Psychomania (1973)

... aka: Death Wheelers, The
... aka: Death Wheelers Are... Psycho Maniacs!
... aka: Der Frosch (The Frog)
... aka: Living Dead, The
... aka: Psicomania
... aka: Psycho Maniacs

Directed by:
Don Sharp

This very bizarre British B flick centers around a violent motorcycle gang called "The Living Dead," whose favorite pastimes include running motorists off the road, terrorizing people in public squares, smacking baby-carriage-strolling women on the ass as they pass by, stabbing tires with switchblades and treating graveyards like cheap hotel rooms. Gang leader Tom (Nicky Henson) is obsessed with crossing over to "the other side." Luckily for him, his mother (Beryl Reid) is some kind of clairvoyant who makes money holding séances and is somehow in cahoots with Satan. She also may have killed his father years earlier and claims to know the secret to eternal life. Eventually, mum grants Tom access to her knowledge via some portal in a locked room of the house and a special medallion. Tom kills himself by running his bike off a tall bridge, is buried in a grave sitting upright on his motorcycle (!) and soon comes roaring back to life in a memorable scene driving right out of his grave. Zombie Tom then decides to share his secret with his biker buddies, who start killing themselves so they can be brought back to life as immortals.

It's hard to believe that once upon a time someone out there thought this was a good idea for a movie. I could never quite put my finger on just what this was trying to accomplish. Black magic elements aside, this doesn't quite work as a horror film, as it never once attempts to be scary or creepy. It also doesn't work as an exploitation film because it's far too tame. There's no sex or nudity and hardly any violence or foul language. Hell, I don't even remember so much as a drop of blood being spilled and the "zombie" bikers look no worse for wear than they did prior to ending their mortal life. However, this does somewhat work as a gimmicky, silly piece of brainless entertainment. Clearly made to cash in on the big biker movie craze of the 60s and 70s, which took off after the success of Easy Rider (1969), this is seldom boring and pretty lively, amusing and fast-paced. The score and stunt work are good and there are some genuine laughs along the way, such as a hilarious montage of bikers offing themselves in a variety of ways, such as driving out into traffic and leaping from tall buildings, bridges and even airplanes!

There's definitely an attempt at an anarchic youth appeal here, with rebellious long-haired drop-outs doing their thing regardless of what any adult has to say about it. Also to appeal to the younger crowd, the film eventually becomes less chaotic toward the end in favor of a 'doomed love' subplot where Tom's girlfriend Abby (Mark Larkin) can't decide whether to live her mortal life or kill herself to join her boyfriend for all eternity. Needless to say, with all of the silliness going on, that aspect of the plot is not very compelling. The story is all over the place and confusing in spots, incorporating things like 100 year old toads, magic mirrors and George Sanders in a weird role as a cross-hating butler who never ages and may be Satan himself... though I'd like to think Satan has more exciting things to do than cater to an old psychic and her delinquent son for decades!

Though many of the people involved in this hokey, dated film (which received terrible reviews upon release) would just soon forgot their participation in it, it's certainly worth a look for fans of strange minor cult flicks. Is it good? Well, no. Not really. But it does offer a freewheeling, quirky change of pace to some of the stuffier British genre films of the time being offered up by Hammer Productions and other studios. The cast also includes Ann Michelle (previously seen in The Virgin Witch) as a biker chick, Robert Hardy as a police inspector, Patrick Holt and Shakespearean actor Roy Holder. It has also benefited from some very cool poster art over the years, though some of these distributors clearly attempted to sell it as an action flick...

Shot as Psychomania (a rather nonsensical title given the premise) and shown in the UK under that title, this was given the new and, in my opinion, much better title The Death Wheelers here in the U.S., where it received a PG rating and played on the bottom half of a double bill with Horror Express (1972). Both films were written by Arnaud d'Usseau and Julian Zimet and made by the short-lived Benmar Productions.

If you're thinking about purchasing a copy, there are several good ones on the market, but your best bet now is probably the Severin "Collector's Edition" DVD release. Though the original negatives for the film are believed to no longer exist, the Severin release offers up a very decent print of the uncut version plus some good extras, including new interviews with many of the surviving cast members (Henson, Larkin, Holder, several others) and composer John Cameron. The Image release (part of their "Euroshock Collection") also isn't bad. However, there are several releases on budget labels you should avoid, including the Geneon release, which is missing 4 minutes (most of which is the séance scene at the beginning) and offers no special features.

★★1/2

Brides of Fu Manchu, The (1966)

... aka: Die 13 Sklavinnen des Dr. Fu Man Chu (The 13 Brides of Fu Manchu)
... aka: Dr. Fu Manchu og Slavepigerne (Dr. Fu Manchu and the Slave Girls)
... aka: Fu Manchu 2
... aka: Il giorno dei fazzoletti rossi (Day of the Red Handkerchiefs)
... aka: Sax Rohmer's The Brides of Fu Manchu

Directed by:
Don Sharp

At the end of THE FACE OF FU MANCHU (1965), Fu (Christopher Lee), his faithful, torture-happy daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin) and the rest of his "Oriental" gang were inside a Tibetan palace when it was blown to smithereens. Though believed dead by the world at large, Fu and Lin Tang are both very much alive... and they've been quite busy. Various young beauties (who must all be played by the beauty contest winners gathered from around the world during the publicity tour for the first movie) have been kidnapped and brought to Fu's lair where they're hypnotized to only do the will of their masters. These young women are all wives or daughters of skilled industrialists and brilliant scientists that Fu needs on his team in his quest for world domination. And, hey, if that requires turning daddy's little girl into an entranced, grinning murderess, so be it. A megalomaniac's gotta do what a megalomaniac's gotta do, right? The latest abductee, Jules Merlin (Rupert Davies), isn't being very cooperative so he's punished by bearing witness to his daughter Michelle (Carole Gray) cutting a young lady, who's strung up by her hair, loose and causing her to fall into a pit of poisonous snakes.

With eleven women from ten different countries reported missing over an 18 month period, Scotland Yard's finest investigator Nayland Smith (Douglas Wilmer, replacing Nigel Green) and pathologist Doctor Petrie (Howard Marion-Crawford) are soon on the case. Their first big break occurs when geologist Franz Baumer (Heinz Drache) manages to thwart an attack by a group of karate-fighting henchmen and save girlfriend Marie Lentz (Marie Versini) in the process. During the struggle, Franz also managed to kill one of the attackers and is temporarily thrown into jail. Marie's a target because her father Otto (Joseph Fürst) is an important scientist. Nayland and Petrie manage to stop a second kidnapping attempt at the hospital where Marie works. But, as they say, the third time's a charm and poor Marie manages to finally get successfully nabbed at a theater while watching a ballet. Helping to ensnare her in a trap is her good“friend” Nikki Sheldon (Harald Leipnitz), who's actually in cohorts with the bad guys.

Since several have already been killed with Fu's trademark Tibetan prayer scarf and the henchmen are all decked out in the same uniforms as the henchmen Nayland and Petrie faced in the previous film, our heroes come to the conclusion that Fu Manchu is still alive. The question isn't “What does he want?” That much is obvious: Control of the world. The real question is “In what dastardly way(s) is he going to go about getting what he wants?” In this case, it turns out to be a rather complex scheme involving harnessing powerful sound waves and then turning them into destructive energy. Fu sets Jules free back into society to work on creating numerous small satellite devices which will work wirelessly in tandem with a larger satellite hidden in the mountains. The small satellites are to be placed in major European cities and will create enough electromagnetic force to level them with a flick of a switch. At least I think I got that right. Either way, the technicalities don't matter so much as it's just basically Fu up to his old tricks again.

Fu announces over the radio that “Any city that defies me shall be destroyed!” and that he already has hits out on a few “specially selected men.” Nayland (one of the chief targets, of course) and Petrie must try to locate Fu's hidden, Egyptian-themed headquarters in order to stop him and save all of the kidnap victims from being tossed into the snake pit. They're aided in their quest by several law enforcement agents, like British Sergeant Spicer (Kenneth Fortescue) and French inspector Pierre Grimaldi (Roger Hanin), as well as Franz, who manages to successfully pass himself off as one of the scientists in order to infiltrate Fu's “Temple of Karna” mountain lair. To throw the good guys off, Fu has his men construct decoy satellites, which enable him to demonstrate his power by blowing up the Windsor Castle cruise ship. He has much bigger plans in store for major areas if he cannot be stopped. There's use of truth serum to extract information in one scene and the BBC has a hand in foiling Fu's master plan.

Brides is almost on par with the first film. Almost. It's fast-paced, the production values and acting are adequate and there are a lot of characters factoring into the story, plus some unexpected good twists devised by writer / producer “Peter Welbeck” / Harry Alan Towers. The action scenes are all OK, though not quite as thrilling as the ones in the first. The biggest issue here is that the plot structure is so close to the original that this almost comes off like a lesser remake. Small details aside, if you just swap out the satellite for the flowers and the snake pit for the water chamber, you essentially have the same exact film. It's also hard to shake the feeling you could see something along the same lines that's better if you popped in any number of James Bond, Sherlock Holmes or Edgar Wallace films. Further downgrading this entry is a dingier, cheaper overall look. The budget has clearly been slashed. While the original was filmed in Technicolor with a 2.35 : 1 aspect ratio, this one was shot on the cheaper alternative Eastmancolor with a 1.85 : 1 aspect ratio. All that said, this is still passable for what it is and competently made.

Also in the cast are Burt Kwouk as Fu's right hand man Feng, Danielle Defrère (Miss Belgium 1964) as a slave girl and, returning from the previous film, Francesca Tu as Nayland's secretary Lotus and Ric Young as one of Fu's men. The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967), The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) and The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) followed. Warner paired this up with the quite good CHAMBER OF HORRORS (1966) for its DVD release.

★★1/2