Tuf Boots Advertisement – 1971

Super quick review for this one, but when I say I want to review everything Robin ever filmed, you have to now give me points for being thorough! I found this on YouTube. He doesn’t speak, and is only in the ad for a few seconds. A bunch of men are modeling boots. He comes out in his pair in classic Robin style, making the most of his few seconds, giving a skip and a twirl, long hair bouncing all over the place. Mmmmm.

The Flesh and Blood Show – 1972

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!

LOST! The Borderers – 1970 – Season 2, episode 7: “The Quacksalver”

Well, another show I’ll never be able to see.

According to my research, this is one of the missing episodes of this show. Too bad. But, I’m going to assume Robin’s role of “Hewie Heriot” was not a very big one? Who knows. Sheesh, I wish the British would keep better hold of their old TV shows!

Wikipedia has a great description page of it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Borderers Their basic summary of the show is:

“A historical drama series, The Borderers was set during the 16th century and chronicled the lives of the Ker family, who lived in the Scottish Middle March on the frontier between England and Scotland.”

And their summary of Robin’s episode is:

“The Quacksalvers trick their way into Slitrig, and Gavin has to decide whether they should be pitied or are rogues.”

Oh well. Perhaps one day someone will “find” the lost episodes of it!
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UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE:

Not much of an update, but on his Twitter, Robin did mention it briefly:

UPDATE UPDATE 2025 UPDATE UPDATE:

Another mention of this on Twitter recently:

Four Dimensions of Greta - 1972

Pretty hard to find any official copy of this, but I eventually found someone selling a bootleg copy of it on an online marketplace.

Rated X when it came out, the few reviews I could find about it all made it seem like it was quite scandalous. So, of course I was curious and didn’t know what to expect. Soft porn? Finally would I see Robin completely naked? He sorta makes it seem that way when he writes about this movie in his book.

As my birthday treat I talked my husband into watching this one with me. Couples porn, I said. Lots of girls for you in it, Robin for me. He agreed.

The story: German guy (no, not played by Robin) is planning a trip to England to do some research for a story he’s writing for a magazine. An older couple he meets wonders if he could do them a favor while he’s over there? Their 18 year old daughter Greta had gone to London to work as an au pair and has disappeared. Could he go talk to her last employer? He agrees.

He arrives and meets up with an old girlfriend. She’s engaged to be married, as is he, but wind up naked in each others’ arms anyway. Nudity, but nothing what I’d call porn. Perhaps in its day. My husband yawns. No guy nudity, but I’m not watching this to see the German guy anyway.

German guy goes round to visit Greta’s employer who informs him she’d only worked there a week because she was a horrible worker and has no idea where she’s gone. Dead end there. He then scours the swingin’ music clubs of London, showing her photo to various club-goers. When he happens upon one that is a favorite amongst German immigrant girls, one girl said yes, she could give him some info, but he’d have to come visit her tomorrow for it. He does, to find an apartment full of naked hippies, who give him a story about Greta being cruel and manipulative and they asked her to leave. Last they heard, she was now a stripper.

While they are telling that story, we are treated to the first of four “3-D” flashback scenes. I’m sure it was pretty impressive to see on a big screen in the still-technologically primitive early ‘70s, but sadly these scenes did not transfer well to the small screen. Yes, we had a couple pairs of old 3-D glasses too!

When Hans (German guy) talks to someone from the strip club, she gives a whole different picture of Greta (via 2nd 3-D flashback). Greta was a sweet, naïve thing, who got herself talked into stripping and didn’t last there very long. But, perhaps Hans could try talking to her boyfriend, Roger?

Roger turns out to be Robin Askwith. In the 3rd 3-D sequence, he says he met her while working at a massage parlor which happened to be owned by the same guy who owned the strip club. He is an athlete and had to go to the place to help soothe a pulled muscle, and he could tell she was very new to the job. However, they clicked and moved in together. He talks fondly of the times they had together, and it’s a really cute scene where they’re giggling and she’s throwing him grapes. They wind up naked in bed, but it’s hardly anything X-rated. You barely see Robin at all with her laying on top of him.

Either Robin’s memories of this film have faded, or he actually filmed something more explicit than what was in the final cut. But I sure wouldn’t call this much of a “sex scene”.

Back to the story: he doesn’t know where she is now. But perhaps he should talk to the guy who owns the strip club and massage parlor? He gives him the address of gambling hall he also owns.

Once there, Hans is given a story (in the 4th 3-D scene) of an aggressive Greta who came on to him at his massage parlor. In the throes of passion, Roger had walked in and gotten into a fight with the guy, who broke his arm. But….when Hans reports back to Roger with that story, he is told what had happened instead. Roger had actually walked in on the guy raping Greta, threatened him, and took Greta away. Afterward, the owner sent some people round to kidnap Greta and break Roger’s arm in revenge.

Hans’ girlfriend is then sent in to try to sexily cajole Greta’s whereabouts out of the owner. She gets the info, but doesn’t escape a gang-raping. Don’t worry, nothing explicit is shown of that. The bad guys drive out to a houseboat where they are keeping Greta, but are followed by Hans and Roger, who climb aboard and bring everyone to justice with a good fight scene. And in the end, sweet Greta is shipped back to Germany, with a wistful Robin Askwith left behind at the airport.

Anyway, we both thought it wasn’t a bad little film. My husband was not that impressed by the selection of naked girls – he said they looked too old for the ages they were supposed to be playing, and their boobs were too big and saggy. All he really liked was when Hans’ girlfriend wore these hotpants with thigh-high stockings: “I don’t remember any girls I knew wearing those in the early ‘70s!” he said ruefully. Um, sorry, Jim, but as you were spending those years in Hacienda Heights rather than Swingin’ London, that’s what you get.

As for me, I wasn’t disappointed at all. Robin was in his prime here, and his hair was just perfect. Fluffy, clean, long enough to have a beautiful natural wave to it….mmmm. And, oh yeah, nice acting job too. ;)

LOST!!! Z-Cars – 1968

Unfortunately, Wikipedia lists the entire 1968 year of this show as lost. Here’s their explanation:

“The original series was one of the last British television dramas screened live regularly — already rare by the time the programme began in 1962. It was felt that this helped immediacy and pace, and episodes were live as late as 1965, despite cameras appearing in shot. Most were videotaped for repeat, but the BBC regularly wiped tapes after programmes exceeded their usefulness, agreements with unions meaning they could only be shown a limited number of times. The space needed to store large videotapes, as well as the expense when they could be re-used, were factors.”

Anyway, here’s what they say the premise of the show was:
“Z-Cars (pronounced "Zed Cars", sometimes written as Z Cars) is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Lancashire. Produced by the BBC and screened on BBC Television (renamed BBC1 in 1964), it debuted in January 1962 and ran for 16 years until September 1978.”

That’s about all I know! So, unless there’s a Robin fan from way back who happened to somehow film a copy of this show and send it to me (yeah, right!) or Robin himself is secretly reading this and has a copy of his own he could let me borrow (a double “yeah, right!”) I’m going to give up on ever trying to find a copy of it. But you know, we can comfort ourselves with the probability that it was a really small part, being so early in his career and all – he doesn’t even mention it in his book!

If…. – 1968

I saw this almost 20 years ago so I had to rent it via Netflix to refresh my memory. It was considered shocking in its day with its portrayal of a school shooting massacre that has sadly become a commonplace occurrence in modern-day times. Malcolm McDowall stars as Mick Travers, one of the older boys in a upper class boarding school in England. He has a rebellious streak and little by little gets more and more fed up with the structure of the school until he reaches his breaking point.

This is 18 year old Robin’s first role in a major film. He is not one of the main schoolboy characters, but is one of the senior boys who does get to be in the background of many of the scenes. He plays “Keating”, a mischievous type who enjoys giving the younger boys a hard time. He is seen doing things like making fun of the fat kid and dunking a younger kid’s head in the toilet. There’s also a nice shot of him walking naked across the shower room.

A very absorbing, interesting film. Although I don’t think it went far enough if it was trying to portray the horrors of an English boarding school. Aside from some injustices and cruelty here and there I didn’t see how being a student there was really horrendously miserable. Perhaps because I’m looking at it from the point of view of someone who has herself gone to a private school with strict discipline (no beatings though, thank goodness!) and expectations, I dunno. I just really didn’t feel the abuse Mick took was enough to push someone (and convince his friends as well) into carrying out a massacre. From what I’ve read, the kind of kids that do this are tormented and bullied, isolating themselves and then finally lashing out in revenge. The character of Mick has friends, he’s respected enough by his peers. But, I suppose it’s pointless to try and psychoanalyze a character in a movie!

In Robin’s autobiography he mentions that part of this movie was filmed in Cheltenham, Brian Jones’ hometown. He was a fan and was able to find his house and stare at it in awe. Hey – me too! When I was in England in 1989 I took a trip up to Cheltenham and got a picture of myself standing in front of Brian Jones’ old home. I also got to visit his grave, which wasn’t yet there in 1968, but soon would be.

Why the fascination with Brian Jones? What’s the tie in for me to Robin Askwith? Who knows. For some reason I’ve been mesmerized by Brian Jones since I first saw a photo of him in a book when I was around 9. Like I’ve said before, Robin looks just like him but with a dash of Mick Jagger thrown in to give him a harder, sexier edge than Brian Jones had. Brian Jones is pure angelic. In looks anyway. Robin is him, but with a dash of devilness added!

Children’s Film Foundation films: Scramble 1970, Hide and Seek 1972, The Hostages 1975

From the Children’s Film Foundation website: “The Children's Film & Television Foundation, then the Children's Film Foundation, was set up with the support of Lord Rank in 1951. Its remit was to make films specifically for children to be screened at Saturday morning matinees and used in schools.”

There were a ton of these movies made in England. But now it seems as though they’re impossible to get! Not sure why, as from my research many adults over there have fond memories of watching them. There were only 8 put out some years back on DVD, in 4 volumes, and ONE of the ones Robin was in (Hide and Seek) was on volume 2. STILL it’s hard to find! The set was put out under the name of “Saturday Morning Pictures” and guess what, the guy who’d sold me the entire series of “Please Sir!” had that listed on his leaflet he sent out with my purchase. He listed it as: “Saturday Morning Pictures, 6 Films.” Whoo-eee, I thought, jackpot! I emailed him asking exactly which 6 films they were. As helpful as ever, he emailed back and said he didn’t have title info. Sigh. But, it was cheap, £1.95, so I purchased it anyway. Worst comes to worst, at least I still have 6 children’s films to show my son.

And guess what? “Hide and Seek” was NOT on it. Typical. What was (for anyone collecting these things): “Adventures of Hal 5” from 1957 and “Egghead’s Robot” from 1970 (both on vol 1 of “Saturday Morning Pictures”). “Go Kart Go” from 1963 and “A Hitch in Time” from ? (both from vol 3) and two others that were unlisted "extras" on the “Saturday Morning Pictures” DVD series: “The Magnificent 6 ½: Ghosts and Ghoulies” and “The Magnificent 6 ½: A Good Deed in Time”.

I noticed that a FEW of the CFF films can be seen on YouTube, but so far I don’t see the ones with Robin there. Will a kindly person out there please upload them there, if you have them? Thanks. Until then, all I can give you is the CFF’s website’s synopsis of them:

SCRAMBLE:

Jimmy Riley, who has been in trouble with the Police, is befriended by members of a schoolboys' scramble club and given a job in a garage run by the club organiser. Unfortunately, his previous associates interfere with his efforts to start a new life. Robin plays “Lennie”

Ooooh just found a better review of Scramble at: http://www.tvcream.co.uk/?p=9252 :
“Jimmy Riley, who has been in trouble with the police, makes friends with Colin and Brian Buxton, both keen scramblers at a schoolboys’ scramble club. The club’s organiser gives Jimmy a job in his garage, where Jimmy builds his own bike, Lennie and Cliff, old friends of Jimmy’s, steal wealthy Mr Hepplewhite’s car. Mr Hepplewhite buys his son, Oscar, a bike, which he has no idea how to control. Next week when the scramblers are away, Jimmy – left behind – finds the crooks with the car but will not join in with them. Oscar’s bike, again out of control, crashes into the barn. Lennie and Cliff escape in the car, but are caught by Jimmy and Colin on their bikes. Cue lots of freeze-framing of bikes in mid air, to a pumping rock – or more likely high octane skiffle – soundtrack.”

Apparently, “Scramble” was shown in the States on the CBS Children’s Film Festival with Kukla, Fran and Ollie (puppets) hosting. I vaguely remember watching some of those as a kid, but don’t know if I saw them all. http://kukla.tv/cbs.html

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: On his twitter, Robin posted something about when he was in this:

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HIDE AND SEEK:

Keith absconds from an Approved School in the hope that his father will take him to Canada. But Keith's father seems more interested in robbing a bank. Robin plays a “fake police constable”.

AUGUST 5, 2011 UPDATE! I have now seen "Hide and Seek" and have reviewed it here!

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THE HOSTAGES:

Children on lonely farm outwit escaped Dartmoor prisoners. Robin plays prisoner “Terry Sladden”

AUGUST 12, 2011 UPDATE! I have now seen "The Hostages" and have reviewed it here!



(all photos “borrowed” from the CFF website!)

Bless This House – 1973

A fun, fluffy, family-friendly comedy. This movie is based on an early ‘70s British sitcom of the same name. Robin had originally tried out for the part of Mike, the teenaged son, but had lost it to another actor because the producers had wanted a darker-haired guy to resemble the actress who would be playing his sister. Robin eventually got a part as Mike’s friend Sam in ONE of the episodes in the 2nd season. But by 1973 when they were putting together the movie they somehow felt their Mike (Robin Stewart) was too unreliable and wound up casting Robin Askwith in the part.

I loved it! It’s about a middle-class family: parents, art college son Mike and teenaged daughter Sally. New neighbors move in next door and because of a few hilarious problems, an instant feud arises between the families. Except for their lovely daughter Kate, and Mike, who naturally fall madly in love with each other. They do make a striking couple. Inexplicably, Robin has a real-life affair with the actress who plays his sister, who is nowhere near as beautiful, and is honestly, a horribly annoying actress. But I digress. The ending seems to be tied up rather too neatly as all characters make up and celebrate the marriage of Mike and Kate. Boy does he look nice in a tophat!

This is the same year Robin makes “Horror Hospital” so he looks exactly like that in this movie, same hairstyle, same sideburns. He goes through quite a few wardrobe changes and wears some of the grooviest, early 70s fashion I’ve ever seen him in!

I highly recommend this one - this is definitely a Robin movie you can watch with the kids! Funny though, because this has SO many of the same actors and actresses in the naughty “Carry On, Girls!”

Beryl’s Lot (season 1, episode 3, “Box and Cox”) – 1973

In this episode Beryl takes her first night class – only to show up and find its been cancelled. She and another middle-aged woman decide to drown their disappointment at the local pub. Meanwhile, her husband takes advantage of his freedom at home by holding a card party with his buddies. Beryl’s friend passes out at the pub and Beryl has her brought home to sleep it off. Robin has a lot of scenes in this one, milling about, making comments, etc. Lots of nice close-ups, too…you can practically count his eyelashes. Mmm. When Beryl worriedly tells him that daughter Rosie has left word that she will be sleeping over her boyfriend’s place that night, Robin’s “Fred” quickly leaves, saying there’s something he must do. Next day. The point is blatantly made that Fred is very tired by lots of yawning and stretching. At the end Rose arrives home to be questioned by her mum, only to protest that she was NOT with her boyfriend at all, just at his PLACE with his SISTER while he was out of town, and, goodness, did not even get a WINK of sleep what with the phone mysteriously ringing all night, the police and fire brigade showing up at all hours….etc. Much confusion on her part while Beryl and Fred start to giggle.

Had no idea what the title “Box and Cox” even meant, so…internet search to the rescue: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/73300.html says:

Meaning - To take turns.
Origin - The term comes from the comic play 'Box and Cox - A Romance of Real Life in One Act', by John Maddison Morton. This was first produced at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, London, in November 1847. Box and Cox were two lodgers who shared their rooms - one occupying them by day and the other by night.

Still not sure how that describes this episode, but oh well.

Bartelby - 1970

This is actually the movie that got me on my current Robin fascination…the one that got me started on wanting to see ALL his movies. Purely by chance, I had rented this from Netlflix, and was taken aback when I saw his familiar face in it! I then sent it back, but when I decided to do this blog a few months later I refreshed myself re-watching it using Netflix’s “Play it now” feature, which allowed it to come through surprisingly smoothly. I’d never tried streaming their stuff before! But it’s not available for everything.

It’s a weird but interesting movie. About an introverted sort of guy that gets hired in an office but starts telling his boss that he “prefers not” to do the work. The boss is dumbfounded and doesn’t know what to do. He knows he needs to save face by getting rid of the guy, but also is intrigued by him and wonders about his background and why he acts like this. Robin has a small part as an office worker. I just love that suit-and-tie-but-with-long-hair look on a guy. He has a few good scenes of being sarcastic with the guy, and cheeky with the secretary.

So…the boss, instead of forcing the guy out, he decides to avoid conflict altogether and moves his whole office to another building. Bartleby then keeps coming back to the abandoned office, which gets the other workers in the building upset. The original boss finally comes back and makes arrangements for him to be carted off to a mental institution.

Check out the super creepy anorexic girl near the end of the movie, one of the patients at the institution. Now, I’ve always been super-skinny myself, so I hate it when skinny people get accused of being anorexic. But the true anorexic look is scarier than anything you’ll see in a horror movie, and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone this skinny before outside a concentration camp documentary! Who is this girl? Did she die soon after? She has a small speaking part and seems like she’s in a daze. So sad!