THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (1962) - an influential British apocalypse

THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS
(1962, UK)

An appreciation of this Technicolour nightmare

A classic British sci-fi horror film, based on John Wyndham's influential novel, starts with his hero waking up in an eye hospital to discover London in chaos, having to figure out an adequate post-apocalyptic survival strategy, while fending off an army of killer plants. The global scenario of doom has been repeated in dozens of projects since, not least in 28 Days Later which starts off much the same, in the same city too. But the original threat wasn't fast-moving zombies, but large walking plants...

Bill Masen misses out on seeing a spectacular meteor shower that blinds most of the world's population, leaving them at the mercy of the mysterious triffids (hinted at also being extraterrestrial in the film, but not the book). These plants can uproot themselves and kill with a whiplike stinger. Bill meets another sighted survivor and leaves the chaos of the city and England behind, heading south in search of refuge from the growing threat...

The scenes of a devastated city were particularly shocking to this young Londoner when I first saw them. Though the special effects are variably successful through today's eyes, they were convincing for many years. London in flames, the carnage from train and plane crashes and the ensuing panic is still unpleasantly real. Added to this are the creepy sounds of the triffids, lurking in shadows and fog to strike down and feed on human victims. While slow-moving, they provide a similar suspenseful threat as oldschool zombies. They're rarely seen in strong light or extended close-ups and it's hard to get a clear idea on their exact biological shape. Their scariest feature is what passes for a head, and a nightmarish face. The early scene during the meteor shower, in a huge shadowy greenhouse in Kew Gardens, masterfully uses vivid primary technicolor for atmosphere and shock effect.

Famously, after initial filming had finished, the feature's duration was still short of usable material, and director Freddie Francis was drafted in to add the memorable lighthouse scenes, without getting a credit. These new scenes, interspersed throughout the story, added co-stars Kieron Moore and Janette Scott (also seen together in Crack In The World), a larger horrific triffid, and a stirring new climax. The best publicity stills ended up being taken in these lighthouse sets too, Janette being menaced by a triffid in the shadows.


Howard Keel, as Bill Masen, is convincing and steady as a rock in the centre of all the havoc, halfway in his career between Hollywood musicals and endless TV episodes of Dallas. Mervyn Johns has a short role as Coker - the actor was a long-standing torch-bearer for classic British horror, having appeared in the ghost anthology Dead of Night (1945). It's a memorable role, showing a deft touch for sympathetic and believable characters. Yet Johns could also portray madness to an astounding depth, playing the witty serial killer in My Learned Friend, and part of the eccentric family in William Castle's The Old Dark House (1963), which is newly available in a William Castle Collection DVD Boxset.

Janina Faye, playing a cheeky schoolgirl sidekick, was fresh from a string of child parts in British horror films, most touchingly Horror of Dracula, when she's wrapped up like a teddy bear by Peter Cushing as Van Helsing. She'd also been in The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll and Never Take Sweets From A Stranger (a daring Hammer Films paedo-thriller, hopefully on DVD in the US soon), and The Hands of Orlac remake. She later had a more substantial role in The Beauty Jungle (1964), a light expose on the tough world of modelling, opposite Janette Scott.

Look out for Carole Ann Ford in the film, appearing here the year before she played the Doctor's grand-daughter, Susan, in the very first episode of Doctor Who, when it began in 1963.

So far, the DVD releases of The Day of the Triffids have been well-framed 2.35 widescreen, but never anamorphically presented. The source material has been a scratchy print with faded colour. This is poor treatment for such an early widescreen colour sci-fi film. It's also a noticeable standards conversion from NTSC. The various DVD and laserdisc releases seem to have all been sourced from this one analogue master. So far, an entertaining trailer has been the only DVD extra.

What's needed is a digital remaster from a decent print, or dare I say negative? And in a fantasy world I'd love to see some of the film's deleted scenes. For instance, the stills below, from sixties monster mags, hint at possible missing scenes from the airplane sequence. In the finished film, there are no triffids on the plane, but here we see one among the passengers and in the cockpit (killing the radio operator).




Recently over on the scholarly Classic Horror Film Board, there's good news that a new restoration could be nearing completion, overseen by Ignite Films in the US. Hopefully the project will eventually hit DVD.


I'd also love to have Ron Goodwin's pounding soundtrack! That's looking very unlikely, but an excellent re-recording of twenty minutes of the score have been released by Monstrous Movie Music on their This Island Earth CD release. Considering Goodwin also provided eerie scores for Village of the Damned and it's sequel, his fantasy soundtracks are sorely missing from our CD collections. The liner notes include the most extensive information I've ever seen about the making of The Day of the Triffids.

