June 27, 2006
Lindsay Shonteff died
Canadian-born director Lindsay Shonteff (who died aged 70 on 11 March, the same day as Slobodan Milosevic) was known for making cheap and crap, yet weirdly compelling, genre movies. Not one of them is a classic - or even a cult classic - but they're part of a small tradition of down & dirty British exploitation flicks. I would put Shonteff in a similar category to Pete Walker, Norman Cohen, and Norman J. Warren: all distinctive auteurist Brit directors, none of whom have made anything that's actually any good.
Starting with a one-actor sort called The Bum, Shonteff's first splash was with the horror picture Devil Doll, a silly but lively cheapo. He went on to make more horror movies (the fun voodoo-themed Curse of Simba), an imitation of Italian giallo movies (Night After Night After Night), a couple of spy spoofs (Licenced to Love and Kill, Number One Gun), one of Harry Alan Towers's international Fu Manchu knock-offs (The Million Eyes of Sumuru - not as good as its companion piece, Jess Franco's Girl From Rio), and various others.
Probably his best were Big Zapper and The Swordsman, both starring Linda Marlowe as gun-toting private eye Harriet Zapper. A blend of of British sex comedy and ITV-style action/adventure, these unique movies should appeal to those with a nostalgic yearning for '70s Brit comic books. Sadly, they don't appear to have been released on DVD anywhere.
The poor bastard was so obscure that over three months on, his official website doesn't even mentioned that he died. But he's still remembered.
R.I.P. Lindsay Shonteff. May your movies, one day, bring you immortality.
