FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (1969) - the doctor driven to new depths

FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED

(1969, UK)

The apex of the Hammer Studios' Frankenstein series...

Baron Frankenstein's latest experiment has been found discovered by the police. He has to leave town quickly and continue his grisly work elsewhere. With a new name and hidden better than ever, the doctor discovers an old colleague is now confined to an lunatic asylum. Frankenstein uses his unorthodox surgical skills to cure this doctor whose knowledge can further his own...

This Hammer horror stands above the rest of its Frankensteins because, this time, the human experiment can reason intelligently and speak their mind. While teenaged me was disappointed that it wasn't about a rampaging disfigured monster, the dramatic consequences proved creepy and haunting. That Frankenstein never hesitates to further his knowledge at the cost of any lives necessary.

It was The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) that launched Hammer Studios in the new direction of horror for the next twenty years. They continued Baron Frankenstein's medical adventures with Peter Cushing every couple of years for another five sequels. There's no overall 'story arc' - each Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummy film can be enjoyed as stand-alone films. Just as well, back when the only way to see them was when ITV or BBC decided to schedule one, always in a random order.

For me, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed is the most interesting of the Hammer Frankenstein's. It's not set in a castle and there's less emphasis on costume drama. Apart from riding around on a coach and horses, it could even be a modern story. This film also attempts to compete with the emerging violent cinema heralded by Bonnie and Clyde and The Wild Bunch. Not as extreme as either of those, but notably more vicious.

From the very first scene, there's a beautifully executed pre-credits sequence, much like a Bond film, where it apparently begins with a finale from a previous adventure. A wordless, shocking, concise flurry of bloody action that sums up the Doctor's methods, before he has to set off on the run from the police, again. This is director Terence Fisher on top form, even though it was close to his last film.

Throughout the Hammer Frankensteins, there are many memorable moments, but this film packs in most of my favourites. Not just the tension of 'how much they'll show' of the surgical operations, but also the suspense of being discovered as the police close in on the Doctor's hideout, and a spectacular problem with a corpse that won't stay buried.

A particularly strong cast has Simon Ward co-opted into assisting the doctor. While he looks angelic, Ward was cast as both heroes (Young Winston) and psychopaths. Here his character gets our sympathy, despite the ambiguities of his character.

Veronica Carlson gives her best performance as his blackmailed girlfriend, with far better scenes than her usual 'waiting to be bitten' vampire victim.

Peter Cushing is excellent as Dr Frankenstein, surprising fans with his convincing portrayal of a vicious sleaze. This film, along with Corruption (1968) contain the actor's most controversial scenes.

Freddie Jones is the other standout performance. An actor capable of playing extremely eccentric characters or difficult scenarios such as this with invention and conviction. No wonder he became a favourite of David Lynch after being cast in The Elephant Man (and then Dune, Wild At Heart, Hotel Room, On The Air). His faltering voice conveys extreme vulnerability, but also an inner steel that can match Frankenstein's obsession with success.

This is a cleverer story than usual, less concerned with pseudo-science, and more interested in the insecurities of all the players. Deeper emotions and higher stakes make this gripping as drama and horror, regularly reaching frenzied highs, particularly the extended climax. Speaking of which, James Bernard's score (available on the above CD) evokes the sadness, suspense and excitement with one of his most memorable scores.

I watched the US region 1 DVD (above) - which is thankfully presented in the original anamorphic 1.85 widescreen. It's now definitely due for a blu...

Currently only available in the UK on a made-on-demand DVD-R from the Warner Archive Collection.

DEADFALL (1968) - Michael Caine heist before THE ITALIAN JOB

DEADFALL

(1968, UK)

Very sixties, very glossy, very repressed...

Michael Caine plays a jewel thief, drawn into an ambitious heist from a well-protected estate on the Spanish island of Mallorca. But the story spends more time on the psychological motives of his partners in crime, a mysterious husband and wife team (Eric Portman and Giovanna Ralli).

Based on a pulpy thriller by Desmond Cory, director Bryan Forbes adapts and streamlines the highlights of the story until its almost insubstantial. I was interested to see that the most unlikely physical aspects of the main heist are are taken from Cory's novel. 

Forbes seems distracted by the glamour of his cast, Caine at the height of his Alfie/Harry Palmer sexiness, as well as the beauty of the sun-drenched locations. It's often shot with a trendy variety of oblique, beautiful camerawork (framed through archways, out of focus/into focus...). 

It's interesting to see a sixties' drama in English using the relatively meaningless camerawork of French new wave. The sheen of the film would have been more attractive when the Mediterranean was a faraway glamorous location. A few years before it was overrun with affordable flights and package holidays.

But the style is very seductive, especially for late night viewing, when you can bathe in it, regardless of the pace of the story. Midnight is also a more suitable time for the sombre mood of the drama and the darkness in John Barry's lush soundtrack, the last of six collaborations with Forbes. For instance, Barry's theme when the diamonds are revealed hints at their dangerous allure. The theme song, belted out by Shirley Bassey, highlights the duality of several characters, 'My Love Has Two Faces'...

The musical centrepiece of the film is during a burglary, timed while a rich couple leave their mansion to go to a concert, conducted by John Barry himself! The performance doubles as the tense soundtrack to the heist. As Forbes explains in the DVD extras, they had the mindboggling task of filming the concert before the soundtrack was completed, when that music is normally added after the editing.

The soundtrack has always stuck with me, but so has the backstory of one the characters. As a young teenager, I was interested at the hint of a gay character, especially rare on TV in the 1970s. In my memories, I thought it only figured in one scene. But now I recognise the gay subplot as major rather than minor. It can also be the only reason for Deadfall being an X certificate in 1968. Note that the poster warns of "the perverse". There's no nudity, violence or swearing, what else could it be but a taboo subject?

It even makes me wonder that I missed some of the dialogue, or if several 'homosexual' references were removed when this played on Saturday night TV in the evening, rather than late at night. I'm thinking that the 'queer' in the dialogue might have been snipped out.

Deadfall reminds me of how homosexuality in the seventies continued to be represented, regarded as a dirty, dark secret that had to be carefully guarded and hidden at all costs. The story intertwines the shame and guilt with the plot. It's a dated representation, but a realistic taste of the anguish of closetted life.

The downbeat tone is leavened with a fun party scene where Nanette Newman inevitably cameos. Her character wants to be in movies. "Oh, you're an actress?" asks Caine. "No, I want to be in movies." she replies, absently.

Deadfall is at its core a heist movie. On the glossy surface, a variation on To Catch A Thief. A reminder of the lush music and cinematography of the decade. But it's also a tortured drama.

The US DVD (above) includes an isolated score, a 19 minute featurette interview with composer John Barry and director Bryan Forbes, both no longer with us, and the spoilerific original trailer. Optimum have also released a widescreen DVD in the UK.

Deadfall is also on a German blu-ray (as Die Todesfalle) with no extras, only a choice of English or German audio tracks.

There's a CD soundtrack from Retrograde Records that remastered and expanded John Barry's original vinyl soundtrack (shown at top).

Lastly, here are some inviting screengrabs from the US DVD here on DVD Beaver.

Judge Dredd speaks! (1985)

The first time ever I heard Judge Dredd...

Judge Dredd has always been coy about showing his face. In the early years, 2000 AD comic fans of all ages would send in drawings of what his face might look like. There was also on ongoing conversation in the letters page about which actors could or should play the character onscreen. 

At a time when we were desperate for Judge Dredd to be brought to life in some way, before there were any video games or movies, there was an initial thrill in hearing him speak for the first time. In 1985, ten years before he was first portrayed in a movie, Joe Dredd's voice was first heard in this unlikely project...

'Mutants In Mega-City One' by The Fink Brothers was released as a single in 1985. It alternates between an electronic saxy dance track and dialogue from a parade of different characters from the Judge Dredd stories, including the man himself.

Written as a mini-adventure, with mutants breaching the city walls, the soundscape to this track has sirens and screams that evoke the chaotic life of Mega-City One. Particularly like the robotic voice of Dredd's Lawmaster bike grimly reciting his percentage chances of survival.

On the back of the record sleeve, each of the character voices was identified in this unorthodox lyric sheet...

It was no secret that The Fink Brothers were actually Carl and Suggs of Madness who were huge 2000 A.D. fans - proof that the comic was already popular with adults (not even many graphic novels around back then). Despite the zany antics usually associated with the band, The Finks' track was played as seriously as the comic, post-apocalyptic with a hint of dark humour. It was released on their record label, Zarjazz, as a 7inch and 12inch single, but never on CD.

Brian Bolland drew a superb front and back cover for the vinyl sleeve, reprinted as a "What's Up Earthlets?" poster, free with some of the records (not mine, dammit!) and also used on the Prog 403 cover of 2000 AD to further promote the song.

Brian Bolland's original pencil art for the sleeve

Hear 'Mutants In Mega-City One' by The Fink Brothers

ISLAND OF TERROR (1966) - remastered and coming to DVD and blu-ray

ISLAND OF TERROR

(1966, UK)

Just when you think an old film is out-of-print and likely to be forgotten, it gets digitally remastered and struck on blu-ray! Odeon Entertainment are releasing Island of Terror in September and Night of the Big Heat on June 23rd. Both films are sci-fi horrors directed by one of Hammer Films' best, and both star Peter Cushing. 

Terence Fisher repeatedly proved that low-budget sci-fi was harder than low-budget horror, though it appears that he made these for less money than any of his Hammer Films. But he could still milk chills out of them, even The Earth Dies Screaming (1965).

That, Island of Terror and Night of the Big Heat are derived from the tradition of British science fiction in the vein of John Wyndham (The Kraken Wakes, The Day of the Triffids). Space invaders attacking isolated communities. Humanity retreating to defend itself in a mundane hotel bar or public house... 

Island of Terror is the most ambitious of Fisher's 'invasion trilogy' with an onslaught of slow-moving... things. Bulletproof things that quickly replicate themselves and can suck the bone out of anything they get their tentacles on. Not a great situation to be trapped on a remote island with.

Hard not to like, it has a brisk pace, even though our heroes spend a lot of time racing up and down the same dirt road in the same car. The monsters are quite unique, unlikely looking but sounding really creepy. They move slow but they can still creep up on you...

Edward Judd (First Men in the Moon) effortlessly plays a patronising, womanising hero, with barely any feeling for his dialogue, except that it's louder than everyone else and often begun over the others' lines. 

Carole Gray (Curse of the Fly) looks too classy and beautiful for b-movie monsters, and is far more convincing than Judd. There's also Niall MacGinnis (Night of the Demon, Jason and the Argonauts) given far too little to do. It's almost insulting that Peter Cushing isn't the romantic lead, though that doesn't stop him from hinting at it!

The rollicking Malcolm Lockyer (Dr Who and the Daleks) soundtrack is supplemented by Barry Gray's (Thunderbirds are Go, Space 1999, UFO) creepy electronic sound effects.

Island of Terror - uncut German DVD

Island of Terror had a UK DVD release, which I've not seen. I'd opted for the German DVD because it has an additional, bloody censor cut. But the transfer is poor, overly contrasty, and the source print is jumpy. The aspect ratio looks like 1.66 stretched sideways to fill the 16:9 frame. I delight in watching it just for the extra shot, but the forthcoming remastering will easily look better.

Odeon's online store is already offering pre-order sales for Island of Terror on DVD and blu-ray - the site says that these will be region-free. I'll update this article once I've seen the new blu-ray.

Terence Fisher's Night of the Big Heat (1967) starring both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee is on pre-order at MovieMail.

More about Terence Fisher's other sci-fi horror The Earth Dies Screaming (1965).

An earlier look at Island of Terror and some Silicate fridge magnets!

DAY OF THE ANIMALS (1978) - Leslie Nielsen in the follow-up to GRIZZLY

DAY OF THE ANIMALS

(1977, USA)

When animals attack... and keep on attacking!

A large group of happy campers prepare for a long trek in California's High Sierras. But after they're dropped off high on a mountain by helicopter, a warning goes out that an anomaly in the ozone layer could alter animal behaviour, and even be dangerous for humans. As the evacuation begins of all the towns at high altitude, the campers aren't expecting it when the many wild animals start behaving strangely...

This wouldn't have been made if it wasn't for Jaws, but like Joe Dante, director William Girdler knows his audience and tries to add surprises to the horror genre, rather than relying on cliche. With the theme of atmospheric damage, this also has a strong dose of sci-fi. It has a grindhouse vibe, but is too well made to be labelled as such.

Director William Girdler started off making really cheap horror films (like Three on a Meathook and Asylum of Satan) but rapidly progressed to mainstream releases. He rarely strayed from horror films, but maintained a fun creative sense, injecting what are now known as 'WTF moments' that make his later films must-sees. I looked forward to them, and was saddened when he died accidentally at the ridiculously young age of 30.

Day of the Animals, Grizzly and The Manitou deserve to be remastered on blu-ray. At the moment there's only a blu-ray of Grizzly in France and Day of the Animals has just had a special edition blu-ray in the USA, from Scorpion Releasing.

When I first saw this, on a double-bill with The Car, it didn't impress me nearly as much (see my review of The Car here). Watching it again on DVD did little to improve my opinion, but it was a really terrible presentation. Now, seeing it again in 2.35 widescreen, superbly restored, has elevated Day of the Animals to a worthy support feature for Grizzly, which I rate very highly. It could be argued that there's some continuity between the two stories. Day of the Animals could be a prequel, explaining why Grizzly ran amok. The animal attack theme certainly binds these two films together, made in consecutive years. It's certainly a better partner than The Car.

The new blu-ray showcases the production from the opening shots. Even the title sequence looks good, with so many wild animals sitting, waiting patiently in frame for their prey to arrive. The many wild animals on show are impressive because none of them are stock footage. The excessive lens flares and slightly 'hot' overexposure, with some additional filters, cleverly transmit that there's something not quite right about the sunlight. 

When the animals start to attack, it looks convincingly fierce. Girdler and his team must have met up with the right people during the making of Grizzly, to be able to film so many different co-operative animals. 

While the stuntwork is still very convincing, The budget can't extend to ambitious visual effects, some of which haven't aged well. It's also hard to take the film too seriously with Leslie Nielsen playing a racist bully, shortly before he appeared in Airplane! 

Both Christopher George (City of the Living Dead) and Richard Jaeckel (The Green Slime) return fresh from Grizzly, but as quite different characters. Girdler certainly hangs on to the actors he likes. Similarly, Michael Ansara later appeared in The Manitou.

Susan Backlinie was most famous for being the first victim in Jaws, and here he uses her both as stunt performer and an actress. Bobby Porter also performed stunts, but being under five feet tall, he usually doubled children. He also acts and plays a child in this, even though he was 25 at the time! Porter also had a major role as the young chimp in Battle for the Planet of the Apes and memorably a child zombie in Night of the Comet.

Andrew Stevens has a small role in this, just before he landed a major role in Brian De Palma's The Fury. There's also Paul Mantee, star of George Pal's Robinson Crusoe On Mars. He and Jon Cedar are interviewed on the blu-ray edition, adding considerable background to the making of the film and William Girdler's way of working.

As I mentioned, the US DVD of Day of the Animals is ghastly, a blurry, pan-and-scan 1.33 crop from a 2.35 widescreen image.

The new blu-ray shows off the how good the production actually looked, especially it's scenic cinematography, digitally mastered from the interpositive. There's a new 5.1 audio mix of the original elements and a unique isolated soundtrack of Lalo Schifrin's music. All this and reversible cover art.

An action-packed 'animal attack' movie at the height of that craze, and a predictive tale of eco-disaster, I finally loved watching this again. 



To see how Day of the Animals looks on blu-ray, visit DVD Beaver for their review and gallery of screengrabs.

GRIZZLY - my look at the superfun 1976 Jaws rip-off, nick-named - 'Jaws on land'

For much more about the films of William Girdler, go to fan site WilliamGirdler.com

WHO? (1973) - released as THE MAN IN THE STEEL MASK on UK DVD

I've updated my review of Who? to include this new region 2 Pal DVD release for the UK. It's probably a repackaged version of the 2010 US release, but without any of the extras (namely commentary tracks). Don't quite know why they've changed the title. It always ran as Who? on British TV, years ago.

I try and keep all the information about one film in the same post, so please follow this link...

Elliott Gould in WHO? (1973) - cold war spy game with a splash of dated sci-fi...

THE ANTICHRIST (1974) - you may now kiss the goat

  

THE ANTICHRIST

(1974, Italy, a.k.a. L'anticristo, The Tempter)

A delirious Italian riff on both The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby!

After a road accident, a young woman resents her wheelchair and rejects God, allowing herself to be possessed by a witch from a past life and attracting the sexual attentions of the Devil himself...

Now that I've seen an uncut version of The Antichrist, it not only makes (much more) sense, but is now hugely enjoyable. When originally shown in UK cinemas, it had many of the shock moments (and swearing) cut out of it, that left me thinking it was badly made because it made so little sense, and seemed badly edited. The loose English dubbing of the Italian cast drew laughs from the audience, especially during any swearing. Of course, it would have taken time and money to send the censored version back to Italy so that they could tidy it up, so what we saw was a patchwork of what we were allowed to. 

