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DVD Review: The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (1974)
The Living Dead at [the] Manchester Morgue/Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti [Do Not Disturb the Sleep of the Dead] (Italian title)/Fin de semana para los muertos [Weekend for the Dead] (Spanish title)/Don't Open the Window/Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (US titles) (1974)
Country: Italy/Spain
Production Company: Flaminia Produzioni Cinematografiche srl/Star Films SA
Producer: Edmondo Amati
Executive Producer: Manuel Pérez
Director: Jorge Grau
Screenplay: Sandro Continenza, Marcello Coscia
Editor: Vincenzo Tomassi
Cinematographer: Francisco Sempere
Music: Giuliano Sorgini
Production Designer: Carlo Leva
Art Director: Rafael Ferri
Special Optical Effects: Giannetto De Rossi
Special Effects: Luciano Byrd
Sound: Antonio Cárdenas
Locations: Manchester; Dovedale, Hathersage, and Castleton, Derbyshire; Barnes Hospital Cheadle, Cheshire
Length: 93 mins
Cast: Ray Lovelock (George), Cristine Galbo (Edna), Arthur Kennedy (McCormick), Aldo Massasso (Kinsey), Giorgio Trestini (Craig), Roberto Posse (Benson), José Ruiz Lifante (Martin), Jeannine Mestre (Katie), Gengher Gatti (Keith) Fernando Hilbeck (Guthrie), Vera Drudi (Mary) Vincente Vega (Dr Duffield), Paco Sanz (Perkins) Paul Benson (Wood) Anita Colby (Nurse), Joaquín Hinjosa (Autopsy Doctor), Vito Salier (Naked Man), Isabel Mestre (Telephonist)
Synopsis: Manchester antiques dealer George Meaning hops on his Norton and heads to Windermere to work with friends on his country cottage. On the way there, he encounters Edna, who reverses her car into his bike at a petrol station and is forced to take George to his destination. When they lose their way, he comes across a farm machine being used by the Experimental Unit of the Department of Agriculture to kill insects by turning them against each other. Meanwhile Edna is attacked by a man who bears a resemblance to Guthrie, a dead vagrant and it becomes clear that the machine may be affecting more than just insects.
Review: Receiving blanket fan-press coverage when it was first released in the UK in April 1975, The Living Dead at [the] Manchester Morgue (this release drops the second definite article), faded from view for many years, overshadowed by later works from Lucio Fulci, Marino Girolami, and Andrea Bianchi. Given atmospheric direction by Jorge Grau, who was part of the mid-sixties revival in Spanish cinema, and special effects make-up by Giannetto De Rossi, who would go on to provide similar services for everyone from Fulci (Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery) to Alexandre Aja (Haute Tension/Switchblade Romance), we should be thankful to William Lustig's Blue Underground for finally giving this the release it deserves.
Grau's intelligent use of sound design (the zombies' wheezing was inspired by the post-mortem gasp of his father), and beautifully framed locations (Derbyshire, standing in for the Lake District) create a marvelously weird atmosphere and contrast nicely with the urban pollution and alienation present in the opening scenes, as George rides his Norton out of Manchester. The site of a girl, standing in front of Manchester Cathedral, suddenly stripping off her clothes and running into traffic to absolutely no reaction from onlookers is a suitably bizarre foreshadowing for the madness our ecologically-minded hero faces when he reaches the "safety" of the countryside.
Deficits in dubbing, and acting (Arthur Kennedy's "Where's Me Gold" Irish accent is particularly unfortunate), and the occasional charming error (the name of one establishment, viewed in reverse from inside a window, reads "The Old Olw Hotel") are more than made up for by the set pieces that take place in a graveyard (the Parish Church of St Michael, Hathersage, where Little John is reputedly buried) and a hospital (Barnes Convalescent Home, Cheadle, built in 1875, it now stands derelict at the junction of the M60 and M56) and while the story is clearly derivative of Night of the Living Dead, it's artfully put together from a script by Bava collaborators Sandro Continenza (Hercules at the Center of the Earth and Enzo Castellari's Inglorious Bastards) and Marcello Coscia (Black Sunday) and is easily one of the best Italian zombie films.
Quality: It's doubtful that the film has ever looked as good as it does on the Blu-ray disk under review, with both the 1:85:1 ratio picture and the sound (available in new 5.1, and 7.1 mixes as well as the original Mono) being pin sharp and perfectly clear.
Extras: "Back to the Morgue: On Location with Director Jorge Grau" (45 mins) is a tour of the original locations, in Italian with English subtitles. Grau is an engaging guide and talks enthusiastically about shooting the film and his admiration for the hard-drinking Kennedy. "Zombie Fighter: Interview with Star Ray Lovelock" (16 mins), is also enjoyable though surprisingly Lovelock speaks Italian, despite being half English. "Zombie Maker: Interview with Special Effects Artist Giannetto De Rossi" (17 mins) is the pick of the bunch with De Rossi dishing many trade secrets, including the use of quail's eggs and cotton wool for edible eyeballs and the value of a flat-chested actress in a breast ripping scene. A "2000 Interview with Director Jorge Grau" (20 mins), is touching as he tells of how much love he receives from the fans, and the disc is rounded out with trailers, TV and Radio spots, and a still and poster gallery. All extras are in Standard Definition.
