Review #196: 'The Reptile' (1966)

When his brother is mysteriously killed by a reptilian creature that causes him to foam at the mouth and turn green, Harry Spalding (Ray Barrett) inherits his cottage and moves in with his wife Valerie (Jennifer Daniel). Shunned by the towns yokels but befriended by the brilliantly bearded innkeeper Tom (Michael Ripper), Harry becomes interested in the rumours of the townsfolk dying from the 'black death'. When they alert the local doctor, Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman), he dismisses any responsibility, and they become puzzled by his strange behaviour towards his daughter and his creepy servant. Is the black death really to blame? Of course not, it's a big reptile-human hybrid thing!

As good as Hammer's output was, they levelled it out with a lot of quickly made crap. They shot films furiously fast on a wafer-thin budget to serve as warm-ups to main features. While sometimes this produced some genuinely good stuff (The Plague of the Zombies (1966) - also directed by Gilling), often it did not. The Reptile served as an accompaniment to Rasputin The Mad Monk (1966), and it's place as a mere quickie is evident to see. It is hammily acted (usually a good thing), badly scripted, and has some quite shockingly bad make-up. And lead Ray Barrett clearly wasn't the most gifted of actors. However, the mysterious plot that remains a puzzle right until the very end almost saves it, but this still remains a very poor effort, though it's a nice enough way to pass 90 minutes.


Directed by: John Gilling
Starring: Ray Barrett, Noel Willman, Jennifer Daniel, Michael Ripper, John Laurie, Marne Maitland
Country: UK

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie