headway in proving that it may have been Proshko who did it - but then Bibikov is murdered. Years go by with Yakov locked away and his case becomes well known amongst the people as a great injustice. Even the authorities privately accept that he probably didn't do it but cannot afford to lose face now and drop all charges against him. They try to cover his release by having the Tsar declare a general amnesty for all criminals of a certain type inclusive of Yakov. But Yakov refuses to leave saying that the implication would still be that he was a criminal and he wants a public trial to clear his name. A trial is the last thing the authorities want as it is almost certain he will be acquitted since it has now been proven that Proshko committed the murder. So the guards are given instructions to provoke Yakov into giving them a reason to shoot him in self-defence. But Yakov manages to come through that and is taken to his trial where he is given a hero's welcome by the crowds of his spiritual compatriots that have gathered outside the courtrooms. That is where the film ends as Yakov is walking into the court buildings and we don't discover the outcome. | |
| Starring: | Alan Bates (as Yakov Bok), Dirk Bogarde (as Bibikov, defence), Ian Holm (as Grubeshov, prosecutor), David Warner (as Count Odoevsky, Minister of Justice) |
| Featuring: | Georgia Brown (as Marfa Golov, mother of dead boy), Hugh Griffith (as Lebedev, rich citizen), Elizabeth Hartman (as Zinaida, Lebedev's daughter), Carol White (as Raisl, Yakov's ex-wife), George Murcell (as Prison Warden), Murray Melvin (as a deranged Priest), Peter Jeffrey (Berezhinsky, chief of secret police), Michael Goodliffe (as Ostrovsky, new defence attorney), Thomas Heathcote (as Proshko, brickworks foreman) |
| Familiar Faces: | Mike Pratt (as a priest giving false testimony against Yakov), David Lodge (a Russian prison guard) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel by Bernard Malamud. |
| Writer: Andrew Birkin / Director: Richard Loncraine / Producer: Gavrik Losey | |
| Type: Drama / Music | Running Time: 86 mins |
| Two small-time pop acts touring the club and pub circuit are intensely competitive and always trying to sabotage each others gigs. This ends one night after a car chase when one band has a crash and although no one is seriously hurt both bands call it quits and split-up with two members from each outfit deciding to get together and form a new band called Flame. They sign a deal with their old small-time manager Ron Harding who is a rather dodgy character running some slot machine halls as a side business and who employs several thugs to throw his weight around.
Flame consist of Stoker (the lead singer), Paul, Barry and Charlie. They play a few gigs and are moderately well received and then they get a remarkable offer from an organisation called The Seymour Trust which is primarily a merchant bankers with no track record of group management. The managing director Robert Seymour is a calm, well-educated and amiable man who tells them he is willing to put his considerable resources into a drive to make them into megastars. He has no interest in their music but says he doesn't have to like something to know it is worth investing in. The band sign up to him. With Seymour's backing and his management team stage-managing publicity events Flame soon hit the headlines and become hugely famous and start playing to packed auditoriums full of screaming fans and selling vast quantities of singles and albums. Seymour remains calm and efficient throughout just treating it all as an investment that is going well. Seymour never loses his temper - he just puts on an air of resigned indifference as he rationally explains, as if to a misbehaving child, just why the other person is wrong and he is right and usually he wins any discussion this way. Even when Ron Harding comes back into the picture claiming his contract with the group gives him rights to a huge chunk of their income Seymour doesn't flinch. He pays a disgruntled employee of Ron's to steal the contract from his office and is totally unconcerned when Ron's heavies beat that man up as a punishment. Seymour is unmoved by Ron's threats of violence although secretly he knows that if taken to court Ron could tie the group up in a legal battle that would take years to resolve. Seymour also realises that the fame and pressure is becoming too much for the band members and they are noticeably coming apart at the seams with squabbles and disagreements. Seymour knows the end is in sight and having made a lot of money from his investment he develops a well-timed exit strategy. He returns the contract to Ron and sells out his company's interest in them. And as Ron triumphantly goes to the band's hotel where they have been playing their latest sell-out gig to tell them he is now running the show he is greeted with the news that due to personal differences the band have split up. | |
| Comment: The fictional band Flame in this film are the same members that make up the real band Slade. However it is not a bio-pic film about Slade and they are not playing themselves. Each has an acting role playing a character and they all put in a reasonable acting performance. It is therefore a proper story film that could have been told the same way with any four actors playing the parts of the band members. Tom Conti as the entrepreneurial Seymour is especially good. | |
| Starring: | The Band: Noddy Holder (as Stoker), Jim Lea (as Paul), Dave Hill (as Barry), Don Powell (as Charlie) Tom Conti (as Robert Seymour), Johnny Shannon (as Ron Harding), Kenneth Colley (as Tony Devlin, Seymour's assistant) |
| Featuring: | Alan Lake (as Jack Daniels, ex-band member), Anthony Allen (as Russell, group's road manager), Sara Clee (as Angie, Barry's girlfriend), Nina Thomas (as Julie, Paul's wife), Susan Tebbs (as Judy, Seymour's wife) |
| Familiar Faces: | Tommy Vance (as Ricky Storm, pirate radio DJ) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
The film is not packed with well known Slade songs and the Flame group seem to be singing all-new material - only one of them "Far Far Away" was actually one I'd heard before that became a Slade single |
| aka: Asylum of the Insane | |
| Writer: Alfred Shaugnessy / Director/Producer: Pete Walker | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 91 mins |
| A theatre group of young actors is offered the opportunity to develop a new production of their own choosing and they are offered the facilities of a long disused theatre on a seaside pier to rehearse and improvise their ideas. They are seven in number with an eighth name-actress to be included as part of the arrangement. The theatre is large, gloomy and creepy but with nowhere else to stay the actors decide to sleep there as well. Before long members of their group start to disappear and end up being found dead. They meet an elderly gentleman who seems very interested in watching them rehearse and eventually all the goings on are found to be connected to an incident in 1944 when a jealous actor murdered his wife and her lover in the theatre although all that is publicly known is that the actor and wife went missing and were never seen again. Needless to say all events are linked and the old man is very relevant to the plot. | |
| Starring: | Ray Brooks, Jenny Hanley |
| Featuring: | Patrick Barr, Luan Peters, Judy Matheson, Robin Askwith, Candace Glendenning, Tristan Rogers, David Howey |
| Starlets: | Penny Meredith, Jane Cardew |
| NOTES: | |
• |
The title of the film is the title of the play they are producing and not indicative of the film's overall on-screen content. Perhaps this title is an unfortunate choice retrospectively as it might give the general discerning viewer who sees the title the impression it is some sort of porn/slasher film when it is in fact a fairly regular and actually quite good mainstream teens-in-peril type 1970s horror/mystery film. |
• |
Ray Brooks and Jenny Hanley are nominal stars only as it is fairly ensemble in nature. Ray Brooks is the leader of the group being the play's director and Jenny Hanley is the star-name who joins the actors as part of the arrangement - but it's not really a star vehicle for either. |
• |
Jenny Hanley's nudity in this is almost certainly a body double as her face is not seen in the same shot. Of the actresses to strip off she is the only one who had a body double. |
| Writers: John Gilling, Leon Griffiths / Director: John Gilling / Producers: Robert S. Baker, Monty Berman | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 94 mins |
| In Edinburgh 1828, Dr Robert Knox teaches anatomy to medical students. He uses cadavers for demonstrations but is only legally allowed to use the bodies of hanged convicts. However there is a black-market trade in bodies in which scoundrels who call themselves Resurrectionists dig up the corpses of the newly buried to sell for medical research. Dr Knox is prepared to pay for such bodies because he stoically believes it is essential for the furtherance and progression of medical knowledge although he neither condones nor condemns the practice.
Dr Knox employs a favoured student called Chris Jackson to work for him in his mortuary helping to store and prepare bodies. When Jackson is out at a tavern he steps in to assist a young woman called Mary Patterson who is being bothered by some drunks and gets himself accosted for his troubles. Mary is a prostitute and she takes Jackson back to her room at the brothel to help patch him up. Jackson finds her quite captivating and they begin a relationship. Meanwhile a couple of working class men called William Burke and William Hare enviously see how rewarding the resurrectionists ill-gotten gains can be but feel that grave robbing is not really for them. Burke rents out some property and when one of his elderly tenants dies, the pair of them decide they could try selling the body to Dr Knox. When they get a good payment for their troubles they see the lucrative potential - but rather than dig up graves they decide it would be easier to simply murder by suffocation poor unfortunates who won’t be missed and sell those bodies to Dr Knox as unexplained natural deaths. Burke and Hare proceed with their new line of work with gusto and Dr Knox continues to buy the corpses they supply asking no questions of them although knowing within himself that the freshness of the corpses and the regularity of their purveyance indicates that Burke and Hare are not typical ressurectionists. But Knox allows his pursuance of medical excellence to blind him to any illegality. These activities continue for some time until Burke and Hare pick as their next victim the prostitute Mary. Her lover Jackson is shocked when her body turns up on Dr Knox's dissection table. He knows about Knox's arrangement with the two scoundrels and he goes to confront them but he is stabbed in the back and killed. Because this is clear-cut murder the villains have to dispose of his body in another way. Events spiral out of control for them when they are seen disposing of Jackson's body by a local lad called Daft Jamie. They lure Jamie to a quiet spot to kill him too but Mary's friend Maggie catches them in the act and runs off screaming for the police. Burke and Hare are arrested amidst much public anger at their murderous activities. Hare turns King's evidence and testifies against Burke who is duly hanged. Hare is released without charges but the angry crowd take out their own form of justice and blind him. Dr Knox is roundly criticised and is tried before a medical council - he is eventually exonerated because his motives for using the bodies was done with honourable intent even if his ethics and morals were highly questionable. | |
| Starring: | Peter Cushing (as Dr Robert Knox), Donald Pleasence (as William Hare), George Rose (as William Burke), Billie Whitelaw (as Mary Patterson, prostitute girlfriend of Jackson), John Cairney (as Chris Jackson, medical student), June Laverick (as Martha Knox, Dr Knox's niece), Dermot Walsh (as Dr Geoffrey Mitchell, Knox's junior doctor, courting Martha) |
| Featuring: | Renee Houston (as Burke's wife Helen), Melvyn Hayes (as Daft Jamie), June Powell (as Maggie O'Hara, prostitute, Mary's friend) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Made in Black and White |
• |
There are two versions of this film. The continental version contains topless scenes (mostly of extras) that in the UK version are reshot clothed. There are also some dialogue differences and other variations in violent scenes. The UK version runs about 45 seconds shorter. Both versions were reviewed. |
• |
Some other films reviewed on this site which tell the same basic story are The Horrors of Burke and Hare (1971) and The Doctor and the Devils (1985) (although in the latter film the names are changed). |
| Writers: Jean-Claude Carrière, Patrice Chéreau / Director: Patrice Chéreau / Presented By: Vincent Malle | |
| Type: European / Thriller | Running Time: 109 mins |
| Set in Italy. Louis Delage is a businessman who is travelling with an acquaintance who is living in fear of his life from a pair of hitmen called The Berekian brothers. The brothers had once been circus performers with a knife-throwing act and use knives as their weapon of choice. Their target had killed someone and a contract was taken out on his life and they have been on his trail for a year now.
Louis Delage and his friend pick up a hitchhiking girl called Claire. She is an enigma who is not clear about her own sanity. For many years she has been kept locked up in a large isolated estate house being cared for by specialists treating her for madness - although she doesn't feel like she's mad and is not really sure who she even is other than her name because she has been imprisoned for so long. She has just escaped the mansion by gouging the eyes of a gardener who was trying to take sexual advantage of her. Claire's aunt Mrs Wagener is furious at Claire's escape. Her late brother was immensely wealthy but rather than leave his wealth to her he instead left it all to his daughter Claire - so by keeping Claire locked away under the excuse of madness the Aunt has managed to control the assets using Claire to sign the occasional bit of legal paperwork when required. The Aunt fears that now free Claire might discover that she is in fact one of the world's most wealthy women in control of a vast conglomerate company. The hunt is on to get her safely back under their control. Staying at a hotel the Berekian brothers finally catch up with Louis' companion and kill him - unfortunately Louis sees them and although he manages to get away the brothers decide he too must die because it is their staunch rule to never leave any witnesses. Louis goes on the run with Claire - both of whom are being hunted for entirely different reasons. Louis has a number of close-calls with the relentless Berekians and is eventually badly wounded by a thrown knife - but Claire drives them to safety. She takes him to a doctor but they are betrayed for a promised reward and the Aunt is alerted to Claire's whereabouts and quickly arrives with her entourage. Claire escapes but the Aunt takes the wounded Louis under her protection and gives him medical care at her facilities. Meanwhile the brothers manage to capture Claire knowing only that she was Louis' travelling companion and she might lead them to their quarry. She tells them she thinks that her Aunt may now have him but does not know where. Claire learns from one of the brothers' associates who she is - the daughter of the famous "Orchid". After they have gone Claire heads off to her old mansion where she had been locked up because she simply does not know where else to go. Later Mrs Wagener and her people turn up at the mansion with a bedridden Louis still being treated by her medical experts. She is surprised and delighted to find Claire is there and now safely back under her control. The Berekian brothers discover Louis' location and infiltrate the mansion massacring any who try to stop them and eventually get into Louis room and kill him. On their way out they encounter Claire who fights one off and gouges out his eyes in her standard defence tactic and the other brother has to help him get away. Now free of her Aunt's captivity and recovering in a proper hospital Claire at last starts to discover who she really is and begin to take control of the vast empire she owns as she commences a whole new life. | |
| Comment: The last ten minutes are a little bit confusing - the uninjured brother tries to attack the hospital where Claire is staying, possibly in revenge at what she did to his brother, but he himself is injured and dies in the attempt. Some essentials are possibly not explained as well as they might be - such as why so many of the characters have linked pasts with connections to a circus - and although the brothers know Claire is daughter of "The Orchid" it didn't seem to be adequately revealed who this "Orchid" was - or why he was called that and why he was so rich. | |
| Starring: | Charlotte Rampling (as Claire), Bruno Cremer (as Louis Delage), Edwige Feuillère (as Mrs Wagener, Claire's aunt), Hans Christian Blech and François Simon (as The Berekian brothers, hitmen) |
| Featuring: | Simone Signoret (as Lady Vamos, ex-circus performer), Rémy Germain (as Arnaud, Mrs Wagener's son) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel by James Hadley Chase |
• |
This film is a French/Italian/German co-production and is reviewed here because of the starring role of British actress Charlotte Rampling. The version reviewed was in English with English credits. |
| Flight of the Doves (1971) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Frank Gabrielson, Ralph Nelson / Director: Ralph Nelson / Producer: Ralph Nelson | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 97 mins |
| Finn and Derval Dove are a 12 and 7-year-old brother and sister who live in Liverpool. Some time ago when their real father died their mother remarried to a Tobias Cromwell. But she too has died and now the children live unhappy lives with Tobias who shows no love towards them. Little Derval is treated like a servant and Tobias gets very angry with her if his dinner is not ready for him when he gets home from work. Finn can see how frightened Derval is but he is too young to be able to stand up to their stepfather who has threatened to send him to a reform school if he misbehaves. Their only relative they know about is their mother's mother Granny O'Flaherty whom they have never met but know she lives in Ireland somewhere in County Galway and they have a picture of her cottage on a postcard. They know she is a kind lady and so they decide to run away and try to find her.
