By Roy Mathur, on 2024-03-11, at 23:14:52--23:51:47 GMT, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
This one is extremely late because I exhausted myself churning out the last two and arose on the scheduled day, about a week ago, like Dracula asleep for century.
As of the last episode, to save both labour and ageing hearing, I finally tried to work out how to automate my editing process more efficiently.
In short, I created and applied a new custom declicker configuration and an EQ curve to the whole audio file, rather than painstakingly dealing with each issue, which is what I used to do.
The only problem is the process is so unnervingly fast that it confused me, as I'm used to a much slower workflow.
Let me know if it sounds better.
Given that I have recently visited the dentist and my inner monologue is a never-ending scream, what an appropriate episode to revisit.
Notable Cast: Brian Cox, Elaine Donnelly (mainly TV actress), Peter Cushing
Director: Alan Gibson (also Hammer's Journey to Midnight, Crescendo, Dracula A.D., The Satanic Rites of Dracula)
Writer: Francis Essex
Producer: Roy Skeggs; ex-Hammer Films, formed spin-off Cinema Arts, returned to Hammer, moved production to Buckinghamshire and created Hammer House of Horror.
Locations: Various in and around Buckinghamshire (1980). Pet shop in Broad Street, house in Pump Lane South, supermarket at Park Parade Centre; in BUCKS (IMDB).
Production: Hammer Films, Cinema Arts, and ITC Entertainment
Distribution: ITV
Music: The memorable theme music was composed by ex-Jazz pianist Roger Webb.
Broadcast: Episode 7 of 13, first broadcast 25 October 1980, 54 minute running time (c. 1 hr inc. ads), follows Charlie Boy covered in 524.Media: DVD Hammer House of Horror: The Complete Collection (2002), Blu-ray Hammer House of Horror: The Complete Series (2017) (worth buying because the series was shot on 35 mm film), ITVX in the UK (2023), Apple TV
Number one song in the UK was Barbra Streisand's incredibly depressing Woman in Love.
She is an amazing person, singer, and actress, but I hate this song. It's on the nose thing to say tonight, but it makes me want to recoil in horror and scream. Really.
Fresh out of jail, ex safe cracker Chuck is offered a job by a prison visitor, a Nazi concentration camp survivor and pet shop proprietor called Blueck. In the shop is a secret chamber containing wild animals used for experimentation in behaviour control by conditioning with electricity. Chuck is to look after the animals while Blueck is away. Tiring of the miserable place, Chuck intends robbing Blueck's safe, but falls through a trap door and becomes another experimental subject.
Worried, his wife visits the pet shop. Blueck feigns innocence, but she sees her husband's coat. She tells the police, who dismiss her concerns as a simple domestic. She investigates further, finds Chuck trapped, and leaves to find a way to free Chuck.
While she is away, Blueck confesses that he wasn't a survivor of the Nazis, but a Nazi conducting experiments on prisoners and that Chuck's capture was planned, all he needed was, "...the right bait."
Annie returns, but Blueck pushes her and she falls into the cell with Chuck. A small door later opens to the outside and Chuck throws a stick that a puppy he has with him in the cell chases. The puppy is unharmed, but seconds later the electricity is turned on and it is incinerated as it brings back the stick. Eventually they work out the sequence and escape. Chuck confronts Blueck but witnesses Blueck driven through the trap door by a black panther that also worked out the escape sequence.
Joyous, the couple return home, but become trapped inside, as Blueck has rigged their home with electrical barriers. They scream through the kitchen window for help. Blueck also, trapped within the cell that once held the couple screams. Both screams are left unheard and unanswered.
The younger Brian Cox is a trim, pleasant looking ex-con. His English accent is good. The reunion scene with his wife is happy and made me smile.
As an ex-pet owner, I remember the tangible scent of animal fear permeating the veterinarian's office. It gives us a mild inkling of the stench that sickens Chuck in Blueck's dungeon.
The villain says he is not short of a bob or two and we see Edvard Munch's The Scream painting leaning against a wall, indicating his wealth and foreshadowing things to come.
Cushing plays the unusually unlikeable villain, Blueck. He is mad scientist, who expands his sadistic experiments in B. F. Skinner-type negative reinforcement to include larger animals and finally humans.
I immediately thought of Stephen King's Apt Pupil, when grooms and hires the gullible, but desperate Chuck to work for him.
I remember watching this years ago and thought I could recall the twist, however, I was mistaken and the reveal is shocking. I first suspected that this was distasteful case of victim-blaming, but I could not have been more wrong, when it is revealed that Blueck, far from being a death camp survivor, was an evil Nazi scientist.
Like most people, of course I like most of the characters Peter Cushing plays, but I really hated this one. Bravo, Cushing, for taking on such a challenging role.
I couldn't believe the script includes frying a big cat and incinerating a puppy.
Chuck's wife is a genius and should have been the main protagonist. Actress Elaine Donnelly mainly worked in TV later on, which is a pity because she had some real screen presence.
The story makes humans look stupid. Although the Spillers escape temporarily, the clever panther has its vengeance by driving Blueck into his own trap, giving the villain his just deserts. However, the police remain oblivious to any wrongdoing and the Spillers and Blueck are ultimately doomed and, in the end, neither is there anyone to hear their screams.
This is the first of the stories to make me feel dread.
Edvard Munch's painting The Scream, Norwegian: Skrik (Scream), features heavily in this story.
The artist's life was beset by anxiety. Edvard, I know exactly how you feel.
Please comment on my content.
No pressure, but don't let me scream in silence.