Steineded How sad is this?

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Blake Rivera If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Michael_Elliott Cover Girl Killer (1959) ** (out of 4) A disturbed man (Harry H. Corbett) objects to sexuality being used on the cover of magazines so he begins to kill the women who grace those covers. The magazine's owner (Spencer Teakle) decides to help the police by having his girlfriend (Felicity Young) appear on the next issue and sure enough the maniac comes after her. Considering some of the elements in this British shocker you can't help but walk away feeling very disappointed. There's some interesting stuff going on in this film but sadly director Terry Bishop does absolutely nothing with it and in the end this 61-minute "B" picture seems to run twice as long. The biggest problem is the actual screenplay because we spend so much time with the police and the magazine editor that you can't help but roll your eyes for a number of reasons. One is the fact that the characters are all very dull. Another problem is that the actual investigation doesn't lead to any drama or tension. The biggest issue is the fact that throughout the film we do spend a little time with the killer and he's such an interesting character that it becomes rather frustrating when we go away from him and settle back with the boring characters. Corbett does a very good job at playing this rather disturbed and creepy guy. I thought the actor did a fine job at showing how weird this guy is but he was also good enough to show how intelligent he was. The supporting players aren't nearly as impressive, although Young isn't too bad as the "next" victim. I guess it's important to note that this film was made and released a full year before both PSYCHO and PEEPING TOM. Whereas those two films actually crossed the line in an attempt to do something new and fresh, this film here clearly just wanted to be another "B" picture and that's really a shame because the subject matter was an interesting one. There are bits and pieces of good stuff here but sadly they never come together. There's even talk about Jack the Ripper and how the two killers are connected but that's about it. COVER GIRL KILLER isn't a bad movie but at the same time you can't help but wish it had tried to be better.

slaterspins One of the slowest moving B movies in recent memory - though just 61 minutes, it can seem an eternity, with cheesy sets, flat lighting, nearly non-existent cinematography (maybe an interesting shot or two at the 'climax', but I grasp at straws), long boring spates of dialogue where conversations are unnecessarily repeated and not much footage of the promised Cover Girls of the title. Nothing new here. Poor acting abounds, especially 'our hero', the aptly named Spencer Teakle, as the incredibly wooden and unlikely owner of the pin-up magazine WOW - though by way of explanation we are advised his Uncle gave him reins of the magazine to encourage a change in his nephew's square, non-sexy image. It didn't work. The plot is standard, even sub-standard. Cover girls are killed one by one by - you got it - a nut job who wants to 'free man from the lustful images that pollute his sanity', played by an unconvincing Harry H Corbett replete in a disguise that includes a Beatles wig (before the Beatles) and pebble glasses that look like the kind of joke glasses where the eyeball springs are ready to pop out at you at any minute. Wide eyed and obvious, he stands out as your typical unfriendly neighborhood pervert. Few chills or scary moments as Corbett has only two short interactions with the Cover Girls, neither one menacing. The first, in which he convinces a cover girl to pose nude, is a deadly dull scene (as there is no nudity or murder on screen - or even the suggestion of suspense)- just a quick cutaway when the killer apparently strikes. His last attack is somewhat better, in which (in the one interesting twist) Corbett convinces a theatrical agent to send an actor to Mr. Spencer Teacle's 'Kasbah' club where the police are waiting to entrap Corbett with model June who they 'talked into' appearing on the latest issue of WOW to attract the killer to come and kill her, promising her protection - right, heard that line before? The police naturally fall for this scam, leaving Cover girl/model/dancer/stripper/love interest/all around good girl, who's agreed to be the bait, in the clutches of the real killer. In an anti-climatic and quick scene (after suffering through endless exposition throughout the rest of the movie) Corbett attacks the heroine of the film and as the police close in on him and he holds them at bay with a gun, the quick-witted (for the first time in the movie) Teacle unties the rope to a catwalk where the killer is holding June, Teacle yelling "Hang on, June", and, thinking on her feet, she does, while Corbett conveniently falls to his death and Teacle and his 'dancer' friend walk away arm in arm to apparent domestic bliss. This is really a mess.

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.

didi-5 Despite only lasting an hour, this film about a serial killer who has a grudge against cover girls - a la The Lodger and Jack the Ripper - rarely flags and has an energy which lifts it above other B movies of the time. It also has Harry H Corbett, best known these days for Steptoe and Son, proving he could act in a serious role. He is genuinely creepy, chilling and calculating.In some respects this film also reminds me of Peeping Tom, also about a psychopathic murderer of high intelligence who kills by ritual. While that film was a straight A, 'Cover Girl Killer' does not pale in its company, and it proves its worth as a late night regular on TV.