Don’t go down to the woods today… Assault (1971), Network Blu-ray

 

Now, here’s a thing, I had no idea that the composer Eric Rogers was no relation to Peter Rogers despite their working together dozens of times mostly on Carry on films, all but two had Eric’s scoring. Born in Halifax, Eric’s real name was Eric Gaukroger although he later hyphenated his surname to Gauk-Roger. As with Peter though, Eric diversified and this thriller was one of a number of a number of more “adult” crime thrillers they worked on including Vengeance (1971) and the excellent All Coppers Are (1972), also available on Network Blu-ray and also directed by Sidney Hayers.

I've started off with the Rogers as I’m always slightly surprised to find them away from comedy and especially Eric as clearly, he’s more evident in the films than the Producer. His score here very effectively contributes to the brooding menace and the sense of threat that powers the narrative. In terms of visual subtlety, Hayers is more efficient than inventive but it still works as an unsettling watch albeit one reliant on the male gaze and sexualised threat to femininity. Is it exploitation, probably but it’s well acted and sincere entertainment of its time…

We start off at a posh all-girls school as an array of period cars arrives to collect the slightly mature looking young women. If you like classic British motors, then you will not be disappointed with the films deployment of Morris, Triumph and Jaguar cars; art-teacher Julie West (the divine Suzy Kendall) drives a Morris Minor estate, Det. Chief Supt. Velyan (Frank Finlay) has a Morse-type Jaguar and Freddie Jones’ nasty reporter has a sporty model I’m yet to identify, possibly and MGA Coupe? That plus all of the Morris Minor Panda cars…

Shouldn't you be studying for your A-levels Lesley-Anne?

But the real story starts with one of the girls, Tessa Hurst (a 17-year old Lesley-Anne Down in her first starring role) taking a short-cut home through the woods which leads to her being viciously assaulted under the shadow of an electric power station, it’s unsettling to watch, a bit too voyeuristic for me, but thankfully not overplayed. The result leaves Tessa catatonic with shock and unable to talk as she’s taken in to care at a mental hospital by Doctor Greg Lomax (James Laurenson) who along with specialist Mr. Bartell (Anthony Ainley, famously The Master in Doctor Who after Roger Delgado).

The police launch an investigation under the command of Chief Super Velyan and Det. Sgt. Beale (James Cosmo, evergreen as he is and still performing!) and from this point on we will be introduced to a series of characters who are all a bit suspicious to some extent, the game of cat and red herring is afoot!

Obviously, it’s not going to be the lovely Julie who is as down with the kids as anyone in this rather odd school. Headmistress Mrs. Sanford (Dilys Hamlett) is so strait-laced it’s rather unlikely that she’s married to Tony Beckley’s creepy Leslie Sanford but that’s the point. Whilst she looks after the girls’ spiritual well-being he keeps an unblinking eye on their more earthy qualities, greedily eying them up in the playground or touching them up in the library (Janet Lynn, definitely over 18 and who played Carol Thatcher – no, not that one - with Robin Askwith in Cool it Carol! the year before).

Under suspicion: Tony Beckley, James Cosmo and Frank Dinlay

Then the situation gets even worse as another girl, Susan Miller (Anabel Littledale, aged 19) ignoring instructions and common sense, takes the same short-cut and this time the crime escalates to murder, with accompanying fleshy details. Julie, driving four other girls home, spots the missing pupil and drives her Morris into the woods, only to arrive just too late as she glimpses the killer, face lit by her red break lights in a demonic glow…

She cannot escape the image she saw nor explain it to the police and is all but laughed from the inquest when she describes her vision. Luckily for her Doctor Greg is on hand to support the very beautiful young woman in her hour of need, he has ulterior motive alright but is there anything more…? Certainly, of ill-intent is reporter Freddie Jones, playing a blinder as the grubby tabloid hack pushing for an angle and any salacious detail right to the point of pestering Julie at home.

The police assign Sgt. Milton (Patrick Jordan) to protect Julie as she paints the image she remembers and, in collusion with the reporter, puts a story in the papers that she can draw the face of the killer she recalls… it’s a very high-risk strategy and one we know will bring her into danger. But who will it be, one of the good guys or one of the obviously bad ones?

James Laurenson and Suzy Kendall

Dusty Verdict: Assault is an entertaining thriller that gets the job done with the aid of some very good performances especially from Frank Findley, who’s always so nuanced he could be one of the suspects… maybe he is, and Suzy Kendall who made a career out of playing female febrility, a Derbyshire Julie Christie!

The set pieces are well executed and the villain is a genuine mystery for long enough… And, apart from the classy, classic cars, there’s some fab cameos including Mr David Essex as the leather-jacketed Man in Chemist Shop looking for help for his girlfriend’s nosebleed. It’s definitely not him…

You can order the Blu-ray direct from Network and at a great price, there’s so much on their website, you’ll probably come away with more than you budgeted for!