Meanwhile a brother of their late father called John Cyril Dove is feeling sorry for himself. He is a music hall entertainer whose stage name is Hawk Dove and he specialises in makeup and disguises. Hawk's bizarre vocation ostracised him from his family and now his temper has got him the sack from the theatre where he worked. Then he receives a letter from a solicitors informing him that his father has died and that the principal beneficiaries are the two Dove children. The solicitor's letter asks for assistance in tracing their whereabouts and goes on to say that if they cannot be traced, or are dead, then the inheritance will go to him. Hawk considers his options and knows he needs the money which he reasons should be his by rights anyway as the only surviving son. So he decides he must do something about it and make sure the children are dead - and his mastery of disguise will prove invaluable. Hawk learns that the children have run away to Ireland and follows. Meanwhile Tobias learns of the inheritance and knows that while Finn and Derval are still children he would control it. He contacts the police with the allegation that they have been kidnapped by Granny O'Flaherty and taken to Ireland. He makes sure their disappearance gains wide publicity and offers a reward for their recovery. Then he travels over to Ireland himself to help with the search. Finn and Derval have no money but have managed to reach Dublin by stowing away on a ferry. They have to live off their wits and Finn is forced to steal pies from a market so they can eat. The police are on the lookout for them because of the kidnapping story but the children think it's because of the pies and run for their lives whenever they see a police patrol looking for them. Tobias meets with the local Irish police who are coordinating the hunt. Also joining them to lend a hand is a detective from Liverpool police (who is actually Hawk in disguise hoping to gain inside knowledge on the children's whereabouts). As the days go by with no word, Tobias ups the reward and the children find themselves being betrayed by locals pretending to offer them assistance. But Finn and Derval always manage to get away. They meet up with a community of travelling tinkers whose friendly-seeming leader offers them food and shelter and passage to Galway. But he is actually biding his time waiting for the reward to go up more before informing the police. After a few more days of travel the tinker eventually reckons the reward is high enough and phones through with his information. Hawk is quickly on their trail and disguised as a woman journalist he "rescues" the children from the tinker's clutches pretending that all "she" wants in return is an exclusive interview and pictures for her newspaper. Hawk takes them to a remote ruined castle on a cliff to take the photos and gets them to pose near the edge intending to push them off. But the children realise their danger at the last moment and flee. They wander along the road and are on the verge of giving up thinking their search for Granny's cottage is hopeless when over the next slope there at last it is! Granny is delighted to see them having heard about their plight on the news and welcomes them joyfully to stay with her. But Tobias arrives to mount a legal challenge claiming he has official custody of the children and they should return home with him. Granny is resolute that she will not surrender them and blockades her cottage with the help of her friends. A judge comes to her cottage to mediate and Granny argues that the children are not of Tobias' blood and that they belong more readily with her where she will give them a loving upbringing. The children unequivocally state they want to stay with Granny and if they are returned to Liverpool with Tobias they will run away again at the first opportunity. The judge rules in Granny's favour and Tobias is forced to relinquish his claim but is permitted to court popular publicity by announcing to the press it was his idea for them to stay here for the good of their welfare. Hawk turns up and is full of remorse for trying to hurt the children who tell him he could have had the money if he had asked because all they really wanted was somewhere to live where they were loved. Hawk is arrested for impersonating a police officer but manages to escape and is not heard from again. The children settle into their new happy lives in Ireland. | |
| Starring: | Jack Wild (as Finn Dove, brother), Helen Raye (as Derval Dove, sister), Ron Moody (as Hawk Dove, uncle, disguise specialist), Dorothy McGuire (as Granny O'Flaherty), William Rushton (as Tobias Cromwell, children's stepfather) |
| Featuring: | Stanley Holloway (as Judge Liffy), Barry Keegan (as Powder Ryan, tinker leader), Dana (as Sheila, tinker's daughter), John Molloy (as Mickser, wagoner), Brendan O'Reilly (as Michael Rourke, detective), Noel Purcell (as Rabbi), Tom Hickey (as PC Pat Flynn), Niall Toibin (as Sergeant O'Casey) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
From the novel by Walter Macken |
• |
Helen Raye receives an "introducing" credit |
• |
Irish Eurovision singer Dana has an acting role and also sings a campfire song in character as the Tinker's daughter. |
| For Members Only (1960) | Previous Next |
| aka: The Nudist Story | |
| Writer: Norman Armstrong / Director: Ramsey Harrington / Producer: John P. Wyler | |
| Type: Nudist / Drama | Running Time: 84 mins |
| Jane Robinson is the chairman of Robinson Enterprises which for some time she has been running on behalf of her elderly grandfather Thomas Robinson who founded the company and built it up into an international concern. Now, however, Thomas has passed away and Jane is in sole control. Jane is only 25-years-old but runs the company with an uncompromising icy efficiency as she strives to overcompensate for any suggestion of her being a weak female unable to do a man's job. Jane treasures her grandfather's memory and admires his many great achievements, albeit with one notable exception that neither she nor his close family ever approved:- for Thomas had been a founding member of the Avondale Sun Camp for nudists. He had granted the club a lease on one of his prime land holdings in the countryside at a very nominal charge in order to facilitate his own enthusiasm for that particular leisure activity.
Jane lives with, and was raised by, Thomas' sister Margaret, whom she calls Aunt Meg, and the two of them are his only surviving relatives. In Thomas' will Meg is left a healthy income for life and, as anticipated, all other assets are bequeathed to Jane with the proviso that, until she reaches the age of 30, she must seek Meg's approval before proceeding with any major divestitures. Stephen Blake is the firm's accountant and business adviser and he advises Jane that her grandfather's substantial death duties cannot be met without selling some assets. Stephen suggests that since the lease on the besmirching nudist camp is soon to expire they could sell that land and the proceeds would be sufficient to cover the taxes. Both Jane and Meg are in complete agreement that they would sooner not have the company's good name sullied by an association with such an unpalatable activity as nudism, so it is the perfect solution all round. A letter is sent to the director of Avondale Sun Camp to inform him of the decision not to renew the lease. Bob Sutton is the camp's director and he receives the news with dismay. He feels sure that their founder member Thomas Robinson would not have wanted this ignominious fate to befall his pet project and it must have been a mere oversight that he made no provision for its perpetuity in his will. Bob decides to visit Jane Robinson at her offices to explain what the camp meant to her grandfather in the hope she will change her mind. However he finds Jane to be unswayable in her disapproval of nudism which she believes to be a decidedly unwholesome practice. Bob tries to persuade her to at least visit the camp and meet some of the hundreds of people for whom nudism is a way of life before she takes any action that will deny them their cherished oasis from modern living. But Jane considers such a trip quite unnecessary which causes Bob to lose his temper with her and angrily storm out accusing her of having no consideration for other people. Bob's forthright reproof flusters Jane for she is unused to being so roundly upbraided. And after he has gone Jane realises that there was something compelling about the man which she found rather attractive. Jane therefore decides she will visit the camp after all to see what it is about the place that both he, and her grandfather, found so appealing. And so a few days later at the weekend, Bob is surprised to receive a visit from Jane who tells him she will after all extend him the courtesy of an inspection although she has no intention of stripping off to do this. Bob dons some shorts for her benefit and gives her a guided tour. He introduces her to his brother Tim and Tim's wife Carol who are also members. As Jane inspects the facilities she is surprised to find all her preconceptions shattered. Far from being a grubby place inhabited by deviants, she discovers that the naturists are normal wholesome people who simply believe being naked is a more natural way to live. Jane finds herself charmed by the carefree innocence of the place and gains an insight into what her grandfather had found so enthralling. Jane leaves the camp with a lot to think about. By Monday morning a remarkable change has come over Jane. Her usual stringency has been replaced by cheerful bonhomie towards her normally badgered staff. Jane informs Stephen Blake that she has decided to keep the camp and instructs him to find another asset to sell. Furthermore Jane was so taken by what she saw at the camp that she decides to become a member herself. Bob is delighted by her change of heart and makes immediate arrangements to book her into the camp's guest cottage. Jane is initially anxious about taking her first steps outside her camp accommodation as a naturist, but once she has ventured forth she quickly feels at ease and forgets her reserve as she joins in with the camp activities and makes many new friends. Jane finds Bob very easy to be with and Bob feels the same about her and they soon start to grow close. This bond of affection is not to the liking of French camp member Gloria Phillips who had her amorous man-eating eyes set on Bob and is vexed by the appearance of a rival for his affections. Bob knows nothing of Gloria's interest in him and she is not his type anyway. But despite Jane's conversion, Aunt Meg emphatically refuses on principal to sanction such a disgusting public spectacle or accept it as being a wholesome practice enjoyed by fine and upstanding people of strong moral calibre. An establishment such as a nudist camp is not in keeping with a respectable business like Robinson Enterprises and Aunt Meg continues to insist the camp must be sold despite her niece's misguided approbation of it. Jane tells Bob she has hit a brick wall with Aunt Meg and she may not be able to stop the camp being sold after all. But Bob, who is a lawyer by profession, reasons that Aunt Meg can only veto positive decisions of action. To not sell the camp is essentially inaction and hence there is nothing to veto. Meg's privileges under the will do not allow her to force through her own decisions. Jane is nevertheless mindful of her cherished aunt's feelings and would prefer her to be supportive and she thinks she knows how to do that. Aunt Meg's 70th birthday is approaching and Jane organises a mystery trip for her. The destination turns out to be the nudist camp where all the members have turned out to help Jane's aunt celebrate with a surprise birthday party. Far from being outraged, Meg is touched by the genuine warmth and friendship shown towards her and sees for herself that there is nothing grubby or shameful going on here after all. With Aunt Meg's objection now withdrawn it seems nothing can go wrong. Jane's introduction to nudism has changed her outlook on life and her priorities have changed from being a career woman to thoughts of settling down with the right man and those thoughts turn increasingly to Bob as being that man. However Gloria's jealousy of Jane is still simmering and she resents the way this interloper has taken over and ruined her chances with Bob. Gloria finds an ally in Jane's business adviser Stephen Blake who has his own secret yearning for Jane. Both have an interest in seeing the blossoming relationship fail so together they hatch a plan. While Bob is away for a week on a business trip to Edinburgh, Gloria gains access to his apartment by charming the porter. Then, pretending to be Bob, Stephen phones Jane's secretary and leaves a message for Jane saying he has come home early and could she meet him at his apartment urgently. When Jane arrives the front door is answered by Gloria wearing a revealing negligee and appearing to be very much at home. Jane runs off in tears at the thought that the man she loves, and thought loved her, is so casually carrying on with another woman. She feels hurt and humiliated to have been taken in by a smooth-talking man who turns out to be a despicably caddish gallivanter. When Bob returns from Scotland he is perplexed as to why Jane is refusing to take any of his calls and has cut all ties with the camp giving no explanation to anyone. He thought they had been getting along so well and he simply cannot understand her sudden change of attitude. Bob becomes very depressed and his brother and sister-in-law become worried about him and are equally mystified by Jane's extraordinary unexplained turnabout. Aunt Meg has been put in the picture by Jane about Bob's perfidy but feels there must be more to this than meets they eye. She has met Bob and didn't consider him to be that manner of man at all. Jane's pride is preventing her from even allowing Bob to explain himself so Aunt Meg decides she must do some digging. She goes to the nudist camp by herself (without going naked) and speaks to Carol about the situation. As they swap notes it becomes clear that something very odd has taken place. Carol knows Bob was in Scotland and did not come home early because her husband Tim was with him all the time on the business trip. So who made the call to Jane's office, and who was the woman in Bob's apartment? When Meg conveys Jane's lurid description of the mystery woman, Carol immediately recognises her as being the camp coquette Gloria and it all starts making sense. Carol and Meg gather further evidence and present it to Jane who at last sees she has been the victim of an underhand trick and that Bob is entirely innocent. Jane returns to the camp full of remorse for not having had more faith in Bob's integrity. Bob is only too relieved that the mess has been sorted out and they reaffirm their love for each other. | |
| Starring: | Brian Cobby (as Bob Sutton, camp director), Shelly Martin (as Jane Robinson, new camp owner) |
| Featuring: | Natalie Lynn (as Aunt Meg, sister of Jane's grandfather), Joy Hinton (as Carol, Bob's sister-in-law), Paul Kendrick (as Tim Sutton, Bob's brother and Carol's husband), Jacqueline D'Orsay (as Gloria Phillips, camp flirt), Anthony Oliver (as Stephen Blake, Jane's business adviser) |
| Starlets: | Caren (as a non-speaking extra, [recognised from the Travelling Light trilogy of films]) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
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), 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). |
| For Men Only (1968) | Previous Next |
| aka: I Like Birds | |
| Writer/Director: Pete Walker / Producers: Pete Walker and Paul Mart | |
| Type: Sex Comedy | Running Time: 58 mins US (43 mins UK) |
| A man working on a fashion magazine changes jobs at the urging of his fiancée who doesn't like the idea of him being around all those glamorous women. So to please her he gets a job with a respectable puritanical publisher who, it turns out, is actually the secret publisher of a range of men's magazines. | |
| Starring: | David Kernan (as the man), Andrea Allan (as his fiancée), Derek Aylward (as the magazine publisher) |
| Starlets: | Monika Dietrich, Britt Hampshire, Jill Field, Monica Hahn, Donna Reading, Valerie Stanton, Jackie Poole, Christine Pryor, Carmen Dene, Susie Wood, Cindy Neal, Terri Martine, Sonia Elliot, Jo Wade, April Dawson (these are all girls seen milling around in bikinis but no nudity - only one model with the character name "Selena" is seen topless in a main-cast scene but character names are not shown in the credits so she may or may not be one of these listed names who are credited collectively as "Birds"). |
| NOTES: | |
• |
The US version (reviewed here) is about 15 minutes longer than the UK one with additional scenes added on containing nudity (not hardcore, just topless/nude). The extra scenes feature a different set of characters with a peripheral plot involving a rival magazine publisher whom we initially see auditioning a reluctant model and then he sends some private detectives to investigate the country mansion (where the main story takes place). Also there are scenes with a young couple who sneak into the mansion to use one of the bedrooms and who, together with a group of naked girls who were playing in a barn, are kidnapped by the private eyes - but none of these characters ever interact with any of the cast in the main story (which in itself features little or no nudity). Despite a lot of the roles in these extra scenes being extensive and with named characters none of them are shown in the credits. So all of the nudity in this film remains unidentified. |
| For the Love of Ada (1972) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Harry Driver, Vince Powell / Director: Ronnie Baxter / Producer: Peter J. Thompson | |
| Type: Sitcom Spin-off | Running Time: 84 mins |
| Walter and Ada Bingley are an elderly couple who married late in life and are now just approaching their first anniversary. They are both still blissfully happy and very much in love. Unbeknown to them their family and friends are planning a big surprise party. Ada's daughter Ruth and her husband Leslie are going to great lengths to arrange something special and keep it secret from the happy couple.