I've never cared much for the 1981 BBC TV series, despite the more faithful approach to the book. It's far too light on devastation and triffid action. The recent mini-series veered further away from the book, and the triffids.

Other John Wyndham novels have been adapted as films and TV, one of our most influential sci-fi writers since H.G. Wells. Most famous are 'The Midwich Cuckoos' (inspiring Village of the Damned) and Chocky. Though I'd love to see an adaption of his 'The Kraken Wakes', an invasion of Earth from beneath the sea...

THE VANISHED (2006) - Japanese horror that's hard on the kids

THE VANISHED
(2006, Japan, Ame No Machi)

The horror genre of 'killer kids' is popular again, with recent movies like Them (Ils), The Strangers, Orphan, It's Alive and The Children. This Japanese horror is now a few years old, but I've only just found it subtitled. Far less gory than western horrors, it adds a little more creepiness.

Starting with some convincing shocks, where a little boy is stalked by a madman with a shovel. A sack is placed over the child's head - a visual reminder of The Orphanage, but this is a misleading similarity, capitalised on by the publicity art.

The boy's body floats away from this remote village and is discovered miles downstream. An autopsy shows up some bizarre results. Gutter press journalist Sota is sent to check out the story and hype up the supernatural angle, even if there isn't one. But for the first time in his career, he sees something genuinely uncanny. Not the least of which is a corpse with the insides of what looks like yellow cheese.

Tracing the body back to a remote area in the forest, he teams up with Fumiyo, a local journalist. She takes him to one of the few families left in a severely haunted village, where the local children, aren't really children at all...


Believability is strained early on as Sota sneaks some photos of the body in the morgue, using a noisy flash camera without the attendant noticing, eben though they're in the same room. It also unfortunately looks like Sota wants naked photos of the kid, rather than of the clues. Later on, further poor staging means that the heroes fail to notice a dead body in a small room.

The bizarre situation could also do with more backstory. Where in Japanese mythology are there vampires made of cheese? It's all creepy enough, but nothing is as strong as the opening scene. The eventual ending is drawn out and failed to chill.

Toshihiro Wada doesn't make the most of his character Sato, leaving various plot points rather muddled (like his attitude to the newspaper he works for). But Yoko Maki makes Fumiyo a more believable character, unfortunately completely underused, disappearing soon after she's introduced. The actress also made a lasting impression in Sway (Yureru), and the US version of The Grudge.

The Vanished is likeable for the unusual theme, and the potential of the story rather than where it ends up. The Malaysian DVD (from PMP) is widescreen but not anamorphic. English subtitles are rather stiffly worded and felt inaccurate in many scenes. Better translations would help it considerably, and I'd certainly reassess my opinions if there was ever a release in the West. It's also out on DVD in Hong Kong (cover art pictured at top).

A trailer (including plenty of spoilers), is here on DailyMotion.

Not On DVD: PROJECT U.F.O. (1978) - TV's weekly close encounters

PROJECT U.F.O.
(1978, USA, TV)

In 1978, the double-whammy of box office hits, Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, had sparked a sci-fi explosion on TV. But while Star Wars directly inspired the galactic dogfights of Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, what could TV do with Close Encounters?

The answers lie in Project Blue Book, the USAF official catalogue of the investigation of UFO sightings in the USA, also the inspiration for many events in Close Encounters. In the first episode of Project U.F.O. ('The Washington DC Incident'), UFOs descend near a woman alone in a remote country house, buzz a guy stranded in his pick-up truck late at night, and get tracked by a roomful of air traffic controllers - all mirroring major scenes from Spielberg's film.


After a jumble of sightings, two officers from the Air Force investigate and question all the witnesses. Sergeant Fisk and Major Gatlin are very limited characters, often sounding like they're spouting official USAF documents. Having said that, fair-haired Caskey Swaim is still easy on the eye. The hook to the series was a weekly dose of UFO sightings and alien visitations. These are imaginatively done, albeit on a TV budget (the models look far too small to be anything else than plastic kits). The parade of different extra-terrestrials, usually a new race every week, are more interestingly realised.

The twist is that some of the sightings can be explained away, others cannot. Though if you rewind to the footage of the reported sightings and compare them with the explanations, they don't always match up. When The X Files began, I thought that, like Project U.F.O., at least a few of the cases Mulder and Scully investigated would turn out to be hoaxes or natural phenomenon, rather than them striking paranormal gold every single week.


For the time, Project U.F.O. was a visual effects-heavy TV show, and still provides plenty of retro eye-candy. Looking past the special effects to the original cases that are described could prove to be a little spooky, if you get into it. Nowadays, it's hard to enjoy because of the lack of engaging characters. The level of logic and science is partly aimed at children, or at least anyone who's never heard of electrical storms and the planet Venus. The show is also remarkably low on interesting or even recognisable guest stars, Leif Erickson (of the original Invaders From Mars) and Pamela Franklin (The Legend of Hell House) being rare exceptions.


It's a stretch to call Project U.F.O. a forerunner to The X Files as it's too light in tone, with such slim storylines, (The Night Stalker was much more of an influence). It was also a steep contrast from the aggressive aliens, imaginative action and tight special effects of Gerry Anderson's UFO of almost ten years earlier.

Both seasons of Project U.F.O. reappeared on UK's Sci-Fi Channel a few years ago, so the series is still out there, but has never appeared on DVD anywhere. 26 episodes in all, has anyone spotted them recently? Keep watching the airwaves!

Here's the opening of the first episode on YouTube...

Gone to Halloween Town - back soon

Forgive the reduced amount of reviews over the next few days, I'm off to find somewhere that celebrates Halloween properly...

GOLD (1974) - gritty action with Roger Moore

GOLD
(1974, UK)

Roger Moore's best non-Bond action movie

For some reason I missed this in the cinemas, and never ever fully caught it on TV. Maybe the publicity stills of Moore sitting in a bath with Susannah York put me off, making me think it was slushy. Anyhow, just seen Gold in 2.35 widescreen for the first time (on a recent region 2 UK DVD) and it's still very enjoyable, thrilling and surprising, with extensive location filming in Johannesburg, back when South Africa was split by apartheid. Watching it with a couple of friends who lived there recently helped add some additional insight.

While I've been looking through a few seventies thrillers, I bought Gold after remembering a scene with a killer Rolls Royce. Like many people, I'm wary of Roger Moore's James Bonds because of the lightweight family films they became, filled with far too much silliness. But his earlier Bonds, especially Live and Let Die are closer to Connery's toughness. Gold was filmed the same year as The Man With The Golden Gun but released slightly earlier.

It's based on 'Gold Mine' by Wilbur Smith, a very popular author at the time, who specialised in thrillers set in Africa. With the sort of detail used for the diamond trade in Ian Fleming's Diamonds Are Forever, Gold depicts the trade from start to finish, from the rockface through to the financiers in the stock market. The opening titles show the process of mining and refining the ore. The leftover rock being relegated to huge slag heaps on the surface. These level, man-made mountains later form a stage for the film's climax. I'm told that the refining process has now been modernised and the slag is being re-processed to extract even more minerals. There's gold in them there slags!

But to dig all the ore out, miners have to go deeper underground than ever, a risky business. A cave-in kicks off the story, with troubleshooter Rod Slater (Roger Moore) risking his life to get everyone out. The mystery is why the trapped miners were so far off course with their digging. If they'd gone any further, they might have ruptured a huge undersea lake that could have flooded the mine forever. While visiting Jo'burg, I went down the last remaining liftshaft into a gold mine. You haven't seen darkess till someone turns off the lights down there. The escape shaft was also particularly terrifying, a small slanted tunnel to the surface - not for the claustrophobic.

Like a true airport page-turner, the characters are closely linked by blood and bed. The daughter (Susannah York) of the owner of the mine (Ray Milland) is married to his deputy (Bradford Dillman), but she fancies playing the field. Meanwhile Bradford and his gay sidekick (Tony Beckley) are in league with the head (John Gielgud) of an international cartel. While Roger and Susannah hook up and go gallivanting, a murderous and explosive plot is being hatched...

Frankly, the sliminess of baddies doesn't get much better than Bradford Dillman and Tony Beckley. Gielgud isn't slimy, but is excellent at greedy ruthlessness, especially round a table with the big-hitters. It's not far removed from his aloof butler in Arthur, but without the humour, he's suitably dangerous. Dillman never fully escaped TV roles, but I've always liked his distinctive voice and sneaky eyes - he dabbled in horror films with Chosen Survivors, William Castle's Bug (1975) and of course Joe Dante's original Piranha (1978). Tony Beckley played several borderline gay roles, such as the disdainful Camp Freddy in The Italian Job (1969), but could also be a realistic serial killer, in the unconventional When A Stranger Calls (1980), his last film. Here he has a pad tastefully painted lilac and covered in pictures of male nudes, greek statues of course. Nothing to do with the story, just a little local colour, as subtle as a mallet.