 

 

 

Freddie

 

 

The Headmistress' Husband is unsuitable for educational work...

David Essex!

 

The car section...
 

Classic cars...

Really Sidney? Cars and short skirts...

Morris Minor Estate with wooden trim: classic!

Jaguar

Morris Pandas

Is that an MGA Coupe?

 

Get Ollie… Sitting Target (1972)

There was clearly something in the air in the early seventies for British Films, and it wasn’t just budget film makers cashing in, but some of the biggest producers with mainstream stars, Michael Caine’s iconic gangster in Get Carter (1971), Nicol Williamson returning to Liverpool in The Reckoning (1970), and even Richard Burton in Villain (1971). There was clearly a public fascination with the men of violence, to almost quote Peter Walker’s Man of Violence (1969), and the arrest of the Krays together with changes in film censorship meant that sex and hoods and rock n’ roll were splattering screens a lot.

It was only a matter of time before Oliver Reed got caught up in things and he’d had some form as had Ian McShane who was with Burton in Villain, but Ollie was playing nihilistic hard men even as far back as his threatening turn as leader of a wayward, Weymouth biker gang in The Damned (1962). In truth there was always something about Ollie, a feeling of barely suppressed ferocity, menace and a capacity for violence. Now that’s all acting my dears but you wouldn’t really be that surprised if Mr Reed could handle himself.

He starts this film in impressive form, working out in his cramped cell and looking very much like a caged animal. His character Harry Lomart is doing time for armed robbery which resulted in him killing a guard, who, according to Harry, should have just stayed out of the way. He’s a career criminal used to the risks and the rewards of his profession as is his neighbour Birdy Williams (McShane) who was on the ill-fated job with him.

 

Jill St John and Oliver Reed

Today Harry gets a visit from his wife, Pat (Jill St. John who appears to be dubbed by an unknown English actor, which is a shame), who hasn’t seen him since the trial. Harry loves Pat and she is the thing that keeps him going through the long stretches. Something has however changed, and she is tired of waiting, especially now he’s in for a long stretch and wants out, especially as she’s seeing another fella and is pregnant… Harry smashes the reinforced glass between them and tries to throttle her and it takes three guards to pull him away.

He's sent to solitary for weeks bashing himself the walls and swearing revenge… by the time he gets back to his cell he’s ready to break out and so is Birdy. They hatch a plan with wheeler-dealer MacNeil (Freddie Jones, who is always such good value) and, with the aid of a bent screw played by Mike Pratt, they make a daring escape, just about managing to scale the walls in time to drop to their freedom a passing lorry set up by MacNeil.

Ian and Oliver on the run

Birdy wants them to lay low but Harry’s a man in a hurry and after obtaining a gun sets about stalking his wife even though the police, led by Inspector Milton (Edward Woodward), are keeping on her home at the top of a tower block in the Winstanley and York Road Estates, Battersea. Despite all their efforts, Harry catches Pat unawares and, despite the intervention of Milton, who he almost throws over the balcony, he has to flee as the sirens start and, in a surreal sequence, he evades two motorcycle cops dodging among the sheets and the washing.

From this point on it’s a two-way game of cat and mouse with the police after Harry and Harry after Pat, with Birdy’s help, Harry plans to get hold of their hidden ill-gotten gains and to use this to secure his escape but things begin to get complicated with former allies quickly turning into foes as everybody tries to “deal” with Harry…

Dusty verdict: Directed with purpose and intensity by Douglas Hickcox Sitting Target is a very effective thriller which matches some of those hyper-violent crime capers for moral force and a script with more than one twist in its tail. For thos eof you who love period locations it's also a treat and feels very much a part of the London I almost knew... talking of which, Hickcox directed Les bicyclettes de Belsize (1967) which mapped out Hampstead and north west London just as well: he knows how to film location.

Jill St John and Edward Woodward

Of course, you can’t argue with the leading cast members and we even get legend, June Brown as the Lomart's Neighbour. In the end it’s Oliver Reed who carries the film’s most violent and tender moments, it’s quite something to see.

There’s also an excellent score from Stanley Myers which features synths and hard-edged jazz which perfectly captures the fast-moving action and the fierce emotions in a film which for all it’s violence, is as much about relationships and love as anything else. Myers’ score was released by Finders Keepers Records in 2007 and is, of course, now very collectable!

 

Two for sorrow… Goodbye Gemini (1970)

This film is one of those late sixties treats served up with fascinating locations and post-psychedelic style and making the most of the increasing laxity of censorship and the decriminalisation of homosexuality with The Sexual Offences Act 1967. It’s a huge variety bag of richly-flavoured chocolates that leaves you feeling a little queasy by the end and that was probably the intention; folk on IMBD have mixed feelings about it but it’s got a fabulous cast and something to say as it ticks off the boxes of incest, transvestism, queer culture and deep psychological disorder.

