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
LeeGood evening and welcome to Horror.
LeeI'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeAnd we are back for the first time post pandemic, back on the squeaky Chesterfield. I apologize in advance for the squeaky background sounds.
Leebut we are actually all in the same room recording for the first time in
ChrisTwo years now, actual years.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd none of us are wearing trousers.
LeeJust like the old days.
AdamYeah.
Leeso thanks very much for joining us.
Leewe have a quick bit of housekeeping before we get stuck in.
Leewe wanted to do a quick get well soon for friend of the show and previous guest host, Adam.
Adam-
Leenot Adam who we have with us, our other friend Adam, who joined us for the Castlevania episode.
LeeGosh, that was sometime ago.
AdamThat was back in this room.
LeeIt was back in this room, and it was, yeah, it was like episode 15 or something, super early days.
Leehe 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.
AdamOh, yeah.
ChrisSorry to hear that, Adam.
LeeYeah, so, get well soon and, you know, at least you did it doing something proper like walking all the way across the country.
LeeI 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.
LeeHow ridiculous comparatively is that?
AdamI'll teach you.
LeeSo yeah, all our love, Adam, and we shall meet up for beers and biscuits and whatnot very soon, sir.
AdamYeah, get well soon, man.
Chris
Leeso, this evening we are going to be watch we're going to be discussing 1971's Amicus beauty, The House that Dripped Blood.
LeeSo, in traditional style, like back when we were all back in this room and we were still novices,
LeeChris, as it was your first viewing of this masterpiece, what did you make of it?
ChrisThe the first thing that stood out to me was recognizing someone who I knew of as Marcus Brody.
Lee-huh.
ChrisWho turns out it's someone called Denholm Elliott.
LeeDenholm Elliott.
ChrisNow, 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.
ChrisNow, 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.
ChrisSo, 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.
ChrisWhere only luck, he's got the Grail already, cut to middle of fair in the Middle East.
ChrisMarcus Brody wearing bright suit and white hat sticking out like a sore thumb.
ChrisOh, does anyone here speak English?
ChrisStreet vendor, water, No thank you, sir, fish make love in it.
ChrisSo, so that that's my biggest memory of him.
LeeI completely forgotten that he's in that movie. I clearly need to rewatch it again.
AdamOh, he's he's in 'cause he's in the first and third, isn't he?
AdamI don't think he's in Temple of Doom.
Chris
LeeIs he in Temple No, I don't think he is. No, no, he's not.
AdamNo, he's not. He's he's only he's in Raiders and he's in Last Crusade.
AdamYeah.
ChrisBut yeah, so, so I had to readjust slightly and see him as as not that character, but, you know.
AdamHe rocks a chunky knit sweater in this.
ChrisYes.
AdamYou know.
LeeHe does, I know, doesn't he?
ChrisAnd so, yeah, so my my general experience of this film, it's another I I think of it as very charming.
ChrisAnd I'm I was trying to think, what have I said that about previous film, I've definitely said it on some others.
ChrisAnd it could be other Amicus.
LeeI think it was.
ChrisPossibly. 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.
ChrisBut for some reason with this, it it wasn't like, I didn't need that immersion exactly.
ChrisIt was just a very fun, enjoyable,
ChrisAnd I I wondered, like, is that something to do with anthologies?
ChrisI know we've said this before.
ChrisIt'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.
ChrisBut they all seem to be a very high standard, they're all very enjoyable, you know, there's something in there for everyone.
ChrisAnd and you kind of can't get bored, I suppose, because it changes.
LeeYeah.
ChrisIt must be something about that.
ChrisBut I guess you could also completely ruin it, you could have it could seem very disjointed.
Chrisbut yeah, no, this was really good again.
ChrisI even liked the the sort of bright colors, points, it was that stood out a lot.
LeeI 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.
LeeThe 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.
LeeIt 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.
ChrisYeah, no, what did they explain it as? The the house reflected the personality of the people.
LeeYeah.
ChrisThat that was a nice, you know, closing statement.
ChrisYeah, yeah, that's that's good, that's an interesting way too.
ChrisSo it's not like just say haunted house.
ChrisIt's like it's got something else extra.
ChrisNow, the only thing, and I don't know if this is a criticism or if I missed it, was there any blood dripped?
AdamNo.
LeeNo.
AdamThat'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.
AdamYeah.
AdamLike the British like the film classification board and they were like, give us an X.
Adam'Cause it's good publicity, always is.
AdamYou know, whatever, you know, I mean,
ChrisOr like if they get banned, it's pretty good publicity.
AdamWell, 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
LeeOkay.
