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British "Portmanteau" Horror Movies of the 60s and

G

garrick92

Guest
You know the ones I mean. One film, four separate stories, with a narrative linking device.

I'm thinking specifically of things like 'Tales that Witness Madness', set in a lunatic asylum and featuring (a) the one with the kid with the imaginary tiger :hmph: (b) the sculptor who falls in love with a tree (and murders Joan Collins!) :confused: (c) the haunted penny-farthing :eek!!!!:, and (d) the Voodoo sacrifice :confused:.

Surely *everyone* has seen that one, albeit perhaps without realising that this was what it was? Or that it was an entire genre, shamefully neglected by the critical literature?

There's the one (also set in an asylum) in which Herbert Lom builds a little robot, and someone else gets attacked by a dismembered corpse (with all the bits done up parcel-style); the one in which the narrative link is Peter Cushing as the owner of a 'cursed curiosity shop' (all the stories revolve around objects he sells); and (my personal favourite):

"The Uncanny", in which all four stories are about evil intelligent cats, and the linking device is Peter Cushing (natch) as an author trying to convince a publisher to accept his m/s ("The Cats ... They're taking over ..!").

Ridiculous, and the cherry on the cake is that PC gets 'moggied to death' after being politely ushered out of the office (basically, stage hands stand offcamera and throw live cats at him, hoping that it will look like they're leaping at him, but in fact ending up looking exactly like offcamera stage-hands are throwing cats at him :D ).

Anyone else have a special place in their heart for these films? They're shite; I love them. Talk about them here.
 
I really, really love these fillums.........

Hey, are you Guardian Garrick?
Thought so.

I love these fillums too. I remember one where a young Tom Baker was somehow a bit wicked and had a portrait of himself which, whatever was done to it, somehow caused Tom to feel the effects. So when it was locked in a safe he started suffocating... Eventually the painting had turps accidentally spilt on it, smearing it horribly, just as Tom met a truck on the Old Kent Road... marvelous.

There were 'Tales From The Crypt' collections too. As a lass I read a horrendous TFTC comic featuring a man being chased down a bendy corridor with razor blades sticking out of the walls- and the lights went out... A few years later, this childhood trauma was brought cinematically to life. The horror. The horror.

Stephen King's stories were 'done' like this in 'Cat's Eyes' too. Have you noticed the degree of cross-reference to be found in SK's work? It contributes to a satisfying level of willing suspension of disbelief. In Cat's Eyes, not only do we get 4 SK stories, we also have brief cameos by Christine and Cujo too.

I could go on....
 
Re: I really, really love these fillums.........

escargot said:
Hey, are you Guardian Garrick?
Thought so.[/B]
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[Examines nails] Might be ... who's asking? ;)
one where a young Tom Baker was somehow a bit wicked and had a portrait of himself which, whatever was done to it, somehow caused Tom to feel the effects. So when it was locked in a safe he started suffocating... Eventually the painting had turps accidentally spilt on it, smearing it horribly, just as Tom met a truck on the Old Kent Road... marvelous.
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God, yeah -- I only ever saw that one once. That *was* weird, wasn't it? 'The Portrait of Dorian Grey meets Rasputin'. Odd, very.
I read a horrendous TFTC comic featuring a man being chased down a bendy corridor with razor blades sticking out of the walls- and the lights went out... A few years later, this childhood trauma was brought cinematically to life. The horror. The horror.
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Jaysous that is horrible!
Urgh! I've never quite recovered from the opening scene in 'Un Chein Andalou', either [reflexively claps hand to eye]
Stephen King's stories were 'done' like this in 'Cat's Eyes' too. Have you noticed the degree of cross-reference to be found in SK's work? It contributes to a satisfying level of willing suspension of disbelief. In Cat's Eyes, not only do we get 4 SK stories, we also have brief cameos by Christine and Cujo too.
I could go on....
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Please do ... I'm especially interested in the effect that this genre had on Hollywood: as far as I can tell (and I've not put any great thought into the matter) the first of the 'Portmanteau' genre was 'Dead of Night' (1945),

"Dead of Night" also established the Portmanteau format of "four stories, three scary, one light-hearted" (with the non-scary on eusually being 3rd of the 4: that format always annoyed me, but I suppose -- older and wiser, now -- that it gets difficult to maintain tension over four stories). "Cat's Eye" managed to get round that convention by making all the stories slightly funny (in a terrifying kind of way), which has always given me a bit more respect for it than I would otherwise have had. You're right about the touches of King's other stuff: that's part of this "playful" aspect of the film, too.

(DoN was also the first where they got different directors to do each segment (a la 'Twilight Zone' movie and 'Four Rooms')).
 
Ahhh, 'Twilight Zone'!

This fillum had the added ingredient of genuine tragedy, with the horrendous death of Vic Morrow and the subsequent manslaughter trial.

I enjoyed on TV with my elder son Dyl years ago. When, much later, we bought our first car, he took great delight in re-enacting the Dan Aykroyd 'wanna see something REALLY scary?' scene.

The full glory of the Simpsons' 'school bus attacked by gremlin scene' didn't make sense to my younger lad until he saw the 'Zone.

Of course, The Simps themselves appear in portmanteau Halloween episodes, which is the ultimate accolade for any genre.
 
I'm a big fan of British horror films in general. Well, I was around ten to fifteen years or so ago, when between them the terrestrial TV channels (mainly BBC2 and C4) seemingly aired almost every 'classic' Brit horror film in existence. Sadly, they don't seem to get shown anymore, and I never taped them, so I'd pretty much forgotten about them until I found this excellent site...

http://www.britishhorrorfilms.co.uk/index2.shtml

...and it all came flooding back. :cool:
 
I'm a long time fan of these films. Like August Verango said they haven't been on TV a lot lately and I've gone a bit fuzzy on titles. That one about the corridor of razors was set in a home for the blind. I think one of the ones mentioned with an asylum setting contained the story about the supernatural being who could kill people by whistling(!) And I remember the one that was about people meeting on a train and telling each other their stories. There was another (I'm sure a different film but the one about the train might have used the same idea) where at the end everyone realised they were dead and were on their way to the afterlife.

The last British horror movie that I saw and enjoyed was 'Funny Man', with Peter Cushing's old nemesis Christopher Lee. Not top rate, but it had the sort of manic inventiveness that you don't get with Brit movies these days. Just remebered another with C.Lee. He played an art critic in this one who was fooled into praising a painting that had been done by a monkey.

Speaking of horror movies from the 60s & 70s, I wonder what Hammer is doing these days. I now at one time Martin Scorsese was interested in doing a remake of 'The Curse of the Mummy' but haven't heard anything in a long time.
 
I seem to remember Arthur Lowe (Captain Mainwaring) was in a portmanteau film, or am I imagining things. Was it the one where they're all stuck in a lift, which ends up going to hell?:devil: :monster: :devil:
 
A great influence on/writer of these films was the late (and sadly little-known) Ronald Chetwynd-Hayes. 'From Beyond the Grave' was one of his, as was 'The Monster Club' (an early 80s attempt to revive the genre). RC-H was one of my favourite authors; if you ever get the change, read one of his short story collections. They catch the mood of the portmanteau horror flick (and the Hammer vibe to boot) perfectly. 'House of Dracula' is one of his best, almost totally unobtainable these days, alas...

Then there was the League of Gentlemen homage the other Christmas. It was always the framing story (usually with a stupendously obvious twist) that I liked the best.

And one would have to go a long way to beat the astonishing sight of Roy Castle and Kenny Lynch fighting the power of Voodoo in Doctor Terror's House of Horrors...
 
The portmanteau form is more or less dictated by the nature
of a ghost story. Try extending a narrative and you have to keep
ramping up the horrors. You end up with schlock like the Amityville
Horrors.

Can anyone think of an extended supernatural narrative which
works? I don't think anyone has pushed it beyond novella length:
The Turn of the Screw would be very hard to beat for quality and
quantity.

I know there are longer novels with a supernatural element, for
instance The Woman in White, but they are normally resolved as
human machinations.

I do remember the Tale from the Crypt mentioned above which
involved the inmates of a Blind Home exacting their revenge on a
wicked new intendant. When it was shown last year on the telly
I was struck by the political strands in these tales - another tale in
the same movie was about evil property speculators driving out
an eccentric Peter Cushing and getting their just desserts from
beyond the grave. :eek:
 
I luuuurrvvveeee those films. There' the one with the carnival owner showing 4 people a series of stories concerning themselves in an abandoned side show tent. Then at the end he turns to the camera and he has the face of a the devil .........(AAAARRRGGGHHHHHH).

Then theres the one where they are all on a train and after the obligatory stories they disembark in hell. I think thats the one that has the father asking for his dead son to be brought back to life, this wish is then granted but the twist is that the son is now full of embalming fluid and wakes up in agony.............Those films are seriously scary!!!!!!!!!
 
Me and my sister used to sit up late alone with plates of spaghetti and butter and watch these films,we absolutely loved them and our very favourite was Theatre of Blood , that had Arthur Lowe in it , it was brilliant - Arthur's head on a milk bottle , the poodle pie , the deadly curlers , wonderful .
 
Marion said:
our very favourite was Theatre of Blood , that had Arthur Lowe in it , it was brilliant - Arthur's head on a milk bottle , the poodle pie , the deadly curlers , wonderful .
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WTF? (lol)
 
Yeah, those horror anthology movies were usually a lot of fun. Especially the British ones like TALES FROM THE CRYPT, THE VAULT OF HORROR, ASYLUM, and TORTURE GARDEN.

However my all-time favorite has got to be CREEPSHOW. God, I love that movie.

Then there are a lot of bad ones, most made for direct-to-video like TALES FROM THE DARKSIDE: THE MOVIE, GRIM PRAIRIE TALES, PIECES OF DARKNESS, CAMPFIRE TALES, SHOCK CHAMBER, SCREAMTIME, FREAKSHOW, ESCAPES, etc.
 
I have alot of these films and thoroughly recommend an American 1970s chiller trilogy called TRILOGY OF TERROR. Although most of the stories were rubbish, one concerned Karen Black being stalked by a Zuni-fetish doll with a knife. It slashes her ankles before she slams it in the microwave...and then, like a silly cow opens it only to be attacked and then possessed by the blighter.I used to like the HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR series although most had really terrifying bits in but were generally crap.
There is also a modern DEAD OF NIGHT which was made for t.v. in the '80s and one story was called BOBBY about a little boy who comes back from the grave to frighten his mum. Bloodyscary. Hard to track down though.
 
Theatre of Blood has a sub-genre all of it's own: the 'string of inventive murders'! As popularised by the wonderful 'Doctor Phibes' films. They are almost portmanteau, in that they consist of a series of grand guginol(sp) set pieces, linked together by the (generally bizarre) revenge based plotline.

And yes, poodle pie, curlers and Arthur Lowe's head (on a milk bottle) do feature heavily. I never liked the bit with Michael Hordern and the psycho-tramps.
 
NEIL said:
I have alot of these films and thoroughly recommend an American 1970s chiller trilogy called TRILOGY OF TERROR. Although most of the stories were rubbish, one concerned Karen Black being stalked by a Zuni-fetish doll with a knife. It slashes her ankles before she slams it in the microwave...and then, like a silly cow opens it only to be attacked and then possessed by the blighter.
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Don't forget TRILOGY OF TERROR II, which features a continuation of the Zuni doll story.
 
Uk viewers can see 'Vault of Horror' on channel 4 at 1.00am.......

'Five men trapped in a mysterious bsement room tell each other their recurring nightmares................' Sounds like bliss..............
 
DanHigginbottom said:
Theatre of Blood has a sub-genre all of it's own: the 'string of inventive murders'! As popularised by the wonderful 'Doctor Phibes' films. They are almost portmanteau, in that they consist of a series of grand guginol(sp) set pieces, linked together by the (generally bizarre) revenge based plotline.

And yes, poodle pie, curlers and Arthur Lowe's head (on a milk bottle) do feature heavily. I never liked the bit with Michael Hordern and the psycho-tramps.
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And, of course the biggest link was the inimitable Vincent Price.

I just love the Doctor Phibes movies, and TOB - agree that the Michael Hordern "death by tramp" was quite weird, but I suppose it fitted in with the plot.

Posted by Wastrel
The last British horror movie that I saw and enjoyed was 'Funny Man', with Peter Cushing's old nemesis Christopher Lee. Not top rate, but it had the sort of manic inventiveness that you don't get with Brit movies these days.
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Which was directed by my cousin! I shall pass on your compliments. That's ten people who have seen it now...:)

Stu
 
What's he doing now? I'm in the middle of a Brit movie kick at the moment & would give anything he's done a look.:)
 
Wastrel said:
What's he doing now? I'm in the middle of a Brit movie kick at the moment & would give anything he's done a look.:)
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The great Simon Sprackling is currently directing videos, and trying to garner enough cash to make another movie: haven't seen him for a while, but I'll try to let ya know what he's up to whenever I find out.

His brother, Rob, was co-writer and producer of "Mike Bassett, England Manager" , the Ricky Tomlinson movie, currently developing another movie.

Stu
 
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