NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

jamesraeburn2003 A psychotic killer, billed simply as 'The Man' (Harry H Corbett), is targeting the fashion models who appear on the front page of Wow magazine. Each body is discovered wearing the same costume, in the same pose and the same setting as they featured in the publication. Inspector Brunner (Victor Brooks) reluctantly agrees to allow the magazine's owner, John Mason (Spencer Teakle), run a series of articles covering the investigation. But, Mason is none too happy when the inspector succeeds in persuading his girlfriend, the showgirl June Rawson (Felicity Young), to be Wow's next cover girl in a bid to lead the murderer into a trap. However, he is a man of great cunning and spots it a mile off so June's life is put in serious danger...Like so many of the Butcher's studio's late fifties and sixties 'B' pictures, this was a regular feature on late night television (ITV) in the 1990's. I was attracted to it because of Harry H Corbett's casting as a serial killer and I set my video accordingly. Like millions of people, I was so used to seeing him play the long suffering son of Wilfred Brambell's rag and bone man in the timeless sitcom Steptoe And Son that I just had to see what he would be like playing a dramatic role in a straight thriller. After seeing it, I reached the conclusion that what he did he did magnificently neatly portraying his character's cunning, resourcefulness, intelligence and the way he tried so hard to conceal his unstable personality that looked as though it could break at any given moment. There's a great moment where he goes to see the inspector in disguise as a wealthy landlord who claims to have rented a property to the killer. "What did you think of him?", asks Brunner. Sensing the opportunity for a bit of self flattery, he replies "a man of high intelligence, well educated and of very decided views" to which Brunner replies "Well, he can be all of those things and still be a psychopath." At this stage, he only narrowly avoids giving himself away as the look on his face would have done had the inspector not had his back to him messing around with a filing cabinet. Hurt, he replies "The borderline between what we call insanity and a hypersensitive intellect are not always clear, inspector." The psychology regarding his motives for his crimes is arguably simplified - well, it is only a second feature, after all - but it is neatly summed up when he tells his intended victim that the inspector views him as a psychopath and says "If wanting to give man back his dignity to free him from the lustful images, which foul his mind and his sanity is madness - well, I suppose he's right." Yet, understandably, the actor did seem rather miscast but I thought that audiences who saw this prior to Steptoe And Son becoming a household name probably didn't think so because the star had not yet become so firmly identified in that part. In any case, fans of Harry H Corbett are bound to love it and, in fact, his atypical casting here adds to the fun.In every other respect, Cover Girl Killer is streets ahead of many British b-pics since it was directed by the talented Terry Bishop who generates some nail-biting suspense - especially at the climax. Brunner succeeds in getting June to pose as Wow's cover girl, but the killer does not fall for it and sees the police surrounding the theatre as he goes to make his move. So, he retreats and hires an out of work actor to impersonate him on the pretext that he is getting an audition at the theatre. The police arrest him thinking that their plan has gone like clockwork, but June is now in grave peril since he returns to the place late that night cornering her in her dressing room. But, will her boyfriend be sharp enough to realise that this poor, unfortunate actor is not the man? Spencer Teakle and Felicity Young are both more than competent in their roles as the young couple and anybody who saw them together in Butcher's The Gentle Trap (1960) as a safecracker and his girlfriend-accomplice will see the remarkable contrast with their very different roles here, which will make it easy for you to judge their acting talents. Victor Brooks is utterly convincing in his dogged police inspector part (he was a policeman in many a b-movie) and Gerald Gibbs' b/w cinematography heightens the tension with a good sense of place and atmosphere.Available on DVD with Terry Bishop's Life In Danger.

fillherupjacko A weirdo approaches the stage door of the Casbah Club, in 1950s Soho, and is transfixed by a portrait of Miss Gloria Starke (Bernadette Milnes, who pops up in the opening scene of Cover Story, a Sweeney episode, fifteen years later - if you're interested, like).This is a film by Butchers Film Distributors (at least, I think it is – IMDb lists it as Jack Parsons Productions) and it's a film on a different level, theme wise, to almost every other second feature of its era. Cover Girl Killer is a film about a voyeur (in this most voyeuristic art form) who becomes a serial killer in order to "give man back his dignity, to free him from the prison of lustful images which foul his mind and pollute his sanity." The killer, played by Harry H Corbett, and billed only as The Man, feels imprisoned by society's values (which he finds morally abhorrent) and can only become "free" by killing girls who take off their clothes for Wow! Magazine. "I assure you, miss, your nudity means nothing to me", says Corbett, before dispatching one of them, Christina Gregg, who often popped up as the vulnerable type.I've always had a problem with Corbett in a straight roll (Harry not Ronnie); his acting is just ludicrously mannered – really bad, oo I can act, look at me, amateur dramatics. Here, fortuitously, he's playing such an oddball that he's actually quite effective. Of course, the killer doesn't think he's doing anything wrong. "The borderline between what we call insanity and a hyper sensitive intellect is not always very clear, inspector", he tells Inspector Brunner (Victor Brooks), after turning up in his office, pretending to be Mr. Fairchild, property developer. Why he does this is not clear. Maybe, it's an ego thing and he wants to pit his wits against the police. The most interesting scene is when the killer approaches Lennie Ross, (Theatre, Screen and TV agent, 3rd floor), for an actor to play the killer in the cover girl case. "Surely sex and horror are the new gods in this polluted world of so called entertainment?" (This line later featured in a UK number 1 smash for Frankie Goes To Hollywood, pop pickers.) Here, Cover Girl Killer really gets to the heart of the matter; reflecting on itself as we watch plans for a film version of the film we are actually watching.

