USA, UK, 1972
93m
films, “photographed in Eastmancolor”
mono, English
An American/British horror film directed by Bill Bain. It was originally released in the UK on the Rank cinema circuit on 24 September 1972.
Plot Summary
Two young lovers plot to kill girl’s wealthy grandmother and steal her fortune. They try to frighten her to death with stories about how the world’s young have decided to murder the elderly and it seems that their plan has worked when she dies from shock after seeing a protest march past her home. But things start to go wrong when they find that grannie changed her will…
Credits
Crew
Directed by: Bill Bain
© 1972 Palomar Pictures International
An Amicus production
Executive Producer: Edgar J. Scherick
Produced by: Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky
Production Manager: Arthur Bolland
Screenplay by: Roger Marshall
Based on the novel The Ruthless Ones by Laurence Moody
Assistant Director: Al Burgess
Continuity: Phyllis Townshend
Director of Photography: Gerry Turpin
Camera Operator: Michael Sarafian
Editor: Peter Tanner
Processed by: Rank Film Laboratories
Music by: Carl Davis
Songs by Carl Davis and George Howe
Sung by “Whistler” and Maria
Sound Mixer: Brian Marshall
Dubbing Mixer: Nolan Roberts
Sound Editor: Clive Smith
Wardrobe Mistress: Bridget Sellers
Chief Make Up: Tony Sforzini
Chief Hairdresser: Joan Carpenter
Titles by: G.S.E. Ltd.
Art Director: Tony Curtis
Set Dresser: Helen Thomas
Produced at Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Middlesex, England
Casting Director: Ronnie Curtis
Cast
Vanessa Howard (Jill [Standish])
Mona Washbourne (Gran [Alice Tallent])
Paul Nicholas (Johnnie [Tallent])
George Benson (vicar)
George A. Cooper (Trouncer)
Peter Copley (Dickson)
Angela Down (caller)
Patricia Fuller (Frankie)
Peter Jeffrey (Dr Graham)
Renee Roberts (neighbour)
Lillias Walker (secretary)
Alternative Titles
Romeo and Juliet ’71
Production Notes
Release
In the UK, the film was released on the Rank cinema circuit on 24 September 1972 on a double bill with Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972).
Press
1972
Today’s Cinema no.9997 (9 September 1972) p.21
If this film were not so well written and acted, and convincingly directed, it would be accepted as a black comedy and the disturbing plausibility of the plot would not be so evident. Artistically speaking, it is very successful in portraying the heartless young couple as greedy to possess the out-of-reach luxuries displayed before them in telly commercials. They are very real. But the grandmother so beautifully portrayed by Mona Washbourne is even more real and her terror and death made me feel so queasy that my extreme pallor was remarked on when I tottered back to Film House. Although the film is very competently made, there is a glib superficiality about the treatment that accentuates the nastiness of the story by presenting it as a thriller rather than as a sombre drama of crime and punishment. – from a review by Marjorie Bilbow
References
Periodicals
- Bedabbled! No.6 (March 2022) pp.30-33 – illustrated article (Money talks! Greed, manipulation and class in What Became of Jack and Jill? By Adam Parker-Edmondston)
- Cinema TV Today no.9997 (9 September 1972) p.21
- Filmfacts vol.15 no.9 (1972) pp.205-206
- Films and Filming vol.19 no.2 (November 1972) pp.51-52
- The Hollywood Reporter vol.214 no.49 (12 February 1971) p.10 – credits
- Monthly Film Bulletin vol.39 no.465 (October 1972) p.219
- Today’s Cinema no.9881 (16 February 1971) p.4 – credits
- Today’s Cinema no.9997 (9 September 1972) p.21 – credits, review (by Marjorie Bilbow)
- Variety 14 June 1972 p.18
Books
- English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema by Jonathan Rigby p.217
- Film Review 1973-74 by F. Maurice Speed (ed) p.235
- Uneasy Dreams: The Golden Age of British Horror Films, 1956-1976 by Gary A. Smith p.235
