(1972)
Dir - Tom Parkinson
Overall: MEH
The directorial debut from producer Tom Parkinson also doubles as the final film that not-Christopher Lee actor Mike Raven appeared in. Disciple of Death bares a generic title and is a generic movie, appearing as if it was shot with minimal funds in Cornwall, England locations that looked untouched enough to serve the period setting. This is more of an involved work from Raven who produced and co-wrote the screenplay with Parkinson, the two of them channeling a hefty amount of genre cliches into something that comes off as forgettable by design. A peasant farmer wants to marry a squire's daughter, her parents disapprove, they make a blood pact, said blood falls on the ground, and then Raven shows up as a Count Dracula stand-in who introduces himself to his new neighbors while systematically taking the town's women away to do vague occult rituals with them. We also have a local priest who sees through Raven's bullshit immediately, another religious expert who is brought in, Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" is played ad nauseam, and the list of tired tropes proceeds further from there. Raven hams it up by doing his usual Lee impression except with a lisp, but the tone goes goofy at irregular intervals and the whole thing is as sluggish as it is derivative.
(1973)
Dir - Kevin Billington
Overall: MEH
Husband/wife team David Hemmings and Gayle Hunnicutt appeared in a number of British thrillers together during their seven year marriage in the early 1970s, Voices being an adaptation of the stage play of the same name from Richard Lortz. Mostly shot on video like your typical BBC serial, it readily recalls Nicolas Roeg's seminal Don't Look Now which was released the same year, with the same jumping-off point where a young couple's child dies and they then suffer a relatable amount of trauma because of such an incident. Psychological turmoil, ghostly sightings, and a predictable twist all follow, but sadly, the whole ordeal is borderline insufferable with its claustrophobic and tedious bickering. Hemmings and Hannicutt's characters do what we would imagine they would do in such a scenario, namely say "I'm sorry" and "I hate you" in equal measures as they become unavoidably frustrated with each other in their futile attempts to reconcile the loss of their child. There is a reason that most couples cannot overcome such a harrowing event, but witnessing two splendid actors merely take out their conflicted feelings towards each other does not result in an agreeable watch. This is not helped by director Kevin Billington's stiff presentation and the cheap look of the proceedings, which never generate any visual intrigue or effectively spooky atmosphere.
(1978)
Dir - Franklin J. Schaffner
Overall: GOOD
Two years after playing an infamous Nazi scientist on the lam in John Schlesinger's Marathon Man, Laurence Olivier portrays a hunter of such Nazis in Franklin J. Schaffner's adaptation of Ira Levin's 1976 novel The Boys from Brazil. Ever the diverse thespian, Olivier was in ill health at the time yet this fits his tired and cynical character who dukes it out with Gregory Peck's Dr. Josef "Angel of Death" Mengele himself. While Peck comes off as ridiculous at times chewing the scenery with jet-black-dyed hair, Aryan proclamations, bouts of unhinged mania, and a German accent, (in fact almost every actor here does the German dialect thing), there is a sort of schlocky satisfaction to be found in his ridiculous on-screen demise since Mengele was arguably history's biggest monster besides Hitler himself. An American and British co-production that was shot in multiple countries, the cast is loaded with other familiar faces besides Olivier and Peck, with Steve Guttenberg, James Mason, Lilli Palmer, Denholm Elliot, Michael Gough, Bruno Ganz, and Linda Hayden all making appearances. The story itself is sensationalized fluff and it becomes difficult to take everything seriously when the tone dictates as much, but the premise is so wild and the performances so dialed-in that it is far from a tiresome two-hours and seven minutes.
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