Walter, who still works as a grave digger with his friend Arthur, is planning on using his Post Office savings to buy Ada a special locket although his task is not without incident because he first of all loses the money and then Ada gives away his coat to the church jumble sale not realising her present is in one of the pockets. This results in their first big row and Walter storms off in a huff with his pride dented. Later that day news comes through that Walter has been knocked down by a car and is seriously ill in hospital. Ada rushes to the hospital full of regret for their argument only to discover that the casualty was in fact Arthur in a case of mistaken identity. The night of the party arrives and Ruth and Leslie have gathered all of Walter and Ada's old friends for a big reunion at the local hall. Leslie goes to collect his parents-in-law only to find the guests of honour have disappeared. Not knowing anything about the surprise party, the anniversary couple made their own last minute plans to go to London for a celebratory meal. When they get back they find the party in full swing and have to pretend they have not yet eaten as they are served with another full course meal. Walter makes a speech to convey his and Ada's warm appreciation for the touching gesture of all those gathered to help celebrate their big day. | |
| Starring: | Irene Handl (as Ada Bingley), Wilfred Pickles (as Walter Bingley), Barbara Mitchell (as Ruth Pollitt, Ada's daughter), Jack Smethurst (as Leslie Pollitt, Ruth's husband) |
| Featuring: | Arthur English (as Arthur, Walter's gravedigging mate), Larry Martyn (as Brian, Leslie's workmate), Hilda Braid (as Mrs Armitage, Ada's scatty friend), Duggie Brown (as Duggie, barber), Andrea Lawrence (as Sandra, sexy barbershop assistant, [credited as Andria Lawrence]), Nancy Nevinson (as Elsie Lockwood, woman in charge of party venue hall), David Collings (as Mr Johnson, driver in car accident), John Boxer (as Vicar), Johnny Wade (as Milkman) |
| Familiar Faces: | Gareth Hunt (as Policeman, [cameo role]) |
| Starlets: | Veronica Doran (as Carol, post office clerk) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
This is a feature film spin-off of the ITV sitcom of the same name that ran for 27 episodes over four series from 1970 to 1971. This film is a continuation of the story and not a retelling of the general premise. The film featured the same four main regular actors playing the parts of Ada, Walter, Ruth and Leslie. |
| Forbidden World (1982) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Tim Curnen / Director: Allan Holzman / Producer: Roger Corman | |
| Type: Sci-Fi / Horror | Running Time: 73 mins |
| Mike Colby is an intergalactic trouble-shooter who is sent to the planet Xarbia in response to a call for assistance by a team of scientists working on an isolated research base. The remote location is necessary because it has given the scientists the freedom to take experimental risks that would be unthinkable on Earth. The head scientist is Dr Gordon Hauser and he and his team explain to Colby that their work has been to try and find a solution to the galactic food crisis using genetic synthesis. They have developed a gene called Proto B which when spliced with an existing animal gene creates lifeforms that will provide fast growing and highly nutritious food.
But one experiment called Subject 20 developed out of control and has metamorphosed into something savage and dangerous that has gotten loose in the complex. They thought they had it contained in a sterile room but when it killed a man it was then unknowingly carried out of the room within his dead body and has since undergone further stages of change and increased in size. And the body of the dead man is also undergoing changes - it is becoming a featureless conglomeration of matter as the complex human system is broken down into a simpler organism - the reason for this is not yet clear to the base doctor, Cal Timbergen, who is suffering from a wracking cough. Events unfold with the creature being hunted and various base personnel being picked off. They observe that the creature is using the altered organism of the first dead man as its food stuff and realise that this is what is in store for all of them to provide the creature with food when it needs them - and is why they are being kept alive for now even though the creature has taken over the control centre and could switch off their life support. The creature cannot be killed by weapons since it has grown too large and can quickly regenerate damage - but Dr Timbergen realises there is one way it might be defeated by exploiting its ability to absorb matter. His cough is caused by a virulent cancer and he is near to death. He tells Colby what must be done which is to cut the cancerous growth from within him and feed it to the monster. Colby does the amateur surgery which the doctor knows he will not survive and extracts the tumour and as the terrifying creature attacks him in the lab Colby manages to stuff it down its throat. The creature's advanced metabolism ingests the cancerous material and causes it almost instant death leaving just Colby and Tracy as the only survivors of the ordeal. | |
| Starring: | Jesse Vint (as Mike Colby), Linden Chiles (as Dr Gordon Hauser), June Chadwick (as Dr Barbara Glaser), Fox Harris (as Dr Cal Timbergen), Dawn Dunlap (as Tracy Baxter) |
| Featuring: | Raymond Oliver (as Brian Beale), Scott Paulin (a Earl Richards), Michael Bowen (as Jimmy Swift), Don Olivera (as SAM-104, robot) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on a story by Jim Wynorski and R J Robertson |
• |
This American film is reviewed here because of the involvement of British actress June Chadwick although most of her acting work (films and TV) was done in the States after initially appearing in a few British films early on in her career |
| Forever Young (1983) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Ray Connolly / Director: David Drury / Producer: Chris Griffin | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 84 mins |
| A local parish priest in his mid-30s called Father Michael helps organise a youth club called the 706 Union. He regularly puts on popular 1950s dance nights where he plays and sings hits from the 1950s. He is idolised by one young boy called Paul whom Michael has taken under his wing. Paul's mother Mary is separated and Michael has become a father figure to the boy.
On one dance night a friend from Michael's past turns up. James and Michael have not seen each other for 20 years but from the ages of 6-17 they had been inseparable best friends growing up in the 50s. They both loved music and wrote and played songs together. They formed a harmony singing guitar duo and were having a modest level of success. Then a girl came between them when Michael slept with Maureen McMann whom he knew that James fancied and the friendship ended. Michael then had his calling and decided to become a priest and James became a teacher and their lives drifted apart. Although time has mended the main resentments, James still feels somewhat bitter as he looks back believing that the pair of them were on the verge of musical greatness and could have made it big, although Michael disagrees thinking they were probably just a flash in the pan. Michael invites James to perform with him at the next dance-night and they sing some of the songs they wrote including a song called "Forever Young". James stays around for a while and gets friendly with Paul's mother Mary. Young Paul feels resentful that James seems to be taking his place as Father Michael's friend and then even more so when he catches his mother and James sleeping together and he runs away feeling his mother has betrayed him. When he has been found Father Michael gives Paul some advice about forgiveness and not letting resentments consume you lest they end up affecting the rest of your life - a lesson he has learnt himself through his own experiences. | |
| Starring: | Nicholas Gecks (as Father Michael), James Aubrey (as James), Karen Archer (as Mary, Paul's mother), Liam Holt (as Paul) |
| Featuring: | Jason Carter (as youth Michael), Julian Firth (as youth James), Oona Kirsch (as Maureen), Alec McCowen (as Father Vincent), Jane Forster (as Cathy, Paul's sister), Ruth Davies (as Suzie, Cathy's friend) |
| Writer: Murray Smith / Director/Producer: Pete Walker | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 85 mins |
| German journalist Hans Wiemer is sent by his magazine's publisher on an assignment to England to write an expose on the way young German girls are treated when they go to become Au Pairs. The perception being that they are treated as slaves. A friend of the publisher asks that whilst Hans is in England he might try to find his daughter Greta who went to England to become an Au Pair but who hasn't been heard from in a worrying while.
In England Hans visits the family that Greta was meant to stay with but is told that Greta was unreliable and had left only after a week. Hans meets up with his former English girlfriend called Sue and together they visit a night-club frequented by many German girls. They meet up with Karin and Selena who say that they knew Greta and all three were flatmates for a while but describe her as a manipulative and lazy girl who treated them like her own personal slaves and never lifted a finger to help - eventually they told her to leave and they never saw her again. They suggest someone else who may be able to help Hans find out what happened to her next. So Hans speaks to Cynthia, a night-club stripper, who tells him that Greta came to work there as an exotic stripper who was quite popular and that the club's boss Carl Roberts took rather a shine to her. But after a police raid Greta left and Cynthia has not seen her since but she suggests he try asking a man called Roger Maidment who was her boyfriend. Roger is a footballer who is currently nursing a sprained arm. He paints a picture of Greta as a lovely sweet girl he met at a massage parlour while receiving some treatment but after a run-in with the parlour's boss (Carl Roberts again), which resulted in his arm injury, he has not seen Greta. Hans and Sue then speak to Carl who describes Greta in unflattering terms as a loose-moraled girl who was risking the reputation of his massage business by providing sexual favours to the clients. He says the fight with Roger occurred when Carl was testing Greta out to see is she would make a pass at him while giving him a massage and Roger arrived and saw them together and got jealous. But Hans and Sue suspect him of lying and Sue goes back to try and seduce the truth out of him. She finds out that Greta is being held prisoner by Carl on a houseboat on the Thames after Greta saw too much when Carl had had a policeman beaten up. But Carl is only telling her this because he intends to imprison her as well after he has made the salacious most of her attempted seduction. Hans and Roger follow the gangsters to the houseboat and successfully rescue the two girls and after a scuffle or two the police round up the criminals and all ends happily. | |
| Comment: The film is so titled not just as an indication of it having 3D sequences, but also because it shows how the same girl can be differently perceived by the various people she met when they are telling the journalist what she was like. | |
| Starring: | Tristan Rogers (as Hans Wiemer), Karen Boyes (as Sue) |
| Featuring: | Leena Skoog (as Greta), Robin Askwith (as Roger), Alan Curtis (as Carl Roberts, crime boss) |
| Familiar Faces: | Bill Maynard, John Clive |
| Starlets: | Felicity Devonshire, Jane Cardew, Minah Bird, Erika Raffael, Carole Allen |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Leena Skoog receives an "introducing" credit. |
• |
The 3D sequences were presented in the 3D process in the version reviewed - although it is far from successful when viewed on a TV and detracts rather than enhances. The sequences are essentially in B&W with a double offset image in red and green tints. |
• |
The opening caption reads:- "There are four sequences in this film photographed in THREE DIMENSIONS during easily recognisable flashback scenes. Please use the colored viewers provided on entry to this theatre. They will enable you to enjoy the pleasures of the THIRD DIMENSION." |
| Four in the Morning (1965) | Previous Next |
| Writer/Director: Anthony Simmons / Producer: John Morris | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 90 mins |
| There are two main stories that play out during this film. They are intercut but completely unrelated other than them both occurring in the early hours of a new day.
In one story a nightclub hostess called Ann clocks off in the early hours of the morning to go home. She is met outside by Brian, a customer who has taken a shine to her and offers to walk her home. As they make their long way across town they talk and find they enjoy each others easy company and start getting romantic. But when she declares that she loves him it frightens him off and they split up and when they get to the underground station they go their separate ways. In the other story Judi is mother to a young baby whose continual night-time crying is causing her overwhelming distress from anxiety and sleep deprivation. She feels it is so unfair that she is chained to the house while her husband Norman can seemingly do whatever he pleases and expect her to still be the happy sprightly wife whenever he chooses to come home. Norman rolls in merrily drunk in the early hours of the morning with his friend Joe and there are a series of acrimonious rows as she vents her bitter frustrations about her intolerable situation and he continually fails to appreciate her position or point. There is a third mini story in which an unknown female body is fished out of the Thames and brought back to the mortuary for identification. The body's face is never seen and there is a brief period where we wonder if the body scenes might perhaps be non-linear and it is one of the women in the two stories that has wound up being found dead the next morning but this is quickly dispelled and not played upon to any great extent. | |
| Comment: Although it is indeed set in the early hours of the morning it seems a little bit too bright in Ann and Brian's outdoors located story to actually be as early as 4am - it comes over as being more like 6am or so. Possibly therefore the "four" refers instead to the number of main characters (i.e. "Four (People) in the Morning"). | |
| Starring: | Ann Lynn (as Woman), Brian Phelan (as Man) Judi Dench (as Judi, Wife), Norman Rodway (as Norman, Husband), Joe Melia (as Joe, Norman's Friend) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Made in Black & White |
• |
There are no character names shown in the cast list. However in the Judi Dench story all the characters are called by the same first name as the actors that play them. The names of the two characters in the other story are never mentioned but for the purposes of the above description I've followed the same pattern and called them by the actors' own names. |
| Writer: Ennio De Concini / Director: Lucio Fulci / Producer: (not credited) | |
| Type: European / Western | Running Time: 104 mins |
| Set in 1873 in Utah during the Wild West. Stubby Preston is a smartly dressed card shark who travels around the state using his skills and marked cards to make money. But he arrives in the small town of Salt Flats on the wrong day. The sheriff immediately throws him in the cell with three others under what seems a harsh pretext. Stubby's three cellmates are:- a good-natured drunk called Clem; a negro simpleton called Bud; and a young fresh-faced prostitute called Bunny who is pregnant. However it turns out that the imprisonment is for their own protection because the town has decided to clean up its act and overnight rid itself of its gun-toting outlaw community with a decisive massacre to which the sheriff has agreed to turn a blind eye in order to free Salt Flats of the fear their lawlessness had created.
Next day, after a night of bloody violence, the outlaws are all dead and the sheriff releases his four prisoners and sends them on their way with a horse and wagon but no weapons. The four decide to travel together to the next nearest township called San City hundreds of miles away. They get along well and become a friendly unit with a common purpose. Along the trail they run into a sharp-shooting Mexican bandit called Chaco who decides to tag along with them for company and provide them with protection and hunted meat in return. Chaco is a dangerous killer and they are left with little choice but to accept his proposal. Stubby is basically a decent man with moral values but without weapons can do nothing against the bandit - but to help protect single-girl Bunny from Chaco's lust the group pretend that she and Stubby are married. After several days of travel Chaco shows his true colours and becomes vicious. He ties them up and rapes Bunny forcing 'husband' Stubby to watch seething with fury. Chaco then leaves the four with no weapons or transport and Clem with a wounded leg where Chaco shot him for trying to fight back. The four continue on foot with a feverish Clem being carried by stretcher. Along the way they find a wagon train of dead religious missionaries who have been massacred by Chaco for their supplies. They reach an abandoned mining town and take shelter but Clem dies from his wound. Bud has become increasingly erratic living in his own inner world and he takes Clem's body away. Bunny and Stubby have become close during their journey and become romantic. Later Bud returns with some meat claiming to have bagged a large animal. The three cook it and tuck in. Only later does Stubby discover the meat came from Clem's body. Although disgusted he knows that Bud has lost reason and cannot be punished. He doesn't tell Bunny about it but decides to quietly leave town with her, abandoning Bud to the private world into which his mind had descended. Stubby and Bunny meet up with a preacher friend called Reverend Sullivan and ride with him. To meet with the reverend's approval they continue the pretence of marriage. Bunny's pregnancy has reached its climax and they rush her to the nearest town of Altaville on a snow-capped mountain. Only men live there and have scant idea of what to do for a pregnant woman. They do their best and a baby boy is born although Bunny dies in childbirth. The townsmen take the baby to their hearts and they name him "Lucky". Stubby is still thought to be the husband and father but knows he cannot look after a baby and so allows the town to adopt the boy and bring him up - a duty which they heartily embrace. Stubby continues on alone now with a horse and a gun donated to him by the town. Along the trail he comes across a resting Chaco with two bandit friends. Stubby knows that Chaco would better him in a fair contest so without warning he shoots the two sleeping companions dead and shoots Chaco in the arm rendering him helpless and caring little that Chaco calls him a coward. He gives Chaco sufficient time to realise he is defeated and then shoots him dead taking his cold-blooded vengeance for what the bandit did to Bunny and the missionaries. Stubby then continues on his way. | |
| Starring: | (The Four) Fabio Testi (as Stubby Preston), Lynne Frederick (as 'Bunny' O'Neill), Michael J. Pollard (as Clem), Harry Baird (as Bud) Tomas Milian (as Chaco, Mexican bandit) |
| Featuring: | Adolfo Lastretti (as Reverend Sullivan), Donald O'Brien (as Salt Flat's Sheriff), Bruno Corazzari, Giorgio Trestini and Charles Borromel (as Altaville townsmen) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Adapted from the stories by Brett Harte |
• |
This Italian film is reviewed here because of the co-starring role of British actress Lynne Frederick. The version reviewed was dubbed into English and had English credits. The original Italian title is I Quattro dell'apocalisse. |
| aka: The Wild Little Bunch | |
| Writer: Roland Starke / Director: David Hemmings / Producers: Robert Mintz, Frank Avianca | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 98 mins |
| A single mother has fourteen children ranging from 17-years-old to a babe-in-arms - they are all boys except for the second eldest who is a girl. They live in a run-down house in a slum area of London that is scheduled for demolition and redevelopment. The children love their mother despite their hardships but what they don't realise is how sick she is because of the brave face she puts on for their benefit. Eventually mother succumbs to her pain and is rushed to hospital. Reg is the eldest child and tells all the younger ones they must pull together until mother is better. The welfare people send someone round to help but her presence is resented and they hound her out with displays of insolence because they think they can cope better on their own.
