Serious Charge (1959)

Serious Charge (also known as, amongst other things, A Touch of Hell) is a 1959 feature from director Terence Young that was shot in the new town of Stevenage, doubling as the fictional town of Bellington. The plot sees the residents of the town welcome its new vicar (Anthony Quayle) with open arms until a young delinquent (Andrew Ray, the little boy from The Yellow Balloon all grown up) spreads malicious gossip that turns everyone against him.

Serious Charge is perhaps best known for being the film that provided Cliff Richard with his cinematic debut. Britain's answer to Elvis Presley (as he was then known) takes a minor role as the kid brother of Ray's character, who is saved from a life of crime by Quayle's vicar, and gets to sing snatches of three numbers, including his future number 1 hit, Living Doll. Overall however, he's pretty superfluous to the film and simply serves to add teddy boy colour to the coffee bar scenes which also feature an uncredited Jess Conrad and Philip Lowrie, who would go on to play Dennis Tanner in Coronation Street the following year. 

The real meat of the film lies in the vendetta the dangerous and vindictive Ray has against Quayle. When the latter discovers that the boy had impregnated a young girl who later dies, he tries to get him to face the consequences and atone for his behaviour, however Ray pulls a cruel trick that sees him claim the vicar has tried to 'interfere' with him - a timely frame-up that relies on the staged aftermath being witnessed by Sarah Churchill's character Hester, who has previously had her romantic overtures towards Quayle gently rejected. As the old adage has it, 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned', and pretty soon the whole town is believing the established Hester's word against the previously popular new clergyman.

A film from several decades ago handling what is such a topical theme in today's terms is one that automatically makes you sit up and pay attention, but unfortunately Serious Charge takes a long time to actually get there and the first forty minutes are something of a chore, being a mix of polite drawing room conversation between the older members of the cast and painfully dated sequences featuring the 'hip' teenagers accompanied by Cliff's singing. When the plot does kick in though, the film delivers something that is quite watchable as Quayle's dignified man of the cloth has to turn the other cheek amidst the evil gossip surrounding him.

If I hadn't known this film was shot in Stevenage I doubt I'd have been able to guess, as the vast majority of the action takes place in the old town, giving the film much more of a village feel than a new town feel, despite the occasional reference to new towns and the growing urban patch that the church must attempt to reach within the script. Even the town's high street, which features heavily, is barely recognisable given the passage of time. It's a world away from the town as depicted in Boston Kickout some thirty five years later, which is more in keeping with my own experience of the place.

You can watch it here

Murder By Decree

Most winters I get what I call my Sherlock Holmes bug. I don't know what it is, I think its that Victoriana ideal of the snow covered streets and the gas lamps but each winter I tend to raid my Holmes DVDs and books both canon and non canon. Of course this year my habitual interest has been furthered by a second series of the stonking Baker Street update 'Sherlock'  (which sadly concludes tomorrow) on BBC1 and, only slightly less exciting, the second Guy Ritchie big screen re imagining, the weapon obsessed 'Sherlock Holmes : A Game Of Shadows' 

But tonight I turn my attention to Murder By Decree which was a 1979 Sherlock Holmes movie that pitted The Great Detective against Jack The Ripper. It starred Christopher Plummer as Holmes (who had previously portrayed him in  'Silver Blaze'  a British/Canadian TV adaptation opposite Thorley Walters as Watson) and James Mason as Dr Watson. It was directed by Bob Clark who's peculiarly schizophrenic career also included the iconic slasher movie Black Christmas and the 'comedy' Porkys.

So what to make of it? Well firstly, Bob Clark's creeping POV Ripper shots and the slowed down scenes of his cab searching through the pea soup heavy immaculately recreated London street sets of Harry Pottle are genuinely suspenseful and eerie and one imagines such a doom laden and portentous atmosphere was a great influence for Alan Moore when he came to pen his excellent Ripper graphic novel From Hell.

Aesthetically it's quite a gem, redolent of the era it is attempting to recreate whilst at the same time now holding a nostalgic glow for the 70s horror cinema genre. It also stands up surprisingly well on the chills and thrills front too, although the plot will come as a surprise to no one, as it is a familiar to viewers of  David Wickes's TV Mini Series of the 1980s, Jack The Ripper, which starred Michael Caine as real life Ripper hunter Inspector Aberline or the Hughes Brothers cinematic adaptation of Alan Moore's From Hell which starred Johnny Depp in the same role by a circuitous route of Holmes the opium addict.  Indeed there are strong links between this and the latter film, as The Ripper's pupils are depicted as notoriously and ghoulishly large in each

Cast and characterisation then and James Mason's Watson is, sadly, the type of boorish old buffer that almost encroaches on Nigel Bruce's characterisation. His aged portrayal is at stark odds with Plummer's vital, youthful man of action Holmes (with his vicious lead weight scarf ready to be flung at a moment's notice!) that you really do have to wonder why they're so comfortable in one another's company; attending the opera together-accompanied by a scene of Holmes's obvious admiration for his senior partner's burst of royalist pride- and Holmes playfully squashing the one remaining pea on Watson's dinner plate. The homosexual argument is a tired and boring one that holds no truck with me as a rule but it's a surprisingly moot one here. When this duo describe each other as 'partners' you really do wonder if they've the 21st century meaning of the word in mind.

And what of Plummer's Holmes? Well, there are moments that approach brilliance but overall he's too personable, too cheery to convince as the cold, clinical Consulting Detective of legend. This Holmes even cries for heaven's sake! Plus he instantly gets marked down for perpetually wearing the deerstalker and cape throughout, a personal bugbear of mine. Overall, he comes off too modern and occasionally rather too smug as opposed to forward thinking and  brilliantly capable and confident. To say nothing of hypocritical, more of that later.

As well as to the previous Holmes Vs Ripper film, the disappointingly turgid A Study In Terror, this film boasts a strong cast list in supporting roles, featuring as it does two actors, Anthony Quayle and Frank Finlay, who appeared in the previous film, indeed Finlay actually played Lestrade in both movies! It's worth noting his performance here is far superior, although Lestrade is still infuriatingly portrayed as a plodder, albeit a jovial one with a seeming life away from the duo.

David Hemmings adds a touch of star quality to the proceedings even though, admittedly, his star was on the wane by this time. He's greyer and chubbier and reduced to third billing, but in reality his character is a waste of his talents; a seemingly dependable and in turn heroic policeman who is somehow mixed up with the revolutionary brewings in the hidden corners of London. Whereas the aforementioned Anthony Quayle looks like a cross between Geppetto and Dame Barbara Cartland  as  the Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Charles Warren. It is unintentionally hilarious yet his performance is one of so much panto bluster that he manages to be laughable all by himself.

Donald Sutherland pops up in a close up reveal that seems to scream 'Look a really big name from America!' But it fools no one, especially those of us who knew Sutherland from his several appearances across the gamut of ITC drama in the mid to late 60s before his big break in MASH. As such he actually fits in quite well here, though his turn as a vague, other wordly and almost childlike innocent turn as a society psychic and clairvoyant is all too brief. 

And lastly, John Gielgud pops up towards the finale as The Prime Minister ready to hear Holmes's proof of the identity of the real Ripper.

Or is he?

As you've probably guessed, it's all a conspiracy from the high ups.

D'oh!

All in all, it's an enjoyable film and one which you feel inspired or bounced ideas from the so called 'Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' which are currently reprinted by Titan Books (especially with its penchant for pairing Holmes with the more otherwordly, which harks back to his acceptance of Sutherland's gifts and insight here. Something which the canon would firmly dismiss one feels, after some initial suspense)  It is after all a legend that needs stoking. However, the film panders a little too much to the modern society (or at least that of the late 70s) in depicting such a sympathetic teary eyed hero as he reaches his conclusions and sees about him terrible injustice. Ultimately its attitude on the establishment is a little hard to decipher. The rumbling treason from the working class is to be frowned upon-and indeed is by our heroes- whereas Holmes's eventual loss of faith in those who rule is meant to be accepted instantly, when surely it's a fight that comes from the same corner? Or is it only ok for the established order to fight it out among themselves? Class hypocrisy.

All in all however, it's solid late night fare, well crafted with only minor faults. Nice score too.