This long-awaited collection from Severin Films includes everything you could ever what to see from a filmmaker that you’ve probably never heard of, namely Manchester-based Cliff Twemlow. Cliff was not only a maverick filmmaker but also a song/music writer of 100s of commercial tracks used in advertising and such like. In addition, he also wrote a few novels, acted, produced and, by the sounds of it, spent way too much time consuming steroids to help with his body building. This Severin boxed set brings together several of Twemlow’s films, which feature diamond smugglers, gangsters, devil worshippers, lycanthropes, aliens and a hitman or two; a heady mix for sure. I’m not going to write detailed reviews for every film in the collection otherwise I’d be here all day, but I will do my best to give readers a flavour of what they can expect from each film in the set. The films are:
Mancunian Man: The Legendary Life of Cliff Twemlow
Director: Jake West
Script: Jake West
Cast: Cliff Twemlow, Brett Sinclair, Jerry Harris, Jenny Cunliffe, Steve Powell
Running time: 124 minutes
Year: 2023
Certificate: E
Jake West’s documentary about maverick Mancunian (as in someone hailing from Manchester) entrepreneur, song-writer, author and film-maker, Cliff Twemlow, tells an at once fascinating, funny, heart-breaking and inspiring tale of film-making adventures in Manchester and beyond. I’m not going to repeat my whole review here as I’ve already reviewed this documentary film for Blueprint, and it’s a doozy. Here’s the link:
Mancunian Man: The Legendary Life of Cliff Twemlow – Blueprint: Review
Tuxedo Warrior
Director: Andy Sinclair
Scripts: Andy Sinclair
Cast: John Wyman, Carol Royale, Holly Palance, John Terry, James Coburn Jr
Running time: 93.5 minutes
Year: 1982
Certificate: N/A
Based on Cliff’s novel of the same name, this film clearly had a decent budget, seeing as it was shot on film and features some fairly well-known actors and helicopter shots. It was also filmed around Victoria Falls, in Zimbabwe, by a DoP who clearly knew what he was doing, at least for the most part.
The story follows a young middle-aged couple on the run, from gangsters, after taking some black market money that didn’t belong to them. They end up in Africa where Lisa’s ex, Cliff, currently lives, running a bar/nightclub. He’s recently come into the possession of some blood diamonds, which he’s hidden under his pet monkey’s food bowl – as you do – so is trying to decide what to do about those. There follows a weird and not particularly interesting love triangle between Lisa, her husband – Wiley, and Cliff, with the diamond-hunting local police mixed in to spice things up a little.
Twemlow was clearly a fan of hard-boiled film noir and classics such as Casablanca, which this film apes a little. Unfortunately, chunks of dialogue are delivered by am-dram level actors, making much of it into an unintentional comedy. There are a few scrappy bar fights thrown in to liven things up and the final chase sequence involving the cops tries to pull the audience out of its periodic slumber, but all-in-all this was disappointing. Probably the biggest let-down for the film is actor John Wyman who lacks the real Cliff’s innate charisma and frequently delivers Cliff’s clumsy soap opera lines with all the panache of someone dosed up on horse tranquilliser.
Probably the best acting in the film comes from Holly Palance, who plays Sally, a photojournalist, who comes to Victoria Falls looking to rekindle her romantic connection to Cliff. She’s certainly more three dimensional than most of the other characters and turns out to be quite likeable, unlike Lisa, who, by her own admittance wrecks men’s lives due to her crazy gambling habit. In retrospect, I think she should have featured more and perhaps got her man in the end.
However, despite its many shortcomings Tuxedo Warrior is still worth a watch for its stunning locations and cheesy sincerity.
Rating: 2 Stars
GBH – Grievous Bodily Harm
Director: David Kent Watson
Script: Cliff Twemlow
Cast: Anthony Shaefer, Jerry Harris, Jane Cunliffe, Steve Powell, Brett Sinclair
Running time: 74 minutes
Year: 1983
Certificate: 18
Probably Cliff Tremlow’s most well-known and successful film, GBH is a fast paced Manchester-based gangster film with shades of Get Carter and The Long Good Friday.