20FFF09: Ian McCulloch and Zombie Flesh Eaters
Following John Carson's appearance and a panel discussion with all the guests of the 20th Festival of Fantastic Films (unfortunately too complex to transcribe, but featuring a discussion on the nature of British horror films and what exactly makes them British), Ian McCulloch took the stage looking every inch the gentleman farmer and a good decade younger than his 70 years.
Born in Glasgow in 1939, he began acting at the age of 15 and, following national service, went up to Oxford University and from there joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon just one week after leaving college. Unfortunately, surrounded as he was by the likes of Vanessa Redgrave (The Devils) and Eric Porter (Hands of the Ripper) his performances lacked confidence, however he was championed by RSC head Peter Hall, and ended up in repertory at the Nottingham Playhouse, alongside Ian McKellan (The Lord of the Rings, X-Men).
Ian's first film was Herbert J Leder's Golem update It! (1967), in which he has just one line as a detective. This was followed by a variety of parts in British television, including episodes of "Man in a Suitcase" (1967), "The Borderers" (1968–9), "Manhunt" (1970), and "Dr Finlay's Casebook" (1970), as well as often uncredited bit parts in movies such as Where Eagles Dare (1968), Cromwell (1970), and the Christopher Lee Jekyll and Hyde film I, Monster (1971), of which he has no recollection.
He was about to leave for Canada when he auditioned for a part in the hugely popular World War II PoW series "Colditz". He'd been told that the role would be a boyish, heroic type and played it that way at the tryout, only to be informed that the character he would actually be playing was a cold-blooded shit. Nonetheless, he got the part, and his profile increased as a result. The following year, he appeared in the Tyburn production The Ghoul (1975), which also starred Peter Cushing and John Hurt. He remembered it as being a "boring, boring film", with a wonderful director in Freddie Francis, and a jerk of a producer (Freddie's son Kevin), and that he loved working with John Hurt but has no idea why he chose to be in such a film at that stage in his career.
Producer Terence Dudley, who directed the "Odd Man In" episode of "Colditz" in which Ian appeared, offered him the lead in a new series he was setting up at the BBC written by Terry Nation of "Dr Who" fame. "Survivors" was a serious look at Britain after a virus has wiped out 99% of the world's population, dark and often violent, the series was a huge success, but Ian recalls an encounter with a man at a petrol station who asked "Have I seen you?", followed by "Are you on telly?. BBC1? Wednesday Night? 7:10? Survivors!" to which Ian relied in the affirmative, only to receive the retort: "Fucking awful!"
These days making his living as a farmer, Ian pondered how prescient the series was - he was two fields away from having to destroy his whole herd during the recent Mad Cow outbreak. Ian also recalled with sadness the fact that he spent 18 months attempting to mount a remake with BBC Scotland, only to have his hopes dashed by the BBC drama department. Later, when they were mounting their own 2008 remake, he offered his help in whatever capacity they needed, but is still waiting for a response.
McCulloch's appearance in "Survivors" paved the way for perhaps his best known work, the role of Peter West in Lucio Fulci's notorious Zombie/Zombie Flesh Eaters/Zombi 2 (1979). He spoke with obvious admiration about the financing of the Italian films and the fact that they were all pre-sold and in profit before they were even made. The year prior to Zombi 2, only a few films were made in Italy and Fulci's classic - which Ian reckons has made over $100M worldwide over the years – caused a renaissance in their industry.
He recollected not being able to take Fulci seriously, as he thought he looked like Benny Hill and that, while he had no personal problems with him, Fulci could be a bully, and behaved particularly badly toward Auretta Gay, who played Susan Barrett, the girl who takes a topless scuba dive and encounters the famous zombie/shark altercation. He also recollected not getting along too well with Tisa Farrow - she found him too British, he found her too American – and didn't realize until after the production that she had a glass eye.
He marveled at his naivete when embarking on these films and in particular a visit to the US Embassy in London to pick up his Visa, when they could find no record of the film he claimed to be working on, he returned home and called the production manager, only to be told "No, no, don't tell them that, we are shooting without a permit". He returned the next day and explained that he had been mistaken, and that he would only be passing through New York on his way to the actual location. The official stamped his passport, look him in the eye and said "We're not fucking stupid." Apparently, the fact that they were running around Broadway and shooting on the Hudson illegally did not stop the local police from hiring themselves out for certain scenes.
In another incident at the Caribbean location, he had been promised his own caravan but once there, realized he would be sharing with Richard Johnson and Tisa Farrow. Johnson took matters into his own hands and explained in his gentlemanly way "No caravan tomorrow – difficult to work." after which he received his own private quarters. Once Johnson's scenes were completed, McCulloch expected to inherit the caravan, only to have the thing disappear, after which he approached matters with slightly less dignity than his co-star and threatened to quit, only to be told by the Sicilian production manager "You do. You no leave here alive!"
