Moviecut—Cover Girl Killer

source: Cover Girl Killer

Cover Girl Killer

Any chance to see model-turned-actress Christina Gregg is worthwhile, no matter how disappointing this particular British New Wave crime thriller is despite the cool title of COVER GIRL KILLER, supposedly the harbinger of PEEPING TOM... Gregg would later play a 15-year-old virgin stalked by a psychotic phone caller, while here she's an older yet equally shy, innocent and naïve victim of a spectacle-wearing photographer who kills cover girls, as the tile implies... Sadly, most of the film has two cops discussing the murders when there could have been more British beauties taken out in a body count fashion, mixing horror within the pulpy police procedural that's not very intriguing... Although lead ingenue Felicity Young, as the girl/friend of a flaky magazine owner no one takes seriously, is also worth the watch. You'll hope she fares better than poor Christina.

This was a very unusual British film, inasmuch as the cinema audience had an advantage over the characters in the film. In other words, those watching the film knew who the killer was right from the start. It was nice to see Harry H. Corbett in one of his earlier performances, proving that he was a very good character actor, before being type cast as "Harold" in the much-appraised television series, "Steptoe and Son".

A quarter of a century later in the song 'Two Tribes' Frankie Goes to Hollywood repeats almost verbatim the line snarled by The Man Harry H. Corbett that "sex and horror are new gods in this polluted world of so-called entertainment"! Coincidence? The bow-tie and pebble-lens glasses possibly also inspired Les Dawson's depraved creation Cosmo Smallpiece!!

A wonderful gem of sleazy 1960s London with a brilliant performance from the wonderfully versatile Harry H Corbett in a very dark interesting turn as a Serial killer

Cover Girl Killer is one of the better low budget British crime dramas made in this period and I taped it when ITV screened it during the early hours some time ago. Young girls who appear on the front of Wow! magazine each month are found murdered. The prime suspect is a strange looking bloke with thick glasses and wears a wig as well. Police are assigned to investigate and he is caught at the end. The cast includes a pre Steptoe and Son Harry H Corbett as the killer and Felicity Young, Spencer Teakle and Charles Lloyd Pack. Cover Girl Killer is worth catching if you get the chance. Quite an obscure picture. Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

This movie for me is very much a sweet and sour affair. One the one hand I think Steptoe and Son is the finest comedy ever but also I think if it would never have happened we could and should have seen Harry H Corbett as one of Britains finest actors. This gem of a movie takes all the naivety of days gone by with the age old story of a bad man who thinks the world is changing for the worse and depravity rules. Blitzed into just 60 odd minutes this was obviously made as a B movie but is a world above anything it was made to run alongside. If this was remade today it would have to be a gruesome 18 cert affair probably filmed in the seedy parts of London and involve drugs and prostitutes ( Harry Brown springs to mind)but the way they get the message across without so much as a grain of smut is incredible. Absolutely fantastic piece of movie making and seems as relative today as it was when made over 50 years ago.

Despite only lasting an hour, this film about a serial killer who has a grudge against cover girls - a la The Lodger and Jack the Ripper - rarely flags and has an energy which lifts it above other B movies of the time. It also has Harry H Corbett, best known these days for Steptoe and Son, proving he could act in a serious role. He is genuinely creepy, chilling and calculating. In some respects this film also reminds me of Peeping Tom, also about a psychopathic murderer of high intelligence who kills by ritual. While that film was a straight A, 'Cover Girl Killer' does not pale in its company, and it proves its worth as a late night regular on TV.