The story, basically, sees well-known British comedian, Jerry Harris, playing mob boss, Keller, who is muscling his way across the city, taking over one nightclub after another. One of these club owners is Murray (played quite well by Anthony Schaeffer) who hires a new head bouncer, Steve Donovan (Cliff Twemlow), to keep Keller’s goons away. Donovan has just got out of prison, after doing time for GBH, so is in need of the work – dishing out yet more GBH.
This has a gritty realistic edge to it, which makes it far more memorable than The Tuxedo Warrior, although, yet again, much of the acting leaves much to be desired. Twemlow does his best, but it’s obvious that he’s a better song-writer than he is actor. However, what he lacks in thespian skills he certainly makes up for in knowing how to dole out uber-violence to an impressive array of stuntmen, who all earn their stripes here; sometimes impressively so.
Things really kick off when Steve’s mate, Chris (played with charm by Twemlow regular Brett Sinclair), gets viciously glassed in the face by Keller’s men, which sends Cliff – err, I mean Steve – into a righteous quest for vengeance, resulting in some nasty attacks on various goons, including a broken bottle to the groin and another goon getting his hand nailed to a bar counter by a jagged shard of glass.
It’s scenes like this that might have gotten GBH into trouble with the authorities, with it briefly ending up on a ‘video nasties’ list; either that or maybe the semi-rape scene in a toilet, enacted by the ‘hero’ after a waitress insults his ego by suggesting that he’s getting too old for the game he’s in…
GBH is, as you might have guessed, completely non-PC, very rough around the edges, and with plenty of dodgy dialogue delivered by non-actors. However, it’s entertaining and holds the viewer’s attention, not taking itself too seriously, with some intentionally and unintentionally funny moments dotted throughout. Just check out the hilariously camp jogging-in-the-park sequences and the OTT noises that accompany any punching, for example.
It’s a shame that Severin didn’t get round to tidying up the audio as in quite a few places one can here hissing on the soundtrack due to the film having been recorded directly on to video. However, I’m not going to gripe too much as it’s nice to finally be able to watch this at home. I originally saw it accompanying the Mancunian Man documentary at the Cube cinema in Bristol, after trying to get a copy on video for years, which is now very difficult and expensive to do.
Rating: 2.5 Stars
Target – Eve Island
Director: David Kent Watson
Script: Cliff Twemlow
Cast: Brett Sinclair, John Ryan, Jerry Harris, David Rankin, Steve Powell
Running time: 84.5 minutes
Year: 1983
Certificate: N/A
Another shot on video Kent-Watson ‘katastrophy’, where the story behind the film is actually much more interesting than the film itself. The story, such that it is, has Professor Lindenbrook (Kay Harris) trying to protect secret documentation that’s wanted by the Russians. She’s kidnapped and taken to a Caribbean island. Spymaster Major Barrett (David Rankin) instructs agent William Grant (Brett Sinclair) to locate and retrieve the professor. Whilst over in the Caribbean, Grant receives dubious assistance from comedy master of disguise ‘crazy Max’ – played very badly by Max Beesley Snr– whilst Twemlow himself appears as the mysterious Chaser, whose reason for being over there is never really explained. However, he does get the chance to do what he does best, letting fly with his fists. There’s not much gore in Eve Island, but there’s still plenty of fighting.
Unfortunately, during filming, the team found themselves caught up in a coup, which could very well have become a Cold War flashpoint, as US forces sought to drive Cubans and Russians out of Grenada. It was an incredibly dangerous situation, but typically, rather than flee, Twemlow decided to take advantage of it for ‘additional production value’. The team lived on their wits for a couple of weeks until they were able to leave Grenada and move production to the more tourist-friendly Barbados where they survived on coconuts for a couple of weeks.
The final result is a barely finished film that never got released and therefore caused a long-standing division between Twemlow and Kent-Watson. Despite all the production problems Eve Island isn’t a complete failure and is still worth a look, if only for some decent action sequences involving a helicopter chase, a speedboat/jet-ski chase, some daft fight scenes and amusing sex scenes.
