Patrick Magee Movies

Hawk the Slayer will appeal most to undiscriminating fans of the sword-and-sorcery genre. The title character, played by John Terry, is on a lifelong quest for "The Power", an enchanted flying sword. Alas, Hawk's evil brother Voltan (Jack Palance) likewise covets The Power. A plethora of violence ensues, culminating in a slow-motion duel to the death between hero and villain. Among Hawk's comrades are a dwarf and an elf, who are "R2D2 and C3PO" in everything except name and appearance. Hardly the best of its kind, Hawk the Slayer is redeemed by the unbridled hamminess of Jack Palance, who seems to be the only one who realizes that the whole affair is to silly to be taken seriously. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A bizarre Euro-kink variation on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, this intriguing film from Polish director Walerian Borowczyk takes place almost exclusively in the palatial home of Dr. Henry Jekyll (Udo Kier), where the good doctor is being feted prior to his engagement to the austere Miss Fanny Osborne (Marina Pierro). The guest list -- comprised of various dignitaries, officials and symbols of bourgeois respectability -- could easily have strolled in from a Fellini film, complete with a closetful of perverse habits and barely-repressed sexual urges. At the onset of the festivities, it is learned that a young girl has been murdered on the streets that night -- an event somehow linked to Jekyll's insistence that his estate be willed to the yet-unseen Mr. Hyde. It comes as no surprise that Jekyll's infamous potion transforms him into a crazed sexual predator with desires so aggressive that his victims cannot survive... but the real twist comes when young Fanny joins Jekyll in his bath while he is transforming into Hyde, and the formula's malevolent effects are spread to her as well. Before long, the entire affair devolves into an orgy of sexual sadism and bloody violence as the evil is spread throughout the house. Borowczyk has imbued this quirky exercise with a doomed, nightmarish quality, contrasting the opulence of the festivities with dimly-lit, smoky rooms where the lecherous Hyde stalks his victims. Patrick Magee borrows a bit from his arch performance in Marat/Sade as the swaggering "General" who gets taken down a few notches at the end of a bullwhip. Released in the U.S. as Blood of Dr. Jekyll, then later on video as Bloodlust. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Trevor Howard is virtually the whole show in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End. He plays an eccentric-to-the-point-of-insanity nobleman whose love affair with the bottle is a long standing source of family embarrassment. Still, when the family mansion is plagued by an unfriendly ghost, Howard finds himself the only one willing or able to exorcise the spirit. Sir Henry at Rawlinson End was based on a radio play by Vivien Stanshall. As such, it is more satisfying for the ear than for the eye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Patrick Magee plays the aging and confused monarch in this made-for-television adaptation of one of Shakespeare's most resonant tragedies. When aging King Lear (Patrick Magee) asks his children to profess their love for him so he may divide his estate accordingly, his youngest daughter, Cordelia (Wendy Allnutt), gives an answer that speaks of modesty and practicality, while Regan (Ann Lynn) and Goneril (Beth Harris) offer more flowery tributes. Lear mistakes Cordelia's good sense for contempt and forces her to leave his land, while Regan and Goneril are allowed to divide his holdings; however, it isn't until much later than Lear sees the error of his ways, and comes to understand his older daughters are using his growing senility for their own purposes. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Adapted for the screen by Edward Anhalt from the play by John Osborne, Luther stars Stacy Keach as religious leader and "heretic" Martin Luther. In minimalist fashion, the film traces Luther's disillusionment with the Catholic Church, and his eventual spearheading of the Reformation movement. Over the course of the film, Keach ages from an ingenuous seminarian to a disgruntled, middle-aged firebrand. Director Guy Green does little to cinematize the material, instead favoring a theatrical approach and thus allowing the rich dialogue to be better appreciated. Luther was a production of the American Film Theatre. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This psychological horror movie revolves around a religious sect, one of whose number roams the streets of London murdering prostitutes, believing that he is on a holy mission. ~ Mark Hockley, All Movie Guide

Four short stories by master of macabre Robert Bloch are related by the inmates of a mental institution. In the first story, Richard Todd murders his wife and cuts her body into little pieces -- but that doesn't stop her from seeking revenge. In the second, Peter Cushing orders crooked tailor Barry Morse to weave a coat from a magic fabric in order to bring Cushing's son back from the dead (this one was previously dramatized on the TV series Thriller). The third story stars Charlotte Rampling as a schizophrenic whose "doppelganger" is manifested in the person of Britt Ekland. The final tale involves demented toymaker Herbert Lom and his army of killer robots. Robert Bloch himself adapted his original source material for the screen. Asylum was also known as House of Crazies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In director Peter Brook's King Lear, Paul Scofield portrays the title character, a senile old ruler, whose susceptibility to flattery proves his undoing. The premise involves Lear's ill-fated attempts to divide his kingdom amongst his three daughters -- a goal that ultimately leads to tragedy. The stark terrain of Denmark stands in for England in this