I honestly wouldn't go as far as to call "Welcome to Arrow Beach" a good film, not nearly in fact, but it's definitely an intriguing and bizarrely compelling mess! This film features the themes and plot aspects of a typically sick-spirited and coarse exploitation flick of the early 70s, but at the same time it has the cast and the musical guidance (Lou Rawls!) of a more sophisticated and ambitious melodrama. The supportive cast is already impressive, with names like Joanna Pettet and John Ireland, while the lead actor/director Laurence Harvey even briefly was a respectable A-listed actor who appeared in blockbusters like "The Manchurian Candidate" and "The Alamo". For some incomprehensible reason, Laurence Harvey decided – shortly before his untimely death due to stomach cancer – to direct himself depicting a dangerously disturbed Korean War veteran who lures gullible girls into the fancy beach house that he shares with his sister, but only with the intention to hack 'em up in the basement and EAT them! We slowly (
VERY slowly
), through incomplete and obscure flashbacks, learn that Harvey's character Jason Henry got forced to revert to cannibalism during the war in order to survive, which evidently left him severely traumatized and mentally unstable for life. The main problem with "Welcome to Arrow Beach", apart from the at times intolerably slow pacing, is that practically nothing happens and that the horror of it all almost exclusively relies on suggestion. We never see Jason Henry consume human flesh and there are only two short and rather vague sequences in which he waves around a meat cleaver and pulls the face of a genuine madman. The other 98% of the film's footage revolves around the naive but lush hippie girl Robbin Stanley (played by a young Meg Foster who only just recently had a glorious supportive role in Rob Zombie's "31") who consecutively survives a wicked hitch-hike with a crazed hot rod driver, narrowly escapes from Henry's slaughter basement, gets called a liar by the police and then flees with a hunky doctor's assistant. Then there's also the completely irrelevant and dull sub plot of the local Sheriff who runs a campaign in order to get re-elected
There are a few isolated moments of suspense, mainly accomplished by Harvey himself thanks to his intense performance, and the fairly brutish massacre of a depressed middle-aged prostitute is the film's dubious highlight.
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Clayton8 October 1999This little-seen horror drama features Harvey in his final film appearance. He is a war veteran who lives along a California beach who kills people and supposedly eats them (though he is never seen doing it in the film). Foster is a hippie chick who, while staying with Harvey and his sister one evening, finds him hacking up a corpse in the basement. Good cast helps this slow-moving thriller, as well as some imaginative photography and editing. But, LOU RAWLS singing the theme song?? Come on!
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christopher-underwood5 February 2014A real oddity, this one. Stars Laurence Harvey who also directed and would die before the film was released. Indeed Harvey does not look well or perform well and it is sad that his career should have ended this way. Not that I ever thought him much of an actor but he certainly had a presence when younger and could successfully bring his personality to bear on a film if nothing else. Not here sadly for this is generally poorly directed and poorly performed by all concerned, though we do get a spirited performance from an aged Gloria LeRoy. Indeed her turn precipitates the best sequence in the whole film and certainly prevents any chance of dropping off. Just about worth seeing for it is certainly a little bit different but could have been so much better.
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Scott-428 May 2000Gotta dig that funky 70's soundtrack, and at times the film doesn't know if it is a romance, comedy, thriller, or horror film, but it is still pretty entertaining. The ending was a little abrupt and there were lots of plot threads left dangling, but all in all it takes you right back to 1974.
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Serpent-511 October 1999Harvey's last film (in which he reportedly help edit by phone in his deathbed) is a twisted would be horror film that Warner Bros barely released. (it played in Seattle many years later in one drive-in as TENDER FLESH released by Brut). Harvey plays a Korean war vet who ate human flesh to survive in the jungle, but now he has a sickness and not even his sister (who's also his lover) Pettet can stop. Meg Foster plays a hitchhiker that he befriends, who witnesses him doing something evil in the basement and she might be his next victim. Interesting cast (whitman and Ireland together again for the 4th time), and lurid feel that the film has. Lou Rawls sings the main theme, which is a nice song, but really has nothing to do witht he film! There's a blooper in the end credit as you see cars drive backwards. I don't know why Harvey, a respected actor would direct a B horror film, but I read many stories on him being strange, so the story must have grabbed him. Use to be a cable classic in the old days, and played very heavily cut on TV with cut out the cannibal angle so the film is very confusing, as the TV version just makes him out to be a killer, and nothing more. I believe it is the first major studio film to deal with cannibalism.