AdamYou know, I again, that's the same reason why you don't see, like Alf Garnett anymore.
AdamBecause 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.
AdamAnd it's like, you're not meant to necessarily
LeeNo, I was going to say,
Adamagree with the person.
LeeI 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.
AdamYeah.
AdamNo, taxi driver.
LeeYou know.
AdamYou're not meant
LeeNo.
AdamBut 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?
AdamAnd I just wanted View to be like, no, it's 'cause it's filmed on a fucking dash cam.
LeeYeah.
AdamWe're a cinema.
AdamYou know, watch this at home, that's where you're meant to watch it because this isn't going to be great quality.
AdamI thought it might have just been offensive on an aesthetic level.
LeeYeah.
Adambut I mean, yeah, the
Adamall 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.
AdamHouse that Dripped Blood.
AdamI'm really think it's one of the strongest of the Amicus ones.
AdamAll of the Amicus ones are good to great.
AdamBut this one is a particularly good example 'cause I think everything everything works, there's not really a duff story.
ChrisNo.
Adamand you've got a particularly strong cast.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd not necessarily like you said, Chris, not not necessarily,
Adampeople you necessarily associate with horror.
AdamI mean, like John Pertwee being in it, apparently that was originally,
Adamthey offered that to Vincent Price.
Lee
AdamAnd 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.
AdamLike, you can see why it was kind of written for with Vincent Price in mind.
AdamAlthough John Pertwee does a fucking magnificent job.
LeeI was going to say,
Leehe'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
AdamYeah.
ChrisSo he was the fourth one, the arrogant actor.
AdamYes, yeah, Paul Paul Henderson, the the actor who's being searched for, yeah.
AdamAnd I actually like the, it's very close to how he plays
Adamthe third doctor and he's pretty much dressed how he was dressed for the first series.
AdamSeriously, it's the it's the same look pretty much.
Adambut it's that same sort of thing of
AdamI 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?
AdamSo 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.
AdamAnd he was always a miserable git.
AdamAnd quite sort of snappy and snarky and stuff.
AdamSo it's sort of very sort of kind of similar.
LeeSo, just to run through them all quickly, just to remind the listeners who might not have watched it recently.
Leeso the there's the wrap around story as we mentioned, is the detective who is trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the missing actor.
AdamYeah.
Leethen we have method for murder, which is the Denholm Elliott story with the murderer Dominic.
AdamYeah.
LeeHe'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-
Leethe next story is Wax Works with Peter Cushing and the amazing Joss Ackland.
AdamYes.
Leewhich is Peter Cushing is a retired
Leestockbroker.
LeeHe's moved somewhere near wherever this house is, so it's somewhere it seems to be like a seaside town.
LeeThere's
Leethere's a waxworks there.
LeeAnd one of the characters in it looks just like a woman who he loved and was in a love rivalry with Joss Ackland for.
Leeand that goes on from there.
LeeThe third story is sweets to the sweet.
LeeChristopher Lee has a Christopher Lee is a single father with a daughter.
Leehe 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.
ChrisI say that that was my favorite one.
LeeIt's fantastic.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisI didn't
ChrisI wasn't sure, it just really stood out.
ChrisI 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.
ChrisAnd it it unfolds, but just, yeah,
Chrisit seemed to have kind of a lot in it.
ChrisIt it seemed like.
ChrisBecause I I liked the nanny as well.
AdamYeah.
ChrisAnd and of course the girl.
ChrisWas fantastic.
LeeThat 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?
AdamYes.
AdamShe's the, yeah, Chloe Frank, she she lets in the, she lets in Santa.
LeeYeah.
AdamThe murder Santa in the Joan Collins story.
LeeThat's right.
AdamAnd she's also in, The Uncanny.
Chris
AdamYou know where there's the two, the the little girl and she's, yeah, she's the, yeah.
LeeOf course she is.
AdamYeah, so she's actually weirdly quite a veteran of like these films and everything.
AdamAnd, yeah, and she's actually really, really good.
AdamI find her quite I found her quite funny.
AdamDo you know what I mean?
AdamI think she was like genuinely, let's face it.
AdamYou're holding your own with Christopher Lee, pretty much, you know.
AdamIt's pretty.
AdamAnd I can't imagine that.
Adam'Cause that's the thing as well.
AdamIt's Christopher Lee.
AdamSo when it's like, he's being a bit of a dick as a dad.
AdamYou're thinking, he's Christopher Lee.
AdamMaybe he's just being a dick.
AdamSo it's sort of, you know, you sort of I can't imagine that Christopher Lee would have been very tolerant of
LeeNo.
Adamanyone ever.
