By Roy Mathur, on 2024-06-13, at 23:14:31 to 00:02:10 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
I'm back to ram a stake through the heart of my Hammer House of Horror revisit, nail down the coffin lid, and bury it forever. Including this, only five episodes remain.
Notable Cast: Inspector Clifford: Anthony Valentine; The Flesh and the Fiends, The Damned, Tower of Evil, To the Devil a Daughter, The Monster Club, The Plague Dogs, etc., Natalie Bell: Suzanne Danielle; dancer and actress, The Stud, Destiny of the Daleks (pod 426), Arabian Adventure, Flash Gordon, Bacharach the psychologist: Gary Waldhorn; Lionel from Brush Strokes, Pierce Brosnan: Victim
Director: Francis Megahy; The Great Riviera Bank Robbery, Taffin, starring Pierce Brosnan
Writer: Bernie Cooper; Man in a Suitcase, Cooper and Francis Megahy; The Great Riviera Bank Robbery
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): Lowndes Park, Chesham, High Street, Great Missenden, Mrs Henska's house: The Chiltern Hospital, London Road, Great Missenden, Natalie's house: Bois Lane, Chesham Bois, Amersham, The Businessman's house: Devonshire Avenue, Amersham
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 9 of 13, first broadcast 8 November 1980, c. 54 minute running time (c. 1 hr inc. ads), follows Children of the Full Moon (pod 534).
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
God help me yet again, Barbra Streisand's depressing dirge, Woman In Love is still number one in the UK.
An attracive woman allows herself to be picked up by sexually aggressive men, who she stabs to death.
A book about similar historical murders leads the detective to an author writing a book about a vengeful mass murdering countess tortured by her jealous husband.
Following a meeting with a psychologist friend of the author, who describes the suspect as having multiple personality disorder, he begins to suspect the descendent of the countess and her cross-dressing performer nephew. Both are eliminated and so only the author herself remains as a suspect. She too is eliminated when an entrapment operation fails to reveal any evidence.
However, his previous suspicions prove ultimately correct, when he begins a relationship with the author, who stabs him in the chest dressed as the three hundred year old countess.
The author then goes on to research a serial killing nurse who strangled her victims.
Prior to the more recent viewing, I remember rewatching this a couple of years ago and what struck me then was Suzanne Danielle's scintillating and powerful performance. She oozes sex and absolutely dominates the screen to the extent that I can barely remember her co-star, the far more famous Anthony Valentine. Danielle's height (helped by her series of teetering shoe heels) and statuesque physique makes her both sexy and sinister and perfect as the story's maniacal monster.
The entitled and aggressive sleazy men with their sleazy tacky sex dens make the kills feel justified. Car moustache, Randy Andy the wine connoisseur with his horrible pink foot bed, the posh pimple popper (the only survivor), and the Fred Perry prat played by Pierce Brosnan.
Cliff is an uncommonly pleasant copper. Not sleazy or homophobic (why am I rewarding him for being human?) Though, of course, for this is horror, doomed. Why does horror have to be sad?
While the countess played by Welsh actress Sian Phillips' accent is not entirely convincing, her retelling of the grisly fate of her ancestor is compelling.
Jonathan Kent, a Londoner is convincing as Tadek the transsexual drag artist. His middle European looks and accent had me convinced and he has an amazing stage presence as his female alter ego. He's also an excellent red-herring suspect for Cliff, as he has a violent temper and could almost, but not quite, pass for Natalie. We, the audience, of course know better.
Props and wardrobe. Every one of Natalie's outfits are absurdly sexy except for the historic countess outfit that looks drab and old-fashioned. I read somewhere that the dagger murder weapon is supposed to represent an eagle; the bird that was a gift to the ancestral countess from her lover. I have a similar, though slightly less ferocious Arab jambiya from Morocco that I use as a letter opener. When Natalie the author takes Cliff the policeman to meet the countess, there's a huge stuffed eagle behind her as she's sitting on the sofa. The foreshadowing is heavy handed as eagle ornamentation abound in various forms throughout the countess's house. The ludicrous sinister ancestral portrait trope is also prominently displayed in the countess's house.
I have actually visited the Carpathians with my parents and a bunch of surprisingly annoying fellow Brit tourists on a package holiday to Romania---containing 50% of the mountain range---back in the early 80s. We did not meet maniacs or vampires, but did befriend a wonderful Romanian sailor and his delightful family. Wherever they ended up, I wish them well. Perhaps I also breezed through in the late 80s on terrible Eurorailing experience. It's amazing I'm alive.
Despite the lack of mystery, a detective investigating a beautiful knife-wielding maniac stalking oversexed men has all the ingredients of a good giallo, or superior Hitchcock-level schlock as if written by Robert Bloch. Of a similar vein, Brian De Palma's excellent Dressed to Kill came out the same year. I love how the seemingly occult explanation of the ghostly vengeful countess is a red herring for a psychologically disturbed author.
Bizarrely, the star Suzanne Danielle's career never took ascended to superstardom, as one might predict given her performance. Though prolific, she had only minor roles in film and television before marrying pro-golfer Sam Torrance.
We see Pierce Brosnan in an early and minor role as another egotistical god's gift to women getting his just desserts.
...Another geeky ramble, then another Hammer perhaps.