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House of Whipcord
House of Whipcord
	Theatrical Film Poster
Directed by	Pete Walker
Written by	David McGillivray
Story by	Pete Walker
Produced by	Pete Walker
Starring	Barbara Markham; Patrick Barr; Ray Brooks; Ann Michelle; Sheila Keith
Cinematography	Peter Jessop
Edited by	John Black
Music by	Stanley Myers
Production; company	Peter Walker (Heritage) Ltd.
Release date	28 March 1974 (London);
Running time	102 mins.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£60,000

House of Whipcord is a 1974 British exploitation thriller film directed and produced by Pete Walker and starring Barbara Markham, Patrick Barr, Ray Brooks, Ann Michelle, Sheila Keith, Dorothy Gordon, Robert Tayman and Penny Irving.^[1] The film was Walker's first collaboration with screenwriter David McGillivray, who went on to write a further three films for him.^[2] It also marked the horror film debut of actress Sheila Keith, who went on to star in four more films for Walker.

Plot

The film opens during a night-time thunderstorm when a frightened, confused and disheveled young woman runs down a country road and is picked up by a trucker. We see through flashbacks how the young woman came to be in such a situation.

While at a gathering in a London art gallery, naive French model Anne-Marie DeVernet is shocked to see that her photographer boyfriend is exhibiting a recently-shot photo where she is seen being arrested by the police for public nudity. Humiliated, Anne-Marie dumps the photographer but soon finds solace in enigmatic fellow partygoer Mark E. DeSade, who offers to take her to his isolated country estate to escape the scandal her now ex-boyfriend has caused her.

Unfortunately, Anne-Marie soon discovers that Mark is a procurer of young girls for 'moral correction' by his sadistic mother, ex-reform school matron Margaret. Years earlier, Margaret was brought to trial when her corrupt reign over a girl's reform school led to the suicide of a young French girl under her charge (although in truth, Margaret murdered the girl and made it look like a suicide).

Found not guilty but dismissed from her job in disgrace, she seduced the High Court Judge who heard her case. The judge, critical of the 'permissive society' of the England of the 1960s and 70s, nevertheless left his wife for Margaret, who bore him a son (Mark) who worked with her to turn their mansion home into a secret illegal prison for 'morally corrupt' and 'delinquent' young women, complete with a group of tough female wardens who administer a harsh regime of corporal punishment upon their prisoners. However Mark and the now retired, blind and senile judge are oblivious to the fact that Margaret is in fact using the prison to torture and ultimately execute these young women upon them gaining three 'demerits' during their incarceration.

Anne-Marie soon falls foul of Margaret's cruelty as she reminds the evil matron of the charge she killed and whose death cost her her career and reputation. Meanwhile, Anne-Marie's concerned flatmate Julia and Julia's boyfriend Tony track down Mark, who has now discovered the full extent of his mother's murderous deeds at the prison after seeing her minions dispose of a prisoner's corpse.

Anne-Marie makes multiple escape attempts, but is recaptured every time. Her friends eventually find the prison, but too late to save her. She has been hanged after earning a third 'demerit'. As the police arrive, Mark confronts his mother and is accidentally killed by her. Margaret, knowing the game is up, then kills herself with the same noose she set up for Anne-Marie, as well as the other prisoners. The judge and his wife's henchwomen are arrested, and the surviving prisoners are freed.

Cast

Barbara Markham as Margaret Wakehurst
Patrick Barr as Justice Bailey
Ray Brooks as Tony
Ann Michelle as Julia
Sheila Keith as Walker
Dorothy Gordon as Bates
Penny Irving as Ann-Marie Di Verney
Robert Tayman as Mark E. Desade
Ivor Salter as Jack
Karan David as Karen Vaughan
Celia Quicke as Denise
Ron Smerczak as Ted
Tony Sympson as Henry
Judy Robinson as Claire
Jane Hayward as Estelle
Celia Imrie as Barbara
Barry Martin as Al
Rose Hill as Henry's wife
Dave Butler as ticket collector
David McGillivray as Cavan (uncredited)
Denis Tinsley as Police Sergeant (uncredited)
Pete Walker as cyclist (uncredited)

Production

The film was shot on location in London and the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England during the summer of 1973. The prison in the film was Littledean Jail, Littledean, Gloucestershire.^[3]

Release

The film opened at the London Pavilion on 28 March 1974.^[4] In the United States, House of Whipcord was distributed by American International Pictures. In 1975, AIP reissued it under a new title, The Photographer's Model, in a double feature package with Thriller – A Cruel Picture (1973) re-titled Hooker's Revenge.

Critical reception

The British Film Institute's Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "House of Whipcord charts the dark side of the Festival of Light with a pop-Freud vengeance. ... The foundations seem laid for another Horror Hospital, but Pete Walker, following David McGillivray's no-nonsense script, has chosen to play it straight; the result is both his own best film to date, and one of those rare psychological horror movies that fits more in the line of Michael Powell's near-brilliant Peeping Tom [1960] than of Hammer's maniacs, paranoiacs and the rest."^[5]

Allmovie called it a "disturbingly effective horror film", writing that "Many viewers will be offended by the film's repressive right-wing tone, but its genuine scares and creepy atmosphere will outweigh its philosophical offenses for most horror fans."^[6]

Halliwell's Film Guide described the film as a "low budget psychological horror that stylishly achieves its object: to disturb", and quotes Derek Elley in Films and Filming: "Shows that something worthwhile in the entertainment-horror market can be done for the tiny sum of £60,000".^[7]

David Pirie wrote in Time Out: "An above average sexploitation/horror that has been put together with some polish and care from a fairly original script. ... The only trouble is that the film undercuts its potentially interesting Gothic theme by some leering emphases, and the final result is likely to be seen and appreciated only by the people who will take the dedication at its face value."^[8]

References

^ "House of Whipcord". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
^ "BFI Screenonline: Walker, Pete (1939-) Biography". Screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 23 February 2014.
^ Pykett, Derek (2014). British Horror Film Locations. McFarland. p. 71. ISBN 9780786451937.
^ "Entertainment". Evening Standard. 27 March 1974. p. 26.
^ "House of Whipcord". Monthly Film Bulletin. 41 (480): 99. 1974. ProQuest 1305829980 – via ProQuest.
^ Robert Firsching. "House of Whipcord (1975)". Allmovie. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
^ Halliwell, Leslie (1994). Halliwell's Film Guide. Harper Perennial. p. 518. ISBN 9780062733184.
^ "House of Whipcord review". Time Out. Retrieved 30 November 2023.