Ray Milland is always a welcome face, here his career has somehow recovered from the truly awful The Thing With Two Heads (where the head of a white racist is grafted onto a black guy's body) and he's in his best shouty, confrontational form. I think his best horrors were The Man With X Ray Eyes (1963) and The Premature Burial (1962). His daughter is played by Susannah York, the only female character in the whole shebang. While she looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, the actress has appeared in many cult movies, including the gruelling They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969), and getting the first lesbian screen kiss in The Killing of Sister George (1968). She's most famous as Superman's mother in the first two Christopher Reeve movies. Ms York is happily still working, mainly on British TV.

The interiors were filmed at London's Pinewood Studios, with some really convincing mining sets. But there's extensive location work shot in Johannesburg, in a country where apartheid was a political reality enforced by the white dictators of the time. While the story shows black and white miners working together in harmony, note that the mine bosses are all white and, even at social gatherings, the crowds are segregated into black and white. The miner's homes next to the mine look spotlessly clean and modern, but this wasn't the reality for the majority of black people in South Africa, and still isn't, years after the fall of the apartheid regime.

With larger-than-life characters and plenty of plot twists and surprises, one involving a six-year old Patsy Kensit (Lethal Weapon 2), this is still highly enjoyable and gritty action, particularly the climax.

The UK DVD is a pleasant surprise, accurately presenting this 2.35 widescreen anamorphically. Though the cover artwork is far from inspiring, especially compared to the Polish DVD or the original poster. The film is also available in Germany.

Here's the opening titles on YouTube...

DAY OF THE DEAD (1986) - George Romero's best zombies

DAY OF THE DEAD
(1986, USA)

I'm a huge fan of Dawn, but Day is a better film

I find it hard to review my very favourite films objectively, but here goes.

After being seriously wowed by George Romero's classic Zombies: Dawn of the Dead (1978), even in the censored form that hit UK cinemas and then home video, I was anticipating that this follow-up would be a huge draw. I saw Day of the Dead at one of the hugest screens in the country (the Odeon, Norwich) and was vastly impressed, though it was a largely empty cinema. It was a shock to see it so poorly received, at a time when the country was booming with VHS rentals rather than cinema-going.

The 'living dead trilogy' (as it was called before Land of the Dead ushered in Romero's new batch of Deads) marked three decades with a progression in the zombie's history of mindless world domination. The first was a local phenomenon, the second was when the tide turned, and in the third the Dead rule the planet.


These were the days when zombies only shuffled (though they seem to move a little faster when a meal is close). They may be slow, but win through force of numbers. Another method Romero used to add zombie threat was by placing victims in confined spaces, like a basement, an apartment block or the corridors of a shopping mall.

It was all the more claustrophobic in Day of the Dead, when our heroes are trapped underground in a maze of caverns with only one entrance. I thought the corral, the cave where the zombie 'guinea pigs' await experimentation, was the ultimate in zombie nightmares - being trapped in the dark with hungry flesh-eaters hidden in a maze of tunnels - I still get tense when the soldiers have to use the corral gates to retrieve zombies for experimentation, under orders to get real close to them.

In each film in the trilogy, Romero's film-making skills evolved, as did his female characters. The leading women went from traumatised victim, to equality-seeking girlfriend, to level-headed alpha female. Here Lori Cardille represents the strongest female lead in the first Dead cycle (tricycle?) as a scientist who's also handy with a rifle. The movie starts with an excellent scene (shot in Fort Myers, Florida) showing a town over-run with zombies. I'd liked to have seen more scenes of city life, a taster of how I'd wished I Am Legend had been made.

As the dwindling numbers in a military project, to solve the zombie problem medically, lose another member, tensions rise between the soldiers and the scientists. Are they on the brink of a discovery, and are they going to be able to hold out long enough?

Dr 'Frankenstein' Logan (Richard Liberty) plays an obsessed but amusing mad scientist. He blinds the military with logic, defending himself from the trigger-happy Captain Rhodes (Joe Pilato), who's impatiently in charge of what's left of the sex-starved soldiers. John Amplas (the star of Romero's Martin) provides sturdy support as one of the few sane minds left on the planet.