Rating: 1.5 Stars
The Ibiza Connection
Director: Howard Arendel
Script: Ana Aguire
Cast: Fiona Fullerton, Cliff Twemlow, Brett Sinclair, Maxton Beesley, Giannine Fraccio
Running time: 93 minutes
Year: 1984
Certificate: N/A
After his original backers, the Swedish entrepreneurs Ingmar and Lars Rydstrom, pulled out of financing any more of his films – following the debacle of the unfinished/released Target- Eve Island – Cliff paid for the next production himself; the destination this time – Ibiza. Twemlow even managed to secure the services of a known actress, namely soon-to-be-Bond girl, Fiona Fullerton, (from 1985’s A View to a Kill).
The movie is a film-within-a-film scenario as Wolf (Twemlow) directs a movie, in Ibiza, whilst also trying to avoid a gangster, Gino, who also happens to be an old friend. In fact, Wolf runs out of money part way into the film and has to fire one of his lead actors so calls in Gino to bail him out. However, Gino’s condition for lending him the money is that he lets his own girlfriend (Fullerton) be the leading lady. Plus, while Wolf is distracted whilst directing the movie, and dealing with his demanding new actress, Gino plans to have Wolf killed during the shoot, making it look like an accident.
Amusingly, after we’ve spent a while in Wolf’s company, we’re kind of rooting for Gino to be successful with his mission, since Wolf is a real misogynistic twat of the highest order who, when he’s not smoking cigars is insulting and assaulting most of the women around him and it’s left to Brett Sinclair’s leading man to bring some charisma and fun to the film-within-a-film.
This could have been quite a decent film if it wasn’t so badly handled, with some iffy choices of shots and edits, a Crossroads level of acting and a very unsympathetic lead character. One final plus note is that it features one of the goofiest bad guys I’ve ever seen, who’s a literal giant who looks incredibly uncomfortable in all his scenes, poor guy.
Rating: 1.5 Stars
The African Run
Director: Andrew Mayer
Scripts: Andrew Mayer
Cast: Mike Samson (aka Cliff Twemlow), Holly Palance, John Terry, Carol Royale, Jerry Harris, James Coburn Jr, Roy Boyd
Running time: 94 minutes
Year: 1985
Certificate: N/A
Basically a reworking of The Tuxedo Warrior, this is a bit of a cop-out, whereby Cliff has just added a shot-on-video prologue that tries to explain why his secondary character, Chaser, is also in Victoria Falls, in pursuit of the couple who absconded with the gangster’s money. He’s also told to keep a look out for the blood diamonds as, according to the mob boss – played by Jerry Harris, as usual – they’re his too.
Twemlow has also added another VHS coda at the end, whereby he’s back in old Blighty with a female friend explaining what happened to the diamonds, which he’s clearly keeping for himself after shooting the mob boss and his goons earlier on in the film.
Sadly, the new footage just cheapens the original film, which might have been a bit lame but actually looked good. The VHS quality new material jars, looking really amateurish next to the shot-on-16mm footage of the rest of the movie.
Rating: 2 Stars
Moonstalker (Aka Predator; The Quietus)
Director: Leslie McCarthy
Script: Cliff Twemlow
Cast: Cliff Twemlow, Cordellia Roche, Paddy Ward, Arthur Marchant, Maxton Beesley, Abigail Zealey
Running time: 91 minutes
Year: 1986
Certificate: N/A
The unexplainable disappearances of innocently-courting teenagers and a child, plus the brutal slaying of livestock, attracts the international media in the form of a New York newspaper who sends one of its brightest journalists – Kelly O’Neill (Cordelia Roche) – to cover this ‘Beast of Bodmin’ kind of story, over in the UK. To make sure she’s safe they hire hunter/adventurer Dan Kane (Cliff Twemlow) to be her guide/protector. At first the two don’t get on, but after a while they grow intimate – after all, Cliff must have had a clause in his self-penned contracts to say that he always gets the girl, or at least one girl.
They soon discover that some kind of beast is stalking the woods, where the disappearances have occurred, but said beast might be of a more supernatural variety.