But then mother dies and matters are taken out of their hands. The head welfare officer Mr Sanders has the task of finding them somewhere to stay where they can all be together. Sylvia, the daughter, is taken in by a relative who only likes girls and the baby is fostered, but the twelve boys are a problem because their ages range so widely. Reg is determined that they must all stay together and Mr Sanders finds them a place in an orphanage run by Father Morris. But the boys hate it and become unruly and difficult for the nuns to control. Father Morris tells Sanders that they cannot cope with so many from the same family and the older boys are a bad influence on the younger ones. So Sanders has no choice but to divide the boys and send the older ones to a borstal and keep the younger ones at the orphanage. Reg turns eighteen and comes out of the system and decides he will attempt to bring his family back together. He breaks into their old house which is now boarded up and starts to make it habitable again. He then turns to an older girlfriend of his called Reena who has a baby of her own. She is fond of Reg and agrees to come and live with him and provide a home-life stability that the welfare would need to see to be convinced about allowing Reg guardianship of his siblings. But Mr Sanders needs time to vet the application and assess Reena's suitability. The family tire of waiting and during the borstal holidays the older boys abscond and return home to live with Reg and Reena. Then they sneak the younger ones out of the orphanage so they can be a family again. Only Sylvia declines to return because she has now settled into her new life and Reg doesn't blame her. Mr Sanders is at his wit's end and is irritated by the negative publicity his department is getting for the bad way they are supposedly treating this family when he is actually attempting to do the best he can for them. Sanders informs Reg that this stubborn uncooperative action of trying to go it alone isn't helping his cause and he must show himself to be responsible and do things by the book. Reg tells Sanders that the young ones hate the orphanage and somewhere else is needed before he consents to letting them be taken away again. So Mr Sanders finds a farm in the country where the farmer and his wife are willing to take them on. In return for this Reg agrees to try and persuade the older boys to return to the borstal and wait it out until they are eighteen. One older boy goes on he run and triggers a police hunt which lasts many days until Reg persuades him to come back. Reg decides that before they determine what to do they will visit the younger boys at the farm and, if they are happy there, the older boys will cooperate and return to school. They find that the young ones have taken to farm life with a relish and want to stay so the older ones return to the city to work their way through the system. Reg reckons that one day they will all live together again - perhaps on a farm of their own. | |
| Starring: | Jack Wild (as Reg, eldest son), Cheryl Hall (as Reena, Reg's girlfriend), John Bailey (as Mr Sanders, welfare officer), June Brown (as Mother, [she dies early on]) |
| Featuring: | Anna Wing (as Mrs Booth, live-in welfare worker), Liz Edmiston (as Sylvia, only daughter, second eldest), Tony Calvin (as Father Morris, orphanage), Diana Reevers (as Miss Field, Sanders' assistant), Alun Armstrong (as Tommy, [?didn't notice him?]), Judy Leibert, Jacqueline Hurst, Jane Wood (as Orphanage nuns) (The other 12 brothers) Christian Kelly, Frank Gentry, Peter Newby, Paul Daly, Richard Heyward, Terry Ives, Christopher Leonard, Sean Hyde, Alfons Kaminsky, Wayne Brooks, Wayne Dyer, Mark Lee Hughes |
| NOTES: | |
• |
The version reviewed carried the title The Wild Little Bunch which was the American title |
| Fragment of Fear (1970) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Paul Dehn / Director: Richard C. Sarafian / Producer: John R. Sloan | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 91 mins |
| Tim Brett is a former drug addict who has become an author and written a book about his addiction which he managed to overcome with the help of doctors and psychiatrists. He no longer suffers from the hallucinations that once plagued him. Tim is on holiday in Italy visiting his elderly aunt Lucy Dawson. Lucy is the founder of a charitable foundation that helps ex-convicts which she set up following the murder of her husband by a burglar. She has read Tim's book and is very supportive. Soon afterwards Lucy is found dead from a fall and although the local police think it was an accident Tim thinks she has been murdered for unknown reasons.
Upon return to England Tim begins investigating Lucy's life to try and discover why she might have been murdered. But as his enquiries continue he begins to receive strange phone calls warning him off and gets typewritten threats that turn out to have been made on his own typewriter meaning someone has been snooping in his apartment. A policeman visits him with lurid sexual assault accusations made by a woman he briefly spoke to on a train. But when Tim goes to the police station the CID have never heard of this policeman and find Tim's story highly implausible with his medical history of paranoid hallucinations making him less than credible. Tim continues to be warned to drop his interest in Lucy's death and the threats start to be directed towards his fiancée Juliet whom he is due to marry in a few days. He is contacted by a man called Major Ricketts from the Home Office who believes his incredulous story because his department have their eye on the shadowy perpetrators themselves. It seems Lucy had built up a list of criminal names as part of her charitable foundation that she was planning to use as blackmail to get her revenge on the criminal classes that murdered her husband. The seemingly odd occurrences experienced by Tim were being contrived by these people to make anything substantial he finds out seem like the ravings of an irrational man. Tim is reassured somewhat by his Home Office contact but continues to receive obscure threats that advise him to make sure to be wearing glasses at the church and on the day of his wedding becomes paranoid that something bad is going to happen to Juliet - he behaves increasingly oddly in front of the wedding guests as he begs Juliet to put on her glasses for protection but can offer no reason why it is so important. He runs out of the church mid-ceremony with Juliet determined to save her and passes Major Ricketts who starts laughing at him. Tim no longer knows if he is going mad or if Rickets is part of the conspiracy against him ... As the film ends Juliet is pushing Tim along in a wheelchair and we hear his paranoid thoughts vowing to bide his time and draw out the shadowy enemy that he still believes is masterminding a fiendish plot against him to stop him discovering the truth. | |
| Comment: We don't really know with any certainty if there was any real conspiracy or if it is all a result of Tim's developing paranoia which we are seeing from inside his mind as if it was really happening. The nature of Lucy's death was such that it could have been accidental and there might have been nothing odd going on at all - or it could have all been true. | |
| Starring: | David Hemmings (as Tim Brett), Gayle Hunnicutt (as Juliet Bristow, Tim's fiancée) |
| Featuring: | Arthur Lowe (as Mr Nugent, Ricketts' assistant at Home Office), Daniel Massey (as Major Ricketts, Home Office official), Mona Washbourne (as Mrs Gray, Lucy's secretary), Glynn Edwards (as CID Superintendent), Derek Newark (as Sergeant Matthews, bogus policeman), Mary Wimbush (as Neurotic woman on train), Bernard Archard (as Vicar), Adolfo Celi (as Signor Bardoni, Lucy's Italian friend, small role) |
| Familiar Faces: | Yootha Joyce (as Miss Ward-Cadbury, Mrs Gray's assistant), Patricia Hayes (as Mrs Baird, Tim's housekeeper), Kenneth Cranham (as Drug addict) |
| Star-Turns: | Flora Robson (as Lucy Dawson, Tim's elderly aunt, dies early on), Wilfrid Hyde-White (as Mr Copsey, retired probation officer) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel by John Bingham |
| Writer: John Elder / Director: Terence Fisher / Producer: Roy Skeggs | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 90 mins |
| In Germany in the 1800s Dr Simon Helder is a keen young surgeon who is following the experimental principals set down in an academic textbook by the once leading anatomist Baron Frankenstein who was eventually imprisoned for his later activities. Helder employs the services of a grave robber to procure him bodies which he can study and dissect. Unfortunately the robber is caught red-handed by the police and Helder's activities are exposed. His motives are misunderstood by an unenlightened society as being akin to sorcery and he is sentenced to five years in the State Asylum for the Criminally Insane. The same institution that Baron Frankenstein himself was sent to for his crimes some years ago.
Helder finds the asylum is cruelly run by the orderlies under the charge of the pusillanimous asylum director Adolf Klouss who is of a nervous disposition amid his equals but quick to throw his weight around amongst the vulnerable in his care including the more attractive women patients who provide his pleasure. Helder asks after Frankenstein but is told he is now dead. Helder is mistreated and hurt by the sadistic orderlies until a benevolent newcomer steps in with obvious authority and stops his mistreatment. The newcomer is the prison doctor called Carl Victor and Helder is taken to his study for treatment along with the doctor's beautiful mute assistant called Sarah. Helder quickly establishes that Carl Victor is in fact Baron Frankenstein himself who has taken a new identity after "killing" off the Baron. Victor has a strong influence over the prison governor and can get him to agree to any request. Victor quickly realises that Helder in not insane and employs him as his medical assistant in treating the inmates thus reducing his own workload and leaving him free to continue with his own private researches - although he is not forthcoming as to the nature of that. Helder's curiosity and interest in the Baron's former experiments leads him to snoop around and find Frankenstein's private surgery and once discovered the Baron lets him help. The Baron has a patient who was virtually dead after throwing himself from a window - the patient is a kind of hairy throwback with Neanderthal like features and immense strength. The Baron has been patching up the worst of its injuries with replacement parts from deceased inmates and now needs only to transplant an intelligent brain into the creature to complete his great medical triumph. Unfortunately the Baron's once gifted surgical hands have suffered burn injuries and are useless for precision work and prior to now Sarah has been performing the necessary surgery under his close-instruction. But Helder has proper surgeon's skills and under the Baron's guidance they transplant the brain of a recently deceased patient into the hideous looking creature's body. The brain belonged to Professor Durendel a gifted musician and mathematician who committed suicide after learning that he would never be released. His brain is quite shocked to re-awaken inside a completely different and hard to control, clumsy, guttural body that nevertheless is immensely strong. The professor becomes frustrated by his inability to speak properly or perform simple co-ordinated tasks that were once so easy - and he resorts to anger and rage. The Baron fears that the body may be dominating the mind and sending it mad. He proposes allowing the creature to mate with Sarah as a way of preserving the essence of it and create a new lifeform in the normal way. Helder balks at this outrageous proposition especially when the Baron reveals that his hold over the asylum director is that he knows that the director tried to rape his own daughter - who is Sarah - and the shock of that is what sent her mute. When he had his original body the professor was very fond of the compassionate Sarah whom he called his Angel and would not dream of touching her - but the Baron proposes using drugs to get around that inhibition. However before any of this comes to pass the creature escapes from its cage and goes on a rampage though the asylum - it finds and kills the asylum director whom it hates for what was done to Sarah - but is then killed itself by a rioting mob of mad inmates who think it to be a mindless monster. Baron Frankenstein is disappointed but is not too fazed and declares to Helder that this is a new opportunity and he has learnt from the mistakes made this time as he gets ready to begin anew with his experimentations. | |
| Starring: | Peter Cushing (as Baron Frankenstein aka Dr. Carl Victor), Shane Briant (as Simon Helder), Madeline Smith (as Sarah/Angel, Victor's mute assistant) |
| Featuring: | John Stratton (as Adolf Klouss, Asylum director), Philip Voss (as Asylum Orderly), Chris Cunningham (as Asylum Orderly), Charles Lloyd Pack (as Professor Durendel, inmate), Bernard Lee (as Tarmut, inmate), Dave Prowse (as The Monster), Norman Mitchell (as Police sergeant), Clifford Mollison (as Judge) |
| Familiar Faces: | Patrick Troughton (as Bodysnatcher, small role) |
| Starlets: | Andrea Lawrence (as Asylum Director's good time girl) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
This was the seventh and final of the Hammer Horror Frankenstein movies. The previous one was The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) - although that one had starred Ralph Bates as the Baron rather than Peter Cushing. However neither that film or the prior Peter Cushing one from 1969 (Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed) follow on storywise into this one which resets a number of things with a new starting scenario. |
• |
As he did in the previous film David Prowse plays the monster - but unlike in that film, here he is so heavily disguised by makeup that he is unrecognisable. |
| Writer: John Elder / Director: Terence Fisher / Producer: Anthony Nelson Keys | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 87 mins |
| In the German town of Karlsbad in the 1800s, Baron Victor Frankenstein is conducting experiments into the nature of the soul. He is aided by a keen but somewhat befuddled doctor called Hertz and an eager-to-please young peasant man called Hans who provides general assistance. Frankenstein's experiments have proven to him that the soul remains with the body even after a short period of death which he has demonstrated by super-cooling himself for one hour and then being successfully revived with no ill-effect. The next stage of his experiments is to attempt to capture a soul from a recently deceased body that has no chance of revival and transplanting it into another that can be mended. But for that he must await a suitable subject...
Hans is sent to the village to fetch some celebratory champagne from the café which is where his sweetheart Christina Kleve works with her father. Christina is very self-conscious because she is lame and has bad scarring over one side of her face which she keeps hidden with her long hair. Sensitive Hans sees beyond that and loves her despite her imperfections. But three local youthful toffs patronising the café cruelly tease and harass her about her inadequacies and Hans loses his temper with them and they have a brawl. The police break up the fight and take Hans away to cool down and the ribald toffs stay behind and get drunk. Christina goes home early and later Hans sneaks to her room and stays the night with her. Meanwhile the toffs get thoroughly plastered and after closing time they break back in to the café to help themselves to more liquor. Mr Kleve catches them and they beat him to the ground with their canes and unintentionally kill him - they quickly scarper the scene. Next morning, before the murder is discovered, Hans sees Christina off on a stagecoach to Irrsbad where she has an appointment to see a specialist about her condition - she won't be back for several days. Later Mr Kleve's body is discovered and circumstantial evidence points to Hans being the culprit. Although innocent, Hans is unwilling to provide an alibi because that would mean compromising Christina's honour and so he offers no defence. He is arrested and tried and the toffs provide testimony against him citing his furious uncontrollable temper. Hans is found guilty and sentenced to be executed by guillotine the next day. Frankenstein can do nothing to save him but sees it as an opportunity to further his experimentations. He arranges to have Hans' body brought to him after the execution and transfers Hans' soul into a holding chamber - then the body and head are buried. When Christina returns from her trip and discovers that her beloved has been executed she is so distraught that she throws herself from a bridge into a river and drowns herself. Christina's body is brought to Dr Hertz for medical certification and Frankenstein decides to use the shell of her body to try out the next stage of his experiment. Using his vast medical knowledge Frankenstein manages to revive her body and transfer Hans's soul into it to give it life - he then spends the next six-months curing her lame foot and treating her scarring. When the treatment is over Christina is perfect and beautiful but has no memory of her former life - either as Christina or Hans. Frankenstein takes Christina out to try and rouse her memories and when she sees the guillotine this secretly awakens the soul of Hans within her. She hears Hans voice in her head telling her what to do and she obeys the instructions. Under Hans command Christina uses her new beauty to one-by-one seduce each of the young toffs who are so taken by the exquisite stranger that they fail to recognise her as the girl they once so cruelly teased. Under Hans' vengeful direction Christina murders each toff once she has them alone. After the first two murders Frankenstein realises what is happening and tries to prevent the final killing but he is too late. And with his mission of vengeance complete Hans releases Christina's mind telling her she can now rest in peace and despite the Baron's pleas she chooses to kill herself once again by jumping into a ravine. | |
| Starring: | Peter Cushing (as Baron Frankenstein), Thorley Walters (as Doctor Hertz), Robert Morris (as Hans), Susan Denberg (as Christina) |
| Featuring: | Alan MacNaughtan (as Kleve, Christina 's father), Peter Blythe (as Anton, toff), Barry Warren (as Karl, toff), Derek Fowlds (as Johann, toff), Peter Madden (as Chief of Police), Duncan Lamont (as The Executed Prisoner, Hans' father in prologue) |
| Familiar Faces: | Colin Jeavons (as Priest, in prologue) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
This was the fourth of the Hammer Horror Frankenstein movies. The previous was The Evil of Frankenstein (1964). The next one was Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969) |
| Writer: Bert Batt / Director: Terence Fisher / Producer: Anthony Nelson Keys | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 96 mins |
| Set in Victorian London - it begins with an intruder breaking into a basement and finding a laboratory containing frozen bodies. He is set upon by a masked man but manages to escape and goes to the police but when they return they find the bodies gone and the owner departed. We see the masked man was Baron Frankenstein.
