Nightmare at Elm Manor (1961) Short Film Review

Nightmare at Elm Manor (circa 1961)

George Harrison Marks – 5 minutes

This is a wonderful little 5 minute nudie/horror short directed by legendary British glamour photographer Harrison Marks .

Rather than me randomly babble about him here is a brief biography from the site http://www.harrison-marks.com .

Harrison Marks, as he came to be known, first got involved in glamour photography in 1953 after he met, and started a relationship with Pamela Green (1929-2010), a photographic model. He was 27, she was 24 and together they were to transform the British glamour scene and gain world-wide recognition. They started out by producing postcard-sized black and white glamour photographs in sets of five packed in cellophane bags, which they sold through book shops and newsagents in the Soho area of London where they had established their home and studio together. These tastefully posed pin-ups quickly became popular and the business expanded rapidly.

In 1957, they launched ‘Kamera’, their first printed publication. The 7 x 5 inch, 36 page, monthly pocketbook of nudes was an instant success.

They followed Kamera with an array of similar publications and an annual, 13 page colour calendar. Their success grew, and at the end of the fifties they ventured into home movie production featuring their most popular models, and went on to make their first feature film, ‘Naked as Nature Intended’, which played to packed houses at a West End cinema in 1960 before being released nationally and then internationally. The Marks-Green partnership came to an end in the mid-sixties, but Harrison Marks carried on producing adult entertainment until he died in 1997, spanning a remarkable forty-five years.

The film has a Marks favourite in the lead – the beautiful starlet June Palmer who arrives a manor house and after settling for the night but after waking in the night she (for our entertainment) takes to exploring the house whilst in the nude/semi nude .

She is then frightened by a Dracula inspired creep ( I believe again played by a Marks favourite Stuart Samuels ) who follows her around the house scaring the wobblers off her .

A lovely piece of 1960’s nostalgia , filmed on 8mm in black and white and completely silent .

But saying this there is a version on You Tube that has a background musical score , so not sure if mine is meant to be silent or not ? But I do prefer the silent version – so just put it on mute .

Really most of Mark’s work was just an excuse to get well endowed beautiful dark haired women to get naked – and fair play to the man he did achieve this remarkably well .

Really worth checking out ( on you tube ) you won’t be disappointed . And try to check out some of his other work especially from the 1960s .

A top heavy fabulous 8/10