Jimmy Sangster Movies
One of England's top horror film writers and directors of the postwar period, Jimmy Sangster started out as a production manager in the '40s before turning to more creative pursuits. He was lucky enough to hook up with Sir James Carreras (1900-1990), the head of Hammer Films, which became one of the most successful of England's postwar studios, specializing in horror and science fiction material, where Sangster, either alone or in collaboration with others, excelled at the authorship of top-notch scripts. Some of these, such as The Curse of Frankenstein, The Horror of Dracula, and The Trollenberg Terror (aka The Crawling Eye) were adaptations of pre-existing stories and characters, but in every case, Sangster added tantalizing but economical twists of character and action that made them new to audiences -- Curse of Frankenstein and Horror of Dracula started up whole new horror cycles built around Hammer Films and the personalities of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee that ran into the '70s, while The Trollenberg Terror -- which started life as a five-part BBC-TV serial -- became one of the most popular low-budget British science fiction chillers of the late '50s. Sangster later moved into more mainstream chillers, such as Seth Holt's The Nanny, starring Bette Davis, which he produced as well as scripted, and occasionally ventured into action/adventure films, such as Deadlier than the Male (1966), an entertaining but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to adapt H.C. "Sapper" McNeille's post-World War I hero Bulldog Drummond into the James Bond mold. On a still more mainstream level, his co-authored story became the basis for the 1981 Disney comedy The Devil and Max Devlin, starring Elliott Gould and Bill Cosby. Sangster has also written numerous scripts for British and American television, most notably "Horror In The Heights" for the series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide- 1971
Screenwriter Jimmy Sangster and John Llewellyn Moxey, longtime collaborators in the field of British psychological-horror efforts, once more combined their skills for the American TV movie Taste of Evil. Barbara Parkins plays a young rape victim, recently released from a mental institution. She begins experiencing "flashbacks" to her rape; are these merely illusions, or is she being systematically tortured by a mystery villain? Barbara Stanwyck, Roddy McDowell, William Windom, Roddy McDowell and Bing Russell (Kurt's father) express varying degrees of concern and menace. Taste of Evil is a bit of a letdown considering its cast and the previous achievements of the Sangster/Moxey team. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
A palatable combination of horror and science fiction, Blood of the Vampire takes place in 19th century Transylvania-and never mind that all the locals have cockney accents. British stage star Donald Wolfit, who never spoke when shouting would do, plays the vampiric Dr. Callistratus. Though we see Callistratus being dispatched in traditional stake-through-the-heart fashion during the opening credits, it isn't long before he returns to life, this time in the guise of a prison warden. Using his criminally insane charges as his guinea pigs, Callistratus drains their bodies of blood in order to stay alive. In the film's incredibly busy climax, Callistratus is prevented from carving up the toothsome Madeleine (Barbara Shelley) by his hunchbacked assistant Carl (Victor Maddern). We didn't see the kitchen sink, but we'll bet that that's in here somewhere too. Often mistaken for a Hammer film production (mainly because it was written by perennial Hammer scrivener Jimmy Sangster), Blood of the Vampire was actually produced by the short-lived Artistes Alliance Ltd. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Wolfit, Vincent Ball, (more)
- 1969
- PG
In this horror film, an American graduate student travels to southern France to research her thesis. She is writing about a famed composer who recently died. She stays with his widow and his son, a disabled drug-addict. She becomes more involved in the family than she wanted after she finds the composer's crazy twin, hidden away in the attic. She almost dies trying to escape. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
In this 1967 drama, resourceful British agent Bulldog Drummond, who appeared onscreen in a series of spy stories between 1929 and 1951, returned to duty in the wake of James Bond. Here, Drummond (Richard Johnson) is on the trail of Carl Petersen (Nigel Green), a corrupt industrialist who has a bad habit of stealing the ideas of others and then killing them so he can reap their profits. The nefarious Petersen has a team of female assistants willing to kill on command, led by Irma (Elke Sommer) and Penelope (Sylva Koscina). One more Bulldog Drummond vehicle, Some Girls Do, followed in 1969 before the series was retired again. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Johnson, Elke Sommer, (more)
- 1979
- PG
A scientist hunted by terrorists receives assistance from an unexpected source: two Las Vegas showgirls and their promoter who pretend to be detectives. ~ All Movie Guide
Peter Cushing took time off from his Frankenstein and Dracula duties to star in the standard-issue melodrama Fear in the Night. Cushing plays Michael Carmichael, the headmaster of a private school, where Robert Heller (Ralph Bates) is engaged as an instructor. Heller also indulges in extracurricular activities of an amorous nature with Carmichael's wanton wife, Molly (Joan Collins). Teacher and errant wife plot to drive Heller's wife (Judy Geeson) insane and thus induce her to kill Carmichael, thereby removing all roadblocks to Molly's happiness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
