What to do when your fiancee's disfigured as collateral damage in a fight with your rival? Well, kill a bunch of other women for their pituitary glands' medicinal properties, of course. So, that's Peter Cushing's mission as Sir John Rowan in Corruption. I guess the title refers to the old-fashioned corruption of the flesh, but it could also cover unscrupulous medical practices. Like most mad scientist deals, the cure is worse than the disease; because Lynn (Sue Lloyd) needs more laser treatments to keep her face in shape.
Looks like a hospital movie at first; an operating table with doctors Rowan and Steve Harris (Noel Trevathen). That's just to set up Sir John's character. Next thing he's making nice with Lynn--then they're at a party. She introduces him to the foppish photographer Mike. She dances with Mike, but tells him that she's marrying John. It's a swinging party all right. John's obviously a couple of generations out of touch with this crowd.
He wants to go, Lynn wants to stay and pose for Mike. She does that very well. In fact, John steps in and fight off Mike. The result is Lynn getting bonked by a high-intensity lamp. "her face?" inquires John at the hospital; her sister Val Kate O'Mara) comes to check on her as well. Soon Lynn's pack home, with half her face bandaged. "It's over!" she wails. We still don't know what she looks like. Referring to Egyptian sources, John tells Val he's got some exotic cure in mind for her sister. Well, he gets busy in his lab. "I found a cure!" he tells Lynn.
So, what's he doing in the Post Mortem room at the hospital? To mess with a female corpse, of course. Well, she's dead anyway--why not make off with her pituitary gland? Steve isn't amused. That gross thing looks like a banana slug...whatever. Just like that, John's got Val assisting in his ersatz operating room. We finally see Lynn's disfigurement. He injects the pituitary fluid into the afflicted area; I'm not really getting what the laser treatment accomplishes.
Anyway, post-op, Steve comes calling. Lynn's fully recovered, and looks great. "I have Lynn back as she was, that's the only thing that interests me". All's well? No, not exactly. come back early from a cruise; yuck! the treatment didn't last, she's disfigured all over again. Ever resourceful, John figures that he problem was that only living tissue will work. Soon enough, he's looking up a prostitute; cuddling up to her, hearing voices, he stabs her.
With his handy doctor kit, he gets his sample forthwith. "Who was she?" Lynn adks. His response: "it doesn't matter." Strangely, she shows off her new-old looks to Mike, hoping to get back into modeling. They argue about who's better, who's more important. To covered all her bases, she gets a camera for John, not to mention equipment. That way, Mike's cut out of the picture. Later, Steve and John disagree about the treatment.
John's worried about a newspaper article about one of his victims. Somewhat rattled, they decide to go down to their seaside cottage. When he examines her, he estimates that her 'fix' only lasts a week. When he tells her that he won't continue the treatments, she turns on him. She doesn't care about the victims, she won't tolerate the disfigurement. Lynn watches a girl, Terry (Wendy Varnels) down at the beach, will John go and check her out? Just like that, they have her over. The girl's suspicious, but game "at least he's clean (John that is)". Lynn obviously want to kill her for her glands.
She tries to get him to rationalize murder by saying that the girl's suicidal anyway. Ok, he gives in. Problem is,she dodges them. Then, she lets in an accomplice, her boyfriend Rik (Bill Murray). Actually, they're thieves, and figure, creep factor notwithstanding, these four folks are an easy mark. "you must operate, soon!" But both Terry and Rik have skipped out.No problem, as John goes on the prowl in town.
He finds an attractive blond, and gets on the train with her. He attacks her, and after a long struggle, she's fatally stabbed. He gets off at the next stop with the goods. Unfortunately, the body was soon discovered, minus head. Steve and Val have figured out what's going on.; they're going down to the cottage to check things out. Why don't they call the police? Even John admits he was spotted in the train compartment before the last murder.
Back at the cottage, John gets a fresh something out of the fridge. Terry pops back in, unannounced. Seeing the gross bundle (actually the train victim's head) she splits. Despite their best efforts, she gets away for a while. This scene is way too long; eventually she stuns him with a rock. But, he's relentless; in a mo tags of all the victims, John attacks her. Terry's done for.
Lynn's still pestering to keep killing. I interestingly, she threatens to call the the police. Mind of makes sense, because he's the only with his hands dirty, so to speak. Well, they weren't counting on Rik, and a bunch of other chums bursting in, led by Georgie (Phillip Mannikum) . "We don't want any trouble, do we?" It's clear that they're just ordinary criminal sociopath (ala Clockwork Orange-style 'ultraviolence'). Obviously, they're also looking for Terry.
The invasion becomes weirder when Georgie tells John that he has to operate. Meanwhile, Sandy, poking around for goodies, finds ye olde head. By now the hoods knows that something happened to Terry. Lynn has no choice but to tell them where her body is. Cleverly, she manages to push Rik off a cliff. Ironically, Georgie sends for the cops. Lynn, again thinking quick , turns the laser on. With its gizmo swinging around, the beam catches everything on fire.