Three days after completing the Fulci film, McCulloch started work on Marino Girolami's hilariously awful Zombie Holocaust/Dr Butcher MD/Zombie 3 (1980), and he recalled the fact that, having received a critical hard-time for his bald spot in Zombi 2, he wore a wig but unfortunately left it in London, meaning all his scenes in New York had to be shot from below. With respect to critics, he commented that they can be very cruel, but loved one review that contained the words: "When they run out of ideas in the Italian schlock industry, Ian McCulloch wanders the Earth looking in desperate need of a beer and a shag."
Ian's third Italian film was Luigo Cozzi's Contamination/Alien Contamination/Toxic Spawn (1980), following which he was never again asked to take a leading role in a movie, partially because David Warbeck (Fulci's The Beyond and The Black Cat), was then offered all the parts previously given to him. Asked about his thoughts on the banning of his films in the UK, he commented on the irony that his wife's uncle sat on the government committee that legislated the Video Recording Act 1984 and his reply of "Ian, how could you", when he pointed out that he had been in three of them.
Sadly, Ian McCulloch has no films he's proud of and feels he isn't particularly good on film, being happier on the stage. Reminiscing on missed opportunities, he said he was offered a ground floor investment in the West End stage version of Susan Hill's The Woman in Black, which he turned down due to a dislike of the lead actor and his belief that it would never last – it's now been running at the Fortune Theater for 10 years.
As to recent work on screen, he was recently offered a part playing himself in a movie about Lucio Fulci returning as a zombie, which he turned down as he felt it was disrespectful. He has also taken a role in the spoof Behind the Scenes of Total Hell: The Jamie Gunn Chronicles (2009), which stars his son, Grey (who looks remarkably like his father), in the title role. He's also been on the road with Zombi 2, talking about his work for the first time in year, and been very happy with the audience response. This entertaining Q&A was followed by a screening of Zombie Flesh Eaters, bringing Saturday's proceedings to a suitably eye popping close.
Ian McCulloch at the 20th Festival of Fantastic Films 2009 in Manchester (© Gareth Walters).
Pontypool (2008)
Pontypool (2008)
Country: Canada
Production Company: Maple Pictures presents in association with Crescent Road Films a Shadow Shows production.
Executive Producers: Henry Cole, J Miles Dale, Jasper Graham, Isabella Smejda
Producers: Jeffrey Coghlan, Ambrose Roche
Director: Bruce McDonald
Screenplay: Tony Burgess, from his novel Pontypool Changes Everything
Cinematography: Miroslaw Baszak
Editor: Graham Munce
Production Designer: Lea Carlson
Music: Claude Foisy
Special Effects: Geoff Hill
Visual Effects: Mr X Inc.
Costumes: Sarah Armstrong
Make-up: Indiana Allemang
Prosthetics: Matthew DeWilde
Sound Design: Steve Munro
Titles: JL Munce
Budget: $1.5M (estimated)
Cast: Stephen McHattie (Grant Mazzy), Lisa Houle (Sydney Briar), Georgina Reilly (Laurel Ann Drummond), Hrant Alianak (Dr John Mendez), Rick Roberts (Ken Loney), Daniel Fathers (Nigel Healing), Beatriz Yuste (Nancy Freethy), Tony Burgess (Tony/Lawrence), Boyd Banks (Jay/Osama), Hannah Fleming (Maureen/Faraj), Rachel Burns (Colin/Daud), Laura Nordin (Spooky Woman), Louis Negin, Diane Gordon, Daniele Park, Yvonne Moore, Raffaele Carniato (Conversationalists)
Synopsis: Following a strange incident on a snowbound road, shock jock Grant Mazzy starts the morning show at his new gig at Beacon Radio in the small town of Pontypool, Ontario. Reports begin to filter in of a town riot at the office of Dr Mendez. As the reports increase, word gets through that the rioters are speaking in a strange, indecipherable tongue and a government report instructs the public to avoid terms of endearment and, in particular, the English language. As Mendez seeks shelter in the office and studio assistant Laurel Ann begins to succumb to the virus, it becomes clear that the infected are surrounding the studio.
Review: Tony Burgess's 1998 novel Pontypool Changes Everything is a thing of abstract, fractured brilliance that takes elements of William S Burroughs (the first to describe language as a "virus from outer space") and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and creates a beautiful, shocking tale that demands concentration and a strong stomach. In developing it for the big screen, Burgess and director Bruce McDonald (The Tracey Fragments) have tightened the book's focus and toned down much of the explicit violence to create a film that is intelligent, funny, and creepy in equal measure.
Concentrating the drama almost exclusively within a church basement-turned radio station, we hear, rather than see, the zombie apocalypse unfold through reports from the studio's weatherman, Ken Loney, inquiries from the BBC, and a government broadcast in French giving dire warnings about the danger of using terms of endearment rhetorical discourse, and speaking in English. The concept of a virus spread through language is brilliantly handled and we are constantly reminded how words and, in particular, broadcast speech, are untrustworthy – when Mazzy arrives at the radio station his voice is broadcasting before he even sits down at the mic, and weatherman Loney - a pedophile tolerated because of the service he provides to the town - is not in a helicopter, but sitting on a hill, in a Dodge Dart with a sound effects tape.
