Tommy.

Where do you begin when writing about a musical that sets the bar so high that no one has managed to reach it?  It starts with the birth of a young wartime baby, whose father is thought to have perished in a RAF bombing mission over Germany. When the lad is six his mother meets Frank at a holiday camp, Uncle Frank Hobbs (Oliver Reed) soon moves in with Nora Walker (Ann-Margret). One night while Frank and Nora are making love the boys father returns and witnesses the love making, the young boy witnesses the fight that follows, which ends with Captain Walker (Robert Powell) being killed. His mother and stepfather tell the boy "you didn't hear it, you didn't see it, you won't say nothing to no-one". From that day on young Tommy Walker (Roger Daltrey) hears nothing, see’s nothing and says nothing, in fact he’s now psychologically blind, deaf and dumb. Yes you’re right this is Ken Russell’s truly inspired adaptation of Pete Townsend’s 1969 rock opera Tommy (1975).

 

Eyesight to the Blind.

Both Nora and Frank attempt, via various doctors, to cure the boy of his malaise but without any success. Moving on ten years and the pair still believe that the boy can be cured, this time by taking him to a gathering of the faithful in a church that worships the cult of Marilyn Monroe. To the music of Sonny Boy Williamson’s Eyesight to the Blind a cleansing is taking place where a sacrament of drugs and alcohol is being served under the control of a preacher, who looks remarkable like Eric Clapton and a priest who you’d swear was Arthur Brown. When that does not work the next stop is a visit to the Acid Queen (Tina Turner) a prostitute who administers LSD, she sends Tommy on a ‘trip’ of a lifetime but still it does not bring back his senses. After a couple of unsavoury episodes involving a Cousin Kevin (Paul Nicholas) and an Uncle Ernie (Keith Moon) and a strange occurrence in a scrapyard its discovered that the deaf, dumb and blind kid can sure play a mean pinball beating the local champ, a Pinball Wizard played by Elton John who wears the famous giant pair of Doc Martins. This changes all their lives with Nora and Frank cashing in on Tommy’s messiah status. I could go on with the story but I think you’ve got the idea, suffice to say the scene with the inspirationally cast Ann-Margret and the beans is worth your admission money all by its self. Russell said that this scene was a revenge parody of real life TV advertisements he had directed early in his career!

 

The Acid Queen.

The movie deals with some pretty serious matters like the cult of fame, drugs, and prejudice towards the disabled and sexual abuse. I first saw this film on release but I must admit I’d forgotten how good it was, seeing it recently on a rare screening on the BBC. The film has no dialogue at all, its narrative is carried solely by the words and music of Townsend and the Who and the episodic cinematography directed with great flair and imagination by Russell.  This combination of the eccentricities of Townsend’s writing and Ken Russell direction show how modern day musical’s should be made, with class and that slightly off kilter humour that the director is famous for rather than the dull conformity that appeases the majority of the culturally dead masses who revel in the mediocrity of such films as Mamma Mia (2008).

Ken we really miss you -  more than ever these day’s. 

Fall of the Louse of Usher.

Fame at last: Edgar Alan Poe gets screenwriting credits in Ken Russell's final feature film.

It brought a smile to my face when I read the reviews that some so called film critics had written on the release of Ken Russell’s last feature film made in 2001 The Fall of the Louse of Usher. Did they really think that he had made this tantalising piece of nonsense for any other purpose than to please himself? Not a bad way for the great man to end his feature film making days surrounded by semi-naked nuns and a rather sexy looking young lady in a nurses uniform that was probably purchased via a mail order magazine rather than the NHS. He didn’t even have to leave the confines of his own property in Hampshire performing most of the filming on a camcorder in his back garden, his shed/studio and probably his own ‘front room’. The cast, it is alleged, was made up of friends, family and neighbours.

Dr Calahari and his able bodied assistant Nurse ABC Smith.

Surprisingly as it may seem Russell got his inspiration from the Edgar Allan Poe story The Fall of the House of Usher and the pre-credits inform an observant viewer that this 21^st century gothic tale was written jointly by Poe and Russell. The film opens as you may expect with lashings of blood and gore, a fair daffy of the afore mentioned nuns and whole bus load of rubber dolly’s engaging in fornication with a rubber Godzilla. Nothing out of the ordinary so far I can hear you say!! 

The NHS is not what it was!!

Right on with the story: supposedly set in Orange County USA, Roderick Usher, played by James Johnston, who also appears in the film with his band Gallon Drunk, is found guilty of the brutal murder of his wife, classified as insane he is sent to the county lunatic asylum where Herr Dr Calahari, played with manic lunacy and a German accent by the film director himself, administers a series of mind blowing shock therapy with the help of the able young Nurse ABC Smith (Marie Findley), gradually unravelling the horrible truth of the Louse of Usher. (Que creepy music)

Japanese super star Godzilla shows his worth.

To put it bluntly I don’t think Ken gave a ‘monkeys’ about the mainstream film industry or what they thought of him. He was unable to gain finance for any project at this point in his career, so to prove to him self he could still make a movie, no matter how flamboyant, not only did he direct and act but he designed, photographed, edited, produced and wrote this wonderful piece of hokum. Russell fans will love it.

The End.

French Dressing .

It was his work for the BBC’s arts programme Monitor between 1958 and 1965 that brought Ken Russell to national attention, which in turn gave him the opportunity to direct his first feature film. Turning down the chance to direct Cliff Richard in the movie Summer Holiday (1963) he instead opted to direct French Dressing (1964) a decision that ultimately forced him to return to work in television until a second chance arose allowing him to make the more critically acclaimed feature film the Len Deighton spy drama Billion Dollar Brain (1967).

Gormleigh on Sea.

American film actress Alita Naughton.

This Tati-style comedy produced by Frank Harper was set in a seedy British seaside resort called Gormleigh-on-Sea; actually the filming took place at Herne Bay in Kent, South East England obviously during the summer month’s going by the amount of rain. Its rather dubious screenplay involves a very dull down at heel seaside community, that is until seasonal deckchair attendant Jim Stephens (James Booth) and his colleague Henry Liggott (Roy Kinnear) convince the Mayor (Bryan Pringle) to transport an ambitious young French actress called Francoise Fayol (Austrian born B-Movie actress Marisa Mell) to Gormleigh to open the local Film Festival. Of course every thing descends into chaos and its left to Jims girlfriend Judy (obscure American actress Alita Naughton) to save the Mayor from complete embarrassment.

Ken's first nun.

This critical and commercial flop is probable Ken’s most forgettable film and he has admitted that he had no idea how to handle actors at this time and we have to contend with James Booth doing his normal Jack-the-lad routine which grinds after awhile. The script is weak, even with additional dialogue from the great comedy writer of Till Death Us Do Part, Johnny Speight. I’m not surprised that Ken went back to the BBC, certainly not up to his later brilliance but a rare curio all the same and his first opportunity to include a nun, censored for showing her a garter belt! An interesting thing is we get to see, during the film, what the filmmakers regarded as a foreign movie and a ‘French actress’. I would generously describe Ken’s first film as a grand pastiche of seaside humour al la the famous saucy seaside postcards of Donald McGill. For fans only.

James Booth and Roy Kinnear.

Marisa Mell demonstrates the hula hop.

Billion Dollar Brain.

In the third of Len Deighton’s books Harry Palmer returns to save the future of mankind. A fanatical billionaire, a cold fish called General Midwinter (Ed Begley), devises a fail safe plan to destroy Communism and the Soviet State. For many years Midwinter has channelled his vast resources into the construction of a fantastic computer that is intended to trigger a Third World War. The very British MI5 officer Colonel Ross (Guy Doleman) discovers Midwinters devilish plan. Ross is no fool and immediately attempt's to reinstates that rouge British agent Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) back into the secret service after 'sacking' him in the previous film knowing full well that Harry's the only man that is capable of saving the day! Of course our hero comes up against the obligatory attractive female, in this case it's Signe in the barely disguised form of Franscoise Dorleac, who along with her partner the dull witted Newbegin (Karl Malden) are mixed up in the affair to satisfy their own ends.  Dorleac, the elder sister of Catherine Deneuve, died in a horrendous car crash in 1967 shortly after completing what was to be her last film.

Harry Palmer. (Michael Caine)

This is the second feature film directed by Ken Russell and the only time he directed a film as a 'gun for hire' but even so there are still plenty of Russell’s future trademarks that would become familiar over his body of work, even if there's not a Nun in sight, the flamboyant interiors and strong sexual images for example, the parody of The Battle of Ice said to have been lifted direct from Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky (1938) and one can't ignore the 'over the top' character of General Midwinter with Russell content to make the USA the villain with their Nazi style uniforms and badges with the Soviets, under the leadership of the jovial Colonel Stok, portrayed as the goodies!

Signe. (Françoise Dorléac) 

Colonel Stok. (Oscar Homolka)

Filmed in Finland and at Pinewood Studios Billion Dollar Brain (1967) is great fun and a lot different, due I believe to having Russell in the directors chair, from the previous two films The Ipcress File (1965) and Funeral in Berlin (1966) which to my mind where two of the very best British spy films of their era and certainly had a lead character that gave an over the top James Bond a run for his money. 

Altered States.

Ken Russell exceeds all expectations with this the first of his two American films, the second being Crimes of Passion (1984), a fantastic science fiction horror film adapted from a novel of the same name by New Yorker Paddy Chayefsky based on John C Lily’s sensory deprivation research conducted in isolation tanks under the influence of psychoactive drugs like ketamine and LSD. Altered States (1980) was the directors only sci-fi movie and quite a departure for him, although the film does include religious and sexual imagery normally found in Ken’s work.

‘Research scientist Eddie Jessup (William Hurt in his debut feature film) believes other states of consciousness are as real as everyday reality. Using sensory deprivation, then adding powerful hallucinogenic drugs, he explores these altered states and endures experiences that make madness seem a blessing’.[1]

As well as Hurt the film stars Blair Brown (Dogville 2003) as Jessup’s long suffering wife and fellow scientist, Charles Haid (best known for his role as Andy Renko in Hill Street Blues) as Doctor Mason Parrish and a fleeting appearance of Drew Barrymore in her first feature film two years before her break through role in ET the Extra Terrestrial (1982).

The special effects need to be seen to be believed; its soundtrack, composed by classical composer John Corigliano, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score also the film was nominated for Best Sound. It was said that Ken Russell fell out with Chayefsky during filming which did not help Russell’s reputation in America, but something that’s not so well known is that he was not the first director, Arthur Penn, the films original director, resigned because, its alleged, he also could not get on with the author! This is a very underrated genre film and has, over the years, been ignored but I can honestly convey that this is one of the best science fiction movies I have seen and well worth a look for anyone interested in good imaginative cinema even if your not a Russell fan.

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[1] 2005 DVD release cover.