The Baron hides out at a boarding house run by Anna Spengler and stays under an assumed name. Anna's fiancé is Dr Karl Holst who works at the nearby Holburg Mental Hospital. One of the hospital's patients is Dr Frederick Brandt, a scientist who was sent mad while conducting some highly controversial research. Baron Frankenstein and Brandt were both working in the same field of brain transplantation but Brandt had become more advanced in his research - he had discovered a way to successfully freeze and store removed brains so that the knowledge of world renowned talents and geniuses could be preserved for posterity when their bodies fail them. He was going to reveal the secret to Frankenstein just before he went mad. Frankenstein therefore plans to free Brandt from the hospital and cure Brandt of his madness so that he may learn the secret. The Baron enlists the help of Anna and Karl by means of blackmail and they abduct Brandt and bring him back to a new basement laboratory Frankenstein has set up. But Brandt's body is weak and he will soon die so Frankenstein decides his brain must be transplanted into a healthy body and they abduct the man in charge of the hospital, Professor Richter, to suit this purpose. With his brain in a new body and healthy again, Brandt/Richter escapes to his old house and baits a death trap for Frankenstein who is pursuing him still after the secret formula that Brandt discovered, and waits for the Baron to arrive for a final showdown. | |
| Starring: | Peter Cushing (as Dr. Baron Victor Frankenstein), Veronica Carlson (as Anna Spengler), Simon Ward (as Dr. Karl Holst), Freddie Jones (as Professor Richter/Brandt after transplant) |
| Featuring: | Thorley Walters (as Police Inspector), Maxine Audley (Ella, Dr Brandt's wife), George Pravda (as Dr Frederick Brandt), Geoffrey Bayldon (as Police Doctor) |
| Familiar Faces: | Frank Middlemass, Windsor Davies |
| NOTES: | |
• |
There is no lumbering Frankenstein Monster in this film although there are obvious similarities to the original story. |
• |
This was the fifth of the Hammer Horror Frankenstein movies. The previous was Frankenstein Created Woman (1967). The next one was The Horror of Frankenstein (1970). |
| Fräulein Doktor (1969) | Previous Next |
| Writer: H.A.L. Craig / Director: Alberto Lattuada / Producer: Dino De Laurentiis | |
| Type: European / War Drama | Running Time: 100 mins |
| Set during the Second World War. In Scotland an attempted incursion of German spies is intercepted during a beach landing and two men are captured although a third gets away. The British commander Colonel Foreman questions the captured Germans and persuades one of them to talk. He is called Meyer and his loyalty is to himself and whoever will pay him the most. He tells Foreman that the third man was actually a woman of consummate acting skill with the ability to blend into her surroundings to achieve her mission objective. She is known only as Fräulein Doktor and in a previous mission in France she posed as a maid who stole research on poison gas from an eminent scientist. Her latest mission is to gather intelligence on the naval movements of Lord Kitchener so a German submarine can lay mines to destroy his ship and kill him. Despite Foreman's efforts to track her down she succeeds in her mission and returns to Germany.
Foreman becomes determined to eliminate this dangerous woman and engages Meyer on a secret mission to kill her using poison. Meyer returns to Germany with a story that he evaded capture and found his way back to Germany but the commander Colonel Mathesius quickly sees through the subterfuge and Meyer's mission is compromised. However Mathesius decides that Fraulein Doktor has become a liability because of a drug addiction and allows Meyer to carry out his mission anyway so that he can become a useful double agent trusted by the British. Meyer has dinner with the Fraulein and the poison is delivered by the waiter in her drink which she consumes and immediately feels unwell and makes a hasty exit. Meyer is devastated by what he has had to do because he was secretly in love with her. Later he is shown her dead body in the morgue and allowed to return to England to report his success. However Meyer has been duped by Colonel Mathesius and the Fräulein was playing along and is not really dead. It suited them to have the British believe she was dead so that she could be free to carry on with further missions. Her next mission is to organise a plan to get into Allied High Command in Belgium to steal the allied strategic defence plans for the Western Front. For this she poses as a nurse on a humanitarian Red Cross train. Her task is to keep the Belgium ambassador busy whilst specially chosen soldiers infiltrate the headquarters and copy the plans held in his office. Meanwhile back in Britain, Colonel Foreman becomes suspicious and heads off to Belgium with Meyer who is the only one who can recognise the Fraulein. The German mission succeeds and they get away with the plans and then use the poison gas formula the Fraulein previously obtained to wipe out their opposition on a nearby battle front. The Red Cross train leaves the area but the Fräulein gets left behind. Foreman arrives and although Meyer claims she is not the Fräulein out of his loyalty and love for her, Foreman thinks otherwise and arrests her. But then Meyer shoots Foreman dead to allow her to escape. Meyer himself is then gunned down by arriving German troops thinking him to be British. The Fräulein returns to Germany with another successful mission behind her. Her emotions are mixed between hilarity and extreme sadness that she was saved by a man who thought he loved her. | |
| Starring: | Suzy Kendall (as Fräulein Doktor), Kenneth More (as Colonel Foreman, British commanding officer), James Booth (as Meyer, German double agent), Nigel Green (as Colonel Mathesius, German intelligence officer) |
| Featuring: | Capucine (as Dr Saforet, research scientist developing poison gas), Alexander Knox (as General Peronne, Belgian commander) |
| Familiar Faces: | Michael Elphick (as Tom, laundry service driver) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Screenplay by H.A.L. Craig in collaboration with Vittoriano Petrilli and Alberto Lattuada |
• |
This is an Italian / Yugoslav film that is reviewed here because it is made in English and the main stars are British actors |
| aka: Con Man | |
| Writers: Bernie Cooper, Francis Megahy / Director/Producer: Francis Megahy | |
| Type: Crime Drama | Running Time: 75 mins (edited version) |
| Robin 'Mitch' Mitchell is a small time con man who makes his money swindling rich businessman with bogus investment opportunities.
One day walking down the street Mitch witnesses a street mugging and gives chase but when the perpetrator turns to face him Mitch backs down and the attacker flees. It turns out that the mugging was a gangland killing and the attacker a hitman called Dean. The hitman's boss is furious that Dean let a witness go especially as Dean is the only one who can identify him - and even though Dean says that he doesn't believe the witness (Mitch) will go to the police the Boss insists he tie up all loose ends and dispose of him. Mitch meanwhile, despite some moral agonising, has decided not to come forward to the police and risk exposing his own shady activities. But Mitch soon realises he is in trouble after a few narrow escapes as the hitman stalks him and he goes into hiding. He realises he will never be free of this dangerous man unless he takes action. So he makes like he is leaving town on a coach knowing the hitman will follow and gets off at a remote woodland location where he flees into the woods and sets off a trap he had previously baited for the pursuing hitman, killing him. Thinking he is free of danger at last he comes out of hiding. But the Boss has traced his identity and impressed with the way he dealt with the hitman he forcibly recruits him as the hitman's replacement. | |
| Starring: | Ian McShane (as Mitch), Gayle Hunnicutt (as Chris, Mitch's girlfriend), Keith Barron (as Gary Carter, Mitch's friend), Alan Lake (as Dean, the Hitman) |
| Featuring: | Peter Gilmore (as the Boss), Peter Birrel (Jeff, Chris' friend), Elizabeth Proud (as Gwen, Jeff's wife) |
| Starlets: | Luan Peters (as Rosemary), Sue Bond, Nicola Yerna |
| NOTES: | |
• |
The version reviewed (lasting 75 mins/UK PAL timing) has no nudity. However it has been noted that The Bare Facts Video Guide book mentions a topless scene featuring Luan Peters having sex with Mitch and Gary. That version has a stated length of 81 mins (US NTSC timing). The missing scene can be pinpointed as occurring between where Mitch decides to phone Rosemary up and then a bit later when he and Gary are seen being chased down the street by her angry husband - making it a bit confusing to anyone unaware that there was something missing. |
| French Dressing (1964) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Peter Myers, Ronald Cass, Peter Brett / Director: Ken Russell / Producer: Kenneth Harper | |
| Type: Comedy | Running Time: 82 mins |
| Jim Stephens is working as a deckchair attendant at the sleepy seaside town of Gormleigh. His supervisor is Henry Ligggot the town's entertainments officer and an old friend of Jim's. The town's visitor numbers are so diminished that even its headline events only attract a dozen or so spectators. The local Mayor is appalled and wants Henry to do something about it but Henry is stuck for ideas.
On his deckchair rounds Jim gets talking to a young woman called Judy who is working for the local Gazette as a reporter. She is an American with a very down-to-earth forthright opinion on things and she and Jim hit it off with their like-minded playful humour. Jim is a fan of sexbomb French film stars and his favourite is Françoise Fayol. He jokingly suggests that what Gormleigh needs is a film festival to pull in the crowds who will flock to see all the bikini babes that will show up. Next day he finds that news-starved Judy has written about his off-the-wall idea as a definite plan and the Mayor is inundated with phone calls asking about it. He calls in Jim and Henry to explain it and Jim blusteringly brags that he knows Françoise Fayol and can guarantee to get her to attend as the special guest. The Mayor agrees to the festival providing Jim can deliver on the glamorous French film star - in fact his job now depends on it. Jim, of course, doesn't know Françoise Fayol and has no idea how he's going to deliver on his promise. Françoise Fayol is currently in Le Touquet for the premiere of her latest film and so Jim and Henry travel over to France on the ferry hoping to meet her. They find Le Touquet is littered with blow-up dolls of Françoise in a promotional publicity stunt for her new film and Jim and Henry are lucky to unexpectedly bump into the actress on the promenade where they find her at odds with the film's producer Vladek about the stunt. Françoise wants to be considered as a serious actress but all her films involve her taking her clothes off and she is fed up with it. Jim is very sympathetic and catches her at the right moment to persuade her that she needs to get away from this nonsense and attend their festival in England where her films will be appreciated for their artistic merit. Françoise's arrival in Gormleigh is greeted with full civic honours and the crowds have gathered to see her. The fawning Mayor tries to take over the job of entertaining Françoise during her stay - but it is clear that Jim has the knack of keeping her sweet. Judy is getting to like Jim a lot and becomes a bit jealous of the time he is spending with the blonde bombshell even though they remain good buddies. On the day of the Festival the town bustles with the crowds that the glamorous event has attracted and the whole thing looks like being a roaring success. The BBC has coverage reporting on how the town has reinvented itself with this crafty cultural idea which neighbouring towns are jealously deriding as cheap. But when Françoise's arthouse film is at last shown to a packed cinema-house a riot breaks out when her character starts stripping off and it is called filthy rubbish. Judy writes a scathing review in the next day's paper which Françoise reads and is terribly upset about and she decides she will leave town a day early and not fulfil her final engagement. This is a disaster for the Mayor because she was due to open, and be the inaugural patron of, the town's nudist beach and the crowds will feel cheated if they don't get to see her in the buff as announced. The Mayor tells Jim and Henry they will lose their jobs if Françoise does not keep the engagement. Judy feels guilty and responsible that her review caused the star to leave. So unbeknown to Jim, Judy dons a blonde wig and dark glasses and impersonates Françoise and bravely faces the expectant crowds and civic dignitaries as she takes a swim in the nude on the designated beach. She is too scared to come back out of the water again though and when Jim realises it is Judy and not Françoise he "rescues" her with a covering and tells her he is flattered that she would do this to try and stop him getting into trouble. Jim and Henry are fired by the Mayor but they don't care any more as the three of them head off. | |
| Starring: | James Booth (as Jim Stephens), Roy Kinnear (as Henry Liggott), Marisa Mell (as Françoise Fayol), Alita Naughton (as Judy) |
| Featuring: | Bryan Pringle (as The Mayor of Gormleigh), Sandor Elès (as Vladek, Françoise's fiancé and film producer), Robert Robinson (as Himself, [TV reporter]) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Made in Black and White |
• |
Alita Naughton receives an "introducing" credit |
| French Quarter (1977) | Previous Next |
| Writers: Barney Cohen, Dennis Kane / Director: Dennis Kane / Producer: Dennis Kane | |
| Type: American / Drama | Running Time: 91 mins |
| In the present day a young woman called Christine Delaplance leaves her home town when her father dies and she heads off to New Orleans' French Quarter to look for some work. But she finds work hard to come by and travels around the town making enquiries but being constantly turned down - all the time unaware she is under surveillance by a mystery man. In the end Christine has to resort to becoming a topless dancer in night-club. She soon realises it is not what she wants to do and decides to go home but the owner Burt Tomlinson is only willing to give her a cheque even though he knows she needs cash to pay for her bus ride home. Burt's girlfriend Ida suggests she visit a woman who owes her a favour called Madame Papaloos who will be willing to cash her cheque.
Madame Papaloos is the proprietor of the local apothecary and seems friendly enough. She gives Christine a herbal drink as they chat when suddenly Christine comes over all feint and Madame Papaloos takes her to the bedroom to allow her to lay down and Christine is soon unconscious. Then Madame Papaloos makes a phone call to someone saying she has a beauty and the buyer should be very pleased ... Then the film shifts to 1910 and a young woman called Gertrude Dix is waking up in the bed of a brothel being cared for by the Madame, Countess Willie Piazza, who has just taken her in to her house as a new virgin. (We, the viewer, can see that Gertrude is the same actress who was playing Christine). Madame Willie tells Gertrude she feinted and has been murmuring strange things about wonders of the future. Trudy, as she is known, found it all so real but knows who she is and that this is her "real" life. Madame Willie runs a high-class respectable establishment and is preparing Trudy for the big day when her virginity will be "auctioned" off to the highest bidder amongst her rich gentleman clientele. A newcomer to town called Kid Ross becomes the establishment's piano player and he and Trudy find themselves attracted to each other and share the feeling of both being newcomers. A rival downmarket establishment wants Trudy for themselves and try to put pressure on Madame Willie to give her up although Willie is very protective of her girls and refuses. Kid Ross gets into a fight with a bar owner called Aaron Harris and humiliates him. Eventually the auction takes place and Trudy feels very uncomfortable having to stand naked in front of the rich gentleman bidders and so Kid Ross steps in and puts in his own high bid to save her. She is grateful and they sleep together and decide to marry. Then Trudy is kidnapped and forced to take part in a voodoo ceremony. The voodoo priestess is the woman of Aaron Harris and is terrorising Trudy to punish Kid Ross for humiliating Harris. Kid Ross finds out where she is being held and rushes into the rescue and a gun is fired ... Then we are back in the present day and the police have raided the apartment of the apothecary proprietor and rescue Christine. She was about to fall victim to a ring who kidnap homeless women and sell them abroad to the rich of other countries as slaves. The mystery man who had her under surveillance was a detective who was investigating the ring and keeping tabs on her, as a likely candidate to fall prey to the kidnappers, so that the perpetrators could be caught in the act. Burt and Ida were also part of it. The detective who saved her is called Sordik and looks the spitting image of Kid Ross. And as the film ends he and Christine seem to be getting along well and making friends. | |
| Comment: Although not specifically explained as such it presumably must be assumed that the events in the past are a dream that Christine is having while she is unconscious. Each actor involved plays parts in the past and present although some of them are just passing cameos in the present-set framing scenes. | |
| Starring: | Alisha Fontaine (as Trudy Dix/Christine Delaplane), Virginia Mayo (as Countess Willie Piazza/Ida), Bruce Davison (as Kid Ross/Inspector Sordik) |
| Featuring: | Ann Michelle (as Coke-Eyed Laura), Lindsay Bloom (as Big Butt Annie), Becky Allen (as Bricktop), Laura Misch Owens (as Ice Box Josie) Lance LeGault (as Tom Anderson/Burt Tomlinson), Vernel Bagneris (as Jelly Roll Morton), Anna Filameno (as Madame Papaloos/Madame Beaudine), William Sims (as Aaron Harris) |
| Starlets: | Dino Head (as Lady Lil/Stripper), Cheryl Kipe (as Stripper in Pasties) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Alisha Fontaine receives an "introducing" credit - although she had previously appeared in 5 other films starting in 1971. |
• |
Most of the cast played two roles - one set in the "past times" scene and the other in the present. A lot of the "present" scenes are cameos only. The above credits show both roles only if they were both important roles and in those cases the "past" character is listed first. |
• |
This American film is reviewed here because of the inclusion in the cast of British actress Ann Michelle. |
| Writer: Anthony Shaffer / Director: Alfred Hitchcock / Producer: (not mentioned) | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 111 mins |
| In present day London in the Convent Garden district there have been a series of grisly killings dubbed the "Necktie Murders" and during the opening act we are not yet privy to the perpetrator's identity. We are introduced to Richard Blaney, a man down on his luck and just fired from his pub job for suspected theft. We also meet a former RAF colleague of Blaney's called Robert Rusk who has set up a successful fruit and vegetable business and appears to be a good standing citizen.
