The Beast Must Die

Were-dunnit

The Beast Must Die
UK 1974 Directed by Paul Annett
Amicus/Severin Blu Ray Zone A

Warning: You might want to take a spoiler break during this review.

Not to be confused with other movies and TV shows with, you know, the exact same title... The Beast Must Die is one of Amicus studio’s last proper horror movies, based on a short story by famous Star Trek novelisation and sci-fi writer James Blish. This one mixes the ideas of a typically English country house ‘whodunnit’ mystery with the added element of lycanthropy and, in the case of this movie adaptation, a nod to the very quick influence of the blaxploitation cinema of the time, in the form of main protagonist Tom, played by Calvin Lockhart and his wife Caroline, played by Marlene Clark.

Joining them are a whole host of actors, many of those who would not find themselves out of place in a stuffy, British, Agatha Christie style, ‘slowly whittled away guests’ kind of movie... such as Peter Cushing, Charles Gray, Tom Chadbon (who I best remember as Duggan from the City Of Death storyline in the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who), a young Michael Gambon and, working the security until he suffers a gory demise halfway through the movie, Anton Diffring.

We also have Valentine ‘The Man In Black’ Dyall as the narrator you hear at the start of the film and then again, about ten minutes or so before the end. In the opening sequence he reads out the appearing messages which, frankly, the audience can read way quicker than him (Posing the question... why do both? Just pick either a voice or typography), telling the audience that they are the detective. We have a certain amount of time to follow the clues, such as they aren’t, and work out not so much whodunnit but... who is the werewolf.

And then we go into a long, ploddy opening sequence where Calvin Lockhart is being hunted by Anton Diffring, trying to infiltrate a country home while the latter uses state of the art security mechanisms he has on the grounds and surrounding forest, to have his small army locate Lockhart. I have to say, the musical score here, provided by Douglas Gamley, is working as hard here as it does the rest of the movie to try and add pace to visuals which are, despite being nicely composed and clean looking, lacking any kind of oomph to them and threaten to just get into dullsville territory really quickly. Indeed, my big criticism of the whole movie is that the pacing is way too dull but, that being said, it’s still somehow a quite fun and watchable movie.

Due, I suppose, to the slight undertones of blaxploitation, Gamley’s score is a full on funky stew of wah wah guitar and cool beats but, it has to be said, it sounds more like what Laurie Johnson might have provided for an episode of The New Avengers... if the plot of an episode of that show had involved lots of porn scenes of Joanna Lumley and Patrick MacNee getting loved up for the duration. In other words, it kinds of works contrary to the style of the film but sounds great and, yes, it’s a damn shame the soundtrack to this one has never been released commercially on CD... I’d be first in line to grab one.

Anyway, the whole opening turns out to be a trick to fool the audience, when it turns out it’s Lockhart testing his new security advisor and system. But why does he need such state-of-the-art security you might ask? Well, because he’s a world famous, super rich hunter and all the guests he’s invited for a long weekend (the three nights when the moon is full) have been around violent death of some sort. So he naturally assumes one of them is a werewolf (of course, who wouldn’t, right?) and in best Zaroff style, he wants to hunt the biggest game of all. Only this time man is not just the biggest game... man turns into a wolf, apparently.

And what a werewolf! Or should I say, where wolf?

Okay, so it really is an Alsatian dog (or German Shepherd as they used to be called before the war) dressed up to make it look more wolfy... it just looks a bit more like it’s wearing a shaggy, Shakespearean ruff, to be honest. And don’t talk to me about the transformation scenes... which are completely inconsistent with each other.

All this aside though, there were a couple of things that saved this for me. One is that the cast are all immensely watchable in this... despite Peter Cushing's ‘archaeologist/werewolf expert’ character having an absurd pseudo-Swedish accent that seems to rob him of all his inherent dignity. It’s nice seeing this lot bouncing off each other and, often, over acting somewhat... each one holding their own against the others.

Secondly, there’s the revelation after... the Werewolf Break. Okay, so around ten minutes before the end, the film stops and we see a ticking clock counting down thirty seconds, superimposed over footage of each suspect’s face as Valentine Dyall invites us to reveal who we think the werewolf is. Presumably to whoever was sitting next to us in the cinema... did anyone get into a dating situation as a result of this film? And then, after... a werewolf is revealed. And it wasn’t who I thought it would be but, rather than be surprised, I was immediately incensed and blurting out why that person couldn’t possibly be the werewolf... when they were seen actively trying to repel it earlier in the movie. And then I realised... oh wait a minute, that means... and yes, there is a second (and also a third but that’s a different issue) werewolf revealed who makes, maybe a little more sense. And I still hadn’t got it right and that’s just fine for me. The few films I see where I can’t accurately predict the ending from early on always win big score points from me and... such is the case with this beast of a movie.

