''The Sorcerers'' is a 1967 British
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
/
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
directed by
Michael Reeves
Michael Reeves (17 October 1943 – 11 February 1969) was an English film director and screenwriter. He is best remembered for the 1968 film ''Witchfinder General'' (known in the US as ''Conqueror Worm''). A few months after the film's rel ...
, starring
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established h ...
,
Catherine Lacey
Catherine Lacey (6 May 1904 – 23 September 1979) was an English actress of stage and screen.
Stage
Lacey made her stage debut, performing with Mrs Patrick Campbell, in ''The Thirteenth Chair'' at the West Pier Brighton on 13 April 1925. Her ...
,
Ian Ogilvy
Ian Raymond Ogilvy (born 30 September 1943) is an English actor, playwright, and novelist.
Early life
Ogilvy was born in Woking, Surrey, England, to Francis Fairfield Ogilvy, brother of advertising executive David Ogilvy, and actress Aileen ...
, and
Susan George. The original story and screenplay was conceived and written by
John Burke. Reeves and his childhood friend Tom Baker re-wrote sections of the screenplay, including the ending at Karloff's insistence, wanting his character to appear more sympathetic.
[Stephen Jacobs, ''Boris Karloff: More Than a Monster'', Tomahawk Press 2011 p 482-484] Burke was removed from the main screenwriting credit and was relegated to an 'idea by'.
Plot
Dr. Marcus Monserrat (
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established h ...
) is an elderly practitioner of medical
hypnosis
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...
. He lives with his wife Estelle Monserrat (
Catherine Lacey
Catherine Lacey (6 May 1904 – 23 September 1979) was an English actress of stage and screen.
Stage
Lacey made her stage debut, performing with Mrs Patrick Campbell, in ''The Thirteenth Chair'' at the West Pier Brighton on 13 April 1925. Her ...
). He has invented a device which would allow him to control and feel another person's experience using the power of hypnosis.
They decide any youngster will do as their test subject. Dr. Marcus Monserrat selects and invites Mike Roscoe (
Ian Ogilvy
Ian Raymond Ogilvy (born 30 September 1943) is an English actor, playwright, and novelist.
Early life
Ogilvy was born in Woking, Surrey, England, to Francis Fairfield Ogilvy, brother of advertising executive David Ogilvy, and actress Aileen ...
) to his house, with an offer of a 'new experience'. He uses the device on Mike and the procedure is successful: He and Estelle can feel everything Mike feels, and can also control him.
After the procedure, they decide to send Mike away to conduct the experiment over distance. Mike returns to the club where his girlfriend Nicole (
Elizabeth Ercy) is waiting for him. Mike takes Nicole to his apartment, and they swim in the pool.
Marcus and Estelle are able to experience everything Mike feels. While Marcus wants to publish his work, Estelle wants to make up for lost time and to experience new things. She convinces a reluctant Marcus to continue with their arrangement with Mike.
Next day, Estelle sees a fur jacket in a store and convinces Marcus to use Mike to steal the jacket. Marcus reluctantly agrees on the condition that they will not do it again. While Mike is at Nicole's apartment, Estelle and Marcus make Mike steal the jacket. Mike leaves without informing Nicole, who decides to go a night club with Alan (
Victor Henry). Despite a cop getting involved, Mike successfully steals the jacket.
Estelle realizes that they could do anything they want without any consequences. Estelle wants to experience the thrill of speed. So Estelle and Marcus make Mike borrow Alan's bike and ride very fast with Nicole on the pillion seat. When Alan confronts Mike, Estelle makes Mike assault him and his boss, Ron (
Alf Joint
Alfred Charles Richard Joint (22 September 1927 – 25 July 2005) was a British film and television stunt performer, stunt coordinator and arranger.
He was notable for his contributions in numerous films over a 30-year period including: ''The He ...
).
Estelle enjoys the experience but Marcus is shocked. He tries to prevent the fight but Estelle's mind turns out to be stronger. When Marcus confronts Estelle, Estelle assaults Marcus and destroys the experimental device, thereby preventing Marcus from reversing the experiment.
Mike blanks out every time Estelle and Marcus control him. A confused Mike visits his friend Audrey (
Susan George), but Estelle makes Mike kill her. Mike then goes to the night club and hooks up with pop singer Laura (
Sally Sheridan). Alan and Nicole see Mike taking Laura out of the night club. The couple are dropped by a taxi in a deserted street where Mike orders Laura to sing. When she fails to follow his instructions, he kills her too.