LeeNo, no.
AdamApart from apart from Peter Cushing.
LeeYeah, and and Vincent Price.
AdamYeah, he takes he takes Peter Cushing seriously.
AdamLooney Tunes cartoons, but other than that, everyone else gets very short shrift.
Leeand then the last the last story is The Cloak, as we said, with John Pertwee and Ingrid Pitt.
Leewhere he plays an actor on a vampire movie, he isn't taken by 'cause it's a budget movie.
LeeHe's very pissed off about the quality of everything, so he goes to get himself his own cloak.
LeeAnd it may have a darker side behind it.
AdamWhich and again, buys the cloak off of the magnificent Jeffrey Bayldon.
LeeYes.
AdamFucking balls to the wall.
AdamI'm just going to be weird.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah, 'cause when he's in 'cause he 'cause obviously we talked about him when, he was in,
Adamnot,
Adamit's not Tales from the Crypt, it was, or is it Tales from the Crypt?
AdamI can never bloody remember which one.
AdamYeah, 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.
AdamBut in that, he's just doing a straight role, very much how say, for example, he plays the warden in Porridge.
AdamYou know, he's he's normal.
AdamHe's daft as arseholes, but he's normal.
AdamWhereas this is fully blown arch, mad as fuck eyebrows.
Adamstroking a cat, which prompted Claire's catchphrase.
Adamwhich is whenever there's an animal in a film, she just goes,
AdamThat cat's dead now.
Adam'Cause she knows it upsets me.
AdamSo, but,
AdamYeah.
LeeHe plays sinister particularly well.
LeeLike in this kind of over the top, partly comedic, he does an outstanding job in his.
AdamYeah.
LeeIt's a small role, but it's amazing.
AdamYeah.
AdamIt'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.
AdamBut in this, it's, you know, everything has to a certain extent a shorthand.
LeeYeah.
AdamTo get where it needs to be.
AdamSo, yeah.
AdamYou're only in it for that scene, go fucking nuts.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, really really take to it, I think.
AdamAnd, 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.
LeeDo you know what?
LeeI said this, I I don't remember anything about that show.
LeeBut we were sitting there and we were watching it and Jennifer said,
LeeI know him and that.
LeeI said, it's Woosel Gummage.
AdamCatweazle.
LeeAnd she said,
AdamOh, sorry, John Pertwee.
LeeAnd she said,
LeeNo, no, she was talking about Balden.
LeeAnd I said,
LeeAnd she went, no, it's not.
LeeAnd I was like,
LeeI'm sure it is.
LeeThen we looked up and I was like, oh, no, it's John Pertwee.
LeeWho's also in the same story.
LeeAnd I was like, oh, it's Catweazle.
LeeI 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.
AdamNo.
LeeBut they both looked very similar.
AdamIn the show, he did. I mean, basically, it was almost like he'd created Woosel in his image.
LeeYeah.
Adam'Cause they looked the same and had similar sort of hair and stuff.
AdamBut obviously, he was real, or not like he well, he wasn't a fucking scarecrow.
LeeYeah, yeah.
AdamI mean.
Adambut yeah, and
Adambut yeah, I think they're all really fucking strong.
AdamThey're really strong fucking stories.
AdamAnd, funny enough, you're saying about that, Chris.
AdamWith Denholm Elliott, he was in, he's in another Amicus that we did.
AdamHe's involved with horror.
Adam'Cause I can't remember.
AdamHe's not the one who gets his hands cut off.
AdamBut he he's one of the people who rip off Tom Baker in the, one where he does voodoo paintings that kill you.
AdamFenton Briedley.
LeeYes.
AdamBut he's not playing Fenton Briedley.
AdamThat was Terence Alexander.
AdamSo.
AdamBut he's, yeah, he's in that.
AdamAnd also 'cause I know that it's I always know that it's one one with you.
AdamHe's the voice of Cowslip in Watership Down.
ChrisOh, right.
AdamSo, you know, but
Adamthat that story, me and, former guest and sibling of Lee,
Adamme and Dean, I don't know, we probably spent about three months keep saying to each other, you can thank my strangler for that.
LeeThat.
Adam'Cause it just sounded filthy.
AdamIt just sounded filthy.
AdamYou know,
AdamBut also, yeah, it's
Adamit'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.
AdamHe's got enormous teeth.
AdamHe laughs like he's been lobotomized.
AdamWhat's his name, Dominic?
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd it's like, I feel that slightly at odds with.
AdamBut there we go, you know.
LeeThat name definitely a placeholder. You should have gone back and there.
AdamUnless he was just going to he was going to shorten it to Dom at some point.
