Persecution starts as a young David Masters (Mark Weavers) drowns his deranged mother's (Lana Turner) cat Sheba in it's own milk claiming she loved it more than him, as a Christms present his bitter mum Carrie gives him a small coffin with Sheba's body inside which she makes him go outside & bury in her cat graveyard all of whom seem to have had the same name. Jump forward several years & David (Ralph Bates) is now a young man married to Janie (Suzan Farmer) & together they have a baby son called Paul who on David's birthday is suffocated by his mother's latest cat who she has again called Sheba, distraught Janie becomes a nervous wreck while David sinks deeper & deeper into some sort of depression until all the tension in the house finally comes to a shocking conclusion...This British production was directed by Don Chaffey for the short lived Tyburn Films, this was the first of only three films they ever produced which was followed by their best effort Legend of the Werewolf (1975) & then came the alright The Ghoul (1975) although both of which are far superior to Persecution which is a pretty bad psychological horror. The script by Robert Hutton, Frederick Warner & Rosemary Wootten has some absolutely hilarious melodramatics between Carrie & David, the relationships between the character's in Persecution are badly written & thought out, I mean no one behaves like this, no one. Some of the dialogue is just as embarrassing, it has be to heard to be believed. Then of course there's the supposed shock twist ending which is obviously meant to mirror & parallel the events that have happened previously in a 'wasn't that neat, ironic & clever' sort of way but again it's just so overblown, unintentionally funny & downright silly that I couldn't take it seriously & I actually started to laugh when David made Carrie drink milk out of the bowl on the floor. The whole film is played totally straight & is utterly serious in tone which just kills the whole thing because it's so bad & stupid you can't take it seriously. This could have been an effective little Anglo horror but instead it tries to be clever & in the end it doesn't really know what it wants to be & I'm not sure who Persecution will appeal too as it's not a horror, it's not a thriller & it's too silly to be a proper attempt at drama, the pace is slow, not that much really happens & there's nothing to retain ones interest.Director Chaffey does OK, there' one or two nice moments here but they're few & far between. When he does go for out-and-horror it just doesn't work, fat ugly cats aren't scary & the scene when Carrie gets lost in the maze is terrible. Forget about any gore as there isn't any.It's quite well made with the usual high production standards you would expect from a British film from this period although the film has badly dated with the fashions & in particular Ralph Bates hairdo. The acting is pretty awful & together with the material they have to work with they come across as plank's.Persecution is a pretty bad film, it's so bad some parts are hilariously watchable but overall this is definitely one to give a miss.

Halloween is upon us so the TV companies dust off a few horror films for late night showing . Last night saw the BBC broadcast THE WOLFMAN while tonight ITV transmitted a clichéd horror movie called LONG TIME DEAD with BBC 1 showing PERSECUTION As a horror film / psychological thriller totally fails because it uses something ridiculous as the focus of fear . The bringers of terror areCATS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!That's right . Cats . You know these fluffy cute mammals that sit in your lap making purring noises when you tickle their chin ? Well that's what the creatures of horror are in this movie . I'm not making this up and I also wish to point out that they're not ten foot tall mutant demon possessed killer cats , they're the type of moggy you see sitting out on window ledges in the summer . I know some people have an instinctive fear of felines , it's to do with the way they look at you , almost like the cats are planning something when you're back is turned . I don't know how anyone can believe this because I find cats the most affectionate type of pet and no matter how hard the director tries he just can't make moggies appear menacing in any wayI feel rather sorry for the late Ralph Bates since he also appeared in an awful horror movie shown on BBC 1 a few nights ago called I DON'T WANT TO BE BORN and looking at the actor's resume he has appeared in a lot of crap early 70s Brit horror movies . To give you a taste of how bad PERSECUTION is check out this sample of dialogue " You killed your mothers cat " " Yes I drowned it . In milk " " Oh darling " Believe it or not the above lines weren't meant to induce a laugh , though inevitably they did

Well, it has a couple of interesting camera angles and a sexy performance by the actress who plays the woman paid to seduce the hero, but the slow pacing causes it to drag too often, the editing is astonishingly bad at times, and the "plot secrets", when revealed, turn out to be totally insignificant. But it's in the last 15 minutes that the movie really jumps off the rails, and comes up with a silly and far-fetched conclusion. (*1/2)

Let's get one thing straight. I'm a huge Lana Turner fan. So even if I didn't particularly like this movie, chances are I would probably defend it anyway. Don't get me wrong, PERSECUTION(AKA: THE TERROR OF SHEBA and THE GRAVEYARD) is by no means a good movie, but as far as low-budget horror movies go, I've seen much worse. Turner stars as a ruthless woman who, with the aid of her beloved cat, makes life miserable for her spineless son(Ralph Bates) and his bewildered bride(Suzan Farmer), until her son finally decides he's had enough and gives his mom and her precious kitty their comeuppance. The suspense lags in places, and the plot is not terribly interesting, but any horror film that unites two pros like Lana Turner and Trevor Howard has to have something going for it. Admittedly, Turner isn't perfectly suited to her role. This is the kind of grotesque, no holds-barred histronics that would appeal to an easily carried away actress like Bette Davis or perhaps Joan Crawford. But, at least Turner has some fun with it. It's all so juvenile that it would be kind of hard to not enjoy it a little. One thing is for certain: Turner's presence gives this somewhat plodding film a much needed touch of class and classic Hollywood glamour.