Fox Mystery Theater (TV Series) Mark of the Devil (1984) User Reviews

Tattoo you...

[canndyman · 7/10 · 1 June 2020]

This was the very first episode of Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense shown (in my ITV region anyway) back in 1984, and was a great way to start this eagerly awaited new series. I remember noticing that the writer was Brian Clemens - giving a good indication that this should be a well-plotted and entertaining story, most likely with a bit of a twist in the tale.

The story concerns Frank Rowlett - a man who's clearly living slightly above his station, but hoping to come good by soon marrying his fiancee, who comes from a very wealthy family. He runs into trouble though when a local gangster calls in the money he owes him - threatening that it must be paid in 24 hours... or else. In a fit of panic to get off the hook, Frank accidentally murders Chinese tattooist and 'fence' Hai Lee at his parlor - making off with Hai Lee's hidden fortune of bank notes in the process.

Thinking he's now debt-free and unconnected to Hai Lee's death, little does Frank know that when Lee pricked him with his tattoo needle during the scuffle, he was cursed with a voodoo-type spell which will cause an incriminating tattoo to quickly spread all over his body...

This is another of the more 'supernatural' stories of the series, and a highly-original and entertaining one. Frank's plight becomes increasingly desperate as his big wedding day approaches, and is compelled to incriminate himself even further in an effort to rid himself of the tattoo.

It's good to see Bond veteran Burt Kwouk in the role of Lee, and also Dirk Benedict as Frank - who clearly managed to find some time off the 'A-Team' as 'Faceman' to come to the UK and make this film. Also good to see George Sewell dependably cast as the cop who tries to solve this slightly improbable mystery!

There are some good locations around the Docklands area of London, not long before it became gentrified. Here, it still has a slightly seedy quality that makes a good atmosphere, especially at night time.

All in all, a good start to the series, complete with a nice neat ending that wraps the story up in an unexpected fashion.

Just like I remembered it

[analoguebubblebath · 6/10 · 10 October 2003]

First viewing: November 1984 / Second viewing: October 2003

"Mark Of The Devil" is a rather average "Hammer House Of Mystery And Suspense" installment which sees Dirk Benedict play the part of loser-gotten-lucky who has snared a rich bride. The routine killing of a cruel tattooist is the architect of his downfall. The plot beggars belief as the tattoo grows and grows, marking Dirk increasingly agitated.

It all comes together in the end though - rewarding us with a suitably chastening climax. Just like I remembered it. 6/10

His guilt is written all over his face...

[AlsExGal · 7/10 · 3 December 2016]

... but that usually requires a conscience and Frank Rowlett (Dirk Benedict) doesn't appear to have one. It's not that he goes looking for evil, it's just that he drifts through life with no scruples, no direction. Well, nature hates a vacuum and his direction ends up in gambling, losing, and losing to the wrong guy to the tune of 7000 dollars.

Frank thinks he has found a way to pay - he's romanced an heiress, gotten her to agree to marry him, and even has her wealthy dad's blessings. But his rough mafia like creditor is not happy with the long time line of a month or more before the wedding and thus his access to the money needed to pay his debt. So Frank gets desperate, hocking the watch his fiancée gave him to a fence, but only comes up with 250 bucks for it. Then he sees that the fence has a huge chest of money in the back of his shop. So when the fence, Hai Lee, is distracted with customers Frank figures he'll take the money and run. But Hai Lee catches him and a fight ensues that Hai Lee intends to make to the death. Unfortunately it is his own as Frank kills him. Also unfortunately Hai Lee stabs Frank in the chest with a tattoo needle before he dies - it is only a flesh wound though. But maybe it was just intended to be, because Hai Lee is also a tattoo artist and a practitioner of voodoo.

So Frank can now pay off the creditor with Hai Lee's cash, nobody ever knew he was at Hai Lee's so he is in the clear for the murder, and he can marry the rich pretty girl. Of course it is not going to be that easy. Because soon he notices something where the tattoo needle wounded him, and that something is growing.