version, adding a brooding visual texture to the picture that exists alongside the traditional Shakespearean dialogue. Lear's daughters are played by Irene Worth (Goneril), Susan Engel (Regan), and Anne-Lise Gabold (Cordelia); others in the cast are Alan Webb (Gloucester), Cyril Cusack (Albany), Patrick Magee (Cornwall), and Jack MacGowran (the Fool). Younger viewers and those faint at heart be warned: King Lear is one of Shakespeare's most graphically violent works, and director Brook takes every opportunity to emphasize the carnage and gore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this feather-weight version of Evelyn Waugh's novel Decline and Fall, Paul Pennyfeather (Robin Phillips) is an Oxford divinity student who finds himself expelled after a gang of drunken freshmen remove his pants and he is accused of exposing himself to a girl. Looking for work, he retains the services of an unsavory employment agency that secures a position for him at a sleazy Welsh boarding school for boys, presided over by the colorful Dr. Fagan (Donald Wolfit). On staff at the school are an assortment of distasteful screwballs; Mr. Prendergast (Robert Harris) is a withdrawn former clergyman; Captain Grimes (Leo McKern) is a one-legged two-timer with his eye on Fagan's daughter Flossie (Patience Collier); and Soloman Philbrick (Colin Blakely) is an undercover criminal posing as Fagan's butler. All hell breaks loose during the school's annual Sports Day, but Paul manages to meet a wealthy patron of the school, Margot Beste-Chetwynde (Geneviève Page), who hires him to tutor her son. At her estate, Margot seduces Paul, and Paul proposes marriage. But before the wedding, Margot asks Paul, as a favor, to travel to Tangiers on a business trip. He agrees but is soon arrested for trafficking in prostitution. Sent to jail, he runs into Philbrick and Captain Grimes, and now Margot has to scheme to get Paul out of jail. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Adapted from his own Royal Shakespeare Company production of Peter Weiss' play entitled The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates at Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, Peter Brook directs this fascinating look into revolution, power, and human frailty. During the 19th century, fashionable theatergoers would attend ostensibly therapeutic stage performances by mental asylum inmates. The film opens on July 19, 1809, with Monsieur Coubnier (Clifford Rose), the officious head of the Charenton asylum, introducing that night's show -- a drama about the assassination of French Revolutionary War firebrand Jean-Paul Marat, written by that institution's most notorious resident, the Marquis de Sade (Patrick Magee). The play begins conventionally enough , considering that the lead actress (Glenda Jackson) is a narcoleptic, the actor playing Marat (Ian Richardson) is a paranoiac, and another actor, a sex maniac with very pressing urges, is kept in chains. But the work soon evolves into a dialogue between Marat and De Sade. Though both men were early supporters of the Revolution, their ideas of the shape of the movement took very different courses. Espousing a form of proto-Marxism, Marat is at first presented as the sort of tyrannical idealist that became depressingly familiar in the 20th century, a la Lenin and Pol Pot. But then later, Marat seems haunted by the terror he has unleashed and unable to understand where he went wrong. De Sade, on the other hand, preached his own unusual brand of Nietzschean existentialism. Unlike Marat, he not only recognizes the inherent weakness of the human character, but he revels in it. Murder as an act of individual passion should be celebrated, De Sade at first argues; murder as an anonymous act of statecraft should be deplored. The individual is not given meaning though politics but through acts of spontaneous passion and desire. As the play progresses, the revolution depicted in the play soon develops into an outright revolution on the stage. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the Robert Bloch short story "The Skull of the Marquis de Sade," this inventive gothic chiller from Amicus stars Peter Cushing as Professor Maitland, a collector obsessed with obtaining artifacts reputed to have occult powers -- including the title object, believed to be from the crypt of the notorious French nobleman. Shortly after the Professor brings home his latest find, the skull begins making nightly rounds (the gliding camera peers through the eye sockets for the nifty "skull-cam" point-of-view shots) before eventally dominating Maitland's will. Despite the potentially cheesy premise (which sounds better suited to a William Castle project), the film is remarkably subtle and spooky thanks to the deft hand of director Freddie Francis and an excellent performance from Cushing. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Filmed on a grand scale, Zulu is a rousing recreation of the January 22, 1879, siege of Rorke's Drift in Natal, Africa. An army of 4,000 Zulu warriors have already decimated a huge British garrison; now they are on their way to the much smaller Rorke's Drift. A Royal Engineers officer (Stanley Baker) is determined to stand his ground, despite having only a skeleton garrison at his command. His steamroller tactics are constantly at odds with those of a by-the-book lieutenant (Michael Caine), who feels that a retreat is called for, but it becomes clear that if the garrison is to survive, they'd better pay heed. Jack Hawkins and Ulla Jacobsson are also on hand as an idealistic missionary and his somewhat more pragmatic daughter. Richard Burton provides the narration for Zulu, closing the film with the observation that 11 of the 1,344 Victoria Crosses awarded since 1856 were bestowed upon the survivors of Rorke's Drift. Zulu was followed in 1979 by a "prequel," Zulu Dawn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide