Exposé (1976)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1976
Running Times: 82 mins (UK - cut version)     84 mins
Format: Technicolor
Ratio:
Sound:

CREDITS

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Norfolk International Pictures
Producer: Brian Smedley-Aston
Production Manager: Paul Cowan

SCRIPT
Script: James Kenelm Clarke

DIRECTION
Director: James Kenelm Clarke
Assistant Director: Paul Des Salles

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Dennis C. Lewiston
Assistant Camera: Jonathan Taylor, Steve Barron
Focus Puller: Brian Ellis
Chief Electrician: Derek Boulter
Grip: Kenneth Atherfold
Lab: Technicolor

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Jim Connock
Assistant Editor: Cyril Simon

MUSIC
Music: Steve Gray

SOUND
Sound: Michael Hickory, Hugh Strain
Boom Operator: Colin Woods
Sound Editor: Jim Shields

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Bunty Phillips

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Props: Bob Hedges

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Cheryl Leigh
Production Secretary: Sallianne Branson

LOCATIONS
Locations: Hatfield Peverel, Essex, England, UK; Little Baddow, Essex, England, UK

CASTING
Casting: Miriam Brickman

CAST
Udo Kier (Paul Martin)
Linda Hayden (Linda Hindstatt)
Fiona Richmond (Suzanne)
Patsy Smart (Mrs Aston)
Karl Howman (big youth)
Vic Armstrong (small youth)
Sydney Knight (Smedley - uncredited)
Brian Smedley-Aston (Simon Hindstatt - uncredited)

PLOT SUMMARY

Writer Paul Martin has scored a massive hit with his first novel and has retreated to a remote cottage in the heart of the English countryside to concentrate on his follow up. He's accompanied by his new secretary, Linda Hinstatt, a housekeeper, Mrs Aston and, occasionally, his lover Suzanne. Struck down by writer's block and struggling with his psychological inadequacies (he insists on wearing rubber gloves during sex), Martin begins to come apart at the seams. Linda, having refused his sexual advances but who's been quick to seduce Suzanne, turns out to have an agenda all her own - her husband, also a writer, committed suicide when Martin stole his manuscript and published it as his own. She's now out for revenge and, armed with a double-barrelled shotgun, looks likely to get it.

CAPSULE REVIEW

One of the strangest and most disturbing of British horror films (it was the only one to make the notorious ‘video nasties' list), Exposé veers alarmingly between the imaginative and the cliched, the fascinating and the banal, and features a dependable cast of exploitation veterans – softcore queen Fiona Richmond's performance isn't up to much, but Udo Keir and Linda Hayden are excellent. Recommended, but only in its full incut form.

Canada
Theatrical Distributor: Cinépix Film Properties Inc

UK
Theatrical Distributor: Target

USA
Video Distributors: Luna Video; New World Home Video

UK
Rating: X; 18
When the film was released on video in the UK in the early 80s, it fell foul of the 'video nasties' outrage and became the only home-grown film to be counted among their number. Even when it was finally reissued in late 1997, it was still problematic, the BBFC removing 51 seconds from the rape scene before allowing it to be released.

USA
Rating: R

TIMELINE

1976
March
4: UK – theatrical release

1977
November
30: Denmark – theatrical release

POSTER TAGS

Nothing is left to the imagination! In her first screen role - Fiona Richmond Britain's No 1 sex symbol.

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

La casa sulla collina di paglia – Italian title
House on Straw Hill – Australian title / UK working title
Trauma

REFERENCES

MAGAZINES

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.43 no.507 (April 1976) p.80 (UK)
credits, synopsis, review

Screen International no.26 (6 March 1976) p.10 (UK)
note

Screen International no.27 (13 March 1976) p.10 (UK)
review

KEYWORDS

hallucinations; rape; revenge; secretaries; video nasties; writers