Thursday, December 22, 2022

CASH ON DEMAND (1961)

Director: Quentin Lawrence

Writers: David T. Chantler, Lewis Griefer, adapted from Jacques Gillies’ teleplay The Gold Inside

Producers: Michael Carreras, Anthony Nelson-Keys

Cast: Peter Cushing, André Morell, Richard Vernon, Norman Bird, Kevin Stoney, Barry Lowe, Lois Daine, Edith Sharpe, Alan Haywood, (and uncredited cast members) Charles Morgan, Jimmy Cains, Vera Cook, Paddy Smith, Fred Stone, Gareth Tandy, Graham Tonbridge

Harry Fordyce (Peter Cushing) is the fastidious, unsentimental manager of the Haversham, England branch of the City & Colonial Bank. As the bank opens on December 23rd, Colonel Gore Hepburn (André Morell) arrives from the bank’s insurance company to inspect security. Once alone with Fordyce, Hepburn reveals that he is actually there to coerce Fordyce into helping him rob the bank or Hepburn’s accomplices will kill Fordyce’s wife and son.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

Cash on Demand is Hammer Films’ 1961 variant on Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. It is rather fitting that the British studio that had just begun making a name for itself by revamping classic horror with their versions of Frankenstein and Dracula would dabble in an update on the classic Christmas comeuppance tale.

Cash on Demand is not a true modern remake of Dickens’ story, but it certainly shares the same sentiments while exchanging the supernatural for a criminal threat. Harry Fordyce is another office tyrant that receives his dose of holiday terror not from spectral visitations but from a cunning fiend that threatens everything he holds dear. Fordyce’s cold and efficient facade is cracked by the danger to his wife and child that forces him to assist Hepburn in the bank robbery.

The film opens with a leisurely series of panning shots throughout the empty interior of the bank just before it opens for the day’s business. This unusual and uneventful introduction manages to raise our anticipation. We are made to pay attention to the mundane setting that normally would just be a place where business is conducted attracting no interest at all. The uneasy music score that accompanies this while the credits are shown is far more effective than a rapid-fire series of quick cuts and CGI graphics meant to pass the time until the action begins, which is how so many films must present non-plot moments beginning a film these days. We are given time to get a feel for the environment where this entire story will occur.

There is nothing exotic to see in this bank branch setting. However, it’s reality and our intimacy with it is vital to increasing our sense of immediacy about the situation, the characters, and the stakes involved. One hardly expects anything other than the sedate business of a small town bank to occur here. That makes the contrast of the sudden introduction of the sinister all the more riveting. The fact that most of the film takes place in real time during the first hour that the bank opens for business further stresses the immediacy of everything that happens.

One could refer to all of the above business about this film’s stage setting as a less-is-more approach. That is certainly not the case when it comes to the performances of the two leads. Peter Cushing and André Morell are terrific. Cushing and Morell had starred opposite each other two years earlier as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively, in Hammer Films’ The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959). The dynamic between these two actors is much different this time around.

Peter Cushing, of course, was a mainstay of Hammer’s many gothic horror films by this time. Here he is neither villain nor hero. As bank branch manager Harry Fordyce, he is the Ebenezer Scrooge stand-in that first earns our amused contempt and then becomes pathetic and sympathetic as the unwilling accomplice in a criminal’s cruel robbery plot.

André Morell is a sinister joy to watch as Colonel Gore Hepburn. He dispenses amiable charm and wit while reveling in the power he wields over the stuffy Fordyce. He takes sadistic satisfaction in making Fordyce squirm. Hepburn not only makes Fordyce aid him in the robbery of the bank Fordyce takes so much professional pride in, he also tweaks Fordyce’s coldness and lack of Christmas spirit. Hepburn is a fiend, yet he does have more social graces than his bullied victim.


Hammer Films' bread-and-butter was not only their gothic horror films, but also their adaptations of radio and television productions. A 1960 teleplay, The Gold Inside, was the basis for this film. That production also starred André Morell with Richard Vernon also in the role of the head bank clerk Pearson. The teleplay’s director Quentin Lawrence is carried over here, too. He had helmed another of my all-time favorite British thrillers that he also originated on television: the sci-fi horror flick The Trollenberg Terror (1958), re-titled The Crawling Eye in the US.

