The Hellfire Club (film)

Kinematograph Weekly said it "found a ready market."^[2]

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "All the old clichés are revived, without a trace of distinction in either writing or direction, in this broad, ribald, and ingenuous costume melodrama. Keith Michell plays the brash Jason with unflagging Fairbanksian energy and good humour; unfortunately his determination to see the joke (his pose as an effeminate French peer is altogether too much of a good thing) is shared only too readily by the majority of the cast, to an extent which prejudices the audience's willing participation. The debaucheries of the Hellfire Club strike an extremely jaded note, Kai Fischer's hoydenish heroine is peculiarly resistible, and only Adrienne Corri's two-faced Lady Isobel makes a creditable impression."^[3]

Kine Weekly wrote: "The picture, gamy stuff made from a popular recipe, is served piping hot against lush interiors and exteriors. Keith Michell, whose athletic prowess evokes happy memories of Douglas Fairbanks, Snr., contributes a tireless performance as Jason, Kai Fischer, sporting a daringly low neckline, is a tantalising, though steadfast, Yvonne. Adrienne Corri scores in contrast as the haughty, two-faced Isobel, Peter Arne makes a thoroughly evil Thomas and Bill Owen introduces some down-to-earth humour as Martin. The scenes during which Jason poses as a French marquis are a bit much, but the events that lead up to them, including the break from Newgate and the goings-on in the Hellfire Club, where, possibly striptease was invented, are gloriously uninhibited, and the finale has everything."^[4]

Leslie Halliwell said: "Sprightly historical romantic melodrama alightly based on the nefarious activities of the real Hellfire Club; energetic and entertaining if slightly too jokey."^[5]

Glenn Erickson claims that the film did good box-office when released in America, on the back of publicity (such as a Playboy photo-spread) that suggested more nudity and adult content than actually appeared in any U.S. prints.^[6]

In a 2012 review, Time Out called the film "Surprisingly light on debauchery and occasionally perhaps too jocular for its own good" but rated Michell's performance as "suitably energetic".^[7]

The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "Depravity, debauchery and devil worship? There's nothing of the sort in this would-be horror flick, in which such sins are sadly bleached of any lurid content."^[8]

• The Hellfire Club at IMDb
• The Hellfire Club at the TCM Movie Database (archived version)