After the success of Horrors of the Black Museum, Anglo-Amalgamated and AIP tried to duplicate its success with this film.
His most notable screenplays include three collaborations with director Sidney Hayers noted for their taut suspense and black humour: Circus of Horrors (1960), the thriller Payroll (1961) from the novel by Derek Bickerton and Night of the Eagle (1962) which he re-wrote following a draft by Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson, though his credit was omitted from the US version which was released as Burn, Witch, Burn.
It was the first film in what film critic David Pirie dubbed Anglo-Amalgamated's "Sadian trilogy" (the other two being Circus of Horrors and Peeping Tom), with an emphasis on sadism, cruelty and violence (with sexual undertones), in contrast to the supernatural horror of the Hammer films of the same era.
Little Shop of Horrors | Monty Python's Flying Circus | Little Shop of Horrors (musical) | Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus | circus | Circus | Circus Maximus | Ringling Brothers Circus | Piccadilly Circus | The Little Shop of Horrors | JoJo's Circus | Circus of Horrors | Buddy's Circus | The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus | The Invisible Circus (film) | National Institute of Circus Arts | Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams | Finsbury Circus | The Invisible Circus | Ricketts' Circus | Piccadilly Circus tube station | Oxford Circus | Little Shop of Horrors (film) | Holborn Circus | Electric Circus | Buddy's Circus#Release date discrepancy | Big Apple Circus | Vampire Circus | Tomb of Horrors | The Family Circus |
In 1956 he made his second film appearance, in The Battle of the River Plate, and went on to have supporting roles in films such as A Night to Remember (1958), Circus of Horrors (1960), The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), in which he played the title character, who is killed thirteen minutes into the film, King Rat (1965), and Arabesque (1966).