It must have run through Peter Cushing's mind what on earth was he doing in a film like this. If so, his thoughts must have paralleled those of his demented surgeon, Sir John Rowan, almost as uncomfortable and out of place at the gaudy, so-late-Sixties, party as he is slaughtering women for their pituitary glands, and all down to his infatuation with Sue Lloyd's model, Lynn. While she gradually transforms into a latter day Lady Macbeth, Rowan's murders, particularly of the woman on the train, are genuinely unsettling. From there the events become all the more ludicrous, the Grand Guignol finale adding substance to the notion that it was all a nightmare, reinforced by the concluding nod to Dead Of Night. Whatever else, it's never dull and always keeps you watching. And Cushing's performance is in fact excellent and Sue Lloyd and Kate O'Mara as Lynn's sister are very good too, while Vanessa Howard is amusing as an inane partygoer. Some found McGuffie's score inappropriate, but I thought it added to the general deranged atmosphere of the piece.
Review of Corruption
