Back in 1974 on a family weekend out visiting the Peak District, after a few hours spent in the plague village of Eyam, we decided to visit the purported final resting place of Little John. Legend has it that he's buried beneath a yew tree in Hathersage cemetery but when we arrived at the church we were denied access because there was a film shoot taking place. We were told at the time that it was an Italian horror film so we stayed for a few minutes and watched while several scenes of a Zombie attack on the church were shot.
Remembering this last week I was curious to see if I could confirm the story by googling "Hathersage" and "Horror Film" which eventually led me to "The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue", a dvd of which I now own. And there amongst the badly dubbed scenes in Manchester, Cinecitta Studios and various Derbyshire dales are very moments of terror we witnessed over 30 years ago. Worth every penny of £6 to see it all again. And to top it off, in the "Extras" there's an interview with Barcelona born Director Jorge Grau in which he tells a story about tourists to Hathersage watching the film being made and complaining about the desecration by the film crew of a sacred site.
Now if I can only find that episode of Bergerac we saw being filmed in Jersey I can die a happy man, (only to rise again and eat your brains).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
Or what's left of them if we have to watch endless episodes of Bergerac with you.
I had to go and check it out, as Italian 1970s Zombie films belong that sweet brand of "it s so bad it s good" trash. Turns out there's a bevvy of titles, listed here.
My favourite has to beBreakfast at the Manchester Morgue , or Colazione all'obitorio di Manchester. Might do that at the weekend.
saw the living dead at manchester morgue at dublin years ago, loved the morse-like inspector in it attacking all the hippies,
Thanks Stef that's more crap I've got to see, I hope they spent more time on the scripts than the make-up.I wonder if they shoehorn shots of Market St. into that one too.
Lorcy,the cop is played by veteran Hollywood alcoholic Arthur Kennedy who went from roles in Lawrence of Arabia and Barabas in the 60's to shlocko Italian horror in the 70's/80's.Not sure about the Morse comparison, did he hate faggot hippies?
Sorry Stef, I see now that they're alternative titles.Doh!
's ok. Was going to suggest a couple of those flicks that scared me senseless when I was a child but I couldn t find them, so that's less crap to watch I suppose. :-)
When I lived in Glasgow I once walked past a crew filming Taggart, can I join the club?
Once had a scene from The Bill filmed across the road from where I lived. Funnily enough, I was in a re-enactment at the exact spot about a week or so later when I heard someone smash a window in my car, so I chased these two guys (one about six foot fucking five) for about 500 yards. Cornered one of them (the big fucker) as I caught up with him and thought: "Fuck, what do I do now." So I very slowly moved towards him, but gave him a huge gap to get past me. Luckily, he too his chance and ran like fuck. I got back to the house and the cops were already there and told me that I was a stupid twat for chasing two guys on my own. I could only agree.
Sorry for going off on a mad tangent, btw!!
But talking of Taggart, my brother was walking in Glasgow one fine morning at about 10am many years ago and bloke who played Taggert (for some reason his name escapes me at the moment) got out a taxi and walked straight up to him and said: "So where the fuck is there a boozer open at this time of day?"
And talking of Hathersage, been many times as relo of my boy's mum lived there - what an incredibly beautiful part of the world.
Actually, Martin, I watched a film last night called Spanish Zombies Go Back Home Before Expected Once Again, in which the zombies are defeated by a group of French pensioners. It's directed by Luis Aragones, and I think I spotted that old glory Raul playing a cameo role, but I'm not sure...
And the leader of the French, Domenech, happens to be the son of Catalans exiled in France after the Civil War... A great plot and lots of laughs...
I'm looking forward to the sequel: Attack of the Brazilian Chompers.
I'm not sure about "Before Expected".Maybe "Spanish Zombies Not As Terrifying AS First Thought".
And you never see Domenech and Freddie Garrity in the same grave either.
Aha! France's performance explained by having the undead Freddie Garrity as manager. Now explain England's performances: maniac swedish scientist? Frankenstein monster up front? or are they just shite?
Post a Comment