Hornsmith

This is a fresh find for me, as it seems to be new to streaming. I'm now aware of some negative reviews, but am judging on first, early impressions.

I actually downloaded this while travelling, and stopped early on, as I thought it to be too promising to pass a train journey.

For fans of Basil Rathbone, John Carradine and Lon Chaney Jr, there is plenty of meat and gristle to enjoy, though Carradine is more of a cameo. It is the best sort of horror hokum, and seems in looks and tone to belong with earlier fare than its release in 1956. Apparently the great Bela Lugosi was not feeling too well, but this isn't too bad a last monument. Akim Tamiroff went on to greater things, such as Welles' marvellous Touch Of Evil.

The actual plot could be a recycling of similar films, stitched together Frankenstein style; crazed scientist, his creations, women in peril etc; with the strong moods created, it's enjoyable as is.

Enjoyed in the spirit of the earlier classics of Karloff and Lugosi, it holds up well. One amusing point of trivia, for U. K. and U. S. viewers; a main character is first introduced as 'Gordon Ramsay'; no apparent relation to the shouty TV restaurateur.

This film should be considered a gem of the British film industry, made at a busy time for several genres, with some quality comedies and gritty kitchen sink dramas and thrillers filling cinemas.

I don't know the Stevenson story on which it was based; I imagine this is expanded somewhat. Forbes produced and directed several classics, and had the reputation to secure one of the greatest casts comprising England's finest actors.

Some are necessarily restricted to cameos, which suits most roles.

The best must be Peter Sellers as Dr Pratt, a wistful cat-loving eccentric. With Irene Handl, John le Mesurier, Tony Hancock, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, to name a few, the comedic timing is assured.

The plot mixes the opening tontine ploy into an, at times, bewildering farce, finishing with one of the funniest chases ever, echoing a similar scene in a Pink Panther movie, with, of course, a Victorian twist. Unravelling the plot makes for a long journey for some viewers, but it is worth it. Many other character actors are deployed briefly at the beginning; the major roles for John Mills and Ralph Richardson show them as adept at comedy as their more serious parts. Finally, Michael Caine carries off another lead role, which mainly entails the not difficult job of regular swooning over the delectable Nanette Newman; the director (and her husband) understandably gives her plenty of screen time. Her role perhaps doesn't give her a great deal to do, beyond occasional Victorian-style 'fits of the vapours' whenever Caine appears, and makes one ponder that her talent hasn't been massively employed or celebrated, beyond her few films.

At least, I hope so. Since the expiration of the copyright ban from the Strauss estate, I know there have been showings. If anyone knows of a DVD release, I would keep it to yourself.

Poor quality clips are available to give the flavour. Given Russell produced excellent Omnibus films about Delius and Debussy, he had good taste in music. His cinema films about Mahler, Liszt, Tchaikovsky etc were somewhat different in tone.

I wish Russell had waited a while to try a film about Strauss, as he would have learned that the composer was not a Nazi sympathiser. As a major composer and conductor well into his seventies, he was pressured by the new Nazi government, but was sympathetic to the Jewish population, as half his family were Jewish, through marriage. He was able to aid some Jewish family members; he undoubtedly saved his Jewish grandchildren from being sent to death camps. Put under pressure for working with Jewish writers and musicians, he was eventually dismissed from official posts.

Russell's scenes of a goose stepping Hitler and Goebbels at a picnic, being serenaded by Strauss are a travesty. There are other random scenes that are laughable from a supposedly professional director, i.e., using the same music Kubrick used in 2001 A Space Odyssey, Also Sprach Zarathustra, for a risible scene of cavorting cavemen.

Diaries and notebooks have since emerged showing that the Nazis tolerated his presence because of his cultural significance and connections, but privately despised him, and might 'dispense with him if he became of no use; Goebbel's notebooks labelled Strauss a 'decadent neurotic'- the very class of artistic intellectual that was often banned and ostracized. Strauss's own diary entry calls Goebbels a 'pipsqueak'. Strauss thus may only have survived further sanctions due to his great age, international reputation, and having worked in German musical circles since 1885.

This film deserves to be buried again, for traducing the memory of a revered composer and conductor. Ken Russell's career was undoubtedly varied, with some highlights, but this could only be one of the several lows.