Initially, we are invited to question whether the attack is even real, or the invention of the unseen weatherman, until the imperious voice of the BBC (amusingly described as an affiliate of Beacon Radio) questions reports of an insurgency. The fact that the virus is spread only through the English language (French is safe) is playfully handled (as you might expect from a Canadian director of Scottish descent), with the final translated line of the government announcement "…please do not translate this message." providing one of many rueful smiles.
Shot with an admirably steady hand, on real grown-up cameras, by Land of the Dead cinematographer Miroslav Baszak, McDonald and Burgess clearly intend this to be a more cerebral exercise than your average zombie movie and Romero fans might feel a little shortchanged, but the team are smart enough to realize that real horror lies, not in screaming hordes of the undead, but in the sight of one character we've grown to like, repeatedly throwing herself against a sound proof plexiglass window while chewing a mouthful of glass.
However none of this would work without a strong central performance, and thankfully Pontypool has at its heart a corker from a severely under-appreciated actor. Stephen McHattie started out his career as "the new James Dean" (playing him in a 1976 TV movie), he graduated through more TV movies (Whatever Happened to Rosemary's Baby in 1976) and regular series work ("Kojak" and "Hill Street Blues") before making his first real mark as the suspected serial killer in Dick Richards' excellent (and sadly unavailable on DVD) Death Valley (1982). And from there it was pretty much more of the same, until his memorable turn in Cronenberg's A History of Violence (2005), since when he's been one of the busiest actors working, with appearances in 300, Watchmen, "Fringe", and Smash Cut director Lee Demarbre's upcoming Summer's Blood among many others.
McHattie plays the downfallen DJ as a suitably conflicted character, determined to piss people off but quick to apologize, he's a man who's used language to less than admirable ends, forced to first decipher the word-borne virus, and then - seeing he may doing as much harm as good - to void language of all meaning in attempt to save the world. It's a sizzling performance that's sure to reposition McHattie in the ranks of first-call character actors.
Suitably for a largely one-set theatrical piece, this was simultaneously produced as a radio play, a link can be found below, and it's well worth checking out, as it strips the narrative down even further to fit a 60 minute audio slot. A sequel, Pontypool Changes is at the script stage from the same team for 2010 release with, presumably, Pontypool Changes Everything following that). Pontypool is highly recommended if you like your zombies with figurative, rather than literal brains, it was released on October 16th in the UK and is available on DVD in Canada, and On Demand in the US through IFC.
A CBC Presentation
Directors: Gregory Jay Sinclair and Bruce McDonald
Cast: Stephen McHattie (Grant Mazzy), Lisa Houle (Sydney Briar), Georgina Reilly (Laurel Ann Drummond), Hrant Alianak (Dr John Mendez), Rick Roberts (Ken Loney), Daniel Fathers (Nigel Healing).
Box Office: Paranormal Prime, Saw Second
Regular readers of this column will know that we're very happy with today's weekend box-office estimates, with Paranormal Activity hitting the #1 spot for the first time, taking $21.10M for a five week total of $61.58M. Remarkable.
Saw VI, generally regarded as an improvement over previous sequels, came in second with a disappointing $14.11M, the worst of the franchise. However, as usual, this needs to be viewed in light of its budget, a slim $11M and the fact that a Saturday Halloween will give this legs through next weekend. Where the Wild Things Are dropped a precipitous 57%, with $14.01M, for a two week total of $53.55M, seemingly bearing out critic's concerns about its appeal to the younger audience – it will be interesting to see how the similarly reviewed Fantastic Mr Fox fares when it is released on 25th November (look for a review here in the next day or so).
Law Abiding Citizen and Couples Retreat maintained, down 41% and 38% respectively, but at #6, Astro Boy proved to have limited appeal with only $6.70M on a $65M budget. The week's biggest disappointment is Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, which could only scare up $6.29M at #7, giving it a long way to go to make profit on its $40 investment. The Stepfather, held on reasonably well, down 46% to $6.23M for a two week total that roughly equals its $20M budget.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is proving that weird wins with the wee ones, holding the #9 position, a $5.25M take bringing its six week total to $114.85M. Zombieland is also proving resilient, down 724 sites and 45%, with $4.20M for a four week total of $67.21M from a $23.6M budget. The only other major release this week, aviatrix biopic Amelia, tanked at #11 with $3.90M, around 10% of its budget.
Meanwhile, further down the chart, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D reissue pulled in $143,289 at 105 sites for the #35 slot, a disappointment given the investment taken to convert the 2-D original. Also taking a bow this week is Lars von Trier's controversial Antichrist at #42, chaos reigning on just six screens with a $71,397 take – an $11,900 per-screen average being the best of the week. Tony Jaa's Ong Bak 2: The Beginning also debuted, at #62 with $26,564 from 10 sites.
Next week's genre openings are festival favorites House of the Devil and Gentleman Broncos, as well as, erm, Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, all up against Michael Jackson concert rehearsal This Is It.
