633 Squadron (1964)
The story
An RAF squadron is tasked with knocking out a German rocket fuel plant at the end of a heavily defended fjord in Norway assisted by a Norwegian officer whose sister then arrives at the RAF base.
Only in black and white on TV years ago. Until it started we hadn't realised it was shot in colour!
Any good?
Like many aviation adventures, a bit stodgy on the ground and only, er, takes off in the very fine aerial sequences. Features just about every De Havilland Mosquito still flying at the time. Even less than twenty years after the end of the war there were only half a dozen left out of 7,781 built. Not a single airworthy aircraft exists today. So the short answer is that the film is OK but we don't care because its got real Mosquitos in it and they were the finest aircraft of World War 2 and every time one is on screen Triple P is happy!
Aero-porn
Notable for...
Ron Goodwin's fantastic theme music. "The best horn fanfare since Richard Strauss" according to Gramophone magazine. Lead actor Cliff Robertson was a keen pilot and wanted to buy one of the Mosquitos, as he was so impressed with them, but they wouldn't let him. He later bought a Mark IX Spitfire instead. The screen play was by James (Shogun) Clavell.
Any good girlies?
Austrian actress Maria Perschy is the rather uneccessary love interest but who cares what girlies are in it when you can watch De Havilland Mosquitos flying in formation?
Now on to a Hammer double bill...
The Vampire Lovers (1970)
The story
A lady leaves her daughter Marcilla (Ingrid Pitt; mesmerising) in the care of a general (Peter Cushing, excellent as ever) and his family. His daughter gets weaker and dies having suffered nightmares that she is being attacked. Marcilla disappears and then turns up at another man's house where she seduces his daughter (the gorgeous Madeleine Smith) and she starts to look pale as well...
Seen it before...?
When this first appeared on TV when Triple P was at school it was much appreciated due to the topless appearance of Madeleine Smith, widely considered by our classmates as the most beautiful and desirable woman alive.
Any good...?
The first of Hammer Film's trilogy of lesbian vampire films featuring the Karnstein family. We have already looked at the final film Vampire Circus. This is much the best of the three with a wonderfully sinister performance by the late Ingrid Pitt.
Notable for...
Some quite naughty for the time lesbian scenes and the fact that the female vampire doesn't bite her female victims' necks but goes for much bigger targets. Very much bigger in Madeleine Smith's case.
Ingrid Pitt and Madeleine Smith: four good reasons to watch The Vampire Lovers
Any good girlies?
You can't fault Hammer here: Ingrid Pitt, Madeleine Smith, Pippa Steele and Kate O'Mara all go in for considerable bosom heaving.
Lust for a Vampire (1971)
Yutte Stensgaard in one of the most iconic images of seventies British horror films
The story
The Karnstein family raise Carmilla from her grave. Changing her name to Mircalla she arrives at a finishing school full of nubile young ladies and two rather dreary male teachers. A target rich environment for the ravenous succubus.
Seen it before...?
Once on TV about twenty years ago.
Suzanna Leigh in gratuitous Greek dancing scene
Any good...?
The second film in the Karnstein trilogy is not as good as The Vampire Lovers largely because Yutte Stensgaard isn't as good an actress as Ingrid Pitt. The idea of having a lesbian vampire let loose in a girls' finishing school makes up for this, however.
Notable for...
The scene where a barely dressed, blood-soaked Stensgaard rises from her coffin. The notoriously dreadful and hopelessly inappropriate song "Strange love" that plays through her seduction of one of the male characters.
Pippa Steel and Yutte Stensgaard
Any good girlies?
Stuffed with toothsome young ladies Pippa Steele (from The Vampire Lovers) gets a bigger role but Triple P's vote goes to posh teacher Janet Playfair played by Suzanna Leigh
More films next week!
