Ernest Bale Movies
- 1980
- R
This slow-paced but impeccably stylish ghost story, set at the turn of the century, centers on the plight of elderly dowager Marianna (Sheelagh Gilbey), who is tormented nightly by the alleged specter of a young man roaming the corridors of her decrepit estate. After spotting a face in an old photograph that seems to match the old woman's description of the ethereal visitor, Marianna's sister (Nina Pitt) decides to undertake a bit of amateur ghost-hunting in the hope of revealing the haunting as a hoax. This Scotland-made sleeper from director Anna Thomas is somewhat reminiscent of The Innocents -- itself based on Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw" -- and boasts an excellent classical music score which perfectly complements the proceedings. Though the plot may be a bit too leisurely for more thrill-oriented tastes, The Haunting of M is an involving and intellectual mystery for the Masterpiece Theatre set. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sheelagh Gilbey, Nini Pitt, (more)
- 1971
- R
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is given the Ken Russell treatment in The Music Lovers, which means that there is plenty of music, plenty of passion, plenty of debauchery, and plenty of excess. Tame by Russell's later standards (Lisztomania), The Music Lovers nevertheless thrives on creative and sexual anguish. Richard Chamberlain plays Tchaikovsky with a bug-eyed intensity as a composer consumed by his art -- so consumed that his romantic attachments become bisexual and irrational. He falls in love with Nina (Glenda Jackson), the hysterical trollop he marries with dire consequences. As he explodes emotionally, his public performance of Piano Concerto in B flat minor becomes a cue for flashbacks to a series of discomforting childhood events that suggest incestuous relations with his sister. Back in real time, Tchaikovsky has to deal with Nina's outbursts while juggling his homosexual urges and his almost hidden desire for Count Anton Chiluvsky (Christopher Gable). The film also details the curious relationship between Tchaikovsky and his rich patroness, the middle-aged widow Madame Nadedja von Meck (Isabella Telezynska), who loves Tchaikovsky deeply, but refuses to meet him -- their only communication being through letters, even though he lives on her estate. Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra perform Tchaikovsky's music. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Chamberlain, Glenda Jackson, (more)
- 1957
In this horror movie, a scientist resuscitates the head of 16th-century seer Nostradamus by transplanting it onto the body of a man suffering from a brain tumor for the benefit of an avaricious financier who wants the prophet to give him the power of prediction in business. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Hutton, George Coulouris, (more)
