Crucible of Terror (1971)

Artist Victor Clare (Mike Raven) is wowing the art world with his life-sized, bronze sculptures of female nudes. We are shown in the first few minutes just why his pieces are so lifelike!

In the pre-credits sequence for Crucible of Terror, crazed artist Victor Clare (Mike Raven) covers a woman's body with molten bronze to create a stunning, lifelike statue (in reality, the process he uses would more likely result in an unrecognisable, misshapen lump of metal with scalded body parts sticking out).Years later, Victor's son Michael (Ronald Lacey) steals some of his father's art, including the sculpture (quite how he snuck out a massive bronze statue weighing a ton is never explained), passing it to his acquaintance, art dealer John Davies (James Bolam), to sell in his gallery.

This lame horror thriller was conceived as a vehicle for Mike Raven (LUST FOR A VAMPIRE), a former DJ who enjoyed a brief stint as a horror movie star. Sadly, none of his films were very good, so he soon gave up.