Despite this being my second ever 'X' film experience, I've hardly revisited it, remembering only its lack of impact. I saw it, The Omen and Exorcist II before seeing The Exorcist on its five-year reissue. The Antichrist was also overshadowed by the supporting feature, a reissue of The Legend of Hell House. I saw this double-bill in a South London cinema in July 1976, two years after The Antichrist debuted in Italy, making me think that it might even have been a re-run. More likely, I did see it on its first run, but it had been delayed by censorship problems.

To their credit, the filmmakers had done their best to deliver shocks similar to The Exorcist, assuming that they would be also allowed to show anything that William Friedkin had already. I remember the vomit, but not much swearing. The scene with the Devil I remember very little of, and that was certainly the most likely to be censored down - with sex acts, extensive nudity and, um, a goat... Only on this recent rewatch, on the UK DVD, did the story finally make sense to me.

Besides borrowing shock moments, the filmmakers had to avoid being sued, evoking visual elements and story ideas from The Exorcist while giving them a lawsuit-avoiding twist. This has been creatively done, and adds to the enjoyment. Rather than Washington D.C., The Antichrist is set in Rome - a much more picturesque capital. They include a spinning head, white eyes, lots of moving funiture, and even a stair fall... 

Rather than have the story dominated by a priest tackling a possession, the story delays any religious intervention by having a psychiatrist try to cure her. This still favours a supernatural angle because the regression therapy leads her to a series of spectacular witch flashbacks! 

A story of a woman rather than a young girl being possessed, means that the story can go much further with the bad behaviour of the character - an astonishing and convincingly devilish performance by Carla Gravina - who can be shown as far more sexual and foul-mouthed. 

At the same time, it seems influenced by The Devils, in that the witchy flashbacks take place in a past where medieval modernism looks smarter than the stuffy 'townhouse' where they live. Full of grand rooms, dripping in historical art to the point of excess, their dining room has a ridiculous number of gigantic paintings on the wall, too grand even for a museum.

The visual approach points towards Suspiria. Besides the story of a modern witch, the big house has baroque, overly-grandiose rooms inside a steep-sided stone house. Some of the walls are painted in block red. The presence of Alida Valli, here in a sympathetic role, also hints at a connection. 

The cross-cutting, seventies styles and dated special effects will amuse as much as they convince. Sometimes it all evokes surreal dreams, other times just presents awful effects. The fake toad and snake anticipate similarly unsuccessful moments in Lucio Fulci horrors. The variable optical compositing often fails to convince, but a bold use of back (front?) projection is still effective, especially when all the colours are distorted. 

Entertaining in many ways, The Antichrist includes some great moments of W.T.F.! My favourite being the volleys of low-flying vinyl during the exorcism. 

I've recently seen this called 'low-budget', but that's not my impression. The location work in and around Rome, and the huge complex sets are lush by comparison with many other Italian horrors. The director was regularly entrusted with films that were aimed at international success, like his Bond spoof OK Connery, starring Sean's brother Neil! More notably, Alberto De Martino soon delivered a riff on The Omen. Holocaust 2000 had lavish location work and a solid cast headed by Kirk Douglas.

Apart from the star, most of the cast speak English. Familar faces include Arthur Kennedy in a dog collar (good practice for his role in The Sentinel), George Coulouris (The Skull, Tower of Evil, Citizen Kane) as a mysterious monk and Mel Ferrer (The Hands of Orlac, 1960) as Ippolita's guilty Dad.

The Optimum region 2 UK DVD from 2009 (above) has no extras, but the print is in great shape, with rich colours and an anamorphic widescreen 16:9 aspect. It appears to be the longest, original version (in the USA, not only was it delayed until 1978, it was cut down by nearly 15 minutes and renamed The Tempter. 

The main difference is that most of the prologue has gone, where Ippolita queues up amongst assorted freakouts hoping for a miracle cure, and witnesses an exorcism going wrong).

The long version was also released by Anchor Bay in 2002 (above). It also includes some short interviews as extras.

I'm really glad to have seen this uncensored, full-length presentation of The Antichrist, it's raised my respect for a film I'd dismissed several times before.