Sunday, 31 December 2017
319 Deathdream (1972 )
This is a really good Canadian shocker about a young soldier Andy ( Richard Backus ) shot in Vietnam . His family have news of his death and then he turns up back home. But he's not quite the same as before. This builds the tension very nicely but also presents a touching portrait of family disintegration with John Marley outstanding as the father.
Anya Ormsby ( as Catherine Brooks )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
Anya was the wife of the film's writer Alan Ormsby but she's alright in this undemanding role. She only appeared in two other films.
Jane Daly ( as Janet )
Sex : No
Death: Killed for her blood by Andy
This was only Jane's second film but she has had a solid TV career to this day. She is now 69.
318 Death Line ( 1972 )
A strange little British shocker. Pre-dating The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , this concerns a lone survivor ( Hugh Armstrong ) from a community of cannibals living in the London Underground and picking off lone travellers at Russell Square tube station. When a top civil servant goes missing a cynical detective Calhoun ( Donald Pleasence ) gets on the case. Christopher Lee has a brief and not very relevant cameo.
It's very gory for its time in places but it's also very slow and lacking in any suspense.
Rachel Gurney ( as Pat Wilson )
Sex : The Man attempts to rape her
Death : Survives
Sharon has the lead female role in this one. It was her last horror role and her penultimate film.
Heather Stoney ( as WPC Marshall )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
This was Heather's only film role in a brief acting career. She has been Mrs Alan Ayckborn for the past 20 years.
317 Dear Dead Delilah ( 1972 )
Another hag horror entry here with a number of unlovely relatives scrabbling around the estate of dying invalid Delilah ( Agnes Moorehead in her last onscreen role ) for some hidden loot. Someone starts killing them off helped by the presence of a reformed axe murder Luddy ( Patricia Carmichael ) in this house. There are some well-spaced gory shocks but it would help if you could care just a smidgen about any of the victims.
Elizabeth Eis ( as Ellen )
Sex : No
Death : Axed to death by her husband
Elisabeth had roles in the Dark Shadows TV franchise but this was her only film role. She died in 2012 aged 68.
Anne Gibbs ( as Young Luddy )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
Ann has just four acting roles to her credit. She is now 71.
Saturday, 30 December 2017
316 Daughters of Satan ( 1972 )
This early Tom Selleck film isn't as good as its startling opening scene promises but there are some rewarding moments if you stick with it.
James Robertson ( Selleck ) buys a sixteenth century painting of the execution of three witches in Manila because the central one looks like his wife Chris. When she starts acting strangely we work out what's going on long before he does.
Barra Grant ( as Christina )
Sex : Christina is stripped to the waist and whipped for lack of commitment
Death : Survives
Barra was from New York and worked mainly in TV during the seventies. Since then she has worked as a writer. She is now 69.
Tani Guthrie ( as Kitty Duartes )
Sex : Strips off to try to seduce Robertson
Death : Survives
Tani was from Chicago and was a well-maintained 43 years old when she made this film. She too worked mainly in TV and retired in the early eighties. She is now 89.
Gina Laforteza ( as Andrea )
Sex : Andrea is stripped and whipped for some misdemeanour
Death : Survives
Gina was a busy Fillipino actress in the sixties but this was one of her last films.
Thursday, 28 December 2017
315 Beware ! The Blob (1972 )
This sequel to the 1960 drive-in classic was directed by Larry "JR" Hagman and it's just as well Dallas was around the corner because this is just a tedious re-run without Steve McQueen's charisma to lift it a notch beyond mundane.
Gwynne Gilford ( as Lisa Clark )
Sex: No
Death : Survives
Gwynne was the daughter of Anne Gwynne and this was the first of only a handful of films she made. She gave up acting in the late eighties and became a psychotherapist. She is now 71.
Carol Lynley ( as Leslie )
Sex : No
Death : Devoured by the Blob
This was a rather poor role for Carol after starring in The Shuttered Room .
