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Post by franklinmarsh on Oct 19, 2007 20:33:36 GMT
Sphere published this eight novel series in the early 1980s. 'James Darke' was hackmeister Laurence James who somehow stretched the plot of the film Witchfinder General out over these 150 page penny dreadfuls. And if you've seen the film, you'll probably realise the problem. Is torture and dreadfully bloody violence 'entertainment'? One of my reference books Hammer & Beyond points out the fact that although it's taken as a given that the British press were outraged by Hammer's first colour horror The Curse Of Frankenstein, if you collate all the surviving reviews it was a minority that actually condemned the film's bloodletting - although those that did were particularly virulent. Reviews of Hammer's original Dracula were similar - people (or critics) went to see horror films at the cinema expecting a laugh - a bit of campy fun - and were outraged with all this tomato ketchup squirting all over the screen. It seems things had settled down by the time Witchfinder General was released, only for this film to kick start the violence debate again (which,over the next few years would scale unforseen heights). H&B quotes an article in The Listener by Alan Bennett (not sure if this is the playwright and humourist) who took the director, Michael Reeves, to task for his portrayal of violent acts in the film. Reeves, who had addressed the question of 'enjoying' cinematic violence in his previous film The Sorcerors, replied by saying that violence is grim,nasty,hateful,unpleasant and that his film was showing this. Anyone who enjoyed watching torture etc had a problem. Laurence James appears to have taken this to heart and the descriptions of the torture meted out to innocents in these novels are relentlessly nasty and depressing. But, you could argue, they were 'in real life'. Reeves' film inspired Euro-imitators such as Mark Of The Devil which would attempt to go even further. If you have a strong stomach you can give these a go. LJ can spin a yarn and,as I've mentioned before, and will again, he's fond of putting in-jokes and contemporary refences into his works. The Sphere 'Adult' series warning on the covers is classic exploitation. What small kid yearning for thrills could miss that? They also billed The Gunslinger series (which also involved LJ) as Sphere 'Adult' Westerns.
Just reread No 1 The Prisoner.(25/08/05) A couple of awful torture scenes at beginning and end but the middle of the book was mercifully tale-telling. Our hero comes across some of his old Parlimentarian cronies -Ford, Hawks and Henry Hathaway!
Matthew Hopkins and John Stearne guest star in the first book, and give Monk some top tips on how to obtain confessions (no, not those confessions) and swindle gullible townsfolk. LJ seems at pains to describe Monk as colourless,grey,unremarkable etc apart from his sibilant,fingers on velvet voice.
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