Plague... pre-dates Romero's zombies by two years, but the social commentary was already there. Peter Bryan's script takes social evils and the abuse inherent in the class structure of the time, sets it in rural England, and creates an impressive allegory for the privileged classes exploiting the workers. The contempt that Squire Hamilton and his men hold for the villagers is made clear from the beginning when his hunt destroys a funeral in pursuit of a fox. Squire Hamilton represents the decadent upper-classes, he has mastered voodoo through the Colonial oppression of other countries and now uses that knowledge to turn townspeople into zombies so that they'll work in his unsafe mine. Greed has taken hold of the wealthy so completely that the poor are reduced to little more than units of productions. Despite the allegories in the film, it's still retains the familiar qualities of a Hammer horror. The usual atmospheric gothic wonderland is created by the masterful set designer Bernard Robinson, making this Cornish village feel like something from another world. In fact at times it feels more like one of Hammer's vampire films than a zombie movie, with much of the imagery (especially the zombies' rise from the grave) looking like an extract from a Dracula sequel and Morell's Sir James Forbes feeling like a stand-in for Van Helsing. Plague often feels underrated among more mainstream fans, possibly due to the lack of both familiar Hammer symbols, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, in the cast. But among genre fans it's rightly rated as one of the finest offerings, aided in no small part by the superb script and incredible performances from Morell and Carson. Hammer films are all too often dismissed as little more than lurid helpings of blood and cleavage, but there's a great intelligence to many of their films, whether it's the exploration of religious mythology and what it means to be human in Quatermass and the Pit, the question of man's bestial nature in The Abominable Snow Man, or this chilling exploration of the tyranny and oppression that the powerful will often inflict on the weak. DW.

I can’t really hope to write a review even half as well as Jamesbondguy (Will Stanton) for this film. His passion for it is obvious, and more profound than mine, for although I respect this film after only a first viewing, I can’t say it’s anywhere near my favourite Rohmer like it is his. As I said in my recently-posted review of “Full Moon in Paris”, Rohmer is my favourite French director, and sits in my top five directors of any kind. I won’t go into that too much, but I love the way that he explores relationships and characters, and how he doesn’t live in clichés or stereotypes like many directors working today. And, in fact, “Suzanne’s Career” is certainly a continuation (or, rather, a beginning, for this is one of his earliest works) of these themes. It is, essentially, a three character film. Bertrand (Phillipe Buezen) is a student whose friend, Guillaume (Christian Charriere) is exploiting the weak and feeble Suzanne (Catherine See) of the title. Seeing an opportunity for financial gain, Bertrand himself begins to extract money out of Suzanne for himself, but stops short of the level that Guillaume – who exploits Suzanne for sex – goes to. But, like many (or even all) Rohmer films, “Suzanne’s Career” isn’t really about the plot. Instead, it’s about characters, and how they interact with each other. Replacing cinematic techniques with the mindscape of a literary work thanks to Bertrand’s matter-of-fact, internalized narration, Rohmer goes about telling his story with an eye for characterization. Rather than letting the plot drive the characters, Rohmer lets the characters drive the plot, and although that’s most certainly the case in all Rohmer films its present here in its rawest fashion. I can’t say that this is my favourite film from the director by a long shot, but “Suzanne’s Career” is certainly a well-realized, smart, and poignant film brimming with realism and fine characterisation, even if it is a little bit light in comparison to Rohmer’s later, more accomplished works. JB.