Dilys dances again… Theatre of Death (1967)

This is the third part of my Dilys Watling series and is the first in colour, as it needs to be for a story with the alternate title of Blood Fiend! Dilys does a fair amount of dancing in this film but is some way down the cast list as Heidi a member of a Grand Guignol theatre company that specialises in the uncanny and sexually provocative occult themes. If nothing else it shows the kinds of gigs you could get in this early stage of the actress’s career and it is a genre film cashing in on the Hammer craze with the focus on action and suspense and the psycho-dramatic dramas of the central players. As a consequence, Heidi is the least rounded character she plays in these films but at least she moves…

Directed by Samuel Gallu and enlivened by a score from avant composer Elisabeth Lutyens, the film stars the always enigmatic Christopher Lee as Phillipe Darvas, who is following on from his father as director of the Theatre de Morte. Phillipe is very dedicated to the off-Pigalle project as if there’s more truth in horror dancing than people expect. It may be the family business but you’d think he’d be aiming somewhere posher… but then again, naturally enough, we suspect his motives from the get-go a) he’s Mr Lee and b) it’s, literally, called the Theatre of Death.

Christopher Lee makes sure Dilys Watling gets the point..

Patron Mademoiselle Angelique (Evelyn Laye) asks for a preview at the opening night party and he asks experienced Dani Gireaux (lovely Lelia Goldoni) to perform with a nervy newcomer, Nicole (Jenny Till) who Darvas hypnotises before they begin. The dance is about the Witches of Salem and as it progresses Nicole is more and more lost in the role and we are convinced she’s actually living it as she draws closer to a red-hot poker glowing in the fire and which her character intends for Dani…

Before reality can be confirmed against performance – and this is a genuinely sweaty palmed moment – Dani’s escort, Charles Marquis (Julian Glover) steps in just before a smiling Darvas was about to conclude the show. For those who don’t know, Glover is Robert Wyatt’s half-brother and one can well imagine them discussing this one after a The Soft Machine gig at the Roundhouse, Middle Earth or UFO Club… far out!

Anyway… Gallu directs this story well and manages the tension and the rather deceptive narrative well. Casting is also key but I’m not telling you why!

Jenny Till

Charles is a police surgeon recovering from a hand injury, yet also involved with the police investigation into the deaths of three women, who have all been murdered in the same way: stabbed in the neck, drained of blood in a manner suggesting the killer was either fetishizing vampiric “theatre” or has genuine hematophagy and needs to feed on the blood on the living! The murder weapon resembles the knives used in one of the performances at the Theatre of Death, and so Charles – as do we – naturally suspects Darvas.

The film settles into an unsettling rhythm with murders continuing and, Charles, along with Inspector George Micheaud (the not at all typecast Ivor Dean!) pursues Darvas as the chief suspect. He’s a devotee of magic and rituals, ostensibly as material for the theatre but, perhaps, he is not only taking it too far on stage, but he may also be conducting brutal research beyond… Darvas is certainly a strange fish and takes a Svengali interest in the innocent Nicole, soon asking her to move in with him in his apartment at the theatre so that he can develop her technique to perfection.

Naturally Dani – who has been rooming with Nicole is concerned but we soon learn how ruthless Darvas is when he dismisses her as a burnt-out failure following a nervous breakdown at the ballet she previously worked. Christopher Lee is of course excellent at this kind of exegesis and Lelia Goldoni is also very emotionally controlled. I’ve not seen much of her before but she has had a long and distinguished career including  John Cassavetes's ground-breaking film Shadows (1959) and Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) by way of Danger Man!

Lelia Goldoni

Then Darvas seemingly disappears and things go quiet, Nicole moves back in with Dani and we all wait for the inevitable re-appearance… Strangeness keeps on taking place and again the atmosphere is built with care and intensity.

Dusty Verdict: This film was far more nuanced than I expected and enlivened by good performances as well as the atmospherics of direction, design and Lutyens’ score.

