NIGHT WATCH

Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey

NIGHT WATCH (1973). Director: Brian G. Hutton. 

Ellen Wheeler (Elizabeth Taylor) is a neurotic wife who has already had one nervous breakdown and is haunted by the death of her first husband in a car crash. She lives with her husband, John (Laurence Harvey of Welcome to Arrow Beach), and has a house guest in best friend, Sarah (Billie Whitelaw). During one dark and stormy night, Ellen is convinced that she has seen a bleeding corpse in the abandoned manor house across the way, but the police find nothing. John and Sarah try to convince Ellen to go off for a rest cure, but Ellen has something else in mind ...

Taylor with Billie Whitelaw

Based on a play by Lucille Fletcher of Sorry, Wrong Number fame, Night Watch is one of those thrillers that initially seems to have a good and unexpected twist until you really start to think about it. Even Agatha Christie might have had trouble completely pulling it off, although it leads to an interesting and rather violent climax. (With only three major characters, there aren't too many directions in which this marital melodrama can go.) The ending is amusing, fun in its way, but far-fetched, and leaves quite a few plot holes when all is said and done. As for the acting, Harvey and Whitelaw come off best, and Taylor is typically uneven, the whining woman-child who would set most people's teeth on edge. The picture is second-rate in most departments, but reasonably absorbing.  

Verdict: More rain, thunder and lightning than you can shake a stick at! **1/4.    

TENDER FLESH / WELCOME TO ARROW BEACH

TENDER FLESH /WELCOME TO ARROW BEACH (1974). Director: Laurence Harvey. 

Hitchhiker Robbin Stanley (Meg Foster) runs into Korean war veteran Jason Henry (Laurence Harvey, who also directed the film) on the beach in front of his large California home. Jason invites Robbin in for a meal and she is introduced to his sister, Grace (Joanna Pettet), who is jealous of the women he brings home due to her incestuous relationship with her brother. Although this is not spelled out in any detail, apparently Jason developed a taste for human flesh when he was lost and isolated during the war. Nearly becoming his next supper before escaping, Robbin tries to tell the authorities -- Deputy Rakes (Stuart Whitman) and Sheriff Bingham (John Ireland) -- how crazy and dangerous Jason is, but they think she's on drugs and don't believe her. With the help of a medical technician named Alex (David Macklin), Robbin re-enters the house of horrors to get more evidence. But both of them may have bitten off more than they can chew (pun intended). 

Laurence Harvey

Welcome to Arrow Beach was originally entitled Yellow-Headed Summer and Walter Pidgeon and Donna Reed were supposed to have been in the cast. The film was re-released under the more exploitative title Tender Flesh and had a major and more explicit advertising campaign: "You won't believe what's behind the meat locker door" and so on. In truth the movie definitely has its gruesome moments (in the uncut version) and there's actually more gore than in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which came out the same year. The horror highlight of the film is a basement murder where the killer takes photographs of the victim, and then literally butchers the woman with an ax, the whole slaughter tableau presented as brutal still pictures with flashing strobes, something that doesn't diminish the disturbing aspects of the sequence one bit.  

Gloria LeRoy

This was Laurence Harvey's last picture, and only one of two that he directed. His performance is excellent. He gets solid performances from Meg Foster and Joanna Pettet, and veterans Ireland and Whitman are typically professional. David Macklin makes a nice impression as Alex, as does Gloria LeRoy as an ill-fated middle-aged model that Jason also encounters on the beach after her paramour has robbed her. Altovise Gore Davis, the wife of Sammy Davis Jr., plays a deputy named Molly. By any name Welcome to Arrow Beach is an interesting if imperfect picture, with both pacing and structural problems, and a score that does very little to create needed suspense or terror, but it's worth a look if for no other reason than the presence of Laurence Harvey both behind and in front of the camera. 

Verdict: You will believe what's behind the meat locker door after that rather savage murder sequence. **1/2.