THREE FILMS FROM THE SEVENTIES

Now the dark nights have drawn in on this small chunk of the galaxy and out second lockdown takes hold I've taken to watching old films on You Tube again. The ones I saw all had Spanish sub-titles but the quality was fine.

The flicks I've seen of late include the following horrors, all three of which I can recommend. Maybe you've seen them?

Massacre Mansion or Mansion of the Doomed 1976: I used to see this in old video rental joints like Blockbuster back when VHS was king. It was the eye-catching cover I think! Anyways I never got to renting it so here we are 25 years later I watched it for free on my lapdog. MM as I'll call it stars a rather desperate-for-work Richard Basehart - yes, of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea fame ten years prior - in a role which must have surely been a voyage to the bottom of his career. Still, an ardent horror fan with an appreciation of the bizarre, I enjoyed MM immensely! 

Essentially it's a mad doctor flick. This time the said doctor - Mr. Basehart - needs a constant supply of fresh eyes for his daughter, who was blinded in a car accident, in which he was driving. His 'donors' are kept alive and imprisoned in his cellar, where they crawl around planning their revenge, the nature of which I'm sure you can guess.

Massacre Mansion reminded me of a much harsher, more visceral film of a similar kind, Eyes Without a Face, a French flick from the Fifties made infamous for its depiction of facial surgery.  I must admit it made my stomach churn when I saw it even in its black and white format.

The Mephisto Waltz 1971 : I tried to watch this on YT last year but the quality was atrocious. This Spanish-subbed version was clear and bright and I really enjoyed it. Waltz is a satanic film in the same coven as the sub-genre's signature flick Rosemary's Baby. It stars Alan Alda and Jaqueline Bisset and concerns Alda, a mediocre pianist being flattered and groomed by aging maestro Curt Jurgens. Jurgens is a sorcerer and has perfected a rite for prolonging his life, which sadly for Alda, means his ending. Bisset is excellent as the wife who works it all out and exacts her own just desserts. Again it was great to see an old creepy movie, full of adult actors and not teenagers. The Seventies obsession with witchcraft is also a huge draw for me.

The Medusa Touch 1978 :  continuing the theme of Seventies' creepiness, this film is about telekinesis. Based on a novel by peter Van Greenaway it stars acting grandee Richard Burton [the Exorcist II; The Heretic] as a man capable of willing disasters simply to happen, disasters which unceasingly get more cataclysmic. Its an unusual film and also features a French detective seconded to Scotland Yard and the great Lee Remick as the conflicted psychiatrist who got proper horror chops in the Omen two years earlier. I liked Medusa and was touched.