20FFF09: John Carson and The Plague of the Zombies
Day two of the 20th Festival of Fantastic Films continued with a screening of one of Hammer's better mid-sixties offerings, The Plague of the Zombies (1966), followed by a Q&A with its immensely affable bad guy John Carson, again chaired by the knowledgeable Wayne Kinsey
Early Years
Born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1927, Mr Carson claimed to have always felt like something of an outsider. He got the acting bug when he was allowed backstage at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he spotted a ballet dancer limbering up and became intrigued with the discipline involved (he later married a ballet dancer).
He was eventually picked from repertory theater in Sheffield and brought to London to play in costume series for ITC, such as "Sword of Freedom" (1957), and "Ivanhoe" (1958) with a young Roger Moore.
"The Saint" (1962–67)
John appeared in four episodes of this fondly remembered series, and has an obvious love of Roger Moore, speaking in admiration of a scene Moore refused to play that involved a villain holding an air hose to his ear. Moore had final script approval on the series and would not do anything that might be copied by children.
Asked what he thought of Moore, he laughed and said: "He's a villain. A dreadful man. I love him!" Moore learned that Carson had a fear of snakes from his Ceylonese upbringing, and naturally arranged for a fake cobra to be dropped around his neck in the middle of a scene.
"Adam Adamant Lives!: The League of Uncharitable Ladies" (1966)
Mr Carson was impressed with the director of this episode of the Gerald Harper fantasy series, a young man, in his second year of directing, named Ridley Scott. he was impressed with Scott's framing of shots and recalled that his fight scene with Harper was entirely unrehearsed.
Talking of his stage work, he said that Cyril Cusack taught him to listen - an element that he considers to be the key to good acting. They played together in "In the Bosom of the Country" on TV, and on stage in TS Elliot's Murder in the Cathedral.
The Plague of the Zombies (1966)
John remembers André Morrell as a great actor who always wore red socks, and that John Gilling, like Basil Dearden (with whom John worked in The Man Who Haunted Himself), had a reputation for being difficult, but that Gilling hired him from their previous film together The Night Caller (aka, Blood Beast from Outer Space, 1965). Unfortunately his memories of making the film are a little patchy.
Thankfully his reminiscences of the last decent Hammer Dracula movie are more intact, particularly of the brothel scene, where he was happy to be paired with a partially naked Asian girl (Chai Ling) who asked him to ensure that her nipples weren't showing.
During the same scene, Peter Sallis, a quiet, gentle man (famous these days as the voice of Grommet's owner, Wallace), accidentally placed his hand in an unfortunate position on his girl and the screams that resulted brought the set to a halt. John also recalled that Geoffrey Keen (Sir Frederick Gray in several Bond films from The Spy Who Loved Me to The Living Daylights), a stately, old-fashioned actor, forced to go on all fours and be ridden like a pig by Madeline Smith, was heard at one point to shout "Take the weight on your feet, girl."
John had nothing but great things to say about co-star Roy Kinnear, who he described as having a great force of life inside him, that was constantly likely to burst out in laughter. Kinnear managed to make everyone laugh, even the po-faced Keen.
His brief reminiscences on this later Hammer piece were confined to screenwriter-turned-director Brian Clemens, who he recalled as a wonderful director, a great professional, and a pleasure to work with. He also mentioned that his children at this stage were old enough to watch this on TV, but got very scared.
"Hammer House of Horror: Guardian of The Abyss" (1980)
John talked about his appearance in one of the better episodes in the TV series, directed by Don Sharp (Kiss of the Vampire, Curse of the Fly), and how he was asked to act an evocation and black magic ceremony. He wasn't happy about this, and his concern worsened, when afterwards he was informed that the mass was real. He was extremely disconcerted by this, won't see the episode and rarely talks about it.
This lead him to discuss a documentary on healing that he researched, after moving to South Africa in 1983. "Africa," he said "says: "Make up your mind." You have to decide who you are."
South Africa
After they moved to South Africa, John's wife Sam wrote the play "Reap the Whirlwind" for TV. Prime Minister PW Botha wanted to use television to educate the populace and bring an end to apartheid, but when the piece was completed, there was a governmental failure of nerve and the couple had a very difficult time – their phones were bugged and they were put under constant surveillance.
He talked of the darker side of African life, and encountering one Masai sorcerer, who was using children for "moti", or medicine, a brutal system that involved killing the children and using their skin and genitals to heal the sick.
John recalled the early TV impresarios Sidney Newman (ABC and BBC) and Lew Grade (ITC), and described them as storytellers first, in contrast to today's accountancy-led management system.
Also, in those days actors formed relationships with the cameramen, as the huge pedestal cameras were not very mobile, and the actor therefore had to be an ally in creating a well framed shot. He described the BBC in the 60s as being literary, static, worthy, and dull, but said that for the short time that David Attenborough was Director of Programmes (1969–72), that he really lifted the output.
Finally, Mr Carson discussed his work in the BBC play "The July Plot", which was directed by Rudolf Cartier (director of the original BBC "The Quatermass Experiment"), and in which he played Colonel Claus Schenk Count von Stauffenberg, the Nazi played by Tom Cruise in Valkyrie. Cartier told him that the role would make him a big star (he later discovered that this is what he told all his actors), and recalled the day that Otto John, one of the original plotters, visited the set and commented "When you smile you are von Stauffenberg, but he was much more tired than you when he came back from the bunker." A print of "The July Plot" was recently unearthed by author and critic Stephen Laws and screened at the British Film Institute, a fact for which Mr Carson was truly grateful.
John Carson at the 20th Festival of Fantastic Films 2009 (© Gareth Walters).
Thirst (2009)
Thirst/Bakjwi/박쥐 (2009)
Country: Republic of Korea/USA
Production Company: CJ Entertainment/Universal Pictures International/Moho Films
Executive Producer: Miky Lee
Producers: Park Chan-wook, Ahn So-hyun
Director: Park Chan-wook
Screenplay: Park Chan-wook, Chung Seo-kyung, inspired by Émile Zola's Thérèse Raquin
Cinematography: Chung Chung-hoon
Editors: Kim Sang-beom, Kim Jae-beom
Art Director: Ryu Sung-hee
Music: Jo Yeong-uk
Special Effects: Kim Tae-eui
Visual Effects: AZworks/Lee Jeon-Hyeong
Costumes: Jo Sang-gyeong
Effects Make-up: Hwang Hyo-gyun, Gwak Tae-yong
Sound Design: Kim Suk-won, Kim Chang-Sup
Budget: $5M
Length: 133 mins.
Cast: Song Kang-ho (Sang-hyun), Kim Ok-vin (Tae-ju), Kim Hae-sook (Madame Ra), Shin Ha-kyun (Kang-woo), Park In-hwan (Noh), Song Young-chang (Seung-dae), Oh Dal-su (Young-du), Eriq Ebouaney (Immanuel), Mercedes Cabral (Evelyn), Lee Hwa-ryong (Professor Ku), Ra Mi-ran (Nurse Yu), Choi Hee-jin (Nurse), Choi Jong-ryeol (Old man)
Synopsis: Catholic priest Sang-hyun, who lives to aid the afflicted, volunteers to enter a program in Africa to help eradicate the fatal Emmanuel virus. The disease quickly takes hold, and after a blood transfusion he dies on the operating table but revives seconds later. Returning home, he is greeted as a healer and approached by Madame Ra to help her son, Kang-woo. The Priest begins to realize that the only way to treat his recurring skin infection is to drink human blood and as the need for food increases, along with his strength, he becomes attracted to Tae-ju, Kang-woo's downtrodden wife, and their desire for each other soon causes Sany-hyung to renounce the Church as the two hatch a plot that will allow them to remain together forever.
Review: Park Chan-wook was drawn to Thérèse Raquin, Émile Zola's tale of doomed lovers haunted by their misdeeds, by its lack of sentimentality which meshed with his long-planned idea to make a more realistic vampire movie. By stripping the form of its tropes and clichés – except, crucially, the sensitivity to sunlight – Park has created an interesting but flawed piece that, at its most interesting, traces a good man's fall from grace.
Park regular Song Kang-ho (JSA: Joint Security Area, Lady Vengeance; Bong Joon-ho's The Host), and Kim Ok-vin (Girl's High School Horror: Voice), make an effective vampire couple, he a man of the cloth reduced by desires he despises, and she, the vampire he made, embracing the kill and slowly dominating the relationship.
Sang-hyun's descent forms the backbone of the film, and his trip to Africa, meeting with Dr Immanuel (French actor Eriq Ebouaney, star of the cops vs robbers vs zombies film La Horde) and his decline as the disease takes hold, is well told – in particular a scene where he vomits blood as he plays his recorder, the instrument he had used to calm the sick). His later dealing with the onset of vampirism also provide some blackly humorous moments, as he rationalizes stealing blood from the dead and dying at the hospital he attends.
Problems arise once he returns home, bandaged like the Invisible Man and is greeted by a mob of the sick and infirm, who paw at him like Christ's lepers. While his interactions with this group are initially effective, he never seems to suffer this attention anywhere else, and a gratuitous raison d'être (including Korea's first scene of full frontal male nudity), is unnecessary and at odds with the character's arc.
As Sang-hyun falls for the seemingly fragile Tae-ju, and the main story of Thérèse Raquin takes hold, we are also introduced to Madame Ra (Kim Hae-sook, in her first film), and her idiot son Kang-woo (Shin Ha-kyun, another Park regular), whose scenes are too broadly drawn and the film begins to feel like a Hong Kong comedy, all pratfalls and screeching women. The scenes following Kang-woo's disappointingly-staged murder are particularly bothersome, with the victim returning as a comedy wet ghost, complete with the rock placed on his chest and streaks of snot pouring from his nose. This may be faithful in spirit to Zola, but here it distracts from a more interesting tale.
Thankfully Park redeems himself in the final act, as the vampire couple move into Madame Ra's house after she has a stroke, paint the interior white to simulate daylight and settle down to something like domesticity with their host, immobile but aware, her eyes blazing with hostility. Tae-ju's love of the kill contrasts with Sang-hyun's remaining humanity and the pair's nocturnal battles across the rooftops are exhilarating, as is the final atrocity in their home, as blood splashes the white walls and Sang-hyun takes his first victim purely for food.
If the ending feels a little over-familiar, Park handles it well, with blazes of light contrasting with the earlier muted colors (even if a pair of blood spouting whales appear to have invaded from a cheap 80s fantasy poster) and the sequence that runs up to it is brilliantly handled: a sad, virtually silent, and increasingly futile battle, played out under Madame Ra's gaze.
Thirst – the first Korean film made partially with US money - does often capture the mood of genre classics like Guillermo del Toro's Cronos and Thomas Alfredson's Let the Right One In, but at two hours and 13 minutes, it's over-stretched, even if it never quite wears out its welcome. It may have won the Jury Award at Cannes and been applauded pretty much everywhere, but we have a right to expect more from the genius director of JSA and Oldboy.
Thirst is released on DVD and On-Demand on November 17th in the US. In the UK, the film is currently on cinema release and on DVD from 25th January 2010.
20FFF09: Jenny Hanley and The Scars of Dracula
The Festival of Fantastic Films is a delightfully old-school festival, held the last 20 years in Manchester, England. With the involvement of novelist, and sometime Video Watchdog columnist Ramsey Campbell, what the affair lacks in slick marketing, it more than makes up for in the opportunity to chat in the bar with key figures like Peter Sasdy (Countess Dracula), John Carson (Captian Kronos: Vampire Hunter), and Ian McCulloch (Zombie/Zombie Flesh Eaters) after their films have shown.
Missing Friday's viewing of Burke and Hare with Derren Nesbitt (which was a shame, as I was dying to ask him what was so awful about a film that caused Vernon Sewell to quit directing, and lusty vampire Yutte Stensgaard to move to the US and get religion), the first film I viewed on Saturday morning was Hammer's Scars of Dracula (1970), followed by a Q&A with star Jenny Hanley moderated by Wayne Kinsey who wrote the outstanding books Hammer Films: The Bray Studio Years (2002), Hammer Films: The Elstree Studios Years (2007), and the lavish Hammer Films: A Life in Pictures (2008), and therefore knows his stuff.
Wayne first asked Ms Hanley about her father Jimmy Hanley (1918–1970), who appeared in many films, including his last, the Hammer camp-fest The Lost Continent (1968). Jenny reminisced about the many actors in her life, including her godfather, Jack Warner (TV's "Dixon of Dock Green"), and her godmothers Hazel Court (The Masque of the Red Death), and Flora Robson (The Beast in the Cellar), before talking about the dysfunctional special effects in Lost Continent, and the fact that Jimmy Hanley had to strangle himself with a claw when the giant lobster refused to cooperate.
Her mother, actress Dinah Sheridan (The Sound Barrier), was from Russian stock and Jenny's grandparents became royal photographers after they moved to England. Talking about her childhood, she mentioned her brother, now Sir Jeremy Hanley KCMG, (my MP when I lived in Richmond, Surrey in the early 90s), who was 6ft 4ins at the age of 14, and received all the attention growing up. Jenny was not an attractive child, and her mother who was then married to John Davis, head of the Rank Organisation, overheard someone saying "What a plain child", and as a result, paid for her to have modeling lessons. This clearly paid off, as Jenny was voted "Sexiest Woman in the World" by the Daily Mail newspaper, in 1970. The readers then voted and placed her #2 behind Raquel Welch.
Prior to that achievement, she appeared in the Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service and talked about how much she liked George Lazenby, and the difficult position he was in after the press gave him such a hard time (way more severe than the rebukes Daniel Craig received before Casino Royale). Everyone was against Lazenby, including the stunt men and skiers (Diana Rigg's animosity was not mentioned, but is well documented). She also talked about the amazing set used for her scenes as one of Blofeld's Angels of Death, which now houses the Piz Gloria revolving restaurant on the Shilthorn, near Mürren, Switzerland, and the fact that the production invested money in its construction, in order to style it the way they needed.
Jenny mentioned Telly Savalas who played Blofeld and the fact that he had a strong belief in ghosts, spirits and karma, and would never turn off an LP when he left a room, as it would be rude to the spirits. She translated the French lyric of Edith Piaf's "Rien de Rien" for him, and described him as a gentle soul, but a dreadful womanizer, who bedded fellow Angel Dani Sheridan, and later had a baby with her. Another Angel, Joanna Lumley taught her and the other girls (including Catherina von Schell, Anoushka Hempel, and Julie Ege) to crochet, to pass the time between scenes.
Under contract to Harry Saltzman, Jenny was offered a part in The Battle of Britain, but refused it, as the role at that time involved nudity (which she steadfastly refused to do), as a result, she was loaned to Hammer for The Scars of Dracula, where she was directed by Roy Ward Baker (experienced, lovely and intuitive), and appeared opposite Dennis Waterman (The Sweeney), who took a dislike to her, as she was too tall, and too posh. Ward Baker got them together one night and arranged for them all to get drunk and play darts – Jenny won, and she noticed for the first time at that day's viewing that Waterman has his fist clenched behind her head when they're kissing.