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ashwetherall110 December 2008Welcome to Arrow Beach is a really remarkable little movie. I first saw it about five years ago . It was shown on channel 5 at a about 2am in the morning and I must say I really had no intention of going the distance with this little film.
But how wrong I was. I found myself hooked, and I must say at that time I couldn't reason why.
Lets put it this way. Welcome to Arrow Beach is badly edited, has a crappy theme tune by Lou Rawls, the story has no real pace and the direction by Laurence Harvey needs a lot to be desired.
Now that's just the basics about what's wrong with this little film. But still I watched it all the way though to the end. Now I must point out that that night I had set my DVD recorder to tape a movie on another channel at around that same time as Welcome to Arrow Beach was being shown on channel five. But I had made a mistake . I later found that I had inadvertently taped Arrow beach instead. This was my blessing in disguise, as I found my self watching this movie over and over.
The basic story deals with a Photographer played by Laurence Harvey who picks up and befriends hitchhikers or runaways, all of whom seem to be women.
He then takes them home to meet his sister/ lover played by the gorgeous Joanna Pettet. Then he lures them to his basement photo studio where he then chops them up to eat. A young Meg Foster falls foul of Harvey and Pettet but manages to escape. As always the police don't believe her. "Would You". So she try's to expose them her self. Yes This movie is that mad. But its also pure cult in the same way that we see Last house on the Left or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as Cult.
Its bloody too like these movies and like Texas Chainsaw its not gratuitous. The acting is pure 1970s prime time television if you know what I mean.. if you don't ,, well check out Macmillan and wife.
I have since found out why this movie isn't technically sound . The reason was that Laurence Harvey who starred and also directed this movie was dieing. He apparently edited the movie on his death bed. This would also explain why he looked in so much pain during the movie. Welcome to Arrow Beach isn't a great movie because its well made, lets face it , it isn't. In my opinion it's a great movie because it's so hard to define. Plus there is a real feeling that everyone was pulling together on it.. Try watching it and you might see what I mean.
After learning the history of the movie I got the feeling that this was a team movie. Not a good movie. But theirs a lot of love on that screen, oh and blood, guts and bad singing. Some say that Laurence Harvey's last movie was a bad one.. Those people would be Warner Bros they buried the movie. I'd say Welcome to Arrow Beach Trashy, very Cult but, strangely watchable. Check it out. -
aodugo4 April 2005Looking over other viewer comments, I feel like I missed some significant footage -- sad, because I saw this as a candidate film for the National Film Registry. My experience was that the cannibalism wasn't even broached -- "hinted at" is a smaller and more fitting description. I started out with the understanding that the film deals with this topic, so it was easy for me to find the theme in the disjointed images that Harvey (allegedly from his deathbed) pieced together. However, in the edit that I saw, Harvey really only approached the subject during the dinner scene, which to the uninformed viewer, leaves Jason Henry coming off only as a rather perverse murderer.
As a red-toned color film, it kept with the 70s feel, especially with the Lou Rawls theme song that really seems not to fit at all, and it's definitely the sort of film that you can settle into on a Saturday afternoon.
For the most part, I felt that it was a shaky effort that obviously suffers from the (unavoidable) lack of directorial input in the final stages.
Despite this, the one incredibly positive thing I have to say is that Harvey did succeed in creating one impacting, chilling, flawless scene in a movie of otherwise so-so acting. Harvey is the perennial director, and this is never so evident as when he plays Jason Henry behind a camera. The moments just prior and after this are really unspectacular, but in the few seconds that the viewer is looking at the visage of Harvey, peering from behind the camera with diabolical intent, I was completely stunned and frightened, not because Harvey belonged in the psyche of a killer, but because the killer belonged behind the camera -- Harvey's character became more real, more insidious because the character encompassed a real person. Not a better case for method acting exists, I would venture. -
A veteran of the Korean War whose grisly past experiences has given him an unhealthy appetite for human flesh, owns a large beach house in California where he lives with his similarly unhinged sister. An unsuspecting young woman winds up spending the night at their house of horrors.
