Jon C

I once saw a British horror film during the season of horror double-bills that BBC2 used to run on a Friday night in the mid to late seventies. There would usually be an American black-and-white 50s film followed by a Hammer. The film I am trying to remember was in colour, was set in the late 60s or early 70s and starred, I think, David Hemming. If it wasn't David Hemming it was another actor with the same blonde, baby-face good looks. He played a serial killer and I think I recall that one of his victims was a little white dog. Anyone?

Lord Brett

Here are two possibilities: Deep Red (a.k.a. Profundo Rosso), which was made in Italy, and Unmann, Wittering and Zigo. The latter I would love to see, as it doesn’t seem to have resurfaced for years, and was barely released when it came out in the early seventies.

Yvonne

Only a guess, so don't shoot me down in flames! Hywel Bennett, Twisted Nerve?

Yvonne

Bob Rusk

John C

I don't know if you've solved this but my guess is that it's the Hammer film Straight till Morning starring Shane Briant who was a blonde baby faced actor and softly spoken. He plays opposite Rita Tushingham as her boyfriend with Serial Killer tendencies and at one point near the end (as best I can remember) he kills her poodle with a Stanley Knife (i don't think he'll be getting a job on animal hospital). It was made in the early 70s and was directed by Peter Collinson who made The Italian Job.

I hope this is helpful.

Jack Gurney

For some reason, whenever I try to reply to the thread about 'Horror Film with David Hemmings or similar' from some time ago, it keeps logging me out and saying 'Invalid thread' or some other such gibberish.

However, being the smart chap that I am, I saved the second attempt to Wordpad, and I now print my reply in full:


"Right, this is the second and last fucking time I am going to post this reply, as the stupid twatty software on this site logged me out and frazzled my last entry into the ether.

The film in question IS, as Rusk suggests, Hammer's STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING (1972) but the dog in question is not a poodle, more of a mongrel. Shane Briant (who alongside Hemmings, Bennett, Paul Nicholas, Martin Potter, Simon Ward and Karl Lanchbury epitomised the 'bay faced killer' theme that ran through British horror of the period) plays Peter Price (although we later find out that this is not his real name) a psychopathic serial murderer of women living in Earls Court. This is due to a pathological hatred of beauty itself, particularly his own. When Brenda (Rita Tushingham) a lonely Scouse misfit (some might say utter fruitloop) in Swinging London, sees Briant walking his dog along the steps of the South Bank, she steals it, takes it home, washes it and puts a ribbon in its hair- just so she can return it to him, meet him, and ask him to impregnate her, See, I told you she was a nutter.

She soon moves in with Peter, but not before he takes great umbrage at the fact that she has 'beautified' his dog, and promptly takes it upstairs and kills it with a Stanley knife, then sits naked and cradles the corpse.

Hardly shown at all on television after around 1981, and unavailable on video for so long it was presumed 'lost', the film was finally released on Anchor Bay DVD in 2002- but some feel that the super clear print deracts from the grim bleakness of the film. Maverick Brit horror director Norman J Warren screened a 35m print recently at the West London Fantastic Films Society he co-runs with Darren Perry of Riverside Studios: I was there, butit has to be said that whils Norm usually has a kind word for everyone and everything (apart from Bachoo Sen and Donovan Winter!) he was not in the least impressed with this film- in fact he hated it so much he very nearly didn't screen the final reel!! However, I still love it.

In my opinion , the film is a masterpiece of the urba horror genre- cold, forbidding and sickly in a way previously only managed by Richard Fleischer's 10 RILLINGTON PLACE or Jack Clayton's THE PUMPKIN EATER, and possibly the most misanthropic film of all time with the exception of Alistair Reid's SOMETHING TO HIDE. It also features the same theme of violence and terror inflicted within an enclosed space that runs through all his best work such as THE PENTHOUSE, OPEN SEASON, FRIGHT, TOMORROW NEVER COMES and even his remake of AND THEN THERE WERE NONE. Most importantly of all though, if Michael Carreras had known how to market it or even given a shit about it in the first place, it could have been one of the films that saved Hammer's bacon. See it if you can. "

I'm not quite sure what's up with certain threads here, but I think a bit of inspection is in order.