Marlene Clark ( as Mariane )
Sex : No
Death : Devoured by the Blob
Marlene was from New York and appeared in a number of blaxploitation pictures in the seventies. She was married to Billy Dee Williams for three years. She retired at the end of the eighties. She is now 68.
Cindy Williams ( as Randy's girlfriend )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
Cindy was at the start of a long career here. Her film career rather stalled after The Conversation in 1974 but she became a TV star in Happy Days and then Laverne and Shirley. She is still a working actress at 70.
Gwynne Gilford ( as Lisa Clark )
Sex: No
Death : Survives
Gwynne was the daughter of Anne Gwynne and this was the first of only a handful of films she made. She gave up acting in the late eighties and became a psychotherapist. She is now 71.
Carol Lynley ( as Leslie )
Sex : No
Death : Devoured by the Blob
This was a rather poor role for Carol after starring in The Shuttered Room .
Marlene Clark ( as Mariane )
Sex : No
Death : Devoured by the Blob
Marlene was from New York and appeared in a number of blaxploitation pictures in the seventies. She was married to Billy Dee Williams for three years. She retired at the end of the eighties. She is now 68.
Cindy Williams ( as Randy's girlfriend )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
Cindy was at the start of a long career here. Her film career rather stalled after The Conversation in 1974 but she became a TV star in Happy Days and then Laverne and Shirley. She is still a working actress at 70.
314 Asylum ( 1972 )
This is another Amicus portmanteau film with a good cast and so-so stories.
Young Dr Martin ( Robert Powell ) comes to a mental asylum for a job, He meets a Dr Rutherford ( Patrick Magee ) who tells him the man who hired him, Dr Starr, has now gone mad and is among the inmates. Martin has to hear four of their supernatural stories and guess which one is Starr. The first one about a wife who's chopped up but whose bits come back to life is the best.
Barbara Parkins ( as Bonnie )
Sex : Bonnie is a mistress
Death : Survives
Barbara plays a similar bitchy role to the one in The Mephisto Waltz.
Sylvia Syms ( as Ruth )
Sex : No
Death : Clubbed to death by her husband
Sylvia has been a leading British actress for 60 years now, probably best remembered for Ice Cold In Alex. She is now 83.
Ann Firbank ( as Anna )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
Ann was born in India and has had a similarly long career , mainly on TV. She is now 84.
Charlotte Rampling ( as Barbara )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
Charlotte is from Essex and started out as a model. Her first major film role was in Georgy Girl in 1965. Bilingual, she appeared in a number of French films and eventually married musician Jean Michel Jarre . She has now appeared in over 100 films and seems busier than ever. She is now 71.
Britt Ekland ( as Lucy )
Sex : No
Death : She doesn't really exist
Britt was born in Stockholm and joined a theatre company as a teenager. She worked her way up from being an extra in the early sixties to more substantial roles. She married Peter Sellers in 1964 which raised her profile but got her biggest roles in the years immediately after their divorce. After starring in The Man With The Golden Gun, she became more famous for dating rock stars than making films and her acting career suffered. She has rarely acted since 1992 and has been suffering from osteoperosis.She is now 75.
Wednesday, 27 December 2017
313 The Asphyx ( 1972 )
This mad scientist film is intriguing but lengthy and lacks any very sympathetic characters.
The story owes something to The Tingler. Hugo Cunningham ( Robert Stephens ) is an aristocratic dilettante meddling in both psychic research and photography. He discovers that a being - the asphyx- materialises just before one dies and can be trapped in a beam of light, thus preventing death . Unhinged by a double family tragedy, he plans to become immortal. Robert Powell plays his adopted son and accomplice.
Jane Lapotaire ( as Christina )
Sex : No
Death : Accidentally guillotined
Jane has the main female part in this but it's not a very rewarding role.