Moonstalker throws all sorts into the mix to keep its audience watching, including a rather rubbish biker gang; a weird poet that knows more than he’s letting on, well, when he’s not talking to trees; a comedy duo of drunken Irish poachers who try to catch the beast themselves; some monster action and more corny dialogue than you can shake a Morris Dancer’s stick at.
The weird poet is probably the most interesting thing about the film. The character is called Wilbur Sledge, and is played by Darryl Marchant, who seems to have wandered in from a different, perhaps better film. He’s ultimately a bit of a red herring, but a quirkily interesting one.
Sadly, the film doesn’t really deliver on its early promise of being a modern-day Hammer-lite werewolf film since the beast is kept hidden and when we do finally glimpse it, it’s severely disappointing and looks more like a guy wearing an off-the-shelf ape mask.
On a more positive note, the film was shot on Super 16mm, hence at least looks pretty good, and there’s quite a bit of unintentional humour throughout, including the local’s suspicion that Kane is allowed to tote a submachine gun around because he’s friends with the chief of police, who’s a fellow mason.
Rating: 2.5 Stars
The Hitman (Aka The Assassinator)
Director: David Kent-Watson
Scripts: John C. Barker
Cast: Ronald Lacey, George Murcell, John Ryan, Bonny Sandison, Norman Jones, Danny Schiller, Mike Sullivan
Running time: 89 minutes
Year: 1986
Certificate: N/A
Chris McCall (John Saint Ryan) is a no-nonsense, ex-military tough guy who later became an operative for an outfit known only as The Bureau, an unofficial branch of the British intelligence services that carries out assassination work on British soil – hardly the sort of thing that MI5 or MI6 can do directly. When his latest job goes wrong because of bad Intel, resulting in him killing the wrong man, he’s given one more job, to clear his in-tray, to be followed by several weeks of holiday to reenergise.
However, he starts to think that he wants out of the game altogether, and resigns and explains to his wife what he’s really been doing all these years. His wife, Alex (Bonnie Sandison), takes it badly and leaves him over moral qualms about his work. Some dodgy characters hear that McCall is now a free agent and one of them, Mr. Stewart (Ronald Lacey), tries to press-gang McCall into his service and, when he refuses, Stewart kidnaps Alex as a bit of collateral. In fact, Stewart wants McCall to assassinate Colonel Bradley (George Murcell), McCall’s ex-boss at The Bureau, whilst he’s going to be holidaying in Malta. To protect his family, save Bradley and turn the tables on Stewart, Cliff has to make use of all his specialist training at The Bureau.
As with most of Cliff’s films he often used the same people, both as actors and crew, repeatedly creating a tight ‘family’ kind of feeling on set. John Saint Ryan was one such person who also appeared in GBH, as Big Nick Rafferty, and as a Russian colonel in Target: Eve Island. Ryan actually went on to have a half decent career as a stunt actor and bit part player – chalking up appearances in the likes of Babylon 5, SeaQuest DSV, and Buffy. Unfortunately, seeing him in this film, one can understand why other leading roles failed to materialise, although, to be fair, he’s clearing trying hard, and does have some natural charisma and presence. He actually reminds me a little of Sean Connery and could have played Connery’s stunt double, given the opportunity.
Sadly, this is another shot-on-video film and it’s clear that much of the quality of the previous film in Cliff’s oeuvre has been lost now that director David Kent-Watson has returned to the fray with his tape machine. Especially, frustrating is the poor sound quality, with much of the dubbing being really poor. Plus, there’s some inappropriate music used in a few sequences, which doesn’t really help sell the scenes, although, on a more positive note, there is a decent song that’s been dropped in a time or two.
The Hitman, like most of Twemlow’s films is certainly worth a watch, if only for a few fight scenes, some interesting locations, and it’s WTF ending, but probably only once.
Rating: 2 Stars
THE EYE OF SATAN
Director: David Kent-Watson
Scripts: Mike Sullivan aka Cliff Twemlow
Cast: Cliff Twemlow, Ginette Gray, Brett Paul, Maxton G. Beesley, John Ryan, Paul Hamilton
Running time: 79 minutes
Year: 1988
Certificate: N/A
Kent-Watson directs again, a good chunk of Twemlow’s regulars are present in the cast, and the whole thing looks cheap once more as it’s shot on video. However, after the more realistic The Hitman Twemlow, Cliff is back in paranormal territory, trying to outdo Hammer Films, with The Eye of Satan’s Grand Guignol tone and larger than life performances.
Cliff himself is playing Kane, some kind of emissary of the devil, who has a pet panther in his dungeon lair. When he’s not worshipping his infernal deity, Kane seems to have a side hustle as an enforcer of some kind, and is hired to protect Christine Stringer (Ginette Gray), the daughter of a local gangster. However, when he’s double-crossed, his mortal employers must face his satanic wrath. Plus, when an unholy gemstone is stolen from a voodoo cult, in Africa, Kane cannot ignore that transgression, as the artefact has importance to him and the cult that he belongs to.
The Eye of Satan is a peculiar film as, on the one hand, it wants to be a gangster/action film, while on the other it wants to be an occult-related kidnap thriller, and sadly neither aspect works particularly well. Cliff is hilariously over-the-top in a role that a more talented actor would turn into something multi-faceted and Ginette Gray – supper sexy as ever – tries hard to make her character interesting, only making her annoying, so much so that you don’t really care about her.
It’s a shame really, as Eye of Satan could have been a fun film if it hadn’t have clearly been such a vanity project for Cliff who spends most of the film pouncing around flexing his oiled muscles with cheap-looking green contact lenses in his eyes. Unfortunately, the excellent character introduction is squandered by a movie which doesn’t really have anything that later measures up to the first scenes’ ‘bodybuilding Satanist walks into a funeral parlour and blasts the coffin with a shotgun’ WTF impact.
Rating: 1.5 Stars
Firestar (Aka First Contact)
Director: David Kent-Watson
Script: Cliff Twemlow
Cast: Oliver Tobias, Charles Gray, Heather Alexander, John Wyman, Mike Sullivan (Aka Cliff Twemlow)
Running time: 91 minutes
Year: 1989
Certificate: N/A
John D. Trooper (Cliff Twemlow) is a security officer for Solar Command, serving under Captain Bremner (Oliver Tobias), on-board the patrol ship Firestar. During the pre-credits sequence they have a close encounter with an alien object, which could be a ship of some kind. The Firestar takes some minor damage, and when the crew check it out they discover a weird star-shaped projectile, which they destroy, causing it to drip with green slime.
Back on Earth, Bremner and Trooper are given a bollocking by Commodore Vandross (Charles Gray), who thinks they shouldn’t have arbitrarily shot at the alien presence, but should have engaged in a peaceful way instead. Bremner is relieved of his command, and Captain Donnor (John Wyman of Tuxedo Warrior) takes command, aided by Trooper’s old flame, Anna Robson (Heather Alexander), who went to “Space Academy, Oxford”, which sounds impressive.
Once back in space things turn more predictable with the crew bickering and demonstrating they all have personalities, before Firestar has a second encounter with the alien life form and comes off much worse than last time. In fact, Firestar becomes a near copy of Alien, although with a 1000th of the budget or talent. Crew members get picked off one-by-one as they creep around the spaceship looking for the entity. One character even has an alien hand thrust out through his stomach, while another gets impaled by an alien projectile in perhaps a nod to Phantasm.
Much of the dialogue is either bad or funny, including Trooper’s chat up line, to a female co-worker, saying ‘If you fancy popping by my cabin later there’s a docking system I’d like to try out’. Plus, there’s some intentional comedy with Trooper arguing with the computer that safely guards the ship’s firearms, along with his secret stash of whiskey.
In fact, Firestar is one of Cliff’s more entertaining efforts on account of the amount of intentional humour that’s in it. Twemlow is actually quite good at sending himself up and at writing amusing dialogue, which Firestar has plenty of. There’s also some effective music underpinning the action and some inventive futuristic locations, including some pre-built sets left over from a more famous sci-fi movie. It also has a more satisfying ending and John Wyman’s odd acting style really helps with his role in this one.
It’s just a shame that this was shot on video as it really would have benefited from a more filmic look and better production values. Having said that, they do pull off a few cool scenes and most of the crew are three dimensional and likeable, which helps us to care about what happens to them. Definitely worth a watch, especially if you’re into galactic cheese.
Rating 2.5 Stars
GBH 2 Lethal Impact (Aka Beyond Vengeance)
Director: David Kent-Watson
Script: Cliff Twemlow
Cast: Mike Sullivan, Terence Hardiman, Brett Paul, Mary Waters, Jerry Harris, Ray Nichols, Patrick Nyland, Bunny Lewis, David Roth
Running time: 99 minutes
Year: 1991
Certificate: N/A
Steve Donovan (Cliff Twemlow, credited as Mike Sullivan) is back despite us all thinking he’d been killed at the very end of GBH. Surprise! He didn’t die after all; he just went back to prison. When’s he’s released he discovers that his home city of Manchester is full of paedos and other peddlers of filth, which he’s not happy about. Much of the perversion seems to emanate from the clubs of Harper (David Roth), the sort of man who makes Steve’s previous nemesis, Keller, look positively tame. In fact, somewhat strangely, it’s actually Keller who tracks down Steve, early on, to tip him off about Harper – and Harper’s unhealthy interest in Steve’s little niece, Catherine. Sadly, when Donovan looks into it he learns that Catherine has already died by committing suicide, driven to the brink by the abuse that she’d been subjected to through Harper and his minions. After a soap opera showdown with his brother, who has nothing but disdain for Steve, Cliff, err, I mean Steve vows vengeance against any who harmed his niece in anyway, which turns out to be quite a long list.
GBH 2 probably has better pacing and more action sequences than any other movie in Tremlow’s back catalogue, and Cliff’s narration spoken as he makes his big return to Manchester, about how the city is absolute Hell on Earth, is perhaps his funniest and best. The violence is the usual OTT nonsense, including one camp character getting a shotgun shoved up his arse resulting in his innards pebble-dashing the opposite wall. Plus, a paedophile priest gets brutally offed, and this was years before much of the Church’s sexual abuse scandals came to light.
Unfortunately, as with many low budget film productions, it sometime suffers from poor sound quality, a lack of coherency, and too much am-dram dialogue to be taken seriously. Additionally, there’s some very non-PC actions/dialogue, which are very anti-gay; for example, Cliff portrays lesbians in a bad light, with a gang of them in a van abducting kids to make pornos with them, which doesn’t really make much sense to be honest. Having said that, I did enjoy watching the film and would probably be happy to sit through it again, so I guess you could say that’s a result for Cliff and Co, finally producing a film that’s worth viewing more than once…
I’ll end this review with two quotes from GBH 2, both real doozies; ‘Dead men don’t piss’ and ‘I know how you feel, but don’t take it past vengeance…’
Rating: 3 Stars
Over all the Cliff Tremlow films are not great, however, taken on their own merit, and bearing in mind the lack of resources that Cliff and friends had, or didn’t have, it’s surprising that any of them came out as professionally as they eventually did. My ratings are quite low, but if you’re a fan of low-rent exploitation pictures I think that it’s safe to say that you can add at least an extra half star to each rating.
However, the key selling point about this boxed set is probably the amount of extras one gets to accompany the films; over 13 hours’ worth. Severin have done an amazing job and congratulations and thanks to director/producer Jake West for all his time and energy bringing Cliff Twemlow to the masses.
I’ve dealt with the extras a film at a time.
Special features
Mancunian Man; The Legendary Life of Cliff Twemlow
Additional scenes (57.5 mins) – Lots of extended interviews with many of the cast and crew including David Rankin, Max Beesley Snr and Annie Jones. Plus, Oliver Tobias crops up, who was clearly fond of Cliff. We also learn that Cliff wrote The Pike before Jaws came out. There’s plenty of new information here.