She discussed at length her challenges working with the notorious bat puppet, one of which led to a rebuke from Christopher Lee. The bat operators were a gay couple, one handling the head, the other dealing with the wings, and as they were wrangling the thing for the final attack on Hanley's character, they suddenly kissed, causing her to burst into fits of laughter. She turned to see Christopher Lee in full Dracula regalia, intoning the words "You do realize, Count Vlad was real." before sweeping from the set. As she stated, Christopher Lee took it all very seriously. She managed a kind of retort when, tired of Lee's constant opera singing in the next dressing room, she asked him for bit of Gilbert and Sullivan instead – he gladly complied.
Later, he and his wife took Jenny to a country fête at an English stately home, badly guided by a parking attendant, Lee scraped the side of his enormous Rolls Royce against a stone wall, maintaining a typically British stoic expression as he did hundreds of pounds-worth of damage to the car. Having completed his responsibilities at the fête, he turned to Jenny and boomed "Now, how the fuck do I get my car out."
Ms Hanley also talked about her other co-stars, Patrick Troughton ("Dr Who", The Omen), who was a terrible giggler and improvised the whistling during the scene where he has to dismember Anoushka Hempel's dead body; Michael Gwynn (Village of the Damned, Jason and the Argonauts), a very quiet, intelligent man; Michael Ripper (who appeared in more Hammer films than any other actor), who was a friend of her fathers and would regale her with stories of their adventures; and Anouska Hempel ("Noosh"), who had to be dubbed due to her broad Australian accent and angered make-up maestro Roy Ashton, by turning up on set, fresh from a holiday in Barbados, with a deep tan to play Dracula's vampire bride. With regard to dubbing, it's always been stated that Jenny was dubbed for Scars, but she thinks that, having watched the film again at this showing, it was her own voice (I have to admit that she sounded dubbed to me).
Other nuggets of information regarded her costume, which was hugely cantilevered to create an impressive décolletage, from her less than ample bosom and - at her request - was made from three layers of fabric, with a pair of tights sewn in, to ensure that it wasn't transparent. She still wears the cross that played a pivotal role in a couple of scenes, as she used her own, being allergic to base metals; she also still possesses the ring that Dennis Waterman's character uses to propose. Fond mention was also made of stunt man Eddie Powell, who stood in as Dracula in the lifting scenes, as Lee had a bad back and how he was covered in fire gel for the dangerous final scene in which Dracula is conveniently struck by lightening and bursts into flames.
Tam Lin (aka The Devil's Widow 1970)
Her thoughts on this, Roddy McDowall's only film as director (tagline "She drained them of their manhood… and then — of their lives"), were a little more sparse as she hasn't seen it in years. She did recall that McDowall was a sweetheart, and that Ava Gardner had an incredible ability to pull off what she called a "natural facelift", and appear years younger on set than she did off it.
Jenny worked for eight weeks on Billy Wilder's flawed, but immensely likable Holmes pastiche, playing in a flashback as Holmes' first love, they filmed idyllic scenes in Oxford where the young Holmes was at university and madly in love with Jenny's character, and completed the tragic finale wherein Holmes, on a bet from his fellow students, visits a prostitute, who is revealed to be our heroine, complete with corseted 16 inch waist. Jenny was lauded in the US as "Billy Wilder's new juve lead", only to have her part cut (like several others in the original three hour and 20 minute version). She recalled that Wilder loved Oxford, dressing in pink, as he thought, to blend in with the locals; and that her mother was shooting The Railway Children in the next studio.
Unfortunately, Jenny's fond career reminiscences do not extend to working with Pete Walker, who she swore she would never work with again after her experiences on this, one of the earlier films in his horror career after graduating from softcore sex romps. The film is set in an abandoned theater on the end of an English pier, and she explained how vulnerable she felt stuck out in the middle of the sea, especially when, in violation of her "no nudity" clause, he attempted to pressure her into taking her clothes off by claiming she was keeping "all these people waiting". She took to wearing a second set of underwear for one disrobing scene, which infuriated Walker and caused him to shoot the scene a second time with a hugely well-endowed full-frontal body double complete with brown pubic hair. Actor's union Equity threatened to sue for defamation of character on the grounds that Hanley is a natural blonde, and Walker was forced to cut the lower half, but was allowed to keep the boobs, as long as the girl was given a credit.
“Magpie” (1974–80)
Following a few more films and many more TV appearance, Jenny Hanley slipped into a regular role on the children's TV series “Magpie”, explaining that the series was entirely improvised: the presenters were given subject headings and expected to be knowledgeable. The show was unique in that it had no ad break (so as not to commercialize our fragile little minds), and was the first to take donations direct, without using a charity as middle man, for its regular drives to help under-privileged British children. Her proudest moment from the series is a solo parachute jump, and she also shared that she recently reunited with fellow presenters Douglas Rae and Mick Robertson, who are now both successful producers – Rae is currently producing Christopher Smith's Triangle follow-up The Black Death, and Robertson creates independent content for the BBC.
This was a highly enjoyable one hour-plus, Jenny Hanley came across as a very likable person, very approachable and notably stayed for the rest of the weekend, meeting with old friends and fans.
The worst possible picture I could take of Jenny Hanley at the 20th Festival of Fantastic Films 2009 (© Gareth Walters).
