We have some sad news to share today, as genre icon Caroline Munro has informed her fans that her husband George Dugdale passed away on January 14th.
Munro has packed a lot of memorable work into a career that has spanned over 50 years, including roles in classics like the DR. PHIBES films, DRACULA A.D. 1972, CAPTAIN KRONOS – VAMPIRE HUNTER, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, and MANIAC. Dugdale made a couple of his own contributions to the horror genre, starting with the oddball April Fools Day slasher SLAUGHTER HIGH (pictured above), which he cast Munro in when they were dating.
Dugdale wrote and directed SLAUGHTER HIGH with Mark Ezra and Peter Litten, and the story the trio joined forces to tell goes like this:
There’s horror in the halls, lynching in the lunchroom, and murder in the metal shop. Welcome to Slaughter High — where the students are dying to get out! In high school, Marty was the kid all the students teased, taunted, and tortured mercilessly. One day, things went too far — one of their jokes backfired, disfiguring Marty for life. Now, five years later, Marty has arranged a special reunion for all of his high school “friends.” The prom queen, the jock, the class clown, the rebel, and a few select others have been invited… and it’s going to be a gala of gore!
Dugdale and Munro were married in 1990 and had two daughters together, Georgina and Iona.
1990 also happened to be the year when Dugdale and Litten re-teamed to direct a second horror film, LIVING DOLL. Dugdale and Ezra wrote this one with Paul Hart-Wilden, telling the following story:
Howard has a secret – he is in love with Christine. There’s only one problem, Christine is DEAD! A grave was no place for Christine, the only place for her was at Howard’s side as his wife. At last she was his, his to dress, his to feed, and his to care for. In his mind, he had his very own 'Living Doll'. In reality, her lifeless body was slowly decomposing. But he woudl go to any length to keep her, even murder.
While SLAUGHTER HIGH is fairly well known and is even available on Blu-ray, LIVING DOLL is more obscure and DVD copies are going for very high prices.
I haven't seen LIVING DOLL myself, but I enjoy SLAUGHTER HIGH and often revisit it around April 1st, so I'll be watching it again soon. As a fan of Dugdale's work on that film and as a fan of Munro, I'm sad to hear that he has passed away.
We here at Arrow in the Head send out our sincere condolences to Dugdale's family, friends, and fans.