NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT

Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee

NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT (1973). Director: Peter Sasdy.                                                            

A number of trustees of the Van Traylen Orphanage on the island of Bela are dying in suspicious accidents. Then a bus crash puts one of the orphans, Mary Valley (Gwyneth Strong), in the hospital, where she is ministered to by Dr. Haynes (Keith Barron) and a reporter named Joan (Georgia Brown), both of whom have to contend with the girl's abusive and crazy mother, Anna (Diana Dors). Eventually Colonel Bingham (Christopher Lee) of the police and Sir Mark Ashley (Peter Cushing), a concerned doctor, head for Bela to find out exactly what is going on in the orphanage and check up on Mary. But the homicidal Anna is heading there as well, yet Mrs. Allison (Shelagh Fraser) and the other staff take it, strangely, in stride and even refuse special police guards. Bingham and Ashley discover that what's going on in the orphanage is even more horrible than they suspect ... 

Georgia Brown and Peter Cushing

With its two special stars, an adept supporting cast (especially Valley, Brown and Dors), an interesting premise, not to mention a skilled director in Peter Sasdy, Nothing But the Night -- which is not a Hammer production, unfortunately -- should be much better than it is. Unfortunately, the movie is lethargic -- there is no tension or suspense and you find yourself merely watching to see what happens instead of getting caught up in the events. There is a fairly exciting climax when all is revealed, but by then it's too late. Too bad. Georgia Brown, who is very good in this, first made her mark playing Nancy in the musical Oliver in both London and New York, but she wasn't in the film adaptation. Cushing and Lee were frequently teamed together, such as in Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, The Curse of Frankenstein, and The Skull, among several others.

Verdict: An interesting failure. **. 

HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR

Peter Cushing

HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR (1980 British television anthology series).

This British anthology series of horror stories lasted for one season and 13 episodes. It is a mixed bag with arguably only one really outstanding episode and a lot of stories with intriguing premises that are ruined by weak scripts and flat wind-ups. Peter Cushing stars in what may be the best episode, "The Silent Scream," in which a former Nazi scientist (Cushing) imprisons an ex-con and his wife in a cage along with several animals. There are some interesting twists and turns to the plot, although the ending is a little implausible. Among the more notable episodes are "Rude Awakening," directed by Peter Sasdy, in which a man (Denholm Elliott) has increasingly sinister dreams involving his wife and his mistress. There's an exciting sequence inside a building that is being demolished. "Children of the Full Moon" has to do with a honeymoon couple who encounter the inhabitants of an old house, a cult of werewolves, with a depressing conclusion. "The Two Faces of Evil" is a disquieting episode, well-directed by Alan Gibson,  in which a paranoid woman is besieged by demonic duplicates of her husband (Gary Raymond of The Millionairess) and son. "The House That Bled to Death" details odd occurrences in a house where grisly murders were committed, and bears a resemblance to The Amityville Horror but has its own shrewd and devilish twist.

Diana Dors in "Children of the Full Moon"

One of the most disappointing episodes is "The 13th Reunion," in which plane crash survivors have turned into a cannibal sect, but this great premise is completely muffed.  "Witching Time" is a mediocre story of a 17th century witch who is on the loose in modern times. "Growing Pains," in its story of weird things that happen after a scientist and his wife adopt a strange little boy, is initially absorbing but then becomes too confusing for its own good. An African fetish statue that causes death is the title object in the unoriginal and hum-drum "Charlie Boy," although it has some suspense. Pierce Brosnan is one of the victims of the "Carpathian Eagle," which butchers a series of men, and "Guardian of the Abyss" concerns a young lady in a cult and a supernatural mirror. "The Mask of Satan" is a stupid episode in which a man is convinced that he's been infected with a very strange virus. Kathryn Leigh -Scott of Dark Shadows fame stars in "Visitor from the Grave," in which a woman kills an intruder who keeps appearing wherever she goes; a poor script sinks this one, unfortunately.

Verdict: Not enough great episodes but most are at least reasonably entertaining. **1/2. 

COUNTESS DRACULA

Sandor Eles and Ingrid Pitt

COUNTESS DRACULA (1971). Director: Peter Sasdy.

After her husband dies, Countess Elisabeth (Ingrid Pitt) bemoans her fading beauty, but accidentally discovers that fresh blood acts to rejuvenate her skin. Before long she can impersonate her own daughter, Ilona (Lesley-Anne Down), whom the countess has imprisoned in a cottage when she shows up in town. Elisabeth begins a passionate affair with Imre Toth (Sandor Eles of And Soon the Darkness), and he proposes. But each time her beauty fades she turns into a more hideous hag, and she needs to continually bath in the blood of virgins. Sooner or later this will catch up with her  ... Countess Dracula is loosely based on the life of the historical 16th century Hungarian figure Elisabeth Bathory, who apparently did murder and torture numerous servant girls, although other acts are shrouded in legend and there have been attempts to salvage her reputation and blame it all on men. (In one interview Ingrid Pitt claimed Bathory "was a wonderful mother. All this stuff they say about her I do not believe." Well ... ) Filtering her story through Hammer studios, you come up with an absorbing and very well-made Gothic horror tale that has handsome settings and excellent acting, especially from Nigel Green [The Face of Fu Manchu] as Elisabeth's long-time lover, Captain Dobi; Patience Collier as her generally loyal and complicit  lady-in-waiting, Julie; Maurice Denham as the scholarly Fabio, who seems deceptively gentle; Eles; and others. It is hard to judge Pitt's performance because she was dubbed by British actress Olive Gregg, which seems strange since Pitt's Polish accent would not have been out of place and she was a competent actress -- in any case, she is quite effective in the lead. Countess Dracula reminds one of earlier films in which women killed to regain their youth and beauty such as The Leech Woman and The Wasp Woman. Harry Robertson's (aka Harry Robinson) score also adds to the picture's impact. Some viewers were disappointed that the film wasn't gorier and didn't have many more murders.

