CAROLE GRAY AND WILLIAM SYLVESTER IN 'DEVILS OF DARKNESS'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicX3GlXWdswVqhKJTbvjxpkv76ZC43fCjyN6sk25MGfsj2-Tq9Lbnrq1l6i7fCNt6uQgzjtTfprfQEMHyBUXLEQFpcL2_Fq2pQSE_-Wq4bolIHymw3zDfqsYXFheTgJ2RFDIkVOdquC54VFG9rBOZB-OL2RO7GZxWkjHeuAEoC4tkq54E4KrEK_CDK8qR5/s1498/Screen%20Shot%202025-11-07%20at%2010.50.38%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="870" data-original-width="1498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicX3GlXWdswVqhKJTbvjxpkv76ZC43fCjyN6sk25MGfsj2-Tq9Lbnrq1l6i7fCNt6uQgzjtTfprfQEMHyBUXLEQFpcL2_Fq2pQSE_-Wq4bolIHymw3zDfqsYXFheTgJ2RFDIkVOdquC54VFG9rBOZB-OL2RO7GZxWkjHeuAEoC4tkq54E4KrEK_CDK8qR5/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-11-07%20at%2010.50.38%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Carole Gray in DEVILS OF DARKNESS Year: 1965 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Before playing the benign bombshell in Planet Film's ISLAND OF TERROR, raven-haired/full-lipped beauty <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/carole%20gray">Carole Gray</a> had a sensuously demonic/scene-stealing role in DEVILS OF DARKNESS that, shot by veteran crime-genre director Lance Comfort, is a hybrid of Hammer's DRACULA, Universal's THE WOLF MAN (with a harbinger gypsy woman), and the myriad of Satanic Occult Horrors that were gaining traction during the middle-to-late 1960's... <br><br>The first half being in Comfort's comfort zone with gentlemanly American-actor-in-England William Sylvester (later in Stanley Kubrick's 2001) and upper-class girlfriend Diana Decker (previously in Kubrick's LOLITA) figuring out that their idyllic vacation locale is really a demonic cult led by Hubert Noël's Count Sinistre, channeling Christopher Lee's neck-biter but more broodingly asexual and melancholy... <br><span></span></p>

british, carole gray, diana decker, eddie byrne, hubert hoël, lance comfort, marianne stone, rona anderson, sixties, tracy reed, vampire, william sylvester

CAROLE GRAY AND WILLIAM SYLVESTER IN 'DEVILS OF DARKNESS'

Carole Gray in DEVILS OF DARKNESS Year: 1965 Rating: *** Before playing the benign bombshell in Planet Film's ISLAND OF TERROR, raven-ha...

WILLIAM LUCAS MAKING 'THE BREAK' WITH CHRISTINA GREGG

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP11Rqcn79bgZ3GBm28SrGDV8S9CZjweRVpxdm0xCxHeuO8Y1k_Qdxhg2JN9UnmrqllrVL-r-lwJrLdUNdGySlV41UdL2LkaMUMVdCIPcenCWT9PhrPVM4rT8cpRff9w4Aced44eC-BzvA2Cq9CzlWXogtYStK4lSDd3GbPXwXSs431RaLJElOAXvjMNdd/s1630/Screen%20Shot%202025-10-31%20at%201.54.19%20PM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="1630" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP11Rqcn79bgZ3GBm28SrGDV8S9CZjweRVpxdm0xCxHeuO8Y1k_Qdxhg2JN9UnmrqllrVL-r-lwJrLdUNdGySlV41UdL2LkaMUMVdCIPcenCWT9PhrPVM4rT8cpRff9w4Aced44eC-BzvA2Cq9CzlWXogtYStK4lSDd3GbPXwXSs431RaLJElOAXvjMNdd/w400-h268/Screen%20Shot%202025-10-31%20at%201.54.19%20PM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christina Gregg & William Lucas THE BREAK Year: 1962</u></td></tr></tbody></table>The same year British beauty Christina Gregg played a schoolgirl told <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/08/catfone.html">DON'T TALK TO STRANGE MEN</a>, she was the twenty-something sister of a convict who made THE BREAK from a train...<br> <br> And winds up with handful of eclectic characters that... as Quentin Tarantino attempted in HATEFUL EIGHT inspired by John Carpenter's classic THE THING... are all stuck together, here within a rural Bed and Breakfast: all with not only different personalities and perspectives but purpose, motivation and temperaments... Meanwhile the leading man is a sophisticated type: here a blocked author and, on the upside he quickly yet slowly finds kinship with the gorgeous Christina Gregg, but he's also being surreptitiously eyed by the most intriguing and perhaps crooked person onboard in CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN tutor Robert Urquhart as a wily-charming gumshoe insurance investigator...<br>

action, british neo noir, british new wave, christina gregg, eddie byrne, gene anderson, lance comfort, robert urquhart, sixties, thriller, tony britton, william lucas

WILLIAM LUCAS MAKING 'THE BREAK' WITH CHRISTINA GREGG

Christina Gregg & William Lucas THE BREAK Year: 1962 The same year British beauty Christina Gregg played a schoolgirl told DON'T TAL...

LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM LUCAS IN 'TOUCH OF DEATH'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrkSj1udlq1BWVl6WoWs_fbOOgMyNnA4ETsUn40QXNnRC7nQJPdYHOodo4GCSLXFZ-zTx6YOx_iuKnJz651jPcVZ0xUqly9b2vlPy59jwWYyw2NEPDMFYNJCBloRTYRX09rJi5K8WsqdoUQLVpOjPhtjJ3_cMKbfbKZhUQYtlYHgK2Yqr3usbQrU70JBh_/s1734/Screen%20Shot%202025-06-08%20at%206.17.54%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1016" data-original-width="1734" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrkSj1udlq1BWVl6WoWs_fbOOgMyNnA4ETsUn40QXNnRC7nQJPdYHOodo4GCSLXFZ-zTx6YOx_iuKnJz651jPcVZ0xUqly9b2vlPy59jwWYyw2NEPDMFYNJCBloRTYRX09rJi5K8WsqdoUQLVpOjPhtjJ3_cMKbfbKZhUQYtlYHgK2Yqr3usbQrU70JBh_/s1600/Screen%20Shot%202025-06-08%20at%206.17.54%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>William Lucas in Lance Comfort's TOUCH OF DEATH Year: 1961 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Four years after TOUCH OF DEATH, when British b-movie director directed British tough guy actor <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/02/gimme-a.html">William Lucas in THE BREAK</a>, he never reached the boat that would take him to freedom... which happens here after a somewhat rushed gas station safe heist, in which to blast the thing open, a poison's used...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Making DEATH a combination of several American film noirs (that inspired these kind of British kitchen-sink crime-fillers of the late-1950's/early-1960's), from CITY OF FEAR bringing in the poisoned crooks/race-against-time element; THE ASPHALT JUNGLE with a safe cracking heist backed by a troubled old rich man (a subplot that comes to nothing)...</p><p><span></span></p>

british neo noir, crime, david sumner, heist, jan waters, lance comfort, roberta tovey, sixties, william lucas

LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM LUCAS IN 'TOUCH OF DEATH'

William Lucas in Lance Comfort's TOUCH OF DEATH Year: 1961 Rating: ***1/2 Four years after TOUCH OF DEATH, when British b-movie director...

NANETTE NEWMAN WITH LIZ FRASER IN 'THE PAINTED SMILE'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZmz_7sDAH8QecjLZkxwQS-3N0UgzMPr8qH4uYwo7iGNhYYtAnf8rjamq4iwdigOaCe4gF0P4AY8pt6KhdOFmY0uA4c-mTxjYRcfHDj66ri4wl37q0w-s6hr_R7vaJOhPO0IVQsLGJEmee5pbkyqKaHZF4AiRf6W7oAY6J1abxN9AKUOtRoje_dW5WIaAW/s2080/Screen%20Shot%202025-12-23%20at%2012.32.04%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1104" data-original-width="2080" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZmz_7sDAH8QecjLZkxwQS-3N0UgzMPr8qH4uYwo7iGNhYYtAnf8rjamq4iwdigOaCe4gF0P4AY8pt6KhdOFmY0uA4c-mTxjYRcfHDj66ri4wl37q0w-s6hr_R7vaJOhPO0IVQsLGJEmee5pbkyqKaHZF4AiRf6W7oAY6J1abxN9AKUOtRoje_dW5WIaAW/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-12-23%20at%2012.32.04%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Nanette Newman in THE PAINTED SMILE Year: 1962 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Somewhat complicated British Neo Noir with two separate stories that eventually connect, connected to a murder that begins with a scheming couple who make their living taking a targeted man back home: a sultry blonde Liz Fraser does the rudimentary work while her partner Mark (Peter Reynolds), plays the angry jealous husband aka the badger game... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But while Liz's Jo Lake arrives at a nightclub to find the right prey, back home Peter's killed by a brooding crippled psychopath played by Kenneth Griffith, usually cast as a wimp but not here... </p><p><span></span></p>

british neo noir, british new wave, david hemmings, grazina frame, kenneth griffith, lance comfort, liz fraser, nanette newman, sixties, tony wickert, wrong man

NANETTE NEWMAN WITH LIZ FRASER IN 'THE PAINTED SMILE'

Nanette Newman in THE PAINTED SMILE Year: 1962 Rating: *** Somewhat complicated British Neo Noir with two separate stories that eventually c...