 

Sixties It Girl supreme Judy Geeson gives one of her best performances in my opinion playing against type as the firm-willed and more grounded of a pair of twins at the heart of the action. Many times Judy was required to play ultra-pretty and very sweet, which she excelled at, but here her job is not to be likeable but to illustrate how relationships of damaging inter-reliance and child-like intensity can persist in the real world. Not for nothing was this film retitled Twinsanity (yuck) for a rerelease, as Judy is Jacki, sibling to Julian, and together they present what looks like easy pickings for London’s swinging hipsters but, as Jacki keeps on saying, they can look after themselves.

Judy Geeson

The psychopathic Yang to Jacki’s Yin is played by Martin Potter, rolling straight off the back of his startling turn in Fellini’s Satyricon (1969) into a world only slightly stranger. The last time I saw Mr Potter he was playing in the real world as a policeman mixing with the wrong crowd in All Coppers Are… (1971) and here he shows once again how he can be an unsettling presence, a febrile performer whose eyes give everything and nothing away. Whilst Judy presents as fun-loving and ultimately sound of mind, Martin gives only nervy uncertainty. This is true of his obviously inappropriate – and illegal – feelings for his sister, but we just don’t know what he is capable of doing.

 

The twins arrive in the capital from the west country by coach, snaking along the Westway/M4 and making their way to a flat in Cheyne Walk with a fine view of the Chelsea north bank, power station still smoking. We are given an immediate indication of their wayward sense of purpose when they take out their disapproving landlady by placing their treasured toy cat, Agamemnon on the top stair so that she trips and falls as they run from the building, alibi intact. They defer to Agamemnon in all important decisions (the film is based on the novel, Ask Agamemnon by Jenni Hall), a reflection of their childish intimacies but also unhinged morality: they happily let the toy make their choices.

Judy Geeson and Martin Potter, playing an attentive brother...

Another actor whose eyes give away unsettling possibilities is Alexis Kanner, a French born Canadian actor of no fixed accent here but who displays his usual twisted energies as deployed so effectively in The Prisoner, Connecting Rooms (1970) and elsewhere. Kanner plays hipster gadabout Clive Landseer who meets the twins in a crowded bar watching a drag show at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern (plus ca change eh?) and pulls them into his sleezy world of free-flowing sexuality, non-stop partying and general debauchery. He focuses attention on Jacki and tries to hand over his friend Denise (Marion Diamond) to Julian who looks on in panic at Jacqui’s removal from his side.

 

Clive invites them to his friend’s river boat for a party, here we find all manner of louche characters, including a smartly dressed Freddie Jones as David Curry, watching the action from a hammock, as the twins arrive and cause a stir as Jacki dances with Clive and Julian stares daggers. Much to Denise’s upset he soon cuts in and the whole room looks on in shock or groovy approval as the siblings get very close.

Mike and Fred

An MP arrives, James Harrington-Smith (Michael Redgrave always a class act even struggling with the early onset of Parkinson’s) who discusses art with an impressed Jacki as, again, Julian looks on with desperation. The twins leave spurred on by Julian’s increasing anxiety and are accompanied by Clive and Denise as whiskey is drunk and arguments are had at the twins’ flat. Clive decides to tackle the main issue by getting Julian to accompany him on an adventure, plying him with more drink and phoning ahead to arrange a special entertainment at a seedy hotel. Staggering into room 104 Julian’s eyes light up as he sees two dolly birds in miniskirts… by the time he realises that they’re boys, not girls, it’s too late and the camera cuts as in his shock he is overwhelmed by the, um, circumstances.

The next morning Julian recovers his poise back in the reassuring presence of his sister but this will not be the last he hears of this night. Clive has been dodging his bookie, Rod (the ace Mike Pratt) who previously came looking for him at the boat party, promising him a beating as an incentive to pay up on his accumulating debt. Rod had visited the flat the night before finding only the two women and when Clive visits Jacki later in the day, he corners him and makes his point; a couple of body blows as a taster for the retribution to come.

Here come the girls...

Clive is in some spot and almost reluctantly, decides the only way is to blackmail Julian to get the money, presenting him with a collection of photographs depicting the previous night’s entertainment. The only trouble is Julian doesn’t have the money and the only trouble for Clive is, you don’t take on one of the twins without taking them both on and, as Jacki has always pointed out… they can look after themselves.

 

The stage is set for a traumatic closing segment in which both Judy and Martin perform superbly as does Redgrave in what appeared to be a bit part.

 

Dusty Verdict: Not a film you watch for pure enjoyment or nostalgia, there are some real points to make and a dedication to the uncomfortable realities behind the rapidly fading myths of sixties hedonism. As I’ve said, the actors are all on form and I really think this is one of Judy G’s most interesting portrayals.

 

The mood has been said to be uneven but director Alan Gibson is just showing the push and pull of reality versus the twin’s world, an unreality dominated not so much by the obsessive sociopathic Julian but the character they project into Agamemnon the cat.