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.