The Orchard End Murder

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MichaelB · #1 Post by **MichaelB** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 2:19 pm

On 24 July, the BFI’s Flipside series continues with its 35th release – The Orchard End Murder directed by Christian Marnham. Set in a sleepy English village, this 1980 shocker is a rare example of the British mini-feature which was commonly shown in UK cinemas in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Big Ben · #2 Post by **Big Ben** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 5:26 pm

Does anyone know anything about this one? Googling it returned next to no information.

GaryC · #3 Post by **GaryC** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 5:29 pm

Big Ben wrote:Does anyone know anything about this one? Googling it returned next to no information.

Short film (49 mins) which played as support to Dead and Buried on its original release. I've heard of it by reputation, but haven't seen it so thumbs up for this release from me.

jlnight · #4 Post by **jlnight** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 6:30 pm

Never seen it, never heard of it but apparently it has an early appearance from Rik Mayall, its director has some credits on Dempsey and Makepeace and it made it to the ITV regions in the 1980s, twice, although someone on a film forum claimed it was meant to be shown on Central but was pulled because of a real life murder in the news. Also one of the director's films was about the making of the 1972 Pirelli calendar!

rawlinson · #5 Post by **rawlinson** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 10:44 pm

It's been years since I watched it but I remember it being quite strong and having quite a sinister atmosphere and being generally nastier than I expected. From memory

Spoiler

A young woman is at a rural train station, gets pursued through an orchard by the station master's mentally challenged assistant and is raped and murdered.

Big Ben · #6 Post by **Big Ben** » Wed Jun 07, 2017 11:09 pm

rawlinson wrote:It's been years since I watched it but I remember it being quite strong and having quite a sinister atmosphere and being generally nastier than I expected. From memory

Spoiler
A young woman is at a rural train station, gets pursued through an orchard by the station master's mentally challenged assistant and is raped and murdered.

That would fit the content description I saw the BBFC. It's "18" for exactly what you described. The site also indicates it was cut. Apparently the content in question was cut to secure an "X" rating by the makers themselves.

My knowledge of past ratings is poor but goodness.

GaryC · #7 Post by **GaryC** » Thu Jun 08, 2017 6:31 am

Big Ben wrote:
rawlinson wrote:It's been years since I watched it but I remember it being quite strong and having quite a sinister atmosphere and being generally nastier than I expected. From memory

Spoiler
A young woman is at a rural train station, gets pursued through an orchard by the station master's mentally challenged assistant and is raped and murdered.
That would fit the content description I saw the BBFC. It's "18" for exactly what you described. The site also indicates it was cut. Apparently the content in question was cut to secure an "X" rating by the makers themselves.

My knowledge of past ratings is poor but goodness.

That was on its original submission back in 1981 - one shot removed apparently. I don't know if that shot is in the version just passed 18 or not.

MichaelB · #8 Post by **MichaelB** » Thu Jun 29, 2017 11:24 am

Full specs announced:

BFI Flipside presents
The Orchard End Murder
A film by Christian Marnham

Dual Format Edition (DVD/Blu-ray) release on 24 July 2017

Set in an idyllic Kent village one balmy summer during the 1960s, The Orchard End Murder, an obscure British oddity from 1981, is a macabre tale of murder and mischief.

Released in a Dual Format Edition on 24 July 2017, this is the 35th title on the BFI Flipside label, which rescues weird and wonderful British films from obscurity and presents them in new high quality editions on DVD and Blu-ray.

A young woman from the suburbs (Tracy Hyde, Melody), bored by a countryside tryst, wanders off to explore her surroundings. When she meets a gnome-like stationmaster and his towering, half-witted railway-worker friend (played by Casualty’s Clive Mantle), an initially strange encounter turns sinister among the trees of a nearby orchard.

Written and directed by Christian Marnham and shot by Pete Walker’s regular cameraman Peter Jessop, The Orchard End Murder is a violent, darkly humorous thriller, unseen since it originally shocked UK cinemas audiences as the supporting feature to Gary Sherman’s Dead and Buried.

