A horror movie from the same producer as “Four Dimensions of Greta”, Pete Walker, who made quite a few other low-budget creepy British horror flicks that I’ve enjoyed down through the years. 1972 seems to be the year he was fascinated by 3-D for, like in Greta, he gives us that swirly swirl announcing that a 3-D scene was coming up! Unfortunately, this DVD did not contain the 3-D effect and was just shown in black and white. Robin was not in this scene.
Atmospheric and suspenseful, although for the most part, nothing really interesting goes on. A group of actors from London is summoned down to a foggy seaside town to rehearse a play in an abandoned old theater. None of them think that’s weird at all. Robin is one of the actors, and although his character has no real action, he is in most scenes making comments and small talk. The actresses have no qualms about spontaneously whipping off their clothes in front of the other actors who they’ve apparently just met, and parading around topless in the cold, drafty old theater….to the point where they’re not to be bothered putting anything on before they go investigate a weird noise! Poor Robin gets none of the girl-action in this movie, though. He keeps his clothes on the whole way through. He does wear a couple of cute tank-tops!
One of the other actors is our old friend from ‘Greta’ – the guy who played the German lead, Hans. In this one he’s an Australian named Tony! Funny, cuz he’s probably really Australian in real life, but every time he opened his mouth I was expecting the German accent! I’ve noticed in most of Robin’s films the same actors get recycled a LOT. Must be a small pool of actors for what’s being produced over there!
OK, so the actors are down at the theater, and one of them happens upon a room full of wax heads….only to notice that one of the heads is not wax at all but belongs to one of the actresses in the group! The police are brought in, but the head has disappeared and they think it has been a sick joke. The actors then suspect it’s a prank by one of the actor guys who is known for pulling grotesque pranks like this in the past. Only he’s disappeared now too. Another of the actresses’ body is found thrown in the ocean. The prankster actor shows up dead. Another actress is found with a knife in her back while the rest of them are onstage rehearsing a scene. I’m not sure what the play is supposed to be, but the two scenes they show them rehearsing involve some kind of performance-art type dance sequences.
An elderly former actor gentleman they had previously met in a local café shows up, and predictably turns out to be the killer. Turns out (we are shown in the 3D scene) back during the ‘40s while he was in a Shakespearean play he discovered his wife making out with another actor (a hot guy with curiously long ‘70s hair in the 1940s!) Note to the ladies out there: the guy is shown completely naked! I mean completely! So…..the husband drags them both to the basement, ties them together and locks the door. Their skeletal remains are now finally discovered.
In case a viewer might not be able to comprehend the whole thing, Robin’s character sums up what we’ve just watched to the other characters, as Shaggy might do in an episode of “Scooby Doo”. I was waiting for the old guy to come out with, “…and I might have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you meddling kids!” hehe
Good to have Robin make it through to the end without getting killed off in this pre-slasher era slasher. He does a lot of what he does best when he isn’t actually the star: standing around looking perplexed, rubbing his nose in confusion, and mischievously slapping any giggling girl butt that happens to run across his path!