In this espionage film, an American detective becomes part of a British spy organization's attempt to free a Russian expatriate hidden away in England. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The made-for-TV Good Against Evil might not have existed had not The Exorcist shown the way three years earlier. Dack Rambo and Elyssa Davalos star as sweethearts Andy Stuart and Jessica Gordon. The course of true love is messed up when Satan claims Jessica as his own personal property. Desperately, Andy turns to a pair of priests, Fathers Kemschler (Dan O'Herlihy) and Wheatley (John Harkins), for spiritual guidance, not to mention a bit of brute force in purging poor Jessica of her demons. Jimmy Sangster's screenplay doesn't miss a trick, nor does the spooky direction by Paul Wendkos. When first telecast on May 22, 1977, Good Against Evil ran 72 minutes; syndicated prints have been expanded to 97 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1964
While visiting England, an American tourist (Robert Webber) is involved in an auto accident and suffers from amnesia. Upon his release from the hospital, he recuperates in a home paid for by a mysterious benefactor, where a dead body later appears in the shower. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Webber, Anthony Newlands, (more)
- 1958
British melodrama maven Jimmy Sangster adapted his screenplay for Intent to Kill from a novel by Michael Bryan. Richard Todd plays a Montreal doctor who is in love with his pretty American assistant Betsy Drake. Todd is saddled with a viper-tongued wife (Catherine Boyle), who wants him to leave the provinces for a posh practice in London. The good doctor's problems are intensified when he is obliged to perform delicate brain surgery on a hated South American president (Herbert Lom), who has been targeted for assassination by a "trusted" colleague (Carlo Giustini). Only the intervention of police detective Paul Carpenter saves Todd from stopping a bullet himself. The heated intrigues of Intent to Kill are contrasted by the wintry Montreal exteriors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Todd, Betsy Drake, (more)
- 1974
The eighth and final season of Ironside begins with the first episode of a two-part story. Believing herself possessed by the malevolent spirit of her dead brother, college coed Susan Todd (Sian Barbara Allen) confesses to the murder of her mother. Suspecting that Susan is not telling the truth, Ironside (Raymond Burr) consults a psychic to determine the murderer's actual identity. Meanwhile, Susan's somewhat sinister psychoanalyst Theodore Gallin Bill Bixby lurks ominously in the background. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
In the conclusion of Ironside's Season Eight opener, Chief Ironside (Raymond Burr) now knows that college coed Susan Todd (Sian Barbara Allen) was not truly responsible for the murder of her mother. The real villain of the piece is Susan's deranged psychiatrist Theodore Gallin (Bill Bixby), who specializes in brainwashing his patients to do his bidding. The situation takes a truly sinister turn when Gallin "programs" policewoman Fran Belding (Elizabeth Baur) to kill Ironside! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
John Williams guest stars as Bill Walston, a British police inspector who shows up in San Francisco, ostensibly to a attend a convention. Linking up with his old friend Ironside (Raymond Burr), Walston effusively offers to help the Chief in his investigation of a robbery. What Ironside doesn't know is that Walston is seriously ill--and that the good Inspector was himself the mastermind behind the heist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1959
Suspenseful, interesting, and macabre, this period piece by Robert S. Baker overcomes a weakness in characterization by sheer dint of storyline and action. Jack the Ripper still remains the unidentified killer of at least three, probably five, and possibly even eight prostitutes living or working in London's East End in 1888. The murders occurred in August, September, and November of that year and were never solved. Because various internal organs of the dead victims (their throats were cut after they were strangled into unconsciousness) were removed rapidly and with an accurate surgical technique, investigators have postulated that the demented serial killer was a surgeon. In this cinematic version, the murders are shown as they happened while Inspector O'Neill (Eddie Byrne), along with an American detective Sam Lowry (Lee Patterson) try to track down suspects and prevent the next killing. The theory put forward here is that Jack the Ripper was looking for one particular woman. As the tension mounts, his suggested identity -- and what happened to him -- is revealed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Patterson, Eddie Byrne, (more)
This is one of three Hammer films loosely based on Sheridan LeFanu's book Camilla, which gives the standard vampire story a lesbian twist. The other two films are The Vampire Lovers and Twins of Evil. In this film, Count Karnstein, through a magical ritual, relies on the feedings of the newly re-fleshed and voluptuous vampire Mircalla (Yutte Stensgaard) for his own sustenance. This keeps her very busy indeed. She finds a ready supply of victims at a girls' finishing school. Her troubles begin when two male teachers from the school decide to investigate. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1963
