The Beast Must Die.
Stariing Calvin Lockhart.Peter Cushing
Michael Gambon.
Anton Diffring.
Marlene Clark.
Ciaran Madden.
Charles Grey.
Directed by Paul Annett.
UK Cinema Release Date 22nd April 1974.
This review is based on the UK VHS on Warner Brothers Horror Classics/Studio Canal + Image Label 1999.
Official embeddable trailer currently unavailable anywhere *check out Dark Skies Films Official trailer for it here for their restored import version on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfE_nescX0
Looking at this again after many years from watching it for the first time on television, I failed to see now where the "horror" of it lay at all, as it seemed this time round, to probably be one of the weakest movie's released by the wonderful Amicus Production Studio's as a horror film in the UK during the 1970's. *please see footnote at bottom of the page.
This has not aged well at all, the terribly boring action and chase scenes that look straight out of an episode of The Professionals, are so clunky, pedestrian and lazy, you'll just laugh, also the cringe worthy jazz pop soundtrack music that chukka-wha's it's way into thing's every now and again, could also suit the same programme, dear, dear, where did they think they were going with this, set in modern times, the 1970's, with analogue hi tech gadgetry, "guess who the Werewolf is" time waster.
Poor old Peter Cushing tries his best to add some authority and accountability to the proceedings as Professor Lundgrun, an expert on Lycanthropy, but he in this film for Amicus, where he usually was the star, is to understated a character for you to even really notice he's there, it's not a leading role for him and he seems from very early on as if he's lost interest in the story, and I suspect this was the case before he even got started working on the project, as his beloved wife Helen had just died a few years earlier. Sadly he's not giving his best version of a German accent either and we don't get to see him actually yawn on camera, even though he looks like he's just about to with this contrived and stupid film. It's never been one of my fav's but I thought I would take another look 40 years on.
Maybe The Beast Must Die has a decent enough of a story, some nice cinematography in places and a pretty good cast that included some of the biggest names in genre cinema at the time including Cushing, Diffring, Grey, but they still don't seem to be able to make this attempt at a werewolf film sparkle, like so many of the other films released around that time did. In fact it's so daft and old school in places you might even swear out loud at the ridiculous premise your being asked to believe.
Brilliant Anton Diffring is the first of the big stars of the time to go at the jaws of the beast or at the expense of his fee to act in this appallingly sad film, he is Pavel, a surveillance expert, who has rigged all the of the grounds and woods of millionaire "Big Game Hunter", Tom Newcliffe's mansion with camera's and microphone's to help locate the werewolf's whereabouts as it moves around his sizeable country estate and buildings so he, Newcliffe, can hunt it down and kill it, because that's what he want's to do as he has hunted just about everything else there is that lives and he's a 1970's millionaire and that's what they're all supposed to want to do with their time, yawn! His body is kept secret and hidden under a sheet by Newcliffe, so he can continue his mad and extremely tiresome hunt.
Charles Grey (Blofeld in some of the Bond Films) is Arthur Bennington, playing his trademark style, upper class diplomat character, fairly believably, poo pooing the concept of werewolves, as do all the invited guests, that one of the group of gathered distinguished people at Millionaire Hunter's, Tom Newcliffe's Country Mansion is a actually a werewolf, and he, Grey, is also promptly killed off early, probably also due to his acting fee.
Calvin Lockhart's character, Tom Newcliffe is truly ridiculously unbelievable and it's embarrassingly played by him to, far to over dramatic, he probably jumped at the part because it was not often black actors of the time got a leading role in biggish films but due to the recent explosion in "Blaxsploitation Films" around that time, that's probably why he got offered the part.
Saying that maybe one reason to see The Beast Must Die is to witness his one piece "leather effect" hunting outfit he wears for most of the film that comes complete with massive, huge "Aircraft Carrier" lapels. I suppose Calvin Lockhart will be more familiar to you if you know he played "King Willy", the gang leader of the Rastafarians in Predator 2, with his big line in that film being "You don't see the eye of the demon till he come calling", which can make me forgive him for being truly awful in The Beast Must Die.
I understand there is a DVD out there from "Dark Sky Films" with some restored blood and a wide screen presentation in the near original scoping, which could improve the experience slightly, if The Beast Must Die was a console game and I was to rate it for re-playability I would give it a 1 out of 5, as I can honestly say, I shan't watch this again for a very long time and then the only reason would be if it was uncut and in it's full original scope.
If this was Amicus's attempt at taking horror films to the next level back then, they failed miserably and they ceased making films a few years later, sadly for me it is laugh out loud, so bad it's only just barely funny. But don't take my word for it, see it yourself. For completest's of Amicus Productions Studio's films only.
*Another reason why I didn't like this is there is a quite nasty real dogfight towards the end of the film, between the Pyrenean Mountain Dog that doubles as the werewolf and a Labrador dog in a barn, which would not be allowed to happen these days, it is quite distressing to watch as the the Labrador is very outmatched and I can honestly say it was unnecessary and upsetting.
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