I’ve just finished reading Jonathan Coe’s novel of the same
name, published in 1994, and which uses this film both as a major plot point in
the way which influences his main character, writer Michael Owen, and also the
broad storyline in which a wealthy but faithless family is brought together for
the reading of their patriarch’s will only for some haunted home-truths to be
savagely delivered in the most gruesome fashion. Coe’s aim is to satirize the
landed elite and the conservative classes who gave birth to the Thatcherite
glory years in which everything was sold off and greed was not only good but
glorious. It is, as so much of his work, fiendishly clever and also very funny
as he captures the mood of the times in thorough and entertaining ways.
There’s no deeper motives behind the original film except perhaps of a lampooning both of the usual class cliches of the time – it’s almost Carry on in style – but also the genre of horror films and ghost stories. It’s influenced in this respect by The Ghoul (1933) but also by The Cat and the Canary filmed as a silent by Paul Leni in 1927 and then remade with Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard in 1939 – a film which had the same impact on me as the film, and I certainly didn’t spend long hours freeze-framing the saucy bits as Owen does for the scene between Kenneth Connor and Shirley Eaton to leer over the latter undressing.
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| Discretion is the better part of valour Kenneth my lad! |
Owen is taken by his parents to see the film as a child and this moment leaves a lasting impression on his sexuality, a fondness not just for Shirley but also a very Ken Connor-like dithering over opportunities missed. Connor was very much an everyman in his comedy films and here plays a rather nervy proof-reader of horror books which set his teeth on edge but bring in a paltry salary all the same. His mate Sid, on the other hand, is an outgoing and go-getting bookie with a heart of gold. There’s a thesis to be written on the cinematic charm of Mr James but he’s a fine actor who manages to convey genuine emotions and likeability whether in serious drama – The Small Back Room (1948) here or Carry on… I saw him twice on stage in Blackpool playing a variation of Bless This House – Sid as long-suffering husband and father – he was exceptionally good and my Dad, also a pipe smoker – loved him!
Kenneth Connor I know less about, but he came up through the
Central School of Speech and Drama and following his wartime service RADA, so
he was very well trained and technically able. He joined the Old Vic company
for whom notable performances were as Chaplain de Stogumber in Saint Joan
and Dobchinsky in The Government Inspector, which starred Alec Guinness.
He may have opted to specialise in comedy due to his diminutive stature but he
always kept working on the stage even during the Carry on successes. I
always rooted for him as a kid and still do now as does Coe’s Michael Owen as
he wonders what stopped him from staying with the lovely Shirley in the middle of
the night after the killings begin in the isolated darkness of Blackshaw Towers…
“It’s a 5/6 for each of the horror ones and 3/6 for the sexy ones… “
“Why’s it two Bob cheaper?”
“Well, they reckon I get that much pleasure out of reading them…”
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| Beyond our Ken? |
After some entertaining opening titles revealing the faces of the key players intercut by Donald Pleasence’s creepy lawyer Everett Sloane, making his way to Ken’s flat, we find the latter nervously proof-reading The Fiend of the Second Flat as he sits in his own second floor flat. The camera pulls away and we see Syd fall through the kitchen skylight having been unable to get his friend’s attention via the doorbell… Then two are then surprised by Mr Sloane who invites Ernest up to hear the will of his late-departed Uncle Gabriel who becomes dearer the more Ernest imagines the riches in store.
Quickly adopting the airs and graces of presumptive new wealth and position, Ernest remains conflicted with fear and asks Syd to accompany him up to Yorkshire. After a disturbing exchange between Ernest and a ghostly station manager they hitch a lift from a hearse driver whose driver echoes a line from the classic Brit-horror, “there’s room for one in t’ back…”. They end up having to make their way cross country to the old house as even the driver of the dead won’t risk the final stretch…
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| Mr Pleasence unsettles all before him... |
One at the imposing hall, we meet the first of Ernest’s strange relatives: Dennis Price as the wearied dipsomaniac “one-time gentleman” Guy (Dennis Price), well-oiled and over-sharing with the suggestion that all of the family are more than a little mentally ill. Then there’s Michael Gough having a (James) whale of a time as Fisk the greying old retainer with secrets to hide who guide the men to their rooms, Ernest in the East Wing.
We cut to Guy arguing with his sister Janet (Valerie
Taylor) and their father Edward (George Woodbridge) and then Ernest meets Cousin
Malcolm (Michael Gwynn) playing the organ who decides that he must be “quite
mad” as the rest of them. Then Emily Broughton (Esma Cannon) enters exhibiting
further aspects of the family disease talking about knitting scarfs for the soldiers
at the front… in the Great War…
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| Shirley Eaton |
Queue Shirley as Nurse Linda Dixon a breath of reassuring beauty and normalcy amongst the weirdness of the situation and the family. Every sits around the table as Mr Sloane reads out the news that his client is bequeathing “nothing” … Guy laughs and Janet talks of challenging a will re-written the day before he died.
Why did he bring us all this way just to tell us he’s left us Sweet Fanny Adams…
That’s simple, he was like the rest of us, quite mad…
After the generator breaks Ernest, Syd and Fisk go to
investigate and on their way back discover Edward dead in the garden. The news
is relayed to the rest of the group with the realisation that the murderer
could only have been one of those in the house. No way out and with Fisk
predicting more murder to follow it’s going to be a very long night…
His nerves getting the better of him, Ernest wanders into
Linda’s room for the scene featured in Jonathan Coe’s book, Ernest determined
to be the gentlemen but really intimidated by Linda’s presence. He allows his
chivalry gets the better of him and he escapes into the hall where he battles
an empty suit of armer to a draw.
Ernest: I suppose you must be scared what with all the
things going on here tonight?
Linda: Oh, not really.
Ernest [nervously): Oh, well I am!
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| Sid, Michael and Kenneth |
There won’t be much sleep tonight though as Ernest isn’t the
only restless spirit, persuading the more grounded Syd to share his bed and
annoying the latter as first a cat and then noises off disturb their sleep.
Soon there will be blood and organ music and deception as the Broughton’s start
to meet their ends one by one, straight on till morning…
As with the earlier films, the two Cats and Canaries
especially, the film, directed by Pat Jackson from a script by Ray Cooney and
Tony Hilton, manages to mix jump shocks with comic moments in ways that work in
ways Scooby Doo and the Mystery Gang would appreciate. There’s actual horror
and no one is safe, it’s hard to tell who’s good and who is bad and things are
never quite as they seem.
Ultimately, whilst it resembles a Carry on film, it’s more
cohesive and genre faithful than Carry on Screaming and feels more like a play
on screen with more sophistication and cinematic intent than you’d find with
the rest of the crew. The last remaining mystery is why this film is only available
on old DVD, surely a restoration and Blu-ray release are deserved with more
background on the storied cast and the genre of films that make you laugh and
make you cry!
The book is freely available from all good bookshops and at Amazon... highly recommended to all fans of the genres involved, politics and Shirley!
