Karloff Blogathon: La cámara del terror (1968)
La cámara del terror/Fear Chamber (1968; US release date 1971)
Country: Mexico/USA
Production Companies: Providora Filmica Azteca/Filmica Vergara SA
Producer: Lui Enrique Vergara C [Luis Enrique Vergara]
Production Manager: José Luis Cerrada
Director: Juan Ibáñez [and Jack Hill]
Co-Director: JL González de León
Screenplay: Jack Hill, E Vergara C [Luis Enrique Vergara]
Editor: Felipe Marino
Cinematographer: Raúl Domínguez [and Austin McKinney]
Music: Enrico Cabiati
Art Directors: José Méndez, Octavio Ocampo [and Roland Hill, Ray Storey]
Special Effects: Enrique Cardillo
Set Decorators: José Méndez, Octavio Ocampo
Costumes: Tostado
Makeup: Tony Ramirez
Sound: Henry Henkel, Víctor Roto
Filmed at: Estudios America, Mexico; Dored Studios, Hollywood
Length: 88 mins
Cast: Boris Karloff (Dr. Carl Mandel), Julissa (Corinne Mandel) Carlos East (Mark), Isela Vega (Helga), Yerye Beirute [sic] (Roland), Sandra Chavez (Victim), Eva Muller (Sally), Santanón (Dwarf), Pamela Rosas (Victim), Fuensanta.
Karloff still looks good in Satanic robes.
Synopsis: Dr Mandel and his team, daughter Corinne and her boyfriend Mark, discover a living rock that feeds off human fear. Luring young women to an underground lair, they enact Satanic rituals to terrify them and provide the creature with sustenance. However the nourishment is proving less effective each time and assistants Helga and the brutish Roland discover a more effective method when a girl is attacked and killed by the monster.
Review: In April of 1968, Boris Karloff flew to Hollywood to fulfill a contract with Mexican producer Luis Enrique Vergara to make four pictures back to back. The films were originally supposed to be lensed in Mexico City, but Karloff's emphysema - he was operating on half of one lung by this time - meant he couldn't handle the high altitude. This, added to Vergera's desire to give the films a more North American feel, led the producer to make a deal with up-and-coming writer-director Jack Hill to film Karloff's scenes in Hollywood and then fly to Mexico to shoot the remainder.
The hopeful but semi-literate opening title card.
We'll never know what would have happened if Hill have been allowed to complete the films as, thanks to poor production planning, the three week shoot in LA went over budget (Vergara spent most of the time at Disneyland with his family) and on his return to Mexico the beleaguered producer died of a heart attack. Hill, assuming that the projects had perished along with their creator, never made the trip south and it was years later that he discovered they had been released on video, realizing to his horror that they had been completed by another hand.
The four films in this misbegotten enterprise are, in the order that Hill shot them, Fear Chamber, Isle of the Snake People, House of Evil (aka Dance of Death), and The Incredible Invasion (note that Calum Waddell is his excellent book Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film, has the order as House…, Isle…, …Invasion, and Fear…, which is the order they were written). After Vergara's people failed to come up with useable scripts, Hill wrote all the screenplays except for Incredible Invasion, which was written by Spider Baby actor Karl Schanzer from an idea by Vergara.
Karloff's determination to die "in harness", bolstered by his appearance on the cover of the March 15th issue of Life magazine (Mexican promotional art for House of Evil copies the iconic shot and adds a mustache), plus his enjoyment of the idea of playing four different characters in such a short period of time, accounts for his appearance here, despite the physical pain and need for an oxygen mask caused by the illness that would claim him less than a year later. Jack Hill also was up for the challenge (he would discover later that even Vergara's Mexican colleagues thought he was mad), particularly given his career frustrations thus far, with his first feature Spider Baby still sitting on a shelf four years after production and his less than ideal relationship with Roger Corman.
Yerye Beirut gives it some serious Tor
Hill's original scripts (which Karloff had enthusiastically approved) were largely jettisoned once his work was complete and the production moved to Mexico, but Fear Chamber is the closest to his original vision (House of Evil was his favorite screenplay and he still hasn't been able to bring himself to watch the finished film). That said, while it is the best of this sorry bunch, it's basically a Z-grade 1950s monster movie, with the requisite hokey exposition (it's never explained why the rock monster might be worthwhile to humanity), wooden acting (genre vet Yerye Beirut of Face of the Screaming Werewolf, is particularly Tor Johnson-like in a role originally written for Sid Haig), and low budget special effects (Mexican-lensed rubber tentacles are more Ed Wood than Hollywood).
Hill clearly cared about the projects and drafted in his father Roland Hill to design the sets for Karloff's scenes (Roland designed the interiors for the Nautilus in Disney's 1954 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), and Art Director Ray Storey (Spider Baby) to construct them. He also hired cameraman Austin McKinney with whom he'd worked on his previous film Pit Stop and it's a testimony to Hill as a director that he felt he owed McKinney a favor, after Roger Corman failed to pay his Pit Stop crew, and to the mishap-laden project that he was forced to fire him after one week during which McKinney over-lit every scene, using 12 lights where one would have sufficed. Hill also had to battle José Luis Cerrada's less than stellar production management, which caused the wrong actors to show up, leaving Karloff sitting around for hours waiting for his scenes.
Variety is the spice of life, so the rock is fed a stripper.
Karloff himself looks better than he did the previous year in El coleccionista de cadáveres/Blind Man's Bluff/Cauldron of Blood, possibly because Hill avoided using close-ups - mainly because these were shot for large drive-in screens, but partly out of respect for the actor (in stark contrast, Mexican director Ibáñez never met a face he didn't want to get next to, preferably with a rapid zoom) - and seems to be enjoying himself in spite of the pain, the chaotic production, and the banal dialogue.
It's easy to say "Poor Boris" and bemoan the fact that the final big screen appearances of one of horror's great icons were in these wretched films (he made one more appearance on film, in the TV series "The Name of the Game"), but there's no evidence that he needed the money - he left £165,000 in uncollected salary in Mexico - and the fact remains that Karloff went out as he intended, proud but humble, a real English gentleman, working to the last.
Scenes filmed in Mexico are distinctly more perverse than those shot by Jack Hill
In one of the more eyebrow-raising announcements in recent film history, Hill has said he plans to remake these films (a Spider Baby remake is already underway), we await the results with perplexed interest. In the meantime, Fear Chamber is available on DVD from Elite Entertainment, with an excellent director's commentary, a 5.1 sound remix, and an extended scene containing nudity cut from the US release; Isle of the Snake People is available from Cheezy Flicks; and House of Evil is released by both Sinister Cinema and Rhino, the latter under its Dance of Death title; all are barebones releases. Incredible Invasion is unavailable on DVD, but can still be found on VHS from MPI and Rhino under the title Alien Terror.
Farewell to the King.
Reference
Calum Waddell, Jack Hill: The Exploitation and Blaxploitation Master, Film by Film, McFarland & Company, Inc, 2009.
Peter Underwood, Karloff, Drake Publishers, 1972.
Bill Warren, "Karloff's Last Act: Visiting the Set of Boris Karloff's Final Films… and Watching the King of Horror Act" Monster Kid Magazine #2 (date unknown).
Karloff Blogathon: El coleccionista de cadáveres (1967)
El coleccionista de cadáveres (1967), Blindman's Bluff (USA title), Cauldron of Blood (UK title), The Corpse Collectors (Spanish title translation)
Country: Spain/USA
Production Company: A PC Hispamer Films Madrid, Robert D Weinbach Productions Inc New York Picture
Producer: Robert D Weinbach
Associate Producers: Donald Havens Jr, Gilbert Simmons
In Charge of Production: Sergio Newman
"Realizador": Santos Alcocer
"A Film By": Edward Mann
Screenplay: John Melson, Edward Mann (Spanish version: J.L. Bayonas)
Music: Ray Ellis (Spanish version: José Luis Navarro)
Theme: "Blindman's Bluff" by Bob Harris
Theme: "There's A Certain Kind of Woman" by Edward and Marilyn Mann
Cinematographer: Francisco Sempere (in Panoramico)
Additional Photography: Robert J Patterson Jr
Editor: José Antonio Rojo
Art Director: Gil Parrondo
Production Manager: Angel Rosson
Assistant Director: Julio Sempere
Special Effects: Thierry Pathé Special Effects Laboratory
Make-up: Manolita Garcia Fraile
Wardrobe: Manolita Iglesias
Sound Editor: Peter Parascheles
Sound Effects: Luis Castro
Props: F Garcinuño, F Yague
Fight Arranger: Scott Miller
Acknowledgements: Pan American World Airways; Mercedes-Benz; Cessna Aircraft; Endur, Madrid-Suede Creations
Locations: Torremolinos; Estudios Roma, Madrid
Length: 99 mins.
Release Dates: Spain: 16 February 1970. UK: April 1971. USA: 1 August 1971.
Cast: Jean Pierre Aumont (Claude Marchand), Boris Karloff (Badulescu), Viveca Lindfors (Tania), Rosenda Monteros (Valerie), Milo Quesada (Shanghai), Dyanik Zurakowska (Elga), Rubén Rojo (Pablo), Jacqui Speed (Pilar), Mercedes Rojo (Gypsy Queen), Mary Lou Palermo (Stewardess), Manuel de Blas (Lenny), Eduardo Coutelen (Domingo).
The later work of Boris Karloff has never received much love from critics or fans and usually for very good reason. As part of Pierre Fournier's Boris Karloff Blogathon, I will cover some of his more obscure and/or reviled films from the last few years of his career, uncover some of the background to their making, see if they deserve their obscurity, and if they're as bad as we've been led to believe.
Viveca Lindfors and Rosenda Monteros camp it up at the dive bar.
Synopsis: Magazine reporter Claude Marchand is assigned to Spain's Costa del Sol to interview the sculptor Franz Badulescu. Blind and lame following a car accident caused by his wife Tania, Badelescu is creating tableaux based on famous paintings, but unbeknownst to him Tania and a mysterious henchman are killing locals, dropping the victims in a cauldron of acid, and using the skeletons as armatures. Following the deaths of a beach attendant and a dog, Tania turns her sadistic attention to Elga, a friend of Marchand's companion, Valerie.
"Now zat's what I really call afeeshent servees" Jean Pierre Aumont charms Mary Lou Palermo
Review: Between Michael Reeves' The Sorcerers (1967), filmed in the UK and Peter Bogdanovich's Targets (1968), made in California (where he also shot an episode of "The Girl from UNCLE"), Karloff headed to southern Spain to make this Spanish/US co-production which has received little coverage over the years – Peter Underwood's seminal Karloff simply lists it in the filmography, while Cynthia Lindsay in Dear Boris: The Life of William Henry Pratt aka Boris Karloff (Limelight Edition, 1995) mentions it only in passing – and is often lumped in with the Jack Hill Mexican quartet as unwatchable garbage, best forgotten.
While it has to be said that the piece is an unholy mess, it's not without the odd moment of tension and features an elegant (if under-used) Karloff, a barking mad, whips-and-uniform performance by Viveca Lindfors (The Damned, Creepshow) and a very much of its time musical score (at least in the English language version) by Filmation composer Ray Ellis (who would re-use the score for "Shazam", in 1974).
"'Til death us do part, I suppose." Karloff rises above it all.
For many years the film was credited to Santos Alcocer, working under the pseudonym Edward Mann, thanks mostly to a review and credits by David Pirie in the April 1971 issue of The Monthly Film Bulletin (this is also the cause of reviewers naming Karloff's character "Charles" rather than "Franz", and the US title being listed as Blind Man's Bluff, rather than the onscreen Blindman's Bluff). Alcocer and Mann are in fact two different people, but the mistake is understandable thanks to the unusual credit "Realizador: Santos Alcocer. A film by Edward Mann". Alcocer was a Production Manager turned Writer/Director who went on to helm El enigma del ataud/The Orgies of Dr. Orloff (1969) and ran his own production company, while Mann, screenwriter of Terence Fisher's Island of Terror (aka Night of the Silicates, 1966), was a jack of all trades, known (according to Tim Lucas) for adding his name where credit wasn't always earned, including as co-writer on Oliver Stone's debut Seizure (1974), a film dogged by rumors of money laundering by Michael Thevis, a gangster and murderer known as "The Scarface of Porn".
Along with Spain-based American Producer Robert D Weinbach (later owner of Vidcrest Home Video, who released the VHS under review), Mann would write and direct interracial love romp Hot Pants Holiday (aka Tropical Heat, 1972) and co-write (with Weinbach) Jack Cardiff's memorable The Mutations (aka Freakmaker, 1974). It's not known whether Mann and Alcocer shared directing duties, or whether Mann simply took the credit, nor indeed do we know how much involvement he had in the script, which is also credited to John Melson, who wrote Battle of the Bulge (with considerable input from Philip Yordan and Milton Sperling) and Juan Piquer Simón's dire Journey to the Center of the Earth (aka Where Time Began, 1976). To further complicate matters, the Spanish version is credited to José Luis de las Bayonas (Un dollaro per 7 vigliacchi/Madigan's Millions, 1968) leaving the real provenance somewhat obscure.