Blaney goes to see his ex-wife Brenda who runs a matrimonial agency. They were divorced two years ago after a ten year relationship and although they are still friendly enough Blaney's raised voice in her office bemoaning his current run of bad luck causes Brenda's secretary Monica to think Blaney is being abusive towards her. The film paints Blaney as a suspicious character who seems a likely candidate to be an unstable killer. Next day at lunchtime Robert Rusk goes to the same matrimonial agency to see Brenda - he has waited until Monica had gone to lunch first. Rusk has been repeatedly turned away by Brenda for the inappropriate and bizarre sexual submissiveness he requires of his prospective partners but he is back to appeal to her again to find him an ideal woman. Rusk proceeds to turn nasty at Brenda's continued obduracy and rapes her and then he removes his necktie and strangles her - and we discover it is he who is the killer. Rusk leaves the offices unseen. Moments later by sheer chance Blaney arrives to see his ex-wife again - but when he finds the office door locked he leaves - however he is observed departing by secretary Monica as she returns from her lunch break and when she finds the dead body of her boss she calls the police and tells the investigating officer Chief Inspector Oxford that she saw Blaney leaving and mentions the argument he had with the victim the day before. Blaney becomes the police's prime suspect as a succession of clues all stack up against him making his guilt appear to be in no doubt. He becomes a wanted man with his details reported in the newspapers - in all innocence Blaney hides out with some friends wondering how he will clear himself. He contacts his barmaid girlfriend Babs with plans to travel to the continent with her until the heat dies down. But Rusk seizes an opportunity to capitalise on the police's mistake and implicate Blaney even further by offering Babs a hand of friendship. He lets her use his flat where he proceeds to murder her as well with his necktie. When her body is found later in a potato truck this makes Blaney appear even more guilty and even his friends turn away from helping him any further. With no one else left to turn to Blaney seeks out his last remaining friend Rusk for help completely unaware of the other man's true nature. Rusk cannot believe his luck as he takes Blaney back to his flat to hide out. Rusk then proceeds to turn him in to the police after hiding some of the victims' belongings in Blaney's bag to incriminate him further. With that twist Blaney knows that it must be Rusk who is the guilty party - but with the evidence stacked against him no one will believe him and he is charged with the murders, found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. As he is led down to the cells Blaney shouts out his determination to get even with Rusk. After the trial Chief Inspector Oxford is left with a nagging thought about Blaney's accusations towards Rusk and decides to continue his investigations and discovers that Rusk was also a client of the matrimonial agency and had bizarre sexual habits. Meanwhile in prison Blaney injures himself in order to get into the prison hospital from where he manages to escape. He makes his way to Rusk's flat where he is shocked to find a newly dead body of a strangled victim - moments later Inspector Oxford rushes in knowing this flat is where the escaped Blaney was likely to come and for an awful moment it looks as though Blaney is going to be blamed for this new murder as well. Then Rusk, oblivious to the two new arrivals, comes in hauling a trunk with which to move the body - he is caught in the act by the Inspector and Blaney is cleared. THE END. | |
| Starring: | Jon Finch (as Richard Blaney), Barry Foster (as Robert Rusk), Alec McCowen (as Chief Inspector Oxford) , Anna Massey (as Barbara 'Babs' Milligan, Blaney's girlfriend) |
| Featuring: | Barbara Leigh-Hunt (as Brenda Blaney, Blaney's ex-wife), Jean Marsh (as Monica Barling, Brenda's secretary), Clive Swift (as Johnny Porter, Blaney's friend), Billie Whitelaw (as Hetty Porter, Johnny's wife), Bernard Cribbins (as Felix Forsythe, pub landlord), Vivien Merchant (as Mrs Oxford, Inspector's wife), Michael Bates (as DS Spearman) |
| Starlets: | Susan Travers (as Final Victim found in bed, [uncredited bit part]) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Arthur La Bern |
• |
The nudity indicated for both Anna Massey and Barbara Leigh-Hunt was performed by body doubles. |
| Writers: Jack Russell, Vernon Harris / Director/Producer: Lewis Gilbert | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 96 mins |
| Paul Harrison is a 15-year-old English boy who lives in Paris with his rich father. His father is always very busy and has no time for Paul and his mother has long ago abandoned the family. His father has plans to re-marry and Paul feels very lonely and unloved.
Michelle Latour is a 14-year-old French girl whose mother died in childbirth and whose father has just recently died. She loved her father very much and was deeply devoted to him but now that he has gone her only family is a cousin in Paris who takes her in as a duty but considers it a bit of an inconvenience. Consequently Michelle feels very isolated. Paul and Michelle chance to meet while out walking by themselves and get chatting. They meet up a few times and like each other and decide to spend a day out together in the country. In the end they stay out all night sleeping (separately) in a barn after deciding that their families don't really care about them so won't really miss them. Michelle has decided she is not going back to her cousin and will instead go and live in a remote cottage in Southern France that her father owned where they used to go on holidays together. Paul decides to go with her for a few days feeling certain that his uncaring father won't miss him. The remote and isolated cottage is a perfect hideaway for the two young friends and they end up staying there permanently. As the weeks and months go by they are drawn together romantically and end up becoming lovers. They are both blissfully happy with each other and consider what they have to be an idyllic relationship. They piggyback a wedding service and exchange vows pretending the minister's words are for them and thereafter consider themselves married. They find it difficult to get by as Paul finds it hard to get work and they often go hungry. But their love remains too strong for them to abandon what they have and return to their homes and so they ride out the hard times and eventually Paul finds some casual labouring work at a vineyard and they are able to maintain a basic level of subsistence. Michelle eventually becomes pregnant and is delighted at the prospect of having a baby. She is determined not to involve anyone else and have the baby at home with Paul's help. They have a baby girl and everything seems perfect. By this time a year has gone by since they began living together in the cottage. Paul's father has never given up looking for his son who has for the past year been a missing person that the police have been searching for. The detectives at last get to the general area where the young lovers are living and the vineyard owner recognises Paul's photograph although doesn't know where he lives. And as Paul leaves for work as normal the next morning waving Michelle and the baby goodbye, he is unaware of the reception that will be waiting for him when he arrives at work that is about to burst the bubble of the young couple's idyllic existence. THE END | |
| Comment: The film ends with Paul heading off for work blissfully unaware of the viewer's foreknowledge of the detectives waiting for him at the vineyard - we don't see his arrival or the consequences that follow for him and Michelle. (However there was a sequel film). | |
| Starring: | Sean Bury (as Paul Harrison), Anicée Alvina (as Michelle Latour) |
| Featuring: | Ronald Lewis (as Mr Robert Harrison, Paul's father), Toby Robins (as Mrs Jane Gardner, Robert's fiancée), Pascale Roberts (as Annie, Michelle's cousin), Sady Rebbot (as Pierre, Annie's boyfriend) |
| Familiar Faces: | Joan Hickson (as English Lady in Bookstore) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Original story by Lewis Gilbert |
• |
Sean Bury and Anicée Alvina both receive "introducing" credits. |
• |
The story continues in Paul and Michelle (1974) |
| Writer: Tudor Gates / Director: Peter Collinson / Producers: Harry Fine, Michael Style | |
| Type: Thriller | Running Time: 83 mins |
| A young college girl called Amanda agrees to do some babysitting for a middle-aged couple when their regular sitter is unavailable. Mr and Mrs Lloyd live in an isolated house miles from anywhere although since Amanda claims she is not easily spooked she has no problems walking through the woods to get to their house in the dark. Helen Lloyd appears very uneasy about leaving their young three-year-old Tara (a boy) but her husband Jim eventually persuades her to leave. They are going out to celebrate at a restaurant a few miles away. Amanda assures them she doesn't mind the quiet and will be fine and they should go off and enjoy themselves and not worry.
Despite her bravado once she is left alone Amanda begins to become a little jumpy when she starts hearing strange noises - but these all turn out to be harmless with innocent explanations and she realises she is being silly. Then she thinks she sees a face peering in through the window and gasps and soon there is a knocking on the front door and she is full of trepidation until she discovers it is her boyfriend Chris playing around. She lets him in a bit annoyed with him for spooking her like that. Chris clearly wants to make the most of their time alone together but she is playing hard to get with him and when he realises she is sticking to her guns he leaves. On his way home Chris is viciously attacked by someone unseen. At the restaurant we discover that Helen and Jim are not actually married and they are celebrating a divorce from Helen's first husband Brian. A few years ago Brian tried to kill Helen and their baby Tara and was declared mentally unstable. He has been looked away in a mental institute ever since. They are joined at the restaurant by their friend Dr Cordell who works at the institute treating Brian. Back at the house there is another knock on the door and Amanda opens it and screams as Chris' badly beaten body falls in - he is followed soon after by a man who seems to take charge of the situation - he tells her he is a neighbour and heard the screams and initially he appears to doing all the right things in an emergency. He tries to call for an ambulance but the phone line is not working. He tries to revive Chris himself but soon has to tell Amanda that Chris is unfortunately dead. Amanda is distraught and seeks the comfort of the man's arms and he holds her close while she cries. At the restaurant Dr Cordell receives word that Brian has escaped from the institution and Helen is convinced he would have headed to their house. The Lloyds rush homewards and Dr Cordell notifies the police to send a patrol car ahead of them. Back at the house the man has identified himself to Amanda as Brian and has begun to act a bit weird. He has locked all the doors to prevent the "attacker" getting in and seems to be showing signs of severe mental instability. He appears to know his way around the house and has started to call her "Helen". Amanda doesn't correct him as he holds her close and starts dancing with her - she has a quietly terrified look on her face but in his eyes he sees her as "Helen" looking happy and joyful to be with him. Amanda is put through an evening of terror not knowing what the psychotic madman is going to do next and is in continual fear of her life and because of the baby she is minding she cannot even try to run for it for that would mean abandoning the child. The police arrive outside and Brian threatens to kill both Amanda and Tara with a vicious looking knife - his behaviour has become so erratic as he wields the weapon that he leaves Amanda gibbering in fright. When Helen arrives outside she says she will go in and talk to him if he promises to let Amanda and Tara out. He agrees but then once she is inside goes back on his word. As Brian tries to strangle Helen he drops the knife and Amanda picks it up and splashes his face and then opens the door to let the police in. But Brian recovers and retakes the knife and goes outside holding baby Tara as a hostage shield. The policeman issued with a special revolver cannot get a shot without risk of hitting the child and so he replaces the weapon in his car. Brian says he'll kill the child but Helen manages to talk him down with soothing words and gets Tara back and Brian sinks to his knees in emotional turmoil declaring he loves her and just wants to be with her. The danger seems to be over but then a shot rings out and Brian falls over dead. Amanda had taken the discarded policeman's gun and shot him in revenge for the awful evening of terror he put her through and his brutal killing of her boyfriend Chris. | |
| Starring: | Susan George (as Amanda), Honor Blackman (as Helen Lloyd), George Cole (as Jim Lloyd), Ian Bannen (as Brian, Helen's psychotic ex-husband), Dennis Waterman (as Chris, Amanda's boyfriend) |
| Featuring: | John Gregson (as Dr Cordell), Maurice Kaufmann (as Police Inspector), Tara Collinson (as Tara, Helen's young son) |
| Familiar Faces: | Roger Lloyd Pack (as Constable, credited but barely noticeable appearance) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
The three-year old Tara Collinson (a boy) receives an "introducing" credit. |
| Frightmare (1974) | Previous Next |
| Writer: David McGillivray / Director/Producer: Pete Walker | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 86 mins |
| Fifteen year old Debbie Yates is refused service in a bar because she is under-age - she falsely tells her boyfriend and his mates that the barman made insulting comments to her and that evening they beat the barman up on his way home. Debbie lingers at the scene of the unconscious man after the others have gone - we do not see what she does but next day police find blood.