Frank's desperation sends him down the road to bigger and bigger crimes with the cops on the trail of whoever it was that committed the original murder.

This thing is like a film noir about 20 to 30 years after the genre died out. Usually a film noir involves an unlikable protagonist with lots of character flaws who has only not committed big crimes because he has not had to do so. The noir puts him in a position where an act of evil is the easiest way out and from there it is the road to ruin.

I'd say it is worth your time even though it is pretty obvious where this one is going after the first twenty minutes.

Nice Little Mystery

[Michael_Elliott · 20 January 2013]

Mark of the Devil (1984)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

First film in the Fox Mystery Theater series (aka Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense) has loser Frank Rowlett (Dirk Benedict) owing money to a dangerous man. He needs to try and get some cash to enter a poker game and to do so he kills a tattoo shop owner and steals the money. Soon he realizes a little dot on his chest but before long a tattoo starts to form and cover his entire body. MARK OF THE DEVIL is a pretty interesting little film that contains one of the better stories I've seen from this series or any other series for that matter. I thought the idea of a man growing a tattoo over his body that's going to show his sin was quite clever and the film manages to throw a couple twists in for good measure. The special effects of the tattoo were also quite impressive. Yes, faking a tattoo isn't that hard to do but it still looks wonderfully well. Another major plus is that Benedict really does a nice job at showing how desperate this man becomes after realizing that this tattoo isn't going to go anywhere and it's eventually going to give him away. Jenny Seagrove is also good as his fiancé-turned-wife, although her reaction to the tattoo is a rather silly scene. Director Val Guest does a pretty good job with the material but I think a faster pace certainly would have helped things. The ending, which I won't spoil, is also pretty good, although be on the look out for a major goof when our lead character goes to fall back you can clearly see mats set up to break his fall. Still, MARK OF THE DEVIL is a neat little mystery.

Creepy.

[rmax304823 · 6/10 · 11 February 2013]

It's an inexpensive move about Dirk Benedict, an American loser in England, who commits felony murder during the robbery of a Chinese tattoo parlor run by Burt Kwouk, Britain's Oriental, whose career has already lasted as long as the Chou Dynasty. He's the assistant who kept hurling himself at Peter Sellers in the Inspector Clouseau series. Also in the cast, as Benedict's fiancée and bride, is Jenny Seagrove, who is an extraordinarily beautiful woman with hazel eyes and webbed toes. Benedict has the physical moves right, but he speaks his lines without much conviction. Whether Seagrove can act or not is irrelevant.

The main feature of this story is -- well, it reminds me of Dorian Gray's problem. When Benedict kills Kwouk, he incurs a slight dot on his breast, inflicted by Kwouk with a tattoo needle. As Benedict goes about his business, fighting with his partners over the loot, marrying Seagrove and then deserting her, prowling through Chinatown for an exorcist, the dot on his chest turns into a tattoo illustrating the crime. And the tattoo expands like a disease until it has crept all over his torso, arms, and even his face. It's not a decorative picture either. It's more like some pathological eruption and it makes your skin crawl when you see it. The director reveals it only in increments, an each time it's more revolting than the last.

Benedict finds the cure, but it's a question of whether the cure is worse than the disease.

An interesting first episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 3 February 2024]

Frank Rowlett is all set to marry Sara Helston, a wealthy heiress, but first he has to pay off some gambling debts, an opportunity arises with a Chinese tattoo artist, one that's too good to be true, but after a physical encounter with the artist, a tattoo appears.

Very much a mixed bag of reviews for this series opener, but I have to be honest, I really enjoyed it, more suspense than horror, but I liked it, very different.

It's a very unique storyline, I can think of nothing else quite like it, so for originality it scores highly. There are one it two moments of melodrama, as you'd expect, but there are some decent twists along the way.

Leading man, Dirk Benedict would have been a huge name in 1984, known to millions for The A-Team, and he's very good here, a lot more than just a pretty face. Lots of references to his famous character, arguably his most famous role.

There's also the wonderfully talented Jenny Seagrove, still at the top of her game, so beautiful here.

Very different.

7/10.

"Face" has a problem on his chest. And not even the A-Team can help!

[Coventry · 4/10 · 7 June 2022]

It's rather childish, I know, but I automatically associate Dirk Benedict with his role as ladies' man Face in the 80s hit-series "The A-Team" and find it weird to see him in different roles, especially - like the case here - as a sleazy and unreliable gambler/murderer. The idea of this installment is imaginative, but the film is overlong and tedious, which is the issue in most of the "Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense" episodes, in fact. In desperate need of money to pay off a gambling debt, Frank Rowlett accidentally kills an oriental tattooist but gets stung by his ink needle. The wound develops into a massive tattoo depicting the crime, and that's quite unpleasant when you are about to get married.

Throughout the entire episode, I was distracted by how dumb the lead character is, and how easily he could have prevented all his agony. His fiancée and her father are filthy rich, and she loves him to death. Couldn't he at least have tried to lend the money, and to solemnly swear to pay back the amount or to work if off? I honestly get upset over things like that. The gradually expanding tattoo on Face's chest is a nice piece of work, Jenny Seagrove is a beautiful woman and a talented actress, and Val Guest (at the end of his rich career) is a good director, but the supermassive plot-hole is inexcusable.

Nice first episode

[gianmarcoronconi · 8/10 · 9 September 2022]

First episode of an anthological horror series that therefore acts as an opening story and is a very special episode because it starts in an ugly, dull and above all so confusing way that you don't understand much, but then it evolves and becomes really beautiful and particular. In the episode the theme of the spell and the consequences of reprehensible actions is well examined. The main problem, however, is precisely the departure that makes you live the first 15 minutes with such boredom that they seem to last an eternity, but then fortunately the story meshes and does not stop until the end. There are obviously some divetti especially in the protagonist who behaves slightly on the verge of credibility, so much on the limit as to seem ridiculous, but otherwise there is not much to say.

Marked for life

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 12 December 2015]

****SPOILERS**** Good for nothing compulsive gambler Frank Rowelett, Dirk Benedict, is up to his neck in debt to his local loan shark Westcott, Tom Adams, for $7,000 pound sterling and his facing a dip in the Themes River with a fractured skull and without a life persevere if he doesn't pay up within the next 24 hours. Going to see Mr. Lee, Burt Kwouk, to fence his $2,000 dollar watch Frank notices the place where Lee keeps his cash from both his fencing operation as well as tattoo business and plans to rip him off before he knows what hit him. Lee catching Frank in the act attacks him with a needle he uses to tattoo his customers before Frank brains him, with a brass statue, and sends him to the other world beyond life.

By pricking Frank with his needle Mr. Lee opens up whole a new world for him that cause his entire body to reveal, due to tattooing, his crime and, on his back side, future as well. This-the tattooing, disrupts Frank's marriage plans to marry socialite as well as filthy rich Sara Helston,Jenny Seagrove, and ends up getting Wescott and his goons, who already got paid off by Frank, to get greedy and find out where he keeps his money that he stole from Mr. Lee and keep it all for themselves.

***SPOILERS*** As the tattoo on him starts to grow and reveal what he did, murder Mr. Lee, the more paranoid Frank gets. He gets so nuts that he plans, with his face covered, to leave the country by boat to far off Indonesia where no one would recognize him. But with the police now on his tail in the murder of Mr. Lee as well as Westcott and one of his goons that makes his flee from justice impossible. It's in him trying to get his tattoo removed that in the end lead to Frank's demise. That by resurrecting the murdered and vengeful Mr. Lee who finally ends up doing him in supernaturally.