Over the years,I remember family friend Guy Morgan mentioning how he had found a pre-cert video of The Black Panther, which is possibly the only film to have some scenes filmed in Kidsgrove, the town Guy lived in for his whole life.
After visiting on the Saturday spending hours talking to me and my dad, (with Guy coming down to visit us being something he did for decades) Guy suddenly passed away from a brain aneurysm at just age 46 on March 11th 2019.
Along with watching Guy's all time favourite film The Thing (1982-also reviewed) I decided to pay tribute on the anniversary of his passing,by finding the panther.
View on the film:
Left for years as a decades old,out of print video being the only way to see it, the BFI present an extraordinary transfer, which removes all the grime that had gathered, whilst at the same time retains the under stated colour palette.
Revealing in the extensive booklet that he came back to the UK in 1976 when it was in a huge downturn whilst negotiating for a loan from the IMF, and that inspired by the guerrilla film making he had seen in New York, he decided to try something similar in Britain, which ended in him being left bankrupt, after 300 prints of the film were left on the shelf, once the title was banned from getting a wide release, director Ian Merrick (who would not direct again until The Sculptress in 2000 ) displays a meticulous eye for detail in his directing debut, via Merrick dragging the camera across the ground in jagged panning and hand-held shots which gaze at the decaying buildings and casual street violence sprawling on every street Neilson slithers down.
Closely working with cinematographer Joseph Mangine, Merrick loads up stylish crash-zooms which create the impression of Neilson's outbursts of gunfire, with a fantastic dried and washed out colour design, that draws an extremely brittle, draining atmosphere from Neilson's horrific murders committed against bleak, dour surroundings.
Wisely avoiding any attempt to soften the image, Donald Sumpter gives a performance of pure evil as Neilson, who Sumpter has pinned as dead behind the eyes to all the violence he inflicts, that Sumpter has only brighten up, when Neilson is attempting to hype himself up as a master criminal, whilst laying out the plans for his next attack.
Kidnapped from the family home, Debbie Farrington gives a great, empathetic performance as Lesley Whittle, whose horror over what has happened to her, is express by Farrington with a hope that she will be saved by her family, which Farrington has gradually become a fading flame.
Made just a few months after the trial of Neilson had ended, and beginning from a treatment by Joanne Leighton, Michael Armstrong reveals in the booklet that almost all the dialogue is from direct quotes of court transcripts and newspaper articles, (with the Neilson and Lesley dialogue,being written by Armstrong to make it sound as realistic as possible) this results in the screenplay by Armstrong having a strong naturalistic quality, which keeps the presentation of the violence grounded, and also highlights that Neilson is not the criminal mastermind he imagines himself as being when putting press clippings in a scrapbook,but is in reality,an inept psycho.
After visiting on the Saturday spending hours talking to me and my dad, (with Guy coming down to visit us being something he did for decades) Guy suddenly passed away from a brain aneurysm at just age 46 on March 11th 2019.
Along with watching Guy's all time favourite film The Thing (1982-also reviewed) I decided to pay tribute on the anniversary of his passing,by finding the panther.
View on the film:
Left for years as a decades old,out of print video being the only way to see it, the BFI present an extraordinary transfer, which removes all the grime that had gathered, whilst at the same time retains the under stated colour palette.
Revealing in the extensive booklet that he came back to the UK in 1976 when it was in a huge downturn whilst negotiating for a loan from the IMF, and that inspired by the guerrilla film making he had seen in New York, he decided to try something similar in Britain, which ended in him being left bankrupt, after 300 prints of the film were left on the shelf, once the title was banned from getting a wide release, director Ian Merrick (who would not direct again until The Sculptress in 2000 ) displays a meticulous eye for detail in his directing debut, via Merrick dragging the camera across the ground in jagged panning and hand-held shots which gaze at the decaying buildings and casual street violence sprawling on every street Neilson slithers down.
Closely working with cinematographer Joseph Mangine, Merrick loads up stylish crash-zooms which create the impression of Neilson's outbursts of gunfire, with a fantastic dried and washed out colour design, that draws an extremely brittle, draining atmosphere from Neilson's horrific murders committed against bleak, dour surroundings.
Wisely avoiding any attempt to soften the image, Donald Sumpter gives a performance of pure evil as Neilson, who Sumpter has pinned as dead behind the eyes to all the violence he inflicts, that Sumpter has only brighten up, when Neilson is attempting to hype himself up as a master criminal, whilst laying out the plans for his next attack.
Kidnapped from the family home, Debbie Farrington gives a great, empathetic performance as Lesley Whittle, whose horror over what has happened to her, is express by Farrington with a hope that she will be saved by her family, which Farrington has gradually become a fading flame.
Made just a few months after the trial of Neilson had ended, and beginning from a treatment by Joanne Leighton, Michael Armstrong reveals in the booklet that almost all the dialogue is from direct quotes of court transcripts and newspaper articles, (with the Neilson and Lesley dialogue,being written by Armstrong to make it sound as realistic as possible) this results in the screenplay by Armstrong having a strong naturalistic quality, which keeps the presentation of the violence grounded, and also highlights that Neilson is not the criminal mastermind he imagines himself as being when putting press clippings in a scrapbook,but is in reality,an inept psycho.