This little horror obscurity has cannibalism as its central theme. Although, in fairness, there wasn't much in the way of actual cannibalism on display here. In fact, there is only a quite limited serving of horror at all in this one. This is a bit of a shame, as when the movie decides to ramp things up with a bit of bloody mayhem, it is quite effectively done. The most memorable scene in this regard is the bloody murder of a middle-aged woman which was somewhat visceral in a sort of H.G. Lewis sort of a way. In other words, when our chief cannibal madman brandishes a meat cleaver and sports a demented look, you know things are about to pick up. Mostly though, the horror is implied and under the surface. I am also always pretty forgiving for any early 70's movie with a sunny Californian vibe and especially forgiving if it features a hippy chick, so I kind of cut this one a bit of slack more or less straight away. The schlock horror, while limited, was also just excessive enough to be memorably gruesome. In summary, this is a fairly basic film but it offers enough if you have a weakness for early 70's exploitation. -
poolandrews22 January 2006Welcome to Arrow Beach starts one sunny 70's Californian day as teenage hitchhiker Robbin Stanley (Meg Foster) is trying to thumb her next ride when an idiot (Jesse Vint) in a souped up yellow Hot Rod stops & offers Robbin a lift. As they head down the freeway he tries to chat her up, he offers her some of his cocaine & starts to speed to the extent that he draws the unwanted attention of Deputy Rakes (Stuart Whitman). In a high speed chase the doped up driver crashes, Robbin is unhurt & discovers she is in the small American coastal town of Arrow Beach population 7,500. Robbin walks along the beach & is spotted by a photographer named Jason Henry (director Laurence Harvey) who appears very friendly & invites Robbin back to his beach-front house for dinner & to stay the night, Robbin agrees to Jason's hospitality. Jason lives with his sister Grace (Joanna Pettet) who Jason claims has mental problems. That night Robbin makes a shocking discovery in the basement that suggests it's not Grace with the mental problems, psycho with a big meat clever alert!
Also known under the titles Cold Storage & Tender Flesh Welcome to Arrow Beach starred & was directed by Laurence Harvey who according to the IMDb died of stomach cancer in 1973. Harvey was close to death when the film went into post-production so I guess it's unlikely he ever saw the finished article & rumour has it that he literally telephoned in his editorial input. I must also say that Welcome to Arrow Beach exists in two distinct versions, a short one that had 15 minutes cut by the then distributor Brut Pictures & a full length one that has, again going by the IMDb, never been released in America. It is the long version I will be basing my comments on. The script by Wallace C. Bennett is really slow, virtually the entire film is dialogue driven. I can't stress enough just how much of Welcome to Arrow Beach is dull dialogue ranging from youth's of the time taking drugs, the perils of drugs, the treatment of war vets & people with mental problems, small town bigotry & other seriously unappealing topics that feel out of place in a film that's supposed to be about cannibalism. This is one boring film & at 100 minutes long the time drags, badly. Various plot threads like the investigating cop are completely dropped by the end & go nowhere. On a positive note the film threatened to break out into greatness (unfortunately it never did) as it a has a good idea behind it & there are one or two nice moments in it.
Director Harvey films with competence & it looks nice enough if a little bland & forgettable. The film & Harvey's character reminds of Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), or is that just me? Forget about any substantial amounts of gore, there is one very effective & quite shocking scene when Henry gorily kills a woman with a meat clever & there is one single shot of the nasty contents of his walk in freezer, that's it. One more thing at no point does Henry engage in any act of cannibalism, in fact he doesn't eat a single thing during the entire film & the only meat eating scene in the film feature's a 'normal' looking steak.
The budget for this must have been low, as I've said virtually the entire duration of the film is dull dialogue between dull character's in the same house. It is quite well made & I have no real problems here except for some of the music which is ear-achingly bad at times. The acting was OK & a young Meg Foster does alright while genre veterans John Ireland & Stuart Whitman have small-ish roles.