The following day, Alan tells Nicole he believes Mike might have killed the girls. Alan wants to inform the police but Nicole convinces him to talk to Mike first. The police track Mike with help of the taxi driver. Alan and Nicole confront Mike about Laura but Mike does not remember anything.
Under the influence of Estelle, Mike attacks Alan again and escapes in a car. Police investigators track down Mike, and in the ensuing chase, Marcus interferes with Estelle's control. Mike's car crashes and catches fire. Back at the apartment, Estelle and Marcus are both dead due to burn injuries.
Cast
*
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), better known by his stage name Boris Karloff (), was an English actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstein'' (1931) (his 82nd film) established h ...
as Professor Marcus Monserrat
*
Catherine Lacey
Catherine Lacey (6 May 1904 – 23 September 1979) was an English actress of stage and screen.
Stage
Lacey made her stage debut, performing with Mrs Patrick Campbell, in ''The Thirteenth Chair'' at the West Pier Brighton on 13 April 1925. Her ...
as Estelle Monserrat
* Elizabeth Ercy as Nicole
*
Ian Ogilvy
Ian Raymond Ogilvy (born 30 September 1943) is an English actor, playwright, and novelist.
Early life
Ogilvy was born in Woking, Surrey, England, to Francis Fairfield Ogilvy, brother of advertising executive David Ogilvy, and actress Aileen ...
as Mike Roscoe
*
Victor Henry as Alan
*
Sally Sheridan as Laura Ladd
*
Alf Joint
Alfred Charles Richard Joint (22 September 1927 – 25 July 2005) was a British film and television stunt performer, stunt coordinator and arranger.
He was notable for his contributions in numerous films over a 30-year period including: ''The He ...
as Ron, the mechanic
*
Meier Tzelniker
Meier Tzelniker (1 January 1894 – 8 October 1980) was a Yiddish-speaking actor born in Hotin County, Romania. He appeared mainly in Yiddish theatre, but was sometimes a character actor in English-language plays and films, such as ''It Always Rai ...
as the Jewish baker
*
Gerald Campion
Gerald Theron Campion (23 April 1921 – 9 July 2002) was an English actor. He is best remembered for his role as Billy Bunter in a 1950s television adaptation ('' Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School'') of books by Frank Richards (Charles Hamil ...
as customer in China shop
*
Susan George as Audrey Woods
*
Ivor Dean
Ivor Donald Dean (21 December 1917 – 10 August 1974) was a British stage, film and television actor.
Biography
With his lugubrious demeanour he was often cast as world-weary police officers or butlers, and indeed it is for the role of Chief I ...
as Inspector Matalon
*
Peter Fraser
Peter Fraser (; 28 August 1884 – 12 December 1950) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 24th prime minister of New Zealand from 27 March 1940 until 13 December 1949. Considered a major figure in the history of the New Zealand Lab ...
as the detective
Reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on , with a
weighted average
The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
rating of 7.3/10.
At
Internet Movie Database
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
, the film received an average score of 6.4 out of 10.
For her performance, Catherine Lacey won a 'Silver Asteroid' award as Best Actress at the
Trieste Science Fiction Film Festival
Trieste Science+Fiction Festival was founded in 2000 under the name of Science plus Fiction by the Research and Experimentation Centre La Cappella Underground with the ambitious purpose of re-launching the ''Festival Internazionale del film di f ...
in 1968.
[Jonathan Rigby, 'British Horror Classics – The Sorcerers', ''Hammer Horror'' no 4, June 1995]
The Sorcerers: The Original Screenplay
After John Burke's death in 2011, his estate sent two boxes of effects to John's friend, editor
Johnny Mains. Looking through the material he discovered that it contained the original screenplay which was markedly different from the finished film. Burke had already told Mains about Michael Reeves denying him a screenwriting credit, but included in the boxes were several lawyers letters pertaining to the fact that this was the case. Mains then approached PS Publishing who agreed to publish the original screenplay, treatment, letters and other ephemera. The finished book, with an introduction by
Matthew Sweet
Sidney Matthew Sweet (born October 6, 1964) is an American alternative rock/power pop singer-songwriter and musician who was part of the burgeoning music scene in Athens, Georgia, during the 1980s before gaining commercial success in the 1990 ...
and additional material from
Kim Newman
Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula (1931 ...
, Benjamin Halligan and Tony Earnshaw, was published in October 2013.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorcerers
1967 films
1967 horror films
British science fiction horror films
1960s science fiction horror films
Films directed by Michael Reeves
British independent films
Films set in London
1967 independent films
Films with screenplays by Michael Reeves
1960s English-language films
1960s British films