AdamBut,
LeeBut yeah, I just I always love to see Denholm Elliott in anything.
AdamYeah.
LeeHe'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
LeeYeah, 'cause mystery and imagination, all those types of things he did.
AdamYeah, 'cause he's in Rude Awakening in Hammer House of Horror, which is one of my favorites of that series.
AdamMaybe we'll have to do that as an offshoot.
AdamYou know, we'll do the Hammer House of Horror for.
LeeI love those.
Adam'Cause they're genuinely, they're pretty
AdamI mean, fortunately, I think probably 'cause it was just one series, so it's really strong.
Adambut yeah, I don't think there's much in that that's I don't think there's any really duff ones in that.
AdamAll 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.
AdamYou know, there's a lot of.
AdamAnd yeah, Denholm Elliott's in in that one.
AdamAnd, 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.
Adamin 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.
AdamAnd basically, Satan turns up in human form and Denholm Elliott's daughter's in a like vegetative coma.
AdamAnd he basically revives her from her coma, but it's not good.
AdamAs it never is with David.
LeeAs it never is with that.
AdamWell, no, it's Dennis Potter as well, so it's.
AdamAnd 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
AdamBut also, yeah, the Signalman is another key thing from the Ghost Stories from Christmas.
LeeI watched that this Christmas.
LeeThat is still astonishingly good.
AdamIt's a brilliant.
AdamIt's a it's a brilliant version of an amazing story.
AdamBut yes, so,
Adamhe's he was in like mystery and imagination and thriller.
AdamBut 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.
AdamAnd 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.
Adamwhere it's like, oh, you're you're very good for horror and you're very good for comedy.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd I think it's that ability to play it straight.
AdamBecause you don't basically, yes, Jeffrey Bayldon's a magnificent in this.
AdamBut a film full of Jeffrey Bayldon's would be a bit much.
LeeYeah, yeah.
AdamWhereas this, he sort of it grounds it. Yeah, he really feels real.
LeeYeah.
AdamI mean, the amount and not that, the amount of bloody fags he gets through in this.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know.
AdamI mean, I know he's a writer, but he, you know, I don't think Dominic had much to do.
AdamYou know, probably just.
LeeI thought that as well, and the fact that he's pouring himself a drink every two minutes.
LeeI was like, do you know what, if I was drinking straight whiskey and trying to write, I would probably write two pages.
LeeAnd then be like, yeah, this is all out of focus.
LeeLike the way he just guzzles it away while he's working.
AdamNo, he's just slamming it.
ChrisDo you think do you think they would do that now, or is that something of the era?
Adam'Cause I
ChrisBecause in a few films where there's quite a lot of drinking.
AdamTo tell you the truth, I I think it's the era.
AdamI don't think it would be.
AdamMuch in the same way, what was the what was the ad the advertising show, Mad Men?
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd everyone kept going on about the fact that everyone in it was constantly chain smoking and drinking at work.
AdamAnd it was like, yeah, because that was pretty much
LeeWhat normal.
Adaman accepting practice back in those days.
AdamAnd I think similarly with this, the people who watched it at the time,
Adamthat would have not even been a thing that you'd have noticed.
AdamYou know.
AdamAnd,
Adamto to a greater or lesser extent, you know, I think frankly I'll I'll put in a vote now.
AdamTo say that I think we should bring back drinking at work.
AdamNot not necessarily driving.
AdamNot necessarily if you're a surgeon.
AdamBut frankly, if you've got an office job and you get in the bus, fuck it.
AdamYeah.
LeeI used when I used to work on a very busy sales floor of over 100 people, we were
Leeit 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.
LeeYeah, 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
LeeYeah, like a, you know, it it did used to work for some people.
LeeSo it in a.
LeeIn the right environment, I think it this.
AdamIt greases the wheels for most, just don't film it, you know.
AdamThat's that's the key.
LeeThat's the thing.
LeeSo I've got to admit, I missed drinking during the podcast 'cause I used to
LeeDenholm Elliott it when we were recording, but 'cause it just made 'cause 'cause it just made me forget the microphone.
LeeAnd I just waffled like.
LeeWe were all just sitting around having a drink.
LeeYeah, 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.
Adamand,
AdamI'm going to have to put a shout out for Robert Lang who plays the psychiatrist in this.
Adamwho hasn't got that big a role.
AdamBut a, is great.
AdamBut also he's just one of those faces who pops up in loads of things.
AdamYou know, he's Denholm Elliott's psychiatrist in this, the guy with the bald guy with the mustache.
LeeYeah, yeah.
AdamAnd he just always he rocks up in so many things and just he's really, really great.
AdamBut he's mostly sort of generals, policeman or or doctors, he sort of seems to be authority type.
AdamYeah, it's that sort of thing.
AdamBut also he just has a lovely line in doubt, is the best way I can put it.
AdamIs that he has a really good way of sort of, yes, well, I'm sure it's real to you.
AdamYou know.
AdamHe he does that sort of that that kind of characterization quite sort of quite well.
AdamI really
AdamI really enjoyed him in that.
Adam
AdamAnd also, I mean, like
AdamI 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?
AdamOh, this is Dominic.
AdamHe's my strangler.
AdamHe was.
AdamWhich again.
AdamStill sounds dirty.
Adambut he roams the country killing people for no good reason.
AdamLaughing maniacally.
AdamAnd I'm like,
AdamYeah, you haven't really put much backstory in this, have you, mate?
LeePretty one.
LeeYeah, 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.
Leeapart from Wax Works, which was written by someone called, Russ Jones.
AdamYes.
LeeHe doesn't get a credit on this, but he wrote a lot of
Leelike EC comics like horror comics rather not EC.
LeeYeah, so I looked him up on IMDB, yeah, and he did a lot of the EC comics.
LeeAnd it he that was how he started and then he got into movies from there.
LeeSo this afternoon as a bit of research, I went on YouTube and watched the whole of Gallery of Horror.
AdamOh, wow.
Lee'Cause yeah, 'cause I that came up in my notes and I was like, oh, I've never seen that.
LeeSo, good.
LeeYeah, well, as I mentioned to, you know, off Mike,
Leemy plan was to watch, see what the kind of wrap around was like.
LeeWatch the first story and just get a feel for it.
Leeand I sat through the whole hour and 22 minutes of it because I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Lee
Leethey're a bit off the wall and they're very cheaply shot.
LeeIt looks.
LeeI tell you what it looks like.
LeeIt 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.
AdamOh, right, yes.
Leebecause it's exactly the same castles with the lightning and I'm sure they've literally just lifted it out and stolen it.
Lee
Leebut yeah, it's it's really good.
LeeIt's well worth watching.
Leeall of the all of them are original stories, apart from the last one.
LeeI thought.
LeeBecause the very last story, which is only about 10 minutes,
Leeyeah, and it's a man named Harker going to Transylvania to see Count Alucard.
Lee-huh.
Leeregarding buying Carfax Abbey.
LeeBut it's worth watching because it does have a twist in it.
LeeIt's the it it starts off just a Dracula.
LeeAnd then takes a whole new spin.
LeeYeah, and I I really enjoyed it.
LeeI thought it was good, it's got like a 3.4 on IMDB, which is
Leewhich is terrible, because I mean, it definitely deserves more than that.
LeeIt's and it's very, if you're in the mood for one of those,
Leeyou know, like the American International type ones, yeah, it it's it works alongside those perfectly.
LeeI'll I really enjoyed it.
ChrisYou have to set your expectation.
LeeCorrectly.
LeeI think I did. I think because it had such a low IMDB, I was like, this is clearly going to be dire.
LeeBut I'll give it a go.
LeeYeah, and I think going in with that expectation, I was surprised.
LeeI mean, it it was never going to rival the House that Dripped Blood, it's nowhere near that league.
LeeBut if you want some new.
Leethat you haven't seen before, it's it it works.
LeeI say and it's on YouTube, so you can just watch the whole hour and 20 minutes.
ChrisFantastic.
LeeSo.
AdamDefinitely going to have to do that.
Adam'Cause from the standpoint of Robert Block, this was his third film for Amicus.
AdamSo he did The Skull, which isn't an anthology film.
LeeWhat an awesome movie.
AdamBut also with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, great great film.
Adamthen he did Torture Garden.
AdamAnd then after this, he did Asylum.
Adamand Asylum, again, can't wait to show you, Chris.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, and and Torture Garden, they both they both great.
LeeI still haven't seen Torture Garden.
AdamI, oh, yeah, I was meant to bring that around.
AdamI do apologize.
Lee'Cause that's right.
Adam'Cause I upgraded to Blu-ray, so I said leave your DVD.
LeeWoo.
AdamBut, yes, so, so yes.
AdamSo we've got.
AdamThen you get the second story, like the waxwork story.
Adamapparently, this this was filmed just around the time when Peter Cushing's wife became ill.
LeeOh, yeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd apparently, he was trying to actually get out of the.
AdamHe was trying to get out of doing a film.
Adam'Cause he didn't want to leave her.
Adambut it was a contractual obligation.
AdamSo he said,
AdamAnd it's not like.
