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…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Survivors… The Earth Dies Screaming (1964)

Probably not the best time to watch a film in which the majority of the Earth’s population gets killed off by an invisible enemy, but then again there’s more to this film than meets the eye. Writer Harry Spalding – here under the nom-de-plume of Henry Cross - had a fair track record in B-move exploitation having already written must-see films such as The Day Mars Invaded Earth (1962), House of the Damned (1963) and The Young Swingers (1963) and yet, after suggesting it as a joke, he was seemingly not keen on this title for his script.

There’s certainly not much screaming as the film opens with a tour through a body-strewn English countryside in which seemingly almost everyone has died on the spot. The film starts with a dead steam engine driver as his locomotive smashes into another at high speed, a stock shot which I think is from a silent film called The Wreckers (1929) which involved the staging of a head-on crash, filmed by Hungarian Géza von Bolváry and twenty two cameramen. Then a plane falls from the sky and we see two dead people outside and estate agents… surely a sign of The End of Days?

Willard Parker finds the lights on but nobody home

A Land Rover drives through deserted villages looking for any sign of life. It’s driven by American aeronautical engineer Jeff Nolan (Willard Parker a decent actor looking rather more than his 52 years) but still who soon over looks a car containing a dead woman and Thorley Walters who, at this early stage, surely can not be dead? Nothing doing, Jeff does the sensible thing and heads to the village pub – and I think we can all agree that there’s very little as compelling and comforting as a vintage sci-fi mystery based around a public house.

In the pub Jeff’s attempts to get a signal on the TV are rudely interrupted by a man holding a woman and, worse, a gun. It’s Quinn Taggart (the excellent Dennis Price) and Peggy Hatten (Virginia Field) an over-cautious couple who soon warm to the idea of another living person as, indeed, do Edgar Otis (the aforementioned Thorley) and his lady companion, Violet Courtland (Vanda Godsell) as Jeff finds them raiding a sweet shop. All five convene at the pub and try to work out why they are the only ones left.

Dennis Price and Virginia Field

Then things take a huge turn as the group spot two mysterious figures walking outside, Violet thinks it’s men in hazard suits and runs out to greet them as the rest hold back guns in hand – Jeff has a rifle – watching in horror as one of the figures turns round and zaps the middle aged woman dead. They are unearthly and look for all the world like early designs for Cybermen who didn’t make their debut in Doctor Who until the Tenth Planet in 1966. The figures walk off and the group have no desire to stop them.

A young couple drive up in a Vauxhall, a cocky young chap in too-tight slacks, Mel (David Spenser) and his heavily pregnant girlfriend Lorna (Anna Palk). Under Jeff’s instructions they head off to the nearest army base and secure some more rifles and begin to hunker down to try and work out a plan of action.

Terence Fisher directs a lot of tension into the film through what is essentially a character play with added alien menace. The interplay between the five is well handled as alphas Jeff and Peggy are drawn to each other as Quinn looks more and more venal – could anyone ever convey the mix of self-serving cowardice and  self-loathing as well as Dennis Price? Meanwhile the young couple bicker and Edgar turns increasingly to drink.

There’s a close encounter as Lorna grabs a midnight milk in the kitchen as one of the aliens appears at the window and Jeff narrowly avoids getting zapped and then additional creepiness is added as Violet is reanimated as a boggle-eyed zombie under the aliens’ control. Another tense scene see Peggy hiding in wide-eyed terror in a wardrobe as two zombies search for the living… More and more of the formerly deceased start appearing and it’s now that Quinn makes his move, trying to get away in his smart MG with Peggy at gunpoint. In spite of her tight dress and high heels Peggy is able to give him the slip and as he tries to make good his escape one of the aliens applies the microwave treatment.

The are worse places to hold up than a pub...as Edgar Wright knows full well.

Jeff rams one of the aliens in his Land Rover – good car casting in this picture – and they discover that they’re robots, an advance recce for extra-terrestrials clearly far too advanced to get their hands dirty at the early stages of an invasion. There must be some way to stop them… who is controlling the robots and how? Did I mention that Jeff is an engineer?

Dusty verdict: A good cast and decent direction make the most of this film and whilst it’s not quite a home counties Invasion of the Body Snatchers there’s enough suspense and human interest to keep your interest and it’s probably in the Top Ten Low Budget Alien Invasion Films Set in Pubs in Surrey!

There’s also an interesting score from avant-garde composer Elisabeth Lutyens which adds much to the atmosphere. She composed scores for many Hammer horror movies as well as Amicus Productions and mostly took the work to pay the bills famously saying; 'Do you want it good, or do you want it Wednesday?'. She was the first woman to compose for British films and is a thoroughly interesting character in her own right and if I take one thing from this film it is to find out more about her. She apparently enjoyed being called the “Horror Queen” and it went with a style that included green nail varnish and the trappings of eccentric bohemia.

The main location is the lovely village of Shere in Surrey and Elisabeth’s father father, Edwin Lutyens, designed Manor House Lodge seen on a number of occasions, here as Dennis’ Price drives his MG. I can feel a location visit coming on, if only that pub is still open…

The train crash from The Wrecker and above the scene featured in this film