So, if you have enough neckties, socks, and ugly sweaters, ask for some Cash on Demand this Christmas. Just remember that this much suspense won’t fit in a money holder card. It will take at least four suitcases.

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980), aka YOU BETTER WATCH OUT, TERROR IN TOYLAND


Director: Lewis Jackson

Writer: Lewis Jackson

Producers: Pete Kameron, Burt Kleiner

Cast: Brandon Maggart, Jeffrey DeMunn, Dianne Hull, Ellen McElduff, Brian Hartigan, Peter Neuman, Patricia Richardson, Ray Barry, Sam Grey, Robert Lesser, Andy Fenwick, Joe Jamrog, Wally Moran, Brian Neville, Gus Salud, Elizabeth Ridge, Scott McKay, Peter Friedman, Horace Bailey, Owen Hollander, John Brockman, Burt Kleiner, Shiela Anderson, William Robertson, Philip Casnoff, Michael Klinger, Mark Chamberlin, Mark Margolis, Jim Desmond, Jennifer Novteny, Stephen Mendillo, Ratanya Alda, Audrey Matson, Kerry Broderick 

Jolly Dream toy factory supervisor Harry Stadling (Brandon Maggart) has been obsessed with Christmas his whole life. At a very young age, he had his sense of purity about his parents (Ellen McElduff, Brian Hartigan) and Santa Claus shattered one Christmas Eve. The frustrated, adult Harry sees the things he thinks are good and decent being thwarted by cynical modern-day society and the people he encounters in his daily life. Harry decides to become Santa Claus to reward the good and punish the bad. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

A lot of us can get really carried away with all of the preparations involved to celebrate Christmas. Worse than the decorating, shopping, and gift-wrapping is the housework. It’s one hell of an ordeal for this lazy bachelor to clean his up his dump before having any holiday guests drop in. Nobody likes dust in their eggnog.

Despite all of the effort involved, I think it’s worth it. If I ever start to question if all of this blood and sweat spent to commemorate the season is getting out of hand, I can take comfort in watching Christmas Evil. I have not quite taken my yuletide preparations to that fetishistic and dangerous extreme. 

Christmas Evil is the most offbeat and challenging movie about the yuletide season ever made. It is barely a horror film, wrapped in dark humor, bursting with seasonal traditions, loaded with Christmas cheer, yet confounded by society’s crassness. It does not neatly fit any genre film expectations, which is probably the reason it was not a commercial success. 

Only film fans of a morbid bent will probably appreciate Christmas Evil, yet many of them will be letdown if they come to this flick with expectations of a typical horror movie. This is not just a murderous wacko dressing up like the jolly old elf before beginning the body count. The film buff reveling in the confounding of expectations will derive the most joy from this production. The whole theme of the story is that a lot of things in life do not live up to expectations, especially the Christmas season. 

One can’t help but like this movie’s menace. Brandon Maggart’s performance captures the marginalized, lonely, and naïve character that has us rooting for him. His Harry Stadling is such a nice guy full of childlike idealism that he can’t be faulted for wishing that everyone had true Christmas spirit. However, like many idealists, Harry can’t accept that everything is not the way he wants and goes to a dangerous extreme to demonstrate his beliefs. 

We are introduced to the adult Harry in a manner that immediately establishes his Santa fixation. He sleeps wearing Santa pajamas and cap. His alarm clock is a musical Christmas knick-knack. He begins his day doing morning calisthenics to Christmas music cued up on his phonograph. His home is festooned with an assortment of vintage Santa memorabilia. Since his chalkboard countdown lists 55 days until Christmas, it is a safe bet that all of this stuff is not just set out for the yuletide season but are year-round fixtures in Harry’s quarters. It is certainly no accident that this Santa wannabe works in a toy factory.

A lot of time is spent showing how Harry tries to transform himself into Santa Claus and the preparation involved in fulfilling his Christmas duties. Harry takes a fetishistic satisfaction in the process. This is all done in secret and requires the same obsessive attention to detail and planning as any superhero or supervillain about to begin their clandestine career. 

Along the way we see Harry indulging in some of the Santa Claus activity that must be obsessive to an unhealthy degree if it will actually be carried out. He spies on the neighborhood children to write down in his Good Boys & Girls book and Bad Boys & Girls book what nice things and bad things they have done throughout the year. He has a shelf holding multiple years of these volumes. These notations will determine which children receive nice gifts or bad gifts. Not content working in a modern toy factory, Harry takes an old-world approach to handcrafting toys in his own home workshop.


Aside from some neighborhood children, Harry does not seem to relate very well to anyone. Harry’s younger brother Phil (Jeffrey DeMunn) is happily married, has two sons, and lives in the same house Harry and Phil were raised in. Phil’s wife Jackie (Dianne Hull) and his sons like Uncle Harry, but Phil has always resented his older brother’s instability. Phil’s happy and conventional family life seems to further isolate Harry. 

 

Everything builds up to the big night when Harry as Santa Claus makes his rounds. We swing back and forth between scenes that fill us with as much yuletide cheer as any traditional holiday classic and scenes where things get dangerous. This Santa’s idealism motivates him to make the season bright and to punish those that violate the Christmas spirit. Even the film’s happiest scene is undercut with a touch of unease when Harry’s Santa tells some kids at a Christmas party about the need for them to be good . . . or else. 

These changes in tone may distance some viewers. To the more perverse among us, that makes this film amusing and unpredictable. It all ends on a weird note of ambiguity that makes us wonder if it is supposed to be a happy ending. I suppose it all depends on just how much one empathizes with Harry and his ideals. 

Above all, Christmas Evil still stresses the importance of the kindness, generosity, and sincerity that should be most prevalent during the holiday season. Otherwise, old St. Nick might show up in a less than jolly mood.

Saturday, December 10, 2022

DR. ORLOFF'S MONSTER (1964), aka THE SECRET OF DR. ORLOFF, THE MISTRESSES OF DR. JEKYLL

Director: Jesús Franco (as Jess Franck)

Writers: Jesús Franco (as David Kühne), Nicole Guettard (as David Coll), A. Norévo

Producer: Marius Lesoeur

Cast: Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui, Agnès Spaak, Hugo Blanco (as Hugh White), Luisa Sala, Pepe Rubio (as José Rubio), Perla Cristal, Magda Maldonado (as Magda MacDonald), Pastor Serrador, Manuel Guitián, Rafael Hernández, José Truchado, Marta Reves, Daniel Blumer, Javier de Rivera (as Javier Rivera), Juan Antonio Soler, Julio Infiesta, Julia Toboso, Maribel Hidalgo, Ramón Lillo, Mer Casas, Jesús Franco, (uncredited) Pedro Fenollar 

Over the Christmas holidays, young college student Melissa Fisherman (Agnès Spaak) visits her uncle, Dr. Conrad Fisherman (Marcelo Arroita-Jáuregui), at his castle in Holfen, Austria. She finds the atmosphere there anything but welcoming. Her Uncle Conrad is distant and her Aunt Ingrid (Luisa Sala) has become a drunken recluse. Dr. Fisherman has been long embittered by the affair that his wife Ingrid had with his younger brother Andros (Hugo Blanco). Upon discovering the two lovers together, Dr. Fisherman murdered his brother. He then returned Andros to life in a catatonic state. Using ultrasonic techniques learned from the dying Dr. Orloff (Javier de Rivera), Dr. Fisherman can control Andros to make him follow his orders. Now Andros is sent out to stalk and kill various women Dr. Fisherman has given necklaces containing ultrasonic transmitters. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

When December rolls around, this flashback fanatic wallows in cinematic sentiments of the season. No, that does not mean I binge watch the Hallmark Channel 24/7. Between binges of rum-spiked eggnog and Christmas martinis (don’t forget the mini candy cane garnish), I indulge in filmic festivities of a more outré sort. Except for the aforementioned libations, nothing gets me more buzzed about the holidays than the merry mayhem to be found in such Christmas classics as Tales from the Crypt’s “…And All Through the House” segment (1972), Black Christmas (1974), and Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984).

