The Hellfire Club

Baker and Berman produced, directed and shot this yarn, written by Leon Griffiths and Jimmy Sangster, and based, peripherally, on the dodgy doings of the 18th century club for sensation-seeking gentlemen. Jason, an orphaned acrobat in a travelling circus (Michell, suitably energetic), is heir to the Netherden estate, which has been usurped by his cousin Thomas, the Hellfire's decadent new president (Arne). To retrieve what's his, Jason becomes a Netherden groom, arouses Thomas's mistress (Corri) and ends in Newgate under sentence of death, until the Prime Minister intervenes to save him. Surprisingly light on debauchery and occasionally perhaps too jocular for its own good, this costume melodrama nevertheless occasionally skips out of the rut.