Debbie lives with her older half-sister Jackie who has cared for Debbie since the death of their parents - but these days the two of them are always having furious rows about Debbie's delinquent behaviour. Once a week older sister Jackie sneaks out late at night for a secret rendezvous at a remote farm-cottage always taking with her a parcel. Living at the cottage are her father Edmund and step-mother Dorothy who are in fact very much still alive. Fifteen years ago they were responsible for some terrible crimes and were committed to a mental institution but recently they have been certified as sane and released - Debbie is their full daughter but when she was old enough it was thought best that she be told her parents were dead. The crimes they committed were murder and cannibalism. Dorothy developed a taste for human flesh when her father had cooked a deceased family pet for dinner and she progressed from there killing and eating animals and eventually people. Her husband Edmund was not a killer but covered up for her and took an equal share of the responsibility feigning derangement so he could be with her in the institution. But now Dorothy has started to kill again, she lures lonely souls to the cottage with the promise of a tarot card reading and kills them and eats their brains. Jackie's weekly parcels contain fresh meat and are supposed to placate her appetite but are no longer working. Jackie is going out with Graham who is a psychiatrist and who tries to help get to the root of her sister Debbie's attitude problems and believes it is to do with her thinking her parents are dead. He looks into the parents' case history and travels alone to the cottage to check them out posing as someone wanting a tarot reading - but he is exposed when Debbie herself is already there - she has known her parents were alive for some time and has been helping Dorothy with her murders after developing a similar taste for human flesh (the injured barman from earlier had become one of her victims). Graham is killed by the murderers so that he cannot reveal his information to the police. Then Jackie arrives hoping to appeal to her father's better nature and call in the authorities to have Dorothy re-committed. But Edmund's overriding love and loyalty for his wife proves stronger and he ineffectually stands aside to let Dorothy and their full daughter Debbie butcher half-daughter Jackie. The End | |
| Starring: | Rupert Davies (as Edmund Yates, the father), Sheila Keith (as Dorothy Yates, the mother), Deborah Fairfax (as Jackie), Kim Butcher (as Debbie) |
| Featuring: | Paul Greenwood (as Graham) |
| Familiar Faces: | Andrew Sachs |
| Starlets: | Fiona Curzon, Pamela Fairbrother |
| Writers: Robin Clarke, Raymond Christodoulou / Director: Kevin Connor / Producers: Max J. Rosenberg, Milton Subotsky | |
| Type: Anthology / Horror | Running Time: 98 mins |
| The Proprietor of a small back-alley antique shop called "Temptations Ltd" sells unusual items which all (secretly) come with an unexpected surprise - but woe betide any customer who tries to cheat him. There follows the stories of four of his customers... (bold type shows where the shop sequence occurs)
Story 1 - The Gate Crasher At the shop Edward Charlton spots an antique mirror which the Proprietor wants £250 for, but claiming expert knowledge Edward tells him it's worth a lot less and manages to buy it for a mere £25. Edward boasts to his friends how he swindled the shop owner and hangs it with pride of place in his living room. They decide to hold a séance and unwittingly awaken the spirit of a demon trapped within the mirror. At night the ghostly mirror demon demands that Edward "feed" it with blood. Unable to resist Edward becomes compelled to become a serial killer in order to satiate the hunger of the demon. Eventually the demon's hunger is satisfied and he emerges from the mirror free to walk the Earth as a flesh and blood man once again. Edward is transported into the mirror in his place. Some time later his now empty apartment is taken over by new tenants who retain the mirror and eventually decide to have a séance and the process starts again ... Story 2 - An Act of Kindness Christopher Lowe's marriage has lost its shine and his wife Mabel is forever nagging him about his lack of advancement in his job and belittling his pride - he cannot stand being talked to in that way but does not have the gumption to ditch her. Consideration for their son Stephen's feelings are lost in their own squabbles. On his way to work Christopher passes a street peddler called Jim Underwood. Jim is an ex-soldier with medals and Christopher feels a bit inadequate with no war record to match and so vaguely claims he was in the forces himself and has his own medals. Feeling the need to prove it Christopher visits the Antique shop to buy a medal to "replace" his own Distinguished Service Order medal that he "lost" but the proprietor declines to sell without certification to prove he earned it - so while the proprietor's back is turned Christopher steals it. Christopher shows Jim his medal and they strike up a friendship and Christopher begins visiting Jim's house for tea. He meets Jim's daughter Emily whom he finds strangely appealing even though she is an unusual young woman, very demure and obedient. Christopher starts going round to Jim's house every evening showering the pair with his generosity and telling Mabel he is working late. One evening Jim has to go out and leaves Christopher alone with Emily - she tells him she will obey his every command and he only has to tell her to do something and she will. She says that his nagging wife does not deserve him and gets out a doll replica of Mabel and a hot needle and tells Christopher that she will use special powers to kill his wife if he so commands. Christopher laughingly tells her to go ahead thinking it is a joke. When he gets home Mabel is dead. Soon afterwards Christopher marries Emily and at the wedding she asks if he wants her to cut the cake and he says she can - she uses the knife to slice down onto the model groom's head and this kills Christopher in mystically bloody fashion. Jim and Emily turn to the now orphan son Stephen who does not appear particularly upset by the recent turn of events as they tell him they always answer children's prayers in one way or another. Story 3 - The Elemental Businessman Reginald Warren is browsing in the Antique shop when he spots a snuff box he likes but balks at the price tag of £40 - so he swaps the tags with a cheaper item marked at £5. He then purchases the item from the proprietor for the cheaper price. While travelling home on the train a woman passenger warns him that he has a dangerous elemental burrowing into his shoulder - she is most insistent telling him the elemental is a particularly nasty one who will kill if unchecked as it burrows into his body trying to take him over. But Reggie can neither feel nor see anything amiss and dismisses her as a nutcase - she gives him her card identifying her as a psychic clairvoyant called Madame Orloff and tells him to call if he needs her help. At home in bed that night Reggie's wife complains that he is holding her too tightly and then screams as he tries to strangle her but Reggie claims that he wasn't even touching her. Something is amiss and he remembers Madame Orloff's warning and calls her. When the clairvoyant arrives she conducts an exorcism that causes waves of psychic disturbance which smashes ornaments and moves furniture as the invisible creature fights violently against her actions. But eventually calmness returns and Madame Orloff declares the Elemental gone and she leaves. Later Reggie and Susan hear a banging noise upstairs and he goes to investigate and is pushed down the stairs. Then Susan approaches his prone body and speaks with an unworldly voice as she beats him to death with a poker for denying her life - the banished Elemental has taken over Susan instead and it laughs evilly as it leaves the house in control of her body. Story 4 - The Door William Seaton sees an antique wooden door with ornate carvings in the shop which is selling for £50. William offers £40 because he is strapped for cash and the Proprietor agrees. Whilst the Proprietor is out back writing a receipt the cash till is left open and William is seen looking at it opportunistically. When William has left the shop the Proprietor starts counting the money to see if any is missing ... William is a writer and has decided to use the elaborate antique door for his stationary cupboard even though his wife Rosemary thinks it's rather too grand for a mere cupboard. One evening William opens the door and instead of the cupboard space there is an entire room. He goes in and looks around a study which appears to date back to the time of Charles II (mid-1600s). A journal on the desk belonging to one Sir Michael Sinclair indicates that the man is a practitioner in the dark arts who has created this room as a trap that throughout future time will ensnare souls to keep itself alive with their life essences. The supernatural door will pass down through the ages ensnaring any who install it. William is then confronted by Sir Michael himself who tells William that he must surrender his soul or Sir William will go beyond the door and take a woman in his place. William rushes back to his own room and slams the door closed and the cupboard space returns. But later it opens by itself and Sir William emerges and carries Rosemary away into the room with him. William is unable to fight the man so he begins chopping at the door's carvings with an axe and as the door is being destroyed Sir Michael's strength fades and he drops Rosemary. The room starts to collapse around him as the spell is broken. William and Rosemary escape back to their own time and the cupboard is restored and the broken door is removed and replaced with a normal one. They both survive and have a happy ending. ... finally back at the shop we see the Proprietor finishing counting his money and none is missing. Note: William survives because although he haggled for the door it was done fairly and the reason he gave was a true one - the viewer is given the impression that William's crime was stealing money from the till and therefore we are fully expecting him to meet a sorry end like the protagonists of the initial three stories did - and so it is somewhat of a surprise when he has an upbeat ending to his experience - it is only then we discover that the proprietor finished his audit and all the money was accounted for and William had resisted the temptation to steal after all. Epilogue In a short end-piece a burglar tries to hold-up the Proprietor in his shop but finds that bullets and objects pass harmlessly through him revealing that he is a supernatural entity of some sort. | |
| Starring: | Story 1: David Warner (as Edward Charlton) Story 2: Ian Bannen (as Christopher Lowe), Donald Pleasence (as Jim Underwood), Angela Pleasence (as Emily Underwood, Jim's daughter), Diana Dors (as Mabel Lowe, Christopher's wife) Story 3: Ian Carmichael (as Reggie Warren), Nyree Dawn Porter (as Susan Warren, Reggie's wife), Margaret Leighton (as Madame Orloff, clairvoyant) Story 4: Ian Ogilvy (as William Seaton), Lesley-Anne Down (as Rosemary Seaton, wife), Jack Watson (as Sir Michael Sinclair) |
| Featuring: | (additional characters) Story 1: Wendy Alnutt (as Pamela, Edward's friend), Rosalind Ayres (as Prostitute victim), Marcel Steiner (as Mirror Demon), Tommy Godfrey (as Mr Jeffries, Edward's neighbour) Story 2: John O'Farrell (as Stephen Lowe, Chris' son) Ben Howard (as ?Burglar in epilogue?) |
| Star-Turns: | Peter Cushing (as Antique Shop Proprietor) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on stories by R. Chetwynd-Hayes |
• |
The individual story titles are not used in the film at all - the titles shown above are those found listed on IMDB on the assumption that they are correctly shown as being the titles of the original stories upon which the segments were based |
• |
Peter Cushing's appearances in each segment are fairly fleeting with his overall screen time not really sufficient to consider him the star of the film |
| The Frozen Dead (1966) | Previous Next |
| Writer/Director/Producer: Herbert J. Leder | |
| Type: Horror | Running Time: 92 mins |
| In the present day (1966) an ex-Nazi German scientist called Dr Norberg who now lives in England in a large country house has a secret laboratory where he is conducting experiments with his assistant Karl Essen. Together they have had success keeping organs alive outside the human body and have also managed to take severed limbs and attach a bank of them to a wall where they can be moved under the control of computer which sends impulses to them as if it were a brain. Norberg has under his care the frozen bodies of 12 former war time Nazis who 20 years ago had willingly submitted to being placed into suspension by their own leaders rather than be tried for war crimes in the hope that one day they would be revived. Norberg and Karl's prime work involves the attempt to restore these bodies to life and they have successfully done this with several of them, thawing the bodies and reactivating their life forces - but they have singularly failed in all attempts at restoring each subject's intellect and memories leaving themselves with a cellar full of hollow-minded men who behave like zombies. One such man is Norberg's own brother whose only mindless impulse is to strangle anyone who comes near him. Their best success is Joseph who although now a mute simpleton is not dangerous and can follow basic instructions and he is put to work as a butler/manservant.
Karl has prematurely advised the secret underground Nazi party higher echelons of their success with Joseph and two of the party members, a general and a scientist, come to visit to view the progress. They tell Norberg that waiting in underground bunkers around Europe are 1500 more frozen important Nazi party members with whom the plans for world domination can begin once again. They are dismayed at the news of the setback in the doctor's work and ask what he needs to further his research. He tells them what he really could use is a live brain to experiment with. Meanwhile the doctor's niece Jean returns home from America where she has been for the past two years studying at university. She returns a few days early to surprise her uncle and brings with her an American friend called Elsa Tenney for a holiday visit. Jean has been brought up in England by her uncle since she was young and has no idea her father is still alive or the nature of her uncle's work or political affiliations. Elsa is feeling exhausted after her long trip and goes to bed early and Karl, feeling he needs to make up for his earlier mistake of calling in the big-shots too early, abducts her from her room and takes her to the lab - he strangles her but then brings in Norberg's brother and blames him for it. He immediately informs Norberg and suggests this tragedy is an opportunity and if they work very quickly before it becomes starved of oxygen they can save the brain of the dead girl to study. Norberg agrees and they use their skills at maintaining disassociated organs alive to keep her decapitated head functioning and then they replace the dome of her head with a transparency so they can view the throbbingly active brain at work. Norberg has invited an American scientist called Ted Roberts with expertise in the field of the brain to view his work (but without revealing the reason behind it all of reviving frozen Nazis). Roberts is uneasy about the ethics of using the girl's head but what's done is done. Meanwhile Jean is suspicious about Elsa's sudden departure. She has been told that Elsa left suddenly on the early morning train and Karl supported this story by having a local woman pose as her so that the station staff would remember her if questioned. Jean thinks her friend's behaviour was so odd and decides to look into it and even informs the police of her concerns. She becomes friendly with Ted and he feels as if he is falling in love with her but is in a dilemma because he knows the true fate of her friend. Jean starts having bad dreams about Elsa which consist of a nightmare of her headless corpse being buried - not realising that the head downstairs in the laboratory is trying to communicate telepathically with her. Norberg hooks Elsa's head up to the bank of arms and commands her to move them - but it does not work, for either she cannot or will not obey as she looks at him with pure hatred. Meanwhile the visiting Nazi party members are becoming concerned about Jean and think she must be disposed of before she starts getting too close to the truth. It all culminates in the laboratory when Jean manages to get in and finds Elsa's head and the Nazi general decides to dispose of her himself. Her uncle tries to intervene but as the pair of them struggle beside the bank of arms Elsa uses her control of the limbs to strangle both men dead. Jean then finds her mindless father who immediately tries to strangle her and she has to be saved by the timely arrival of Ted Roberts and a police inspector. And the three of them finally crowd around Elsa's head as she makes a plea to be buried with her body. | |
| Starring: | Dana Andrews (as Dr Norberg), Anna Palk (as Jean Norburg, his niece), Philip Gilbert (Dr Ted Roberts, American doctor), Alan Tilvern (as Karl Essen, Norberg's assistant) |
| Featuring: | Kathleen Breck (as Elsa Tenney, Jean's friend), Karel Stepanek (as General Lubeck, Nazi), Basil Henson (as Dr Tirpitz, Nazi), Anne Tirard (as Mrs Schmidt, Nazi woman), Tom Chatto (as Inspector Witt) |
| Familiar Faces: | Edward Fox (as Norburg's Brother, a mute prisoner, uncredited) |
| Full Circle (1977) | Previous Next |
| aka: The Haunting of Julia | |
| Writer: Dave Humphries / Director: Richard Loncraine / Producers: Peter Fetterman, Alfred Pariser | |
| Type: Chiller | Running Time: 93 mins |
| When Julia Lofting's 8-year old daughter Katie dies in an accident Julia goes into shock and spends a couple of months recuperating. When she recovers she decides to make a complete break from her old life including her husband Magnus whom she no longer loves and was only staying with for the sake of Katie.
Julia is independently wealthy and buys herself an old long-vacant London townhouse that is still furnished with the previous occupants belongings. Living alone Julia gets an eerie feeling that someone is in the house observing her. She discovers that the previous occupant had been a mother called Heather Rudge who left the property thirty years ago after her young daughter Olivia mysteriously died. When Julia agrees to let a friend of hers hold a séance at the house, the medium is shocked at the horror she senses and urges Julia to get out of this house. Julia does some research and discovers that thirty years ago during the war a young half-German boy had been savagely murdered in a nearby park. A local down-and-out was convicted and hanged for the crime. The boy's mother is still alive and Julia goes to see her - She tells Julia that she knows the derelict did not do it but it had been a gang of local children who killed her son. The mother knows who they were and has their names - two of whom are still alive. Julia visits one of the (now) men who tells Julia about young Olivia Rudge who was beautiful to look at but totally evil and held an enthralling mesmeric power over the other children and was able to get them to do anything. They started by killing animals and eventually Olivia decided she wanted to kill and mutilate a person and picked a boy whose only crime was to be half-German. Julia visits the now elderly Heather Rudge in a nursing home and discovers that when she found out about her daughter's crimes she took it upon herself to murder her own evil daughter in the house that Julia now owns and then left the area. Returning home to the town-house Julia sees a manifestation of the dead Olivia who is the most beautiful and sweet young girl she has ever seen and reminds Julia of her own poor dead daughter - she beckons Olivia wanting to hug and love her. And next thing we see Julia is dead with a gaping neck wound. The End. | |
| Comment: The horror element is very low-key and mostly not seen on screen but told in recounted testimony by people Julia talks to - the ending is fairly obscure as to what really happens and what I have written is my interpretation of why Julia welcomes Olivia's ghost to her so openly and almost seems to want death. | |
| Starring: | Mia Farrow (as Julia Lofting), Tom Conti (as Mark Berkeley, Julia's best friend) |
| Featuring: | Keir Dullea (as Magnus Lofting, Julia's husband), Jill Bennett (as Lily Lofting, Magnus' sister), Cathleen Nesbitt (as Heather Rudge, mother of dead girl), Anna Wing (as Rosa Flood, spiritualist), Edward Hardwicke (as Captain Paul Winter, music shop owner), Pauline Jameson and Peter Sallis (as Julia's neighbours), Sophie Ward (as Kate Lofting, Julia's daughter) |
| Familiar Faces: | Nigel Havers (as Estate Agent, cameo), Denis Lil (as Doctor, small role), Julian Fellows (as Library Attendant, cameo) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on an adaptation by Harry Bromley Davenport, from the novel Julia by Peter Straub |
• |
The version reviewed carried the American title of The Haunting of Julia |
| Fun and Games (1971) | Previous Next |
| aka: Thousand Convicts and a Woman! | |
| Writer: Oscar Brodney / Director: Ray Austin / Producer: Philip N. Krasne | |
| Type: Drama | Running Time: 96 mins |
| Angela Thorne is a 17-year-old girl who has just returned to England after having spent four years away at a school in America (during which time she has picked up an American accent). Her mother is dead and her father is a busy prison governor who had insufficient time to bring her up himself so that sending her away to school seemed the best option. She is met at the airport by Paul Floret, a highly trusted convict who acts as her father's chauffeur and is allowed out of the grounds on his own to run errands.
Angela hasn't seen her father for four years and is excitedly expecting a grand homecoming reception - but instead he is, as usual, too busy and her arrival time is more of a nuisance to him because he is showing some VIP's around the prison. She immediately feels the same old sense of neglect and of being unwanted which makes her sad. Greybourne prison is an experimental low-security establishment in which the inmates are given trusted jobs and allowed freedom to roam within the extensive grounds during the day. The Governor's house where Angela is also to live is within the grounds and Angela is free to mix with the prisoners during the day. Without parental control Angela has grown wayward and has become a minx. She is beautiful and knows full well the affect she has on men and has learnt how to tease and taunt them with her vivacious sexuality. To her, flirtation is a game which she finds delightfully wicked fun and she revels in the power she has to mesmerise men. She has potent nymphomaniac urges which have become like a feverish addiction to her and she cannot help but give into the overpowering feelings of desire this brings her. Since she can have any man she pleases she chooses to go for risky targets such as prisoners who are all like captive toys for her to play with and she provocatively struts around by day flaunting herself in short little skirts. She sets her sights on Paul but he has enough sense to keep her safely at bay knowing how easily it could jeopardise his trusted status if he were to accommodate her desires and her father found out. Car mechanic Carl Maxwell has a similar sense. So Angela turns her attention to another prisoner called Gribney whose resistance seems much weaker and she tantalises him with an implied promise of sexual favours before running off laughing gleefully at the lark. But Angela has picked on the wrong man because Gribney is a child sex offender who was on the mend and her toying has sent him back over the edge. He sees red at her taunting behaviour and gives chase accusing her of being a little bitch who thinks she's so clever - he catches her in the courtyard and pushes her to the ground trying to assault her until some other inmates hear her screams and pull him away. Angela turns on her "innocent little girl" act for her father at this unprovoked assault and Gribney is put under confinement pending return to a secure prison. When Gribney escapes Angela is told to stay indoors until he is recaptured - but when he gets into her bedroom determined to have his revenge on her she quickly tames him and is quite willing to have sex with him. That is until the search teams locate him and he flees when she starts crying as if she has suffered another brutal attack. In the chase Gribney falls from a roof and dies. Paul and Carl blame Angela for his death by stirring up his suppressed urges with her mischievous games. Later on Angela tries to get Carl interested again and this time he responds. A prison officer sees them kissing and calls her father determined to make trouble for them (because Angela was teasing him earlier too). When her father arrives at the scene Angela tries to accuse Carl of attacking her and knowing that she will be believed Carl resorts to the desperate gamble of holding her hostage at knifepoint. Then Paul sides with Carl and demands that Governor Thorne allows them all to leave the grounds without hindrance. The governor has to agree and they all go on the run. Once outside Carl releases Angela but she is finding it such a thrilling adventure that she wants to come with them. They head for a nearby river where a friend of Paul's has a luxury yacht which they will use to cross the channel. Once there Paul decides to leave them and return to Greybourne because he does not want to spend the rest of his life on the run. Angela elects to stay with Carl and they sleep together on the boat waiting for the tide to turn. Paul then surrenders himself to a policeman and calls the governor who arrives at the yacht to find Angela in bed and thoroughly enjoying herself willingly with Carl giving her no opportunity to pretend she was under duress. Paul reveals the escape was all a planned set-up so that they could expose her and show the governor just what sort of girl his daughter had really become. Governor Thorne cannot believe his innocent girl is so duplicitous and she tells him it is easy to get someone to want her for her body and that is better than not being wanted at all - which is how her father has always made her feel. Governor Thorne decides that the prison is no place for Angela to remain and so he buys her a plane ticket for her to return to America - once again casting her away. | |
| Starring: | Alexandra Hay (as Angela Thorne), Neil Hallett (as Prison Governor Thorne, Angela's father), Sandor Elès (as Paul Floret, convict, chauffeur), Harry Baird (as Carl Maxwell, convict, car mechanic) |
| Featuring: | Robert Brown (as Head Prison Officer Ralph Daly), Stella Tanner (as Mrs Jackson, Thorne's housekeeper), David Bauer (as Gribney, prisoner, sex offender), Fredric Abbott (as Forbus, prison officer), Tracey Reed (as Linda Watson, Paul's girlfriend), Peter Elliott (as Matthews, prison officer), Ron Brody (as a Prisoner) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
The version reviewed carried the title 1,000 Convicts and a Woman! which was the American title and was followed by a further caption as a subtitle "(Story of a Nympho)". Although actually only about six prisoners are seen and Angela is a girl more than woman. |
| Funeral in Berlin (1966) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Evan Jones / Director: Guy Hamilton / Producer: Charles Kasher | |
| Type: Spy Drama | Running Time: 97 mins |
| British intelligence agent Harry Palmer is sent on a mission to East Berlin to facilitate the defection of a top Russian officer called Colonel Stok who is ironically the man in charge of the Berlin wall. A number of high profile defections across the wall have recently embarrassed the Russian authorities and Stok is under great scrutiny and requests the help of British intelligence to help him escape. In return for a comfortable life in the West he says he will reveal certain secrets.
Palmer liaises with a West German agent called Johnny Vulkan and contacts an underworld man called Kreutzman in West Berlin who is responsible for organising the other escapes in a manner of ingenious ways. In return Kreutzman does not want money but instead wants the British to create forged documents in the name of a dead Nazi called Paul Louis Broome. Israeli intelligence agents also make contact with Palmer and they too are interested in Broome because there is a dormant account in his name in a Swiss bank containing millions of dollars of money stolen from the Jews during the Second World War. MI5 supplies Palmer with the necessary documents and the escape of Stok is arranged - but Stok has not really turned traitor and it is all part of his plan to capture and kill Kreutzman and put an end to the defections. Meanwhile the Broome papers become the focal point of the story with several interested parties out to get them from Palmer. Johnny Vulkan is revealed to be Broome himself - having stolen Vulkan's identity at the end of the war. He is desperate to get his hands on the papers to liberate the assets held in his name. Vulkan gets hold of the papers and intends to escape to East Berlin and from there to Switzerland. Palmer tries to stop him but is captured by Vulkan until the Israeli agents intervene and Vulkan is shot dead. The Israeli's leave with the papers and Palmer's mission is considered a success by his superiors. | |
| Comment: The "Funeral" in the title refers to a fake funeral that was to be the means of effecting Stok's defection with him being transferred from East to West in a coffin. | |
| Starring: | Michael Caine (as Harry Palmer), Paul Hubschmid (as Johnny Vulkan, German agent), Oskar Homolka (as Colonel Stok, Russian intelligence), Eva Renzi (as Samantha Steel, Israeli agent) |
| Featuring: | Guy Doleman (as Ross, Palmer's boss), Hugh Burden (as Hallam, MI5 man), Günter Meisner (as Kreutzman, underworld contact arranging defections) |
| Starlets: | Sarah Brackett (as Secretary), Ira Hagen (as Johnny Vulkan's girlfriend) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on the novel by Len Deighton |
• |
Eva Renzi receives an "introducing" credit |
• |
This was the second of three 1960s spy films featuring the Harry Palmer character. The other two were The Ipcress File (1965) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967). There was a further Harry Palmer film called Spy Story in 1976 which instead starred Michael Petrovitch in the lead role, and then Michael Caine returned to the character for two films in the mid-1990s called Bullet to Beijing and Midnight in Saint Petersburg. |
| Funny Money (1982) | Previous Next |
| Writer/Director: James Kenelm Clarke / Producer: Greg Smith | |
| Type: Crime Drama | Running Time: 93 mins |
| In Las Vegas a young man called Barty steals a case of money from a car outside a casino. It belongs to a tough ruthless mobster and Barty is tracked down and killed. Shortly afterwards a young American woman called Cass travels from Vegas to London. Cass had been a friend of Barty and together they had been petty thieves working in partnership and now, following Barty's death, she is looking for a new partner and is searching for an American called Ben whom Barty spoke of as being the Credit Card King. When Cass tracks Ben down she finds he is working legitimately in a hotel under the name of Ben Turtle as a lounge pianist. She tries to persuade him to become her new partner and work the hotels together stealing credit cards but he says he only works alone and has an arrangement with the corrupt hotel staff. Ben's services as a handsome virile man are pimped by the hotel manageress who arranges his sexual company with rich female guests. So, working alone, Cass uses her own sexuality to sleep with male guests and steal their credit cards and then use them for purchases - she has a bag full of cards to use. But she can only use each card once and she wants to learn from the master how to do it properly and get more use out of the cards. Ben agrees to demonstrate his methods of how to remove the signature strip from a stolen card and replace it with a new strip which can then be self-signed under the card holder's name to ensure a good match when a purchase is made. (NOTE: This film comes from a time when cards were stencil swiped and signatures checked for a match at point of purchase - and before electronic verification methods came in - and so the methods shown in this film, even if they would have really worked, are now obsolete). But he admits that after he was once caught in Vegas using a dodgy card he lost his nerve and retired to England. Ben and Cass get an "offer they can't refuse" from an American hoodlum and his wife who want to see them having sex to get their kicks. The following morning they scarper taking a hold-all with them which turns out to contain vast quantities of cash - they are chased but get away. They become separated and Cass with the hold-all goes to a hotel bar and drunkenly confides to an American stranger who happens to be there about her woes starting with the death of her friend Barty. The man appears sympathetic and she goes with him up to his room. Then he turns nasty for, by a remarkable coincidence, he turns out to have been the hoodlum who killed Barty in Vegas and is about to deal out the same retribution to Cass. She is injured and seems certain to be killed until Ben rushes in to save her and the hoodlum is killed instead. Ben takes her to hospital and because she is not a British citizen she is asked how she is going to pay and she gets out a collection of credit cards and tells the nurse to take her pick! | |
| Starring: | Elizabeth Daily (as Cass), Gregg Henry (as Ben Turtle) |
| Featuring: | Gareth Hunt (as Keith Banks, hotel concierge), Annie Ross (as Diana, hotel manageress), Derren Nesbitt (as Jake Sanderson, guest), Rose Alba (as Mrs de Salle, guest), Joe Praml (as Vegas crook) |
| Familiar Faces: | Carol Cleveland (as Delphine, Wife of kinky American) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
"Funny Money" is the term used in the film to describe the money available on a credit card |
| Writers: Melvin Frank, Michael Pertwee / Director: Richard Lester / Producer: Melvin Frank | |
| Type: Comedy | Running Time: 93 mins |
| Pseudolus is a wily slave in ancient Rome who works at the home of henpecked Senex and his nagging wife Domina. Much to Domina's disgust they live next door to a house of courtesans where owner Marcus Lycus sells the services of his beautiful female slaves to rich noblemen. Their neighbour on the other side is called Erronius who has devoted his life to hunting for his two long lost children who were stolen from him in their infancy by pirates.
Senex's somewhat dim-witted son Hero is smitten by one of the courtesans called Philia whom he sees from his bedroom window. Hero makes a bargain with Pseudolus that he will grant him his freedom if he can arrange for Philia to be his sweetheart. Philia has noticed Hero too and wants very much to be with him. Eager to gain his freedom Pseudolus puts all his efforts into helping Hero achieve his romantic aspirations. But unfortunately he finds out that Philia is already promised to the celebrated warrior Captain Miles Gloriosus who will be shortly arriving to claim his virgin bride. Gloriosus is a grandiose unbridled egotist who cannot be easily deterred from his objectives and promises to crush any who stand in his way. Pseudolus attempts to use deception to fool Gloriosus into believing that Philia has died of the plague and then has to resort to ever more desperate measures when the heartbroken Gloriosus insists upon a funeral. Eventually Gloriosus discovers his bride-to-be Philia is not dead and he vows his deadly retribution upon those who have attempted to deceive him and make him appear foolish. But as Gloriosus is about to settle the score and begin the executions, Erronius returns home and recognises Gloriosus as his long lost son - and furthermore it turns out that Philia is his long lost daughter and so they are brother and sister and cannot marry anyway. Pseudolus is spared and Hero and Philia are free to marry one another. | |
| Starring: | Zero Mostel (as Pseudolus), Phil Silvers (as Marcus Lycus, brothel keeper), Michael Hordern (as Senex), Michael Crawford (as Hero, Senex's son), Leon Greene (as Captain Miles Gloriosus), Annette Andre (as Philia), Patricia Jessel (as Domina, Senex's wife) |
| Featuring: | Jack Gilford (as Hysterium, senior house slave), Pamela Brown (as High Priestess, temple of vestal virgins), Janet Webb (as Fertilla, breeding slave) |
| Familiar Faces: | Roy Kinnear (as Gladiator Instructor), Alfie Bass (as Gladiator camp gatekeeper), Jon Pertwee (as Man in tavern), Peter Butterworth (as Roman soldier), Frank Thornton (as Slave driver) |
| Star-Turns: | Buster Keaton (as Erronius, searching for his children) |
| Starlets: | (Courtesans) Jennifer and Susan Baker (twins), Lucienne Bridou, Helen Funai, Inga Neilsen, Myrna White |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Based on a stage play with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart |
• |
Similarities between this and BBC sitcomUp Pompeii are not coincidental. Frankie Howerd had played the lead character in the stage version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and its success led to a similar role being created for him on television. |
| Futtocks End (1970) | Previous Next |
| Writer: Ronnie Barker / Director/Producer: Bob Kellett | |
| Type: Comedy | Running Time: 46 mins |
| A party of family and friends come to visit General Sir Giles Futtock at his Wiltshire manor house for a country house party weekend. The mixed bag of guests spend a couple of uneventful days relaxing and engaging in their favourite pastimes and outdoor pursuits until it's time to leave again. | |
| Comment: There is no real plot to describe here. The situation is just a framework for a series of visual gags to play out within. There is no dialogue and all we hear are the characters conversing with intonations and murmured grunts. The one main running gag involves a stray Japanese businessman who accidentally joins the party when they are collected from the station and gets lost in the maze of corridors at Futtocks End not finding his way out until the end. Some of the gags are mildly amusing but overall there's nothing all that hilarious about it. | |
| Starring: | Ronnie Barker (as General Futtock), Michael Hordern (as The Butler) |
| Featuring: | Roger Livesey (as The Artist), Julian Orchard (as The Twit), Kika Markham (as The Niece), Hilary Pritchard (as The Bird), Mary Merrall (as The Aunt), Richard O'Sullivan (as The Boots), Peggyann Clifford (as The Cook), Kim Kee Lim (as The Japanese Businessman) |
| Starlets: | Jennifer Cox (as The Maid), Suzanne Togni (as Junior Maid), Sammie Winmill (as Junior Maid) |
| NOTES: | |
• |
Ronnie Barker's General Futtock character (or someone very similar) was revived on TV in a couple of Two Ronnies specials which were made in the same dialogue-free style and also brought Ronnie Corbett into the mix playing the General's son. In The Picnic (BBC2/1st January 1976) (28 mins) - the General takes a different group of family members on a day out to have a picnic in the countryside. In By The Sea (BBC1/12th April 1982) (51 mins) the (largely) same group of characters go for a weekend away to the seaside resort of Tiddley Cove. Both the TV specials have laughter tracks and the latter one is by far the best of all three productions with a non-stop series of highly inventive visual gags. |
Top
If you arrived at this page directly then click here
to start the menu