An American artist travels to rural France for a relaxing vacation and ends up falling for a lovely young woman, whose father is the owner of a cafe. Unfortunately, her father is not in town, as he is locked up in the local looney bin for immolating the man who raped his daughter. The trouble begins when the girl's stepmother seduces the artist and then convinces him to help her free her murderous husband, a man who cannot bear the thought of a man touching his beloved daughter. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kerwin Mathews, Nadia Gray, (more)
- 1979
A couple find the body of a detective in their apartment, and follow the trail of his killer to Nashville. The film is also known as Country Music Murders. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1963
Legendary cinematographer (Freddie Francis) directed this Hammer horror film of madness and murder. The story concerns young Janet (Jennie Linden), a student at finishing school who is suffering from a series of recurring nightmares, having witnessed her mother stabbing her father to death. When her nightmares intensify, Janet is brought to the home of her guardian, Henry Baxter (David Knight). Henry is not home, but Janet is put into the care of his live-in nurse, Grace (Moira Redmond). Janet's nightmares continue, in which she sees a woman in white beckoning her into her parents' bedroom. Following the apparition, Janet sees the woman lying in bed, with a knife sticking from her chest. When Henry returns home, he is told by the doctors that Janet should be confined to a mental institution. Henry refuses, but the arrival of Henry's wife changes all that -- when Janet sees Henry's wife, who resembles the woman from her dreams, she grabs a knife and stabs her to death. Janet is committed to an institution for the criminally insane. However, it turns out that Grace had deliberately disguised herself as the woman in white to drive Janet over the brink and kill Henry's wife, so that they could be married. Henry and Grace get married, but Grace then receives reports that Janet has escaped from the institution and is returning to Henry's estate, bent on revenge. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Knight, Moira Redmond, (more)
- 1981
In this taut made-for-television psychological thriller, a young woman has never been able to overcome the guilt she feels about her father's accidental death. She nearly goes insane when a stalker begins watching her every move and she becomes convinced that it is the ghost of her late dad. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In this socially conscious drama, an ex-con meets constant opposition from avaricious land owners who want the land on which he has set up a ranch-style juvenile correctional facility. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1980
In this espionage drama, a computer whiz conned into assisting a tricky spy, finds himself face-to-face with the world's most deadly criminal. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1963
A woman must contend with her family's madness as she finds her own sanity in doubt in this thriller from British horror masters Hammer Films. After the death of her parents, Eleanor Ashby (Janette Scott) would seem a safe bet to inherit their estate, but at the funeral, she's convinced that she has seen Tony (Alexander Davion), her brother who killed himself seven years ago. Eleanor's other sibling Simon (Oliver Reed), who is inarguably alive, uses this as an excuse to contest the will, arguing that Eleanor is mentally unstable and an unfit heir. Simon's claims cause Eleanor to wonder about her sanity, and in a moment of weakness she attempts suicide. Tony rescues her and tells her that he never died but simply went into hiding. He returns to the family's mansion, but soon he and Eleanor become the subject of a number of violent attacks by a masked lunatic before Eleanor learns a surprising secret about Tony. Paranoiac marked the directorial debut of ace cinematographer Freddie Francis. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Janette Scott, Oliver Reed, (more)
- 1980
- R
In this grim horror movie, the only one ever made by director John Huston, patients from a psychiatrist's phobia group are being murdered in ways that reflect their deepest fears. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Michael Glaser, John Colicos, (more)
- 1961
The British writer/director team of Jimmy Sangster and Seth Holt was never satisfied unless it scared the bejeepers out of its audience. Scream of Fear stars Susan Strasberg as the crippled daughter of Ann Todd, whom she meets for the first time during a vacation on the Riviera. There's something unsettling about Strasberg's surroundings and her mother's behavior. But when Strasberg insists that she's seen the dead body of her father, it is she who is considered off the beam, while everyone else is treated as normal. Perhaps the authorities are right; perhaps Strasberg is merely neurotic and overwrought. And perhaps there's more than one plot twist ahead of us as we draw nearer and nearer the truth. Scream of Fear was originally released in Great Britain as Taste of Fear. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Strasberg, Ronald Lewis, (more)
- 1973
Bette Davis stars in the TV movie Scream, Pretty Peggy. She isn't Peggy, but instead the secretive matriarch of a spooky household. Peggy, played by Sian Barbara Allen, is a goggle-eyed college student hired by Davis as a housekeeper. Ted Bessell plays Davis's son, a crazed sculptor; but no one ever sees Bessell's maniacal sister (where's Anthony Perkins when you need him?). Be assured that pretty Peggy takes up the invitation proposed by the film's title and screams loud and often. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