Verdict: Excellent Hammer horror production. ***.

JOURNEY TO THE UNKNOWN

George Maharis in "Miss Belle"

JOURNEY TO THE UNKNOWN. 1968 television series.

This British import ran for one season and was produced by Joan Harrison, who worked on Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but if this show is any indication she had lowered her standards for scripts considerably for the later series. The majority of episodes not only would have been instantly rejected by Hitch, but are lame by any standard, with weak premises devoid of a final snap or twist. There are very few exceptions. "The New People" is an excellent, creepy, and suspenseful episode [directed by Peter Sasdy from Charles Beaumont] in which a young couple have very strange if fun-loving neighbors; the cast includes Robert Reed and a notable Milo O'Shea. "One on an Island" [from Donald Westlake] features a fine performance from Brandon De Wilde [All Fall Down] in an absorbing story of a young man shipwrecked on an isolated island. It shouldn't work at all but somehow it does. "Matakitas is Coming" stars Vera Miles as a woman who writes about murders for a magazine and finds herself locked in a library that has somehow gone back in time to the night a librarian was murdered by a maniac back in the 1920s. The murderer is creeping about, and so is the victim ... The episode has an excellent premise even if its execution is uneven and a little confusing. Also Miles is a little too perfunctory at times given her character's situation. "Somewhere in a Crowd," with David Hedison [Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea] giving one of his best performances (in a tale wherein the same group of people keep showing up at disasters), would have been one of the series' more memorable episodes were it not for the fact that it's a complete, uncredited rip-off of Ray Bradbury's 1948 short story "The Crowd." George Maharis appears in an unpleasant look at child abuse -- a woman raises her little nephew as a girl -- in "Miss Belle." And there were episodes even worse than that.NOTE: Some of the episodes from the show were strung together to make TV movies. One, Journey to the Unknown, features Joan Crawford as host and presents "Matakitas" and an episode with Patty Duke vacationing at the English seaside at an inn with a strange landlady.

Verdict: Three decent episodes does not a great series make. **.

THE DEVIL WITHIN HER

Cute li'l fella

THE DEVIL WITHIN HER (aka Sharon's Baby/I Don't Want to Be Born/1975). Director: Peter Sasdy.

Lucy Carlesi (Joan Collins) does an act with a dwarf, Hercules (George Claydon), who tries to take liberties with her in her dressing room. When she doesn't comply, he puts a curse on her. The result is that Lucy becomes suspicious of, and terrified by, her adorable baby boy, Nicholas, who is apparently possessed by the still-living Hercules and runs about committing fiendish murders, such as beheading Lucy's doctor (Donald Pleasence) with a shovel! The Devil Within Her is utterly absurd but entertaining, greatly abetted by the very good performances of Collins, Pleasence, John Steiner as a sleazy club owner, Tommy; Ralph Bates [Horror of Frankenstein] as Lucy's husband, Gino; Caroline Munro [The Spy Who Loved Me] as her sister, Mandy; and especially Eileen Atkins [Madame Bovary] as her sister-in-law, Sister Albana. It's Alive, which was made the year before and also featured a killer baby, at least gave its monster fangs and claws and a hideous appearance, but aside from a couple of illusions of the infant resembling the dwarf, this baby is just an adorable little tyke, making the whole project even weirder (the child is so angelic-looking that his gruesome acts seem rather comical). Peter Sasdy also directed Hands of the Ripper and many others. The original title of the film was Sharon's Baby even though the mother is named Lucy. While this film is by no means intellectual, one could claim that it cleverly exploits parents' fears about children and the life/financial changes the little dears bring about. Ray Bradbury once contributed just such a story to an EC horror comic in the fifties.

Verdict: Ridiculous but has a good cast and even some suspense. **1/2.

TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA

Dracula (Christopher Lee) surveys the scene

TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA (1970). Director: Peter Sasdy.

Three gentlemen who are respectable British citizens by day go to the fleshpots at night and crave ever-more excitement. This they certainly get when a dissolute Lord Courtley (Ralph Bates of Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde) tells them where they can find the remains of the one and only Dracula (Christopher Lee). For this ultimate thrill the three men pay the price -- literally and figuratively -- when they sort of reconstitute the vampire with fresh blood inside an old church and all Hell breaks loose ... Although Dracula's first appearance is perhaps not given the dramatic thrust it requires, Taste the Blood of Dracula is an attention-holder and features a lot of fine British actors giving it their all. Bates is especially good, along with Geoffrey Keene as Hargood, whose daughter, Alice (Linda Hayden) is in love with Paul (Anthony Corlan/Higgins), son of fellow "adventurer," Paxton (Peter Sallis); Higgins and Sallis also give noteworthy performances. Gwen Watford is fine as Hargood's wife, Martha. Roy Kinnear and Michael Ripper are also in the cast, and Lee plays with his customary authority. Sasdy also directed the memorable Hands of the Ripper for Hammer.

Verdict: Satisfying Hammer horror. ***.