Manchester location tour (14 mins) – We’re taken on a tour of some of the key locations Cliff used around his home city. These include the Apollo gym where they used to rehearse fight scenes ahead of shooting and The Rainbow Rooms, which is now a community centre. More interesting than you’d think.
The Swedish Connection (13 mins) – An interview with the son of one of the Swedish brothers who first funded Cliff’s films. This is excellent stuff full of some really interesting information about the business side of the productions, and we learn the budget for GBH was around £30 – £40K. Unfortunately, this was missing from the doc as the son was found after the doc had been finished.
The Pike Rediscovered (19.5 mins) – Fun mini-documentary about the mechanical fish that was built for the film, The Pike. One of the models is tracked down to a hotel in the Lake District and is later taken to the Festival of Fantastic Films to do a surreal Q & A. The robotic one is somewhere in Japan, apparently.
Manchester Premiere (46.5 mins) – A cosy question and answer session with some of the crew/cast and Jake West. This is fun stuff, although a lot of what is said has already been divulged in other extras.
London World Premiere (11.5 mins) – This is footage that’s been shot on a mobile phone so isn’t the best, especially since it was part of Frightfest, at the Imax, in London so the people on stage look pretty small.
Glasgow Premiere (22 mins) – Paul McEvoy, from Frightfest, hosts a decent screening event which, again, has been shot on a mobile phone. Sadly the sound has some reverb going on. We do learn some useful facts, such as which of Cliff’s films actually saw a proper release – not many, and certainly not in the UK.
Trailer (2.39 mins) – A cool trailer, which reminds you how awesome the documentary is.
Image gallery (29 mins) – This is done in sections; project-by-project.
Tuxedo Warrior
Outtakes (4 mins) – More explicit bedroom scenes, but without sound
Trailer (1.38 mins) – Makes it look like more of an action film than it is
Gag reel (3 mins) – These are more like outtakes, although one shows a guy actually being hit during a fight
GBH – Grievous Bodily Harm
Pre-release version of the film (74 mins) as opposed to the director’s cut, which is longer (89 mins). The longer version is better, sort of.
Alternative Credits sequence (5.5 mins) – Cheesy, but has great theme tune
Teaser trailer (25 secs) – Lots of fighting with a ‘Not for the squeamish’ voice-over
Trailer (2.22 mins) – Plenty of shootings, glassings and punching
TV special – The Pike (11 mins) – Taken from the BBC science series, Tomorrow’s World, which is fun. Apparently the fish cost £250K to make.
Mason’s War promo (5.5 mins) – The story centres on an SAS major who returns home to seek revenge for the rape and murder of his girlfriend; Cue lots of fights and hard stares.
Audio Commentary with David Flint (from Reprobate magazine) and Brian Stirling. This goes into a lot of detail about the crew and cast, locations and problems faced on the shoot. Apparently, Cliff lost a wife, a girlfriend, his house and cars due to his obsession with making movies.
Target – Eve Island
Audio Commentary with actor Brian Sterling-Vete and producer Martin De Rooy – A rather rambling commentary, but still worth a listen, despite lots of commenting on what we can already see on the screen. For example, we find out that Brian was actually married to the lady in the bath.
For the love of Cliff – Audio Commentary outtake with actor Brian Sterling-Vete and producer Martin De Rooy and Severin Film’s Carl Daft (4.25 mins) – Their final thoughts on the film. They’d give it 4 out of ten themselves.
Granada tourism promo (1.52 mins) – Includes footage from the film itself
Alternative credits sequence (4.22 mins) – This utilises a film negative look and has an annoying theme song
Rushes (11 mins) – A mixed bag of footage, with some useful shots not in the film
Trailer 1 (2.42 mins) – This makes the film look like an action fest
Trailer 2 (3.20 mins) – This version is narrated
The Ibiza Connection
Audio Commentary with director Howard Arundel and cult movie historian David Flint – An interesting commentary, which goes into quite a bit of detail about the feature, including noting that Cliff’s name is actually spelt incorrectly in the credits. Apparently, comedian Max Beesley dubbed 11 different voices during post-production.
