cult film freak: yvonne romain

Showing posts with label yvonne romain. Show all posts

Written by James M. Tate / 6/02/2025 / No comments / british neo noir , british new wave , david gregory , derek francis , glynn edwards , jill curzon , jim o'connolly , john carson , penny morrell , peter vaughan , sixties , yvonne romain

JIM O'CONNOLLY'S 'SMOKESCREEN' STARRING PETER VAUGHAN

<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/AVvXsEh-YyzsB9bM8IIv4i8aKzbupV_ntCyu3kJvVqk_9FuYjAt_PnYyUj3YhjacbiW0WpZm2ROMnx0TPaM4qXoJud0sWHywFJpeulzKPIRTX7xigcedORS91ax0JKZkAq21Ha1t7Auh-rQ_qL1PTt0qBenPU6tGNAb7gXwd_pSa8pVTZXnSta0C-zlPjs36XylJ/s1578/Screen%20Shot%202025-06-08%20at%2012.59.27%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="802" data-original-width="1578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-YyzsB9bM8IIv4i8aKzbupV_ntCyu3kJvVqk_9FuYjAt_PnYyUj3YhjacbiW0WpZm2ROMnx0TPaM4qXoJud0sWHywFJpeulzKPIRTX7xigcedORS91ax0JKZkAq21Ha1t7Auh-rQ_qL1PTt0qBenPU6tGNAb7gXwd_pSa8pVTZXnSta0C-zlPjs36XylJ/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-06-08%20at%2012.59.27%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Gregory & Jill Curzon in SMOKESCREEN Year: 1964 Rates: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>The biggest shame about Jim O'Connolly's quirky low-budget British post-noir SMOKESCREEN is that it was a film instead of a television series since Peter Vaughan's perpetually cautious and stingy insurance adjuster Roper had so many more adventures in him.... 
 
His particular case involves what the audience and a young couple witness from the very beginning: a burning car driving off a cliff, and we never see a driver, which is what Roper searches for throughout the hour-long programmer, going from one person to the next in the usual "gumshoey" investigative fashion...

british neo noir, british new wave, david gregory, derek francis, glynn edwards, jill curzon, jim o'connolly, john carson, penny morrell, peter vaughan, sixties, yvonne romain

JIM O'CONNOLLY'S 'SMOKESCREEN' STARRING PETER VAUGHAN

David Gregory & Jill Curzon in SMOKESCREEN Year: 1964 Rates: **** The biggest shame about Jim O'Connolly's quirky low-budget Bri...

KATHERINE WOODVILLE & OLIVER REED 'THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR'

<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/AVvXsEhGJgdHTg9jouuDL9LWn2FDTm575jdn136A8qpd2H0YNwOG5cGoQeJgeRv4B1Ek9x0Z1bSlhRvpzBEuVUaqV7HUYxug74go32_LK6VX9yl-_fCGb1Pj5fY5GC2OrZtqNtf5rQIRLut8LsK-EVpJkVTUJr0X31qrg7RXmbX3zP4Om48UqRwSPIQnam2CUjBz/s1700/2%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="1700" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGJgdHTg9jouuDL9LWn2FDTm575jdn136A8qpd2H0YNwOG5cGoQeJgeRv4B1Ek9x0Z1bSlhRvpzBEuVUaqV7HUYxug74go32_LK6VX9yl-_fCGb1Pj5fY5GC2OrZtqNtf5rQIRLut8LsK-EVpJkVTUJr0X31qrg7RXmbX3zP4Om48UqRwSPIQnam2CUjBz/s16000/2%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Katherine Woodville in THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR Year: 1965 Rating: **1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>With the seven Hammer Films featuring then-rising young star Oliver Reed, sometimes there's a feeling they didn't quite know how great a thing they had... even in his very own titular horror, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/03/reedwolf.html">CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF</a>, he doesn't appear until around forty-five-minutes (although the previous sequences are intensely entertaining)... and in <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/03/land-pirates.html">THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER</a>, he dies way too soon...Same thing happens here, since, as the leader of a band of holed-up Indian (from India) rebels who kidnap Ronald Lewis... playing a half-Caucasian/Indian treated unfairly by fellow British soldiers led by Duncan Lamont... Reed's not supposed to be the main star, billed second to Hammer's square-jawed <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/03/SOfear.html">SCREAM OF FEAR</a> and <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/11/fullT.html">STOP ME BEFORE I KILL</a> Lewis...

action, adventure, duncan lamont, glyn houston, hammer films, katherine woodville, oliver reed, ronald lewis, sixties, yvonne romain

KATHERINE WOODVILLE & OLIVER REED 'THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR'

Katherine Woodville in THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR Year: 1965 Rating: **1/2 With the seven Hammer Films featuring then-rising young star Oliver ...

OLIVER REED DOUBLE FEATURE ON 'THE SAINT' WITH ROGER MOORE

<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/AVvXsEhsICp65heiiAXpRg50-K5oGk1Q2DMH-fW2t5ZHPTNdQd8yB9-rTsFZ_b-JYlkvnCCrRbkDcSxczvUgTnToG5l3tqTKcY0xYCr61Xv5F5SAWFwq6dgkmqgWghZG-07gYGPfo3XbslKN4_f4JJebG4MnwLeuSFiNKp3O3IGtZzrVcfk8uQrrWq2RZcpDZpoO/s2008/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%209.55.23%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1224" data-original-width="2008" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsICp65heiiAXpRg50-K5oGk1Q2DMH-fW2t5ZHPTNdQd8yB9-rTsFZ_b-JYlkvnCCrRbkDcSxczvUgTnToG5l3tqTKcY0xYCr61Xv5F5SAWFwq6dgkmqgWghZG-07gYGPfo3XbslKN4_f4JJebG4MnwLeuSFiNKp3O3IGtZzrVcfk8uQrrWq2RZcpDZpoO/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-23%20at%209.55.23%20AM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oliver Reed on two 1963 episodes of THE SAINT starring Roger Moore</td></tr></tbody></table>In his early troubled-youth pictures THE SYSTEM and THE PARTY'S OVER, British actor Oliver Reed gave his future roles away with imitations that are, in those cases, poking fun of either Americans or the typical cinematic Gangster... 
 
The latter being used in the episode SOPHIA where Roger Moore's THE SAINT finds himself in rural Greece where the episode's titular character (played by a gorgeous Imogen Hassall)... the daughter of a stubborn, old-fashioned pub owner... is anticipating her supposedly rich New Yorker cousin...

british, british new wave, crime, heist, imogen hassal, oliver reed, roger moore, sixties, the saint, TV, yvonne romain

OLIVER REED DOUBLE FEATURE ON 'THE SAINT' WITH ROGER MOORE

Oliver Reed on two 1963 episodes of THE SAINT starring Roger Moore In his early troubled-youth pictures THE SYSTEM and THE PARTY'S OVER...

HAMMER PRESENTS 'NIGHT CREATURES' WITH PETER CUSHING

<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/AVvXsEiZPWly0lEmAfTuWzq80JHeYYmt_Y8rTb2BID3tV1GVkd7TP0dsOPweb8Pi_nANUgmm0eD3Br34GoDVT_IwUZaTEmch8h8SOYSbk6R9Zrf4ymse6wliimC4jYGbBSQYp5TGzSx1BMm9a4rWiz_JtRcxRnFVTjNVVQ-jdXzRadeBDqMgtpQiO1KHJ7PRcBfn/s814/Screen%20Shot%202025-12-25%20at%2011.56.17%20PM-1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="814" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZPWly0lEmAfTuWzq80JHeYYmt_Y8rTb2BID3tV1GVkd7TP0dsOPweb8Pi_nANUgmm0eD3Br34GoDVT_IwUZaTEmch8h8SOYSbk6R9Zrf4ymse6wliimC4jYGbBSQYp5TGzSx1BMm9a4rWiz_JtRcxRnFVTjNVVQ-jdXzRadeBDqMgtpQiO1KHJ7PRcBfn/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-12-25%20at%2011.56.17%20PM-1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hammer's NIGHT CREATURES Year: 1962 Rating: *****</td></tr></tbody></table>Hammer's decision to name this hybrid of thriller, horror and mystery CAPTAIN CLEGG proves that that last genre wasn't intended since spoiling Peter Cushing's true identity doesn't only ruin the plot's sneaky, intriguing premise, it makes Cushing's uniquely affable performance yet another fervent and intense one, not battling monsters this time but England's 1800's-era "tax man" himself... In Patrick Allen's square-jawed Captain Collier, sent with his troops to investigate what he doesn't yet realize is a tightknit, secret-latch, wine-smuggling operation run by Cushing playing local vicar Rev. Dr. Blyss, THE ONLY character that director Peter Graham Scott... until well into the second act... intends him to be...

british, david lodge, derek francis, hammer films, horror, martin benson, martin reid, michael ripper, mystery, oliver reed, patrick allen, peter cushing, peter graham scott, sixties, yvonne romain

HAMMER PRESENTS 'NIGHT CREATURES' WITH PETER CUSHING

Hammer's NIGHT CREATURES Year: 1962 Rating: ***** Hammer's decision to name this hybrid of thriller, horror and mystery CAPTAIN CLEG...

HAMMER'S VICTORIAN HORROR 'THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF'

<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/AVvXsEg9-j7OKftPmdn4CV2OvYtY0iQZZATcHPtP2ZSe-QJRneKHI6HhbA638MSqZtX7LcoYo_lTPCgtOp38HluHTiLaJ_xrmRA0xxnEjAEd2n6jN1qP4z8FLhOHgLzPEhiM3B_6XwHetWDTfSutHToc7iuV3ZHG5uuzEo5ZEbynBdxeHHlDNsgU86tAsZ0x6g/s2250/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1057" data-original-width="2250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9-j7OKftPmdn4CV2OvYtY0iQZZATcHPtP2ZSe-QJRneKHI6HhbA638MSqZtX7LcoYo_lTPCgtOp38HluHTiLaJ_xrmRA0xxnEjAEd2n6jN1qP4z8FLhOHgLzPEhiM3B_6XwHetWDTfSutHToc7iuV3ZHG5uuzEo5ZEbynBdxeHHlDNsgU86tAsZ0x6g/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oliver Reed in THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF Year: 1961 Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>A man gets bitten by a wolf and slowly turns into one… Which probably 
sounds extremely familiar but the British-run Hammer Films will have 
nothing to do with anything that simple, basic or cliche…The setup, before we even meet Oliver Reed’s Leon, is eerie and
 creative, introducing the story set during the colorfully antique 
1800’s where a beggar's thrown out of a tavern, and then ventures naively into the last place he’s wanted: a lush 
castle where an aged King has married his beautiful young bride (a nefarious, later grotesque Anthony Dawson to insanely gorgeous blonde Josephine Llewellyn)…

anthony dawson, british, hammer films, horror, joy webster, oliver reed, richard wordsworth, terence fisher, victorian, werewolf, yvonne romain

HAMMER'S VICTORIAN HORROR 'THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF'

Oliver Reed in THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF Year: 1961 Rating: **** A man gets bitten by a wolf and slowly turns into one… Which probably sou...

