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The Hellfire Club [1961] 'Produced, directed and photographed' by Robert S. Baker and Monty
Berman, before they became a mainstay of ITV drama with The
Saint, this is sadly the least lurid of their run of historical
pot-boilers. Coming after the full-blown blood and thunder of The
Flesh and the Fiends, Blood
of the Vampire and Jack
the Ripper, this tepid swashbuckler is bound to disappoint, especially
since rumours persist of a saucier continental version with more extensive
orgies. A grinning Keith Michell, 'a knight in shining trousers', is
the rightful heir to a great house, raised by a circus troupe, who challenges
his treacherous, usurping cousin Peter Arne to get back his title and
thwart the anti-democratic schemings of the eponymous bunch of periwigged
decadents. Michell, who leaps about a lot and impersonates a comedy
Frenchman, is torn between the charms of earthy redhead Kai Fischer,
a circus girl who often threatens to overspill her bodice, and Adrienne
Corri, whose cheekbones and nostrils mark her as a born schemer [both
heroines have frustratingly unrevealing nude bathing scenes]. The dastards
include a sissified Francis Matthews, growling Robbie Coltrane lookalike
Denis Shaw, blitheringly corrupt Judge Miles Malleson and real-life
MP Andrew Faulds, while Michell's allies are such stalwarts as Peter
Cushing [funny lawyer], David Lodge and Bill Owen. It gets rather bogged
down between the clumsy swordfights, and the wild debauches turn out
to be sadly inoffensive. First published on the BBC Films site. Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com
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