Hammer and Beyond

Smart new Woman In Black poster...

2012-01-19T15:16:00.005Z

I like this a lot... and I must say I'm very cautiously looking forward to the movie too.
Until now, New Hammer have been very keen to stress the New, but there's a lovely retrospective feel to this poster image that bodes well for the film.
All it lacks is the legend 'A Hammer Film' emblazoned somewhere near the top.
Other than that, though - very nice indeed.

Lee and Cushing after hours

2012-01-17T08:43:00.002Z

I'm sure you've all seen these before, but they're really good.
This is what the kings of Hammer got up to when they had a minute or two to spare.

Great promo reel for DRACULA A.D. 1972

2011-12-14T15:03:00.000Z

All I Want for Christmas

2011-11-28T10:37:00.000Z

Caroline Munro On the Buses

2011-11-27T21:15:00.001Z

I had only ever watched Mutiny on the Buses and given that this comedy trilogy was Hammer's financially most profitable venture – Did someone say they didn't successfully try new ways in the 1970s? - was always somewhat ashamed that I had missed out on watching all three productions so when I discovered a cheapo set of those flicks in town (a steal at just €2.50) I had to splash out and dedicate the weekend to a journey back into a time when birds were crumpet and men were henpicked.

Well, what can I say? If you can stomach this kind of comedy these movies aren't all that bad. They sure aren't the worst of their kind but I wouldn't exactly call them examples of comical genius either.

What fascinated me most of all, however, was finally being able to see Caroline Munro's first appearance in a Hammer movie.

Hang on, I hear you say. Wasn't her first role in Dracula A.D. 1972 to be followed by the seminal Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter?

Sure.... Legend has it that James Carreras discovered her on one of her Lamb's Navy Rum billboards and straight away decided to offer her a contract.

Just where, however, did he see her billboard? Could it have been here?

Yes, watch the original On the Buses and you can clearly spot her a couple of times on a giant billboard right next to the bus depot.

Wanna see more proof?

So unless someone supplies me with evidence to the contrary I will remain convinced that constant exposure to her image during the filming of this comedy left him unable to resist her charms and compelled him to cast her in somewhat meatier roles and Hammer history was made.

Don't bother looking for her in Mutiny and Holiday on the Buses. By the time these were shot, her billboard had already been replaced.

Matthew's Watching Hammer Top Ten

2011-11-27T11:23:00.007Z

Encouraged by Holger's decision to republish his Top Ten Hammers (see here), here's mine, also lifted from the fine and much lamented Watching Hammer blog.

Comparing the two lists, I guess I'm slightly surprised that mine and Holger's list have only one film in common; perhaps even more surprising is the fact that it's Dracula AD 1972!
Incidentally, I watched this again recently and was stunned by how little attention Caroline Munro gets: not only is she the first victim, killed off the moment Dracula reappears, but note just how little of the dialogue goes to her, and just how few close-ups she is given, not just in the party scene (where you can blink twice and even imagine that she's not present at all) but also in the ritual sequence - at which she ultimately proves the central presence. Watch as the camera pans around the assembled gang, and observe how few times it lights on Caroline.
For the studio's big new star discovery this is simply inexplicable.

Lovely to then watch Captain Kronos for the first time in maybe twenty years: the contrast was so great it almost nudged Kronos into a revised top ten.
In fact, in the year or so since I posted the below, I've caught up with several of the Hammer Films I had not seen at the time, and reacquainted myself with others I had only seen once and a while ago. I now think Curse of the Werewolf is a much better film than I remembered, and a few others have 'rearranged themselves' in my affections too.
But as my ultimate choice of ten, I stand by what I originally posted, as follows.

1. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1962)
Right. The brief is to pick my ten favourites, not necessarily the ten I think are the best. But pride of place has to go to Phantom, which is my favourite, but it’s my favourite because it’s also the best, and nobody seems to think so but me. Incredible how a film’s reputation can continue to be influenced by its original reception, and how people decades later can watch this so sure it’s going to be the lacklustre disappointment they all said it was in ’62 that they come away still believing it’s the lacklustre disappointment they all said it was back in ’62. Personally, I’d triple-bill it with Curse of F and the big D and challenge any newcomer to spot the difference – saving, of course the regrettable absence of Messrs Cushing and Lee, not that Gough and Lom aren’t fine and dandy in their roles. I can’t think of a single thing about this film that isn’t superb. It’s the best re-imagining of the plot we have on film, it’s atmospheric and spooky, and it has a terrific music score (including a fake opera devised for the film by Edwin Astley; my second favourite fake opera devised for a film after the one Oscar Levant wrote for Charlie Chan at the Opera). There’s also not an ounce of flab on it anywhere, which you can’t always say about Hammer in the sixties. You can slice big slabs of fat off Curse of the Werewolf and Dracula, Prince of Darkness, but here we’re back to the 82-minute tightness of the very originals. I’ve written elsewhere about the magnificence of the film’s editing but it needs repeating: just watch the scene prior to the abduction of Christine by the dwarf and note how superbly Fisher combines music, staging and (mis)direction, so that we get that magnificent shock when she opens her curtains, with the sound of the window being pushed down acting as a percussive bridge between the lush romantic music of this scene and the scary organ music of the next. A true masterpiece.

2. THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957) and DRACULA (1958)
My mother wasn’t too keen on my obsession with Dracula and horror movies as a kid, and eventually being allowed to see them was a major milestone in my life, so nostalgia must inevitably loom large here: all those countless lunchtimes and midmorning breaks at primary school huddled over my friend Steven’s copies of Horror Movies (by Alan Frank) and House of Horror (edited by Allen Eyles), gazing at the pictures, and trying to imagine what those movies could possibly be like. I still get that odd feeling, when I watch, say, the brain operation in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, that I am watching a still picture come to life, as if someone had deliberately recreated The Night Watch on film or something. My memory tells me that the first Hammer film I ever saw – illicitly at a friend’s house – was The Satanic Rites of Dracula, but for some reason that didn’t make the kind of impression on me I would have expected it to, looking back. What did, was the short season of classics BBC2 showed at Christmas, 1984, when at last I caught up with Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Mummy, the first two double-billed.
There’s no point me boring you with why Dracula is brilliant – everybody knows it’s just one of those movies with nothing wrong with them whatsoever; that you can watch over and over again without even slightly dimmed pleasure. I will, however, put in an extra word for Curse – fractionally my favourite of the two - as it is too fashionable now to claim that it is an enormously important film but not a great one, and that it was only with Dracula that everything really clicked for the first time. I’ve always found it a barnstormer from first to last, fully the equal of its more cherished follow-up. I love the grotty Eastmancolor, I love Hazel Court – always the queen of Hammer for me – and I love the rumbling opening bars of that theme music. It excites me rather more than Dracula.

4. BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY’S TOMB (1971)
Interestingly, that 1984 season consisted of the earliest Bray films and this – which, to make things even odder, they showed first. I’ve often asked myself if nostalgia is the main reason why I think this is far and away the best film the studio made in the seventies. But no, I absolve myself of the charge: this is a masterpiece, pure and simple. In a sense it is an original, of course, not really the fourth mummy film but a first adaptation of a Bram Stoker novel, very compellingly told with some beautifully photographed sequences, great music and – as it’s the seventies now – very gory scares. But it’s spooky in an almost Val Lewtonish way. I love the Egyptian flashbacks, filmed at night, and so much more atmospheric than the usual sort, bathed in unsubtle, baking arc light. And then of course there is perennial Carry On bit-parter-cum-set dressing Valerie Leon, who – let us first note – is entirely credible, and memorably otherworldly, in her one and only dramatic lead, before adding as supplementary information that yes, she is also built like the world’s most sexually attractive battleship. (If you can imagine such a thing.)

5. DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE (1968)
Funny thing, but I actually got quite blasé about Hammer after that. Talk about ungrateful. By the time I saw Risen From the Grave, some time in ’85 I think, it was like I’d been watching Hammer films all my life and I remember thinking ‘ah, look: here’s another of those cute little Hammer films I used to be obsessed with…’ Now I know better. It’s the best of the post-Dracula Draculas, and the most Bray-like, in its look and atmosphere, of all the post-Bray Hammers: those scenes of the young lovers scuttling over the beautifully designed rooftops are just gorgeous. And then we have Veronica Carlson; we have an excellent opening theme and title sequence; we have a fabulous (albeit physically and chronologically impossible) post-credits sequence; we have some fascinating theological angst involving a stuffy cleric and a cocky young atheist (borrowed, along with a couple of giveaway visual ideas, from the recent film of Bolt’s A Man For All Seasons); we have the heavy use of amber-edged filters which is always distracting but not unattractive; we have some complicated business about Dracula being able to pull the stake out that annoys vampire purists – always a good thing, and most of all, of course, we have a grand finale involving Christopher Lee falling off a cliff and getting kebabbed on a giant crucifix.

6. FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN (1967)
Oh yes, we must find room for this in a list of favourites. Had it been the ten best it might have been just edged out by Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), but that’s such a bleak and mean-spirited film; never one I turn to for pleasure. Unlike this beauty: so weird, so Grimm’s fairy tale, such excellent use of sets and locations: Black Park at its most verdant and inspiring, the old inn, those windy streets… Susan Denberg, kittenish one minute, savage the next, is terrific.
“You see: the hair has changed colour…” Somehow, we never doubted it would, Peter.

7. LUST FOR A VAMPIRE (1971)
I caught up with most of the studio’s seventies output in my middle teens, when ITV launched 24 hour television and suddenly realised there were a lot of hours that needed filling. Mircalla to the rescue! I’m virtually alone in my (strange) love for this, I know (though I seem to remember David Pirie being surprisingly positive about it). But once we get past that naff Mike Raven prologue this is a rich, ripe stilton of a movie, and of all the Hammers that pussyfoot around with nudity and sex it’s by far the most happily, healthily and uncomplicatedly sexy. Does Yutte Stensgaard give a bad performance? I don’t know: how would a fresh-revived 19th century vampiress attending a girls’ finishing school behave in real life, d’you think? Until you produce the evidence to the contrary my guess is pretty much the way Yutte gives it to us, so lay off her. I also like the outdoor aerobics class.

8. DRACULA AD 1972 (1972) and MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE (1973)
Two wonderful evocations of London in the early seventies, and how I look forward to the day when I will only need to bend over backwards justifying my love of the second one. I mean, don’t you think it’s about time we stopped pretending Dracula AD 1972 is anything less than a classic? For years we had to pretend it was irredeemable rubbish, painful to watch. Now it’s at the guilty pleasure stage, so bad it’s good and all that. True recognition will come, so why not just save time and say it now: it’s great fun, exciting, scary, moves like a bat out of hell, and the change of time and setting works a treat.
And Man About the House is basically more of the same, only without the vampires.

10. CHILDREN OF THE FULL MOON (1980)
Too young to have ever seen a Hammer at the cinema (I’ve still only seen one on the big screen: Dracula, at the Barbican in 1996) my memories of them are entirely bounded by the small – and square – television screen. Perhaps that’s why I’ve always nurtured a fondness for the TV films made under the Hammer House of Horror banner. Never saw any of those Mystery and Suspense ones; I gather they’re not so hot, but a good half-dozen of the first batch are more than commendable attempts to do what Hammer-proper died trying to do: make traditional but modern horror films. And this one is a masterpiece, as good as anything the studio did in the seventies, except for one annoying trait it shares with most of the series: an annoying pre-credits sequence that gives the game away before it’s even started. Unlike the majority, however, it does have a proper (albeit grim) ending, whereas most of them don’t end but just sort of stop, in a would-be Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected kind of a way, and you have to pretend it’s a Hammer feature film you set your video to record but the tape ran out two reels from the end. Set in a wonderfully creepy house in a wonderfully creepy forest, this has some great lines, real suspense, one of my favourite ever pull-back-the-curtains shock moments, Diana Dors being quite brilliant, and Robert Urquhart for circularity. A small thing of considerable beauty.

How to say “De curse of de hound is on you!” in Italian…

2011-11-23T09:10:00.011Z

Okay, so now I've seen The Old Dark House (thanks, Holger!) and Shadow of the Cat (thanks again, Holger!) it really feels like I'm starting to get somewhere filling the gaps in my Hammer education.
I've also been dipping my first nervous toe into the waters of New Hammer, emboldened by the rather good trailers for The Woman In Black.
I'd been intending to post about all of these things, but the fact is I've also just seen Star Crash for the first time (damn you, Holger!!!) and I'm still recovering. My wife is feeding me hot soup and mopping my brow, and I'm wondering what I did with myself during the 38 years I spent before getting round to seeing it.
Someone remind me: what was the point of all those films that don't have Caroline in that outfit in them, again? This, surely, is what the movies are all about.

I once went to a film memorabilia fair where Caroline was appearing, but found myself - uncharacteristically, I must say - too nervous to approach her. Had I seen Star Crash at that time, I probably wouldn't have even had the courage to enter the building.

Anyway, while I'm still pondering the merits of The Old Dark House and The Resident, here is a little something that recently caught my eye.

I've known this picture all my life; for some reason my father possessed a set of the books, which were designed to accompany a BBC tv series on learning Italian. But the book gives no indication of who the sharp-looking cappuccino drinking girl is on the cover, and I never realised until I recently picked up second hand copies of the tie-in LP records.
As you probably know, it's Marla Landi, known best to we as the Spanish hellcat loose on Dartmoor in The Hound of the Baskervilles but in reality, of course, an Italian. Marla presented the series, but sadly, hers is not one of the female voices on the LP, so I still don't know what she sounds like in her native tongue. And one (but only one, oddly) of the three LP covers misnames her as 'Maria'. But she looks fabulous in her coffee bar clobber. I love the barnet, and the pointy shoes.
Now I just need to see her hosting Play School...

Shadow of the Cat (1961)

2011-11-20T18:16:00.000Z

The Shadow of the Cat (1961) available on YouTube.

The Unknown Peter Cushing: An interview with Michael McGlasson

2011-11-19T16:13:00.000Z

More than six years in the making, The Unknown Peter Cushing explores the life and career of Peter Wilton Cushing with a focus on his familial acting legacy from grandfather Henry William Cushing, Peter's early stage career, and his life with his beloved wife Helen Beck Cushing. Often described as "The Gentle Man of Horror," Peter Cushing was much more than an actor, for he was also a talented painter, model maker, author, a lover of books and literature, and a poet. The Unknown Peter Cushing reveals facts about Peter’s acting ancestry via a journey through time from the early 1700's and up to Peter’s early days as a stage actor when he met his Helen, the guiding force of his life and the source of his creative spirit.

Michael McGlasson, the author of the book, has kindly agreed to a little interview for the readers of this blog.

HH: Michael, can you introduce yourself to our readers? What's your background and what other publications have you been involved in in the past?

MGM: I've been writing in some capacity for more than forty years, but it wasn't until about the late 1980's that I began to take writing seriously. At first, I sort of stumbled around in the dark because I couldn't decide which path to take. I wasn't sure if I wanted to write academically (which I still do) or stick to short stories, poetry, screenplays, and the like. Since I've always been a great fan of horror films, going back to the late 1950's, I figured that maybe I could write about the movies. Of course, people like David J. Skal and William K. Everson were way ahead of the game, so I decided to start doing research on horror film actors that others had kind of ignored. By the late 1990's, my interest in Peter Cushing had grown considerably, and after reading his Autobiography, I became fascinated with his ancestral past. At about this time, I ran across Christopher Gullo through his Peter Cushing Museum and Association website. To my great surprise, I found out that he was writing a biography on Peter and then we sort of got together and one thing led to another. I ended up editing his book In All Sincerity. . . .Peter Cushing and we became great friends. Outside of the movies, I've had material published in academic journals on Edgar Poe, Bram Stoker, Christopher Marlowe, and Sir Henry Irving, plus some poetry and few articles in the Journal of Dracula Studies. One of my poems is slated to appear in The Spirit of Poe anthology by Literary Landmark Press. All of the proceeds from the sale of this anthology will go to help save the Edgar Allan Poe House in Baltimore which the city plans on closing because of budget cuts.

HH: How would you summarise your book to potential readers? What would you say is its unique selling point?

MGM: Well, first of all, the book is not a true biography because I only cover Peter's life and career from the time of his birth in 1913 and up to the death of Helen in 1971, just like Peter's autobiography. However, the chapters on Peter's early ancestor John Cushing and his grandfather Henry William Cushing are heavy in biography. What I've discovered about Peter's grandfather should appeal to most readers and I hope they see the connections between Henry Cushing and his grandson. I guess that anyone who likes Peter Cushing the actor would find the book a good read. I should mention that 90% of the information in the book on Henry Cushing has never been published anywhere except of course in the original source material.

HH: With its strong emphasis on Cushing's genealogical family history, this is a very unique publication but would you recommend it as an introductory book for a beginning Peter Cushing fan? What do you see as your target audience?

MM: I would recommend that anyone interested in Peter Cushing should read his autobiography first and then read the book. My reason for saying this is because at least they would have some familiarity with Henry Cushing, due to Peter's brief but fascinating account of his grandfather and other acting relatives in the first chapter of his autobiography. As to the audience, my intention was not to target any one group, such as lovers of British theatre or Sir Henry Irving. If you happen to be a fan of Peter Cushing, then I guess that's the target audience.

HH: It is obvious that this was painstakingly researched. Can you describe the research process from the first idea to the final product? What resources were made available to you? Are there resources you wish you'd have had access to but didn't?

MGM: The first time I read Peter's autobiography, I became fascinated with his family acting past. What little information Peter provides about his grandfather Henry Cushing, his aunt Maude, step-uncle Wilton Herriot, and the long-lost "Uncle Bertie," was enough to get me started. So I began digging for more information. I contacted libraries, special collections, bought books on Ebay and from other booksellers; I also bought a short-term subscription to the web-based The Era and The Stage, two theatrical newspapers that were popular during Henry Cushing's stage career at the Lyceum. These two sources gave up more than I had imagined. First I found Henry Cushing's obituary, then his funeral notice. Then I started looking in the London Times that provided information on the plays that Henry Cushing performed in at the Lyceum. Then I discovered his opera career. One thing led to another, and soon I had a foot high pile of information. Of course, Christopher Gullo helped out with some special items. Unfortunately, I could not uncover a photo of Henry Cushing. Sure would like to know what he looked like! Maybe Peter in the flesh! Also, Joyce Broughton supposedly owns some of Peter's personal family items, but she told me most of it was gone. Sold I guess or given away. If I would've had the money, I would've flown to London to start digging in the British Library and its excellent newspaper library which also helped out with the book.

