Berserk (1967)

Circuses and horror have always been natural bedfellows, and this combination works again in the British 1967 Herman Cohen production Berserk, one of Joan Crawford’s classic 60s horror movies.

And just look at the cast! Not just Joan Crawford, but Michael Gough as well. And in supporting roles Diana Dors and Judy Geeson, actresses more than capable of carrying a movie on their own. Plus wonderful British character actors like Geoffrey Keen, Robert Hardy and Philip Madoc. For cult movie fans this is an absolute dream cast.

Crawford plays circus owner Monica Rivers. The Great Rivers Circus is struggling financially until one of its major attractions, the highwire star the Great Gaspar, is killed during his act. The resultant publicity assures the circus of packed houses for the remainder of its British tour. Of course the Great Gaspar has to be replaced, but as luck would have it on the very night he is killed a highwire performer known as the Great Hawkins (Ty Hardin) turns up looking for a job.  He’s a complete unknown but Monica gives him one chance to prove himself. His act, working sixty feet above the ground not just without a net but above a forest of bayonets, and blind-folded to boot, is an immediate sensation. Soon Hawkins is not just one of the circus’s best-paid performers, he is also sharing Monica Rivers’ bed.

One tragic accident can be excused as just one of the risks that circus performers accept as part of their life, but when shortly afterwards a second death occurs Scotland Yard starts to take a keen interest in The Great Rivers Circus. For this second death was unquestionably murder.

These deaths have the effect of spooking the circus community badly. All the performers are wondering who will be next to die. The most outspoken of the performers are Lazlo (Philip Madoc) and his partner Matilda (Diana Dors), who do a magic act in which Matilda is sawn in half. They’re convinced that Monica Rivers is to blame, but they have no real evidence.

Scotland Yard sends a senior officer, Detective-Superintendent Brooks (Robert Hardy) to investigate. Monica Rivers isn’t thrilled by his presence but there’s nothing she can do. And Monica has her hands full dealing with her new lover the Great Hawkins (who wants to become her partner in ownership of the circus) and her wayward daughter Angela (Judy Geeson). Angela has just been expelled from school. She wants to be part of the circus, and she gets her wish when knife-throwing wizard Gustavo decides he needs a new partner. It’s a dangerous act but Monica realises that she can’t stop Angela from becoming part of the circus. It’s in her blood.

Director Jim O’Connolly isn’t exactly a name to be conjured with. His career as a director was very brief, although it did include another interesting horror film, Tower of Evil. Aben Kandel and producer Herman Cohen shared the screenwriting duties. They decided not to overdo the horror, relying on the magic of the circus itself to carry the film. It was a sound decision, giving the circus performers plenty of opportunities. George Claydon as midget clown Bruno Fontana has a field day. Bruno is an apparently insignificant figure but in fact he knows everything that goes on in the circus. Milton Reid as the Strong Man, Golda Casimir as the Bearded Lady and Ted Lune as the Skeleton Man all have lots of fun.

Joan Crawford is of course very much the star, but her performance is unselfish. She knows she’s working with good people and she’s content to let them shine in their supporting roles, confident that her star power will be undiminished. And of course she’s right. The supporting players take full advantages of their opportunities, with Diana Dors being especially impressive.

Ty Hardin (best-known to Australians for his starring role in the 1969 Australian TV adventure series Riptide) as the Great Hawkins is potentially the weak link amongst so much talent but he’s actually very good and holds his own pretty well.

Columbia’s DVD release is 16x9 enhanced and looks great.

With its circus setting and it’s superb cast Berserk could hardly fail to be entertaining, and it lives up to its potential pretty well. It’s solid entertainment with considerable camp value and I can’t see how any self-respecting cult movie fan wouldn’t enjoy this picture. Warmly recommended, and if you love circus movies or you’re a Joan Crawford then it becomes a must-see movie.

She Freak (1967)

She Freak was written and produced by David F. Friedman in 1967 so you know what you’re going to get. You’re going to get classic 60s sexploitation or possibly classic 60s exploitation gore. If those are your expectations from this movie, then they’re dead wrong.

There are of course exploitation elements in the movie (there’d have to be with a title like that) but they’re downplayed to an extraordinary degree. This movie in fact has all the hallmarks of being a personal pet project of Friedman’s. Friedman was not the sort of guy to be involved in a movie that wasn’t going to make money but in this one instance it seems like he decided he just wanted to make a movie for himself.

Friedman’s background was in the world of the carny and it’s a world he always loved deeply. This movie is a love letter to that world.

This is, naturally, a low-budget movie but unusually for a 1967 exploitation cheapie it’s in colour which allows it to revel in the glamour of carny life.

As far as the plot is concerned it is to a large extent a remake of Tod Browning’s notorious 1932 shocker Freaks. In fact the scenes that bookend the movie exactly parallel the scenes that bookend Freaks. We start with a group of punters viewing a particularly gruesome side-show attraction, a monster that as the carny barker tells us was partly made by God and partly made by Man. Then the bulk of the movie is a flashback that tells us how this woman came to be a freak.

Jade Cochran (Claire Brennen) is a waitress in a grungy diner. She hates her job and she hates her boss. She is convinced that one day she will have all her dreams. And her dreams are all about money. When the advance man from a carnival arrives at the diner and asks to be allowed to put up a poster promoting the carnival Jade thinks she sees her chance. Compared to what she has now working in a carnival has to be an improvement. So she runs off to join the carnival.

She is befriended by a stripper who works the girlie show and she gets a job at the midway diner. She likes the carny life, except for one thing. She can’t stand the freaks. They repulse her.

