A bar snack served cold... Revenge! (1971)

Unlike many films of this era and genre, Revenge! Is actually a thriller… adult-paced and unsettling throughout with some visceral performances I’d say it’s one of the better films of this period when British cinema, freed by permissive influence, got violent and increasingly sexy. Of course there’s some of the latter here, no least in Joan Collins just being encouraged to be Joan Collins, a Rank Starlet in her late teens, bound for Hollywood in her twenties and finally, in her middle years finding her mark as the Queen of British crime films and then, after The Bitch and others, the true star of Dynasty, her limited acting ability more than offset by her humour and frank sexuality.

Possibly influenced by my parents, I’ve never been a huge fan, having watched her struggle alongside Gregory Peck in one US film, The Bravados (1958), yet in early British crime like Cosh Boy she excelled and she was just as funny as the boys with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis in The Persuaders and now I look forward to seeing her in just this kind of oddity more and more.

This is another film produced by Carry on’s Peter Rogers with music from Carry on’s Eric Rogers (see earlier post: no relation) and directed by Sidney Hayers who also worked with the duo on Assault (1971) – they were big on one name titles although this one ended up going by many names, including Inn of the Frightened People which, whilst more descriptive, doesn’t really catch the raw energy of this surprisingly impactful film, one of three missteps aside.

Joan Collins

In an all too believable and possibly near future scenario, James Booth and Joan Collins play a couple running a nice village pub, Jim and Carol Radford. They are mourning the death of their young daughter, Jenny, who was sexually assaulted and killed by a man called Seely (Kenneth Griffith, who is excellent here, a mess of sickly, nervy humanity, terrified and unsettling… inscrutably scared) … or, at least everyone assumes so.

Seely is released after questioning and whilst Jim and Carol are convinced it was him so too is the father of another young girl who was killed, Harry (Ray Barrett) who encourages Jim to take the law into their hands and finish off what the police have seemingly failed to do.

Jim also has two other children by his first marriage, an older son Lee (Tom Marshall, voiced by Nicky Henson) and Jill (Zuleika Robson dubbed, by Michele Dotrice). Lee is in general agreement with his father whilst being on rather touchy-feely terms with his stepmother, in spite of his girlfriend Rose (Sinéad Cusack). For her part Jill hates Carol and any attempt to replace her mother, the fact that her lines were voiced by Michele Dotrice shows the filmmakers’ lack of faith in her expression, that Henson voices for Lee and even the experienced Ray Barrett is dubbed by Garfield Morgan, is odd, adding an extra layer of “distance” to their roles…

Ray Barrett with James Booth

Ultimately, it’s James Booth who has to carry the film and he has plenty in his armoury, a mercurial edgy presence at his best and here largely believable as a man bent on revenging his daughter at any cost. He and Harry follow Seely and see him watching a primary school before deciding to bundle him into the back of a car and tie him up in the cellar of the Radford’s pub. The initial scenes are unsettling, especially when Carol realises who he is and tries to avenge her daughter herself. There’s so much certainty and anger it’s almost like the experience of social media in 2023…

They beat Seely so severely they think they’ve killed him and their minds race as they try to decide what to do, surely it’s their word against his reputation, they can act with impunity, even the police would want this… the ideas are thrown around thick and fast, even when Seely recovers to be now just a prisoner in their basement whilst pub life continues as normal up above.

At this point he becomes something on their conscience, a violent act of their own for them to try and rationalise. Harry starts to distance himself literally, by heading off to a business meeting in Manchester, whilst Jill is appalled and wants them to call the police. Lee and Carol meanwhile are drawn together by the brutality of their actions… as if the rogue alpha male, Jim, is being supplanted.

Tight camera angles abound as Sidney Hayers creates a claustrophibic intensity

Then news comes that another man is being investigated for the murder and the fractured gang of kidnappers starts to fall apart leaving Jim with the rather battered baby and a difficult negotiation to make in terms of returning him to the wild…

Dusty Verdict: There are some daft developments but overall, this film does keep you guessing and that’s chiefly due to deft work from Booth, Collins and Griffith but also from a script that asks some difficult questions and also focuses on telling the story of Jim’s mid-life disappointment. He’s already lost his daughter and now, in his moment of revenge, he’s gradually having everything else that counts in his life stripped away. I didn’t see a lot of this coming and the moral dilemma is inventive and excruciating.

Well worth a watch and of course Joan’s on good form, it’s not a glamourous role but it is one that calls for a glamourous actor. She's adds the heat for a film that proves that revenge is indeed a dish best served cold, possibly involving a sausage roll with some pickled eggs... seventies hospitality.

Records for sale include Abbey Road, Moody Blues, Chicago plus the samplers Total Sound and Impact, both still in my family's record collection.

