NIGEL KNEALE'S BEASTS - BUDDY BOY (1976)

 

DIRECTED by Don Taylor 

SCREENPLAY by Nigel Kneale

STARRING - Martin Shaw as Dave,  Pamela Moisiwitsch as Lucy,  Wolfe Morris as Hubbard.

PLOT - Dave is an entrepreneur who runs a strip club in a seedy part of town. Looking to expand his empire he purchases a run down disused Dolphinarium with the intention of turning it into a porno cinema.

Upon buying the Dolphinarium, Dave is intrigued to find out that it's previous owner Mr Hubbard appears to be on the verge of a breakdown, he seems almost like he is being hunted...or haunted.

Teaming up with a girl named Lucy (who used to look after the Dolphins), Dave slowly starts to unravel the mystery concerning the old Dolphinarium, Hubbard and a long dead Dolphin known as Buddy boy...

PERFORMANCES - Martin Shaw is a  highly respected character actor these days, but back in the mid 70's he was still an up and coming new young actor.

Shaw eventually became a household name in 1977 when he first played what is still probably his most famous role - Doyle in the ITV action/spy/cop show The Professionals.

So here we have Shaw in 1976, pretty much a full year before he hit the big time. The role of Dave that he plays here is a million miles away from the cool, heroic action hero that is Doyle. He's still really good in the role though.

Dave is basically a wide boy conman with delusions of grandeur. He's made a crooked income from running a sleazy strip joint and now wants to branch out into running a grindhouse style porno cinema, for some reason he thinks this will somehow make him a more "respectable" businesses man (like I said, he's completely delusional). Dave is basically a small time gangster (the type of character who's arse he would be kicking as Doyle in The Professionals in just a short year's time), he's not averse to a bit of blackmail and intimidation to get what he wants. He's cocky, arrogant and basically considers himself to be a big fish in what is (presumably) a pretty small pond.

Dave is basically an unlikeable character...BUT - during the course of this story he gets one chance of redemption, and this comes in the form of Lucy (Pamela Moisiwitsch).

Lucy is a young homeless girl who Dave finds living in the bowels of the Dolphinarium. It turns out she actually used to work there and had nowhere else to go when the place closed down. Whilst working there Lucy found she had a bond with the Dolphins, most particularly with a Dolphin called Buddy boy who sadly died whilst in captivity (mainly due to the appalling conditions he was kept in).

Lucy is not conventionally attractive (definitely not Dave's usual type which normally tends to be your typical 70's blonde, leggy, 'dolly bird'), nevertheless he finds himself drawn to her. Lucy has a tragic, sweet quality and an ethereal prettiness about her. She's also a total innocent and it's this quality which ultimately seals her fate.

Rounding out the cast is Wolfe Morris who gives an excellent sweaty, nervy performance as Hubbard, the previous owner of the Dolphinarium and the man who's cost cutting carelessness led to the death of Buddy boy.

As the story progresses we see that Hubbard appears to be haunted by the ghost of the dead dolphin. He hears the clicking- ratchet of a Dolphin "voice" wherever he goes. It's quite clear that Hubbard is becoming increasingly unhinged but is the ghost really the spirit of an undead vengeful Dolphin (ridiculous, right ?), or merely audio hallucinations produced by Hubbard's fast descent into madness ? It's only by the end of the story do we have even the slightest inkling of what's going on.

Oh, and that little matter of Lucy being Dave's potential redemption that I mentioned earlier ?...

Dave completely blows it. Big time. More on that later...

SFX - None whatsoever, it's all down to the sound design and implication, it leaves the viewer free to use thier imagination and is all the better for it. After all, an undead killer Dolphin would probably have looked a bit shit on a 1970's ITV budget.

SEX & VIOLENCE - Hubbard kills himself, driven utterly insane by the klicks and Klacks of Buddy boy.

Dave and Lucy have sex...and here's where Dave blows it. Lucy...poor sweet innocent Lucy is totally besotted by Dave at this point and thinks her love is going to be reciprocated.

It's not.

Impressed by Lucy's abilities in the sack, the thoughtful gentleman that is Dave offers her a job working in his strip club and even promises to make her a porn star. (Yep... he's a total dick). Understandably incensed (and heartbroken), Lucy goes into the bathroom, hears Buddy boy "speaking" to her and promptly drowns herself in the bath.

It is left to Dave to discover her corpse, and to hear the ominous, disembodied sound of a Dolphin's clicks...THE END.

RATING - On paper Buddy boy sounds like it has an utterly ridiculous concept (man being haunted by ghostly Dolphin is NOT something that would immediately smash anybody's fear buttons), BUT thanks to the fact that you never actually see the ghost, mixed with an inherently creepy atmosphere, this story actually works against all odds.

This is helped by the great performances, the tight script and the sense of ambiguity mixed with sleaziness that hangs over the whole thing.

Not an out and out classic but pretty decent stuff all the same. Give it a go if you fancy something a little different. 3 and a half ghostly Dolphins out of 5.

ART -