Friday, November 4, 2011

Mystery: Is it Robin…..or not? Madhouse – 1974


OK, a mystery to solve!

Truly by chance I stumbled across this film. I enjoy early 70s British horror films so I found this one I hadn’t seen before while browsing through Netflix’s latest “instant play” offerings. A little while into it, I saw that there were TWO Robin connections: his girlfriend at the time, plus his co-star in “Confessions of a Window Cleaner” Linda Hayden, plays one girl who gets killed. And then Natasha Pyne, who played one of the daughters in “Father, Dear Father” and a friend to Robin’s character in one episode, plays another girl. I kept thinking, wow, this would be a great movie for Robin to have been in! But then again, didn’t really see a part for him after all as I watched further.

BUT…here’s where the mystery comes in! There IS a character named Nigel who does not have a speaking part who strangely looks like Robin and has a similar way of moving. You don’t see him for more than a few seconds, so it’s hard to tell. The credits do not list who this “Nigel” is at all. Could it be an uncredited spur-of-the-moment appearance by our hero? Perhaps he was on the set that day hanging out with his girlfriends and was asked to step in for a scene? Hmmmm!

Here’s the summary of the plot: Vincent Price plays Paul Tombes, an actor who was famous for playing the role of a “Dr. Death” in many horror movies. Soon each person who has annoyed him starts getting violently murdered. Is he the one who is doing it? Linda Hayden plays Elizabeth, a young actress who pesters him to give her a break in one of his movies. “Nigel” is some kind of gofer on the set of the latest Dr. Death movie whom one of the main characters asks to go fetch something. He nods and leaves, and then we don’t see him again.

I can’t find any info about who this “Nigel” was. He looks so much like Robin, but you only see him from the side and back. His hair is darker than Robin’s usually is. I don’t know. Hard to say. Would be very funny if I really stumbled across a secret appearance, though, wouldn’t it!!!!

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