The Hose That Dripped Blood
00:56:55
About
It’s anthology month at Welcome To Horror, and first up is another classic from Amicus: “The House That Dripped Blood”. A film in which Christopher Lee recreates the classic Two Ronnies “Four Candles” sketch; Denholm Elliott shows us his strangler; Worzel Gummidge buys a dodgy secondhand cape from the Crowman; and Mr Kipling makes exceedingly poor wax effigies. Definitely one of Amicus Films’ finest, with a fantastic cast, strong stories and not an actual drop of blood in sight- watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers, and join us.
Transcript
Show full transcript
Lee Good evening and welcome to Horror.
Lee I'm Lee.
Chris I'm Chris.
Adam I'm Adam.
Lee And we are back for the first time post pandemic, back on the squeaky Chesterfield. I apologize in advance for the squeaky background sounds.
Lee but we are actually all in the same room recording for the first time in
Chris Two years now, actual years.
Lee Yeah.
Adam And none of us are wearing trousers.
Lee Just like the old days.
Adam Yeah.
Lee so thanks very much for joining us.
Lee we have a quick bit of housekeeping before we get stuck in.
Lee we wanted to do a quick get well soon for friend of the show and previous guest host, Adam.
Adam -
Lee not Adam who we have with us, our other friend Adam, who joined us for the Castlevania episode.
Lee Gosh, that was sometime ago.
Adam That was back in this room.
Lee It was back in this room, and it was, yeah, it was like episode 15 or something, super early days.
Lee he was walking across the country, side to side, via Ben Nevis, and from what I got from his message, 'cause I was keeping track of his progress, unfortunately, he had an incident where he fell in a stream, and he's damaged himself like seriously.
Adam Oh, yeah.
Chris Sorry to hear that, Adam.
Lee Yeah, so, get well soon and, you know, at least you did it doing something proper like walking all the way across the country.
Lee I hurt myself that same weekend, I pulled my back out. I'll tell you how I did it. I was sitting on the sofa watching Free Guy, I've been over to pump up my Reebok Pumps, and fucked my back up.
Lee How ridiculous comparatively is that?
Adam I'll teach you.
Lee So yeah, all our love, Adam, and we shall meet up for beers and biscuits and whatnot very soon, sir.
Adam Yeah, get well soon, man.
Chris
Lee so, this evening we are going to be watch we're going to be discussing 1971's Amicus beauty, The House that Dripped Blood.
Lee So, in traditional style, like back when we were all back in this room and we were still novices,
Lee Chris, as it was your first viewing of this masterpiece, what did you make of it?
Chris The the first thing that stood out to me was recognizing someone who I knew of as Marcus Brody.
Lee -huh.
Chris Who turns out it's someone called Denholm Elliott.
Lee Denholm Elliott.
Chris Now, I don't think I've seen him in anything else, but I was fascinated to see him, I had no idea he played a horror film.
Chris Now, I'm going to have to just read out all I knew of him, this is how I know him in my head, and you may recognize the bit as I start.
Chris So, Indiana Jones saying, the hell you will, he's got a two-day head start on you, which is more than he needs, Brody's got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan. He speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom, he'll blend in, disappear, you'll never see him again.
Chris Where only luck, he's got the Grail already, cut to middle of fair in the Middle East.
Chris Marcus Brody wearing bright suit and white hat sticking out like a sore thumb.
Chris Oh, does anyone here speak English?
Chris Street vendor, water, No thank you, sir, fish make love in it.
Chris So, so that that's my biggest memory of him.
Lee I completely forgotten that he's in that movie. I clearly need to rewatch it again.
Adam Oh, he's he's in 'cause he's in the first and third, isn't he?
Adam I don't think he's in Temple of Doom.
Chris
Lee Is he in Temple No, I don't think he is. No, no, he's not.
Adam No, he's not. He's he's only he's in Raiders and he's in Last Crusade.
Adam Yeah.
Chris But yeah, so, so I had to readjust slightly and see him as as not that character, but, you know.
Adam He rocks a chunky knit sweater in this.
Chris Yes.
Adam You know.
Lee He does, I know, doesn't he?
Chris And so, yeah, so my my general experience of this film, it's another I I think of it as very charming.
Chris And I'm I was trying to think, what have I said that about previous film, I've definitely said it on some others.
Chris And it could be other Amicus.
Lee I think it was.
Chris Possibly. And so I don't know what they do, but it's like, you know I say some older style films take me out too much.
Chris But for some reason with this, it it wasn't like, I didn't need that immersion exactly.
Chris It was just a very fun, enjoyable,
Chris And I I wondered, like, is that something to do with anthologies?
Chris I know we've said this before.
Chris It's it's almost like, it's perhaps difficult to have a a groundbreaking, sort of legendary anthology, if we've had a few that we've watched.
Chris But they all seem to be a very high standard, they're all very enjoyable, you know, there's something in there for everyone.
Chris And and you kind of can't get bored, I suppose, because it changes.
Lee Yeah.
Chris It must be something about that.
Chris But I guess you could also completely ruin it, you could have it could seem very disjointed.
Chris but yeah, no, this was really good again.
Chris I even liked the the sort of bright colors, points, it was that stood out a lot.
Lee I think that's I think that's the thing that I like about the the Amicus anthologies particularly is that not only the actual vignettes themselves were really good.
Lee The wrap arounds are outstanding, like that's what always always gets me is you remember the stories and then you put it on and go, oh shit, yeah, that wrap around is awesome.
Lee It especially with this one as well with the detective looking for the missing actor who is the final story in story four, I think it is.
Chris Yeah, no, what did they explain it as? The the house reflected the personality of the people.
Lee Yeah.
Chris That that was a nice, you know, closing statement.
Chris Yeah, yeah, that's that's good, that's an interesting way too.
Chris So it's not like just say haunted house.
Chris It's like it's got something else extra.
Chris Now, the only thing, and I don't know if this is a criticism or if I missed it, was there any blood dripped?
Adam No.
Lee No.
Adam That's the irony of it. Apparently Amicus actually asked, I think they got an X certificate because they asked for it 'cause they gave it an A.
Adam Yeah.
Adam Like the British like the film classification board and they were like, give us an X.
Adam 'Cause it's good publicity, always is.
Adam You know, whatever, you know, I mean,
Chris Or like if they get banned, it's pretty good publicity.
Adam Well, I mean, there's a there's the recent case, the, you know, Host, the film that we covered a while back, the Zoom one. guy who directed that has now done a film called Dashcam, but apparently View are not showing it because it's because of offensive or something like that. From what I gather, it might be just that apparently the main character's particularly unlikeable and right-wing, but
Lee Okay.
Adam You know, I again, that's the same reason why you don't see, like Alf Garnett anymore.
Adam Because it's now just got to the point of you can't have a satire, it's now just like, oh right, no, we can't show this because he's that.
Adam And it's like, you're not meant to necessarily
Lee No, I was going to say,
Adam agree with the person.
Lee I was going to say, I mean, I watched American History X and thought it was a fantastic film. I wasn't rooting for the main character towards the end, obviously.
Adam Yeah.
Adam No, taxi driver.
Lee You know.
Adam You're not meant
Lee No.
Adam But I think but I think actually the one thing I wanted them, I wanted View to just say that it was light.
Adam 'Cause I thought I would be a you know, is it something like?
Adam And I just wanted View to be like, no, it's 'cause it's filmed on a fucking dash cam.
Lee Yeah.
Adam We're a cinema.
Adam You know, watch this at home, that's where you're meant to watch it because this isn't going to be great quality.
Adam I thought it might have just been offensive on an aesthetic level.
Lee Yeah.
Adam but I mean, yeah, the
Adam all of I I have to say, I think this is a
Adam 'cause I haven't watched, I haven't watched this one for quite a while now.
Adam House that Dripped Blood.
Adam I'm really think it's one of the strongest of the Amicus ones.
Adam All of the Amicus ones are good to great.
Adam But this one is a particularly good example 'cause I think everything everything works, there's not really a duff story.
Chris No.
Adam and you've got a particularly strong cast.
Lee Yeah.
Adam And not necessarily like you said, Chris, not not necessarily,
Adam people you necessarily associate with horror.
Adam I mean, like John Pertwee being in it, apparently that was originally,
Adam they offered that to Vincent Price.
Lee
Adam And you can see what that 'cause you know, where it's like, well, I've been in thousands of films and the cape and the flamboyancy and everything else.
Adam Like, you can see why it was kind of written for with Vincent Price in mind.
Adam Although John Pertwee does a fucking magnificent job.
Lee I was going to say,
Lee he's got that level of tongue in cheek that as you said, you'd expect from Vincent Price, like he just had it perfectly, like that air of I'm above all this and just taking it out on the staff and
Adam Yeah.
Chris So he was the fourth one, the arrogant actor.
Adam Yes, yeah, Paul Paul Henderson, the the actor who's being searched for, yeah.
Adam And I actually like the, it's very close to how he plays
Adam the third doctor and he's pretty much dressed how he was dressed for the first series.
Adam Seriously, it's the it's the same look pretty much.
Adam but it's that same sort of thing of
Adam I think because when he when he took when he took the role of the doctor, it was like everyone was like, oh, he's a comedian, you know, how can a comedian be playing this role and everything else like that?
Adam So he went completely the other way with it and he's probably like the straightest sort of no-nonsense serious version of that character.
Adam 'Cause everyone else is quite sort of jokey or jovial or whatever like that.
Adam And he was always a miserable git.
Adam And quite sort of snappy and snarky and stuff.
Adam So it's sort of very sort of kind of similar.
Lee So, just to run through them all quickly, just to remind the listeners who might not have watched it recently.
Lee so the there's the wrap around story as we mentioned, is the detective who is trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the missing actor.
Adam Yeah.
Lee then we have method for murder, which is the Denholm Elliott story with the murderer Dominic.
Adam Yeah.
Lee He's writing a story, he's gone to the house to write his book about a killer and he keeps seeing him in the house.
Adam -
Lee the next story is Wax Works with Peter Cushing and the amazing Joss Ackland.
Adam Yes.
Lee which is Peter Cushing is a retired
Lee stockbroker.
Lee He's moved somewhere near wherever this house is, so it's somewhere it seems to be like a seaside town.
Lee There's
Lee there's a waxworks there.
Lee And one of the characters in it looks just like a woman who he loved and was in a love rivalry with Joss Ackland for.
Lee and that goes on from there.
Lee The third story is sweets to the sweet.
Lee Christopher Lee has a Christopher Lee is a single father with a daughter.
Lee he gets a a nurse maid to come and look after her, and he's very strict and over the top with the daughter, and we discover that there may be good reason for that.
Chris I say that that was my favorite one.
Lee It's fantastic.
Chris Yeah.
Chris I didn't
Chris I wasn't sure, it just really stood out.
Chris I was trying to decide, is it because I'm looking at the way he's parenting and, you know, it's obviously, you know there's a twist there.
Chris And it it unfolds, but just, yeah,
Chris it seemed to have kind of a lot in it.
Chris It it seemed like.
Chris Because I I liked the nanny as well.
Adam Yeah.
Chris And and of course the girl.
Chris Was fantastic.
Lee That little girl, if I'm wrong, is that also the little girl who's in the Christmas, the Christmas Slayer episode, the Shouts from the Crypt?
Adam Yes.
Adam She's the, yeah, Chloe Frank, she she lets in the, she lets in Santa.
Lee Yeah.
Adam The murder Santa in the Joan Collins story.
Lee That's right.
Adam And she's also in, The Uncanny.
Chris
Adam You know where there's the two, the the little girl and she's, yeah, she's the, yeah.
Lee Of course she is.
Adam Yeah, so she's actually weirdly quite a veteran of like these films and everything.
Adam And, yeah, and she's actually really, really good.
Adam I find her quite I found her quite funny.
Adam Do you know what I mean?
Adam I think she was like genuinely, let's face it.
Adam You're holding your own with Christopher Lee, pretty much, you know.
Adam It's pretty.
Adam And I can't imagine that.
Adam 'Cause that's the thing as well.
Adam It's Christopher Lee.
Adam So when it's like, he's being a bit of a dick as a dad.
Adam You're thinking, he's Christopher Lee.
Adam Maybe he's just being a dick.
Adam So it's sort of, you know, you sort of I can't imagine that Christopher Lee would have been very tolerant of
Lee No.
Adam anyone ever.
Lee No, no.
Adam Apart from apart from Peter Cushing.
Lee Yeah, and and Vincent Price.
Adam Yeah, he takes he takes Peter Cushing seriously.
Adam Looney Tunes cartoons, but other than that, everyone else gets very short shrift.
Lee and then the last the last story is The Cloak, as we said, with John Pertwee and Ingrid Pitt.
Lee where he plays an actor on a vampire movie, he isn't taken by 'cause it's a budget movie.
Lee He's very pissed off about the quality of everything, so he goes to get himself his own cloak.
Lee And it may have a darker side behind it.
Adam Which and again, buys the cloak off of the magnificent Jeffrey Bayldon.
Lee Yes.
Adam Fucking balls to the wall.
Adam I'm just going to be weird.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Yeah, 'cause when he's in 'cause he 'cause obviously we talked about him when, he was in,
Adam not,
Adam it's not Tales from the Crypt, it was, or is it Tales from the Crypt?
Adam I can never bloody remember which one.
Adam Yeah, it is Tales from the Crypt 'cause he's in it quite briefly at the so we sort of discussed him back in that episode.
Adam But in that, he's just doing a straight role, very much how say, for example, he plays the warden in Porridge.
Adam You know, he's he's normal.
Adam He's daft as arseholes, but he's normal.
Adam Whereas this is fully blown arch, mad as fuck eyebrows.
Adam stroking a cat, which prompted Claire's catchphrase.
Adam which is whenever there's an animal in a film, she just goes,
Adam That cat's dead now.
Adam 'Cause she knows it upsets me.
Adam So, but,
Adam Yeah.
Lee He plays sinister particularly well.
Lee Like in this kind of over the top, partly comedic, he does an outstanding job in his.
Adam Yeah.
Lee It's a small role, but it's amazing.
Adam Yeah.
Adam It's what you want from the thing.
Adam 'Cause there's, you know, something like that would be really out of place in a full-blown movie.
Adam But in this, it's, you know, everything has to a certain extent a shorthand.
Lee Yeah.
Adam To get where it needs to be.
Adam So, yeah.
Adam You're only in it for that scene, go fucking nuts.
Lee Yeah.
Adam You know, really really take to it, I think.
Adam And, and then obviously him and John Pertwee ended up in, Woosel Gummage together.
Adam 'Cause Jeffrey Bayldon was the Crowman who essentially was his god.
Lee Do you know what?
Lee I said this, I I don't remember anything about that show.
Lee But we were sitting there and we were watching it and Jennifer said,
Lee I know him and that.
Lee I said, it's Woosel Gummage.
Adam Catweazle.
Lee And she said,
Adam Oh, sorry, John Pertwee.
Lee And she said,
Lee No, no, she was talking about Balden.
Lee And I said,
Lee And she went, no, it's not.
Lee And I was like,
Lee I'm sure it is.
Lee Then we looked up and I was like, oh, no, it's John Pertwee.
Lee Who's also in the same story.
Lee And I was like, oh, it's Catweazle.
Lee I was thinking, I was like, those two are so similar, that's why I can I confuse them sometimes.
Lee 'Cause I don't remember anything about either show particularly.
Adam No.
Lee But they both looked very similar.
Adam In the show, he did. I mean, basically, it was almost like he'd created Woosel in his image.
Lee Yeah.
Adam 'Cause they looked the same and had similar sort of hair and stuff.
Adam But obviously, he was real, or not like he well, he wasn't a fucking scarecrow.
Lee Yeah, yeah.
Adam I mean.
Adam but yeah, and
Adam but yeah, I think they're all really fucking strong.
Adam They're really strong fucking stories.
Adam And, funny enough, you're saying about that, Chris.
Adam With Denholm Elliott, he was in, he's in another Amicus that we did.
Adam He's involved with horror.
Adam 'Cause I can't remember.
Adam He's not the one who gets his hands cut off.
Adam But he he's one of the people who rip off Tom Baker in the, one where he does voodoo paintings that kill you.
