Welcome to the world of another great and unjustly forgotten subgenre of British cinema's counterculture period - Hippiesploitation!! Regarded at the time as a slow, bleak, poorly-acted and badly produced attempt at cashing in on the 'groupie craze' (see Derek Ford's GROUPIE GIRL or its German counterpart ICH EIN GROUPIE for further reference) from the director that had already brought us such low-budget sexploitative horror fare as NIGHT, AFTER NIGHT, AFTER NIGHT (1969) - albeit … [Read more...]

The world of the ‘rock movie’ is a nebulous, uncertain terrain with few ground rules and even fewer conventions. By the very nature of its existence, it embraces a culture that thrives on hedonism, breaking of taboos and (to a certain extent) rebellion (not necessarily of the teenage kind, one must stress, but at least as an underlying thematic abstract). Therefore it should come as no surprise to find lurking under the genre’s umbrella a disparate plethora of … [Read more...]

“Samantha…..what a beautiful name”. A seemingly innocent sentence, of the type one would expect to find in an old Gainsborough romantic comedy or drama, or a half-remembered whisp of some old Children’s Hour production one vaguely remembers in the pub a decade or two later. But in the context of Pat Jackson’s superlative thriller, it takes on an altogether more sinister significance. Anyone in the UK who has ever been off work, ill or just a late … [Read more...]

UK comedy supremos Mel Smith and Gryff Rhys Jones' first venture into cinematic territory, the Mike Hodges-directed Morons From Outer Space (1985) was, it has to be said, neither a commercial nor an artistic success - in fact, it pretty much reinforces the old stereotype that TV actors are good at TV and nothing else, and that such performers should stick firmly to their own metier if embarrassment is to be avoided. Although, it has to be said, I rented it about three times as a … [Read more...]

Corruption is an interesting film, it takes a classic horror theme and plants it firmly in the middle of a contemporary setting, in this case the swinging sixties. The subject is that of a brilliant scientist who sacrifices his ethical code in the pursuit of an obsession. The person in question is the renowned Sir John Rowan (Peter Cushing) and the object of his desire is a glamorous photographic model Lynn Nolan played by Sue Lloyd. The film begins in a high-powered operating … [Read more...]

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When Jenny Agutter is mentioned to any man of a certain age, certain reactions (including drooling, dribbling and the emitting of noises) tend to occur: these are invariably followed by a discussion of her iconic (often naked) appearances in Walkabout, Logan’s Run, Equus and An American Werewolf In London. Sadly, not as many have seen this groundbreaking, multi-layered and fascinating movie which belongs as much in the ‘once seen never forgotten’ category as it does in the … [Read more...]