In an article in last month's issue, we turned the spooky spotlight on the career of Donald Pleasence, an actor who has turned out a truly prodigious amount of film work--and much of it in the horror arena.  We saw that his fright film career got off to a promising start.   Now, we'll see how that start sort of sputtered in the Seventies--and then revived when the "handkerchief actor" met the Shape, as we continue unfolding... 

By HARVEY F. CHARTRAND

(Note: This is the second article in a three-part series that examines the huge horror film output of actor Donald Pleasance.  Part One can be found here.  Part Three will conclude this series in next month's issue.)

In the sci-fi horror hybrid The Mutations/The Freakmaker (1973), Donald Pleasence stars as Nolter, a scientist and biochemistry professor who is conducting obscene experiments, trying to fuse human and plant life, to create a being that will have the strengths of both lifeforms. The results of Prof. Nolter’s experimental research are predictably horrifying; the monsters look like humanoid broccoli.

To dispose of these abominations, Nolter donates them to a local freak show run by Lynch (Tom Baker), who cooperates in the hope that the scientist will rid him of his hideous facial deformity. Lynch also helps Nolter by kidnapping healthy young students for him to experiment on. We witness the shocking degradation of several attractive students during the course of this film – a biohorror theme not tackled as effectively again until David Cronenberg’s disturbing remake of The Fly (1986).

The Mutations is genuinely unsettling and still has a strong impact when viewed today. It is one of Pleasence’s greatest contributions to the field of horror, though of course credit must also be given to director Jack Cardiff, previously not known for his work in the horror genre, and whose final directing credit this is. As the mad scientist, Pleasence comes across as subtly unhinged. His eyes are glazed and he mutters his lines as if under hypnosis. The cast also features real-life circus freaks in speaking parts – still a very controversial artistic decision 41 years after Tod Browning got into so much trouble doing the same thing on his classic Freaks (1932).

Pleasence appears with his daughter Angela in a segment of the Amicus horror compilation From Beyond The Grave (1973), based on four stories by British genre writer R. Chetwynd-Hayes. In "An Act Of Kindness," Pleasence plays Jim Underwood, a mean and withdrawn old man who sells matches and shoelaces for a living. One day, he strikes up a friendship with a retired army officer (Ian Bannen). The officer and his shrewish wife (Diana Dors) have a wretched marriage. Bannen starts spending time with the peddler’s creepy daughter Emily. Bad move, because Jim and Emily Underwood are plotting a horrible fate for Bannen and his wife.

All three stories in From Beyond The Grave are intelligent, well-written and scary. This is one of the better portmanteau films of that era, almost on a par with Dead Of Night (1946). I cannot recommend From Beyond The Grave highly enough. Sadly, Amicus Productions would never make another film as good as this one.

In a complete change of pace, Pleasence sings and dances on camera in composer Lionel Bart’s musical version of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, made for NBC TV in 1973. Kirk Douglas, in arguably the worst performance of his career, stars as the kindly Dr. Henry Jekyll and his murderous alter ego Mr. Hyde, unleashed during scientific experiments aimed at isolating man’s evil nature. Appearing in the role of pickpocket Fred Smudge, a capering and cackling Pleasence belts out the instantly forgettable Smudge's Song (although his singing voice isn’t bad at all). This is a noticeably threadbare production filmed entirely on a soundstage, giving the proceedings a dark, claustrophobic and two-dimensional feel.

In the 1973 anthology film Tales That Witness Madness, Pleasence stars in the linking story as Dr. R.C. Tremayne, an enigmatic psychiatrist running an asylum used for experimental research. Dr. Tremayne is keeping a disparate group of four crazies in his white-walled hospital. Their case histories are vital to his research, he explains to visiting colleague Dr. Nicholas (a dying Jack Hawkins in his final film, voice dubbed by Charles Gray). Dr. Tremayne explains his amazing and controversial theories as to why the four patients went mad: each one is suffering from a weird obsession with the supernatural.

