Shudder Saturday: Doomwatch (1972)

A feature film based on a popular BBC drama series that ran between 1970-1972, Doomwatch is a strange mix of tame thrills, overcooked acting, and a central concept that arguably feels even more relevant to day than it felt back at the start of the 1970s.

Ian Bannen is Dr. Del Shaw, a scientist from the Doomwatch organisation (a group monitoring our environment with the hope of keeping it clear of any problems that would affect us) sent to the island of Balfe. An oil tanker sank just off the coast of the island some time ago, and Dr. Shaw needs to find out if things are clearing up. He ends up finding something else in the water, however, and it may have been affecting the island residents for some time.

Clive Exton is credited with the final draft here, but Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis are the writers responsible for the series that provides a lot of the main framework. It's hard to figure out whether the film assumes that viewers will have knowledge of the series or whether it's just written in a way that crams enough information into early scenes before delivering some of the expected drama and tension, but there's certainly a clumsiness to some of the exposition and the interactions between our leading man and the many people who are hostile to his presence.

Director Peter Sasdy isn't the best of the British directors working consistently at this time (having delivered a few Hammer movies, as well as many other works on TV, before this Tigon production), but he tries to do his best with material that could easily veer between silliness and sensationalism. The fact that it often feels removed from either extreme may disappoint some film fans, but it's an admirable approach to the whole thing.

Bannen is perfectly fine in his role, and Judy Geeson stands out as Victoria Brown, a lovely young woman who ends up caught up in the unfolding horror. John Paul, Simon Oates, Jean Trend, and Joby Blanshard reprise their roles from the TV show, which helps with the continuity for anyone who also watched the show (I have not, and I believe it's one of those shows that now has a number of sadly lost episodes), and there's a cameo appearance by the always wonderful George Sanders.

While it may be too restrained, and perhaps just a bit too quaint, for many modern viewers, Doomwatch is very much worth your time. If anything, the problems of environmental pollution being caused by, and worsened, by those in positions of power who keep trying to maintain a cover-up while denying any harmful consequences is absolutely on par with a lot of what we see around us today, from the pollution of many lakes and rivers in the UK to every avoidable move to keep using fossil fuels that are contributing to the growing problem of global warming. There may have been a time when this film seemed to be nothing more than a cute curio from the past. It's now sadly a very prescient look at how a handful of individuals have to struggle to change the ways of corporations, as well as changing the mindset of people who have just become used to living with what they deem an acceptable level of harm, as long as they get to live in relative peace.

7/10

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The Stone Tape (1972)

A TV movie that has rightly been praised by horror fans over the decades since it was first shown, The Stone Tape is another excellent blending of science and the supernatural from the pen of Nigel Kneale.

The plot revolves around a research team who move into an old house in order to start working on a major project. Things change, however, when Jill (Jane Asher) witnesses a ghost, leading the team director (Peter Brock, played by Michael Bryant) to start investigating the phenomenon. As they use every measuring instrument at their disposal, including themselves, it soon becomes clear that the building holds some psychic impressions within its walls (the stone tape of the title).

Okay, if you're watching this for the first time nowadays then you have to bear in mind that this was made for TV in the early 1970s. It isn't a polished work, it doesn't often move outwith the main rooms/house that the team are working in, and there are some moments that absolutely clang with how dated they are (in terms of the attitudes of the characters and the language of the medium, no pun intended). What it IS is an intelligent and creepy story that takes time to establish the motivations of various characters and allows the plot to unfold in an unforced and logical way.

Director Peter Sasdy is a dependable pair of hands, having worked on many TV shows and a few enjoyable movies (with Countess Dracula being a highlight), and he excels in his role here by working with a great cast and allowing Kneale's dialogue to build and build on the way to a genuinely interesting and unsettling finale.

Asher has to play her character as a fragile woman from start to finish, more receptive to things than anyone else and always a jittery bag of nerves, but she does what she's asked to do well. Bryant has to be the blunt obsessive, doing whatever it takes to dive further and further into unknown territory, which could lead to dire consequences. Iain Cuthbertson, Michael Bates, and a few others round out the main cast, and it's always interesting to see James Cosmo as a relatively young man.

I may not find it the very best from Kneale (as a Quatermass fan, that will always have the top spot for me) and it's not even my favourite science-based take on the haunted house subgenre (that would be The Legend Of Hell House), but The Stone Tape deserves a lot of the praise it has had heaped upon it. It's atmospheric, interesting, intriguingly plausible, and intelligent. And you don't always get all of those things coming together in works of horror.