Special features
• Presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
• The Showman (Christian Marnham, 1970, 25 mins): Short documentary about fairground Wild West showman Wally Shufflebottom
• Christian Marnham on The Orchard End Murder (2017, 38 mins)
• Christian Marnham on The Showman (2017, 5 mins)
• From Melody to Orchard End Murder: An Interview with Tracy Hyde (2017, 12 mins)
• An Interview with David Wilkinson (2017, 13 mins)
• Illustrated booklet with new writing by Josephine Botting and Vic Pratt, and full film credits

Product details
RRP: £19.99/ Cat. no. BFIB1277 / Cert 18 / BFI Flipside No. 035
UK / 1981 / colour / 50 mins + special features / English language, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles / original aspect ratio 1.85:1 // BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono (48kHz/24-bit) / DVD9: PAL, 25fps, Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (320kbps)

frankiecrisp · #9 Post by **frankiecrisp** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:27 am

Has this been put back my pre-order at amazon says available in one to two months

MichaelB · #10 Post by **MichaelB** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 10:30 am

frankiecrisp wrote:Has this been put back my pre-order at amazon says available in one to two months

I can confirm that physical copies exist, because one's sitting mere feet away as I type this.

So I suspect it's Amazon's algorithms up the spout again.

tenia · #11 Post by **tenia** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 11:44 am

Might be their stock simply was a bit late to arrive to them.

frankiecrisp · #12 Post by **frankiecrisp** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:08 pm

tenia wrote:Might be their stock simply was a bit late to arrive to them.

spoke on the phone to them normal stock answers 1) the release date has been changed 2) its a limited edition . they don't have a clue. now looking for another retailer

tenia · #13 Post by **tenia** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 1:38 pm

I don't think it's limited at all.

frankiecrisp · #14 Post by **frankiecrisp** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:08 pm

tenia wrote:I don't think it's limited at all.

neither do I but that's a normal answer from amazon when they don't have a clue

rawlinson · #15 Post by **rawlinson** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 9:06 pm

My local HMV branch didn't have it in stock on Monday either. They told me that Sony had changed their delivery method lately and some stock was being delayed. I didn't realise BFI still kept their stock in the Sony warehouse following that fire a few years back, but if they do that could explain the delay.

Ste · #16 Post by **Ste** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 6:07 am

rawlinson wrote:My local HMV branch didn't have it in stock on Monday either. They told me that Sony had changed their delivery method lately and some stock was being delayed. I didn't realise BFI still kept their stock in the Sony warehouse following that fire a few years back, but if they do that could explain the delay.

Sony DADC opened a new Enfield warehouse in September 2012, so that's not the reason:

http://www.sonydadc.com/en/metanavigati ... -riots-40/

I bought The Orchard End Murder in Fopp Manchester on Monday, so copies are out there in the wild. It's more likely that your local HMV neglected to order any in, and Amazon just seems like a cock-up pure and simple.

frankiecrisp · #17 Post by **frankiecrisp** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 12:34 pm

Ste wrote:
I bought The Orchard End Murder in Fopp Manchester on Monday, so copies are out there in the wild. It's more likely that your local HMV neglected to order any in, and Amazon just seems like a cock-up pure and simple.

the joys of living in a place where you can walk into a shop and buy blu-rays dvds or even cds sainsburys and tesco don't stock BFI product and they are all we have in our tiny town population 67k

Ste · #18 Post by **Ste** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 1:53 pm

frankiecrisp wrote:
Ste wrote:
I bought The Orchard End Murder in Fopp Manchester on Monday, so copies are out there in the wild. It's more likely that your local HMV neglected to order any in, and Amazon just seems like a cock-up pure and simple.
the joys of living in a place where you can walk into a shop and buy blu-rays dvds or even cds sainsburys and tesco don't stock BFI product and they are all we have in our tiny town population 67k

Then again, you probably don't have to fight your way through hordes of spice-zombies to get to the shops, so there's something to be said for small town living.

Fopp is great, though.

colinr0380 · #19 Post by **colinr0380** » Thu Jul 27, 2017 6:58 pm

Just received mine. By the way this is Flipside #35!

rawlinson · #20 Post by **rawlinson** » Fri Jul 28, 2017 5:01 pm

Definitely just a delay in my local branch as they had multiple copies in stock yesterday. I remember about 15 years ago, when I first saw a bootleg copy of Orchard End Murder, debating the possibility of it ever getting some kind of dvd release, alongside some of the other British supporting features of a similar period like Panic and Sleepwalker, and it seemed such an impossibility, and now they're getting top quality blu ray releases. So grateful the Flipside range exists.

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