The Flesh and Blood Show (1972)

Director:

Pete Walker

Writer:

Alfred Shaughnessy (screenplay)

Release Date:

August 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

An Appalling Amalgam of Carnage and Carnality ...

Plot:

Actors rehearsing a show at a mysterious seaside theater are being killed off by an unknown maniac. |

Plot Keywords:

Theater | Maniac | Actor | Female Frontal Nudity | 3 Dimensional

Cast

Ray Brooks	...	Mike
Jenny Hanley	...	Julia Dawson
Luan Peters	...	Carol Edwards
Robin Askwith	...	Simon
Candace Glendenning	...	Sarah
Tristan Rogers	...	Tony Weller
Judy Matheson	...	Jane
David Howey	...	John
Elizabeth Bradley	...	Mrs. Saunders
Rodney Diak	...	Warner
Penny Meredith	...	Angela
Sally Lahee	...	Iris Vokins
Raymond Young	...	Insp. Walsh
Carol Allen
Alan Curtis	...	Jack Phipps
Brian Tully	...	Willesden
Jane Cardew	...	Lady Pamela
Tom Mennard	...	Fred
Stewart Bevan	...	Harry Mulligan (as Stuart Bevan)
Michael Knowles	...	Curran
Kent Baker
John Yule	...	Gerry
Jess Conrad	...	Young Actor
Patrick Barr	...	Major Bell / Sir Arnold Gates
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Pete Walker	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Pete Walker

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Alfred Shaughnessy		screenplay

Produced by
Pete Walker	....	producer

Original Music by
Cyril Ornadel

Cinematography by
Peter Jessop

Film Editing by
Ron Pope

Makeup Department
Bill Lodge	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Robert Fennell	....	production manager
Matt McCarthy	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Paul Fell	....	second assistant director
Brian Lawrence	....	assistant director
Terry Madden	....	third assistant director

Sound Department
Tony Anscombe	....	dubbing mixer
Nick Flowers	....	boom operator
Peter O'Connor	....	sound recordist

Camera and Electrical Department
Jim Davis	....	gaffer
John Metcalfe	....	camera operator
Tim Ross	....	follow focus

Editorial Department
Jim Roddan	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Cyril Ornadel	....	conductor

Production Companies

• Peter Walker (Heritage) Ltd.

Distributors

• Tigon Film Distributors (1972) (UK) (theatrical)
• Cinépix Film Properties (CFP) (1974) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Entertainment Ventures (EVI) (1974) (USA) (theatrical)
• Lii-Filmi (1974) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Monterey Home Video (1985) (USA) (VHS)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (1996) (USA) (VHS) (Frank Henenlotter's Sexy Shockers from the Vaults, Vol. 55)
• Shriek Show (2006) (USA) (DVD) (widescreen)
• e-m-s the DVD-Company (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Odeon Entertainment (2008) (UK) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Kay Laboratories  processing (as KAY Laboratories Ltd.)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (cut) (1974) | USA:R | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Cromer, Norfolk, England, UK

Company:

Peter Walker (Heritage) Ltd.

Trivia:

The film originally contained a 3-D flashback sequence.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As Luan Peters investigates the prop room below the stage she makes a big deal of brushing away cobwebs, but there aren't any.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Pete Walker: A Man of Flesh and Blood (2006) (V)

a couple good scenes, lots of unnecessary boring dialog; fair amount of live flesh, little or no blood

The plot is a familiar one. A bunch of people go to an abandoned building to stay there, and some of them start dying.

Even taken more specifically, this is a group of young actors who go to an old theater, and are killed for reasons relating to the theater's past. The Clown at Midnight (1998) is similar.

The movie has a lot of dialog, which isn't of much interest. People go off wandering, and sometimes they come back and sometimes they don't. They visit an older couple, and I didn't get a sense of where their house was in relation to the theater, which seemed to be on an island. Police actually are contacted fairly easily early on. The actors continue to stay at the theater far beyond what is sensible.

There's a fair amount of female nudity, even some full frontal nudity. There is even some full frontal nudity from one of the men. Deaths are not depicted very graphically, to the extent they are barely on screen at all. The killer is a heavy breather, with a black mask and gloves.

The music throughout reminded me of the incidental music from the original Scooby Doo series!

There's a flashback scene which is rather surprising, that has a couple having sex in front of a young girl. The girl's scenes were quite obviously edited in (i.e. she wasn't in the room with the nude actors), but it was still a little shocking. That scene was a little better than the rest of the movie, although it started off with a staging of Othello, which was not too involving. There's another good scene in which some of the actors think one of them is shining a spotlight, but it then shines on the person they though was handling it, who was nude. Being a little thick, they don't immediately realize the spotlight must be handled by someone else, nor do they notice how the nude figure doesn't appear to have any life in it.

At the end of the Monterey Home Video, there were trailers for The Slasher is the Sex Maniac, Night After Night After Night, and The Grim Reaper, all of which looked much better. Although I've seen a cut version of The Grim Reaper AKA Antropophagus (1980), and didn't think it was all that hot, but then the trailer for it was all of five seconds long or so. The other trailers were of ordinary length.