A neat bit of foreshadowing in an otherwise mad dream sequence.
By 1967, at 80 years old, Karloff was very ill. Crippled with back pain and arthritis and often finding it difficult to breathe due to emphysema, he should by rights have been enjoying retirement in the Hampshire village of Bramshott where he had settled with his sixth wife, Evelyn. Instead he was in the midst of one of the busiest periods of his life and by my rough calculation, between the year 1964 and his death in February 1969, he appeared in 12 movies, provided the voices for three more (including Mad Monster Party and the TV special "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas"), appeared in 10 TV shows, around five TV commercials, and made three LPs, as well as regular recordings for Reader's Digest. Quoted by Lindsay in Dear Boris…, he said "I'm not really alive when I'm not working … to know I would never work again would be something like a death sentence."
He definitely appears frail here, his tired eyes obscured by heavy dark glasses or inexplicable make-up and his gait unsteady. Most uncomfortable of all is a scene where Viveca Lindfors as his wife, administers an injection against his wishes, with his feeble protestations hitting a little too close to home (ironically, Karloff replaced Claude Rains, who was too ill to take the part). But it's still Karloff, that wonderful voice intoning hammy, badly written lines such as "I once fathered a gryphon, you know" and "Now, I suppose, like Beethoven I'm doomed never to see the beauty of my own creations." He still exudes an air of quiet authority, which sets him apart from Aumont's "let us 'ave an orgy" playboy and Lindfors' bonkers bisexual.
Jewelry holds out better than skin in this acid bath.
While Blindman's Bluff/Cauldron of Blood is just about worth it for Karloff's appearance and a brief but effective animated opening title sequence, the rest of the film is largely a disaster, with too many unresolved strands, several loose, ends, and the heavy hand of Franco's censors particularly obvious in a ham-fisted (and unnecessary) rape sequence which plays out in stop motion stills and ends with stock footage of a lightning bolt, repeated a few minutes later to mask an abrupt transition to night. On the plus side, Dyanik Zurakowska (La marca del Hombre Lobo/Frankenstein's Bloody Terror, 1968) is a delight to behold and the sequence where she is stalked through the Badalescu mansion by Tania and her henchman does approach some sense of atmosphere – cameraman Francisco Sempere would go on the shoot Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti/The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (1974).
David Pirie's MFB review states "Its heavy Freudian symbolism becomes almost laughable in conjunction with the wooden dialogue and ludicrous situations…" and he wraps up with "…here the only visible consolation is the chance to see Karloff again, coping bravely with the uninteresting role of the sculptor." And you can't say fairer than that.
El coleccionista de cadáveres/Blindman's Bluff/Cauldron of Blood is unavailable on Region 1 DVD but can be found on a Region 2 release in the UK, from Orbit Media (along with an episode of "Colonel March Of Scotland Yard" from 1956), on out-of-print VHS releases from Vidcrest and Republic, and is currently available on YouTube here.
Reference
David Pirie, Monthly Film Bulletin, Issue 447, April 1971.
Peter Underwood, Karloff, Drake Publishers, 1972.
Cynthia Lindsay, Dear Boris: The Life of William Henry Pratt aka Boris Karloff, Limelight Edition, 1995.
Tim Lucas, Video Watchblog, January 2007.
Eric Cotenas, Lovelockandload – Euro Cult Movie Goodness (date unknown).
Box Office 11/23/09: New Moon Rises
The Twilight Saga: New Moon was unable to sustain its record breaking opening day ($72.7M) through the weekend, but still raked in an impressive $142.8M from a $50M budget. Not surprising, given that its predecessor is the highest-grossing vampire movie in history, with $384.99M worldwide – Van Helsing is second, God help us, with $300.25M. Opening simultaneously just about everywhere on the planet, its weekend global take (including US) was $274.93M.
Football tearjerker The Blind Side opened at #2 with $34.11M, while 2012 took an expected dive of 59% with $26.41M for a 10 day US total of $108.13M. At #4, the animated Planet 51 opened with a decent $12.28M and at #5 A Christmas Carol dropped 105 theaters and 45% with $12.27M, bringing a total of $79.83M as it enters its third week of release.
The rest of the chart holds little genre excitement as horror movies beat a post-Halloween retreat, The Fourth Kind limps along adding another $1.74M to its $23.35M haul, while Paranormal Activity (which debuts on DVD on December 29th) pulled in $1.40M for a nine week total of $106.08M.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans opened at #22, with $245,398 in 27 theaters and Fantastic Mr Fox dropped 23.5% in its limited four theater run pulling in just $203,512, expect that to change this week as the film goes wide for Thanksgiving.
Red Cliff opened in two screens and earned $13,104, but like The House of the Devil (#84 with $3,927 on three screens) its money will more likely be earned from downloads – it's also available from amazon.com's Theatrical Rental program.
This week sees the opening of John Hillcoat's eagerly anticipated film of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, although this will also be a limited release (dammit!). James McTiegue's Ninja Assassin also debuts, along with Richard Linklater's Orson Welles and Me, John Travolta/Robin Williams vehicle Old Dogs and the drama The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.
The House of the Devil (2008)
The House of the Devil (2008)
Production Company: MPI Media Group presents in association with Constructovision and Ring the Jing Entertainment, a Glass Eye Pix Production
Producers: Josh Braun, Roger Kass, Larry Fessenden, Peter Phok
Executive Producers: Malik B Ali, Badie Ali, Hamza Ali, Greg Newman
Director: Ti West
Screenplay: Ti West
Cinematographer: Eliot Rockett
Editor: Ti West
Music: Jeff Grace
Production Designer: Jade Healy
Art Director: Chris Trujillo
Second Unit Director: Graham Reznick
Visual Effects: John Loughlin
Special Makeup Effects: Quantum Creation FX/Christian Beckman, Ozzy Alvarez
Hair and Makeup: Ozzy Alvarez, Danielle Noe
Sound Designer: Graham Reznick
Sound Editor: Tom Efinger
Costume Designer: Robin Fitzgerald
Stunts: Anthony Vincent
Locations: Limerock, Connecticut, Columbia University, New York
Length: 95 mins
Cast: Jocelin Donahue (Samantha), Tom Noonan (Mr Ulman) Mary Woronov (Mrs Ulman) Greta Gerwig (Megan) AJ Bowen (Victor Ulman) Dee Wallace (Landlady) Heather Robb (Roommate) Darryl Nau (Random Guy) Brenda Cooney (Nurse) Danielle Noe (Mother), Mary McCann (Elaine Cross) John Speredakos (Ted Stephen) Lena Dunham (911 Operator) Graham Reznick (Local DJ), Ti West (Favorite Teacher), Archie van Beuren (Dead Child), Nicholas Bienstock (Dead Husband), Andrea Verdura (Dead Wife), Kamen Velkovsky (Demon), William M Bradley (Blue Demon).
Synopsis: The early 1980s, student Samantha, hoping to earn enough money to move into her own apartment and away from her obnoxious shared dorm, answers an advertisement for a babysitter. Arriving at the house of the Ulman's she is told that job actually involves caring for an old lady and, after Mr and Mrs Ulman leave, Samantha's concerns grow to fear as she explores the house and slowly realizes that the family may not be the original occupants.
Review: Following troubled post-production on Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, when Lionsgate lost faith after director Ti West (The Roost) delivered something more John Waters than Eli Roth, West moved on with many of the same crew to create this, a more complete vision of his deliberately old-fashioned style of film making.
Perfectly evoking its period, from freeze-frame yellow opening titles to an enormous Sony Walkman blaring out songs by The Fixx and Greg Kihn – and with special kudos due the hair, make-up and wardrobe departments – West has gone beyond mere homage and made a true period piece that perfectly captures the Friedkin-like atmosphere of movies such as Peter Medak's The Changeling (1980), Arthur Penn's Dead of Winter (1987), and Polanski's apartment trilogy.
With zero deaths in the first 34 minutes and no real reveal of the house's demonic secret until well past the hour mark, the film has divided fans but received warm attention from critics and bloggers. The slow build though is one of the films many strengths, with a perfectly judged sense of creeping unease growing from mysteriously ringing phones and the evasive and over-familiar Ulman's, played by genre stalwarts Tom Noonan (The Monster Squad, Robocop 2, Eight Legged Freaks), Mary Woronov (Death Race 2000, Eating Raoul, Chopping Mall), and AJ Bowen (The Signal, Creepshow 3). And, once the shock and gore kicks in, it's incredibly effective, with the aforementioned glimpse of the fate of the house's original occupants being followed by one of the best jump-scares of the year.