ANTON DIFFRING WITH ERIKA REMBERG IN 'CIRCUS OF HORRORS'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi06O5OOXEiZnE7u-sMb61FdluV9-weQfKJTF26HEEwj5Som9INA7zsuPng6fwJP2gcIxm2uMnVe8GHH_Ez4JFAZVG6uC7E8ecEw1Oz529JrUtQLGJ1HcEDtnQ0wegYjdWj430kQ5oeeLTz/s922/zzz.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="677" data-original-width="922" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi06O5OOXEiZnE7u-sMb61FdluV9-weQfKJTF26HEEwj5Som9INA7zsuPng6fwJP2gcIxm2uMnVe8GHH_Ez4JFAZVG6uC7E8ecEw1Oz529JrUtQLGJ1HcEDtnQ0wegYjdWj430kQ5oeeLTz/w400-h294/zzz.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">title: Circus of Horrors Year: 1960 rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>Anton Diffring's England-exiled German plastic surgeon character Dr. Schuler is really into madly reconstructing once-beautiful women's injured/deformed faces, and winds up running a circus after he and two followers happen upon German drunk Donald Pleasence, who trades his small rural circus for his war-scarred daughter to be Patient X of the big tent spectacle a decade later...And the now successful circus owner/secret doctor Schuler meets his match in Erika Remberg as a lethal, facially-deformed whore... later yearning to be the show's rope-dangling main attraction instead of voluptuous blonde <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/09/jungle.html">Vanda Hudson</a>, stunt-riding on horseback before spinning against flying knives... Ironically, CIRCUS OF HORRORS is more a body count thriller than horror: the deaths "mysteriously" occur to the doctor's post-surgery beauties who are just about to move on from the "Jinxed Circus", so there's plenty of suspense hindered only by the grownup little girl, now in her beautiful twenties and romanced by an intrusive cop, sniffing around the mad yet never hammy or overboard lead antagonist's schemes far too soon, making even gorgeous British starlet <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/yvonne%20romain">Yvonne Romain's</a> vulnerable and dangerous third act feel both rushed and overlong.

anton diffring, body count, british, circus, conrad phillips, donald pleasence, erika remberg, exploitation, horror, sixties, thriller, yvonne monlaur, yvonne romain

ANTON DIFFRING WITH ERIKA REMBERG IN 'CIRCUS OF HORRORS'

title: Circus of Horrors Year: 1960 rating: **** Anton Diffring's England-exiled German plastic surgeon character Dr. Schuler is really ...

OLIVER REED PLAYS THE CONNED BADDIE IN 'THE STING 2'

<div><div><div><div><div>
<table 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/AVvXsEilxC70l9BZrcPGKMxPwRWjXhFpBiBOnpPbGa6CzV04LCHrHEeY4k7lgGNdjYjK_NRXcfNS_zipbYZpU_yX_kdgfEvSQhWn-bwtG4984Ujw-4RFpiaOiFHNT4VaQKr0b-CyHpyjM2hEEZI/s1600/Oliver+Reed++The+Sting+II+%281983%29.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilxC70l9BZrcPGKMxPwRWjXhFpBiBOnpPbGa6CzV04LCHrHEeY4k7lgGNdjYjK_NRXcfNS_zipbYZpU_yX_kdgfEvSQhWn-bwtG4984Ujw-4RFpiaOiFHNT4VaQKr0b-CyHpyjM2hEEZI/s1600/Oliver+Reed++The+Sting+II+(1983).jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1983 rating: **1/2</td></tr>
</tbody></table>  Not
 sure what Hollywood was thinking. "Let's make a sequel to THE STING and
 replace Paul Newman and Robert Redford with Jackie Gleason and Mac 
Davis." </div>
 
But it's really not too bad. Seems like a made-for-TV flick
 that you watch digesting dinner. Gleason and Davis  are 
grifters pulling two cons at once: screwing doofus kingpin Karl Malden 
out of money on a fixed boxing match and getting revenge on baddie 
Oliver Reed... playing Robert Shaw's character from the original... for killing a
 fellow grifter. In this role, and providing a legit edge throughout, Reed takes Shaw's villain to the hilt, making him 
someone not just worth ripping off, but stopping... permanently. Which won't be an easy task. 
 
There 
are some fun moments; nothing gained, nothing lost overall. The main con
 gets a bit confusing as Davis pretends to be a professional 
boxer, but the little moments in-between are enough to carry things 
moderately. Mac Davis and gal drifter Teri Garr try their best to carry things along while Jackie Gleason is 
basically collecting an easy paycheck. Thankfully we have Oliver Reed to remind us, and the characters, there's always something to lose. </div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

eighties, martin matthews, oliver reed, seventies, sixties, yvonne romain