The Reptile *** (1966, Noel Willman, Jennifer Daniel, Ray Barrett, Jacqueline Pearce) – Classic Movie Review 3304

Director John Gilling’s amusing, well-mounted and moody 1966 Hammer horror The Reptile is atmospherically set in an eerie Cornwall.

Anthony Hinds (screen writing under the pseudonym of  John Elder) provides a sinister tale about a Cornish doctor of theology Dr Franklyn (Noel Willman) and his daughter Anna (Jacqueline Pearce), who turns into a killer snake when overheated after being afflicted by a Malaysian curse.

Harry Spalding (Ray Barrett) and his wife Valerie (Jennifer Daniel) inherit a cottage in a Cornish village after his brother’s mysterious death and his wife arrive in the village to inquire into the mystery of his passing, supposedly by the Black Death, but it turns out to be death by snake bite. Dr Franklyn tells them to leave but, when they  stay on, they find an evil plague.

[Spoiler alert] Local eccentric Mad Peter (John Laurie) is the next to succumb to the evil. Spalding invites Dr Franklyn and Anna with their sinister Malayan servant (Marne Maitland) to dinner and it isn’t long before Spalding is attacked by the same fanged half-snake, half-human creature that killed his brother.

The admirable Pearce is sensually reptilian, there are good acting and solid scripting, and director Gilling manages some slithery shudders in a creepy chiller. It was shot by Gilling back to back at Bray Studios, Berkshire, with The Plague of the Zombies on the same sets (most notably the main village set on the backlot) and with the same star Jacqueline Pearce.

Also in the cast are Michael Ripper, Charles Lloyd Pack, David Baron, George Woodbridge (in his last Hammer film) and Harold Goldblatt.

Although playing the title role, Pearce only finally speaks 38 minutes into the 91-minute film and although he is the main villain, Maitland speaks only 12 times.

Roy Ashton’s creature make-up includes work taken from a mould of real snakeskin.

Jacqueline Pearce (1943–2018).

RIP Jacqueline Pearce (aka Servalan), who died on 3 September 2018, aged 74. She was in episodes of The Avengers and Doctor Who, as well as Blake’s Seven.

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© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3304

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