Relative newcomer Jocelin Donahue (The Burrowers) has a lot to bear as she carries the emotional weight of the film and is in practically every scene. She plays Samantha as a nervous, barely holding-on germaphobe, who knuckle-punches payphone numbers rather than touch them with her finger tips and turns on the taps in public rest rooms to hide the sound of her sobbing. Her unfolding fear once alone in the house, as well as her goofy Walkman dance which ends with a broken vase, are perfectly judged and it would be easy to overlook this marvelously controlled performance, as well as the chalk-and-cheese contrast of Greta Gerwig's Megan, with Gerwig showing further promise previosly glimpsed in Baghead (2008)
If the film stumbles a little during it's rushed, kinetic payoff – it seems that satanists tie lousy knots and are really easy to kill – it leads to a shocking and unexpected ending and a satisfying coda which completes a film that is undoubtedly being added to many 2009 Top 10 list as we speak. It will certainly be on mine.
A self confessed "pain in the ass", West has railed against the producers trimming four minutes from the middle of the film, but is seems that the version under review is his complete cut (it includes scenes with a piano and a goldfish that he had complained were removed). Granted inly a limited cinema release, the film opens in San Francisco today (11.20.09) but is also available through amazon.com's Theatrical Rental program in both standard ($6.99) and High ($7.99) definition.
20FFF09: John Hough and The Legend of Hell House
The final guest at The 20th Festival of Fantastic Films 2009, again introduced by Wayne Kinsey, has probably the most varied career of the all, from Second Unit work and Direction on "The Avengers" in the late 60s, through Hammer's Twins of Evil (1971), Disney's Escape to… and Return from Witch Mountain (1975 and '78), Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988) for Harry Alan Towers, and a trilogy of Barbara Cartland adaptations, to a "Special Thanks" credit on Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse: Death Proof (2007), eclectic doesn't begin to cover the career of John Hough.
Early Years
Sporting a cockney brogue to this day, Hough (pronounced "Huff" rather than "How" as I had always thought) was born in London in 1941 and entered the business at the bottom, working in the sound department at Merton Park Studios in South London as a "trainee, come tea-maker, come floor sweeper". His first task at Merton Park involved crouching inside the shower with a microphone and a naked Barbara Windsor, the busty babe from the Carry On… films, at which point he decided that this was a job he liked. Mr Hough recalls this as being for Sidney J Furie's The Leather Boys (1964), but it was more likely for The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre production Death Trap (1962), directed by John Llewellyn Moxey, one of close to 50 Edgar Wallace productions filmed at the studios between 1960 and 1965.
As a trainee he was paid "existence money" as part of his four-year apprenticeship, which provided just enough to get by, but he worked his way up the ranks to the position of Third Assistant Director and Location Manager. It was in this role that he received his break, having scouted out a location for a country house, when the director had a nervous breakdown and failed to show up to the shoot. Hough took over and was now a fully fledged director (unfortunately it wasn't stated on which film this took place).
"The Avengers" (1968–9) and Wolfshead (1969)
Having left Merton Park, he moved on to Elstree Studios and Pinewood where he was employed 52 weeks a year and had the opportunity to work with Hitchcock and David Lean among others and watch them at work. Hough worked for several years as a Second Unit Director – shooting "the stuff where you never saw the actors" - on the ATV and ITC series "The Baron" (1966–7), "The Champions" (1968–9) and "The Avengers" (1968–9), before landing the Director slot on four episodes of the latter (including two of the best entries and one of the worst).
During this time he was approached to direct Wolfshead: The Legend of Robin Hood (1969), starring David Warbeck (who would also appear in Twins of Evil two years later). The film was funded by British expatriates working for NASA in the USA, who wanted to make an "Olde English" film. Unfortunately the NASA money ran out while they were still filming in Wales, so producer Bill Anderson bet all the remaining money on a horse at Doncaster races. Thankfully the horse won and they were able to complete the film.
With no real plans for distributing the movie, they sold it to Hammer as a TV pilot (the finished piece runs around 56 minutes) and the studio presumably still owns it, though it's only available as a 1981 VHS release from Video Gems, under the title The Legend of Young Robin Hood.