Topography of terror… The Reptile (1966)

Horror connoisseur Kim Newman describes this film as one of his favourite Hammer horror films whilst The Monthly Film Bulletin review described its "… unusually controlled dignity for a Hammer production; instead of the customary blood-lettings ... Altogether, a film of quite some merit." Yet Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times was most definitely not impressed; "the script is too silly for all but the most uncritical."

It’s been said many times but Hammer films were made on the tightest of budgets and in the shortest time possible with many having no more than a six week shoot which was strictly 9 to 5.30 and with no time spent working at weekends. The cast and crew were all highly professional and could work with minimal retakes, having to nail these scenes as quickly as they could.

The stories were often pulp fiction but the film-making skills involved in their making is often admirable. So it is with The Reptile which despite a plot located firmly in the depths of the region of daft, manages to be both atmospheric and interestingly human with characters you care about.

The tightly-arranged location; pub, church and graveyard all in one place

Part of this is down to director John Gilling making a positive virtue out of his restricted budgets and the inventiveness of his production designer Bernard Robinson aided by Don Mingaye’s art direction. Together they create a intimate world that you soon work your way around; they seem to have taken the corner of an old house and used it to create a corner of a village with a pub and nearby a Church and graveyard with which we become very familiar. It’s quite a feat but most of the action takes place in this set with the exception of the moors that separate the mysterious mansion from the cottage in which our main protagonists try to work out the mystery and survive.

Few films have The Reptile’s sense of place, you know exactly which direction the danger is at any time and Gilling must either have had an unerring sense of direction or a compass. Into all this are placed his players and, as with a theatre production, he moves them around with such skill as well as getting the upmost from their reactions and anticipations. This is not a gory film but it is decisive and quick with moments of death, just like the viper in question and with those characters constructed as carefully as the narrative, sets and movements the whole thing is an enjoyably unsettling journey into nostalgic unease.

Jennifer Daniel and Ray Barrett

The film was actually shot directly after The Plague of the Zombies, also directed by Gilling who using many of the same sets, including exterior shots in the grounds of Oakley Court near Bray, Berkshire…  The only two actors in both were established character actor Michael Ripper – here playing local publican, Tom Bailey – and a relative newcomer, Jacqueline Pearce, beloved of many as Blake’s Seven’s Servalan, and an actor of real depth and technical prowess (trained at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio in Los Angeles).

The story begins with a young man, Charles Edward Spalding (David Baron) investigating strange goings on at a mansion owned by a Doctor Franklyn (Noel Willman), who wears an expression caught somewhere between fear and arrogance and who, we don’t doubt, has paid the price for meddling in Eastern practices that cross the line between mysticism and science… He is unable to prevent Spalding climbing the stairs and confronting a creature that runs at him faster than the eye can follow leaving him instantly poisoned and dead within seconds.

John Laurie and Michael Ripper two superb character actors

He is not the first to die under such circumstances in the village and when his brother, a soldier named Harry George Spalding (Ray Barrett) arrives with his young wife Valerie (Jennifer Daniel) to make their home in Charles’ humble cottage, he is soon confronted by a wall of silence, emptying Tom’s pub as he casts aspersions on the frightened clientele. Tom’s a good lad, but he’s travelled far and thinks he knows well enough to leave well enough alone… he advises Harry to forget the mystery of his brother’s death and to leave.

There are many types of military men and, in this case, Harry is certainly not one to cut and run and neither is his wife, Valerie being made of stern stuff – perhaps Hammer wrote some female parts better than they were ever credited with? There’s certainly a lot of meat for both the women in this film to get their teeth into.

Talking of chewing, that’s exactly what John Laurie does to the scenery when he arrives at the Spalding’s cottage as Mad Peter, on the cadge for some food and full of tales that clearly hint at the truth of what’s going on. Before he arrives, Valerie is greeted by a beautiful young woman called Anna (Ms Pearce), the daughter of Dr Franklin and as vivacious and delightful as he is rude and repulsive. She and Valerie hit it off over flower arranging before a mysterious oriental figure The Malay (Marne Maitland, playing to type here… he was born in India and of mixed heritage but he was schooled in the UK, attending Bedales School and Magdalene College, Cambridge). Anna returns to the big house with his prompting… who is The Malay and what is his hold over the Franklyns?

While her sitar gently weeps...

Before we find out Mad Peter proves not to be that mad but certainly 100% dead which inspires Tom to finally offer to help the Spaldings. Events move at a place especially when the Spaldings are invited over for dinner with the Franklyns and Anna gets carried away with the sitar… Clearly something happened in the Orient which has bound The Malay, the Doctor and Anna together and the reveal is not overplayed as suspense and sympathy is maintained with admirable restraint.

Dusty Verdict: Well acted and very well directed, The Reptile is a treat and shows the underlying skills involved in Hammer filming: disciplined expression and generous, theatre-honed ensemble playing. Enough to make almost any plot believable.