MovieChat Forums > The Sorcerers Discussion > Ian Ogilvy/Scream and Scream Again

Ian Ogilvy/Scream and Scream Again

posted 11 years ago by vertigothic70
4 replies | jump to latest

I had the lucky opportunity to watch a double feature of The Sorcerers and Witchfinder General at the cinema just before Christmas - a fun evening! I had seen The Sorcerers years ago on the telly, and Catherine Lacey was every bit as creepy as I'd remembered her. While hers and Karloff's performances make the film great imo, I really liked Ian Ogilvy. I was very surprised when it transpired afterwards that my friend didn't realize he was the lead in both movies! I heard that he was a friend of Reeves's, but I'm wondering if Ogilvy also appeared in other films from around that time that would be worth watching?

The only thing which didn't appeal to me as much on re-watching were the 'Swinging London' bits... apparently there was only one nightclub to go to in 1967...?
They also reminded me forcibly of Gordon Hessler's Scream and Scream Again - the car chase, too.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064949/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9773NT8PKE
Anyone thought the same thing?

[–] vertigothic70 11 years ago

Replying to myself now (sad) - to add that I'd forgotten Ogilvy in Bride of Fengriffen (aka And now the Screaming Starts).

[–] garyedgecombe 11 years ago

Ian Ogilvy was indeed close friends with Michael Reeves, & still maintains his untimely death at 25 was an accident, & not a suicide. Ian appeared in Mike's (very) low budget Italian production "Sister of Satan / Revenge of The Blood Beast"
( you'll REALLY need to be a fan!) He also starred in Mike's classic "Witchfinder General" the year Mike died, 1969. THAT'S a good movie by anyone's standards! Michael Reeves's death was a tragic loss. Who knows what he and Mr Ogilvy might have achieved had he lived! Hope i've been of some help!

[–] profh-1 11 years ago

I believe it was n an issue of FANTASTIC FILMS magazne where they did a long feature on Michael Reeves and WITCHFINDER GENERAL that I discovered to my shock that Ian Ogilvy, who'd become my favorite actor for RETURN OF THE SAINT was Reeves best friend, and had appeared in all 3 of his movies. I'd seen WITCHFINDER GENERAL in a theatre when I was only 13 (as the last installment of a QUADRUPLE feature!!!) and never realized when watching his Simon Templar that he'd been in that unspeakably NASTY thing. (Or that I'd earlier seen him in my favorite Tara King AVENGERS episode, "They Keep Killing Steed", whose plot serves as a virtual warm-up for THE NEW AVENGERS).

I've seen Ogilvy in MAIGRET (the TV movie), CAMPION (as an actor-singer-dancer), KUNG FU THE LEGEND CONTINUES (in a thinly-disguised version of Simon Templar, co-starring with Patrick Macnee and Robert Vaughn in the same episode) and WALKER TEXAX RANGER (as a con man).

Oh yes, he was also in FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE, the only time he appeared together with another of my all-time favorites, Peter Cushing.

Interesting bit of triva about THE SORCERERS-- the cop is Ivor Dean, who harrassed Roger Moore in 26 episodes of THE SAINT; this was 10 years before Ogilvy played a rather different version of Templar (who was initially supposed to be the SON of the original!-- which makes sense, he's almost a dead ringer for Louis Hayward).

[–] vertigothic70 11 years ago

Thank you for your reply!

...especially for mentioning From Beyond The Grave. I've watched quite a few of Peter Cushing's films - who can help but love that man? - but that's one I missed out on so far. Also for the Avengers episode. (Have to confess, after Emma Peel, I never really warmed to Tara King. Maybe it's time to give her a second chance.)

I must have seen Ogilvy in Campion (with Peter Davison, right?), although I can't remember him at the moment. He also appeared as a gone-to-seed yet still charming ex-husband/unsuccessful theatre producer in itv's Miss Marple (They Do It With Mirrors) a few years ago. I have checked out an episode with him as the Returned Saint, but sadly I thought it simply couldn't compete with Roger Moore's. (Maybe I should give that one another chance as well...)

Today I came here to check on this post because I watched the first episode of I, Claudius - and I didn't recognize Ogilvy as Drusus!

Having seen Ian Ogilvy in various roles now, and being interviewed on Witchfinder General and his friendship with Reeves, he seems quite a charming chap (if, on screen, not always entirely trustworthy). Apparently he is usually cast in that vein. It makes his transformation in WG only more shocking!

clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am...