However, being the eclectic Christmas film connoisseur that I am, I need a change of pace once in awhile. So I cast my gaze beyond the English-speaking world to ring in the holidays with the neck-wringing Dr. Orloff’s Monster.

This French-Spanish production by prolific Spanish filmmaker Jesús Franco was filmed in Madrid. However, as in Franco’s previous and unrelated horror film The Sadistic Baron Von Klaus (1962), this story takes place in the fictional Austrian town of Holfen. Prominently featured is the same imposing castle setting used in Franco’s France-located story The Awful Dr. Orlof (1962). 

Here we have a Dr. Fisherman as the mad scientist villain being referred to as Dr. Jekyll in certain dubs and alternate movie titles. This film has the second of Franco’s many Dr. Orloffs (previously spelled as “Orlof”) in a minor role. This mad doctor name-dropping of Jekyll and Orloff was apparently meant to appeal to a wider horror audience. 

The storyline itself seems rather slapdash. The plot is quite simple once we know of Dr. Conrad Fisherman’s infidelity grudge. The nature of the mad science used to create this film’s monster is barely touched upon. Fisherman seems unconcerned with his accomplishment of bringing a dead man back to life. That feat has actually already been accomplished before the film begins. Fisherman seems to only be interested in sending the zombie he has made of his murdered brother Andros out to murder a variety of sexy women. 

This guy really seems to have some misplaced priorities. Despite being stuck with an inebriated invalid wife that witnessed his act of murder, Dr. Fisherman can still sneak around to charm an assortment of babes. However, it seems his only purpose in doing so is to lavish upon them the gifts of his necklaces with ultrasonic transmitters to lure Andros in for the kill. This serial murder motivation is never explained. We do know that Dr. Fisherman obsesses about the infidelity that occurred many years earlier between his wife and brother. Somehow using the undead Andros to kill other women must vent some sort of animosity Fisherman has. Screw all of that play-God-and-make-scientific-history stuff. Fisherman makes a monster for the same reason any nine-year-old brat would: to kill. 


As in many Jesús Franco films, the nightclub scene figures into the plot. Jazz, drinks, and sexy female performers are fixtures in the weird world Franco’s stories explore. 

That Andros is one cool customer. I just wish I knew how a crusty-faced automaton keeps making the scene appearing in nightclub dressing rooms and killing the talent without even paying the cover charge. I could have saved a small fortune over the years. 


Again we have director Franco’s continued innovations of the erotic mingling with the horror. This was still pretty edgy stuff in the early ’60s. It is dealt with here in a pretty perfunctory manner; girls get naked and then get dead. This certainly suits the theme of obsessive misogyny that seems to motivate Dr. Conrad Fisherman.
 

This is the third of director Franco’s quartet of ’60s black-and-white horror films. While I need to see many more films in his vast filmography, so far, these four early Franco films are my favorites. Dr. Orloff’s Monster is probably the least accomplished of them. While its plot is rendered in a very minimalist fashion, its continuity seems a bit jumbled, and it is a bit of a rehash of The Awful Dr.Orlof, the storyline is clear and the filming is executed with more discipline than many of Franco’s later works. 

As far as any yuletide traditions are concerned, this movie seems hell-bent on confounding them. The only gifts given are Dr. Fisherman’s deadly necklaces, barely any holiday decorations are displayed, no snow has fallen, the only happy carolers are a trio of hotel drunks, the meager attempt made at Christmas cheer in the Fisherman abode is angrily halted by the grouchy doctor, and the warmth of family is nowhere to be found. This film is about a Christmas where the few remaining members of the story’s family are all estranged from each other. The closest bond that any Fisherman family members share is between Melissa and Andros, the father she has never met until he has become an undead mute. 

Every once in a while, maybe we need a break from the holiday hustle and bustle with a Christmas movie that neither celebrates nor condemns the season. Dr. Orloff’s Monster is just indifferent to it.

PHANTASM (1979)

Director: Don Coscarelli Writer: Don Coscarelli Producer: D.A. Coscarelli Cast: Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Reggie Bannister, Angus...