Retro Review: Julie Darling (aka Daughter of Death, 1983)

Young Julie (Isabelle Mejias) loves her daddy. A little too much, unfortunately. They spend lots of time together, mostly hunting, and Julie, it seems, is quite a crack shot. After a string of fall outs with her mother (Cindy Girling) which culminates with her setting the teen's pet snake loose, Julie has a strop and puts her headphones on and locks her door. This coincides with her mom getting brutally attacked and raped by the local delivery boy she asked to help get rid of the pet. Just about hearing her screams in the nick of time, she grabs her rifle (every girl should have one) and aims it at her mom's assailant. Dawdling a little too long, and suddenly mom is dead, her head smashed against the wooden floor. Realising she now has her Father (Anthony Franciosa, Tenebre) to herself, she allows the assailant to make his escape.

Father and daughter adapt to live alone, the blossoming teen taking advantage of having the grieving father to herself, even going so far as to consoling themselves by sharing a bed. As time goes on, father  Harold meets a new woman, Susan (the marvelous Sybil Danning) who moves in along with her son. Julie isn't happy with this arrangement, but puts up with it until a chance comes that she must take. Playing hide and seek while the folks are away, the boy hides in the refrigerator that is conveniently lying around their garden, and Julie shuts the door on him. When the parents return, they find him just in the nick of time, and drop the bombshell that they have married. Susan has her suspicions about Julie, and has it out with her in a fantastic scene acted out over a game of chess. Julie must hatch a bigger plan to oust the pair and have daddy all to herself again.

This early 80s piece of nastiness comes (with the "help" of co-writer Maurice Smith) from Paul Nicholas, the director who brought us the best WIP flick, Chained Heat (1983). Although it is a thoroughly entertaining piece of sleaze, there are a few moments that are quite troubling. The homicidal child routine has been done before, many times, and better than this. The troubling moment comes when Julie awakes to the sound of her father and his new wife making love. She opens the door slightly to peek inside, and then imagines herself in the throes of passion with him instead. It's one thing having incest hinted at, or just under the radar, but to go all out and show it takes some balls as a film maker! I'm guessing Mejias was older than her character when she played this, as there is some nudity involved, and the film has not been impounded. The real problem with having this in the story, however is that is never mentioned, or hinted at again. Similarly, Susan has a tense heart to heart with Julie over the game of chess. Basically telling her that she knows she is trying to get rid of her and her son (who we don't see again after he's saved from the fridge) . Yet, a scene or two later, she asks the young girl to help steady a ladder she's working on, right at the top of some stairs! Talk about trust. Talk about a missed opportunity for Julie!  Although there are flaws - some of the younger actors are abysmal - it is a quite effect exploitation film, with plenty of nudity and well put together scenes of violence. The ending is fantastic, so I won't ruin it.
THE UK VERSION ANOMALY

I picked this up for £4 on a UK DVD release by Elstree Hill. They have, of course, got a reputation of putting out shoddy and awful prints on their DVDs, and Julie Darling is no exception. It's probably sourced from a VHS copy, full frame, not even pan and scan. The opening titles are actually "Ulie Darlin" and it's quite muddy and dark. There is a Code Red US release, but it's OOP and costs a lot more than this (although I wouldn't mind hearing the commentaries, as there are one for each of the two main actresses). The back of the box does warn "some quality may have been lost during the transferring process". No kidding. At least it's not as bad as some of their other releases. The real interesting (for want of a better word) thing about the UK release, is it has a PG rating. Considering what I have already said about the subject matter, the fact that there's plenty of violence, nudity (although no front bottoms, sadly) and one "F" word, I was surprised to say the least. After doing a check on the BBFC website, which has a great database search facility, I found not only had Elstree Hill not put the film through the board to get the PG certificate, but the film has NEVER been rated in the UK, making this release completely illegal. I'm pretty sure it would have had a pre-cert VHS release, but it was never rated for cinema or home viewing. Buy it now, kids before they get wise.

Apart from all that, it's a good, solid piece of trash cinema and Sybil Danning's boobs are always worth a look, ain't they? (No disrespect meant, as she is brilliant in this)
6 out of 10

Retro review: Goodbye Gemini (1970)

Jacki and Julian are twins, who have been sent to live in London by their father in Mexico. Almost as soon as they get to the house they are to stay at they have playfully orchestrated the death of the house keeper to have full run of the house. This sinister act is treated as a game to the two, who are very insular and childish. Jacki (Judy Geeson) and Julian (Martin Potter) then set out to the London nightlife, along with their confidant and companion, a stuffed bear called Agamenmon. (the source novel was Ask Agamemnon by Jenni Hall).

At a seedy strip joint (where they have strippers with a certain something extra, shall we say) the giggling naive twins catch the attention of Clive (Alexis Kanner), a socialite who is more talk than substance. He takes the twins to a party organised by art dealer (Terry Scully), where they catch the attention of a politician James Harrington-Smith (the legendary Sir Michael Redgrave) and camp lounge lizard art collector, David (the no less legendary Freddie Jones). The party scene dialogue is straight out of Oscar Wilde "no holes barred in SW3" David tells James.

 

Everywhere the twins go, they turn heads and their close, borderline incestuous relationship makes an impression. When a rough bookie (Mike Pratt, from Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)) turns up looking for Clive, it becomes apparent their new friend is not the man he makes out to be. Clive and his friend, Denise (Marian Diamond) are becoming almost permanent residents at the twin's house, and Julian sees their constant company as a threat to the their little bubble.

When Jacki rejects Julian's amorous advances, and desire to be alone together, Clive takes Julian out, getting him drunk and to a hotel where he provides two 'women' for Julian, who, he soon finds out - like the strippers - have a little extra.

Clive uses photos of this shameful night to try and blackmail Julian into giving him the £400 he owes the bookie for his gambling debt. Horrified by Clive's plans, Denise tells Jacki so that Julian would not have to pay. Still shamed by his night of sodomy, Julian has other plans.
Together, the twins plot to do away with Clive. It's after this event, Jacki loses all grip on reality and disappears into the night, only to be picked up by the passing Smith. Her nightmare is only just beginning.

 

A strange and for a long time rarely seen, but incredibly well made film, Goodbye Gemini is not betrayed by it's dated swinging London setting, Largely due to the wonderful cinematography of Geoffrey Unsworth (2001, Zardoz, Superman The Movie), who sets up some amazing angles and gives it a very stylish look. The soundtrack stands out (by Christopher Gunning, who also did Hands Of The Ripper), despite being full of 60s psychedelic types songs, For once, they don't detract or date the film, but enhance it. The themes and settings are quite frank, even by today's standards, and you can imagine if this was done now there would be more shown and played out rather than left ambiguous and suggested. The seedy world in which Clive and his friends (and indeed, the 'hero' politician) hang out in are not the usual places, leaning more to the homosexual side rather than that more commonly seen in films of the time, which is a bold move, but feels perfectly right for the surreal world the twins have made for themselves and pitched perfectly, without resorting to pastiche.

It's also very well directed by Alan Gibson, who had just made Crescendo for Hammer, and would later make the last two Christopher Lee Dracula movies for them (as well as a couple of episodes of the House of Horror TV series). The producer, Peter Snell is the CEO of British Lion, who later produced The Wicker Man.
Keep an eye out for Brian Wilde (Night Of The Demon, and more famously, Porridge and Last Of The Summer Wine) as the taxi driver and an underused Peter Jeffrey once again playing a police inspector, which he would of course do wonderfully in the two Dr Phibes films. Star Martin Potter had been in Fellini's Satyricon (1969) and would later pop up in a couple of genre films, Norman J. Warren's Satan's Slaves (1976) and Cruel Passion (aka Justine - 1977).

The only niggle that can be found is that, on occasion, the image of the DVD release suffers from some colour 'fringing', giving it almost a look of watching a 3D film without glasses. These sections don't last too long and are not too off putting, but a shame as it's such a great release.
8 out of 10.