It soon becomes obvious that the one thing that Jade really wants out of the life is to find the richest most eligible bachelor in the carnival and marry him. Ironically that man, Steve St John (Bill McKinney), is the man who runs the freak show. But he has lots of money and he has a big expensive car and that’s enough to hook Jade, and pretty soon Jade has hooked him. They get married. Unfortunately on a physical level the man who most attracts her is Blackie, one of the ride men. Blackie is a loser and a lowlife but he’s good-looking and sexy in a rough bad boy sort of way and Jade goes for that big time. Jade’s mistake is to think she can be married to Steve St John while still having the occasional roll in the hay with Blackie. Her even bigger mistake is to underestimate the loyalty of carny people, particularly the freaks.

If you’ve seen Freaks you know where this is headed.

While it follows the plot of Tod Browning’s classic movie rather closely She Freak cannot compare to Freaks in shock value. Of course it’s doubtful if any movie can compare to Freaks in shock value.

The actual horror doesn’t kick in until the very end of the movie, although when it does kick in it delivers its chills pretty effectively. Most of the movie though is just a story of carny life, and it views that life in the same affectionate manner that Tod Browning viewed it. Tod Browning had also started life as a carny and both he and David Friedman never lost their love for that life, and never lost their ability to see the poetry and the romance and the excitement and the camaraderie of show life.

Whether you actually enjoy the movie depends entirely on how you feel about the world of side-shows and carnivals. If you’re fascinated by that world (which I admit that I am) then you’ll love the behind-the-scenes glimpses of that world, all shot in a real travelling carnival. If that world doesn’t entrance you then you may lose patience with the very long wait until the horror begins. This is also very unusual for a David Friedman film in that there is absolutely no nudity at all.

Something Weird have released She Freak as part of a two-movie set that also includes H. G. Lewis’s A Taste of Blood. As usual with Something Weird’s offerings the transfer is limited by the quality of the source material as many of the exploitation movies of the 60s only survive in rather battered prints and in most cases the original negative is long lost. In this case they’ve found a reasonably good print and the colours are still pleasingly vivid without the fading that afflicts so many low-budget movies.

I liked this movie, but unless you’re a carny fan I’d have to be a bit hesitant about recommending it. If you are a carny fan then go for it.

Vampire Circus (1972)

Vampire Circus was one of Hammer’s best 1970s productions. This was partly because they’d brought in a lot of new blood - producer Wilbur Stark, screenwriter Judson Kinberg and director Robert Young. The result was a gothic horror movie that felt fresh and original.

Combining circuses with horror always works well and this movie handles the combination particularly well. The circus us more than just a colourful background setting - the Circus of Nights is the cause of the horror.

It starts with what seems like a very traditional Hammer opening sequence. Led by the Burgomeister, villagers with flaming torches descend upon the castle of the evil Count Mitterhaus, who has been seducing and murdering the village girls. The castle is razed and the wicked count is staked. Before he dies the count threatens not just the destruction of the village but also all its children.

Sixteen years later his threat seems to be coming true, although not in quite the way you’d expect of a vampire movie. The village is being decimated by a horrific plague. The surrounding villagers have put a cordon around the village and threaten to shoot anyone who tries to leave. The village doctor believes this is purely a medical problem and forms a plan to escape and reach the capital so he can bring back medicines to cure the plague.

With the village under quarantine the last thing you’d expect would be for the circus to come to town, but that’s what happens. The Circus of Nights is led by a gypsy woman (Adrienne Corri). In fact she’s someone the townspeople should recognise but don’t.

What the villagers don’t know is that the circus is composed mostly of vampires and their plan is not just to carry out Count Mitterhaus’s threat, but also to resurrect the count. They will start by killing the children of the men who led the attack on the count’s castle. There isn’t really much more to the plot than that but it’s more than sufficient for a gothic horror film. The focus is on atmosphere and on the characters of the men who had destroyed the vampire count.

The setting is the usual Hammer 19th century setting but the circus adds a fresh new feel. Director Robert Young handles proceedings with skill.

Apart from Thorley Walters who plays the Burgomeister (and plays the part very well as usual) the actors are mostly fairly new to Hammer, although Anthony Corlan who plays the mysterious animal tamer Emil had appeared previously in Taste the Blood of Dracula. He’s particularly impressive. Also impressive is Lalla Ward (later to be better known as Romana II in Doctor Who) as a vampiric acrobat.

The circus scenes are the highlight of the movie and feature some quite impressive visual effects with acrobats transforming into bats and panthers transforming into beautiful women. There’s also a memorable routine with an almost naked panther woman. And of course there’s an evil clown.

There’s more nudity than was usual in Hammer films and there’s a general air of depravity and perversity that is more reminiscent of European horror than of Hammer’s usual offerings.

The Synapse combo set includes both DVD and Blu-Ray discs. Both transfers are excellent but the DVD is so good that the Blu-Ray transfer is more or less superfluous. Also included is an excellent and fairly lengthy (and very informative) documentary on the making of the film.

Vampire Circus proves that Hammer could still make the grade in the early 70s. This is a gothic horror classic and is highly recommended.

Circus of Fear (1966)

Circus of Fear seems to have been an attempt to combine a gritty crime/mystery thriller with some horror elements, with Christopher Lee included in the cast to make sure horror aficionados got the point. It doesn’t entirely work, despite the undoubtedly charismatic presences of both Lee and Klaus Kinski. The movie might have worked better if they’d played up the horror elements a bit more, but it’s still an interesting hybrid. I must admit that my enjoyment of the film was hampered by the extremely poor DVD picture quality. Since I only paid a couple of bucks for the DVD I shouldn’t really complain though.

Circus of Fear does have the creepiness that a circus background always gives to a movie. There are two parallel plots, one being a revenge plot and the other involving the hunt for the loot from a daring daylight robbery on the Tower Bridge. The film does have some camp value, and it’s decent entertainment if you like low-budget 60s British movies.