If that's not bad enough, they're all dazed by it, and collapsed, while the place goes up in flames around them. There's an unexpected last scene which partly replays the party scene from the beginning; that is, the trigger for the subsequent story. The end.
This was disappointing. After a promising beginning, it sort of bogged down, but was nearly rescued by a more intriguing second half. That being said, everything at the cottage seemed to be from a completely different movie. It was generally better there than in London, even before the last ten minutes or so, which was nothing if not bizarre. As others have noted, Cushing is somewhat overshadowed by Lloyd's Joan Crawford-like Horror Hag role. That's surprising, because initially she doesn't think it's cool to kill people for her cosmetic benefit.
By the time we get to the cottage, she's pretty much in control. Terry works into the plot very well, outwitting John and Lynn for much of the time. She's got her own agenda, which she unintentionally foists on her hosts. The scene with woman on the train shows how John has become a vampire-like predator; unlike the string of murders in the first part of the movie (except for the prostitute), we see all the details. And it's that pesky head of her that turns up at the most inopportune times; it leads to Terry's death and the ultimate conflagration at the end.
There's a double shift from the original premise: Lynn becomes the mastermind, and John the underling; then Terry becomes the antagonist, with John and Lynn the prey of her crowd. The party scene promised one sort of stylish thriller; but when John turns himself into a modern Jack the Ripper/Dr. Frankenstein, we get a fairly repetitious cycle of murder, surgery, murder.
For the most part, the acting was very good. The gang of hoods are a bit over the top; when they appear, the tone shift is so complete that it's hard to take these scenes seriously. The all-consuming fire is about the most cliched of all horror movie endings. If the laser can be safely directed at someone's face, why should it catch everything else on fire? And why does everyone succumb to its powers when all of them still have the chance to escape?
For that matter, why is John untouchable? There's absolutely no police presence shown; how does a rookie criminal skulk about and not attract a lot of attention by his serial killing? Two oddities stand out: the trip to the coast is as much a traditional vacation as it is a way to avoid scrutiny, and Georgy's threat to call the cops just shows that the even weirdest characters think something nuts is going on.
This has some elements of a good psychological thriller. The horror aspect is more or less masked by what looks like conventional operation scenes (well, except for the laser stuff), the off-screen nature of most of the murders, and, most importantly, the less than horrific nature of Lynn's disfigurement. Yes, it's bad enough to ruin a modelling career, but she's no Phantom of the Opera or House of Wax victim.
This is worth a look, but not up to the usual Peter Cushing level.
Looks like a hospital movie at first; an operating table with doctors Rowan and Steve Harris (Noel Trevathen). That's just to set up Sir John's character. Next thing he's making nice with Lynn--then they're at a party. She introduces him to the foppish photographer Mike. She dances with Mike, but tells him that she's marrying John. It's a swinging party all right. John's obviously a couple of generations out of touch with this crowd.
He wants to go, Lynn wants to stay and pose for Mike. She does that very well. In fact, John steps in and fight off Mike. The result is Lynn getting bonked by a high-intensity lamp. "her face?" inquires John at the hospital; her sister Val Kate O'Mara) comes to check on her as well. Soon Lynn's pack home, with half her face bandaged. "It's over!" she wails. We still don't know what she looks like. Referring to Egyptian sources, John tells Val he's got some exotic cure in mind for her sister. Well, he gets busy in his lab. "I found a cure!" he tells Lynn.
So, what's he doing in the Post Mortem room at the hospital? To mess with a female corpse, of course. Well, she's dead anyway--why not make off with her pituitary gland? Steve isn't amused. That gross thing looks like a banana slug...whatever. Just like that, John's got Val assisting in his ersatz operating room. We finally see Lynn's disfigurement. He injects the pituitary fluid into the afflicted area; I'm not really getting what the laser treatment accomplishes.
Anyway, post-op, Steve comes calling. Lynn's fully recovered, and looks great. "I have Lynn back as she was, that's the only thing that interests me". All's well? No, not exactly. come back early from a cruise; yuck! the treatment didn't last, she's disfigured all over again. Ever resourceful, John figures that he problem was that only living tissue will work. Soon enough, he's looking up a prostitute; cuddling up to her, hearing voices, he stabs her.
With his handy doctor kit, he gets his sample forthwith. "Who was she?" Lynn adks. His response: "it doesn't matter." Strangely, she shows off her new-old looks to Mike, hoping to get back into modeling. They argue about who's better, who's more important. To covered all her bases, she gets a camera for John, not to mention equipment. That way, Mike's cut out of the picture. Later, Steve and John disagree about the treatment.
John's worried about a newspaper article about one of his victims. Somewhat rattled, they decide to go down to their seaside cottage. When he examines her, he estimates that her 'fix' only lasts a week. When he tells her that he won't continue the treatments, she turns on him. She doesn't care about the victims, she won't tolerate the disfigurement. Lynn watches a girl, Terry (Wendy Varnels) down at the beach, will John go and check her out? Just like that, they have her over. The girl's suspicious, but game "at least he's clean (John that is)". Lynn obviously want to kill her for her glands.
She tries to get him to rationalize murder by saying that the girl's suicidal anyway. Ok, he gives in. Problem is,she dodges them. Then, she lets in an accomplice, her boyfriend Rik (Bill Murray). Actually, they're thieves, and figure, creep factor notwithstanding, these four folks are an easy mark. "you must operate, soon!" But both Terry and Rik have skipped out.No problem, as John goes on the prowl in town.
He finds an attractive blond, and gets on the train with her. He attacks her, and after a long struggle, she's fatally stabbed. He gets off at the next stop with the goods. Unfortunately, the body was soon discovered, minus head. Steve and Val have figured out what's going on.; they're going down to the cottage to check things out. Why don't they call the police? Even John admits he was spotted in the train compartment before the last murder.
Back at the cottage, John gets a fresh something out of the fridge. Terry pops back in, unannounced. Seeing the gross bundle (actually the train victim's head) she splits. Despite their best efforts, she gets away for a while. This scene is way too long; eventually she stuns him with a rock. But, he's relentless; in a mo tags of all the victims, John attacks her. Terry's done for.
Lynn's still pestering to keep killing. I interestingly, she threatens to call the the police. Mind of makes sense, because he's the only with his hands dirty, so to speak. Well, they weren't counting on Rik, and a bunch of other chums bursting in, led by Georgie (Phillip Mannikum) . "We don't want any trouble, do we?" It's clear that they're just ordinary criminal sociopath (ala Clockwork Orange-style 'ultraviolence'). Obviously, they're also looking for Terry.
The invasion becomes weirder when Georgie tells John that he has to operate. Meanwhile, Sandy, poking around for goodies, finds ye olde head. By now the hoods knows that something happened to Terry. Lynn has no choice but to tell them where her body is. Cleverly, she manages to push Rik off a cliff. Ironically, Georgie sends for the cops. Lynn, again thinking quick , turns the laser on. With its gizmo swinging around, the beam catches everything on fire.
If that's not bad enough, they're all dazed by it, and collapsed, while the place goes up in flames around them. There's an unexpected last scene which partly replays the party scene from the beginning; that is, the trigger for the subsequent story. The end.
This was disappointing. After a promising beginning, it sort of bogged down, but was nearly rescued by a more intriguing second half. That being said, everything at the cottage seemed to be from a completely different movie. It was generally better there than in London, even before the last ten minutes or so, which was nothing if not bizarre. As others have noted, Cushing is somewhat overshadowed by Lloyd's Joan Crawford-like Horror Hag role. That's surprising, because initially she doesn't think it's cool to kill people for her cosmetic benefit.
By the time we get to the cottage, she's pretty much in control. Terry works into the plot very well, outwitting John and Lynn for much of the time. She's got her own agenda, which she unintentionally foists on her hosts. The scene with woman on the train shows how John has become a vampire-like predator; unlike the string of murders in the first part of the movie (except for the prostitute), we see all the details. And it's that pesky head of her that turns up at the most inopportune times; it leads to Terry's death and the ultimate conflagration at the end.
There's a double shift from the original premise: Lynn becomes the mastermind, and John the underling; then Terry becomes the antagonist, with John and Lynn the prey of her crowd. The party scene promised one sort of stylish thriller; but when John turns himself into a modern Jack the Ripper/Dr. Frankenstein, we get a fairly repetitious cycle of murder, surgery, murder.
For the most part, the acting was very good. The gang of hoods are a bit over the top; when they appear, the tone shift is so complete that it's hard to take these scenes seriously. The all-consuming fire is about the most cliched of all horror movie endings. If the laser can be safely directed at someone's face, why should it catch everything else on fire? And why does everyone succumb to its powers when all of them still have the chance to escape?
For that matter, why is John untouchable? There's absolutely no police presence shown; how does a rookie criminal skulk about and not attract a lot of attention by his serial killing? Two oddities stand out: the trip to the coast is as much a traditional vacation as it is a way to avoid scrutiny, and Georgy's threat to call the cops just shows that the even weirdest characters think something nuts is going on.
This has some elements of a good psychological thriller. The horror aspect is more or less masked by what looks like conventional operation scenes (well, except for the laser stuff), the off-screen nature of most of the murders, and, most importantly, the less than horrific nature of Lynn's disfigurement. Yes, it's bad enough to ruin a modelling career, but she's no Phantom of the Opera or House of Wax victim.
This is worth a look, but not up to the usual Peter Cushing level.