Cue four distinct tales of murder, deception and the occult. Each story has a different set of characters (played by such big names as Kim Novak, Michael Jayston and Joan Collins). The mise-en-scène is by legendary Hammer director Freddie Francis, but he seems to have lost his touch in this low-grade Amicus production. Despite its excellent cast and good production values, Tales That Witness Madness – one would assume it’s a horror film with a title like that – simply doesn’t scare.

You have to look hard for a horror angle in the comedy Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (1974/based on a Private Eye magazine comic strip), but it is there because of the inclusion of a vampire baddie--Count Erich von Plasma (played by Pleasence). The plot unfolds as Aunt Edna Everage (Barry Humphries) is mistaken for the Queen of England by the Count, a Transylvanian vampire and head of a Stalinist state that has no tourism industry. Von Plasma hopes that by kidnapping the Queen, he will be able to attract tourists to his country. Edna’s nephew, the vulgar Australian Barry McKenzie, and his soused chums travel to darkest Transylvania (on a Vamp-Air flight) to rescue Aunt Edna. Other horror elements: von Plasma’s butler has a tap in his neck, and an enormous machine sucks all the blood out of a person’s body.

House Of The Damned/The Wolf And The Dove (1974) is a Spanish thriller starring Pleasence in a typically ruthless role. His character Martin Zayas kills an archaeologist and attempts to find out from his victim's traumatized and mute daughter where the treasure (a prehistoric gold statuette) is concealed. House Of The Damned also stars dwarf actor Michael Dunn in his penultimate film performance.

In 1975, Pleasence guest starred in I Don’t Want To Be Born (alternate title The Devil Within Her)--a third-rate rip-off of The Exorcist. As Dr. Finch, Pleasence tries to discover why a newborn baby has a murderous hatred for people, especially its parents (Joan Collins and Ralph Bates). This is strictly a take-the-paycheck-and- run job for Pleasence, whose character is ultimately dispatched by the homicidal baby. I don’t want to say any more about this picture.

In 1976, Pleasence and Peter Cushing reteamed for Land Of The Minotaur (alternate title The Devil’s Men), filmed in Greece. A Minotaur-worshiping cult kidnaps three young hippie tourists. Pleasence’s heroic Father Roche must save them from the villainous Baron Corofax (Cushing) and his evil acolytes before they ritually murder the three hostages.

It’s good to see these two horror veterans working together again, but sadly, Land of the Minotaur is unworthy of their talents. Pleasence is cast atypically in the good guy role of the Irish priest: his character’s decency and courage are offset by a sense of palpable fear. As Father Roche says, "I’m not afraid to meet my maker. I just don’t want to meet him today."

In Meriel, the Ghost Girl (1976), Pleasence has the lead role of psychic investigator George Livingston, who believes he may have had a genuine supernatural encounter during a séance. Meriel, the Ghost Girl was an episode of The Mind Beyond, a short-lived BBC2 anthology series of tales of the outré and paranormal.

In the atmospheric Night Creature/Out Of The Darkness (1977), Pleasence plays celebrated writer and hunter Alex MacGregor. While plodding through the jungles of Thailand, MacGregor is attacked by a deadly rogue black leopard. He is savaged by the animal and rendered permanently lame. To expunge the fear the creature has instilled in him, MacGregor captures the beast, transports it to his private island and revives the hunt, limping off in pursuit of the man-eater.

Legend has it the animal is a shape-shifter--a were- leopard, as it were. Pleasence is excellent as the manic hunter, pursuing the big cat with the same passion he would later manifest chasing Michael Myers in the Halloween cycle. Some people get chewed up and chased, while Pleasence grimaces through every scene. Not overly scary but well-made, Night Creature is more of an adventure film with horror elements.