Welcome to Arrow Beach was a big disappointment, I thought great a film about cannibalism & I get to see the full 100 minute version never released in America but what I ended up with was more a dull drama than a red blooded exploitation horror. Not worth wasting the time or effort to track a copy down, there's a reason why it's so obscure you know. -
The tantalizingly torrid, terrifically tasteless 70s terror flick, 'Tender Flesh' aka 'Welcome to Arrow Beach' (1974) is an inglorious intrusion into the insanely introverted, powerfully perverted, persistently peeping, sordidly sin-seeping brain of the sea-front dwelling, entertainingly insane, not just a little bit profane, sinisterly shock-headed swain, Jason Henry (Laurence Harvey).
'Tender Flesh' boasts a macabre, magnificently maladjusted male protagonist, whose perfectly perfidious peccadilloes not infrequently inspires a most gruesome fate for all his wretched victims, so brutally indisposed by Henry's all-too frequent flesh-feasting! Fans of the seamier side of obscure, off-beat American horror could do far worse than checking out neophyte director, Laurence Harvey's flawed, yet uniquely disturbing attempt at crafting a sleazily downbeat, Drive-In oddity. The uncommonly lovely, Joanna Pettet and mesmerizing cerulean-eyed goddess, Meg Foster, both adding a dazzling contrast of feminine luminosity to the otherwise morbidly dour, grimly monochromatic decent into Henry's haemoglobin harvesting monomania! Again, not a great film, and for many, perhaps, a truly dreadful one, but the manifestly strange happenings on Arrow Beach fascinated me enormously! -
BJJManchester12 December 2005The final screen appearance of Lithuanian-born,British-raised actor Laurence Harvey is a crude,grade-Z style horror movie which is made only just about tolerable because of a non-grade Z cast,with mildly well-known performers such as Stuart Whitman,John Ireland,Joanna Pettet and Meg Foster.
Harvey of course made one previous film about Korean war veterans,THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE(1962),but all similarities after this should be immediately erased.The former is now regarded as an all-time classic;this tasteless(literally!)story of a former soldier turned cannibal unable to escape his past is thinly plotted,poorly photographed,dismally produced and unsubtly directed(by Harvey himself).The shock scenes of gore and mutilated bodies in fridges are slightly effective in a grubby,clumsy way,but the film apparently was barely released by it's studio(Warners).Only the personable cast mentioned above make it very marginally watchable;odd member of the cast list lower down is veteran comic actress Florence Lake,playing a landlady,in one of her final film roles.The best remembered of Edgar Kennedy's screen wives in his series of two-reeler's,this probably hastened her retirement about a year later. -
chris-251212 July 2006Welcome To Arrow Beach is a film you haven't seen because it was withdrawn from American distribution for a long, long time. I saw it on a 35mm print at Cinemuerte in Vancouver. The print I saw was completely uncut. I couldn't imagine an edited version.
Although I agree that the film is a little slow to start, the end is like watching a twelve-car pile up on the Interstate. I'll never forget the final act of this film when everyone realizes what the creepy war vet is actually up to. The zeal with which the vet character goes off would be the Spinal Tap equivalent of an 11.
If you can find a copy of this film uncut, I recommend it. It's really a great film with excellent performers and solid camera-work. -
gregorycanfield6 August 2022Laurence Harvey died shortly after this film. Had he lived longer, I question whether this movie is something he would have wanted to be remembered for. The subject matter is distasteful, to say the least. However, the movie works well enough, within its own limits. Harvey has little to do with what makes the movie work. Most of the credit goes to the other actors. Particularly, Meg Foster. Wow! Yes, wow! She was captivating, as a braless hippie girl. Meg was at least 25 at the time, but her character was supposed to be only 18. She is invited to the house of Jason Henry, a war vet who is also a cannibal. Except for one rather bloody scene, the gore level is minimal. The parts of the movie which build suspense are much more effective than anything which is explicit. Joanna Pettet was too pretty to be believable as Harvey's sister. Their relationship, which contains hints of incest, make the premise less believable. Essentially, the movie works in spite of its own premise. Did I mention Meg Foster? All I can say is: Wow! I loved everything about her free, hippie look. She shows some skin, but not nearly enough! Meg was the best thing about this movie.
