ferbs54
Perhaps I should state at the outset that my only reason for renting out the 1970 British film "Bloodsuckers" is that it stars two of my very favorite English actors, Peter Cushing and "The Avengers"'s Patrick Macnee, appearing in a theatrical picture together for the first and only time. Well, I suppose that helps to explain my double disappointment with this film, a horror outing without a single shiver, and moreover, one in which Cushing and Macnee share not a single scene together. A fairly incomprehensible, ineptly put-together goulash of a film, "Bloodsuckers" (aka "Doctors Wear Scarlet" and the title under which I saw it in its current Something Weird DVD presentation, "Freedom Seeker") turns out to be something of a labor to sit through, and a picture that will truly be of interest only for the hard-core completists of those two great actors.In the film, Richard Fountain, an impotent professor of Greek mythology at Oxford University, gets into major-league trouble when he becomes involved with a hard-partying, jet-set cult while on vacation in Greece, and comes under the mind control of a vampiress named Chriseis. (Fountain is played here by Patrick Mower, who three years earlier had portrayed another hapless Brit who falls under the spell of an evil cult in "The Devil Rides Out"; Chriseis is portrayed by Imogen Hassall, who had appeared with Macnee in the 1967 "Avengers" episode "Escape In Time.") To avert an international scandal (Fountain is also the son of the Foreign Secretary), the British government sends its agent Tony Seymore (Alexander Davion) to retrieve Fountain, and he is accompanied by the professor's fiancée Penelope (Madeline Hinde) and best friend Bob Kirby (Senegalese actor Johnny Sekka, "the British Sidney Poitier," who had appeared with Macnee in the 1968 "Avengers" episode "Have Guns--Will Haggle"). Once in Greece, they are aided in their search by the British military attache Derek Longbow (Macnee, here in his first theatrical film since 1957's "Les Girls"; he wouldn't appear in anything outside of television until 1980's "The Sea Wolves"), while back at Oxford, provost Dr. Walter Goodrich, Penelope's father (Cushing, who also appeared in the infinitely superior horror films "Scream and Scream Again" and "The Vampire Lovers" that same year...as well as the 1967 "Avengers" episode "Return of the Cybernauts"), frets and worries. But even after Fountain is ultimately saved from the clutches of the drug-addled vampiric cult and brought back to England, it would seem that his problems are far from over....As "Maltin's Movie Guide" so correctly suggests, "Bloodsuckers" sports many segments in which narrator Seymore spits information at us in machine-gun fashion to fill in the gaps of what was almost certainly cut footage in post-production. The entire film feels choppy and unfinished somehow, and while all the performers try hard to put the conceit over, Julian More's script sadly lets them down. It is an unfleshed-out mess, dribbling out bits of Greek mythology here, pseudo psychology regarding impotence and susceptibility to vampirism there, in place of a coherent story line. Director Robert Hartford-Davis, whose only other pictures I have seen are the indescribable "Gonks Go Beat" (1965) and the blaxploitation thriller "Black Gunn" (1972), does a lousy job at keeping things coherent here, and those previously mentioned cuts and splices surely don't help. To add to the befuddlement, many scenes are shot way too darkly for home viewing, especially on this SW DVD. In addition, the film seems to pile on weirdness for weirdness' sake; thus, we are treated to an extended sequence showing the cult popping acid, smoking pot, shooting dope, having sex and sucking blood, under stroboscopic lights and via a zooming camera, as well as an hallucination on Penelope's part that signifies...well, absolutely nothing. The film dishes out at least three scenes featuring some well-choreographed fisticuffs, but these are unfortunately undermined by the remarkably cheesy action music supplied by Bobby Richards. On the plus side (and I always endeavor to find SOMETHING to like in even the most egregiously drecky of films), "Bloodsuckers" sports some very nice-looking scenery, both of the Oxford countryside and the Greek islands, and one truly shocking sequence. In this scene, the Macnee character is involved in a literally cliffhanging situation that should stun all longtime fans of the immaculate and imperishable John Steed; a scene, moreover, that is intercut suspensefully with one in which Kirby fights the beautiful Chriseis to the (un)death. But other than this well-done two minutes of screen time, "Bloodsuckers"--or whatever other title you happen to catch it under--does not offer much. It is a film that will surely disappoint the casual viewer, and even fans, like myself, of its two great male leads.As for this Something Weird DVD itself, the good news is that "Bloodsuckers" shares the disc with a 1965 B&W Filipino movie entitled "Blood Thirst," a surprisingly effective, noirish horror thriller set on the streets of Manila. Unfortunately, when viewed back to back as a double feature, it becomes even more apparent to the impartial viewer that "Bloodsuckers" really DOES suck.
Jonathon Dabell
Incense For The Damned is a poor, hastily-made and incredibly muddled British horror film that has acquired a small cult following. I am certainly not among this group of foolhardy fans - indeed, if I had things my way, this awful little film would be quietly disposed of in some dusty vault, and brought out only for die-hard fans of the stars so that they may tick it off their list. Even the film's director - Robert Hartford-Davis - was so disappointed with the movie that he refused to put his name on the credits, using instead the pseudonym Michael Burrowes. When the man who MADE it can't bear to be associated with the film, you know that it must be pretty bad!Oxford student Richard Fountain (Patrick Mower) is on a working holiday in Greece when he mysteriously disappears. Richard's friends back in Oxford are concerned for him, so they set out to Greece to find him. Tony (Alexander Davion), Bob (Johnny Sekka) and Richard's girlfriend Penelope (Madeleine Hinde), soon discover that their lost pal seems to have headed off to the tiny, isolated island of Hydra in the Aegean Sea. Upon arriving at Hydra, they stumble across some kind of vampire sect led by the beautiful but deadly Chriseis (Imogen Hasall). It seems that Chriseis and her minions are murderers who drink the blood of their innocent victims, and that Richard may have been drugged or brainwashed into joining their pagan acts. The friends pursue Chriseis to her death and rescue the bewildered Richard, returning him to Oxford. But all is not well back in the UK, as Richard does not seem to have recovered from his ordeal - in fact, it is obvious to us (though not, it seems, the other characters) that Richard himself is now a vampire.What drew me to the film was the fact that it "stars" Peter Cushing, Patrick Macnee and Edward Woodward. I consider these three actors to be among the finest talents Britain has produced (they certainly have each made telling contributions within the horror genre, if nothing else). It is with huge disappointment, therefore, that I must report they all have absurdly brief cameo roles that could easily have been cut from the film without making a hoot of difference. to the overall story. Talk about false advertising!! But that's not all that is wrong with Incense For The Damned. It suffers even further as a result of silly psychedelic sex-and-drug-abuse sequences, a confused script, ultra-low production values, and choppy editing. At least the Greek scenes highlight some pleasant locations - competently shot by Desmond Dickinson - but on virtually every other level Incense For The Damned is a damned mess! The film was completed in 1970, shelved until 1976, and all but forgotten soon after its belated release. Things like that happen to movies for a reason - and if you watch Incense For The Damned it won't take you long to figure out why it has faded into obscurity.