Actor Brett Sinclair’s Ibiza videos (66 mins) – Lots of low quality ‘holiday’ type footage including lots of larking about, Fiona Fullerton in makeup and some cliff-top views.
The African Run
Scene breakdowns (12.5 mins) – A compilation of new scenes with detailed production/location notes – this explains the credits for an additional scene, for example.
Alternative credits sequence (4.53 mins) – These are done under the film’s other title, namely ‘The Omega Connection’
David Ball test footage (2.49 mins) – Test credits using silhouettes and some front flames, which is clearly playing on the Bond style credit sequences
Moon Stalker
Audio Commentary with actor Brian Sterling-Vete and cult movie historian David Flint – A very informative track, which is one of the best in the boxed set. We learn lots of interesting trivia about both the film and Cliff. The film was shot on Super 16mm, which probably explains why it looks really nice in places.
Alternate credits sequence (7.30 mins) – This is very similar but uses the alternative title of ‘Predator -The Quietus’.
Trailer (2.42 mins) – Sadly, it reveals the dodgy ape-man mask
The Blind Side of God promo (4.56 mins) – This is all about a paedophile hunter
Harrising moments – Jerry Harris showreel (6 mins) – Some short, funny extracts featuring Cliff regular, Jerry Harris.
The Hitman
Alternative credit sequence (4 mins) – These run under the alternative title of ‘The Assassinator’. It’s interesting to see Michael Klinger listed as a producer, as he produced the likes of Get Carter and Gold in the 70s.
Trailer (3.19 mins) – A much too long trailer that shows just about everything…
The Eye of Satan
Deleted scenes (10.5 mins) – These include more shots of the panther, a different version of the church scene, and the aftermath of the kills.
Bloopers (2 mins) – Mostly shots of actors forgetting lines
Trailer 1 (5 mins) – This a more of a promo than a trailer. It has an exploding truck scene which is cool.
Trailer 2 (2.15 mins) – A better trailer, but with overly dramatic music
Firestar
Deleted fight scene (2.47 mins) – This is a bar fight, which only really explains how Cliff’s mate finds him.
Trailer (2.21 mins) – Weirdly shows lots of clips from The Eye of Satan film
Tokyo Sunrise (1989; 22.5 mins)
This is basically a feature that never got finished. The story follows a Johnny Zero (Cliff) being assigned to act as a bodyguard for a model, Tanya (Laura Branigan) who has been chosen to sell a new drug called Tokyo Sunrise. There’s lots of hard-boiled dialogue and some steamy sex, accompanied by cheesy saxophone music.
Making of (9 mins) – An interesting featurette which reveals some facts about the production including that an explosive stunt went wrong and a stunt man got hurt and that actor Gary Tang had just previously been in the film Nuns on the Run.
Outtakes/Bloopers (5 mins) – Some fluffing of lines, giggling and Cliff not hearing his cue to come into shot.
Promo 1 (4.18 mins) – A more traditional longer trailer
Promo 2 (2.52 mins) – Too much rolling text explaining stuff
GBH 2 Lethal Impact
Bad Weekend short film (41 mins) – This film from 1993 is Cliff’s final production sees a bank manager and his daughter camping in the woods only to be accosted by a gang led by Cliff who attack them and rape the kid, spurring the father to take murderous revenge of the scumbags.
Outtakes for Bad Weekend – Shots that weren’t really much use
Behind the scenes – Mostly the cast/crew decamping after a one weekend shoot
Fitness over 40 (55 mins)
A documentary, from 1992, that does what it says on the tin, so to speak. It focuses on different exercises for different body parts. Quite good.
The Art of Nude Massage (45.5 mins)
This documentary, from 1993, is divided into chapters focussing on different aspects of massage, including ‘rejuvenating’ and ‘sensuous’.
The Peter Reno tapes
A bonus CD that includes 21 tracks taken from Cliff’s large back catalogue of music and songs that he wrote over a number of years. These include some tracks from his films, some of which are pretty good, such as the GBH theme music and the Tuxedo Warrior song. Some sound like music from Italian police films, while others utilise the flute a lot, which is quite unusual.