8/10

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Hands Of The Ripper (1971)

Absolute trash given that elegant touch from Hammer, Hands Of The Ripper is a film that many fans have a soft spot for, despite how ridiculous it is. And, boy oh boy, is it ridiculous.

The plot concerns a young woman named Anna (Angharad Rees), a woman troubled by the fact that she's the daughter of Jack The Ripper (AKA "Saucy Jack" to fans of This Is Spinal Tap). Not only is Anna troubled by her parentage, she has also been traumatised in such a way that anything shimmering and sparkly can set her on a quest to murder whoever is nearby. When he discovers this fact, Dr. John Pritchard (Eric Porter) is quite fascinated, and endeavours to do what he can to "cure" the girl. But is there something else to it? Perhaps something evil that can't ever be cured.

Based on a story by Edward Spencer Shew, Hands Of The Ripper features a script by L. W. Davidson and direction from Peter Sasdy. Davidson had not written any script before this, and would write none after, whereas Sasdy was a bit of an old hand at Hammer (having directed the likes of Scars Of Dracula and Countess Dracula). He wasn't ever the best of the talent working at the studio, but he has a nack of impressing fans with the bloodletting on display.

While I would normally say that it's always a shame to watch a Hammer film that doesn't feature some of their better-known players (Cushing, Lee, Ripper), in this case I don't mind. It's hard to think of just how the aforementioned stars would have worked with the material. They MIGHT have improved the whole film, even ever so slightly, but there's also a chance that the ridiculousness of it all would have dragged them down to its level. As things stand, the cast here all do solid, if unmemorable, work. Angharad Rees does most of her acting in a trance-like state, which seems to be for the best, while Eric Porter has to keep a brave face on as his character makes increasingly silly decisions with increasingly weak reasoning. Derek Godfrey is superb for every moment that he's onscreen, Dora Bryan is enjoyable in her small role, a manipulative medium, and Lynda Baron is fun as a prostitute named Long Liz, but nobody else makes much of an impression. Keith Bell and Jane Merrow, in particular, are far too bland as a young couple caught up in the events, the former being the son of Porter's character and the latter being his blind fiance.

Yet, despite its many flaws, I enjoy the film. Give it a watch some time, you might end up feeling the same way.

6/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Uncanny-Monster-Hands-Ripper/dp/B00007856M/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1378714945&sr=8-5&keywords=hands+of+the+ripper

Countess Dracula (1971)

Okay, let's be clear about this from the start. This is not really a Dracula movie, we don't get any fangs or big bats or people who sleep in coffins. This is, however, an excellent Hammer flick loosely based on the legends woven around the life of Countess Elizabeth Bathory.

Countess Elisabeth Nadasdy (Ingrid Pitt) is much put out when she hears the reading of her deceased husband's will. It orders his fortune to be shared between his widow and his only daughter (played by Lesley-Anne Down). Rather than share the wealth the countess comes up with a plan after finding that the blood of young girls can make her look young and gorgeous again. With youth back on her side, she bags herself a handsome man (Sandor Eles) and arranges to have her daughter waylaid en route and then proceeds to take her place. But just how long can she keep finding the victims she needs to retain her youth?

Jeremy Paul wrote the screenplay, based on a story by a number of people who took inspiration from the life of lady Bathory, and Peter Sasdy directed this lusty, busty release from the studio that dripped blood and it's a good job they do too.

Once fans get over the disappointment of this not being an actual vampire movie there's much to enjoy here. It has plenty of nefarious scheming, all planned and carried out by a beautiful femme fatale. The look of the thing is up to Hammer's usual standards, the cast are all very good (the central role helped to make Pitt quite the horror icon while Nigel Green is wonderful as a co-conspirator, Sandor Eles is very good as the unwitting object of Elisabeth's affection and the rest of the cast do just fine, despite all being overshadowed by Miss Pitt's luminous beauty) and the pacing is just right.

It's the perfect blend of blood and lust, with an essence of sleaze given an outer coating of velvet finesse, that made the studio such a bankable name at its height and I recommend this movie to all of the fans.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Countess-Dracula-Special-Ingrid-Pitt/dp/B000GUK3QA/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1354417663&sr=1-1