And that’s not to forget the contribution of our Dilys who is there for the grand finale as well as adding to the glamour and clamour of the theatrical scenes. The closing Voodoo sequence is breathless with drumming provided by the frantic beats of The Tony Scott Drummers and specialist risqué frenzy from dancer Evrol Puckerin.

 

Julian Glover and Lelia Goldoni

There was actually a theatre called the Grand Guignol in the Pigalle area of Paris which specialised in naturalistic horror shows from 1897 to 1962. The theatre would feature short plays about the underworld of prostitutes, criminals and the city’s poorest often mixed with comedies to lighten the mood between the horrors.  

Paula Maxa was one of the Grand Guignol's best-known performers and from 1917 to the 1930s, she was known as "the most assassinated woman in the world”, murdered more than 10,000 times in at least 60 different ways and raped over 3,000 times.

That’s entertainment I suppose…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dilys delivers… Calculated Risk (1963)

This is part of a Dilys Watling season on Dusty following on from the excellent Two Left Feet in which she made her mark among a string cast including Michael Crawford, Julia Foster and David Hemmings. I chiefly remember Dilys Watling from her many TV appearances in the seventies and beyond, usually providing feminine “colour” to light entertainment and comedy programmes but she’s a very fine actor, dancer and singer too – Tony nominated on Broadway no less! I once saw her walking out of the Liverpool Playhouse in the late seventies and I was as starstruck as you’d expect a teenage lad to be especially after her Benny Hill appearances.

Daughter of Ion Rhys Jones and Patricia (hicks), stepdaughter of Jack Watling and sister of actors Deborah, Nicola and Giles (now a Tory MP), Dilys is part of an acting dynasty; a family with looks and the talent to burn and, unlike say, the Foxes, with enough to set them apart for a variety of roles. Back in 1963 Dilys was just 20 and after a formal training in theatre, including the Bristol Old Vic, she’d featured in the TV series Compact before making her feature debut in this film.

Calculated Risk is low budget but very tense; the kind of film that British directors specialised in making in the transition from post-war grit to social realism. It cuts no corners and is remarkably frank for the time in terms of the motivations of its cast; a mix of recidivists and opportunists who take the calculated risk of the title.

Kip (John Rutland) leaves the Scrubs

It was made during the cold winter of 1963 and one that I just about remember pushing my peddle car through the snow in our little back garden; I couldn’t understand why it was so much harder than usual but I was only 18 months old.

The film opens as unlucky career criminal Kip (John Rutland) leaves the bleakness of the Scrubs to trudge through the grimy snow and be collected by his brother-in-law, Steve (William Lucas) who takes him to pay his respects to the deceased woman who binds them together, his Lil. Lucas enjoyed a long career from b-movie sci-fi efforts in the late fifties, through leading man roles and more sci-fi with Night of the Big Heat (1967) in the sixties, Black Beauty’s Dr James Gordon in the seventies and everything from The Bill to Last of the Summer Wine. Here he plays a likeable estate agent who becomes convinced that his Jonah of an in-law might actually be onto something with his “last big job”.

William Lucas decides on what his cup of tea is to be.

Kip has found a branch of the Westminster Bank next to a house flattened by bomb damage. The cellar remains intact and all that is required is to knock through a wall, then gain access to the bank vault through the next. There’s a regular police patrol but other than that, a well-drilled team should find little to stop them patiently working the job in peace.

Steve’s condition for taking part is that firstly he’s in charge and secondly, he won’t be actively involved in the job. Kip agrees and sets about recruiting the necessary team to do the job: there’s Nodge (Terence Cooper) who will provide the muscle, Ron (David Brierly) driver and look out and Irishman with a cause, Dodo (Shay Gorman) who arrives with a bottle of the good stuff to cement their partnership. In modern parlance Steve micro-manages the setup, going to order some gelignite from Simmie (Warren Mitchell) and casing the joint with Nodge. 

Nodge (Terence Cooper) enjoys the free show... Steve less so.

