THE FOX WITH THE VELVET TAIL

Husband (Kendall), wife (Gade), lover (Sorel)

THE FOX WITH THE VELVET TAIL (aka In the Eye of the Hurricane/1971). Director: Jose Maria Forque. 

Wealthy Ruth (Analia Gade of The Murder Mansion) is bored with her husband, Miguel (Tony Kendall of Kommissar X: Kill Panther Kill), and tells him she's filing for divorce. She takes off for her gorgeous summer place with her equally attractive new boyfriend, Paul (Jean Sorel of Paranoia). Things are going great for the couple until Ruth nearly dies in a couple of accidents, and then Miguel shows up. She wonders if Miguel was somehow responsible for her near-death incidents, but Paul poo poos. A beautiful woman named Danielle (Rosanna Yanni) observes everything from a distance, and then Ruth overhears the two men in her life having a very strange conversation ... 

Jean Sorel

Bolstered by beautiful locations and some adept players, as well as a stylish and romantic aura, The Fox with the Velvet Tail is an intriguing if basically bloodless suspense tale. Analia Gade offers a comparatively perfunctory performance, but the two men are better, and the whole production is smooth and well-paced. The scene when Ruth's brakes fail is thrilling, and a completely silent attempted murder scene late in the picture is very well-shot and edited. Of course, as in most of these movies, there is a slight touch of lesbianism. Viewers expecting a gory giallo film will have to look elsewhere, but this somehow works despite the lack of gruesome killings. 

Verdict: Sorel makes a convincing lover boy. ***. 

IN THE DEVIL'S GARDEN

Suzy Kendall

IN THE DEVIL'S GARDEN (aka Assault/1971). Director: Sidney Hayers. 

A girl, Tessa (Lesley-Anne Down), is sexually assaulted in the woods and is so traumatized that she is unable to speak. Then another girl is not only raped but murdered. Dr. Lomax (James Laurenson) tries to get through to the mute girl without success. Detective Velyan (Frank Finlay of Lifeforce) is frustrated by the lack of clues in the case when Julie West (Suzy Kendall of Torso), the arts teacher at the nearby girls' school, gets a glimpse of the killer, but can only describe him as being "like the Devil." Nevertheless she, a reporter (Freddie Jones) and Velyan and his associates cook up a plan to use the brave Julie as a decoy. Meanwhile there are a few suspects, including the headmistress's sleazy husband, Leslie (Tony Beckley of Beware My Brethren), and even Dr. Lomax and some of the police officers. Julie discovers that the killer is much closer than anyone realizes ... 

Frank Finlay and James Laurenson

In the Devi's Garden, originally released under the dull title Assault, is an interesting and suspenseful thriller with some solid performances. The ending is dragged out a bit too much, and the identity of the killer is telegraphed a bit too soon, but there are some intriguing developments nevertheless. Lesley-Anne Down was introduced in this film -- it was actually her fourth movie -- and is unrecognizable at 17. James Cosmo, Dilys Hamlett, Patrick Jordan, and Anthony Ainley also have significant roles. Sidney Hayers also directed Circus of Horrors.

Verdict: Reasonably worthwhile suspense-thriller. **3/4. 

THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDJ

George Hilton and Edwige Fenech

THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDJ (aka Lo strano vizio della Signora Wardh/1971). Director: Sergio Martino. 

In order to get away from her abusive lover, Jean (Ivan Rassimov), Julie  (Edwige Fenech) married her more pliable husband, Neil Wardh (Alberto de Mendoza), first secretary at the American embassy. Jean is still pursuing her when she meets the cousin, George (George Hilton), of her friend Carol (Conchita Airoldi), and with some initial reluctance begins an affair with him. Meanwhile a mad razor slasher is running around the city of Venice where they all live, brutally murdering young women. The latest victim, who went to a park to confront a man blackmailing Julie over her affair, is Carol. Unable to deal with it all, Julie runs off to Spain with George, where her final fate awaits her ... 

the underground garage sequence

The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardj is better-known in shortened versions under the titles Next! or Next Victim! or Blade of the Ripper. Although listed on imdb.com as being 81 minutes long, Strange Vice actually runs 97 minutes (and could have used a little trimming frankly). Still, it's an intriguing giallo film under any title. There is a terrific sequence in an underground parking garage where the killer pursues Julie, and another suspenseful sequence in the gardens of the Schonbrunn Palace. And, of course, the umpteenth shower murder sequence, although this is not done with much elan. Sergio Martino's direction is adequate but not exactly stylish. 