Having had a successful relationship with David Warbeck on Wolfshead, Hough wanted to work with him again on Twins of Evil. John reminisced about Warbeck's possible shot at the James Bond role and the fact that the flamboyant actor was cast and Hough hired to direct (he doesn't recall which film, but my guess is The Man With the Golden Gun, 1974) following Roger Moore's salary dispute with Cubby Broccoli. Before contracts could be signed however, Moore relented and the world was robbed of a gay James Bond – though Hough was unaware of Warbeck's sexual orientation until much later.
Hough was called "out of the blue" to direct Twins of Evil (he recalls it as being after The Legend of Hell House [1973] and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry [1974], but this seems unlikely) and remembers the Collinson twins (who were already cast) as being very much as they were in the film, Mary very sweet and gentle and Madeleine very forceful. Talking about Kathleen Byron, who died in January 2009 and plays Katy Weil in Twins, he said that she was a "superb" award-winning actress who had played Sister Ruth in Black Narcissus (1947), but over a short period of time disappeared off the radar and that Bette Davis, with whom Hough worked on Return from Witch Mountain (1978) and The Watcher in the Woods (1980), said the same thing happened to her after winning four Oscars. Davis fought back however, taking out an ad in Variety in 1962, which can be paraphrased as "Out of work Hollywood actress seeks employment" from which she received offers that kept her busy for years.
Twins was the first film on which Peter Cushing worked after the death of his wife, and Hough recalled that Cushing looked forward to seeing her again in the hereafter. He described him as a superb artist who was always word perfect and the two later worked together on Biggles (1986) and an episode of the short-lived TV series "The Zoo Gang" (1974), which he described as "one of the lesser events" in his career.
Hough was also responsible for casting Damien Thomas, and was drawn to his look: "He was handsome, but there was something in his eyes that made you suspect he was dangerous and evil." He also described him as a good artist with great training (he appeared in Julius Ceaser in 1970 opposite John Geilgud and Charlton Heston) and that it was a shame he never played Dracula.
Prompted by Wayne Kinsey to recall the aborted plans for Hammer to film the Warren Publications comic book, Hough said he went to Los Angeles, signed a deal and cast Barbara Leigh in the title role. He persuaded her to dress as Vampirella for a dinner meeting with Michael Carreras, but when they went to pick up the Hammer chairman, they discovered that he had talked another actress into doing the same thing. Apparently dinner was a little awkward.
In another incident, Hough arranged for Leigh to dress in the Vampirella outfit on the day the deal was to be closed, enter the boardroom of co-producers AIP and run the length of the conference table. This was a success and they signed the contract, only to discover that AIP had stipulated that Hammer had to sign a big name like Paul Newman to co-star and as a result the project died. Against Hough's advice, Barbara Leigh had already sold her home on the promise of a six picture deal and was heart broken.
Hammer After the Fall
Hough directed three episodes of the TV series "Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense" in 1985–6, alternating with Peter Sasdy. The two directors shared one crew and Hough feels that their attention was divided, making it hard to do good work. All of the TV series he worked on were shot on 35mm film, and Hough will always stand up for shooting on film versus video.
Hough made bids to purchase Hammer Films on two different occasions. In one incident, working with Hollywood producer Ken Hyman (The Stranglers of Bombay, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Hill, The Dirty Dozen), the deal was at the handshake stage, but unfortunately Hyman was a hard-talking businessman who ignored Hough's request that they look after Hammer executives Roy Skeggs and Brian Lawrence after the deal was finalized. As the champagne cork was being pulled, Lawrence told the duo that they were both out after the purchase and they refused to sign.
On the second occasion Roy Skeggs had again agreed a deal but got lost in heavy fog and didn't show up to sign, also failing to appear on a subsequent occasion. Hough planned to keep the studio largely the same, as it was such a recognized brand and DVD was then just around the corner with all the lucrative licensing that entailed.
Hough worked with Davis on two occasions and the role in The Watcher called for her character to appear both as an older lady and her younger self aged 30-35. Davis insisted playing both parts and flew in her hairdresser and make-up lady to do a screen test. Hough, though amazed at the transformation, did not think she looked believable and asked everyone to leave the screening room except the formidable actress. When he gave his opinion, she laughed and said "You're Goddamn fucking right!" She appreciated straight talk and the two remained firm friends for many years, Hough recalled that at one Hollywood party they attended together, Davis told stories for over two hours, holding the attention of the whole room.