Adamhe doesn't perform.
ChrisYeah.
AdamDo you know what I mean?
AdamThat's that's the thing.
AdamI think he I think he was too professional and had too much, you know, pride and everything to not give his best.
AdamBut, yeah, under the circumstances, it's sort of, yeah, it's sort of fairly sad.
AdamBut you've got,
Adambut again, it's the weirdest story in the world because I don't know about you guys, but I felt that
Adammaybe they weren't that bothered about the girl.
LeeYeah.
AdamBecause they did seem like an old couple.
LeeYeah.
AdamDo you know what I mean?
AdamThey they sort of That's how it sort of comes over.
AdamAnd it's like, you've got the whole sort of, you've got the whole sort of fighting over the girl thing.
AdamAnd it's like,
AdamI don't think you're I think you guys might have missed the trick here.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamYou know.
AdamBut yeah, so you've got.
AdamSo you've got Mr. Cushion.
AdamBut obviously, you've got the incredible Joss Ackland.
AdamWho,
Adamawarded the CBE in 2001.
AdamPerformed the first gay kiss on the West End stage with Denholm Elliott.
AdamIn in a play called Bermondsey.
AdamFrom 1971.
Adamhe's the eccentric.
Adampassenger in the music video for the Pet Shop Boys A Way's on My Mind.
AdamAnd the voice of so much.
AdamThere's so many advertising.
Adam'Cause he is Mr. Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes.
LeeOh, is he really?
AdamAnd he's also Good old yellow pages.
LeeOh, I didn't know that.
AdamThey're not there for the nasty things in life, like a blocked drain or a leaky roof.
AdamThey can also be there for the nice things as well.
AdamSo, yes, that's his
AdamSo, you know, I mean, he's all over the fucking shop.
AdamAnd, you know,
Adamhe's still out there, he's he's in Rasputin the Mad Monk.
AdamHe's in the the Hammer Rasputin.
LeeI've not seen that.
AdamI've still not seen that.
LeeIt's been years or so.
LeeI need to re.
LeeI remember it being like I remember Christopher Lee just going ape shit.
AdamYeah, Christopher Lee.
AdamFrom 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.
AdamAnd it's his favorite role, I think, or one of his favorite roles.
Adam'Cause I'm pretty sure the Wickerman is.
LeeRemind 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.
Adambut obviously, and to our generation.
AdamObviously, he was in Lethal Weapon two and the reason why thousands of children in playgrounds screamed
AdamDiplomatic immunity, Mr. Riggs at each other.
Adam
AdamAnd 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
AdamOh, what was it,
AdamAnd he's in the Copper Beaches in the Cherry Bloke.
LeeI was going to say, my favorite performance of his is in the Copper Beaches.
LeeYeah.
AdamHe is great in that.
AdamAnd he was in Mystery and Imagination, Tells the Unexpected, all those things.
AdamAnd he's the voice of the Black Rabbit in Watership Down.
ChrisOh.
Lee
AdamAnd he also, I forgot about this.
AdamHe's the narrator of the documentary I've got in search of the Great Beast 666, which is a documentary about Alister Crowley.
LeeOh, no, he looks a bit like Alister Crowley.
AdamHe could play Alister Crowley quite well, I think, actually.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
Adamthe 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.
AdamBut if I was her,
AdamI'd have a word with that props bloke.
Adam'Cause that's the only failing of that story.
AdamIs that it's like, it looks so much like her.
LeeNo, it don't.
LeeYeah, yeah, yeah.
AdamIt looks so much like her if you if, you know, if I tried to make a sculpture of her on a sex doll.
AdamIt's it's not good.
AdamIt'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.
AdamThey're all a bit they're all a bit big face, you know, so.
AdamBut.
Adambut the guy who plays the proprietor of the wax museum is a guy called Wolf Morris.
Adam
Adamwho is,
AdamJewish Ukrainian.
AdamBut he's along with another actor in this, he spent a great deal of his career playing a variety of ethnicities.
LeeLike I I
LeeI appreciate they weren't that many actors over here, possibly of those ethnicities, so it might have been difficult.
LeeBut he doesn't even look anything like it.
AdamNo.
LeeNo.
AdamThis is the this is the bizarre thing.
AdamIt was almost like.
AdamIt was almost like shorthand of swarthy was like.
Adamsort of right, right.
AdamThat means you can play most of the rest of the planet, apparently.
AdamAnd it's a bit.
AdamBut weirdly enough, the other one who's in it, who is,
Adamoh, what's his name, John Bennett, who is the copper.
Lee
Adam
AdamNow, he again, he did play Lee Chen.
AdamIn the Talons of Wang Chiang, a Dr. Who story.
AdamSo he's in yellow face for that.
AdamAnd you're like,
Adamagain, why?
AdamYou know.
AdamIt's I mean, he's a good actor, but he.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamHe.
AdamWhy would you not go for someone who,
LeeYeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamAgain.
Leeobviously.
AdamOf of right, ethnicity.
LeeWe we wouldn't do it now because we can easily get actors, we have lots of actors in this country from other places.
LeeAnd 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.
LeeBut you'd at least pick an actor who has similar features.
AdamWell, say for example, going back to our last episode, Burt Kwouk.
AdamWho said that he's played every Asian nationality.
AdamHe's played Japanese, Chinese, Korean.
AdamAnd,
Adambut, yeah, 'cause he's in the right ethnicity, you know, to sort of be able to pull that off.
AdamBut it's.
AdamNo, it's a wonder, it really is, but I don't know 'cause again, John Bennett is a very,
Adamit's a 'cause I love John Bennett.
AdamI think he's a great actor and he's brilliant in this.
AdamBut the weird thing is, is.
Adamunder normal circumstances, I feel that him.
AdamAnd John Bryans, who plays Stoker, would be the other way around.
AdamBecause John Bennett looks sinister, you know, although obviously his greatest moment is in Porridge.
AdamWhere he's the doctor.
Adamwho says to Fletch, right, you see that flask?
AdamFill it.
AdamWhat from here?
AdamSo.
Adam
Adambut he,
AdamYeah, John John Bryans.
Adamwho plays Stoker.
AdamIs 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.
AdamBecause,
AdamYeah, and it's just I like the fact that it switched around.
AdamBecause Stoker's much more menacing for being quite normal.
Adam
Adamin inverted commas.
AdamBut he was I recently finished watching Blake 7.
AdamAnd he turned up in Blake 7 a couple of times, but once as a torturer called Shrinker.
AdamWhich is just a great name anyway.
AdamBut,
Adamhe'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.
AdamAnd 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.
AdamHe is a sniveling wretch of a pathetic human being.
AdamAnd he's very fucking good in it.
LeeIt's.
LeeThat'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.
LeeAnd it all.
LeeLike I'd forgotten that it it did that and that like that's a very unusual thing, but I really enjoyed that.
AdamI think also, speaking of speaking of the last story, obviously, we have the mighty John Pertwee in there.
LeeYeah.
AdamFather of Shaun, brother of Bill.
AdamBut.
AdamWe also have Chris's first, well, I assume Chris's first experience with Ingrid Pitt.
AdamThe incredible Ingrid Pitt.
Adamwho again, brilliant at the comedy side of it as well as the horror side of it and everything.
AdamPolish bomb.
AdamReal name Ingush I'm going to say this wrong, Ingushka Petrov.
AdamHer German father was a rocket scientist who refused to work on the Nazi military rocket program.
AdamSo, five-year-old Ingrid along with her Jewish mother were interned in Stutthof concentration camp, which is near Gdańsk now.
AdamWell, it was it was called Danzig then.
AdamBut obviously, like Glen Gdańsk changed his name to Danzig as a tribute.
Adamyeah, they were taken into the nearby woods to be shot amongst a group of prisoners.
AdamBut Ingrid and her mom managed to escape and were rescued by partisans.
AdamThey lived rough with them for the for the last year of World War II.
AdamAfter the war, they searched for Red Cross refugee camps for her father and older sister who'd also been sent to another concentration camp.
AdamThey did all reunite, but her dad died shortly afterwards, and apparently he was just broken.
LeeYeah.
LeeJust really.
AdamYeah.
Adam
Adamthere's an animated short called Ingrid Pitt Beyond the Forest, which is her narrating the story of that.
AdamI think it came out after she died.
AdamBut it was it's a really good little piece as well.
Adamshe was living in Eastberlin when she then she was living in East Berlin, she joined Berthold Brecht's Berliner Ensemble Theater Company.
AdamBut 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.
LeeOh my God.
Adamduring her escape, she swung across the she swam across the Spree River and was rescued by an American soldier, Loud Roland Pitt.
AdamWho she married and moved to California with.
AdamThey had one daughter and after their divorce, Pitt kept her surname.
AdamShe moved back to Europe.
AdamAnd to pursue her career in acting.
AdamAppeared in several films before the two Hammer films that propelled her to stardom, obviously, count Dracula and Vampire Lovers.
Adam
Adamoutside of acting, she wrote several books including both fiction, non-fiction and autobiography, had a regular column in Shiver's magazine.
AdamWith 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.
