CELEBRATING 70 YEARS! : TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS .. PARAMOUNT .. UK 1973 ..

 

PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Presents
From World Film Services

TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS

Starring

KIM NOVAK as Auriol Pageant

JOAN COLLINS as Bella Thompson

JACK HAWKINS as DR Nicholas

DONALD HUSTON as Sam Patterson

MICHAEL JAYSTON as Brian Thompson

SUZY KENDALL as Ann Patrick / Beatrice

PETER MCENERY as Timothy Patrick / Albert

DONALD PLEASENCE as DR R.C.Tremayne

GEORGIA BROWN as Fay Patterson

MARY TAMM as Ginny Pageant

FRANK FORSYTH as Uncle Albert

RUSSELL LEWIS as Paul Patterson

MICHAEL PETROVITCH as Kimo

CHARLES GRAY as Nicholas ( voice only )

DAVID WOOD as Tutor

ZOHRA SEHGAL as Malia 

Assistant Director - Peter Saunders

Director of Photography - Norman Warwick B.S.C

  Music by Bernard Ebbinghouse

    Art Director -  Roy Walker



    Screenplay by Jay Fairbank(Jennifer Jayne)



      Edited by Bernard Gribble

        Produced by Norman Priggen



          Directed by Freddie Francis

(1973)  PARAMOUNT  RATED 15  90 MINS  COLOUR

At his private clinic, DR Tremayne (Pleasence), has been monitoring four of his mental patients, each with a strange background. An old friend DR Nicholas (Hawkins), arrives to see how he is progressing and hears each of their tales!

"MR TIGER"

Russell Patterson

          Young Paul has an imaginary friend, who is eating the family out of house and home. When his parents decide to put a stop to the boys strange behaviour, little do they know, that they are next on the menu!

"PENNY FARTHING"

Peter McEnery & Suzy Kendall

Timothy Patrick (MCENERY) and his girlfriend Ann (Kendall), run an antique shop, when his aunt dies, she leaves him her antiques. But he soon finds hinself caught up in the past and under the influence of his late Uncle Albert (Forsyth), with fiery consequences!

"MEL"

Joan & Michael Jayston

Brian Thompson (Jayston), lives in a woodland bungalow with his headstrong wife Bella (Joan). But Bella soon finds herself competing for Brian's affections, from a malevolent tree, he had just brought home! But when it comes to the crunch...Who will get the chop!!

"LUAU"



Kim Novak & Mary Tamm

      Auriol Pageant, a literary agent, agrees to let her latest star client Kimo, a south seas, American educated writer stay at her luxury home. But Kimo has a dark secret and takes an interest in her daughter Ginny. In the end, Auriol will get a cut of Kimo's profits... But it is a cut of Ginny, he wants!!

Jack Hawkins

DR Nicholas listens to each tale, but fails to be impressed and poor demented Tremayne is taken away to join the other patients, leaving Nicholas alone to discover the true Tales That Witness Madness!!

Joan with Michael Jayston

This was Joan's second venture into the portmanteau film and her second for director Freddie Francis. They had both worked together the previous year on the now classic "Tales From The Crypt". Joan's segment is one of the more memorable stories, if not the most ludicrous, as she has to compete with a tree, for her husbands affections! Although she has had to act with many wooden actors in her time, this had no comparison! The film was also notable for been the first film in three years for Hollywood legend Kim Novak. But she was not originally slated to star in the film, but another Hollywood great, Rita Hayworth. But she was in the latter stages of Alzheimer's and her behaviour on the set was erratic. Rita could not remember her lines, while on occasion prone to violent outbursts. She finally ran away from the Shepperton set, after only four days and went back to America. The producers World Film Services stsrted legal proceedings against her, not knowing of her medical condition.  Kim Novak had stated that she had not made any films for a few years, as she had not been offered any good roles. One wonders why she decided to do this film, as it was hardly Oscar material!

The film proved to be the final screen appearance of actor Jack Hawkins, who had been suffering with throat cancer. His voice was dubbed by actor Charles Gray, Hawkins sadly died before production finished on the film. Joan had appeared with Jack in her first big Hollywood release "Land Of The Pharaoh's". Donald Pleasence would go on to star with Joan in the 1975 shocker, "I Don't Want To Be Born", while Georgia Brown would co-star in "The Bawdy Adventures Of Tom Jones", where Joan played Black Bess.

The working title of the film was 'Witness Madness' and it originally was set to star Jane Asher, who never appeared in the final film.

The film got mixed reviews, most of them not very good.

VILLAGE VOICE :

" In "Tales That Witness Madness", the humour lacks wit, the horror lacks poetry. Kim Novak's reappearance is easily eclipsed by Joan Collins, who still looks a knockout, two decades after "Land Of The Pharaoh's".

NEW YORK TIMES :

Considering the generally depressed state of horror films these days, it takes a special kind of optimism to continue seeing them, especially when they are made by Freddie Francis, the distinguished English cinematographer ("Saturday Night and Sunday Morning"), who turned director about 10 years ago. Like a small child who sends off a coupon for a valuable free gift, you keep expecting a treasure, then receive something made of cardboard."Tales That Witness Madness," which opened yesterday at neighborhood theaters, is Mr. Franci's glossiest, most absurd, almost-all-star horror film yet. Like his "Torture Garden" and "Tales From the Crypt," it is a collection of unrelated stories that, this time, have as their connecting link a mad doctor (Donald Pleasence) who theorizes to his friend (the late Jack Hawkins) that truth has physical substance that can be isolated, like hormones.At least that is what I think his theory is, but the movie is less interested in theories than in grotesque effects, some of which are comic without being especially funny.There is, for example, the episode in which Kim Novak, playing a London literary agent in her most inept Lyiah Clare style, finds herself the hostess of a luau at which her teen-age daughter is served as a main course. In another episode, which recalls a much more interesting Ray Bradbury story in "The Martian Chronicles," a little boy's imaginary playmate, a tiger, devours his nasty parents.The third tale is about a malevolent family portrait, and the fourth is about a shapely tree stump that comes between a not-so-young married couple played by Joan Collins and Michael Jayston. Jayston falls in love with the tree stump, which he keeps in the living room although the jealous Miss Collins describes it as "ugly, sawn-off, upside-down and vile."That's the best line in a film that otherwise depends on people saying such things as "Darling you're imagining things" and "I just can't believe all this has happened."

'Tales That Witness Madness' has been available on video over the years and most recently on dvd, the latest release on blu-ray is my favourite as it features limited edition artwork. One thing I always disliked about this film was the god awful poster atrwork which featured a head on a platter. The Australian daybill artwork is quite a good one as you can see from the collage above, ( I have a framed one in my apartment) . The recent blu-ray / dvd from Wicked Vision Media features 3 limited covers with the blu-ray & dvd discs housed in a book like sleeve with attached 24 page booklet.. Extras include trailer, interviews with Michael Jayston, Leon Lissek and David Wood and two featurette's 'Can I Play With Madness?' and 'What About Me'... You can order at the following link!

ORDER TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY / DVD HERE!