204 Mr Sardonicus ( 1961 )

Another  William  Castle  effort  but  this  is  actually  a  rather  splendid  Gothic  horror  story  with  a  sharp  script  that's  only  spoiled  by  Castle's  unwarranted  intrusion  at  the  very  end  with  his  "punishment  poll"

Sir Robert  Cargrave  ( Ronald  Lewis )  is  a  prominent  specialist  in  muscular  complaints. He  is  summoned  to  a  baronial  castle  by  his   lost  love  Maude who  has  contracted  a  loveless  marriage  to  its  wealthy owner  Baron  Sardonicus. The  Baron, it  transpires, is  actually  a  peasant  farmer  called  Marek  who  had  to  disturb  his  father's  grave  to  retrieve  a  winning  lottery  ticket  and  whose  jaws  have  locked  into  the  same  rictus  grin  ever  since. The Baron  relieves  his  torment  by  exercises  in  sadism,  aided  by  sinister  servant  Krall  ( Oscar  Homolka, Michael  Caine's  Russian  nemesis  in  the  Harry  Palmer  films ).

Audrey  Dalton ( as  Maude )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

This  was  Audrey's  last  horror outing.

Erikah  Peters  ( as  Elenka  )

Sex : No

Death :  Suicide  but  we  only  have  the  Baron's  word  for  that

Erika  was  a  German  actress  who'd  appeared  wuth  Elvis  in  GI Blues. She  retired  in  the  mid-sixties  and  is  now  81.

Lorna  Hanson  ( as  Anna )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

This  was  the  second  and  final  film  of  Lorna's  career  and  she  didn't  do  any  TV.


 
      

203 The Mask ( 1961 )

This  was  Canada's  first  contribution  to  the  horror  genre. It  was  in  3-D  and  screenings  came  with  a  mask  which  audiences  were  instructed  to  put  on  so  they  could  experience  the  hallucinations  suffered  by  the  lead  character  in  3-D. That  was  of  dubious  benefit  as  the  low  budget   sequences  recall   nothing  so  much  as  early  Dr  Who  sets  from  the  Hartnell/ Troughton  eras. The  story  is  so-so.

Michael  Radin  ( Martin  Lavut )  a  young  archaeologist  is  suffering  from  nightmare  visions  after  trying  on  an  ancient  mask  he  stole  from  the  museum  where  he  works. After  believing  he  might  have  killed  a  woman,  he  consults  Dr  Barnes  ( Paul  Stevens ) . When  he  doesn't  get  a  sympathetic  hearing  he  shoots  himself   after  sending  the  mask  to  Barnes  who  can't  resist  trying  it  on  for  himself

Claudette  Nevins ( as  Pam  Albright )  

Sex :  No

Death : Survives

Claudette  was  born  in  New  York  and  this  was  her  first  film. She  had  a  long  career  on  TV  and  the  odd   film  without  making  any  headlines. She  retired  in  the  mid-noughties  and  is  now  80.

Anne  Collings  (  as  Jill  Goodrich )

Sex :  Jill  has  a  clinch  with  Barnes

Death :  Survives

Anne  was  an  English  actress  born  in  Ipswich.  She  was  mainly  a  TV  actress  who  retired in  the  early  eighties. She  is  now  78.

Nancy  Island  ( as  murder  victim )

Sex : No

Death : Throttled  by  Michael  Radin

This  was  Nancy's  only  film.

202 The Innocents ( 1961 )

Here  we  cross  over  with  one  of  my  other  blogs  so  you  can  read  my  summary  of  the  film  and  all  about  one  of  the  actresses  here

Deborah  Kerr  ( as  Miss  Giddens  )

Sex : Nothing  overt  but  there's  a  sexual  subtext  running  throughout  the  film  culminating  in  the  famous  "infant  kiss"  scene

Death : Survives

Deborah  was  one  of  Britain's most  celebrated  actresses  of  the  fifties and  sixties, She  received  the  most  Oscar  nominations -six - without actually  winning  one. Probably  her  best  known  role  was Anna in  The King  And  I  but  she  also  starred in  From  Here To  Eternity, Separate  Tables  and  Black  Narcissus. Later  in  her  career  she  unfortunately appeared  in  the  trashy  A  Woman  of  Substance  but  her  reputation  was  secure  enough. She  died in  2007  from  Parkinson's  Disease  aged  86.

