The House That Dripped Blood (1971) Limited Edition Review
The House That Dripped Blood (1971) Limited Edition Review
The House That Dripped Blood is a film title that tips me back to my younger years. I can recall seeing the film advertised as being that particular Saturday night’s big movie on TV. The clip focused on recent Doctor Who Jon Pertwee levitating, adorned in a cloak with vampire fangs! I was entranced as I was a big fan of Pertwee, simply from his stint as the famous TV Time Lord but I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to sit through it. As a wee lad I hadn’t yet developed the disposition to watch anything potentially scary without many sleepless nights following the viewing. It was many years later that I finally got around to seeing the flick and whilst it’s a watchable horror anthology I was disappointed to discover that it was distinctly average.
The House That Dripped Blood doesn’t actually have much blood in it and evidently UK film censors of the time concurred that it was rather bloodless as they awarded the film a family-friendly ‘A’ rating (the equivalent of a ‘PG’ nowadays) for its theatrical release. Amicus Productions feared that the lack of a more adult rating would hamper the film’s chances of doing well at the box-office and duly begged the censorship body to change the rating to an ‘X’. The British Board of Classification duly obliged. The film went on to be a minor financial success on our shores instead having more clout across the Atlantic where it did very well.
The film starts off promisingly with the reported disappearance of film star Paul Henderson. Scotland Yard assign Detective Inspector Holloway (John Bennett) is look into this mysterious matter and it looks like the finger of blame is being levelled not at an individual(s) but at the house that Henderson had not long started renting. That’s right! The house! A disbelieving Holloway listens to morbid tales associated to the location relayed to him in turn by a local sergeant and then estate agent A.J. Stoker (John Bryans). I’m guessing that you noticed that name, yep Stoker! There’s a wodge of little in-jokes like this throughout The House That Dripped Blood which add some entertainment value but cannot distract from the fact that it’s a rather patchy affair.
The first segment – ‘Method For Murder’ – dips into writer Robert Bloch’s favourite subject matter, psychopaths! Charles Hillyer (Denholm Elliott) thinks that the house would help inspire him to write his next horror novel and moves into the location with his wife Alice (Joanna Dunham). In the process of researching his subject matter for the novel, Hillyer starts to believe that he can actually see his inspiration in the flesh, the murderous Dominick (Tom Adams). Is Charles imagining it or is there really someone that looks like Oddbod Junior from Carry on Screaming grinning at him from the shadows? So far so good, however things take a turn for the mediocre with the predictable second segment.
Horror genre icon Peter Cushing pops up as Philip Grayson, a retired stockbroker, in ‘Waxworks’, the anthology’s second segment. Both he and his buddy/former love rival Neville Rogers (Joss Ackland) have become fixated with a waxwork at local attraction The Museum of Horror that they believe resembles a young lady they both loved. There are no surprises within this segment, instead it’s rather flaccid. It’s a shame that the material doesn’t match the acting talent in front of the camera.
There’s a neat and rather nasty twist to the third segment ‘Sweets to the Sweet’ but all the same I still didn’t care for it. It doesn’t really flow. I put this down to the direction as there’s nothing wrong with the acting or the writing. Like the second segment this story features another horror legend, this time it’s Christopher Lee who basically does what he always does and be ‘Christopher Lee’. Lee plays widower John Reid whose treatment of his daughter Chloe is disturbing the girl’s private tutor Ann Norton (Nyree Dawn Porter) – she’s not even allowed to have a doll, poor thing. Can you guess why daddy is being such a meanie to his daughter? It’s kind of obvious but it’s still nasty all the same.
The final segment ‘The Cloak’ takes us back to our missing actor Paul Henderson (played with relish by Jon Pertwee) and is for my money the most enjoyable part of the anthology. There’s some amusement to see Pertwee playing a temperamental actor which, allegedly, Pertwee was himself, often huffing off a TV or film set when something didn’t go his way. It’s also fun to see Pertwee and Geoffrey Bayldon in a clip together before they made TV magic together years later as Worzel and the Crowman in Worzel Gummidge. Throw in a few funny asides that genre fans will snap up, Ingrid Pitt making an appearance – ample cleavage shown naturally – and you have an amusing vampire story. It finishes The House That Dripped Blood on a high note but you still can’t shake off the fact that there was so much potential to make something here that really dazzled rather than just pass the time nicely.