Hough described Towers as a "fly-by-night character of dubious repute." but an educated raconteur and, despite the fact he didn't pay his crew, it was often worth the trip just to hear him tell tall tales. Their first collaboration was on a version of Treasure Island (1972) with Orson Welles as Long John Silver and Towers did a deal to have a replica galleon, docked at The Tower of London, sail to the filming location in Spain. A week before shooting was due to begin, Hough saw on the news that the Lutine Bell at Lloyd's of London had been rung to mark the sinking of the ship. They managed to locate another replica in Majorca, but in the meantime Hough had to make do with a mast stuck in the sand behind a dune. Despite their financial problems, Hough had a lot of time for Towers (who died in July 2009) and forgave his disappearing at night with the accountant and various other foibles.
Prompted by Kinsey to discuss other challenges he had encountered over the years, Hough named Roger Moore on the set of "The Saint" TV series. Hough was impressed with Moore's performance in The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970) and, feeling he could get more out of the actor, pushed him for a fourth take in a scene, which the actor refused to do. Hough, young as he was, also refused to continue, quietly confident that he was going to be fired but refusing to bow to the actors demands. Eventually Moore relented and offered to do another take, but Hough said "No, you'll do as many as it takes to get it right." They eventually did 12 and Moore never forgave him.
Later, in questions from the audience, Hough also mentioned that working with actors who had been directors themselves was very difficult, mentioning Welles, John Cassavetes (Brass Target, 1978; Incubus, 1981), and Patrick McGoohan (Brass Target), but saying that 96% of the people he's worked with have been great. Further prompted on Patrick McGoohan, he described him as an intelligent actor who had very particular ideas about his roles, that were sometimes at odds with the director and, while he did have a period of drinking during which he "lost the plot" slightly, he was far from the crazy man some people have described.
The Legend of Hell House (1973)
This is Hough's personal favorite of all his work, and he's proud of the fact that the majority of the effects were done in-camera. In one scene Pamela Franklin enters a room and sees a body moving on a bed under a sheet, but when she removes the sheet the bed is empty. Hough refused to give away the secret, but did say that the scene was shot without edits, using a wide angle lens giving the special effects men nowhere to hide.
Tarantino gives a "Special Thanks" credit to Hough in the credits of Death Proof and Hough is very happy to have become a cult director's cult director, saying that whenever anything is showing on a TV set in a Tarantino film that they are usually his films. He recently met with Tarantino in London and the younger director said he'd been impressed with an interview Hough had given regarding Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, in which he explained that there was no under-cranking (to make the vehicles appear faster) and no optical effects. Tarantino used this as a blueprint for Death Proof, shooting in the same California locations and replicating many of the stunts.
I was happy to be able to ask a question that's bothered me for years regarding the extremely nihilistic ending of Dirty Mary and Hough confirmed that this was not in the script and that he'd "paid the price for it ever since." He decided to kill the characters at the end, but never told 20th Century Fox he was doing so ("In those days I never asked anybody anything.") thus killing off any chance of a Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry 2. In later conversation he said that he felt that the three characters in the car should pay for the mayhem they'd caused in the previous 90 minutes.
Asked about his most recent movie, the director commented that he had not yet discussed any of his disasters and that he has always had a financial stake in the films he's made, including Bad Karma which was a spectacular failure. Set in Boston but filmed in Ireland, the production was beset with problems, including the fact that Producer Mark L Lester (The Funhouse, Class of 1984) insisted on nudity after production had started, which stars Patsy Kensit (Lethal Weapon 2) and Amy Huberman (UK TV series "The Clinic") refused to do, leading to another crew and director being called in later to shoot nude scenes with body doubles (Huberman successfully sued The People newspaper in the UK for publishing nude shots and claiming they were of her).
He also mentioned another film that he invested in heavily (presumably 1998's Something to Believe In) in which, tired of explosions and decapitations, he wanted to explore themes of love and faith. Unfortunately this too turned out to be a huge flop.
Currently wrapping up post production on his son Paul's directorial debut The Human Race (2010), Hough remains a busy man and we look forward to seeing what the next generation brings to the screen.
John Hough at the 20th Festival of Fantastic Films 2009 (© Gareth Walters).