Pamela  Franklin  ( as  Flora )

Sex : n/a

Death : Survives

For  information  on  Pamela  follow  the  link  above

201 Homicidal ( 1961 )

Gimmick  king  William  Castle  was  first  out  of  the  traps  when  it  came  to  ripping  off  Pyscho  with  this  campy  tale  of  a  transvestite  slasher. It's  OK  but  wouldn't  stand  up  to  repeated  viewing.

A  mysterious  woman  calling  herself  Miriam  Webster  checks  into  a  cheap  hotel  and  makes  a  strange  marriage  proposal  to  young  bellhop  Jim  Nesbitt  ( Richard  Rust )  involving  a  midnight  hitch   by  a  county  magistrate. She  proceeds to  butcher  the  man  leaving  Jim  unharmed. We  then  learn  she  is  really  Emily , a  Danish  girl   who  looks  after  the  invalided  Helga  ( Eugenie  Leontovich ). Helga  was  formerly  the  nanny  to  siblings  Miriam  ( the  real  one  )  and  Warren , heir  to  a  considerable  estate , who  has  engaged  Emily  without  consulting  his  sister. The  explanation  of  all  this  stretches  credibility  to  breaking  point.

Joan  Marshall  ( as  Emily  and  Warren )

Sex : No, it  would  give  away  too  much

Death :  Shot  by  the  family  doctor  without  asking  any  questions

 Joan  wasn't  entirely  unknown  when  she  made  the  picture,   having  a  string  of  TV  credits  to  her  name,  but  Castle  insisted  on  billing  her  as  Jean  Arless  to  leave  the  audience  unsure  whether  the  character  was  played  by  a  man  or  a  woman. Joan  reverted  back  to  her  real  name  for  the  rest  of  her  career  which  was  mainly  on  TV. She  retired  at  the  end  of  the  sixties;  her  life   story  was  turned  into  the  hit  film  Shampoo  by  her  ex-husband. She  died  in  Jamaica  in 1992  aged  61.

Patricia  Breslin  ( as  Miriam )

Sex : Has  a  few  scenes  in  a  neglige

Death : Survives

Patricia  too  was  almost  entirely  a  TV  actress. She  retired  in  the  mid-sixties, not  long  after  her  stint  in  Peyton  Place.  She  died  in  2011  aged  80.

200 Dr Blood's Coffin ( 1961 )

This independently-made British film  isn't short of gore and the ending is entertainingly preposterous but it doesn't half take a long time to get going. I think the problem might be the location. The  coastal scenery  around  St  Just  is  terrific  and  the  characters  spend  too  long  just  walking  around  it.

Peter  Blood  ( Kieron  Moore )  is  an  arrogant  young  doctor  kicked  out  of  medical  school  in  Vienna  for  unethical  experiments  in  heart  transplants. He  shows  up  in  a  Cornish  village  where  his  father  ( Ian  Hunter )  has  a  practice  and  secretly  continues  his  experiments  in  a  disused  mine  while  romancing  his  father's  widowed  nurse  Linda.

Hazel  Court  ( as  Linda  Parker )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Hazel  is  the  only  female  in  the cast   in  this  one.

199 Curse of the Werewolf ( 1961)

This  is  Hammer's  first  excursion  into  werewolf  territory  and  is  chiefly  remembered  for  launching  Oliver  Reed  onto  an  unsuspecting  world, Ollie's  very  good  as  Leon  the  werewolf but  he  does  take  a  while  to  appear  and  the  preceding  twenty  minutes  are  very  pedestrian.

Yvonne  Romain ( as  Jailer's  Daughter )

Sex : The  girl  is  raped  by  the  prisoner  she  has  been  tending.

Death : Dies  after  giving  birth  to  Leon

Yvonne   has  no  lines  in  this  film  as  she  is  mute. You'd  think  they  could  have  thought  up  a  name  for  the  character  though.

Catherine  Feller ( as  Kristina ) 

Sex : Kristina  has  trysts  with  Leon  but  we  don't  see  them  getting  it  on.

Death : Survives

 To  say  Catherine  had  a  thirty-year  career  , more  in  TV  than  film, biographical  detail  is  hard  to  come  by. She  was  born  in  1939  and  was  very  active  up  until  the  late  sixties  when  her  appearances  became  sporadic. She  was  last  seen  as  a  chambermaid  in  Fresh  Fields.

Josephine  Llewellyn   ( as  The  Marquesa )

Sex : Impressive cleavage

Death :  The  narrator  mentions  that  she  died  a  few  years  into  her  marriage  to  the  Marquis

Josephine  is  even  more  obscure  although  she  had  a  regular  role  in  a  TV  series  A Matter  of  Degree  the  year  before  this. She  disappears  from  view  after  this  film.

Hira  Talfrey  ( as  Teresa )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Tira   was   from  New  Zealand  but  mainly  worked  in  British  TV  up  to  1978. She  died  in  2011  aged  85.

Sheila  Brennan ( as  Vera )

Sex : Vera  takes  Leon  to  her  room  for  sex....

Death : .. but  ends  up  having  her  throat  ripped  out

Sheila   made  few  films  but  did  a  lot  of  TV  between  1955  and  1982. She  had  a  run  in  Crossroads  in  1978.

Joy  Webster ( as  Isabel )

Sex : Isabel  is  a  prostitute

Death  : Survives

Joy  plays  a  whore  once  more.

Renny  Lister  ( as  Yvonne )

Sex  : Yvonne  is  a  prostitute

Death : Survives

This  is  one  of  few  films  made  by  Renny  who  had  a  long  career  on  TV  although  her  appearances  since  1988  have  been  rare. She  has  been  Mrs  Kenneth  Cope  since  1961.

Loraine  Carvana  ( as  the  young  jailer's  daughter )

Sex : n/a

Death : Survives

This  was  young  Loraine's  only  film. She  is  a  good  match  for  her  adult  counterpart.

198 Village of the Damned ( 1960 )

This  is  a  well-remembered  adaptation  of  John  Wyndham's The  Midwwich  Cuckoos, made  by  MGM's  British  arm  because  the  Americans  got  cold  feet  about  the  film's  depiction  of  virgin  birth  being  sinister. It's  a  long  time  since  I read  the  book  but  it  seems  pretty  faithful  and  would  be  chilling  enough  in  its  own  right.

The  small  village  of  Midwich  is  struck  by  a  strange  phenomenon  whereby  every  animal  ( including  people )  fall  asleep  for  a  couple  of  hours. Two  months  later  every  fertile  woman  is   pregnant  regardless  of  whether  they've  been  sexually  active. One  of  the  women  is  the  wife  of  government  scientist  Gordon  Zellaby  ( George  Sanders )  who  observes  the  development  of  the  resulting  telepathic  children  with  both  alarm  and  curiosity.As  the  children  respect  him  alone  for  his  intellect  he  has  to  decide  what  to  do  about  them.

Barbara  Shelley  ( as  Anthea  Zellaby )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Barbara's  is  the  only  decent  female  role  in  the  film ; the  rest  are  mere  cameos.

Sarah  Long  ( as  Evelyn  Harrington )

Sex : No

Death :Survives

This  was  one  of  only  two  film  roles  for  Sarah  who  is  much  better  remembered  for  her  long  stint  as  a  presenter  on  Play  School  which  lasted  until  a  year  before  her  untimely  death  from  cancer  in  1987  aged  49. she  was  married  to  Coronation  Street  actor  Peter  Baldwin.

Charlotte  Mitchell  ( as  Janet  Pawle )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

Charlotte  had  a  40  year  career  in  film , TV  and  radio. She  played  the  female  parts  in  The  Goon  Show  and  reputedly  had  a  relationship  with  Peter  Sellers. Her TV  work  included  regular  roles  in  Not  In  Front  Of  The  Children, The  Adventures  of  Black  Beauty,And  Mother  Makes  Five  and  finally, Heartbeat.  She  also  wrote  poetry  and  some  scripts  for  TV , theatre  and  radio. She  was  the  mother  o  actors  Dominic  and  Christopher  Guard. She  died  in  2012  aged  85.

Pamela  Buck ( as  Milly  Hughes )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

This  was  the  last  sighting  of  this  obscure actress  whose  other  work  was  all  on  TV  in  the  fifties.

Diane  Aubrey  ( as  WRAC  Secretary )

Sex : No

Death : Survives

A  very  tiny  part  for  Diane  in  this  one.