As he and Nodge wait for the local plod to complete his rounds, the latter spots a shapely figure undressing in a first-floor window. It’s Julie (Dilys Watling) who he recognises from his work and the camera makes peeping Toms of us all for a few seconds before she pulls the curtains and the boys get back to the job in hand. Steve tells Nodge to keep his mind on the job but sure enough he can’t resist asking Julie out and bringing her across the road from her house for some al fresco intimacy one night.

Meanwhile Kip reveals that he has a heart condition – he has been popping pills all film – leaving Steve to reluctantly take his place. They all hope that this will free them of Kip’s seeming curse and there follows an almost forensic break down of the job as the men dig into the cellar and proceed to hack their way through the walls once they know the coast is clear. It’s tense but matters are about to get even more serious…

Shay Gorman, William Lucas and Terence Cooper

Dusty Verdict: Calculated Risk doesn’t waste any of its relatively short running time and packs in a lot of human interest between the boys and their bank job. Dilys Watling is pretty much the only woman in the film and, yet her third billing is deserved as she not only provides a sympathetic character, she’s key not only to softening the gang’s focus but also possible redemption. She makes the most of her opportunity and lifts the whole film as a result.

Directed by Norman Harrison from the tightest of scripts by Edwin Richfield, Calculated Risk really delivers on the tension both on the job and between the band of men as the tension ramps up. Also of note is the music composed by one George Martin – just a few months after he recorded Love Me Do with four lads from Liverpool. His music here supports the narrative tension very well; here was a man who not only knew how to compose but how to collaborate whether with a group or with filmmakers and their scripts.

Dilys Watling and Terence Lucas

 

Calculated Risk is on DVD from Odeon Entertainment, which is a little hard to find, still it’s bound to be on Talking Pictures again if you wait; they know their onions!

 

 

The younger ones… Two Left Feet (1963)

 

London's teenage jungle blazing vividly to life...

There’s a brightness and energy to this film that goes beyond my reaction to the youthful zest of the stars to be on screen, its mildly-annoyed young man/coming of age storyline is very much of its time – a good thing! - but the performances ultimately bring through the flavour of the characters and convince. The film is based on David Stuart Leslie's novel, originally entitled In My Solitude (1960), which was praised by the Daily Express for describing 'Fings as they are. . . Fresh observation, no self pity, no phony sociology, rough and squalid, yet redeemed often by sardonic Cockney humour. A story as convincing as it is readable'.

There’s little about Stuart Leslie on the internet but he seems to have written some interesting books about London life, notably Two Gentlemen Sharing (1963), a multi-racial flat share story which was also made as a film in 1969, along with thrillers and adventure novels right up to popsploitation fare with titles like Snap, Crackle and Pop and Bad Medicine. His writing style for what became Two Left Feet, is very much in the vernacular, with lines like:

“Me and my two left feet!” I said wiping down inside my shirt almost to my belly button. I saw her eyes following my hand and I said to myself, ‘Watch it girl!’

Julia Foster and Michael Crawford

 

Now you have to imagine an impossibly young Julia Foster as the “girl” in question, Beth a shop worker, and an equally youthful Michael Crawford as Alan Crabbe, labourer by day and improving dancer by night. Foster was 19 and Crawford was 21 just five years on from playing a lad in Soapbox Derby (1958) and half a century before being named as a national treasure, as indeed is Ben Fogle’s mum, Julia!

Directed by stalwart Ray Ward Baker, Two Left Feet kicks off where it means to carry on with some fantastic location shots of our hero emerging from the tube at Piccadilly Circus and giving superb location shots of old Soho as young Alan’s eye is caught by all manner of sexually interesting sites. The credits roll as he gawks at the magazines in a shop window – Click, Honey, Cherie, Revels… walks along Moor Street to Old Compton Street and ending up at the Bijou Cinema where they are screening the “Fabulous Pamela Green” in Naked as Nature Intended – reviewed in all seriousness earlier on this blog!

