Frank Finlay

Twisted Nerve

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A disembodied hand loads a gun while a frightened Susan cowers

“A twisted nerve, a ganglion gone awry, predestines the sinner or the saint.” Twisted Nerve gets its title from a poem by George Sylvester Viereck – a German migrant who did time in a USA jail for being a Nazi spy – and worries away at that “predestines” bit for nearly two hours. What is it that makes this film’s protagonist, Martin, so weird? Was he born that way or is he just maladjusted? Nature or nurture? It’s Hywel Bennett as Martin, for a while in the late 1960s and early 1970s the go-to man for weirdos, his cherubic features, hipster aspect and big eyes suiting him to roles like this, a dissolute … Read more

Lifeforce

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Space Girl about to go on the rampage

The cheap and cheerful Cannon Group were ready for the big time in the mid 1980s. Having made a decent amount of money out of various barrelscrapers – Death Wish sequels, Chuck Norris actioners and assorted Ninja movies – they decided to move upmarket. Lifeforce was the result, a big-budget (for them) sci-fi movie and the first of a three-picture deal between director Tobe Hooper (still hot from Poltergeist) and the “Go-Go boys”, as Cannon owners, cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, were known. The film was a total flop on its release and got hacked about a bit in an attempt to make it more sellable. That didn’t work either. However, over … Read more