“Late night horror” was a bit of a fizzer

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32565, 26 March 1971, Page 4

“Late night horror” was a bit of a fizzer

I Some doleful music, the sinister ticking of a clock, and the eerie sound of a distant animal howling these were the principal ingredients in the first of the “Late Night Horror” shows on Wednesday evening. But “No Such Thing as a Vampire” would have had the kiddies yawning, and certainly would have had very little effect on a nervous old lady living alone in an old and creaking house.

We must hasten to add that when it comes to the bogey man bit, we are among the first to pull the bedclothes over the head. Why else should we have gone round locking the doors and fastening the windows before taking station in front of the screen for “Late N)ght Horror”? The movie-makers have earned an honest bob or two for years with such works of art as “The House of Wax ” and the Frankenstein monsters, their brides and sons. This senes, if the first programme is typical, will be little more than a test of credulity. It was a footling, silly thing, much more amusing than frightening. This sort of vampire prefers tomato juice to blood. So-called horror films are rather rare on New Zealand television programmes. But at least we will all be spared letters of complaint about the disturbing effects of the series. * * * It was a night devoted, largely, to laughter, Mad Movies,” another dip into the past, was good value. What an incredible amount of film material seems to be available for such collections as these. And how popular they are, with viewers of all aB With Micawberish optimism, we sat right through “Corbett’s Follies” again. In a dreadfully weak series, this programme was probably the feeblest of them all. Corbett simply lacks the

material to make this worth while. Some hope of salvation is offered with the announcement that Ronnie Barker will be the principal guest on the show next week; but probably he, too, will suffer from the dreary efforts of the script writers. But perhaps he will be permitted to bring along his own material. “Dad’s Army” was of fair average quality. Robert Doming made a welcome appearance as a bank inspector who was much concerned over “what head office would say”

if the unexploded bomb being nursed in file vault by Mainwaring and Wilson went off. Much of the fun in this show crimes from Arthur Lowe’s pompous Mainwaring —his beautiful, grand manner in making much of insignificance, as when he showed the inspector, on the map, the coastal area for which he was responsible. “Dad’s Army” has a flair for the ridiculous. Like most such shows, it varies somewhat in quality, but it is never a bore.—PANDORA.