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HEFILM23 September 2010Low Rawls sings "Who can tell me why...we are all born to die" in a song that sounds like LOVE BOAT and Fantasy Island. The whole score is wretched a mix of vague easy listening 1950's to 1965, then tossed up with crappy wow wow guitar. The only thing worse than the music is that there is none at all for long bits in between. Really god awful distracting swill of a dated score. It was like bad TV music then but now...one of the worst. Imagine this film if scored by a real film composer and you have something totally different.
The flashback sequence to show Harvey becoming a cannibal after an air plane crash is pretty clearly a burning car not a plane and then a comical march through some rocks as each falls over dead, probably along the same beach we see in the rest of the film. It's terrible scene done with no money at all and a low point in a film that, though not great, is on one level then suddenly dips to this ED WOOD moment.
These are the low of low points. The one scene and there is really only one "kill" scene is very well done and it makes you think the movie will really take off after that but it doesn't.
Opening is pretty lively with Jessie Vint. Harvey as an actor never gets to really go on a full out crying crazy confessional rampage the way you'd hope. MEG FOSTER is pretty and fairly naked and plays the hippie girl with innocence that eventually is just vacantness when she should be trying to convince others of what is going on. The film feels like the movie was left out and we have outtakes from what was a odd disturbing and occasionally funny horror film. But most of that film remains just off camera. It is odd, it is(for most of the middle section) pretty talky but well enough acted that that wouldn't sink it, again after the one really effective kill scene is where it bogs down until the final sort of non climax.
Worth seeing to say you've seen it, copy I saw looked pretty bad which makes it rough going too. Doesn't delve into the strange psychology enough to make the sickos in the film truly creepy. -
horrorbargainbin21 August 2003Played this Tuesday on a double bill with Re-Animator. Introduced by Johnny Legend, there in the flesh, with that guy who runs one of the memorabilia stores on Hollywood blvd. They said it would probably never be shown again, ever. It's not on vhs or dvd. There is only one print.
A scene where an aging model is put out of her misery is amazing. Lots of splatter and a shock of a final scene that is very Ed Gein. The story is a bit goofy, but good at the same time. See it if you can. Oh, wait, you can't. Well there has got to be a way. -
maxineedwards-7878428 September 2021Robin, a young hitchhiker gets into a car accident and wanders off onto the beach where she meets an eccentric man who lives with his strange sister. He invites her to come have dinner and Robin discovers that he's a deranged cannibal who wants her for his next meal.
Welcome To Arrow Beach starts out well enough, but loses steam midway through and meanders until an eye popping scene of violence and gore towards the end of the film. -
kevinolzak2 September 2022"Welcome to Arrow Beach" was completed in March 1973, about 8 months before director/star Laurence Harvey succumbed to stomach cancer, a rather curious finale to a mostly sterling career. 5th billed Meg Foster is the real star, as we follow her runaway Robbin Stanley hitchhiking from New York to California, getting into the wrong car with a speed demon on cocaine who crashes with the cops in hot pursuit. She wanders on to a semi-private beach and goes skinny dipping, which is how she comes to the attention of Korean War veteran Jason Henry (Harvey), who lives atop the cliff with his beautiful sister Grace (Joanna Pettet), welcoming this naive and trusting waif into his well adorned home without Grace's consent. Dinner is hardly appetizing, Robbin wolfing down a blood red steak while the vegetarian Jason watches with obsessive fascination (hardly touching his plate), later preparing a handkerchief of chloroform to use against her until he realizes her bedroom door is locked. Robbin is awakened by loud thumps issuing from the cellar, well lit apart from the photographer's studio, where a meat locker is conveniently located; when she pulls open the door, she spies a frenzied Jason covered in blood, his lips smeared and meat cleaver at the ready. Breaking a window to escape into the night, the girl winds up in the hospital with a gash on her arm and still in shock, Jason expertly framing her by placing a narcotic and syringe in her bag to offer the police. Grace plays along with the charade that the chick was just another junkie, and that her brother was only playing the good host to a bad guest. Despite its reputation as an early effort about cannibalism, we see precious little of Jason's hardships in Korea to justify his taste for TENDER FLESH (the picture's more popular rerelease title), and the surprise revelation that brother and sister are actually lovers sadly also goes unexplored. Even the much-ballyhooed fright scenes amount to just one gory murder, Jason's meat cleaver doing its job in quick cuts during a photo shoot that turns gruesome for the unwitting model. Once Robbin ends up in a hospital bed we see little of either Jason or his sister, the cops so ineffective that they vanish altogether before the underwhelming climax, a 94 minute disappointment for horror fans and a bore for the gorehound crowd (especially the shorter 85 minute print). What should have been a character study of uncontrollable urges offers no depth for its central figures, Grace actually more interesting as she wants to keep things as they are without interference and certainly provides warm companionship when needed. Barely released and little seen since, a picture that only the curious might be able to take, extremely tame and low key in its leisurely way.