AdamShe was an obsessive cricket fan, a karate black belt.
Adamheld a student's pilot's license and had a passion for World War II aircraft.
AdamHaving mentioned this on the radio, she was contacted by the Air Museum at RAF Duxford to have a flight in a Lancaster bomber.
Adamand then and eventually, yeah, died in 2010.
AdamHeart failure.
Adamalthough, I've got a fantastic quote from her.
AdamI am mad about breasts, especially mine.
LeeHa.
AdamAnd, yeah.
AdamAnd but, yeah.
AdamIngrid Pitt.
AdamI mean, it's a fucking life and a half.
AdamThat her life is more of a film than most of the films she's been in.
LeeI've got to say of all of the Hammer glamour girls, she is by far my favorite.
LeeLike, her like whenever you see her interviewed or anything, she just nails it.
LeeShe's such a personality.
AdamShe's.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd and that's the thing as well.
AdamIs 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.
AdamShe was very sort of like.
AdamLike no one has no one said that she was like had airs or graces.
AdamIt was a shitty.
AdamYou know, everyone has always.
AdamEveryone loved working with her and everyone loved Ingrid Pitt.
LeeI was going to say, it isn't a terribly long story because I don't remember what the details were.
LeeBut,
Leethe guys at Southend on Sea, the guy who puts that on, I can't remember his name off the top of my head.
Leebut he met her for something.
LeeThey were working on a project.
Leeyeah, because as we said before, Jennifer worked with his wife, yeah.
LeeAnd 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.
LeeSo, yeah, just an all round outstanding.
LeeAnd you you get it through in her acting.
Leeas well.
LeeEven in this, where she plays, as you say, the sort of Halty diva.
LeeShe does it all with that kind of cock-sided smile.
AdamShe.
LeeThat's kind.
AdamAnd the weird thing is, is her and John Pertwee are an amazing couple.
LeeYeah.
AdamI think they just genuinely you get the feeling that they you know what I mean?
AdamThey feel like they would actually be a natural.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah, they do feel like a couple.
AdamIt's like sort of
Adamquite a.
Adamquite a weird one.
AdamBut it's sort of just.
AdamIt just works, right?
AdamBut I mean,
Adamall in all, I mean, it's I'm trying to think.
AdamI don't think there's much else
LeeOh,
Leewe did we did skip over the the Christopher Lee one.
AdamOh, no.
AdamThat's very true.
LeeActually.
LeeAnd 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.
LeeAnd then it's like, oh, no, she's a little shit and if she gets half a chance, she'll kill us all.
AdamYeah.
AdamBut 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
Adamdour authoritarianism.
AdamThat 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?
AdamBut again,
Adamand when the fear comes out,
Adamit's really quite.
AdamYou know what I mean?
AdamIt's such a because it's so rare to see.
AdamPeter Cushing off his.
Adamoff his guard, when he's when he's scared, it's really quite.
LeeYeah, it's it's unnerving.
LeeTo see someone as you say with that kind of demeanor and that bigger stature suddenly act terrified.
LeeAnd he like he said, he's so rare to see him do it.
LeeAnd he's just outstanding, I think this although that's a very short performance.
LeeYeah, I think he squeezes a great deal into it.
LeeAnd it's yeah, it's.
LeeIt is one of my favorite ones of this film if I'm honest.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd and the the.
Adamthe tutor that he brings in is played by Nirey Dawn Porter, who is also in from Beyond the Grave.
Adambut we've not again.
Adamanother Amicus that we've yet to get to.
AdamSo many Amicus, so little time.
Adambut her main thing was.
AdamShe played Contessa, Caroline Decantini in a ITC thing called ITC TV series called The Protectors.
AdamAnd that was kind of like her like five minutes of 15 minutes of fame when she was in this show.
AdamBecause it was like,
Adameveryone was just obsessed with her because she was always like really glamorous.
AdamYeah, and everything.
AdamWhich is obviously.
AdamYou know, I mean.
AdamIt's toned down.
AdamIn this, because she's not turning up in like full white pant suits and silk scarves and shit like that.
AdamBut it's.
AdamBut again,
AdamI think everyone top to tail, I think the cast in this is so good.
AdamAnd everyone's like sort of going for it properly.
AdamAnd actually, it's really difficult to spot, but Joanna Lumley's in here as well.
LeeShit.
AdamShe's in she's in the last story, like the the John Pertwee Vampire story.
AdamBut.
AdamShe'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.
LeeYeah.
Adambut yeah, so, so yeah, Joanna Lumley's in it somewhere.
Adambut originally,
Adamthe director, Peter Duffell, who mostly did TV, actually.
