House of Whipcord | |
---|---|
Directed by | Pete Walker |
Written by | David McGillivray |
Story by | Pete Walker |
Produced by | Pete Walker |
Starring | Barbara Markham Patrick Barr Ray Brooks Ann Michelle Sheila Keith |
Cinematography | Peter Jessop |
Edited by | John Black |
Music by | Stanley Myers |
Production company | Peter Walker (Heritage) Ltd. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 102 mins. |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £60,000 |
House of Whipcord is a 1974 British exploitation thriller film directed and produced by Pete Walker and starring Barbara Markham, Patrick Barr, Ray Brooks, Ann Michelle, Sheila Keith, Dorothy Gordon, Robert Tayman and Penny Irving. [1] The film was Walker's first collaboration with screenwriter David McGillivray, who went on to write a further three films for him. [2] It also marked the horror film debut of actress Sheila Keith, who went on to star in four more films for Walker.
The film opens during a night-time thunderstorm when a frightened, confused and disheveled young woman runs down a country road and is picked up by a trucker. We see through flashbacks how the young woman came to be in such a situation.
While at a gathering in a London art gallery, naive French model Anne-Marie DeVernet is shocked to see that her photographer boyfriend is exhibiting a recently-shot photo where she is seen being arrested by the police for public nudity. Humiliated, Anne-Marie dumps the photographer but soon finds solace in enigmatic fellow partygoer Mark E. DeSade, who offers to take her to his isolated country estate to escape the scandal her now ex-boyfriend has caused her.
Unfortunately, Anne-Marie soon discovers that Mark is a procurer of young girls for 'moral correction' by his sadistic mother, ex-reform school matron Margaret. Years earlier, Margaret was brought to trial when her corrupt reign over a girl's reform school led to the suicide of a young French girl under her charge (although in truth, Margaret murdered the girl and made it look like a suicide).
Found not guilty but dismissed from her job in disgrace, she seduced the High Court Judge who heard her case. The judge, critical of the 'permissive society' of the England of the 1960s and 70s, nevertheless left his wife for Margaret, who bore him a son (Mark) who worked with her to turn their mansion home into a secret illegal prison for 'morally corrupt' and 'delinquent' young women, complete with a group of tough female wardens who administer a harsh regime of corporal punishment upon their prisoners. However Mark and the now retired, blind and senile judge are oblivious to the fact that Margaret is in fact using the prison to torture and ultimately execute these young women upon them gaining three 'demerits' during their incarceration.
Anne-Marie soon falls foul of Margaret's cruelty as she reminds the evil matron of the charge she killed and whose death cost her her career and reputation. Meanwhile, Anne-Marie's concerned flatmate Julia and Julia's boyfriend Tony track down Mark, who has now discovered the full extent of his mother's murderous deeds at the prison after seeing her minions dispose of a prisoner's corpse.
Anne-Marie makes multiple escape attempts, but is recaptured every time. Her friends eventually find the prison, but too late to save her. She has been hanged after earning a third 'demerit'. As the police arrive Mark confronts his mother and is killed by her. Margaret, knowing the game is up, then kills herself with the same noose she set up for Anne-Marie, as well as the other prisoners. The judge and his wife's henchwomen are arrested, and the surviving prisoners are freed.
The film was shot on location in London and the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England during the summer of 1973. The prison in the film was Littledean Jail, Littledean, Gloucestershire. [3]
The film opened at the London Pavilion on 28 March 1974. [4] In the United States, House of Whipcord was distributed by American International Pictures. In 1975, AIP reissued it under a new title, The Photographer's Model, in a double feature package with Thriller – A Cruel Picture (1973) re-titled Hooker's Revenge.
The British Film Institute's Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "House of Whipcord charts the dark side of the Festival of Light with a pop-Freud vengeance. ... The foundations seem laid for another Horror Hospital , but Pete Walker, following David McGillivray's no-nonsense script, has chosen to play it straight; the result is both his own best film to date, and one of those rare psychological horror movies that fits more in the line of Michael Powell's near-brilliant Peeping Tom [1960] than of Hammer's maniacs, paranoiacs and the rest." [5]
Allmovie called it a "disturbingly effective horror film", writing that "Many viewers will be offended by the film's repressive right-wing tone, but its genuine scares and creepy atmosphere will outweigh its philosophical offenses for most horror fans." [6]
Halliwell's Film Guide described the film as a "low budget psychological horror that stylishly achieves its object: to disturb", and quotes Derek Elley in Films and Filming : "Shows that something worthwhile in the entertainment-horror market can be done for the tiny sum of £60,000". [7]
David Pirie wrote in Time Out : "An above average sexploitation/horror that has been put together with some polish and care from a fairly original script. ... The only trouble is that the film undercuts its potentially interesting Gothic theme by some leering emphases, and the final result is likely to be seen and appreciated only by the people who will take the dedication at its face value." [8]
Brainstorm is a 1965 neo-noir thriller film starring Jeffrey Hunter and Anne Francis. It was produced and directed by William Conrad, who was better known as an actor in such television series as Cannon and Jake and the Fatman, and was one of three suspense thrillers directed by Conrad for Warner Bros. in 1965, which also included Two on a Guillotine and My Blood Runs Cold.
