BlueBlood

A young German nanny takes up employment at a large English stately home, where a sinister butler called Tom (Oliver Reed) appears to have power over the master (Derek Jacobi) and the other staff. It has taken me decades to finally see this, having picked it up on DVD. I recall it being screened on TV years ago, listed as a horror, but for some reason I missed it. Sadly it proved somewhat disappointing. Filmed over two weeks for a mere £55,000 it is a far cry from many of Reed's other movies that he had starred in, and it does show. The story is based on a novel by Lord Alexander Thynn, the 7th Marquis of Bath, and was filmed at his home Longleat in Wiltshire. This was one of the film's stronger points, one part shows scenes of visitors queuing up in their delightful looking old cars, it is almost part documentary and brought back memories of visiting it myself back in the 1970's. The film features much drinking and smoking dope (apparently Reed would organise evening pub crawls for the cast and ended up smashing up his Bentley Continental!), plus Lord Gregory spends a lot of time in bed with his wife (Fiona Lewis) and his mistress, all three are seen naked. Oliver Reed is one of my favourite actors and he looks menacing here but unfortunately just mumbles his way through, "As a gentleman's gentleman I sometimes ask myself who is a real gentleman?". Billed as a horror movie this is 90% rather slow drama, only the Satanic looking segment near the end gives it any horror. The bruises on the young children, or baby bashing as it is referred to in the film, was the most horrifying aspect. Overall I felt slightly disappointed, having waited so long to finally watch it, there were elements that did interest me but Blue Blood is certainly not a film for a wide audience.

BLUE BLOOD (1974) is undoubtedly one of the oddest British horror films I've ever watched, if you can even really call it a horror. It was barely released over here despite starring Oliver Reed, yet somehow Netflix have managed to stream it. The story focuses on the relationship between Reed, playing a butler, and his decadent master, played by Derek Jacobi, no less. The film was notably shot at the Longleat estate, co-written by the Marquess of Bath, and even has some scenes at the famous zoo.

After watching I have no idea what it was really about. There are red-tinted visions, dream sequences and an annoying twist ending. As the title would suggest, it seems to be a satire about class ties but doesn't really go into detail. There's one good horror scene but far more sex and eroticism. At times it feels like a Ken Russell or Michael Winner odyssey of excess and bad behaviour. Reed has a dodgy accent and Jacobi is typically committed to his role. Fiona Lewis co-stars alongsside the Marquess's real-life wife (well, one of them, anyway). Not one I'd want to sit through again!

My, but this is a howler.... Oliver Reed is the singularly nasty "Tom", butler to the suitably wimpish "Lord Gregory" (Derek Jacobi). In addition, I hope to stop us all dying from boredom, "Tom" is also the grand wizard (?) of a Satanic cult that practices it's devilish antics in the stately pile of his unwitting host (aptly filmed at Longleat House - home of the late Marquess of Bath - he of the "wifelets"). Anyway, what ensues is a sort of dirty "Downton Abbey". Just about everyone sleeps with the other; the cluttered plot is preposterous and both Reed (I hope) and Jacobi (I trust) had their tongues firmly in their cheeks as this nonsense trundles on for what seemed like an interminable 90 minutes. Some lovely Paisley pattern clothing - if that's your thing, but I'm afraid this is amongst the worst British films that I have ever sat through.

This one really BOMBED! After watching most of Reed's films and his horror films being my most favorite I decided to watch this flop. What a big disappointment this was. Reed stars as a snobbish butler with an accent that changes like a bad ventriloquist dummy that is supposed to be the leader of a Satanic cult gathered in the mansion of it's rich owner with two bratty kids that have to be looked after by a strange and dumb maid because his wife is to busy singing and he's to busy sleeping with his girlfriend on the side and meanwhile the butler sends strange images to the maid and owner of Reed in the worst makeup job I have ever seen but what makes him look worse is the room in which he practices his worship is all red and you can barely see him anyway. This movie isn't at all Satanic in any way except for the few glimpses of Reed tormenting people and he gets blamed for all the misuse of the children and the things that go on with the house. This movie is boring from beginning to end, very slow dialogue and false advertisement of the point of the title. This movie isn't even a horror movie, it's a boring drama! Avoid it! Watch "Burnt Offerings" and "The Brood" thats Reeds strangest and his best in horror.

That's the question butler Oliver Reed asks of aristocrat Fiona Lewis in Andrew Sinclair's BLUE BLOOD (1973), one of the oddest movies you'll ever encounter. Novelist Sinclair had just come from doing his interesting but quirky adaptation of Dylan Thomas' UNDER MILK WOOD with Richard Burton & Peter O'Toole. This time around Sinclair adapted a bizarre story by an English aristocrat who co-wrote and co-produced the film and even allowed his historic estate to be used as the setting. On the surface BLUE BLOOD resembles Joseph Losey's THE SERVANT where Dirk Bogarde begins to dominate his employer.

This time around its Oliver Reed as the sinister butler and he employs one of the strangest accents ever heard. The story starts with an unflattering portrayal of the British upper class and then progresses from domination by domestics to possible Satanic goings on. BLUE BLOOD is incomprehensible at times and positively revels in its weirdness plus you get to see a lot of the young Derek Jacobi and Fiona Lewis as the aristocratic couple. Too bad there are no subtitles with the DVD as some of the accents and dialogue (primarily Reed's) are very difficult to understand. Worth seeing for the people involved and for the incredible house and grounds...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.