Corruption, Cushing, and class

You may have noticed this website got a bit of a kick up the arse in early 2022. After years of flagrant (and expensive) neglect on my part, I set about revamping it from the ground up in January.

But what caused this sudden about-face? Well, a number of things… but the main one was Corruption.

1967 shocker Corruption was an early favourite of mine, when I started to really get into the mini-genre of British horror films. Unavailable at the time in the UK, it turned up on a third generation VHS tape a kindly Canadian chap sent me in the early 2000s. As I recall (the tape is long gone), it came from an NTSC original, was recorded on LP (all the better to get more films on one tape, I wasn’t proud), and was in “old TV” format (4:3? Something like that). The colours were all over the place, it was fuzzy and indistinct, and probably cut-to-ribbons, but I loved it. The nutty premise, the breathless pace, the bonkers music, that ending… what’s not to like?

But, much like 90 per cent of the films on this site, it probably got one viewing (maybe two), a quick review and I moved on, always referencing it as a “favourite”, but not actually in much of a hurry to revisit my migraine-inducing copy.

And so we come to Christmas 2021, when I noticed it had become available on sparkly Blu-Ray and put it on my Christmas list. One viewing of it in all its restored glory, and I was besotted again. It also reminded me of all the little things that go into my love of old British horrors – the period settings, the lack of irony, Peter Cushing.

Yes, if there was one deciding factor that kicked off what turned into a major piece of work, it was this film.

I dug out the Blu Ray again last week and watched a slightly different version of the film, and loved it all over again. There’s just so much to enjoy. Kate O’Mara playing against type as the rather lovely and totally innocent little sister, the bizarre gang who arrive as the catalyst to disaster at the end, Sue Lloyd’s barnstorming performance as a woman descending into barking madness, THAT ending - and of course, Peter Cushing.

It's been said before, but it is worth repeating – he was the consummate professional. In this self-appointed role I’ve seen more of his performances than the average punter, and I can honestly say I’ve never seen a bad one. The worst you can say about anything he ever did was that he was clearly “phoning it in” in The Devil’s Men, but given the general shoddiness of that particular film, it was hardly surprising. And he’s still the best thing in it by miles.

Watching Corruption in pristine clarity, what also comes across is something I’ve not noticed before… he was quite a looker. Maybe it’s because I’m quickly (rather too quickly for my liking) approaching the age he was when he filmed it, but the idea of him being the sugar daddy to Lloyd’s glamorous model doesn’t seem such a stretch. His piercing blue eyes, those cheekbones, the manly forearms on show as he pushes up his sleeves to operate… okay, so he's clearly wearing a wig, but even so… that’s a film star, right there. He’s no Gregory Peck, but he’s no (insert name of “everyman”-type character actor here) either.

And as in all his other films, he’s committing in every scene. Whatever he’s doing – from discussing a successful operation with a colleague, to looking uncomfortable at a “young person’s” party, to slicing up Valerie Van Ost in a train carriage, he’s always utterly believable in the role.

It’s a rare thing to see.

I think it’s unlikely we’ll see his like again – a true professional who somehow managed to inject an extra something into every role he took on. 

I was thinking how to end this short post – I wanted to say something along the lines of “he was never the star of a big budget Hollywood film”, but bottled it and thought I’d better check the IMDB. Bizarrely, I was right. Until Star Wars he’d not really made much of an impact beyond the (admittedly very successful) Hammer films and other horrors in which he’d carved out such a niche. And even more odd – IMDB lists him as “actor” in just 131 productions. I’d assumed it would be a much larger number, given his ubiquity in British horror.

It just goes to show, I suppose… class will out. Track down a copy of Corruption. You won’t be disappointed.