A special mention goes to Howard Sherman as Bub, the greatest ever zombie character of the movies, the first (slightly) domesticated zombie. A possible key to the survival of the human race... co-existence!


To me, Day of the Dead has Romero's most consistent cast, the best characters, the tightest story and script, and the goriest effects. Though the blood is used more sparingly, the shock effects are startling, setting a high benchmark for the genre.

While there's nothing quite as memorable to match the iconic shopping mall of Dawn of the Dead, the story flows logically as the remainder of humankind continue to tear each itself apart.

Make-up king Tom Savini excels at engineering the effects for Dr Frankenstein's nasty experiments, as he tries to surgically isolate what makes zombies tick. The gore is unbearably real, the zombies are by now in an advanced state of decay, the deaths are the nastiest yet.

The only false note for me was that the music was far less memorable. It did the job, but i was expecting another iconic Dawn of the Dead strength soundtrack. To me, the music of Goblin will always be the official theme tune for any post-apocalyptic zombie invasion.


I've got the Anchor Bay Divimax DVD edition (pictured), which has great extras, especially the documentary. Not sure that I want to see the gore any more clearly though, in the new Blu-Ray edition, but I bet Savini's FX remain undetectable.

The original widescreen trailer is here on YouTube, or here's a subtle teaser...

THE FURY (1978) - De Palma follows up CARRIE

THE FURY

(1978, USA)

Highly recommended horror thriller

This is my first full review of the horror films from director Brian De Palma's best, most consistent decade, which I recently listed here.

Thirty-three years on, Carrie (1976) is a staple of Halloween horror marathons, but the director's next film continued with the theme of teenage killer telekinetics and could even be viewed as a sequel. What if Carrie White passed on her powers? I'd go as far as to say that it was even hinted at the end of the film, mirrored by a similar scene at the end of The Fury. The link is actress Amy Irving who played Sue, Carrie's best friend. What if she moved town and changed her name...


Amy plays Gillian, now facing schoolgirl bullies of her own. But what Carrie did with objects, The Fury does with people, channelling telekinesis to manipulate blood pressure and internal organs... They also have limited telepathy, vivid flashbacks, and maybe even second sight.


A bunch of suits from the government are very interested in Gillian's powers and have already kidnapped Robin (Andrew Stevens) whose dad (Kirk Douglas) is desperately trying to find him. While Gillian's powers are being investigated, she discovers that she's not alone and psychically linked to Robin. While Gillian is unaware that she's in danger, Robin's father is stopping at nothing to avoid arrest and rescue his son.

But these talented teenagers have to be handled carefully, for if they get stressed, watch out. The Fury can make people bleed. From the nose, the eyes, the fingers, and so on... There's also a tense, disastrous scene when Robin gets stressed at a funfair.

Secret government agents with dark motives are now more familiar in series like Heroes. Decades ago, I thought that The Fury had been ripped off by the very similar Firestarter - with telekinesis substituted by pyrokinesis. But The Fury lead the pack of telekinetic thrillers, and for my money it was the best of the bunch, certainly far more fun than Cronenberg's Scanners.


De Palma masterfully uses camera movement and classic slow-motion sequences backed by a rare horror score from John Williams, who provides a lush and memorable theme-heavy score. This combination is showcased in an impressive action scene (the rescue)where the dialogue and sound effects are left out, leaving just the music. The soundtrack was recently remastered on CD.

Why it wasn't nearly as popular as Carrie, I don't know. I was shocked that Carrie played to sold-out performances and The Fury didn't come close. Both were fuelled by a popular novel (The Fury was written by John Farris), but perhaps Carrie was a far bigger bestseller (Stephen King's first) and the movie's high school hi-jinks paid off with the target audience. Both are horror films, but The Fury is also a conspiracy thriller. The stories have all the same ingredients, a little less humour, and more politics, a better cast, a higher budget and plenty more blood.


In fact, the spectacular prosthetic effects made it one of the bloodiest uncut films of the seventies, presumably due to the weaponless violence, with an unforgettable climax, attempting to top Carrie's final moments. The effects were by Dick Smith (The Exorcist) and Rick Baker (before An American Werewolf in London). It was spectacular, early mainstream splatter. I even thought that Andrew Stevens was cast because he could make the veins in his forehead stand out!

The Fury is flattered by a cast of acting heavyweights, with Kirk Douglas (Holocaust 2000) sparring with a demonic John Cassavetes (Rosemary's Baby). Fiona Lewis rarely played good girls (Dr Phibes Rises Again, Innerspace) and the underused Carrie Snodgress plays an old flame of Kirk Douglas. At the time I thought that Andrew Stevens (Stella Stevens' son) as the other telepath, would surely have a more high-profile career.

Some De Palma favourites reappear: Charles Durning was also in Sisters, and William Finlay (in a bit part) had already starred in Sisters and The Phantom of the Paradise. Dennis Franz was in both Dressed To Kill and Blow Out, and appears here in one of his earliest of many, many cop roles. Keep your eyes peeled for a teenaged Daryl Hannah as one of Gillian's school bullies.

A tight thriller, a good horror angle, unusual action scenes, creatively shot, a beautiful and haunting soundtrack... what's not to like?

The DVD hasn't been remastered in the UK or US since 2002 and especially needs remastering to make the many darker sequences far less grainy and foggy. Anamorphic? I guess it would be too much to ask for extras. Once again, I'd have thought the director's many hits, and recent work (Redacted) would have ensured that his back catalogue would be better treated.

More about De Palma's 1970s horror films here...

An uninspiring trailer for The Fury is here on YouTube. Perhaps why it wasn't as big a hit?

TWILIGHT PHANTOM (2007) - a different Japanese ghost story

TWILIGHT PHANTOM
(2007, Japan, Ako-kuro)

This Japanese horror film felt very different, despite the familiar plot elements. The location of Okinawa, the large southern island of Japan, presents life very differently from the crowded apartments and uptight manners of Tokyo. They have legends about forest creatures, not urban myths about telephones and other gadgets. The climate is hot, the people more spread out and laid back.

After starting with a couple of solid scares, Twilight Phantom settled into a deceptively easy-going tale of young Misaki joining her husband-to-be, meeting his friends and family and settling into life in Okinawa. Their houses are less modern, but far less crowded than metropolitan life, surrounded by lush vegetation. The people are friendlier and informal with older relatives. It's a very different presentation of Japanese life.


I was settling into this attractive alternate lifestyle when one evening, someone's granny tells a ghost story. A local legend about the red-haired 'kijimuna', told round a late night fire. It's as if she's accidentally invoked a demon, as it seems to become a reality almost immediately. In a pair of extraordinary one-take scenes that horrify with their intensity and ferocity, the group of new friends find themselves facing a powerful evil...

The story then falls into a more familiar pattern, but the characters' real reactions and the naturalistic filming make it a very different experience than usual. It's also gorier than the typical Japanese ghost stories. It's as if everyone had tried very hard to avoid cliches while still sticking to the boundaries of the genre.


I'd been wanting to see this since it was first pointed out by Twitch.com under its Japanese name of Ako-kuro. Finally found it earlier this year under the misleading title of Twilight Phantom on a Malaysian DVD (cover art at top). It's a no-frills release, but has good English subtitles - available here from YesAsia. Though it's a great shame that it hasn't been picked up anywhere else... yet.

Here's a trailer on YouTube...

DIAMONDS (1975) - terrific soundtrack, shame about the film

DIAMONDS
(1975, USA/Israel, Yahlumim)

High-calibre cast, rare locations and classy soundtrack all outweigh the movie.

This has so little love on IMDB that I've simply got to write it up, it was entertaining enough back in the seventies, and an enjoyable double-bill with Russian Roulette, which has actually aged far better. Ironically Diamonds has made it to DVD, while Russian Roulette hasn't.

This is the sort of mid-range production that Robert Shaw appeared in, even after excellent work in high-profile American hits as The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) and The Sting (1973). Both had failed to make him a megastar before he lucked into his next role: shark-killer Quint in Steven Spielberg's Jaws propelled him into A-list titles until his untimely death in 1978. He dominated young whippersnapper Nick Nolte in The Deep (author Peter Benchley's follow-up to Jaws), Harrison Ford in Force 10 From Navarone, and battled terrorists in the audacious Black Sunday. But Shaw's most famous role after Quint, is the stone killer 'Red' Grant in From Russia With Love (1963), outwitting the famous James Bond.

Here Shaw plays identical twins, thanks to some very basic split-screen trickery and a rather lumpy wig. One is a successful diamond merchant, the other a manufacturer of uncrackable security systems. Can you see where this is going? The wigless, diamond merchant Shaw hires two young criminals to help him crack his younger brother's most impenetrable safe - in the Tel Aviv Diamond Centre tower...

As the three arrive in Israel, the police are already alert to the fact that an ex-con is in their midst. Unable to shake police surveillance, they have to change the plans quickly and drastically. Plans that will involve national treasure, Mission Impossible tactics and of course a helicopter...

For decades, no heist movie has been able to resist the temptation to include pressure-sensitive floors. At least here we haven't got the cliched light beams as well. It's all gentle afternoon fun with a few minor twists that you'll never second guess.


The cast is constantly enlivened by Richard Roundtree (Shaft, Earthquake, and recently Heroes) who's never had nearly enough starring roles. Because of his character's take-no-shit attitude, and maybe his conspicuous shaggy fleece waistcoat and big hat, Diamonds was pushed on VHS as a fourth Shaft movie (retitled Diamond Shaft) which it most certainly isn't. John Shaft would never be caught dead driving an Austin Morris through London!

The third team member is played by Barbara Hershey, so good at baiting Steve Railsback in The Stuntman (1980). Back in 1975 she still appeared under the name Barbara Seagull, which regularly confused me until IMDB arrived. I thought they were different actresses! She is of course mainly the love interest here.

Shelley Winters is prominently featured in publicity and in many scenes, but is almost completely irrelevant to the story, purely along for some tired comedy relief. Though she looks better here than she does in Tentacles or The Poseidon Adventure. Viewers are of course reminded to check out her performance in Night of the Hunter (1955) for proof of her curvaceous appearance and serious acting abilities two decades earlier.

Another impressive aspect of Diamonds is the extensive filming of locations in Israel. I haven't seen Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Bethlehem (inside the Nativity Church) in any other film.

Best of all, Roy Budd (Get Carter) composed a soundtrack that's more memorable than the film. I bought it on cassette at the time and thankfully it was recently remastered on CD. I must have listened to it over a hundred times, even more than Budd's Fear Is The Key. The main theme is very loungey, with bags of sultry, jazzy sax. The car chase theme is a powerhouse, far more exciting than action on the screen. Then there are the Middle Eastern tracks, a memorable fusion of styles for the Israeli locations. Prince Charles favourites The Three Degrees provide an impeccable vocal to the main theme. Maybe you should listen to Diamonds before watching it?

I've not yet tracked down a copy of the anamorphically presented region 1, 2002 Anchor Bay DVD release, but at least it's out there. Maybe I'll stick with the old Channel 5 VHS...

A squeezed, but original, trailer is here on YouTube...

THE CASSANDRA CROSSING (1976) - outbreak on a train

THE CASSANDRA CROSSING

(1976, West Germany, Italy, UK)

This just beat Silver Streak to being the first seventies disaster movie on a train, but the accent here was on suspense and doom, rather than comedy. Back then it certainly delivered, though the posters and publicity made me expect something more sci-fi, like The Andromeda Strain. I re-watched this just before a recent trip to Geneva, where the journey begins.

The opening titles lead into a spectacular helicopter shot descending from the clouds, swooping low over Lake Geneva (when the huge fountain was unfortunately switched off), down over the United Nations European Headquarters and up to the World Health Organisation building. Inside, several terrorists force their way into top secret laboratories and during a shoot-out with the guards, one gets splashed with a nasty virus...

This leads neatly to a simple movie premise - hundreds of passengers trapped on a train with a killer virus. Luckily there's an action-hero scientist onboard, his ex-wife and a host of disposal disaster movie stereotypes. There's an early lowpoint with a singsong in one compartment, but after the silly soap-opera interlude, it turns back into a tight thriller as the nightmare deepens.

Eventually the American military find out about the missing terrorist potentially infecting everyone on the train. The Colonel in charge orders the train not to stop and that no-one gets off. Just to make sure, the train takes on armed guards and has its windows boarded up, in an eerie nighttime scene with the soldiers dressed in bio-hazard suits. Anyone who tries to escape will be shot. The all-white outfits might be accurate, but they also reminded me of George Romero's own 'outbreak' horror The Crazies (1973). The following year, there was a similar-looking clean-up squad in David Cronenberg's Rabid (1977).

In these contagion movies the symptoms can go two ways - if it's a thriller then the virus simply kills, like The Andromeda Strain (1971) or Outbreak (1995). If it's a horror film then the infected turn into mindless killers, as in The Crazies, Rabid, right upto 28 Days Later.

Besides the spreading virus, there's the lengths the army will go to prevent the secret of their bio-weapon getting out. Either way, time is running out for the passengers as the train nears the end of the line, the rickety Cassandra Crossing...

