Retro review: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)

Almost universally derided since it's 1978 release, Robert Stigwood's screen version of the famous Beatles album has become a minor cult film in it's own right. With the recent death of yet another Bee Gee, leaving only bearded falsetto wonder Barry to carry the can, I thought it was time to re-visit the film, which I had not seen since it's UK TV premiere sometime in the early to mid 80s. At that time, my only interest in the film was Alice Cooper and Aerosmith (this was before they had got back together and cleaned up their act, and virtually no one in the UK gave a monkeys about them) When I remembered one of my favourite comedians is in it - Frankie Howerd and genre legend Donald Pleasence, my keenness to re-watch was increased.

  
The film's story (such as it is) centres around the lovely town of Heartland, USA, where the eponymous band leader and his group have been playing their way through most of America's history, helping stop wars, overcoming the depression, etc. When the good Sgt. dies, the instruments are left to the town - while they exist there, the town will always have peace and tranquility. The music must continue, though, and the Henderson brothers (The Bee Gees) team up with Pepper's grandson, Billy Shears (Peter Frampton) to keep the spirit alive. Aided by Billy's more reckless brother, Dougie (Paul Nicholas) they head out for fame and fortune, signing a contract with sleazy mogul B.D. Brockhurst (Pleasence).

Things go bad in Heartland when the instruments are stolen by Mean Mr Mustard (Howerd) under the orders of FVB - The Future Villain Band (Aerosmith). They get one instrument, Father Sun (Cooper) gets one, and the other goes to Maxwell (Steve Martin). Heartland in ruins, it's leader (and the narrator) Mr Kite (George Burns) appeals for the band to track them down and return them to their rightful place.

I suppose the big thing people have against the film is the re-arrangement of the Beatles songs. Now, I'm certainly not as precious about them, because some of the treatments here are quite good (special note going to Aerosmith's groove through 'Come Together', and Alice's sinister, Zappa-esque 'Because'). Beatle producer George Martin worked on the soundtrack, and since he was always considered the 'fifth Beatle' that's good enough endorsement for me. Stigwood had produced a stageshow of the songs (and those from Abbey Road which are included here too), and while he had the rights to use them decided to make the film. He had been involved with the Ken Russell film version of The Who's Tommy, along with the other hits Saturday Night Fever and Grease you can imagine why he thought the Beatles music would be a shoe-in at the box office. Sadly, it was not to be. The film flopped big time, and like I mentioned, it is - if ever mentioned at all -  usually badly thought of.

Now, re-watching it, I'm surprised to say, I  actually quite enjoyed it. Sure, some of the songs don't lend themselves to the interpretation they are given. Burn's rendition of 'Fixin' A Hole' is a train wreck, and a lot of the lyrics are interpreted literally. Steve Martin's 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' is as annoying as he is (never really liked him. There I said it), but Howerd's turn as Mustard is brilliant. All his standard traits are present and he even gets a oooooo in during 'When I'm 64'. His servant, Brute is played by 7ft Carel Struycken in his first role, later to be in Twin Peaks and the remake of The Addams Family, who suffers from acromegaly, the same disease the great Rondo Hatton suffered from.
Director Michael Schultz had previous had a hit with the disco tinged Car Wash and later made a few films with Richard Pryor, Greased Lightning and Carbon Copy, before heading to TV and directing shows as varied as Bruce Campbell vehicle The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, Charmed and Ally McBeal and recently did some episodes of Chuck.

The film is colourful, the songs are great (although they may be enjoyed more if, like me, you're not the biggest or purest Beatles fan), and there's a great spot the star section at the end for the reprise. (If you're under 40 I imagine you'd struggle for a lot of them though). Just like Tommy, I think this has probably improved with age. You can enjoy the camp without having to worry about taking it too seriously.
Go on, give it a go. You never know, you might like it.
6 out of 10

Producer Robert Stigwood (left, centre row) in the finale

The Return of STARBURST Magazine! Back in print 2012

For the past 8 or so months, I have been writing a column for the online version of Starburst Magazine, the longest running Sci-fi/Horror/genre/cult magazine in the world. The magazine, started by the legendary Dez Skinn in 1978 as a Sci-Fi version of his Hammer House of Horror title, and did very well for many years, until it changed hands several times, eventually disappearing altogether.
2011 saw the return of the title, as an online magazine, run by enthusiastic fans of the genre, rather than 'money men' The success of the free to read online version - in which my column, Horror Obscura, appeared from day one - has prompted the return of the magazine to the newstands, the first available issue will be number 374, in February 2012. You can get subscribtions from here and it's highly recommeded that you do, since the first few issues will be a very limited print run, and thus highly collectable.

And to top the deal, my column will be a regular feature in that printed issue!

Thank you all for your support and hope you enjoy the magazine when it hits the stands!

La Herencia Valdemar II : La Sombra Prohibida (2010)

After a wait that seemed forever, but has only actually been about 11 months, the follow up of the story started in the superb La Herencia Valdemar (The Valdemar Legacy) has hit DVD. (*Spain only again so far...*) For a more in depth look at the first film, check out my Starburst Magazine Column from July/Aug. La Sombra Prohibida (The Forbidden Shadow) starts with a quick re-cap on the first film, then is straight into the story of the missing taxation expert Luisa (Silvia Abascal), who has escaped her captors, only to be almost run over by her boss Eduardo (Rodolfo Sancho), who is en-route to the Valdemar house at the insistence of the company owner, the sinister looking Maximillian (Eusebio Poncela).She takes refuge in an old gypsy woman's caravan, but is soon back in the clutches of the bad guys. Lots of things happen very quickly and sadly, the story telling in this second part is a little too jumbled to recap without having too many spoilers. There is a new character introduced in the shape of Santiago (Santi Prego) who is both creepy and slightly sympathetic. He attempts to help the stricken good guys but things are not always what they seem..

Paul Naschy's role as the servant Jervas is kept to only a small number of scenes, but you can see he is not very well so it's probably fair enough (the film is dedicated to the legendary actor's memory), the 'flashback' scenes as such are kept very brief, basically just to set up the rest of the story.

I was really looking forward to this film, as the first part was such a fantastic little tale and well executed (in my opinion) but I'll be honest, I was very let down. Like I said, the story got kind of puddled, I think they tired to do much in the short time they had, and the much anticipated appearance of Cthulhu (not a spoiler - it's on the poster and was in the "continued..." section at the end of the first film) is spectacular, but far too short. The visual effects don't seem as strong in this part either, which is surprising.
It's certainly not terrible, but coming after such a strong first film, I had hoped the story would have had a better pay off. The modern day part of the story I guess just wasn't as well thought out as it should have been. A shame. A wasted opportunity. 6 out of 10

Retro review: Blood of Dracula (1957)

Blood of Dracula is one of those AIP drive in films that was made to cater for the growing teen viewers who were going to 'make out' (something I don't think we ever did here in the UK) rather than watch the film.
That said, it's not too bad, but as is the case in most of the 50s films, very blood-less.

Nancy and her folks enjoying a communal smoking session before school

Nancy (Sandra Harrison) is being taken by her father and his new wife to boarding school, to teach her a lesson for missing her recently diseased mother, no doubt. When she gets there, she is instantly bullied by the clique calling themselves "The Birds of Paradise", a secret society that everyone knows about apparently. There is a science teacher Miss Branding (Louise Lewis) who is more interested in her thesis about having a power inside that could destroy the world than teaching the class. Allowing her student assistant to 'accidentally' dab sulphuric acid on Nancy's hand to get a chance to be alone with her, and use her as a guinea pig.

Using an amulet she has picked up from the good old Carpathian Mountains, she hypnotising Nancy to be under her control, in a similar way to Gloria Holden in Universal's Dracula's Daughter (1936) but without the heavy lesbian overtone.
The girl's initiation party, a swinging affair where they dance with cushions, is interrupted by three local boys who are obviously up for a good time as they bring some records and one of them does his best party piece, a hip and groovy tune called 'Puppy Love' (no relation to the Osmond classic) which is actually no where near as bad as it sounds. The party is broke up when one of the girls is found dead, attacked by a snarling shadow, and drained of blood.

 A meeting is called with the police and coroners, when one of them mentions he just happened to share a room at college with someone from the Carpathian Mountains, and he described the legend of the vampire, and how the whole area was terrified of 'Draculas'. Yep, plural. 

The girls, terrified obviously, arrange a Halloween scavenger hunt, involving finding hidden clues in the local cemetery. Miss Branding's experiments and research, however continues to pick up steam with more horrifying consequences, especially for Nancy, who has taken to looking like a female Eddie Munster when under the teacher's spell.

Like I say, it's a fun little fun, and doesn't outstay it's welcome, and would be a good companion piece to AIP's other famous teenage angst flick, I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957) - which itself had the working title of Blood of the Werewolf before settling for the much more memorable name.
6 out of 10