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BEASTS IN THE CELLAR: THE EXPLOITATION CAREER OF TONY TENSER

Since we are discussing my friend Michael Armstrong’s struggles in Lotus Land, I thought it only fitting to have a look at the recently published accounts of his mentor, Tony Tenser, and his struggles within the British film industry during the sixties and seventies.

Editor Harvey Fenton and the lads over at FAB Press have done a remarkable job with a difficult subject, as to document this particular career one must remember a special moment forever frozen in time, when the British film industry, in an attempt to compete with the rising popularity of television, looked to men like Tony Tenser to wake the public up with diverse entertainment known in the trade as exploitation. And wake them up he did! Tenser provided opportunities for directors of the caliber of Roman Polanski, Michael Reeves and Robert Hartford Davis. Tony was never about the craft of the filmmaking process but rather the ‘selling’ aspects of it. Michael Armstrong was fond of saying “Tony loves to hold press conferences; the publicity was what he craved. That was what the film industry was to Tony.”

John Hamilton has done his homework, and his book is filled with ripe tales of last minute substitutions for actors and locations, and the censorship problems of the time in which all this took place. The behind the scenes of the Compton Cinema Club, one of Britain’s most successful private cinema clubs, his relationship with Michael Klinger (his partner in crime). And of course, the films themselves. There are detailed accounts of the making of WITCHFINDER GENERAL, Michael Reeves’ cult film made right before his untimely death, THE CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR, one of Boris Karloff’s last films, HANNIE CALDER, with Raquel Welch, and many more films from that era.

I was most intrigued with Hamilton’s account of how Michael Armstrong’s first feature film, THE DARK, got taken away from him and recut into something that no one was proud of in the end. Everyone is very kind in their recollections of Michael during this difficult time, and it is interesting to see that Tigon was planning to use Michael on other films right after that one, yet as it turned out he would never make another film for them, perhaps because of the bad blood between Deke Hayward of AIP and Tigon.

Now back in 1969 I happened to be in London and had written to Tigon asking if I could interview Tony Tenser regarding WITCHFINDER and THE CRIMSON ALTAR. I had received a letter before leaving California from Tony Tenser inviting me to come to the Wardour Street office when I arrived in town. So I did just that the day after I landed at Heathrow. Tony Tenser was a big man who behaved like one of the uncles of the Kray Bros. He was very tough and street wise, he actually asked me to feel his leg when I walked into his office to prove just how tough he was. ‘Feel me leg, lad, come on now.”

I had never met anyone like him at that point in my life. He took me around the corner to his “local” and we had pints of Guinness with an egg broken in each glass. Tony explained “that me lad keeps lead in your pencil.” I took his word for that. What a character… but I liked him a lot, and he treated me like a long lost relative, showing me around the area, and when we returned to the office he arraigned for me to have as many stills as I wanted from whatever films were ready for publicity. As I was leaving, a tall mod- looking young man with shaggy brown hair was waiting to see Tony. I would not realize it then, but there was my future house guest of 1985….Michael Armstrong.

I can only urge my readers to log onto the FAB Press site http://www.fabpress.com
And check out the awesome collection of outré books, magazines CD’s and DVD’s waiting for your amusement.

Before I forget “Beasts in the Cellar” is available in Hardcover as well as soft, so order yours now before it goes out of print and you have to pay more than it cost to make a Tigon film!

THE WITCHES: “GIVE ME A SKIN FOR DANCING IN…”

One of the best films depicting the practice of witchcraft, and a personal favorite of mine, is an obscure Hammer film entitled THE WITCHES. The title was changed for America to THE DEVIL’S OWN. Now that both those titles refer to newer films, this film is even harder to track down, which is a shame because it is well-crafted by director Cyril Frankel and boasts several marvelous sequences one came to expect from the company that brought us THE DEVIL RIDES OUT, a true classic of the genre.

Joan Fontaine bought the rights to the Peter Curtis novel (although he is really a she
named Nora Loftis, which probably accounts for the strong female protagonists)
and approached Hammer, based on their track record with Bette Davis and Tallulah Bankhead vehicles for former glamour queens of a certain age. It would turn out, however, that Fontaine shared more than a first name with a certain other movie star named Crawford.

The cast and crew of THE WITCHES had to endure the tiresome antics of a vain woman as Joan Fontaine took up most of the shooting schedule with demands for lighting and hair dressers to make sure she was youthful and glamorous even though her role called for a modest school teacher in rural England

When the film had wrapped, Fontaine went about the press complaining that “Hammer was too low brow” for her, and appearing in a “horror film” had jeopardized her career. The cast had also been made to feel that they were beneath her lofty status as an Oscar winning actress. Well Ms. Fontaine was right about one thing, she never made another feature film and now resides in Carmel California, not far from Doris Day, in retirement.

THE WITCHES contains one of the great performances by an actress portraying a witch on film – that of Kay Walsh as Stephanie Bax. Her character is beautifully realized, with a sense of authority (with dialog by veteran screenwriter Nigel Kneale), and she literally steals the film from Oscar winning actress Joan Fontaine in her final screen role.

Kay Walsh was an exceptional character actress who was once married to director David Lean. Under his direction she gave the definitive performance of Nancy in his production of OLIVER TWIST. Walsh wrote some of her own dialog in that film, as she was also an accomplished writer. Walsh continued to give many fine performances in such films as THE RULING CLASS with Peter O”Toole, THE HORSE’S MOUTH and LAST HOLIDAY, the last two opposite Alec Guinness. Kay Walsh just recently passed away in her Nineties after working most of her life in show business.

THE WITCHES has always been criticized as a rather tame account of witchcraft in a rural English village. However the combination of Arthur Grant’s superb photography along with first rate performances from such veteran character actors as Leonard Rossiter, Duncan Lamont and Gwen Ffrangcon Davis as members of Walsh’s coven, not to mention a teenage Martin Stephens (the amazing child actor from VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED and THE INNOCENTS) and Alec McCowen, as Miss Walsh’s brother, who wears a priests collar even though he is not ordained, elevates the film to a level above the usual Hammer fare towards the end of their reign as England’s leading purveyor of Gothic horror.

This film is also unusual for its time in that the leading characters are both career women, with Kay Walsh giving a strong account of a ruthless occultist with perhaps a hinted slant towards lesbianism in her dealings with the leading lady. Her performance was also admired by author Tanya Krywinska who recently published her own views on Witchcraft and demonology entitled “A Skin for dancing in: Possession, Witchcraft, Voodoo in Film” from Flicks Books and Greenwood Publishers. This book examines such films as this one and THE WICKER MAN, THE CRAFT, and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.

THE WITCHES is available on DVD from Anchor Bay. Have a look and perhaps you will long for the secret to immortality that requires “a skin for dancing in”.

NEVERMORE: THE POE FILMS OF ROGER CORMAN

In October The DARK Room Gallery, along with The Del Valle Archive, will honor Roger Corman on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, with an exhibit of the eight films he directed from the works of Edgar Allan Poe, beginning with “House of Usher” (AIP 1960) until “Tomb of Ligeia (AIP 1964). We are hoping Mr. Corman will be able to attend the opening night reception.

I will be adding more information closer to the actual time this event takes place.

This will be the fourth exhibit of POP Culture done in collaboration with The DARK Room Gallery.

Please log on to our website
Killgraphic.com

www.drkrm.com

2121 N. San Fernando Road suite 3
Los Angeles California
90065
323-223-6867

UNTIL NEXT TIME, MAY ALL YOUR NIGHTMARES BE ENHANCED FOR 16X9.

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