Death Line (1972)
Late one night at the Russell Square station, university students Patricia (Sharon Gurney) and her American boyfriend Alex (David Ladd) find an unconscious man on the stairwell. Fearing that he may be ill, Patricia checks his wallet and finds a card that identifies him as James Manfred, OBE (James Cossins). They inform a police officer but when they return find that Manfred has vanished. Inspector Calhoun (Donald Pleasance) is assigned to look into the disappearance. He soon discovers that there are several similar “missing persons” cases. Calhoun's colleague tells him about the history of the London Underground, particularly how numerous Victorian construction workers were buried alive after a tunnel collapsed in 1892. Due to the construction company going bankrupt the rescue mission was abandoned. Is there a group of descendants who survived the cave-in, still alive and living below ground?
On paper the plot for Death Line (released in the US as Raw Meat) suggests a rather grubby and unpleasant exploitation horror film, common to that decade. However, although it is indeed stark, bleak and somewhat squalid, there is an unusual emotional depth to the story and an air of tragedy, mainly due to the unique performance of Hugh Armstrong as “The Man”. He is a murderer and a cannibal yet he is also a victim of circumstances. The scenes in which he desperately tries to tend to his dying, pregnant mate are both shocking yet inherently sad. And it is this melancholic aspect of the film that makes it so unique and certainly elevates it above standard genre material from this era. However, as well as intermittent pathos there is also some jolting violence. Director Gary Sherman has a knack for presenting injuries in a grimy, unflinching fashion. In one scene he slowly pans the camera around the lair of “The Man, gradually revealing several butchered corpses in various states of decay.
Death Line is not content to just explore the concept of cannibalism and strays into several other subjects and themes. Inspector Calhoun’s investigation is hampered by the involvement of Stratton-Villiers (Christopher Lee) of MI5. It would appear that the missing James Manfred, OBE, is of some importance to the security services. Manfred is seen at the start of the film frequenting the various strip clubs of Soho and later trying to pick up a sex worker. Donald Pleasance’s somewhat eccentric performance of a working class policeman who has fought tooth and nail to climb the promotion ladder is also an interesting facet of the story. There is a delightful scene in a pub where the Inspector and Detective Sergeant Rogers (Norman Rossington) outstay their welcome and are ushered out by the landlord. It is a fascinating snapshot of how utterly drab many pubs were at the time and an accurate assessment of UK drinking culture.
There are some weak aspects to Death Line, such as the rather unsympathetic lead protagonist, Alex, played by David Ladd. He’s cynical and lacking in empathy as so many heroes were in the seventies. He often comes across as being undeserving of his girlfriend Patricia. The film’s musical score by Wil Malone is deliberately discordant and somewhat experimental. The use of early synthesisers is interesting but may prove a little grating for some viewers. Yet the tragic premise of “The Man” does much to redress these flaws. The exploration of the London Underground network as it was at the time, is another compelling aspect of the film. The film ends on an ambiguous note with a remote voice, presumably “The Man”, shouting “mind the doors”. The only words he can say. Perhaps it’s a wider metaphor regarding how society has to continually reckon with the underclass it creates. It certainly sticks with you after the film has ended.