The silly premise of the British/Canadian portmanteau film The Uncanny (1977) is that cats are plotting to take over the world. The third and final segment is a weak Hollywood satire set in 1936, with Pleasence camping it up as a horror movie star who bumps off his wife on a sound stage with the help of his mistress (Samantha Eggar), only to be menaced by the dead woman’s cat. Sporting a cheesy Clark Gable mustache, Pleasence does his best as ham actor Valentine De’ath, but Eggar is not convincing as a dizzy and inept would-be film actress. Let us dismiss this vignette as a Ham-and- Eggar and move on. Meow!

Pleasence serves as a narrator of sorts in the 1978 NBC TV mini-series The Dark Secret of Harvest Home. A young couple moves to a quiet New England village, only to find themselves mixed up in devil worship, Satanism and human sacrifice. Pleasence’s distinctive voice can be heard reading Edgar Allan Poe stories on audio books that a blind man is listening to.

Among his many horror films, Pleasence is best known as the grim psychiatrist who relentlessly pursues psychotic killer Michael Myers in Halloween (1978). Director John Carpenter first offered the role of Dr. Sam Loomis to Christopher Lee, who turned it down due to a scheduling conflict. Initially concerned by Carpenter's inexperience as a director, Pleasence eventually agreed to play Dr. Loomis, ensuring himself starring roles in four Halloween sequels (as well as Carpenter's Escape from New York and Prince of Darkness), and a prominent place in horror history.

Indeed, Pleasence became an overnight horror icon with his sympathetic yet sinister performance as Dr. Loomis (named after a character in Psycho). Carpenter described Halloween as "an old country fair haunted house movie" and for years it stood as the most profitable independent film ever made.

"Halloween shaped the face of the modern horror film," writes Richard Scheib in his online review. "Carpenter set out with no real intent other than to craft a pure rollercoaster ride of jolts and shocks. Halloween’s appeal rested as much in the ability to streamline the horror film into a pure shock machine, as it was to take it out of the shadows of Hammer Gothic and the melodramatic thriller conventions of Psycho and its ilk and make it a wholly modern new form."

Halloween introduced Pleasence to a new generation of filmgoers. On the strength of the fame that this picture brought him, he was asked to host an episode of the "super-cool" Saturday Night Live in 1981. Yet Halloween turned out to be a mixed blessing for Pleasence – an opportunity that he was not able or willing to take full advantage of.

Halloween II (1981) is not so much a sequel as an immediate continuation of the first film, with Pleasence’s Dr. Sam Loomis hot on the trail of escaped lunatic Michael Myers. The stalked babysitter Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is taken to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital to bandage her wounds. Sporting his by now familiar painted Captain Kirk mask, Myers (aka The Shape) follows Laurie there to continue his homicidal rampage. The showdown between Myers and Dr. Loomis in the darkened hospital is well handled, a very gripping sequence.

Pleasence is again terrific as the tormented, gun-toting psychiatrist, who is really burned up over letting his most dangerous patient escape from his care in a nearby lunatic asylum. But Halloween II is already a bit too formula-driven, and Dr. Loomis is becoming a tad too enervated in his unheeded warnings and fevered rants about Myers’ superhuman unstoppableness and unplumbable depths of evil. Though increasingly strident, Pleasence is in fine form for his second kick at the can as the obsessed headshrinker, giving some much needed credibility to this sequel, written and produced by John Carpenter but directed by lesser talent Rick Rosenthal. It will not be possible to be so forgiving for all subsequent Halloween sequels (with the exception of Halloween III: Season of the Witch, a complete break with the Michael Myers storyline.)

Around this time, Pleasence was chosen to play Dr. Blair in Carpenter’s superb 1982 remake of The Thing, but a prior film commitment (Race For The Yankee Zephyr) prevented him from signing on, so the role went to Wilford Brimley instead. Considering the junk Pleasence often appeared in, it’s a shame that he wasn’t on board for The Thing, although Brimley (the Quaker Oats guy) was memorable as a scientist on the Antarctic research base.

A noticeably overweight Pleasence shares screen time with a stellar cast in Alone In The Dark (1982), a most unusual slasher pic directed by maverick filmmaker Jack Sholder. Pleasence excels as stoner psychiatrist Dr. Leo Bain, the head of a progressive asylum that harbors four extremely dangerous psychopaths: crazed killer Jack Palance, insane arsonist preacher Martin Landau, big bald head-crusher Erland van Lidth, and the unseen 'Bleeder,' whose nose bleeds when he kills.

These maniacs are kept imprisoned by means of electronic gates and doors. They escape during a power failure and go on a killing spree. Then they lay siege to the house of the asylum’s newly hired psychiatrist (played by a tremulous Dwight Schultz) and he must sink to the barbaric level of his attackers to survive.

Chicago Tribune film critic Howard Reich praised Alone In The Dark for the relentless ingenuity of its storytelling. "The performances are nothing short of eloquent, particularly Jack Palance as a trembling killer and Donald Pleasence as a slightly crazed psychiatrist," he wrote. "It must be said, however, that Alone in the Dark is extremely violent. The camera does not flinch when the blow is dealt. But if one allows that even violence can be artfully presented, then Alone In The Dark is most effective art." By all accounts, Alone In The Dark is a buried treasure, just waiting for rediscovery via a stylish, extras-laden DVD treatment.

Filmed in Wisconsin, Ulli Lommel’s The Devonsville Terror (1983) is yet another horror travesty, a badly acted low-budgeter featuring primitive special effects. Still riding high on the success of Halloween, Pleasence is given top billing, but he appears fleetingly as the mysterious Dr. Warley, a nervous physician/hypnotherapist who has been making the women of the New England village of Devonsville subconsciously aware of their past lives as witches and executioners of witches.

Dr. Warley believes that if he can bring these repressed memories to the surface, the witches will be able to enact the revenge they crave, 300 years after the villagers put them to death for their unholy practices. Three of these witches are reincarnated – as sexy liberated women, no less – and return to Devonsville to wreak havoc there. The Devonsville Terror is poorly made. At times, Pleasence’s voice is dubbed by another actor doing a bad imitation of him.

In 1984, Pleasence traveled to Mexico to film the rarely seen Frankenstein’s Great Aunt Tillie, featuring a cast of superannuated performers (including former Playmate June Wilkinson, Aldo Ray, Yvonne Furneaux and Zsa Zsa Gabor). Pleasence is cast in the dual role of Victor Frankenstein and Old Baron Frankenstein. In this lame horror comedy, the descendents of Baron Frankenstein return to the family castle to search for a hidden fortune. They end up finding Frankenstein’s monster by accident and revive the creature, hoping it will make money for them.

This incredibly awful film has to be seen to be disbelieved. The comedy doesn’t work on any level and the story is very confusing. The subplot about women’s rights is completely extraneous. Frankenstein’s Great Aunt Tillie has no horror, no laughs, no nudity, no gore and no violence. Pleasence appears in drag just like he did 18 years earlier in Roman Polanski’s comic thriller Cul-de-sac (1966), but this time, the stunt fails to generate laughs. The scene only serves to remind us that this workaholic actor was more selective about the films he chose to appear in during the glorious decade of the Sixties.

Thanks, Harv.  No doubt about it, Donald Pleasence's career, which started well enough, certainly took a detour for the low-budget and the schlocky during the Seventies.  But he was hardly unique...any number of actors and actresses had to take what was offered during that rather turbulent decade for film.  Certainly, he at least came into what most consider his defining role in horror films--that of Loomis, the obsessed psychologist, in the Halloween films--during that decade.  We now wait with baited breath to see what more twists and turns Donald Pleasence's career path takes in the next and final installment of this series in next month's issue.

Article copyright © Harvey F. Chartrand

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