one-nine-eighty
"This is a murder mystery in which you are the detective... But instead of "who is the murderer?" the question is "who is the werewolf?"So the film starts, Lockhart is being hunted but soon establishes himself as the hunter, by the end of the film expect the hunter to become the hunted again both metaphorically and physically. He's basically an eccentric big game hunter who's rigged his mansion grounds up to help track a werewolf, who incidentally is one of the guests him and his wife will be entertaining during a full moon cycle. The guests include an artist, biologist, a musician, and werewolf expert amongst others. The cast is actually really good making this b-movie werewolf film actually not that bad, Peter Cushing, Tom Chadbon, Sir Michael Gambon and Lockhart all have a bit of experience and class about then. The latter, Calvin Lockhart brings a blaxploitation feel to the film with his own funky soundtrack following him and his undertones of ghetto attitude. I enjoyed the 'whodoneit?' feel to the film, I guessed who the werewolf was but ended up talking myself out of it while imagining random endings that would have been more creative. The 'detective' element of the film was nice to see, I can't remember the last time I watched an interactive film since the end of the 80's, however I read that this wasn't a planned part of the film, it was added after the film had already been printed, as such may not make much sense to modern audiences. This film is good for a rainy day if you will suspend your disbelief and just go with it, if you are expecting a grizzly werewolf, blood and violence then watch "American werewolf in London" not this B-movie narrative thriller.
Koosh_King01
Somewhere in rural England, a man is running. Everywhere he goes, his movements are tracked by hidden security cameras and a low-flying helicopter, which reports his movements to several armed men. The pursue the fugitive. However, each time they catch the man, despite being armed with guns, they let him go. This proceeds for some until the man runs onto the grounds of a mansion, where suddenly the armed men reappear and open fire and it is then revealed that their guns are loaded with blanks. The man - Tom Newcliffe - is unharmed.Cut to a control room inside the mansion, where a refreshed Tom, now revealed as the wealthy owner of the house and all the land around it, is talking to a Polish man named Pavel. Pavel is an electronics expert and the head of the mansion's security. He has turned the isolated country estate into an impenetrable fortress patrolled by armed guards and helicopters, and overseen by security cameras and hidden microphones, both inside the house and in the woods. Tom was testing the effectiveness of the system, using himself as bait. He seems satisfied.Pavel is slightly in the dark about why his boss wants all this added security. Tom isn't terribly forthcoming about his reasons. He tells Pavel he'll learn what it is he intends to hunt soon. Later, Tom and his wife Caroline are greeting some guests they've invited out to a weekend get-together. Or, should I say, Tom has invited them - Caroline has never even heard of half of the people he's invited. But Tom seems to know each of them intimately, having done extensive research on each of them. One by one, he introduces them to Caroline.First up is Arthur Bennington, a former United Nations diplomat. Apparently, he and two others of the diplomatic corps got into a scrape and the other two turned up dead. Only Bennington survived. Bennington was exonerated but fired from his job. He now works as a TV show host.Then we have Jan Gilmore, a former concert pianist. Once renowned throughout the world, he is unwelcome in certain European countries because every time he was in town to perform, there were grisly murders.Davina Gilmore, a wealthy socialite, has been separated from her husband Jan following some kind of fight between them. According to Tom, every time she attends a party, they always come up a guest short.Then there is Paul Foote. A former medical student turned artist, Paul and some friends, while in medical school, once ate some flesh from one of the cadavers, leading to their expulsion. Later, during his career as an artist, there was a murder, and one of Paul's paintings just happened to resemble the victim. Paul claims he saw the victim's face in a newspaper photo, but Tom isn't so sure.Lastly, we have Dr. Christopher Lundgren, who is a Swedish archaeologist by trade but whose personal hobby is cryptzoology. In particular - and here, we see why Tom saved him for last - Lundgren is a self-professed expert on werewolves.This shocks the other guests and Tom explains that he believes without a shadow of a doubt that one of them is a werewolf, and he aims to prove it and slay the monster. The full moon is coming up, he says, and will last for three days, and with all the added security around the house, there is no way the werewolf can escape, and he vows wait until the werewolf's identity is revealed, and then hunt and kill it - after which the remaining guests may leave.Tom's plan seems foolproof. The security system airtight. The guards well-trained. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans. Before the three days are over, the Newcliffe's guest list will be quite a bit shorter...This is a fine and fun little werewolf film, with some great performances. We have Peter Cushing doing a Swedish accent he lapses in and out of; the smarmy, acid-tongued Charles Gray; the painfully handsome and soft-spoken Anton Diffring; and, years before his turn as Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films, Michael Gambon. There's also Ciaran Madden, although she's a bit on the wooden side; making up for this where the fairer sex are concerned is the positively gorgeous Marlene Clark.But the true standout performances are Calvin Lockhart as Tom Newcliffe and Tom Chadbon as Paul Foote.Lockhart lords himself over all of the other actors, even stalwarts like Charles Gray and Peter Cushing. Lockhart's delivery is a bit stilted at times, but, nevertheless, his sheer charisma and force of personality make give his Tom an utterly magnetic and engaging screen presence. He's like a modern day Captain Ahab, too, growing more and more crazed and obsessed at figuring out who the werewolf is each time he fails to kill it.And then we have Tom Chadbon. I loved him in that, and he's an absolute joy here. His Paul Foote is quite simply the funniest and most engaging character in the entire film. He doesn't take anything seriously and is constantly making jokes, even in the most dire circumstances; clearly, Paul operates on an entirely different plain of mental existence from the other people in the mansion.If the movie has one weakness, it's the werewolf itself. Apparently, Amicus blew its entire budget renting a helicopter, that they had zilch left over for the monster, so the titular beast is played by an actual wolf. Or, at least, a large dog that looks reasonably enough like a wolf. Still, to Amicus' credit, they keep the critter mostly offscreen and let the suspense and the drama drive the story, and, when the shaggy abomination does rear its cute head and waggy tail, they shoot the attack scenes around the animal, and it works fairly well.
JBStanden
Totally unique in that the viewer gets a 30second interlude to put forward their ideas on the identity of the werewolf during the 'werewolf break' and all players, we are informed, are strong suspects.Star turns from Michael Gambon, Peter Cushing, Marlene Clark, Tom Chadbon, Charles Gray, Anton Diffring, and of course Calvin Lockhart, the characters accept the kind invitation from wealthy businessman Tom Newcliffe (Calvin Lockhart) and his glamorous wife Caroline (Marlene Clark) to spend a summer weekend at their sumptuous and beautiful country pile. All seems innocent enough, but on the first day Tom reveals his true motives for bringing them all together - to find out which one of them is the werewolf who has been wreaking havoc in the outside world - and Tom is hellbent on adding a werewolf to his collection of big game for which he has an infamous reputation of hunting down.Tom has invested in the latest technological gadgetry available and has had his house and extensive grounds electronically bugged to help zero him in on his ferocious, four legged target and the silver bullets that have been specially made for him will, he believes weigh the odds down in his favour to help him bullseye the beast.Risking everything including his marriage Tom digs out his trusty game rifle and gives the domestic staff the weekend off. Thankfully, later on he sees sense and breaks out the automatic - also loaded with solid silver projectiles.For a film made in the 1970s it really is worth a look. Other films of this era were still using fake fur fixed to the actors, whereas here they had the idea of sticking additional fur to an ordinary dog to give a renewed representation on how a werewolf might look.Car buffs will enjoy glimpses of classics such as a rare Citroen GS, Mercedes and Landrover LWB safari and then a car chase in which full use of the Landrover's off road capability is used. Tame by today's standards of special effects, but believable intensity from Lockhart in his role and other great performances from Marlene Clark and especially Tom Chadbon more than make up for this.Dust off your flairs and kipper tie and sit yourself down to a truly enjoyable 1970s classic. Oh, and a simple precaution: lock your door!