MODEL ACTRESS: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTINA GREGG

<p><i></i></p><p><i><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_Ht7i0jx_YhA4WjMrsLH8DDb667ZYxCINhZ8U9W0tPmkmdmtzi2N684-msfVa-h9_rl8CQOaaYdBS-ihLu1eclAMO1TGqn4qz7fGnbscyrTxUkUHOxNzC3RHrmusJFrTy4C9rYko_XXaC2LdROdCrAIqqY_NiCAWR3_MmSfc2VYy9Pfos_DtmwHZJIWE/s2100/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-13%20at%2011.12.26%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="2100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_Ht7i0jx_YhA4WjMrsLH8DDb667ZYxCINhZ8U9W0tPmkmdmtzi2N684-msfVa-h9_rl8CQOaaYdBS-ihLu1eclAMO1TGqn4qz7fGnbscyrTxUkUHOxNzC3RHrmusJFrTy4C9rYko_XXaC2LdROdCrAIqqY_NiCAWR3_MmSfc2VYy9Pfos_DtmwHZJIWE/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-13%20at%2011.12.26%20AM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Interview with British actress and model CHRISTINA GREGG (here with William Campbell in The Young Racers)<br></u></td></tr></tbody></table></i></p><p></p><p><i>Christina Gregg was in a handful of British movies and TV from 1959 to 1964, and was one of England's top models... We asked some questions about those years where she juggled two trades that combined immense talent and beauty...  </i><u><br></u></p><p><u>START IN MODELING & ACTING</u>: I won a huge beauty contest when I was 17… Miss ABC Television… I would have won Miss Great Britain as well, but they told me I was too young to win! With this prize was a film test with Robert Day, director of <i>Women</i> Magazine, leading to a theatrical coach, Flossy Freedman, who also helped train Marlon Brando, and Angela Lansbur<i>y... </i></p><p>I was provided with an agent, so I had film training, and films came my way afterwards. Modeling took off with the cover of <i>Women</i> magazine, a huge circulation at that time, followed by many more. But it was not an advantage to be advertising products and acting at the same time… I lost opportunities because of this; however, I needed to earn money so I continued: Did advertisement commercials for Camay soap, which cost me a big part in a film.  </p><p></p><span></span>

british, british new noir, british new wave, christina gregg, christopher plummer, crime, interview, jess conrad, lance comfort, mel ferrer, race car, robert urquhart, roger moore, sixties, william campbell

MODEL ACTRESS: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTINA GREGG

Interview with British actress and model CHRISTINA GREGG (here with William Campbell in The Young Racers) Christina Gregg was in a handful o...

LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM SYLVESTER IN 'BLIND CORNER'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVQpI0GP3xuq4UNUZWd3xLDhskYCtKWgPkndGAfsWMPzrt0IMbGimK6k1yo3BChBjFCoCqzPmDMkqwTunXF_k80KqamFZWsWa0OKxPbcQC1HL2BsQpJ41E2GJv7HPPFPmyZrhTE6ew9Cvp/s1600/11111.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="984" data-original-width="1600" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVQpI0GP3xuq4UNUZWd3xLDhskYCtKWgPkndGAfsWMPzrt0IMbGimK6k1yo3BChBjFCoCqzPmDMkqwTunXF_k80KqamFZWsWa0OKxPbcQC1HL2BsQpJ41E2GJv7HPPFPmyZrhTE6ew9Cvp/s1600/11111.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Barbara Shelley (the cheater) and William Sylvester (the cheated) in BLIND CORNER Year: 1964</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is known for its outer space special effects, prehistoric monkeys and a nefarious computer. As for humans there are two British actors (Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood) and one American as that pair of astronauts' chief. But William Sylvester, though born in Oakland, California, is as much a British actor as they are, trained in RADA and a fixture of England's cinema since after World War II...<br> <br> Though known mostly for the Godzilla/King Kong homage GORGA (that is, before 2001), Sylvester's best performance is the main character from MAN IN THE DARK, actually titled BLIND CORNER, which sounds more like the Noir that it is, one of many low budget 1960's crime flicks from the British New Wave. <br>

alexander davion, barbara shelley, british neo noir, british new wave, elizabeth sheperd, lance comfort, mark eden, perfect murder, sixties, thriller, william sylvester

LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM SYLVESTER IN 'BLIND CORNER'

Barbara Shelley (the cheater) and William Sylvester (the cheated) in BLIND CORNER Year: 1964 Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY...