Video Beaverhausen: Oliver Reed & Vanessa Redgrave in Ken Russell's The Devils

Ken Russell's The Devils was released after editing in the United States that was enforced upon the director by The Legion of Decency. In fact, the Catholic church condemned the film after failing to stop its release altogether.

Although the edited American version is still all that's available on dvd in the States, other Regions throughout the world can now view the director's cut.

I was, however, able to find the original, unexpurgated UK trailer:



None other than director Gillermo del Toro lambasted the American cut for its abysmal treatment of an artistic masterpiece.

Vanessa Redgrave is brilliant in her co-starring role with Oliver Reed who is also splendid. Their scenes together scintillate and sizzle with real chemistry between the two (who were rumored to have an affair off the set).

The film, based on the book, The Devils of Loudin, written by Aldous Huxley, graphically details the sexual hysteria and sadomasochism that takes over a convent. Derek Jarman created the magnificently surreal sets.

Very highly recommended. It would be insane to bill this with, oh, say, The Trouble with Angels.

Video Beaverhausen: Oliver Reed in Curse of the Werewolf

It doesn't have to be Halloween season for me to kick back and watch a horror film from Hammer. But it helps.

The mythology of the werewolf is all about man's baser nature and the primitive beast that lies within all of us. With his strong build and good looks back in '61 (Owoooo!) -- and with his upper-class accent (he was the nephew of film director Sir Carol Reed) -- Oliver Reed's performance in Curse of the Werewolf, directed assuredly by Terence Fisher, gives the film its growling, grimacing gravitas. This was years before Women in Love and his infamous nude wrestling scene with Alan Bates therein.

Hammer had the rights to all of Universal's classic monster movies. With the wolfman legend, they eschewed the Lyle Talbot storyline and instead based their script on a novel by Guy Endore.

The movie's set in Spain in the 19th Century. Reed's make-up reminded me more of Henry Hull's in the classic Werewolf of London than of Lon Chaney Jr's in Universal's The Wolfman. It is said, however, that make-up artist Roy Ashton based his make-up on the latter film.

Oliver Reed turned into quite a beast himself much later in life. But that's another story.

In Curse of the Werewolf, there is a village up in arms, the damsel in distress and a shocking (for its time) rape sequence that takes place very early in the film. Werewolves are back in vogue nowadays, and this classic deserves to be rediscovered. Watch it. It's a hoot and a holler.