Held back from release, then barely released, disowned by its major participants and never released to home formats, this is one of those rarities that sounds like it can't possibly NOT be fun. I mean, Ringo & Nilsson in a rock horror musical pre-"Rocky Horror," directed by a Hammer regular (and great cinematographer)? And yet...yeah, it just sits there. I've seen worse movies-in particular, a lot of dreadful 1970s British comedies-but this has so much going for it on paper, it's hard to believe it's really as lifeless and witless as it is.
Ringo always seemed to enjoy acting, but despite his humorous appearance as "Merlin," he's given nothing funny to do-nor is anyone else. (He apparently tried to get Monty Python collaborators to re-write the dire script for post-production dubbing in a desperate attempt at salvage, but that didn't pan out.) It's said David Bowie was considered for the Dracula aka "Count Down" role, and that certainly would have made a huge difference, because Bowie could act, and surely would have brought some style and farcical esprit even to the bad material. But instead Starr's friend Nilsson was hired, and whatever else you can say about him, he's no actor-not only that, he doesn't even try. I can't tell whether he's bored or uncomfortable here, but in any case he's a zero onscreen, and doesn't even photograph well.
The songs are fine but aren't actually incorporated into the story (which mostly just stops while Nilsson lip-synchs to them, whether onstage or elsewhere), so this doesn't even work as a "musical." The support cast is full of the period's usual British comedy mix of very pretty girls who can't or aren't asked to act (including Michael Caine's gorgeous future wife, and the stilted Susannah Leigh) plus a lot of reliable character actors who'd have been good if they had anything to work with. There are also people in Frankenstein, Wolfman and other "classic monster" costumes for reasons that had to do with a plot so boring I couldn't pay close enough attention to figure out why there were there. Yes, you get to glimpse Keith Moon, Peter Frampton and others in "concert" sequences, but it would be much more rewarding to watch them in real concert movies.
This is on the level of the same year's equally hard-to-see (until its recent Blu-ray resusitation) "Catch My Soul" as a rock curio that sounds like a gas, but turns out to be a bore. You can see why no one was enthused about it then, and despite all ensuing factors of rarity, novelty and nostalgia, it hasn't gotten any better with age.
Ringo always seemed to enjoy acting, but despite his humorous appearance as "Merlin," he's given nothing funny to do-nor is anyone else. (He apparently tried to get Monty Python collaborators to re-write the dire script for post-production dubbing in a desperate attempt at salvage, but that didn't pan out.) It's said David Bowie was considered for the Dracula aka "Count Down" role, and that certainly would have made a huge difference, because Bowie could act, and surely would have brought some style and farcical esprit even to the bad material. But instead Starr's friend Nilsson was hired, and whatever else you can say about him, he's no actor-not only that, he doesn't even try. I can't tell whether he's bored or uncomfortable here, but in any case he's a zero onscreen, and doesn't even photograph well.
The songs are fine but aren't actually incorporated into the story (which mostly just stops while Nilsson lip-synchs to them, whether onstage or elsewhere), so this doesn't even work as a "musical." The support cast is full of the period's usual British comedy mix of very pretty girls who can't or aren't asked to act (including Michael Caine's gorgeous future wife, and the stilted Susannah Leigh) plus a lot of reliable character actors who'd have been good if they had anything to work with. There are also people in Frankenstein, Wolfman and other "classic monster" costumes for reasons that had to do with a plot so boring I couldn't pay close enough attention to figure out why there were there. Yes, you get to glimpse Keith Moon, Peter Frampton and others in "concert" sequences, but it would be much more rewarding to watch them in real concert movies.
This is on the level of the same year's equally hard-to-see (until its recent Blu-ray resusitation) "Catch My Soul" as a rock curio that sounds like a gas, but turns out to be a bore. You can see why no one was enthused about it then, and despite all ensuing factors of rarity, novelty and nostalgia, it hasn't gotten any better with age.