Adam Fenton Briedley.
Lee Yes.
Adam But he's not playing Fenton Briedley.
Adam That was Terence Alexander.
Adam So.
Adam But he's, yeah, he's in that.
Adam And also 'cause I know that it's I always know that it's one one with you.
Adam He's the voice of Cowslip in Watership Down.
Chris Oh, right.
Adam So, you know, but
Adam that that story, me and, former guest and sibling of Lee,
Adam me and Dean, I don't know, we probably spent about three months keep saying to each other, you can thank my strangler for that.
Lee That.
Adam 'Cause it just sounded filthy.
Adam It just sounded filthy.
Adam You know,
Adam But also, yeah, it's
Adam it's just the weirdest thing in the world that it's like, oh, well, I've got this I've got this guy who essentially looks looks a bit like an illustration of Frankenstein.
Adam He's got enormous teeth.
Adam He laughs like he's been lobotomized.
Adam What's his name, Dominic?
Lee Yeah.
Adam And it's like, I feel that slightly at odds with.
Adam But there we go, you know.
Lee That name definitely a placeholder. You should have gone back and there.
Adam Unless he was just going to he was going to shorten it to Dom at some point.
Adam But,
Lee But yeah, I just I always love to see Denholm Elliott in anything.
Adam Yeah.
Lee He's just he's such a fantastic actor and he did a lot of the a lot of the horror TV shows that were on.
Adam
Lee Yeah, 'cause mystery and imagination, all those types of things he did.
Adam Yeah, 'cause he's in Rude Awakening in Hammer House of Horror, which is one of my favorites of that series.
Adam Maybe we'll have to do that as an offshoot.
Adam You know, we'll do the Hammer House of Horror for.
Lee I love those.
Adam 'Cause they're genuinely, they're pretty
Adam I mean, fortunately, I think probably 'cause it was just one series, so it's really strong.
Adam but yeah, I don't think there's much in that that's I don't think there's any really duff ones in that.
Adam All of them are pretty great and they have some and and pretty amazing casts for a TV show.
Adam 'Cause it's mostly movie like people who've been in, you know, Peter Cushing's in there, Brian Cox, Patricia Quinn and so on and so forth.
Adam You know, there's a lot of.
Adam And yeah, Denholm Elliott's in in that one.
Adam And, he was also in a film called, he well, he's in the film and the TV version of a thing called Brimstone and Treacle, which is a Dennis Potter play.
Adam in which basically, it's it's kind of like the the for for want of a better expression, the moral of the story is that a good thing can come from not necessarily a good place.
Adam And basically, Satan turns up in human form and Denholm Elliott's daughter's in a like vegetative coma.
Adam And he basically revives her from her coma, but it's not good.
Adam As it never is with David.
Lee As it never is with that.
Adam Well, no, it's Dennis Potter as well, so it's.
Adam And also he he was in Peter and Dud's Hound of the Baskervilles, 'cause he's Stapleton with the dogs, the forever pissing dogs in in that one.
Adam
Adam But also, yeah, the Signalman is another key thing from the Ghost Stories from Christmas.
Lee I watched that this Christmas.
Lee That is still astonishingly good.
Adam It's a brilliant.
Adam It's a it's a brilliant version of an amazing story.
Adam But yes, so,
Adam he's he was in like mystery and imagination and thriller.
Adam But also he do he he turns up quite a lot in comedy as well 'cause he was in like Ripping Yarns and Rising Damp and stuff like that.
Adam And he's actually again, he's like a lot of the people in this, he's one of those people who sort of straddles between the two.
Adam where it's like, oh, you're you're very good for horror and you're very good for comedy.
Lee Yeah.
Adam And I think it's that ability to play it straight.
Adam Because you don't basically, yes, Jeffrey Bayldon's a magnificent in this.
Adam But a film full of Jeffrey Bayldon's would be a bit much.
Lee Yeah, yeah.
Adam Whereas this, he sort of it grounds it. Yeah, he really feels real.
Lee Yeah.
Adam I mean, the amount and not that, the amount of bloody fags he gets through in this.
Lee Yeah.
Adam You know.
Adam I mean, I know he's a writer, but he, you know, I don't think Dominic had much to do.
Adam You know, probably just.
Lee I thought that as well, and the fact that he's pouring himself a drink every two minutes.
Lee I was like, do you know what, if I was drinking straight whiskey and trying to write, I would probably write two pages.
Lee And then be like, yeah, this is all out of focus.
Lee Like the way he just guzzles it away while he's working.
Adam No, he's just slamming it.
Chris Do you think do you think they would do that now, or is that something of the era?
Adam 'Cause I
Chris Because in a few films where there's quite a lot of drinking.
Adam To tell you the truth, I I think it's the era.
Adam I don't think it would be.
Adam Much in the same way, what was the what was the ad the advertising show, Mad Men?
Lee Yeah.
Adam And everyone kept going on about the fact that everyone in it was constantly chain smoking and drinking at work.
Adam And it was like, yeah, because that was pretty much
Lee What normal.
Adam an accepting practice back in those days.
Adam And I think similarly with this, the people who watched it at the time,
Adam that would have not even been a thing that you'd have noticed.
Adam You know.
Adam And,
Adam to to a greater or lesser extent, you know, I think frankly I'll I'll put in a vote now.
Adam To say that I think we should bring back drinking at work.
Adam Not not necessarily driving.
Adam Not necessarily if you're a surgeon.
Adam But frankly, if you've got an office job and you get in the bus, fuck it.