Mae Clarke was an American actress. She is widely remembered for playing Henry Frankenstein's bride Elizabeth, who is chased by Boris Karloff in Frankenstein, and for being on the receiving end of James Cagney's halved grapefruit in The Public Enemy. Both films were released in 1931.
Pete Walker is an English film director, writer, and producer, specializing in horror and sexploitation films, frequently combining the two.
Sheila Keith was a Scottish stage and screen actress. She is well-known to horror film fans for her collaborations with director Pete Walker, starring in House of Whipcord, Frightmare, House of Mortal Sin, The Comeback and House of the Long Shadows. She was once referred to as the "Female Boris Karloff" and a "British horror icon."
Die Screaming, Marianne is a 1971 British thriller film produced and directed by Pete Walker and starring Susan George and Barry Evans. It was written by Murray Smith. Although Walker's films are mostly in the horror or sexploitation genres, this is a straight thriller, with mild horror undertones.
Vampire Circus is a 1972 British horror film directed by Robert Young and starring Adrienne Corri, Thorley Walters and Anthony Higgins. It was written by Judson Kinberg, and produced by Wilbur Stark and Michael Carreras (uncredited) for Hammer Film Productions. The story concerns a travelling circus, the vampiric artists of which prey on the children of a 19th century Serbian village.
Penny Irving is a Scottish-born former actress and a page 3 model in The Sun newspaper.
Passport to Shame, is a 1958 British drama film directed by Alvin Rakoff and starring Diana Dors and Herbert Lom. It was written by Patrick Alexander.
Libel is a 1959 British drama film directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Olivia de Havilland, Dirk Bogarde, Paul Massie, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Robert Morley. The screenplay was by Anatole de Grunwald and Karl Tunberg from a 1935 play of the same name by Edward Wooll.
David McGillivray is an actor, producer, playwright, screenwriter and film critic.
So Evil, So Young is a 1961 British Technicolor reform school prison film directed by Godfrey Grayson and starring Jill Ireland and Ellen Pollock. It was written by Mark Grantham and produced by The Danzigers.
Sheila Bromley, also billed early in her career as Sheila LeGay, Sheila Manners, Sheila Mannors or Sheila Manors, was an American television and film actress. She is best known for her roles in B-movies, mostly Westerns of the era.
Frightmare is a 1974 British horror slasher film directed and produced by Pete Walker, written by David McGillivray and starring Rupert Davies and Sheila Keith. The story focuses around Dorothy and Edmund Yates, who have recently been released from a mental asylum, and is one of Pete Walker's most notable films.
Violent Playground is a black and white 1958 British film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Stanley Baker, Peter Cushing, and David McCallum. The film, which deals with the genre of juvenile delinquent, has an explicit social agenda. It owes much to U.S. films of a similar genre.
Piccadilly Incident is a 1946 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Michael Wilding, Coral Browne, Edward Rigby and Leslie Dwyer.
Satan's Slave is a 1976 British supernatural horror film directed by Norman J. Warren. It was written by David McGillivray and stars Candace Glendenning, Michael Gough, Martin Potter, and Barbara Kellerman. Its plot follows a young woman who, after surviving a car accident, stays on the country estate of her uncle and cousin, unaware they are both necromancers who intend to sacrifice her to resurrect the spirit of a supernaturally-gifted ancestor.
Too Young to Love is a 1959 British drama film set in New York. It was directed by Muriel Box and starring Pauline Hahn, Joan Miller, and Austin Willis. It was based on the play Pickup Girl by Elsa Shelley. An adaptation of the story was broadcast on British TV on 6 December 1957 in the ITV Television Playhouse series.
Schizo is a 1976 British psychological horror slasher film directed and produced by Pete Walker and starring Lynne Frederick, John Leyton and Stephanie Beacham. It was written by David McGillivray.
Girls on Probation is a 1938 American crime film directed by William C. McGann and written by Crane Wilbur. The film stars Jane Bryan, Ronald Reagan, Anthony Averill, Sheila Bromley, Henry O'Neill and Elisabeth Risdon. The film was released by Warner Bros. on August 22, 1938.
House of Mortal Sin is a 1976 British horror slasher film directed and produced by Pete Walker. It was scripted by David McGillivray from a story by Walker. Its plot concerns a deranged priest who takes it upon himself to punish his parishioners for their moral transgressions.