Ivan Rassimov

Edwige Fenech, who made a career starring in movies like this and stripping to her birthday suit at the drop of a hat, is adequate as the unsympathetic heroine, but she was never hired for her acting skills. Born in Uruguay, George Hilton has a certain presence and appeared in a large number of foreign productions, as did Ivan Rassimov, who was actually born in Italy. He was also in Planet of the Vampires. Sergio Martino also directed Torso. 

Verdict: A twisty and unpredictable script will keep you guessing. ***.  

FRIGHT

 FRIGHT (1971). Director: Peter Collinson. 

Amanda (Susan George) comes to an isolated mansion to babysit the little son, Tara (Tara Collinson), of Helen Lloyd (Honor Blackman of Account Rendered) and her husband, Jim (George Cole). Helen's ex-husband, Brian (Ian Bannen), the father of Tara, has been institutionalized since he tried to murder both Helen and their son. As the Lloyds have dinner and talk things over with Brian's shrink, Dr. Cordell (John Gregson), Amanda has the feeling that someone is stalking the grounds of the estate. A wannabee boyfriend, Chris (Dennis Waterman), shows up, wanting sex, but there's a far worse visitor in store for the terrified babysitter.

Fright has some genuine scenes of suspense, tension and creepiness, but the final quarter is far too drawn out, so that you're almost screaming for the damn thing to finally be over. Susan George gives a generally good performance, while Blackman and Ian Bannen are really top-notch. Bannen, in particular, seems always on the edge of a terrible violence. The film is rather unpleasant, however, and some may not enjoy the fact that a small child is endangered throughout. The boy is portrayed by the director's own four-year-old son. Another problem with the film is that it has several illogical moments. In at least one sequence you have to wonder why the heroine doesn't just run out the back door? Collinson also directed the 1974 version of Ten Little Indians for producer Harry Alan Towers.

Verdict: Comes quite close but somehow drops the ball. **1/4. 

 

PAPER MAN

Powers, Street, Stacy

PAPER MAN (1971 telefilm). Director: Walter Grauman. NOTE: This is a review of the 90 minute theatrical version.

Four graduate students -- Karen (Stephanie Powers), Jerry (James Stacy), Lisa (Tina Chen) and Joel (Elliott Street) -- take advantage of a computer glitch to create a fake identity and credit card, which they intend to use but promise to pay off. When things get a little more complicated and the bank tells them it requires more information, they enlist the aid of computer whiz Avery Jensen (Dean Stockwell), who uses his skills to create a nearly complete background for "Henry Norman." But things take a dark turn when the computer begins to make mistakes, giving one character insulin that kills him and causing an elevator car to crush another of the participants. Is the computer developing its own mind, and is the paper effigy of Henry Norman coming to life? Karen and Avery come to the conclusion that there's a human agent behind their troubles and the others' deaths, but Karen learns that Avery has a deeply problematic psychiatric history. Is she allying herself with the wrong person?

Paper Man was briefly released in theaters with fifteen minutes added to the running time. The computers referred to are not the PCs that we are familiar with today, but those huge computer banks that added data on long white cards with holes punched out. It's interesting to see what computers were like way, way back in the day. As for the movie, it is a minor but suspenseful affair with some intriguing notions and good performances from the entire cast, which also includes James Olson as a concerned computer technician and Ross Elliott as the sheriff.  A clever and creepy sequence has a character pursued down a basement corridor while the lights keep switching off behind her section by section, making it look as if the very dark is chasing her. 

Verdict: Absorbing mystery telefilm with very intriguing elements. ***. 

HANDS OF THE RIPPER

Bryan, Porter and Rees

HANDS OF THE RIPPER (1971). Director: Peter Sasdy. 

