The Films of PETE WALKER

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Mojo

It is totally uncut Dem. The reason I know this is I used to own it and then sold it in a moment of madness

Why would you do that?

I'm happy with Warren's preferred version of it in the coffin box set with all the extras.

[Mojo]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Why would you do that?

Because I'm an idiot!

I also naively thought it would emerge on ( UK ? ) blu ray at some point. I'm still waiting!

I do still have the Warren coffin set too though.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Pete Walker was one of the directors along with Norman J Warren that almost single handedly dragged British horror out of the doldrums in the mid 1970's.

Hammer was dying a swift death by 1974. It's Gothic horrors that revolutionized horror cinema in the late 1950's were looking decidedly antiquated due to what was coming out of America. Films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Exorcist brought a new shiver of terror to audiences that the likes of Hammer and Amicus couldn't compete with.

Up until 1974 Pete Walker had mixed success. Die Screaming Marianne (1971) was a muddled mess but 72's The Flesh and Blood Show was a step in the right direction with it's modern day setting and bloody murders whilst sexy films like Tiffany Jones (1973) failed to find an audience.

However all that was to change when Walker released Frightmare to cinemas in 1974. With a similar cannibalism scenario to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Walker's career really took off. Personally i prefer Frightmare to the Hooper film as it has that nasty grittish vibe to it where you feel it really could happen. The brilliant Sheila Keith needed neither chainsaw nor dead skin mask to scare the shit out of us.

Anyway that's my introduction to the thread. Discuss all things Pete Walker here.

[Inspector Abberline]

Since I believe in re-cycling rubbish,here's one I made earlier.
Seedy priest played by Anthony Sharp has the hots for Susan Penhaligon (hey who hasn't) Not only that but Sharp is stark raving mad psychopath.Sharp plays the role perfectly as the ultra conservative priest who harbors these deep seated lustful thought's.The only person more madder than Sharp is his house keeper played by Walker regular Sheila Keith,who is really evil and certainly not a member of Help the Aged.The film does raise a few issues especially things like how the Catholic Church deals with abortion and celibacy within the priesthood.But seeing as this is a Pete Walker film I don't think were meant to take any of this to seriously,especially as you have a priest who bashes peoples heads in with incense and strangles women with a rosary.I sometimes find Walkers directorial style at times a bit pedestrian,but I think Anthony Sharp really carries the film and gives it some much needed class, if that is at all possible...Just to add on the whole I do dig Mr Walker's shtick...and nothing makes me cockles glow with warmth than seeing Andrew Sach's...

[Demoncrat]

I'll put me hands up here ....

Twas 'just' a Frightmare thread in the 70s section I found a-hem!

Sheila Keith!!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Big Switch (1968)

Pete Walker's earlier gangster effort see's playboy / hard dude, John Carter (sadly not from Mars) lose his job, get framed for a girls murder and then get blackmailed by the London mob to travel to Brighton to do a 'job' for them.

The Big Switch aka Strip Poker is i feel a more focused effort from Walker than Man of Violence. Be it more focused on sex and violence but hey, whatever! Although it keeps the glitzy yet seedy London club locations it really switches gear when Carter (Sebastian Breaks) travels to Brighton with mob 'dollybird' Karen (Virginia Wetherell). The Brighton pier locations in winter are cold and decidedly bleak, the out of season arcades reminding me of Carnival of Souls rather than any sort of classy tourist locale, and it all culminates in a shoot out in a penny arcade.

The Big Switch is a film full of violence and nudity and deserves more of an audience than it currently has, an audience which probably wear long cream mac coats when they visit movies.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Man of Violence (1970)

Before embarking on his more famous horror films beginning with 1972's The Flesh and Blood Show, British director Pete Walker seemed to be attempting to find a niche for himself with sex comedies and also gangster films of which Man of Violence is a prime example.

Even though it's low budget Walker makes Man of Violence an interesting film. Starring tv actor Michael Latimer and soon to be Hammer girl Luan Peters, the film is an exercise in style over substance as Walker packs the film with the sights and sounds of a London bursting out of the sixties and into a far grimmer period. As with Michael Armstrong's 1969 film The Haunted House of Horror and Alan Gibson's Goodbye Gemini (1970) the film feels like a world lost forever with it's style and musical score.

The film like so much of Walkers work is often grim and downbeat and you can never be sure whether Latimer's character Moon (also the alternate name for the film) will actually make it to the closing credits. As an early directorial effort Man of Violence is remarkably accomplished and well worth tracking down.

The BFI's Flipside release looks and sounds superb and the film is accompanied with The Big Switch an earlier effort from Walker which is again a gangster film and in my opinion the better of the two.

[Inspector Abberline]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Man of Violence (1970)

Before embarking on his more famous horror films beginning with 1972's The Flesh and Blood Show, British director Pete Walker seemed to be attempting to find a niche for himself with sex comedies and also gangster films of which Man of Violence is a prime example.

Even though it's low budget Walker makes Man of Violence an interesting film. Starring tv actor Michael Latimer and soon to be Hammer girl Luan Peters, the film is an exercise in style over substance as Walker packs the film with the sights and sounds of a London bursting out of the sixties and into a far grimmer period. As with Michael Armstrong's 1969 film The Haunted House of Horror and Alan Gibson's Goodbye Gemini (1970) the film feels like a world lost forever with it's style and musical score.

The film like so much of Walkers work is often grim and downbeat and you can never be sure whether Latimer's character Moon (also the alternate name for the film) will actually make it to the closing credits. As an early directorial effort Man of Violence is remarkably accomplished and well worth tracking down.

The BFI's Flipside release looks and sounds superb and the film is accompanied with The Big Switch an earlier effort from Walker which is again a gangster film and in my opinion the better of the two.

I wonder if the Krays influenced him to make Moon bi-sexual..???

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline

I wonder if the Krays influenced him to make Moon bi-sexual..???

That's an interesting point. I don't know an awful lot about the Krays. I didn't know they were bi-sexual.

[Demoncrat]

Great start D!! Solid reviews all!!