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mackduffent1 February 2001The production values and cast are quite good in this often horrifying suspenseful and gory picture. Lawrence Harvey is chilling as a "it's not his fault" cannibal. Meg Foster is good as a damsel about to be eaten and David Macklin is excellent as the handsome hero who comes to her aid.
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More like welcome to a DARK SHADOWS clone as it features a darkly lit mansion, with soap opera type characters, and a revved up soundtrack that quickly becomes overbearing. Basically about Foster a young, beautiful, and innocent runnaway ( she even sleeps with a stuffed doll) who gets in over her head with cannibal Harvey. Like most 70's horror heroines she naively misses the simple warning signs until it's almost too late. Also like most cheap 70's horror films it meanders through stilted dialogue and meaningless scenes until it gives you two minutes of what is passably interesting. Definately no big deal. The only real interesting aspect is why a excellent and respected actor like Harvey would get involved with such a schlocky story.
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BA_Harrison26 March 2024From a technical standpoint, Welcome To Arrow Beach is not a particularly good film: the direction by its star Laurence Harvey is largely uninspired, the editing is frequently clumsy, and the cinematography is nothing special. That said, the film is still hugely entertaining thanks to its incredibly lurid story, a likeable turn by a young Meg Foster, Harvey's unhinged performance, and a wonderfully groovy '70s vibe.
Foster plays teenage runaway Robbin Stanley, who learns the hard way that hitch-hiking isn't a good idea, narrowly surviving a crash after being picked up by a coke-snorting hot-rodder. Sent on her way by the police, Robbin wanders onto a private beach where she meets Jason Henry, who lives in the big house overlooking the sea. Jason invites Robbin to have dinner with him; she is hesitant at first, but accepts when she learns that the man shares the house with his sister Grace (Joanna Pettet). After dinner, the Henry's suggest that Robbin stays the night, which she does. However, as she lays in bed, she is disturbed by a strange noise emanating from the basement and goes to see what is causing it.
What follows is a decidedly twisted tale that involves incest and cannibalism, with Robbin discovering Jason's terrible secret - that he feeds on the flesh of people who stray onto his beach. Managing to escape the house, the girl is unable to convince the police of her story, having been framed as a drug addict by the conniving Jason. Joined by medical tech Alex Heath (David Macklin), Robbin sneaks into the Henry's house to investigate.
Despite being terminally ill at the time of filming, Harvey throws himself into the role of demented cannibal with gusto, and adds to the unsettling vibe with his character's uncomfortably close relationship with his sister. The film keeps the gore to a minimum, but what there is works well, with the murder of a past-her-prime glamour model seeing the red stuff splashed around liberally in quick edits, and the final reveal of Jason's horrific handiwork being as shocking as anything to be seen in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb. -
chas7722 August 2003Hilarious title song by Lou Rawls (can someone be a sport and let me know the name of it?) and some tasty nude scenes can't overcome a real muddled film. Sure it's explained that Harvey has a "taste for cannibalism" but where is the rationale behind it? We see a brief flashback scene of Harvey leaving a vintage-Korean war airplane along with a messed up looking crew of overacting teenagers (and Harvey doesn't look any younger than he is in the "present" day scenes -- check out the sideburns) but what exactly happened there? Perhaps the Dutch version has more footage? Also, what about the Stuart Whitman subplot? He was all hot to find out the truth but that sort of faded away. A real mess ... can't believe Harvey checked out with this as the last bit of work on his resume...