"A Taste of Evil" (1971) d/ John Llewellyn Moxey

Tonight's review, another made-for-tv horror movie as directed by John Llewellyn Moxey, made its small screen debut seven days after my second birthday way back in 1971. Though I've managed to catch it a couple of times over the years, it's pretty safe to say that I probably missed it that first time around, on playpen lockdown or something. Standard genre fare boosted by the presence of the late Barbara Stanwyck, who I became familiar with during my teenage years while timer recording kung fu movies one late night, and accidentally ending up with Double Indemnity (1944) at the end of a video tape, and coming away pleasantly surprised. Also aboard here are Barbara Parkins, of Peyton Place (1964) fame, who was in the middle of a nice run of genre roles at the time, with Mephisto Waltz (1971), tonight's production, and an episode of the short-lived Circle of Fear series, and let's not forget seventies horror staple, Roddy McDowall.


"Three Oscar nominations?? Sorry, wrong number.", snaps Miriam (Barbara Stanwyck).
Susan (Barbara Parkins) returns home as an adult to her sizable estate in the country, after being raped in her playhouse in the woods as a child by a shadowy stranger had left her on a seven year mental institution bed. Though her mother, Miriam (Barbara Stanwyck), still dotes over her adoringly, and the old caretaker, John (Arthur O'Connell), seems nice enough, if not a little simple-minded, Susan is convinced that somebody is watching her from the property, and to make matters worse, she keeps seeing Miriam's booze-adled beau, Harold (William Windom),  dead everywhere...in the limousine, drowned in the bathtub. A local doctor named Lomas (Roddy McDowall) examines the distraught woman, and suggests that perhaps her visions are all a product of her subconscious, brought on by her return to the scene of the earlier unsolved sex crime.


"Smoke a couple of hog's legs, listen to your Sugarloaf eight track, and call me in the morning..."
After being ankle-grabbed by Harold's waterlogged corpse in the woods, Susan retreats to her playhouse, where John has precariously left his shotgun while hunting a pesky fox. Huddled in the shadows with the loaded gun, she blasts the menacing silhouette in the doorway, only to find that she has accidentally killed Harold, and has just bought herself a one way ticket back to the squirrel farm, permanent-ish. Back at the estate, Miriam, decked out in her best jewelry, haughtily celebrates with John, as he prepares to dispose of the Harold mannequin they've used to keep Susan teetering on the brink of sanity. Miriam reveals that John was the rapist all those years ago, and she was glad he had done it(!) and has always hated her. Except that Harold has started phoning her from beyond the grave...


"Oh, but love grows where my rosemary goes, and nobody knows like me.", remarks John (Arthur O'Connell).
Jimmy Sangster, who directed The Horror of Frankenstein (1970) and Lust For a Vampire (1971) for Hammer Studios, wrote the screenplay for tonight's movie, a near carbon copy of his earlier script for Scream of Fear (1961), save for the characters and locations, which he simply Americanized for the Aaron Spelling production. The first half plods along rather slowly, despite a brisk running time of just over an hour, but then Stanwyck takes over and carries the film on her shoulders towards a satisfying climax, though the plot twists may have aged less gracefully and lack the punch they might have packed back in 1971. Still, pretty enjoyable stuff, especially if made-for-tv horror is your bag. Two solid wops on the scale. Score yourself a copy.


"Susan, would you like a quaalude? Uncle Roman brought you one..."

Horror of Frankenstein(1970)d/Jimmy Sangster

In an attempt to breathe life into Hammer's ailing Frankenstein series,director Sangster cast Ralph(Dr. Jeckyll & Sister Hyde)Bates as the Baron instead of Peter Cushing to appeal to a more youth-oriented audience,and with threadbare production values and a tongue-in-cheek script,the studio set out to remake/parody the highly successful Curse of Frankenstein(1957), failing to stop the progressive slide and inevitable collapse of the franchise three years later.That said,I,personally,enjoyed this entry greatly.Sure,it's cheezy and full of dry British humour,and perhaps not the direction the series needed to take at the time,but it's still a helluva lot of fun to watch,and a refreshing turn from Peter Cushing in the same old bloody apron and bone saw(which I also happen to like,so refrain from the hate mail,fiends!).

Handlebar sideburns??I'm totally rocking these for the winter.
Enter Victor Frankenstein(Ralph Bates),a saucy and sarcastic sociopathic scientific genius and womanizer who is outraged that his wealthy father(also quite the womanizer,tired apple/tree cliche',anyone?)has forbidden him to spend anymore of his gold duckats on laboratory gear.The young man settles the score with a shotgun,inheriting his father's fortune and entering the medical college in Vienna.His scholastic endeavors end prematurely when he inadvertently knocks up the Dean's daughter,sending him homeward to ressurect his experiments and fleshy relationship with his father's housekeeper(Kate O'Mara,loverly bristols,but Irish brogue-speaking Austrian?Hmmm).With a schoolmate,he sets up his laboratory and conducts increasingly less moral plays on life and death,leading to falling out between the two men.Frankenstein cares not about anyone's feelings.He is of superior intellect,rapier wit,and he wants to build human life out of particular pieces of corpses,and by the Gods,that's what he's a-gonna do!

Exactly how did the Baron(Ralph Bates) come into possession of Warren Beatty's decapitated head in a jar?
He resurrects a patchwork,putty-headed muscle-laden monster(David "Darth Vader" Prowse) through some murders,that terrorizes the town,but knows its place when dealing with superior intellect and rapier wit,answering to the diabolical doctor.His success is short-lived,due to various frameups of friends,dispatchings of gold-digging busom-heavy housekeepers,and curious love-struck bubbleheaded classmates(the delicious Veronica Carlson),and soon the authorities are on to Victor's garishly grotesque games!While aiding his creature's escape by making it hide in a coffin-sized vat of acid,it is unwittingly destroyed by a rotten little kid who can't keep her hands to herself while the police inspect the laboratory,pulling the chains that fill the vat with acid.Sometimes you can't win for losing.

The monster(David Prowse),looking pretty buff,apart from the livid scars and putty head.
Critics have been unnecessarily hard on this one over the years,for various reasons,ranging from the humour to the shoddy creature makeup on muscleman Prowse,but overall,I find it enjoyable,none-the-less.Perhaps it lacks in ample doses of nudity and gore that Hammer was injecting into its productions at the time,but you could do a lot worse in the Frankenstein sweepstakes,i.e. Lady Frankenstein,or Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie(blech!)than this.For the record,Hammer DID return to form directly afterwards with Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.Ordinarily,it'd be an average two-Wopper,but I just GROOVE on the cleavage-fest provided by Carlson and O'Mara on this set,baby!Add one Wop and the final score is:

Alys(Kate O'Mara)and her two famous supporting(well-supported?) co-stars.Aereola-rific!