Capital Celluloid - Day 177: Tuesday June 28

Assault (Hayers, 1971): Roxy Bar and Screen, 7.30pm

Now this is a rare one, a 1971 British thriller directed by Sidney Hayers and starring Suzy Kendall, Frank Finlay and Freddie Jones with David Essex in a minor role and Lesley Anne-Down making an early screen appearance. It is based on the novel The Ravine by Kendal Young and tells about a police attempt to track down a dangerous rapist/killer on the loose. It is also known as Tower of Terror and in America it was retitled In The Devil's Garden.

The intriguing aspect here is that this was an attempt by those involved with the Carry On films to transplant the sordid yet stylish murder mysteries of the Italian giallo genre to UK shores.

As Justin Harries of FilmBar70, who are behind this screening. puts it: "Assault is Britsploitation at its most wonderfully outrageous and is replete with more male chauvinist pigs, dodgy gender politics and sensational shenanignas that you can possibly shake a black leather encased fist at . . ."

Here is the FilmBar70 trailer.

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