Adam Yeah.
Lee I used when I used to work on a very busy sales floor of over 100 people, we were
Lee it we weren't discouraged from going to the pub at lunchtime, 'cause it was like a night shift so you worked from two in the afternoon till nine at night.
Lee Yeah, and they were like, yeah, go over there, have a couple of beers, like you're a lot more chatty when you come back and like it gets people, you know, off edge and
Lee Yeah, like a, you know, it it did used to work for some people.
Lee So it in a.
Lee In the right environment, I think it this.
Adam It greases the wheels for most, just don't film it, you know.
Adam That's that's the key.
Lee That's the thing.
Lee So I've got to admit, I missed drinking during the podcast 'cause I used to
Lee Denholm Elliott it when we were recording, but 'cause it just made 'cause 'cause it just made me forget the microphone.
Lee And I just waffled like.
Lee We were all just sitting around having a drink.
Lee Yeah, but yeah, now I'm on the wagon, I'm currently drinking alcohol-free Hogard just to try and trick my brain into relaxing, but it's not working, so.
Adam and,
Adam I'm going to have to put a shout out for Robert Lang who plays the psychiatrist in this.
Adam who hasn't got that big a role.
Adam But a, is great.
Adam But also he's just one of those faces who pops up in loads of things.
Adam You know, he's Denholm Elliott's psychiatrist in this, the guy with the bald guy with the mustache.
Lee Yeah, yeah.
Adam And he just always he rocks up in so many things and just he's really, really great.
Adam But he's mostly sort of generals, policeman or or doctors, he sort of seems to be authority type.
Adam Yeah, it's that sort of thing.
Adam But also he just has a lovely line in doubt, is the best way I can put it.
Adam Is that he has a really good way of sort of, yes, well, I'm sure it's real to you.
Adam You know.
Adam He he does that sort of that that kind of characterization quite sort of quite well.
Adam I really
Adam I really enjoyed him in that.
Adam
Adam And also, I mean, like
Adam I I mean, it's possibly of 'cause the weirdest thing is, is you've got obviously, Denholm Elliott's not that great a writer.
Adam
Adam 'Cause it's like, oh, who's this?
Adam Oh, this is Dominic.
Adam He's my strangler.
Adam He was.
Adam Which again.
Adam Still sounds dirty.
Adam but he roams the country killing people for no good reason.
Adam Laughing maniacally.
Adam And I'm like,
Adam Yeah, you haven't really put much backstory in this, have you, mate?
Lee Pretty one.
Lee Yeah, yeah, and then but then at the end of it, it's like, Tom? No. My name's Dominic. And then, yeah, it's that's the other thing we should have mentioned, so all of the stories in this bar one are stories by Robert Block who again, a lot of his stories were often used by the Amicus guys.
Lee apart from Wax Works, which was written by someone called, Russ Jones.
Adam Yes.
Lee He doesn't get a credit on this, but he wrote a lot of
Lee like EC comics like horror comics rather not EC.
Lee Yeah, so I looked him up on IMDB, yeah, and he did a lot of the EC comics.
Lee And it he that was how he started and then he got into movies from there.
Lee So this afternoon as a bit of research, I went on YouTube and watched the whole of Gallery of Horror.
Adam Oh, wow.
Lee 'Cause yeah, 'cause I that came up in my notes and I was like, oh, I've never seen that.
Lee So, good.
Lee Yeah, well, as I mentioned to, you know, off Mike,
Lee my plan was to watch, see what the kind of wrap around was like.
Lee Watch the first story and just get a feel for it.
Lee and I sat through the whole hour and 22 minutes of it because I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Lee
Lee they're a bit off the wall and they're very cheaply shot.
Lee It looks.
Lee I tell you what it looks like.
Lee It looks like, there's a lot of the matte painting stuff and it looks like they've literally stolen it from, the Roger Corman movies.
Adam Oh, right, yes.
Lee because it's exactly the same castles with the lightning and I'm sure they've literally just lifted it out and stolen it.
Lee
Lee but yeah, it's it's really good.
Lee It's well worth watching.
Lee all of the all of them are original stories, apart from the last one.
Lee I thought.
Lee Because the very last story, which is only about 10 minutes,
Lee yeah, and it's a man named Harker going to Transylvania to see Count Alucard.
Lee -huh.
Lee regarding buying Carfax Abbey.
Lee But it's worth watching because it does have a twist in it.
Lee It's the it it starts off just a Dracula.
Lee And then takes a whole new spin.
Lee Yeah, and I I really enjoyed it.
Lee I thought it was good, it's got like a 3.4 on IMDB, which is
Lee which is terrible, because I mean, it definitely deserves more than that.
Lee It's and it's very, if you're in the mood for one of those,
Lee you know, like the American International type ones, yeah, it it's it works alongside those perfectly.
Lee I'll I really enjoyed it.
Chris You have to set your expectation.
Lee Correctly.
Lee I think I did. I think because it had such a low IMDB, I was like, this is clearly going to be dire.
Lee But I'll give it a go.
Lee Yeah, and I think going in with that expectation, I was surprised.
Lee I mean, it it was never going to rival the House that Dripped Blood, it's nowhere near that league.
Lee But if you want some new.
Lee that you haven't seen before, it's it it works.
Lee I say and it's on YouTube, so you can just watch the whole hour and 20 minutes.
Chris Fantastic.
Lee So.
Adam Definitely going to have to do that.
Adam 'Cause from the standpoint of Robert Block, this was his third film for Amicus.
Adam So he did The Skull, which isn't an anthology film.
Lee What an awesome movie.
Adam But also with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, great great film.
Adam then he did Torture Garden.
Adam And then after this, he did Asylum.
Adam and Asylum, again, can't wait to show you, Chris.
Lee Yeah.
Adam You know, and and Torture Garden, they both they both great.
Lee I still haven't seen Torture Garden.
Adam I, oh, yeah, I was meant to bring that around.
Adam I do apologize.
Lee 'Cause that's right.
Adam 'Cause I upgraded to Blu-ray, so I said leave your DVD.
Lee Woo.
Adam But, yes, so, so yes.
Adam So we've got.
Adam Then you get the second story, like the waxwork story.
Adam apparently, this this was filmed just around the time when Peter Cushing's wife became ill.
Lee Oh, yeah.
Lee Yeah.
Adam And apparently, he was trying to actually get out of the.
Adam He was trying to get out of doing a film.
Adam 'Cause he didn't want to leave her.
Adam but it was a contractual obligation.
Adam So he said,
Adam And it's not like.
Adam he doesn't perform.
Chris Yeah.
Adam Do you know what I mean?
Adam That's that's the thing.
Adam I think he I think he was too professional and had too much, you know, pride and everything to not give his best.
Adam But, yeah, under the circumstances, it's sort of, yeah, it's sort of fairly sad.
Adam But you've got,
Adam but again, it's the weirdest story in the world because I don't know about you guys, but I felt that
Adam maybe they weren't that bothered about the girl.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Because they did seem like an old couple.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Do you know what I mean?
Adam They they sort of That's how it sort of comes over.
Adam And it's like, you've got the whole sort of, you've got the whole sort of fighting over the girl thing.
Adam And it's like,
Adam I don't think you're I think you guys might have missed the trick here.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Adam You know.
Adam But yeah, so you've got.
Adam So you've got Mr. Cushion.
Adam But obviously, you've got the incredible Joss Ackland.
Adam Who,
Adam awarded the CBE in 2001.
Adam Performed the first gay kiss on the West End stage with Denholm Elliott.
Adam In in a play called Bermondsey.
Adam From 1971.
Adam he's the eccentric.
Adam passenger in the music video for the Pet Shop Boys A Way's on My Mind.
Adam And the voice of so much.
Adam There's so many advertising.
Adam 'Cause he is Mr. Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes.
Lee Oh, is he really?
Adam And he's also Good old yellow pages.
Lee Oh, I didn't know that.
Adam They're not there for the nasty things in life, like a blocked drain or a leaky roof.
Adam They can also be there for the nice things as well.
Adam So, yes, that's his
Adam So, you know, I mean, he's all over the fucking shop.
Adam And, you know,
Adam he's still out there, he's he's in Rasputin the Mad Monk.
Adam He's in the the Hammer Rasputin.
Lee I've not seen that.
Adam I've still not seen that.
Lee It's been years or so.
Lee I need to re.
Lee I remember it being like I remember Christopher Lee just going ape shit.
Adam Yeah, Christopher Lee.
Adam From what I get 'cause I've still never seen it, but I get that Christopher Lee in that he's quite quite, you know, going for it.
Adam And it's his favorite role, I think, or one of his favorite roles.
Adam 'Cause I'm pretty sure the Wickerman is.
Lee Remind me before you leave, I should send it home with you.
Lee 'Cause it would be wrong for you to go another day without seeing it.
Adam but obviously, and to our generation.
Adam Obviously, he was in Lethal Weapon two and the reason why thousands of children in playgrounds screamed
Adam Diplomatic immunity, Mr. Riggs at each other.
Adam
Adam And then he's the he's the main bad guy in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, villain, one of our dinosaurs is missing.
Adam
Adam Oh, what was it,
Adam And he's in the Copper Beaches in the Cherry Bloke.
Lee I was going to say, my favorite performance of his is in the Copper Beaches.
Lee Yeah.
Adam He is great in that.
Adam And he was in Mystery and Imagination, Tells the Unexpected, all those things.
Adam And he's the voice of the Black Rabbit in Watership Down.
Chris Oh.
Lee
Adam And he also, I forgot about this.
Adam He's the narrator of the documentary I've got in search of the Great Beast 666, which is a documentary about Alister Crowley.
Lee Oh, no, he looks a bit like Alister Crowley.
Adam He could play Alister Crowley quite well, I think, actually.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Adam the weirdest thing is that the girl in the photograph is actually the actress Nicola Pagett, who sort of got more famous through the sort of seventies and eighties, mostly on TV and stuff like that.
Adam But if I was her,
Adam I'd have a word with that props bloke.
Adam 'Cause that's the only failing of that story.
Adam Is that it's like, it looks so much like her.
Lee No, it don't.
Lee Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Adam It looks so much like her if you if, you know, if I tried to make a sculpture of her on a sex doll.
Adam It's it's not good.
Adam It's and then subsequently, they should have got Christopher Lee's daughter to have a go.
Adam 'Cause her wax figure of Christopher Lee looks more like Christopher Lee than that wax figure looks like Nicola Pagett or Christopher Lee or Joss Ackland.
Adam They're all a bit they're all a bit big face, you know, so.
Adam But.
Adam but the guy who plays the proprietor of the wax museum is a guy called Wolf Morris.
Adam
Adam who is,
Adam Jewish Ukrainian.
Adam But he's along with another actor in this, he spent a great deal of his career playing a variety of ethnicities.
Lee Like I I
Lee I appreciate they weren't that many actors over here, possibly of those ethnicities, so it might have been difficult.
Lee But he doesn't even look anything like it.
Adam No.
Lee No.
Adam This is the this is the bizarre thing.
Adam It was almost like.
Adam It was almost like shorthand of swarthy was like.
Adam sort of right, right.
Adam That means you can play most of the rest of the planet, apparently.
Adam And it's a bit.
Adam But weirdly enough, the other one who's in it, who is,
Adam oh, what's his name, John Bennett, who is the copper.
Lee
Adam
Adam Now, he again, he did play Lee Chen.
Adam In the Talons of Wang Chiang, a Dr. Who story.
Adam So he's in yellow face for that.
Adam And you're like,
Adam again, why?
Adam You know.
Adam It's I mean, he's a good actor, but he.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Yeah.
Adam He.
Adam Why would you not go for someone who,
Lee Yeah.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Again.
Lee obviously.
Adam Of of right, ethnicity.
Lee We we wouldn't do it now because we can easily get actors, we have lots of actors in this country from other places.
Lee And although I appreciate on a lower budget you couldn't ship somebody in and there might not be someone to get on hand who's necessarily the correct ethnicity.
Lee But you'd at least pick an actor who has similar features.
Adam Well, say for example, going back to our last episode, Burt Kwouk.
Adam Who said that he's played every Asian nationality.
Adam He's played Japanese, Chinese, Korean.
Adam And,
Adam but, yeah, 'cause he's in the right ethnicity, you know, to sort of be able to pull that off.
Adam But it's.
Adam No, it's a wonder, it really is, but I don't know 'cause again, John Bennett is a very,
Adam it's a 'cause I love John Bennett.
Adam I think he's a great actor and he's brilliant in this.
Adam But the weird thing is, is.
Adam under normal circumstances, I feel that him.
Adam And John Bryans, who plays Stoker, would be the other way around.
Adam Because John Bennett looks sinister, you know, although obviously his greatest moment is in Porridge.
Adam Where he's the doctor.
Adam who says to Fletch, right, you see that flask?
Adam Fill it.
Adam What from here?
Adam So.
Adam
Adam but he,
Adam Yeah, John John Bryans.
Adam who plays Stoker.
Adam Is a lot you know, he could play the copper and you'd have John Bennett looking a bit sinister and a bit sort of, you know.
Adam Because,
Adam Yeah, and it's just I like the fact that it switched around.
Adam Because Stoker's much more menacing for being quite normal.
Adam
Adam in inverted commas.
Adam But he was I recently finished watching Blake 7.
Adam And he turned up in Blake 7 a couple of times, but once as a torturer called Shrinker.
Adam Which is just a great name anyway.
Adam But,
Adam he's so good in it because it's just basically they capture him and it's like, all right, we want to know this information and everything.
Adam And it is just his blubbering cowardice of like, you know, he was this Imperial torturer, so he's like used to getting his own way and being thought and then without any guns or backup or anything else like that.
Adam He is a sniveling wretch of a pathetic human being.
Adam And he's very fucking good in it.
Lee It's.
Lee That's that's one of the other things that I really liked in this that I'd actually forgotten until I rewatched it the other way, is the way that the last story then folds into the wrap around.
Lee And it all.
Lee Like I'd forgotten that it it did that and that like that's a very unusual thing, but I really enjoyed that.
Adam I think also, speaking of speaking of the last story, obviously, we have the mighty John Pertwee in there.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Father of Shaun, brother of Bill.
Adam But.
Adam We also have Chris's first, well, I assume Chris's first experience with Ingrid Pitt.
Adam The incredible Ingrid Pitt.
Adam who again, brilliant at the comedy side of it as well as the horror side of it and everything.
Adam Polish bomb.
Adam Real name Ingush I'm going to say this wrong, Ingushka Petrov.
Adam Her German father was a rocket scientist who refused to work on the Nazi military rocket program.
Adam So, five-year-old Ingrid along with her Jewish mother were interned in Stutthof concentration camp, which is near Gdańsk now.
Adam Well, it was it was called Danzig then.
Adam But obviously, like Glen Gdańsk changed his name to Danzig as a tribute.
Adam yeah, they were taken into the nearby woods to be shot amongst a group of prisoners.
Adam But Ingrid and her mom managed to escape and were rescued by partisans.
Adam They lived rough with them for the for the last year of World War II.
Adam After the war, they searched for Red Cross refugee camps for her father and older sister who'd also been sent to another concentration camp.
Adam They did all reunite, but her dad died shortly afterwards, and apparently he was just broken.
Lee Yeah.
Lee Just really.
Adam Yeah.
Adam
Adam there's an animated short called Ingrid Pitt Beyond the Forest, which is her narrating the story of that.
Adam I think it came out after she died.
Adam But it was it's a really good little piece as well.
Adam she was living in Eastberlin when she then she was living in East Berlin, she joined Berthold Brecht's Berliner Ensemble Theater Company.
Adam But was forced to flee to the West on the night of her planned stage debut because she'd been openly criticizing the Communist authorities and basically she got a message saying, right, the stars are coming for you.
Lee Oh my God.
Adam during her escape, she swung across the she swam across the Spree River and was rescued by an American soldier, Loud Roland Pitt.
Adam Who she married and moved to California with.
Adam They had one daughter and after their divorce, Pitt kept her surname.
Adam She moved back to Europe.
Adam And to pursue her career in acting.
Adam Appeared in several films before the two Hammer films that propelled her to stardom, obviously, count Dracula and Vampire Lovers.
Adam
Adam outside of acting, she wrote several books including both fiction, non-fiction and autobiography, had a regular column in Shiver's magazine.
Adam With her third husband, X-racing driver, Tony Ruttling, she was commissioned to write for Dr. Who, the unused script was eventually adapted as an audio play by Big Finish.
Adam She was an obsessive cricket fan, a karate black belt.
Adam held a student's pilot's license and had a passion for World War II aircraft.
Adam Having mentioned this on the radio, she was contacted by the Air Museum at RAF Duxford to have a flight in a Lancaster bomber.
Adam and then and eventually, yeah, died in 2010.
Adam Heart failure.
Adam although, I've got a fantastic quote from her.
Adam I am mad about breasts, especially mine.
Lee Ha.
Adam And, yeah.
Adam And but, yeah.
Adam Ingrid Pitt.
Adam I mean, it's a fucking life and a half.
Adam That her life is more of a film than most of the films she's been in.
Lee I've got to say of all of the Hammer glamour girls, she is by far my favorite.
Lee Like, her like whenever you see her interviewed or anything, she just nails it.
Lee She's such a personality.
Adam She's.
Adam Yeah.
Adam And and that's the thing as well.
Adam Is it's one of again, it's one of those things where it's she curiously, I think exudes like a sort of diva quality, but apparently was not in any way, shape or form a diva.
Adam She was very sort of like.
Adam Like no one has no one said that she was like had airs or graces.
Adam It was a shitty.
Adam You know, everyone has always.
Adam Everyone loved working with her and everyone loved Ingrid Pitt.
Lee I was going to say, it isn't a terribly long story because I don't remember what the details were.
Lee But,
Lee the guys at Southend on Sea, the guy who puts that on, I can't remember his name off the top of my head.
Lee but he met her for something.
Lee They were working on a project.
Lee yeah, because as we said before, Jennifer worked with his wife, yeah.
Lee And I'm sure that was what you're saying, you met her and she was yeah, just apparently as amazing one-on-one as she is, you know, in front of the screen.
Lee So, yeah, just an all round outstanding.
Lee And you you get it through in her acting.
Lee as well.
Lee Even in this, where she plays, as you say, the sort of Halty diva.
Lee She does it all with that kind of cock-sided smile.
Adam She.
Lee That's kind.
Adam And the weird thing is, is her and John Pertwee are an amazing couple.
Lee Yeah.
Adam I think they just genuinely you get the feeling that they you know what I mean?
Adam They feel like they would actually be a natural.
Lee Yeah.
Adam Yeah, they do feel like a couple.
Adam It's like sort of
Adam quite a.
Adam quite a weird one.
Adam But it's sort of just.
Adam It just works, right?
Adam But I mean,
Adam all in all, I mean, it's I'm trying to think.
Adam I don't think there's much else
Lee Oh,
Lee we did we did skip over the the Christopher Lee one.
Adam Oh, no.
Adam That's very true.
Lee Actually.
Lee And that I love the twist in that story because you do watch it the whole time thinking, oh, that poor child is being so mistreated by her father.
Lee And then it's like, oh, no, she's a little shit and if she gets half a chance, she'll kill us all.
Adam Yeah.
Adam But but not only that, but also I think it's a very good because it's that use of Christopher Lee's natural sort of
Adam dour authoritarianism.
Adam That you kind of just and the fact that he's such this like this huge bloke, so you're like, well, what what harm can a little girl do?
Adam But again,
Adam and when the fear comes out,
Adam it's really quite.
Adam You know what I mean?
Adam It's such a because it's so rare to see.
Adam Peter Cushing off his.
Adam off his guard, when he's when he's scared, it's really quite.
Lee Yeah, it's it's unnerving.
Lee To see someone as you say with that kind of demeanor and that bigger stature suddenly act terrified.
Lee And he like he said, he's so rare to see him do it.
Lee And he's just outstanding, I think this although that's a very short performance.
Lee Yeah, I think he squeezes a great deal into it.
Lee And it's yeah, it's.
Lee It is one of my favorite ones of this film if I'm honest.
Adam Yeah.
Adam And and the the.
Adam the tutor that he brings in is played by Nirey Dawn Porter, who is also in from Beyond the Grave.
Adam but we've not again.
Adam another Amicus that we've yet to get to.
Adam So many Amicus, so little time.
Adam but her main thing was.
Adam She played Contessa, Caroline Decantini in a ITC thing called ITC TV series called The Protectors.
Adam And that was kind of like her like five minutes of 15 minutes of fame when she was in this show.
Adam Because it was like,
Adam everyone was just obsessed with her because she was always like really glamorous.
Adam Yeah, and everything.
Adam Which is obviously.
Adam You know, I mean.
Adam It's toned down.
Adam In this, because she's not turning up in like full white pant suits and silk scarves and shit like that.
Adam But it's.
Adam But again,
Adam I think everyone top to tail, I think the cast in this is so good.
Adam And everyone's like sort of going for it properly.
Adam And actually, it's really difficult to spot, but Joanna Lumley's in here as well.
Lee Shit.
Adam She's in she's in the last story, like the the John Pertwee Vampire story.
Adam But.
Adam She's in that, but I think she's only ever seen from behind, but you can kind of tell it's her, but she's got her big like seventies hair.
Lee Yeah.
Adam but yeah, so, so yeah, Joanna Lumley's in it somewhere.
Adam but originally,
Adam the director, Peter Duffell, who mostly did TV, actually.