So there you go. The Beast Must Die is a slow and dull affair which still manages to generate a sense of fun and watchability and I certainly am glad I invested in this lovely Blu Ray transfer of the film from Severin. I can easily see myself watching this again at some point and it’s a perfect ‘middle of the evening’ movie for an all nighter with a crowd of friends, for sure. Yes, having one of the guests playing Moonlight Sonata on the piano at one point is possibly a little over the top in terms of reminding the audience it’s a werewolf movie when Lockhart’s character already does that literally every five minutes but, I dunno, I forgive it all this because it’s a bit of a low key romp and something I would definitely recommend to a certain section of my friends... although it’s certainly not for all of them and I suspect modern teenage audiences may find the pacing a bit of a turn off, truth be told.

Doctor Scrooge

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol

Airdate: December 25th 2010. UK. BBC1

There’s some things, over the years, which have become part and parcel of the whole “Christmas Phenomenon”. You need the big iconic stuff to ensure things go smoothly and usher in the real spirit of Christmas. Turkey... check. Tree... check. Crackers... check. Socks... oh yes. And then, of course, there’s the new annual event that seems to have become almost as equal in stature over the last few years as those traditional stalwarts and it just wouldn’t be Christmas without it. I am of course referring to the annual Doctor Who Christmas Special. Something I always look forward to.

Now my track record of enjoyment with the Christmas specials has been a bit hit and miss over the years with, perhaps, my absolute favourite one being the Victorian Cybermen story, The Next Doctor. That, to me, is everything I wanted in a Doctor Who Christmas story... but the following year I had rather a time of it. Not only did my favourite Doctor, next to Patrick Troughton, regenerate (in part two of the special) but I thought the last two Tennant episodes, broadcast over the holiday period last year, were easily the worst episodes of Tennant’s wonderful reign as the Doctor. I’m telling you this so you can put my comments on this years offering in perspective... since so many people loved those last two episodes of the Tennant era, this may mean I am not to be trusted as a reviewer of these kinds of things.

However, if you’re still with me... lets take a look at this years offering, which came with all the ballyhoo of a “star cast”. The star cast being the wonderful actor Michael Gambon, who I at least knew, and the singer Katherine Jenkins... who seems to have slipped off my radar completely because I had no idea who she was until reading the pre-publicity articles on this years Chrimbo show.

The premise of the episode was Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, but instead of using three ghosts to influence the way the Scrooge character thinks, The Doctor goes back in time and befriends the scrooged up Kazran Sardick earlier in his life and as Gambon watches from a very-tricky-to-explain “live-feed”, his memories of his life change and his cold heart thaws... which is what it needs to do if The Doctor is going to be able to stop Amy and Rory and a host of other passengers from crashing into the planet. However, of course, the changing of Sardick means the parameters of the original solution to the problem also change and after all this happens, a new and last minute means needs to be discovered to save our heroe's companions. This comes in the form of Katherine Jenkins who sings a bit and this somehow allows the starship to land safely (oh, look, I was never much good at paying attention to the scientifiction gobbledy gook that passes for physics in these situations... just go with it). It’s by no means a happy ending because the Jenkins character has been thawed out to live her last day to do this... but her death scene is kept off camera so we can all go out feeling Christmassy anyway... kind of Stephen Moffett’s bitter pill of consequence snuck in and left dangling at the final curtain.

So did I like it? No, but it wasn’t too terrible and I really enjoyed the first half. The trouble with setting up such a strong premise from the offset (and then bloody hyping it to all and sundry before it airs) is that it’s already stuck firmly in your mind and you can imagine all kinds of exciting ways of doing this stuff which are in all likelihood, not going to happen. As it got nearer to the end it kinda got a bit, I dunno, locked in and predictable but as always with Moffett’s writing, it’s getting there in style that counts.

Moffett does an admirable job as does Matt Smith. With Amy’s strong personality absent for most of the episode (which is a shame since she’s my favourite character of late), the brilliant Matt Smith comes into his own and shines and lights up the screen - and he even holds his own with consummate professional Michael Gambon, which is no mean feat. Jenkins does well too and there are some amazing images of flying fish, flying shark and a Christmas sleigh pulled by dolphins which are great little Whovian moments. And it was lovely to see the BBC attempt to stir up some trouble again by having Amy Pond back in her kissogram police uniform for her... um... honeymoon activities (with Rory back in Roman Soldier costume).

Murray Gold’s music, too, was great. Lots of nods to the Matt Smith sub-theme and lots of musical Christmassy cliches to give it that special lift but I do question Silva Screen records wisdom in their scheduling the album release of this score for February. Honestly people... who wants to listen to a Christmas album in February? Why not schedule the release for November when everyone’s going to be back in the mood?

All in all, not my favourite Who Christmas special but certainly not the disaster that some members of my household were portraying it as (that’d be everyone but the dog and me then). I think a lot of people will like this one because, whether you think the episode lacked the necessary oomph or not to lift it onto another level, it certainly went a long way to capturing the spirit of Christmas without compromising Who continuity... and that’s really all it needed to do, I think.