Dr. Pritchard (Eric Porter), who has just begun studying the teachings of Freud, decides to take in a 17-year-old orphan named Anna (Angharad Rees) after her guardian, a medium (Dora Bryan of No Trace), is horribly murdered. Pritchard, who may have ulterior motives for taking in the pretty young thing, makes Anna part of his household, despite the fact that she apparently slaughtered her guardian. Incredibly, Pritchard keeps Anna around as the bloody slayings continue. He later learns that Anna is the daughter of Jack the Ripper! 

Daughter of the Ripper: Angharad Rees

Hands of the Ripper is an exciting, well-acted Hammer horror film with handsome appointments and some very gruesome murder sequences. Rees is perfect casting as the angelic-looking gal who can become quite savage and sadistic at the drop of a hat, and Porter makes an effective shrink with less common sense than most. Marjorie Rhodes is fine as the housekeeper Mrs. Bryant, and there are also excellent performances from Dora Bryan, Margaret Rawlings as another medium, Lynda Baron as the prostitute Long Liz, and especially Derek Godfrey as Dysart, someone who wanted to deflower Anna for cash but is blackmailed by Pritchard into finding out the girl's origins. Keith Bell is Pritchard's son, Michael, and Jane Merrow [The Horror at 37,000 Feet] is his lovely blind fiancee, Laura. There's an excellent climax in the whispering gallery of St. Paul's Cathedral -- or rather a replica of it. Some of the gore was cut in the U.S. to give it an R rating, but this is the uncut version. 

Verdict: Quite classy Hammer horror film. ***. 
 

THE MAD BUTCHER

Victor Buono

THE MAD BUTCHER (aka Lo srangoloatore di Vienna aka Meat is Meat/1971). Director: John (Guido) Zurli. 

Butcher Otto Lehman (Victor Buono) is released from a mental institution in Vienna in the care of his rather shrewish wife, Hanna (Karin Field). Otto has no interest in returning to their home, however, but prefers to stay in a room above his butcher shop so he can spy on the naked lady across the way. When he finally loses it and strangles his wife, he decides she might as well serve a purpose -- as Viennese sausages! Others who come afoul of dear Otto wind up in the same condition ... 

Brad Harris and Franca Polesello

Despite the title, Otto dispatches his victims with his hands around their necks, and the butchery that follows is kept off-camera. The Mad Butcher is essentially a grotesque black comedy, with everyone acting a little "off" as they would in a humorous movie. This includes eurospy and peplum hunk Brad Harris as a callous reporter from the Chicago Tribune who is, for unexplained reasons, in Vienna. He begins a relationship with Berta (Franca Polesello), a customer in the shop. The film appears to be a period piece, but from the production design you can't tell exactly which period . There are also precious few shots of the beautiful city of Vienna. The spritely musical score is in direct contrast to the events of the story, but somehow it suits the movie perfectly. As for Buono, he seems to be enjoying himself mightily, but the movie is nothing special.

Verdict: Skip the sausages when in Vienna! **1/2. 
 

THE FOURTH VICTIM

Carroll Baker and Michael Craig

THE FOURTH VICTIM (aka La ultima senora Anderson/1971). Director: Eugenio Martin.

After his third wife is found dead in the pool, Arthur Anderson (Michael Craig) is put on trial for murder. His first two wives also died in accidents, and Superintendent Dunphy (Jose Luis Lopez Vazquez) is convinced that Anderson killed all of them. But the jury doesn't agree, and Arthur enters into a new relationship with a woman named Julie (Carroll Baker). But Julie seems to be hiding a number of secrets which concern the owner of the crumbling estate next door. And did Julie herself commit a murder? Dr. Shephard (Manuel Gallardo) at a certain institution may have the answers if he lives long enough to give them ...

Michael Craig

A co-Spanish/Italian production, the low-budget Fourth Victim is chiefly of interest for the teaming of the two very attractive leads who both play with veracity despite the rather impossible nature of their roles. None of the characters, including the cop, are sympathetic, and a revelation late in the game, which should add to the film's suspense, seems to do just the opposite. A nominal giallo film, this could have used a few grisly murders but the movie instead tries to keep you guessing as to what is actually going on. The premise of the film is far-fetched but workable (and not that original), but the execution is fairly dismal. A really bad musical score doesn't help at all. Although she was past her Hollywood prime, Baker still looks gorgeous, and Craig remained handsome no matter how old he got. 

