Fright

Year:  1971

Director:  Peter Collinson

Screenplay:  Tudor Gates

Starring:  Susan George, Ian Bannen, Honor Blackman, John Gregson, George Cole, Tara Collinson, Dennis Waterman

Running Time:  87 minutes

Genre:  Horror

College student Amanda (George) is hired by wealthy couple Jim (Cole) and Helen Lloyd (Blackman) to look after their young son (Collinson) while they go for a night out.  However Amanda soon finds herself terrorised by Helen's psychotic ex-husband, Brian (Bannen).

Directed by Peter Collinson, best known for The Italian Job (1969), this is a pretty unassuming little British horror film that is pretty typical of the early 1970s.  It's deeply problematic in it's depiction of mental illness and women.  Susan George does the best she can with what she is given, although she isn't really called upon to do much except look pretty and scream, and be leered over by men.  She would, of course, suffer an even worse ordeal in what would be her best known film, Straw Dogs, the following year.  Ian Bannen is effective as the disturbed ex-husband Brian, who is threatening, but also strangely sympathetic and pitiable at other times.  Honor Blackman is good as the haunted woman, whose fears turn out to be all too justified.  John Gregson is convincing as the condescending doctor who is convinced that Helen's fears are all in her head.  George Cole is engaging as possibly the only likeable man in the film, and Dennis Waterman is convincingly loathsome as Amanda's obnoxious boyfriend, who almost sexually assaults her.  Although they don't share any scenes in the film, George Cole and Dennis Waterman would both co-star again in the popular British comedy-drama TV series Minder (1979-1994).  Incidentally, the child that Amanda is babysitting is played by director Peter Collinson's own son Tara.  The film starts off satisfactorily creepy, with Amanda alone in the vast, gloomy mansion, full of strange tappings and drippings, however the atmosphere isn't really sustained, and the build up is spoiled somewhat by frequent cutaways to the Lloyd's night out at the most 1970s restaurant imaginable, and some comic relief business with the police slow the pace down even more, which feel like they were added in order to pad out the film's run-time.  In some ways it could be seen as a forerunner to the "slasher" film and bears some similarities with the far more celebrated Halloween (1978).  It is worth watching for horror fans, and it really does work for the most part, even if the sleazier aspects leave something of a bad taste in the mouth.

I could be so good for you:  Susan George and Dennis Waterman in Fright

A Night to Remember

 Year of Release:  1958

Director:  Roy Ward Baker

Screenplay:  Eric Ambler, based on the book A Night to Remember by Walter Lord

Starring:  Kenneth More, Michael Goodliffe, Laurence Naismith, Honor Blackman, Kenneth Griffith, David McCallum, Tucker McGuire, Frank Lawton

Running Time:  123 minutes

Genre:  Drama

In 1912 the luxurious passenger liner RMS Titanic, the largest vessel afloat and widely believed to be unsinkable, sets sail on it's maiden voyage from Britain to America.  During the voyage, however it strikes an iceberg, in one of the most famous maritime disasters in history.

While this lacks the spectacle and production values of James Cameron's Titanic (1997), this is widely regarded by historians and survivors as the most accurate version of the famous disaster.  It's filmed in a documentary style with a large ensemble cast.  It moves from the opulent splendour of First Class, to the cramped, crowded Steerage, who are more or less abandoned to their fate.  We also see the reactions of the nearby ships, the only ship to render any assistance is too far away to do anything but collect survivors, and one ship that is very near is oblivious to their distress calls.  The cast do occasionally come across as comically upper class and the upper lips are as stiff as cardboard, but there are some good performances from a number of notable British actors including Honor Blackman, David McCallum and a very early, uncredited appearance from Sean Connery.  The film is most effective in it's quiet moments and cumulation of telling details.    While the special effects look crude by modern standards, the sequences of the ship sinking are still effective.

A Night to Remember

To the Devil a Daughter

Year of Release:  1976
Director:  Peter Sykes
Screenplay:  Chris Wicking, John Peacock and Gerald Vaughan-Hughes, based on the novel To the Devil - a Daughter by Dennis Wheatley
Starring:  Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee, Honor Blackman, Nastassja Kinski, Denholm Elliott,
Running Time:  95 minutes
Genre:  Horror

John Verney (Widmark), an American horror author living in London, is asked by an old acquaintance, Henry Beddows (Elliott), to collect his teenage daughter, Catherine (Kinski), from the airport.  Catherine is a nun who has lived her entire life with a mysterious heretical order in Bavaria, under the control of the sinister priest, Father Michael Rayner (Lee).  Verner soon discovers that Rayner plans to make Catherine the vessel for a demonic manifestation. 

By the late 1970s Hammer Films were becoming out of date.  With bigger budget and more graphic American horror films coming out of major studios and dealing with contemporary fears, Hammer was becoming quaint and obsolete.  To the Devil a Daughter was their effort to hitch on to the success of films such as The Exorcist (1974).  The film is watchable enough, and it has some entertaining moments.  However the film lacks the campy sense of fun of the studio's previous Dennis Wheatley adaptation, The Devil Rides Out (1968).  It features a supposedly terrifying monster, which is very obviously a cheap puppet, and a ludicrously sudden conclusion.  Hollywood veteran Richard Widmark is a fairly unengaging lead and Christopher Lee is wasted in the chief villain role.  Nastassja Kinski (who was still a teenager at the time) does well with her role as Catherine, however she does have a nude scene which leaves a pretty bad taste in the mouth and sours the whole enterprise.  Particularly as Kinski has said that she was bullied into doing the scene. 
Dennis Wheatley branded the film "obscene" and banned Hammer from ever again adapting any of his books.     

Nastassja Kinski in To the Devil a Daughter