Judy Geeson | Scott's Film Reviews-1,534 Reviews posted!!! RECENTLY LAUNCHED-MY TOP 250 FAVORITE FILMS AND TOP 40 HORROR FILMS!!!

Berserk! -1968

Director Jim O’Connolly

Starring Joan Crawford

Scott’s Review #1,534

Reviewed May 25, 2026

Grade: B

Joan Crawford, legendary Hollywood screen star, appears in Berserk! (1968), a British horror-thriller vehicle that was one of her last roles.

Trog (1970) was her final film role.

She portrays Monica Rivers, a ringmistress of a traveling circus in the London area. Monica is no-nonsense and man-hungry, known to bed some of the talent as she confidently hunts her prey.

As the co-owner of the circus, Monica is always preoccupied with filling seats and making money, a bottom-line gal.

Following the suspicious ‘accidental’ death of a tightrope walker, Rivers is pleased to see her profits increase because of the drama. She soon hires handsome Frank Hawkins (Ty Hardin) to replace him.

But when performers start to meet gruesome deaths, it becomes apparent that a killer is on the loose. Monica must juggle pesky detectives lurking around with accusations that she may be the killer.

While I enjoyed the film, which serves as a compelling whodunit first and foremost, not to mention Crawford’s appeal, it is only moderately above mediocre.

As expected, Crawford leads the charge and gives the project her best effort. Deliciously callous and self-serving, the role of Monica is one Crawford can sink her teeth into as unsympathetic as she is.

Her many outfits are glamorous, especially given the circus setting, and her cigarette smoking, nearly a trademark, makes her look powerful.

An aging star, her romantic pairing with Hardin, young and muscular, is borderline silly since she could easily be his grandmother. Weirdly, in a couple of scenes with him, Crawford looks much older and more ragged than in other scenes, while Hardin is bare-chested and buff.

There is little chemistry between the two.

The whodunit works well, as a myriad of suspects have both the cause and the motivation for the killings.

Monica, Frank, performer Matilda (Diana Dors), and others are suspects.

A colorful yet dark circus setting is wonderful in any horror film. The peculiar yet stereotypical characters, such as the strongman, the bearded lady, and others, are incorporated, as are scenes of characters following one another or lurking in the shadows.

The mostly nighttime scenes work well.

The final reveal of the killer is startling and surprising, which greatly improves the film. There is satisfaction when a viewer is genuinely surprised by a whodunit rather than having guessed the killer from the start.

However, the killer’s motivations are lackluster and hard to believe. The sequence is also very rushed and wrapped within five minutes of screentime.

Rather than systematically kill victims off one by one, the killer might have had a sit-down conversation over tea to flesh out the issues that are the motivation for the murders.

Another perplexity is Crawford’s lack of a British accent. Having grown up in England and with the circus in her family for 50 years, Monica wouldn’t be American.

While a real circus was used for the myriad scenes involving elephants, dog performers, and others, director Jim O’Connell overdoes it to the detriment of the action.

The scenes are cute, but they slow down the plot.

Berserk! (1968) is a watchable effort largely due to Crawford’s stunning screen presence and a solid whodunit. It is hardly on her greatest-hits film reel, but it is not disastrous either.

10 Rillington Place-1971

Director Richard Fleischer

Starring Richard Attenborough, Judy Geeson, John Hurt

Scott’s Review #1,424

Reviewed March 22, 2024

Grade: A

Richard Fleischer has directed films such as Dr. Doolittle (1967) and Soylent Green (1973) that are remembered better than 10 Rillington Place (1971).

That’s a shame, because the film is one I hadn’t seen or heard of, yet it’s chilling, macabre, and masterful in its bleakness and atmosphere.

It’s also wonderfully acted.

One can’t help but notice the stark similarities to Frenzy, an equally disturbing and great 1972 film by Alfred Hitchcock. Did this film influence the master of suspense to create that one? Only he knows the answer to that question.

Primarily set in one dreary apartment building in London named 10 Rillington Place, it tells the true story of the British serial killer John Christie (Richard Attenborough), who committed many of his crimes in the tall terraced house, and the miscarriage of justice involving his neighbor, the simple-minded Timothy Evans (John Hurt).

John used Timothy as a scapegoat for the murders.

John is a seemingly model citizen but a killer, as the audience witnesses in the first scene. He poses as a kindly doctor who convinces naive women that he can cure whatever ails them, whether it’s aches and pains or a pesky pregnancy.

He usually strangles them to death and buries them in a makeshift graveyard in the pretty garden in front of his residence.

The main story in 10 Rillington Place follows John as he cons a pregnant bride (Judy Geeson) who is struggling financially to use his help and medical methods. John’s dutiful, clueless wife, Ethel (Pat Heywood), slowly discovers her husband’s shenanigans, but will she fall victim as his next target?

Of course, Richard Attenborough steals the show as the demented killer with a calm, cool, and collected exterior. As an average-looking Joe type, he can use his trusting appearance to his advantage.

I’d trust him.

Attenborough became an Academy Award-winning director for 1982’s Gandhi, so he knows his craft well. He also directed Cry Freedom in 1987 and Chaplin in 1992.

In actor mode, he is phenomenal as a crazed killer. His most excellent skill is his demeanor. Thoughtful and pondering, he never plays the psycho or the nut. He is careful, but that’s part of his creepiness. With every noise, he peers out the window, drawing the living room curtain ever so slightly, revealing his face.

Hurt and Geeson are terrific as the young couple with the cards stacked against them. They are simply looking for tranquility and the means to raise their child.

Simplicity is a winning formula, and most of the film is subdued thanks to Fleischer’s laid-back direction techniques.

The look of 10 Rillington Place is perfection. The colors are muted and faded, giving a dank and depressing look. Even a bright red velvet sofa appears dark and dreary.

As Timothy and Beryl agree to lease the top-floor flat, it will not bode well for them, and we can sense it.

Towards the end of the film, it is almost too much to bear with the knowledge that John strangles a toddler to death and unceremoniously stuffs the child, wrapped in a blanket, in a washroom.

Brilliantly, the murders rarely happen on screen and involve none of the principal characters. That’s what’s so haunting about the film and reminds me of Hitchcock’s Frenzy.

Remember the scene where the necktie killer lures a female victim upstairs to her death? There is silence and a shot of the staircase for seemingly an eternity until the killer descends the stairs.

We know what’s happened.

What we don’t see is sometimes much more frightening than what we do see.

The ghastly reveal at the end of 10 Rillington Place that the story is based on real-life events packed a punch since I didn’t have this knowledge going into the film.

Thankfully, 10 Rillington Place (1971) has received its just desserts in recent years, with praise and recognition. This proves that great films are like cream and rise to the top…..eventually.