Verdict: Potboiler with good-looking leads and a convoluted screenplay. *1/2.   

TWINS OF EVIL

Madeleine and Mary Collinson

TWINS OF EVIL (1971). John Hough. 

Gustav Weil (pronounced "vile") -- played by Peter Cushing  of The Beast Must Die -- is a witch hunter who cares nothing about putting innocent women to death by burning. He has his hands full when his two nieces -- Maria and Freida (Madeleine and Mary Collinson) -- become his wards, as at least one of them has no intention of staying pure and virginal. Indeed she is fascinated by the decadent Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas), who is not only a vampire but offers sacrifices to Satan. The choirmaster, Anton (David Warbeck), intervenes when the wrong twin is accused of being in league with Karnstein. Two sides of the same coin, Weil confronts Karnstein in the climax, but it's a question as to which of these loathsome creatures will ultimately win. 

Damien Thomas as Karnstein

Twins of Evil is a highly entertaining and well-mounted Hammer horror film. Peter Cushing offers his customary excellent performance, but while he gets away with being overwrought, the same is not true of some of the actors playing the church elders. The Collinson twins, who I believe posed for Playboy years ago and go bare-breasted in this, are certainly attractive and deliver adequate performances, although all of their dialogue was dubbed by unknown British actors. Damien Thomas is strikingly effective and simply wonderful as Count Karnstein, but although he had many other subsequent credits and is still working today, he never did another horror film, more's the pity. Warbeck, Kathleen Byron [Profile] as Weil's wife, Dennis Price [The Horror of It All] as Karnstein's associate Dietrich, are all notable as well. It's never explained how Karnstein, whose image can't be seen in a mirror, can walk about in broad daylight. This is the final film in the trilogy consisting of The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, and Twins.

Verdict: Blood, vampires, witch hunters, and boobs! ***. 

LEGACY OF BLOOD

Bad Hair Day: Faith Domergue and John Russell

LEGACY OF BLOOD (aka Blood Legacy aka Will to Die/1971). Director: Carl Monson.

Christopher Dean (John Carradine), the hateful patriarch of the Dean family, has expired, and the relatives are gathered to hear the reading of the will. Dean's four children -- Greg (Jeff Morrow), Veronica (Faith Domergue), Leslie (Brooke Mills) and Johnny (Richard Davalos), the last two of which have incestuous feelings for one another -- will inherit millions but must spend a week in the family mansion before they can get a dime. Naturally, murders begin to occur, with the first, inexplicably, being that of the sheriff (Rodolfo Acosta). 

Faith Domergue

Legacy of Blood certainly has an interesting cast in that we've got sci fi hero Jeff Morrow [This Island Earth], Howard Hughes discovery and genre actress Faith Domergue [It Came from Beneath the Sea and This Island Earth as well], Dick Davalos of East of Eden, and another genre specialist, Merry Anders [The Hypnotic Eye], playing Morrow's wife. Then we've got TV stars John Smith and John Russell playing, respectively, Leslie's husband and a servant-driver named Frank. The movie is reminiscent of Curse of the Living Corpse, and not only because of the business with a severed head on the kitchen table. 

Faith Domergue and Richard Davalos

Domergue easily gives the best and most convincing performance although the others are credible, given the material. Davalos has some good moments but is a little too overwrought at times. Ivy Bethune makes her mark as the maid, Helga, and she has one very good scene with Davalos, but Brooke Mills and Buck Kartalian (as another servant, Igor, who likes to be whipped) are memorable for all the wrong reasons. The picture has some atmosphere and a slight touch of suspense, and there's an electrocution-in-bed sequence that's effective, but there are too many "twists" and the black comedy aspect of the ending doesn't really work. This may hold your attention but there have been better dysfunctional family/maniac movies.  

Verdict: Low-budget horror flick could have used a little more originality but it has its moments. **1/4.