Saturday, January 1, 2011

I START COUNTING - Kirchin/Ryan - "You Must Be Sick" (1969)

So 2010 is "Dead & Buried," BAM!! Just like that, and now it's 01-01-11, and what better film title could you want to begin a year like this with, than "I Start Counting."

"I Start Counting" is a different film on a number of different levels, starting with the 17 year old star, Jenny(Logan's Run)Agutter as Wynne Kinch! Unlike a lot of others, Jenny is still working today!. Just to show you the diversity of her talent, Jenny also sang backing vocals on the 1990 Prefab Sprout song "Wild Horses." Jenny's real love in life is charity work for The Diabetic Association and NCH Action for Children, a charity that provides homes and other help for homeless children!

Wynne is adopted and her family is a little strange, there's Billy Russell as Grandpa, Madge Ryan as Mother Kinch, and Gregory Phillips as weirdo brother Len Kinch! Madge was also in "A Clockwork Orange" and Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy!"

But the biggest problem is that Wynne is totally infatuated with her much older brother, Bryan Marshall as George Kinch, and George has secrets!!

"I Start Counting" is a saucy little film, and the main guy stirring the sauce on the music was composer and drummer Basil Kirchin! Basil was also co-leader of The Ivor and Basil Kirchin Orchestra, sometimes know as The Kirchin Brothers, even though Ivor was Basil's father!! Basil has some swingin' horror credits to his fine name, like "Mutations," and "The Abominable Dr. Phibes!"

Wynne's best friend is the not as cute as she thinks she is, Clare(The Best Pair Of Legs In The Business)Sutcliffe, as the obnoxious little trollop Corinne Eldridge!

I really do miss going to the record store!!

Other songs in the film are "I Start Counting" sung by Lindsey Moore, "Homemade Aeroplane" sung by Jackie Taylor, and "They Want Love" and "Children" sung by Tony Kingston. All the lyrics were written by Pat Ryan!

Every Friday George goes off to build shelves for a neighbor lady, but when Wynne investigates, she finds out that the lady doesn't really have that many shelves at all!

The olde Kinch homestead has it's own stories to tell!

Wynne has quite a vivid dream, not too unlike one I had the other night for some reason!

Wynne tries confession without much results! George is 32 and she's 15, but it's rational in her mind, because they are not really related, since she's adopted, so it's not really incest, and she tries to properly explain that to the priest!

Wynne tells the tart Corinne that she's going on a date to have sex for the first time, and as she leaves on the bus, Corinne yells at her that she's done it seven times already, "Seven Times!!!!!!!"

This composite transition shot tells the whole tale, "Your dress is too short!"

And I really miss going to the record store that had listening booths!

When Wynne goes to George's work to tell him something, she gets a good eyeful of just what a dirty mind he has! Can't get away with that these days!

See it all started when Wynne was spying on George, and she saw some scratches on his back, and then he hid a blood-stained sweater, and there has been a serial killer on the loose, so she hides in his van and spies on him to see where he really goes!!

Well, it turns out George has a secret girl friend, and while he was inside her house knockin' it out, Wynne had nothing to do except drink George's booze. So now, they called out the autorities because Wynne is missing and when she finally sneaks back in her house, The Mother gives Wynne some more booze to calm her down, and we get some great acting by Jenny Agutter!!

Dungeon longtime pal, and writer extraordinaire, Greg Goodsell turned me on to "I Start Counting," saying it had a swinging soundtrack, and Jenny Agutter in knee socks, how could you go wrong, and he was 100% correctite!

Creepy, but way different than anything Hammer was doing around the same time! Stick with it, it takes a while, but it gets pretty dark at the end!

Good horror wrapped up with murder and incest, but don't worry, Jenny will make it, she's still got a long career ahead of her! Long out of print, I do believe I recently saw that "I Start Counting" was available on Netflix, so now it's time for you to start counting too!

9 comments:

zillagord said...

A Prefab Sprout reference. A sure sign this is gonna be a good year.

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

Good sign, starting the year off with Z, now we can go forward into the past all the way to A!!

Christopher said...

nice little film full of local color..good music..

Greg Goodsell said...

What did I tell you? The screenshots were better than the actual dodgey DVD rip I sent you!!!!

mister mark said...

the BBC showed this on telly once in the 80s and never repeated it.i was lucky. i was watching! it was a kinky little number and i remember fancying jenny agutter something rotten, which is ok because i was probably only about 15 at the time too. and i can still remember the haunting theme tune after all these years..

zillagord said...

"Forward into the past"! Firesign reference, sure sign this is gonna...

Prof. Grewbeard said...

i had a serious crush on Jenny Agutter from "Equus" but this is a bit too kinky...

Anonymous said...

Little bit late for this, but Wynne's infatuation is not "incest" because she is not related to George.

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

Yo Anonymous, since you're so late, I think you have time to go back and re-read it, I clearly stated "because they are not really related, since she's adopted, so it's not really incest"

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