Alan window shopping

Alan is 19 and inexperienced as a dancer and a lover which is the source of constant ribbing from his workmates who include the lovely David Lodge as Bill and Cyril Chamberlain as Miles, older married men who have seen it all before. The work mates’ luncheon is enlivened by the new girl at the corner café, Eileen played by Nyree Dawn Porter, 27 at the time but still the youngest I’ve seen her pre-Protectors and Forsyte Saga. Eileen gives as good as she gets as the lads banter and takes a shine to Alan, gently pushing his buttons to get his interest.

Gradually Alan builds up the courage to ask Eileen out and he takes her up West to the subterranean The Florida Club which is – checks Reel Streets – under the Bridgewater Road tunnel. They ask another youngster Brian (David Hemmings, also 21 and not quite as eye-catchingly cool as he would be in Blow Up) if he can sign them in with his membership and they start to cut a rug to Bob Wallis and his Storyville Jazzmen and other cool cuts. Albert’s limited moves don’t impress Eileen quite so much as Brian’s young pal Ronnie (Michael Craze, just 20 and a very talented actor who would do far more in a varied career that included that spell in the Tardis) dancing with the simply stunning Dilys Watling (also 20) as Mavis.

Michael Crawfor and Nyree Dawn Porter

 

The youngsters chat between dances and there’s that awkwardness you’d expect and so many passions running deep and slightly out of control. Eileen dances with Ronnie, Mavis looks longingly at Brian and Alan’s attention is caught by a pretty young blonde, Beth (Julia Foster). At times it feels as if some of the dialogue could have been improvised as it’s jarring but that could just be the excellence of the cast in building the fragile bridges of attraction and male connection.

Eileen and Alan keep on going but he doesn’t really know how to proceed and after one fumbled coupling only increases the tension between them. Beth is a different proposition, easier company for Alan who is more relaxed around her, showing his moral balance by accepting the awkward truths of her father’s suicide which she is both shamed by and resolved. Alan’s father is a policeman, played by Bernard Lee, and it’s only later when we see them together that we understand the son’s debt to his upbringing.

Dilys Watlting, Michael Craze and David Hemmings

Meanwhile, there’s nearly murder on the dancefloor as Eileen starts dating Ronnie, Alan goes with Beth and Mavis gets engaged to Brian, the first steps towards the “grown-ups”. There’s a great blow out at the wedding with Mavis’ Uncle Reg (Michael Ripper who always delivers) arranging party games at the reception. This is when matters come to a head with Eileen but also with Ronnie… the group consider him too young at 17 and Alan had previously made some comment about him needing to decide “which way he’s going…” all of which oblique coding is given stark context when, in a kissing game in which the boys are blindfolded, Brian replaces Eileen and Ronnie ends up kissing him.

Tensions rise further between Alan and Eileen as well as Beth and Ronnie… and the final couplings are in doubt until the very end.

Ever since Mr Axelford's Angel, I've held a place in my heart for Julia...

Dusty Verdict: Two Left Feet (1963) is as interesting for its times as well as for it’s leading actors. In the end it was given an X Certificate and not fully released until 1965 by which time the names were far better known but society and audience had moved on. This is a shame as it’s well made and more sophisticated than I expected with nuance not just from Dawn Porter but also from the prodigiously talented Foster and Crawford.

Crawford’s character as a narrative of its own which convinces as he gains the confidence of a man in tune with the dance as well as his own instincts. Michael Craze is also excellent as the cat on a hot tine roof, barely of age, carrying a flick knife and at war with himself. David Hemmings and Dilys Watling have lesser range to their roles but both deliver in terms of watchability and in Dilys’ case, dancing! I once saw her coming out of the Liverpool Playhouse in the seventies and she even walks in time!

Dilys dances!

 

The film is available from Network Distribution direct from their website and the DVD comes with production shots and looks great!

Now, time to find some of David Stuart Leslie's other works…