With a simple premise, mounting complications and a memorably callous climax, this is also a movie full of familiar faces.Sharing top-billing are Burt Lancaster, Sophia Loren and Richard Harris, all bringing glamour to an endless string of seventies thrillers. Harris was an unlikely, thoughtful action hero throughout the seventies in Juggernaut, Orca - The Killer Whale and Golden Rendezvous... though today he seems mainly remembered for his curtain-call as Dumbledore. Personally, I'd rather see him battle Orca...
Ava Gardner bounces back from her disaster movie experience of Earthquake (1974), invigorated here by toyboy Martin Sheen, who's still in a rut of greasy villains, looking exactly as he does as the predatory paedo in The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane (also 1976). If you ever wanted to see more of Martin doing half-naked yoga, like the opening of Apocalypse Now, this movie is for you...

In the tradition of disaster movies, there's too many characters set up, so that later they can be cruelly cut down... including a host of actors more famous from their European cult movies - John Philip Law (Barbarella), Alida Valli (Suspiria), Ingrid Thulin (Salon Kitty). Not to mention OJ Simpson (The Towering Inferno) as a priest!

Ann Turkel is presumably here because her husband was Richard Harris. She's paired onscreen with Italian actor Ray Lovelock - yes, the star of Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue (1975), but without his beard! I didn't recognise him without the facial hair, wearing a woolly ski sweater!
Last but not least is the father of method acting, Lee Strasberg. His skimpy watch salesman character gains dramatic weight when he realises that the train is taking him back to the internment camp he was imprisoned in during the war. For a major proponent of stage acting, this is a rare movie role, his most acclaimed screen appearance being in The Godfather. Heaven only knows what made him do a European disaster movie.

The Jerry Goldsmith soundtrack certainly helps. He uses a few creepy virus sounds that he first used for The Satan Bug (1965).

All in all, a fast-paced thriller blended into the disaster movie genre.

I've been watching a VHS all this time and am looking for a decent version on DVD. I've got the Carlton DVD - it's widescreen but letterboxed, non-anamorphic, and the negative needs a little restoration work for dirt and scratches - but at least it's available. I'll keep lhoping for an anamorphic remastered version...

A widescreen YouTube trailer from TCM...

London Film Festival 2009 preview

Some suggestions from the forthcoming London Film Festival (14th to 29th October) and the BFI South Bank programme for November...



The 2009 London Film Festival includes some rare chances to see international cinema on the big screen and previews of forthcoming hits.

The new big budget CGI Astro Boy (Oct 17). This international production is looking good from the trailers I've seen. The characters don't look much like the manga or anime, but this movie could revive the character outside Japan for the first time since Astro's success on US TV in the sixties. The character has been regularly updated as an anime in Japan (most recently in 2003).

The new 3-D edition of the Pixar classic Toy Story 2 (Oct 25) is a ten year anniversary revival, this time re-rendered for 3-D presentation. It should later appear in local cinemas on a double-bill with Toy Story, also in 3D.

There's the new Japanese live-action ninja epic, a manga adaption called Kamui (Oct 22/23).

A new British documentary American: The Bill Hicks Story (Oct 23/26). I never tire of the comedy of the late Bill Hicks and miss his acidic attacks more than ever.

The City of Life and Death (Oct 28) - the latest dramatisation of the Nanking massacre - the worst atrocity during the 1937 Japanese invasion of China. This is a Hong Kong/Chinese co-production, focusing on three characters' stories within the six week 'Rape of Nanking'.

From the BFI archives there's a screening of J'Accuse (Oct 24). This is a full-length print of the silent 1919 version. A plea for peace from director Abel Gance, who remade the film under the same name just before World War 2. A soldier who narrowly avoids death in the trenches, pleas with politicians not to go to war again. As a last resort, he summons up the war dead, and they rise from their graves to march in protest and warn the living.

A restored print of Topper (Oct 15) is the 1937 Cary Grant comedy about two ghosts pestering a timid salaryman (Roland Young). It spawned two movie sequels and a TV series.



After the festival, the BFI Southbank continues with its November programme.

There's all the films of South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho. From his early short films to his latest release. There's a rare screening of his first feature Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), the marvelous mystery Memories of Murder (2003), and of course the movie that made him internationally famous The Host (2006). He contributed one third of the segments of Tokyo (2008) and there's a preview of his new film Mother (2009). Hopefully it won't be long before we get to see The Host 2...

There's also a Michael Haneke season, including both versions of his brutal Funny Games, which I reviewed here.