This June, Tigon British Film Productions founder Tony Tenser will be celebrated with a one-day event in his adopted home, Southport. Seaside Screams: A Day of Tony Tenser and Tigon will take place at the Bijou Cinema on Saturday, June 21st, and will screen three of the studio’s movies, two of which were filmed in the town.

The films being shown are What’s Good for the Goose (1969), a sex comedy with the legendary Norman Wisdom in a role that’s a world away from his famed lovable fool persona. This will be followed by The Haunted House of Horror (1969), in which chart-topping crooner Frankie Avalon stars opposite Jill Haworth and Dennis Price. Both these films utilised Southport locations. Closing the day will be The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971), which, alongside another Tigon film, Witchfinder General, is considered part of the ‘unholy trinity’ of folk horror movies (The Wicker Man being the third, naturally). All the films will have an introduction.

Seaside Screams will also see the launch of the new edition of John Hamilton’s book, Beasts in the Cellar. John will be interviewed about Tony’s career and will also sign copies of the book.

The event is being put together by Stephen Fenerty, who said, “I’ve been fascinated by Tony Tenser and his films for years, and he was a guest at the Manchester Festival of Fantastic Films, which I attended for many years. Tony retired to my hometown, Southport, on the Lancashire coast, in the late 1970s and lived there for many years. His Rolls-Royce was a familiar sight around town. Growing up, I remember seeing The Beast in the Cellar (1971), also set in Lancashire, and with a protagonist called Steven, and being struck by how dark, grubby, and, well, 1970s it all was. We’re showing The Blood on Satan’s Claw at the event in June, and The Beast in the Cellar was first released in the UK on a double-bill with that.”

Stephen told us what spurred the idea for the event: “A couple of years ago, when I was visiting Southport, I decided to visit Tony’s grave. I asked my friend, the writer and critic John Hamilton, who wrote the definitive account of Tony’s exploitation film career for Fab Press, and he sent me the location. It’s a quiet spot. That’s when I thought: wouldn’t it be great to have a celebration of Tony’s life and films in the town where he made a couple, and where he spent his final years? I later mentioned it to John, and he said there were plans for a revised edition of the book, and perhaps we could combine the two. In addition, I’ve known the guys who run the Southport Bijou Cinema for quite some time, Andy, Lewis, and Phil, and regularly see them at FrightFest. So it was a natural venue to approach. The Bijou is a community interest company and is sponsoring the day. It’s a brilliant, award-winning gem of a cinema.”

Renowned screenwriter and critic, as well as an all-around great guy, David McGillivray, will also be in attendance to open the proceedings, discussing the context of exploitation filmmaking and Soho in the late 1960s and early 1970s. David also wrote the Tony Tenser-produced Frightmare, the producer’s last film. In 1992, he was quoted as saying, “The British film industry is gasping its last because there is no one like Tony Tenser to kick it back to life. He was the Irving Thalberg of the exploitation movie, and like the boy wonder of MGM, his career was too short.”

Seaside Screams: A Day of Tony Tenser and Tigon takes place at the Bijou Cinema on Saturday, June 21st. You can buy tickets here. Stephen Fenerty sums up the event succinctly: “Tony was quite a guy. It will be great to remember him in Southport.”