Fiona Walker
Sex : No
Death : Drowns in a boating accident
Fiona was a London-born actress who made her film debut in Far From The Madding Crowd in 1967. She was a busy but un-starry actress for three decades . She seems to have retired not long after being in the ill-fated TV soap El Dorado.
Tuesday, 26 December 2017
312 Twins of Evil ( 1971 )
This late Hammer offering has been criticised for casting two former Playboy models in the titular roles though they acquit themselves well and brighten up what would otherwise be a very routine effort knitting together vampires and witchfinders.
Freida and Maria Gelhorn are orphans who go to live with their uncle Gustav ( Peter Cushing ) a fanatical puritan who leads a band of pitiless witchfinders. Their efforts are undermined by the local aristocrat Count Karnstein ( Damien Thomas ) a dissolute Satanist . Freida decides that he offers a bit more fun.
Madeleine Collinson ( as Frieda )
Sex : Freida strips down to seduce an intended victim
Death : Decapitated by her uncle
Madeleine and her twin sister Mary came to Britain from Malta in 1969 and had a brief career as glamour girls. This film was both the highpoint and the end of their film careers. Madeleine married an RAF officer and returned to Malta to raise a family. She died in 2014 aged 62.
Mary Collinson ( as Maria )
Sex : Plenty of cleavage
Death : Survives
Mary's acting career came to an end at the same time. She was last reported to be living in Milan with her husband and two daughters. She is now 65.
Katya Wyeth ( as Countess Mircalla )
Sex : Mircalla has sex with Karnstein before biting him.
Death : Survives
Katya was from Essex and was an extra in one or two of films already discussed before getting a slightly meatier role here.
Isobel Black ( as Ingrid )
Sex : No
Death : Drained of blood by a vampire
Isobel is a bit wasted in this small sympathetic role.
Judy Matheson ( as Woodman's daughter )
Sex : No
Death : Burned at the stake as a witch
Judy doesn't last very long in this one.
Kirsten Lindholm ( as girl at stake )
Sex : No
Death : Burned at the stake as a witch
Another very tiny part for Kirsten.
Luan Peters ( as Gerta )
Sex : Gerta is Karstein's mistress
Death : Drained of blood by Freida
Luan was born Carol Hirsch . She had a parallel career as a singer Carol Keyes but never had any hits. She was last spotted in The Bill around 1990. She is now 71.
Monday, 25 December 2017
311 A Reflection of Fear ( 1971 )
This is a psychological horror centred on a disturbed girl. It's nearly good with some neat shocks but the excessive use of soft focus tires your eyes and the ending renders much of what's gone before nonsensical.
Michael ( Robert Shaw ) and his girlfriend Anne revisit his home in the hope of securing a divorce from his bitter ex-wife Katherine. She lives with her provocative mother and disturbed daughter Marguerite who hears voices and takes unexplained medication. Katherine will give him the divorce if he abandons Marguerite for good but Marguerite has other ideas.
Sondra Locke ( as Marguerite )
Sex : Marguerite masturbates while Michael and Anne make love next door
Death : Survives
Sondra is so notorious for events offscreen that it's often forgotten she was once a promising actress with an Oscar nomination for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter in 1968. Her career was already stuttering when she met Clint Eastwood on the set of The Outlaw Josey Wales in 1975 and became his partner for the next 13 years while remaining married to the bisexual Gorden Anderson. She appeared almost exclusively in Eastwood's films. By the mid-eighties she was fancying herself as a director . When their relationship failed in 1989 she sued for palimony and as part of the settlement received a directing deal with Warners. When no one hired her she sued Eastwood again for fraud and received an undisclosed payout. She later got a payout from Warners. While hailing herself as the victor, she's only directed one film since the break up with Eastwood. She is now 73.
Sally Kellerman ( as Anne )
Sex : Anne makes love with Michael. Later she is nearly raped ( and apparently rescued by someone we never see )
Death : Survives
This part continued Sally's career resurrection following her success in M.A.S.H.
Mary Ure ( as Katherine )
Sex : Raped with a wooden stick
Death : From blows to the head
Mary was a Glaswegian actress who was briefly married to John Osborne in the late fifties. She moved on to Shaw and bore him three children. This interrupted a promising career including an Oscar nomination for Sons and Lovers in 1960. She had problems with alcoholism and this turned out to be her last film. She died of an accidental overdose in 1975 aged 42.
Sunday, 24 December 2017
310 The Nightcomers (1971 )
This one seems to have divided critics. Firstly, there's the rather unpalatable pairing of Marlon Brando with director Michael Winner. Secondly, it's a prequel to the story in Turn of the Screw / The Innocents which lays plain what Henry James left ambiguous. It is actually quite good. Winner did make plenty of terrible films but this isn't one of them. It's well acted and beautifully shot if a bit low on shocks for a horror picture.
A selfish country squire ( Harry Andrews ) abandons his orphaned nephew and niece , except financially. They are left with a fussy housekeeper Mrs Grose ( Thora Hird ) , prim governess Miss Jessel and unkempt Irish valet Quint ( Brando ). The children Miles ( Christopher Ellis ) and Flora are far more interested in what the dissolute atheistic Quint teaches them than their formal lessons.
Stephanie Beacham (as Miss Jessel )
Sex : Miss Jessel is in a sado-masochistic relationship with Quint
Death : Drowns after getting into a sabotaged boat
Though she revealed more in the Italian-made Super Bitch , this film is often thought to contain Stephanie's only nude scenes which she's been quite happy to discuss. I guess if they'd been with say, Robin Askwith, it might be a different story.
Verna Harvey ( as Flora )
Sex : Flora and Miles act out the bondage scene he's witnessed
Death : Survives
Another objection to the film was that the children had to be older because of the sexual content . Londoner Verna was actually 19 when she made the film. She worked with Winner again in Chato's Land and was also in Super Bitch where she too flashed some flesh. She disappears from view after having a regular role in seventies comedy Bery'ls Lot.She is now 65.
Anna Palk ( as the New Governess )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
This was a small and thankless role for Anna. It has no other purpose than spelling out the link with The Innocents.
309 Night of Dark Shadows ( 1971 )
This was another film based on the Dark Shadows TV franchise and features many series regulars as did the previous film. It's alright but there's nothing original about its storyline which puts a supernatural twist on Rebecca. It's also marred by a predictably lousy central performance from the perma-wooden David Selby.
Painter Quentin Collins ( Selby ) and his young wife Tracy move into his newly inherited creepy mansion with sinister servants Carlotta ( Grayson Hall) and Gerard ( Jim Storm ). Quentin starts having nightmares about his ancestor Charles who was bonking his brother's wife Angelique who was then hanged as a witch. Then he starts acting strangely.
Kate Jackson ( as Tracy )
Sex : No
Death : She is about to be killed as the credits roll
This was Kate's first feature film . She is of course most famous as one of the original Charlie's Angels ( my favourite ) and had another big TV hit in the eighties with The Scarecrow And Mrs King. Since major surgery in 1989, she has been a leading campaigner for breast cancer awareness. She seems to have retired from acting now and is currently writing her memoirs. She is now 69.
Nancy Barrett ( as Claire Jenkins )
Sex : No
Death : Killed in a car crash ( offscreen )
Nancy again plays the secondary female role in this one,
Lara Parker ( as Angelique Collins )
Sex : Angelique is sleeping with her husband's brother
Death : Hanged for witchcraft but her spirit returns
Lara was another series regular but she didn't appear in the first film. She had a long career on TV including playing David Banner's wife in the pilot for The Incredible Hulk. In the nineties she became an English teacher. In 1998 she published the first of four novels based on the Dark Shadows series and has made an acting comeback in the last few years. She is now 79.
Diana Millay ( as Laura Collins )
Sex : No
Death : It's not entirely clear but suggested that Charles Collins throttled her
Diana was another series regular but this was actually her last screen role. She has published several books and has also dabbled in fine art and commercial real estate. She is now 82.
Monica Rich ( as Sarah Castle )
Sex : n/a
Death : Survives
This was Monica's only screen role.
308 Murders in the Rue Morgue ( 1971)
AIP assault Edgar Alan Poe again in this one but there's no Vincent Price. Perhaps he read the script and decided he was better off out of it.
Cesar Charron ( Jason Robards ) runs a Grand Guignol theatre company but the actors suddenly start dying from acid attacks for real. Cesar and Inspector Vidocq ( Adolfo Celi ) both think back to a former actor Marot ( Herbert Lom ) who was disfigured in a props accident years before but he's supposed to be dead.
This is a really good-looking film but it's so badly-written with such serious defects in logic and motivation that you want to give up on it long before the end.
Christine Kaufman ( as Madeline Charron )
Sex : Madeline appears to be in an incestuous relationship with her father
Death : Survives
Christine was an Austrian actress who worked mainly in Germany and had a long unbroken career ( despite being married to Tony Curtis for a time ) from the early fifties to her death earlier this year aged 72.
Maria Perschy ( as Genevre )
Sex : Genevre is a prostitute
Death : Has vitriol thrown in her face
Maria was also Austrian and made her name in Europe before some Hollywood roles in the early sixties. Her English language career was stalling by this point but she continued working till the late nineties. She died in 2004 aged 66.
Rosalind Elliott ( as Gabrielle )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
Rosalind has a little more to do in this one.
Ruth Plattes ( as Orsini's assistant )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
This was Ruth's only film appearance.
Sunday, 3 December 2017
307 The Mephisto Waltz ( 1971 )
This tasty occult horror film is an object lesson in how to make a scary film without too much reliance on special effects.
Myles Clarkson ( Alan Alda ) is a mediocre pianist who has turned to journalism. When he is sent to interview dying maestro Duncan Ely ( Curt Jurgens ), the old man and his divorced daughter Roxanne befriend him to an extent that his wife Paula becomes suspicious of their intentions. When Ely dies and Myles' talent spectacularly blossoms, Paula's nightmares and her husband's personality changes, suggest that devilry is afoot.
Jacqueline Bisset ( as Paula )
Sex : Paula has regular sex with Myles
Death : Cuts her wrists in the bath but is it her that really dies ?
Jacqueline was born in Weybridge, Surrey to an English father and French mother. Jacqueline began her film career in the mid-sixties and rose gradually achieving the peak of her fame in The Deep in 1977 with her infamous wet T-shirt scenes. As a fluent French speaker she has made a number of films in France and is more respected there than the English-speaking world where she is regarded more as eye candy. From the mid-eighties onwards she was more often to be found in TV movies. She is now 73.
Barbara Parkins ( as Roxanne )
Sex : Roxanne has an incestuous affair with her father and carries it on when he possesses Myles's body
Death : Survives - or does she ?
Barbara is a Canadian actress who made her name on TV in Peyton Place and then got the lead role in Valley of the Dolls. She then confounded expectations by working in England for a number of years. When she returned to the US, her future lay largely in TV and she retired towards the end of the nineties. She is now 75.
Kathleen Widdoes ( as Maggie West )
Sex : No
Death : Survives
Kathleen is better known for her stage and TV work and made comparatively few films in supporting roles. She is now 78.
Pamelyn Ferdin ( as Abby )
Sex : n/a
Death : Anointed with a deadly ointment by Roxanne
Pamelyn was a very busy child actress from the mid-sixties onwards. She quit acting in the early eighties and became a nurse but she returned to the public eye in the nineties as a fierce animal rights activist. In 1999 she made a comeback as a voice actress but a year later she spent 30 days in jail for taking an offensive weapon to a protest. She is now 58.
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