Marketed with the ridiculously misogynistic tag-line 'This is not a woman's picture! No women will be allowed in alone!', Robert Hartford-Davis's Corruption is hugely enjoyable 60s horror trash which should prove to be of particular interest to fans of Peter Cushing, who gives an uncharacteristically manic performance as Sir John Rowan, an eminent surgeon who, after accidentally scarring his beautiful girlfriend, turns to murdering women to obtain the fresh pituitary glands necessary to repair the damage.
The normally reserved star of countless Hammer horrors slugs it out with an Austin Powers style photographer (played by Anthony Booth, ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair's father-in-law) at a swinging sixties party, decapitates a blonde babe before shoving her headless body under a seat in a railway carriage, and, on the uncut version of the film known as Laser Killer, even smears blood all over a dead prostitute's tits. And if that isn't enough to whet your appetite for this bonkers take on George Franju's classic Les Yeux Sans Visage, viewers are also treated to a gang of psycho Sgt. Pepper rejects (which includes Eastender's star Bill Murray, and Carry On regular David Lodge as the completely demented Groper), a penultimate scene that sees everyone killed by a malfunctioning laser, and an outrageously daft twist ending that makes a mockery of all that has gone before!
In addition to all of this sleaze and craziness, Corruption also benefits from surprisingly well defined lead characters: although it is the guilt-ridden Rowan who does the actual killing, the real villain of the piece is his narcissistic fiancé Lynn Nolan (Sue Lloyd), whose lascivious behaviour at the party causes the fight that results in her accident, and who ultimately drives Rowan to murder. The poor surgeon is merely her pawn: a middle-aged man so completely obsessed with the young woman he has fallen in love with that he will do anything to keep her happy.
Since it is currently unavailable as an official release, a good quality copy of Corruption is hard to find. However, hunting down the film is highly recommended, whatever the format or condition.
The normally reserved star of countless Hammer horrors slugs it out with an Austin Powers style photographer (played by Anthony Booth, ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair's father-in-law) at a swinging sixties party, decapitates a blonde babe before shoving her headless body under a seat in a railway carriage, and, on the uncut version of the film known as Laser Killer, even smears blood all over a dead prostitute's tits. And if that isn't enough to whet your appetite for this bonkers take on George Franju's classic Les Yeux Sans Visage, viewers are also treated to a gang of psycho Sgt. Pepper rejects (which includes Eastender's star Bill Murray, and Carry On regular David Lodge as the completely demented Groper), a penultimate scene that sees everyone killed by a malfunctioning laser, and an outrageously daft twist ending that makes a mockery of all that has gone before!
In addition to all of this sleaze and craziness, Corruption also benefits from surprisingly well defined lead characters: although it is the guilt-ridden Rowan who does the actual killing, the real villain of the piece is his narcissistic fiancé Lynn Nolan (Sue Lloyd), whose lascivious behaviour at the party causes the fight that results in her accident, and who ultimately drives Rowan to murder. The poor surgeon is merely her pawn: a middle-aged man so completely obsessed with the young woman he has fallen in love with that he will do anything to keep her happy.
Since it is currently unavailable as an official release, a good quality copy of Corruption is hard to find. However, hunting down the film is highly recommended, whatever the format or condition.