slapdab Harry H Corbett won acclaim as a stage actor early in his career but in 1962 he appeared on television for a 'one-off' Galton and Simpson Playhouse called 'The offer'. This was successful enough for Galton and Simpson to be asked to turn it into a series which they called Steptoe and Son. This was so popular that it ran for eight series ending in 1974.Most people will only know Harry H Corbett for his portrayal of Harold Steptoe in Steptoe and Son. The quality of these performances, especially the little monologues and character sketches that were often included in the beginning of some of the later episodes, give an insight into the potential he had which was never realised.Sadly, after 12 years as Harold Steptoe, Harry H Corbett was irredeemably typecast and found little serious dramatic work before his untimely death from a heart attack in 1982.In Cover Girl Killer he is almost unrecognisable and his (believable) character could not be much further from his later typecasting.This film is slightly clichéd but is worth seeing in its own right. However, I would advise anyone who has enjoyed Harry H Corbett in anything else to watch this if only to see what we missed of a potentially great dramatic career.

gavcrimson Nineteen years before Mary Millington crossed paths with a misogynist murderer bearing a grudge against bust models in The Playbirds, B-movie actress Felicity Young (Play it Cool) had to deal with the late Fifties counterpart in this enjoyable Butcher's Film Distributors programmer. Set in the era of Soho Strip-tease, smoky coffee bars and rock and roll, The Cover Girl Killer opens to its titular character, a bogeyman by way of a Soho dirty mack leering at a non-stop follies marquee. Dressed in a raincoat, pebble glasses and a wig The Cover Girl Killer is played by future Steptoe, Harry H Corbett who remains unrecognisable from his later TV incarnation. Motivated by the `unsavoury obsessions of his twisted mind' and a need to `give back man his dignity to free him from the prison of lustful images that foul his mind and his sanity' the anti-smut Cover Girl Killer poses as a photographer in order to murder models who have appeared on the cover of Wow, a typical late Fifties cheesecake magazine. Canadian Spencer Teakle (a Butcher's mainstay) inherits music hall stripclub `the Kasbar' and the magazine Wow, both the source of the Cover Girl Killer's rage. Attempting to woo June, one of the showgirls by posing as a journalist, Teakle is unaware that The Cover Girl Killer is luring Gloria his showgirl `with the most on show' to her death. A leopard skin themed photoshoot ends with Gloria being found dead and bikini clad, in a kinky fashion she's posed identical to her sexy cover shot. Initially invistigated as the murderer Teakle helps the police, who are constantly outwitted by `the man' (as he is billed in the credits). Going through the back issues of Wow for his next victim The Cover Girl Killer locates last month's model Miss Torquay 1959 (Christina Gregg another Butcher's player). Contracted to shoot a Sun Cream commercial, when Miss Torquay emerges in a bikini the Cover Girl Killer can control himself no longer, meaningfully stating `your nudity means nothing to me' before strangling her. Running just over an hour The Cover Girl Killer is rarely dull- the police actively encourage Teakle's Harrison Marks wannabe to publish his exotica in order to catch the killer. The Cover Girl Killer poses as Mr Fairchild an outrageous bowler hat wearing toff alter-ego to throw the police off his trail, the police subsequently put June on the cover to trap Corbett's well respected man, the detective in charge drinks a lot of tea, The Cover Girl Killer goes to a showbiz impresario with plans to make a movie version of his killings `I'm all for the good old X-certificate if you can get it'. Given that Wow is portrayed as the cutting edge that 1959 had to offer The Cover Girl Killer's climax, with the Cover Girl Killer dressing June in lingerie, chasing her around a studio and forcing her onto a four poster bed to reinact her front cover must have seemed raw stuff indeed. Some of the dialogue is wonderful, you can almost imagine the hack screenwriter sitting in a Soho office on a wet afternoon turning out headline dialogue like `surely sex and horror are the new Gods in this polluted world of so called entertainment'. As the Soho Bogeyman Corbett is never anything less than surprising, making up for some of the other less than credible performers. Corbett's career was bookmarked by exploitation, for after fame cameos in Adventures of a Private Eye and the Fiona Richmond vehicle Hardcore Corbett demanded high fees for limiting roles. Soft spoken, sinister and creepy his performance in the Cover Girl Killer suggests he did deserve better. Cover Girl Killer is a delusion from the mind of righteous filmmakers who believe themselves worthy of greatness but can only score sensational tack. It's full of acid comments on the illiteracy of readers of cheesecake magazines (and by association viewers of films with titles like The Cover Girl Killer). At times the film totally identifies with the killer's ideology especially in its depiction of the victim's husbands and fathers- sad broken men whose inability to keep hold of their women lead to their loved one's demise. This fashioning schizoid edge however says more about the filmmakers than it does the audience, never is the film more true than its depiction of it's chicken in a basket showbiz crony which draws impossible to ignore comparisons with Butchers themselves who were known for paying people as low as 35p to £2.50 for scripts. Butchers Film continued grinding on in the polluted world of so called entertainment making countless B pictures up until the late Sixties. Like their counterparts Tigon they freewheeled throughout the Seventies distributing foreign sex films like Erika, The Fabulous European Strip-Tease and The Sex Artist. One of their last releases was Norman J Warren's 'alien rape' movie Inseminoid. For years considered a lost film but kept alive on the strength of Corbett's appearance and historically being one of the earliest slasher films, The Cover Girl Killer now enjoys a second life as a stable of late night television, guaranteeing that the Ghost of the Cover Girl Killer will haunt insomniacs and the curious for many years to come.