HH: What was the most challenging part of the research and how did you overcome it?

MGM: The hardest thing was taking all of the information I had found and making sense out of it. All of the information just piled up and trying to sort through it all, keeping things in order like dates, places, names, etc., was pretty damn hard. It took me at least a couple of months to read it all and then arrange it chronologically. Fortunately, I was already familiar with Sir Henry Irving which helped greatly. All it really takes is time and enough dedication to putting it all down on paper in a way that people will understand it.

HH: Had you done genealogical research before? Maybe for your own ancestors?

MGM: Not really, but I did some research on my own family history several years ago. It takes a special talent to be able to sort through thousands of documents and pinpoint what you really are looking for. As to my own ancestry, Scotland is home base. In Gaelic, my surname means "Son of the Grey Lad." Also, I discovered that my Scots ancestors did not belong to a specific clan; they had their own clan, their own tartan, and heraldry. The most exciting, or maybe I should say depressing, thing was that all but one of the male members of the McGlasson clan were killed at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 between Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Royal Troops of King George II. The only surviving male member left Scotland and settled in Virginia in 1750. So my American heritage goes back more than 250 years.

HH: In your personal opinion: Do you believe that there is a connection between our ancestors and ourselves? Can the “spirit” (for lack of a better word) of our forefathers influence our personality or choices? Some of the similarities between Cushing's history and some of his ancestors are quite striking: Do you believe these similarities are ultimately random or in some way predetermined?

MGM: Like I mention in the book, Peter certainly knew when he was a young boy that he wanted to be an actor. He even mentions his "lineal blood" stirring within him. Without a doubt, the actions of our ancestors greatly affect ourselves, meaning that whatever an ancestor decided to do at some point in his life, such as pick up arms against the King of England and die on the battlefield, affects the future lives of his ancestors. I don't believe in fate or destiny, nor do I think it's random. Perhaps pre-determined but only mathematically. The big wheel in the sky keep turning and sometimes it stops at just the right point in time. It overlaps with the past and things tend to happen again. But it is eerie in many ways.

HH: Do you have any new projects up your sleeve?

MGM: I've decided to take a very different path through Robert Frost's "lovely, dark, and deep" woods this time around. My next project will be on Linda Lovelace. Yes, I know what you're thinking--"Are you nuts?" Well, maybe. But this will really be a challenge because of the lack of solid and reliable primary sources on her life and career as an "actress." Should be a lot of fun.

Thank you for discussing your book The Unknown Peter Cushing, now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bear Manor Media, and other book sites.

Watching Hammer Top 10

2011-11-15T12:07:00.000Z

This post first appeared on Watching Hammer (where it is still available to view). Unfortunately this post was also the last one to ever appear on that blog that had burned fast and bright. I have no idea what happened to the owner. My emails have gone unanswered and I am aware that other people who had tried getting in touch have also not received a reply. I sincerely hope that all is well with him and that he just lost interest in updating the blog. If anyone reading this is in touch with him, please pass on my message.

In the meantime I decided to re-post my Top 10 Hammer movies on my own blog as well.

********

When Watching Hammer first approached me with his request for a Top 10 of my favourite Hammer movies my first response was: “Hell yay”.

Followed by a “What have I done?”

See, as a general rule I don't do lists. Don't get me wrong: I love lists. Love reading them. Love ticking things off them. Or contemplating what's missing from them. But compiling them????

The trouble is that my mind is flighty. I don't have A favourite film or book; I have favourite films and books. And their number is legion. And what I may consider my favourites often depends on my general mood, the company I am with, or even the time of day or where I am right now. And even then a lot of my favourites aren't necessarily indicative of an overall general inherent quality, but of heavy bouts of rose tinted nostalgia. I could endlessly discuss the merits of one film against another, but the moment someone mentions that they prefer one because it reminds them of their childhood or teenage years I just back off as I get it. No point in arguing when nostalgia steps in as it inevitably does with regards to classic movies.

And speaking of which: I was born a little too late to watch the Hammer movies in the cinemas. I do remember walking by a picture house when To the Devil... a Daughter was first shown, but I was way too young to even contemplate sneaking in to see it. In Germany at the time we had Sunday kiddies matinees that often showed classic movies so I watched a number of those (such as The Crimson Pirate) there and if memory serves me well I also saw Hammer's own When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth in one of those. And, yes, it was the nudie version. (Us Germans never minded showing some innocent bit of skin to young impressive teenies.)

In the meantime I have also seen some of their movies on the big screen courtesy of Don Fearney's fabulous events, though anyone who knows me also knows that I tend to spend more time shmoozing there than attending movie screenings. Heck, prior to its DVD release I had only seen the last half of his Hammer Vampires documentary as I spent the first half having lunch with Caroline Munro. (Sorry, I just have to rub this in any chance I can.)

As for watching my earliest Hammers, I feel like I knew them already before seeing them on German television (a snowy, black and white one in my bedroom) as I had spent hours reading up about classic horror movies from borrowed library books and had kept pouring over those images until they were already ingrained in my memory way before I even saw them as proper movies.

Part of the difficulty of deciding on my Top 10 Hammer films is not only that I find it hard to make a Top 10 of anything (never mind a Top 10 of my favourite production company), but also that I simply haven't even seen all of the movies yet. I don't even own all of their DVD releases and from the ones that I do own I am ashamed to admit that I still haven't even watched them all.

So needless to say the following Top 10 is sorted chronologically. If I can't even decide on a proper Top 10, what chances do I have to organise the list in any other order but a time line? Also bear in mind that the answers I am giving today may not be quite the answers you get from me next year or even next week. You will also notice that I will at times cheat and throw in a few other suggestions that could equally make it to the list.

One thing that you may, however, observe is the absence of any Frankenstein movie. Yes, I do like their Frankenstein films and they would easily make it into a Top 20, but overall I don't find the whole Frankenstein genre quite as intriguing in general (not just with Hammer) as some of the horror myths and legends. But if you wanna know: My favourite Hammer Frankenstein is The Revenge of Frankenstein. Or maybe Frankenstein Created Woman. (See what I meant with me being so indecisive?)

Without further ado.....

The Hound of the Baskervilles

I love Hammer movies and I love Sherlock Holmes. So needless to say I absolutely adore Hammer's Hound adaptation that successfully walks a wonderful tightrope between the more typical Gothic Horror scenes of the flashbacks and the Whodunnit of the actual Holmes tale. Peter Cushing is an excellent Holmes but more importantly Andre Morell is one of the first cinematic Watsons (or even THE first?) who doesn't come across like a bumbling idiot. The rest of the cast is first rate as well with a special mention to Christopher Lee who actually plays quite a dashing romantic hero role for a nice change. Not continuing this movie with a proper series of Holmes adaptations will for me always be one of Hammer's most tragically wasted opportunities.

The Mummy

Hammer's Egypt never looked better. Christopher Lee gives a standout performance for the most part entirely through the eyes. Yvonne Furneaux is by far Hammer's most attractive female Mummy fodder (even though it appears she doesn't much like to be reminded of it now). And "Props" Cushing manages to hold it all in place while running and walking with a limp.

Most importantly, however, this is not filmed in the style of their usual Gothic Horrors but more like a haunting, beautiful yet slightly nightmarish dream with imagery not likely forgotten in a long while.
Oh, and Blood from the Mummy's Tomb ain't half bad either.

The Curse of the Werewolf

I really can't properly remember what had been my very first proper Hammer movie. If I'd hazard a guess I would say it's a tie between The Curse of the Werewolf and The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (another worthy contender for a Top 10 Hammer list).

From all the classic horror myths, the Werewolf legend is perhaps the most humane and tragic with its plots of innocent men accidentally being turned into creatures of the night and needing to fight their urges every month for a few days while for all intends and purposes remaining utterly normal all the days in between the full moon.

No wonder that the Werewolf myth has long been one of my favourite sub-genres. And Curse of the Werewolf is classic Hammer Horror at its best. The scenes of aristocratic debauchery and the rape of the young girl (Yvonne Romain) by a disgusting looking beggar (played by Richard Wordsworth) remain as potent and memorable as when the film was first screened. And who could forget Oliver Reed's tragic performance that turned him into a star from that moment on? I can't! No wonder this movie has remained a favourite of mine from the very first moment I had managed to put my eyes on it.

The Kiss of the Vampire

I have a confession to make here. If I was hard pressed and had to make a decision between never seeing a Hammer Dracula again or any of the non-Drac Vampire movies, I'd drop the Count without a second thought like a hot spud. True, all their non-Dracs probably would not have seen the light of day if it wasn't for their Stoker adaptations and interpretations but there is generally way more originality in their other vampire outings than in any of their more famous movies.

Kiss of the Vampire is a wonderful case in point with a number of very atypical vampire hunters: a pair of honeymooners on the one side joining forces with a crazy alcoholic against a coven (is that the right term?) of vampires resembling a modern day cult led by Noel Willman.

Other cases in point that I equally love: Vampire Circus or Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter. In actual fact the one non-Drac Vampire movie that I don't hold in such a high regard as most everyone else is The Brides of Dracula, a beautiful movie with wonderful characters but marred by a train wreck of a screenplay.

She

She would not only prove to be Hammer's most expensive movie ever but an excellent Boys Own style adventure yarn that easily stood the test of time. Though Bernard Robinson has done wonders to create fantastical worlds with little budget at Bray, it is nice to see Hammer actually film on location for a change (in Israel to be more precise). Strangely enough the company actually toned down the grisly and violent scenes of the source novel and focused entirely on the classic adventure aspects.

Bah, what am I saying: It's got Ursula Andress, the world's most beautiful woman at the time playing the world's most beautiful woman. What more do you want?

'Nuff said.

Dracula – Prince of Darkness

It may be a case of familiarity breeding contempt, but as much as I like the original Dracula (I refuse to call it Horror of...) I do prefer its follow up Dracula – Prince of Darkness. There's something to be said about a gruff gun wielding priest and vampire hunter called Shandor; an oh so properly mannered lady who becomes a man (and woman) hungry vampire and writhes venomously on a table before being staked by a bunch of guys holding her down (with all kinds of nasty connotations); a sequence in which one of our Everyman heroes gets sliced open like an animal at a meat processing plant to revive the Count. Seriously if it's a question of Dracula vs. Dracula – Prince of Darkness, the original always loses out for me.

Rasputin the Mad Monk

Because Christopher Lee told me to. You know, he has studied the history of the Romanoffs extensively and as a child had even met Prince Yussupoff.

But all jokes aside: The legend of Rasputin (and this film is indeed more legend than history) is utterly fascinating and never has it been captured better than in Rasputin the Mad Monk with one of Lee's most riveting performances and a death scene that is more drawn out and captivating than that of any of his Draculas.

The Devil Rides Out

With The Devil Rides Out Hammer proved that they couldn't just do stunning looking Gothic but also stunning looking Art Deco Horror. This is a superior change of pace from the usual Vampire and Frankenstein flicks and it is nice to see the Devil given his dues as well with a mesmerising performance by Charles Gray and Christopher Lee as a very convincing hero for a change.

In actual fact I have a special place in my heart for all of Hammer's Dennis Wheatley adaptations. Yes, the author himself doesn't appear to have been too enamoured by The Lost Continent and To the Devil.... a Daughter but based on my perception of the very few Wheatley novels I ever read, I can't say that I give too much on his opinion in this matter.

There's something to be said for a film like The Lost Continent that on the one hand dares to show not one single likeable main character and on the other hand goes completely trashy with Dana Gillespie's big balloons. Also, To the Devil.... a Daughter has one of the most truly shocking and uncomfortable scenes in any Hammer movie ever. So much for them only ever going the safe road until the end.

Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde

Doesn't the title say it all? This is Doctor Jekyll and SISTER Hyde played by the wonderful Ralph Bates and Martine Beswicke. That alone is such a great twist worthy of my Top 10, but then Jack the Ripper is also brought in. So what's not to like?

Incidentally, and this may only indirectly be reflected in this list in the titles that also ran, I do think that some of Hammer's output in the 70s has been unjustly maligned. I am losing count of the number of times that I hear that Hammer lost the plot with their later productions and never really learnt to go with the times blah blah. Truth is that they did attempt to go new ways in the 70s but that these weren't accepted by the general public. Nevertheless some of the company's most interesting productions were from their last couple of years in business: Apart from Dr Jeckyll and Sister Hyde I would also light a candle for Captain Kronos, Vampire Circus, To the Devil.... a Daughter and Straight On Till Morning as well as for a number of others that fall into their more established series.

Dracula AD 1972

This film has always been a guilty pleasure of mine way before when I even knew I was supposed to feel guilty about loving it. This may just have been one of the very earliest Hammer Dracula films I have ever seen and it took me years to learn that I stood pretty much alone in my admiration for this groovy classic. Then the Internet came along and over the years I gradually discovered that there were a couple of other folks out there who also seem to get great enjoyment out of Dracula A.D. 1972.

I frankly don't care that Dracula never ventures outside the desecrated church. Instead I really enjoy the exciting pre-credit fight between him and Van Helsing and the Kubrickian shot that brings us straight from a 19th century graveyard into the skies of shwinging London populated with modern aircraft. I also really dig the dialogue between all the cool cats and chicks that populate this movie. Alucard's death scene is genuinely exciting and, given the use of a shower, not anything we could have seen in any of the previous Dracula movies.

And lest we forget: Seeing Caroline Munro's quivering bossom splashed with blood is just as hot as watching Stephanie Beacham's perk nipples underneath her white gown.

Oh, and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is equally cool. Though Satanic Rites of Dracula sucks in a not very good way.

Flesh & Blood – The Review

2011-10-16T22:53:00.000+01:00

I used to love comic books with a vengeance. And why wouldn't I? They got stories, dialogue, visual effects and cinematic angles just like a movie. In actual fact without real budgetary restraints they could cheaply tell stories that would break many a Hollywood studio's financial back. Given all the technological advances over the last one or two decades there should be a glut of fascinating material out there right now.

Yet for the most part I have given up reading current series.

I was raised with both the US superhero series as well as with a number of European (mainly Franco-Belgian) comic artists. Now that I am living in Ireland I have unfortunately lost track of recent developments “on the Continent” and with regards to the US stuff I have over the years unsubscribed from all of my favourites. Even friendly neighborhood Spiderman doesn't get a look in anymore after “One More Day” too many leaving me with fond memories of Bronze Age comic books that often were far more adult and ground breaking in their approach to story telling than many of the allegedly mature material out there now.

Even more importantly, they did tell stories properly! Little annoys me more in modern comic books than seeing superheroes fight it out over umpteen issues without any proper development. There was a time when it took me a good half an hour to read the 20+ pagers. Now I am glad if I manage five minutes of unimpressive reading time with them.

So have I completely given up on current comics?

Nope, there are some small pockets of resistance around fighting valiantly against the blandness that permeates the industry at large. Chief among them are artist Neil Vokes and writer Robert Tinnell. Then there is also Monsterverse, a new publisher who has recently impressed with his series of Bela Lugosi inspired Tales From the Grave.

With Flesh and Blood the three have now joined forces for what promises to be a very enjoyable Gothic Glamour ride. The first part of the saga is scheduled to be out in the next couple of days. Interviews with the two creators can be read here and here.

When I first heard about Flesh and Blood the idea was presented as a Hammer movie inspired comic book adventure from fans for fans leaving me with an equal amount of anticipation and reluctance. Anticipation because I love all things Hammer. (What a surprise!) Reluctance because Hammer for me is clearly rooted in the past and I don't particular relish the idea of simple rehashes. This is the year 2011. So please give me something that has a similar feel to the classics but with a modern take to it.

I shouldn't have worried.

Flesh and Blood is all that I hoped for and more.

Following the killing of Carmilla Karnstein, a motely crue of heroes and anti-heroes join forces in an epic power struggle against Evil lead by the one and only Prince of Darkness, Dracula.

The comic has all the characters one would expect from a Hammer (or indeed even a Universal) Monster Mash: Carmilla, Dracula, Frankenstein and a Werewolf. Even lesser known characters like General Spielsdorf from The Vampire Lovers are referenced. And, yes, we even get Van Helsing though in a nice twist not in any form you would have come across before.

Yet though aspects of it will feel familiar to Hammer Fans this is a totally independent story that may borrow from the Hammer mythology and imagery but then develops into something completely unique. The closest point of reference would probably be Kill Bill, a movie that was clearly influenced by a number of Tarantino's favourite genres (Martial Arts movies, Spaghetti Western etc) but then created an artistically unique vision of that world. And though it is fun for the hardcore fan to identify all those points of reference, the movie can be enjoyed without having ever seen a single one of those productions.

Same in Flesh and Blood.

As a Hammerhead I rejoice in identifying panels that were inspired by Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell, character names drawn from the Hammer talent pool (Mr Ward-Baker) or lines of dialogue lifted from Hammer movie titles (“Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed”), yet none of that is essential to the enjoyment. The comic lives and breathes on its own. If you like classic horror stories with a modern twist, then this is for you.

The art work is simply stunning. The only other current artist who draws female characters as sensually as Vokes is Bruce Timm. And ironically both are huge Hammer Fans and have contributed to Little Shoppe of Horrors. Just goes to prove what a positive influence these flicks have on an artist's development.

I have rarely ever seen a comic where every single panel is a little masterpiece that I wouldn't mind have hanging on my walls. The imagery is glamorous, voluptious, moody, atmospheric, haunting and drenched in Bava-esque colours. Truly magnificent.

I am reluctant to reveal too much about the story and the teaser panels really speak for themselves. Suffice it to say I am definitely along for the ride. Books like these finally bring that good old comic loving feeling back to me and have me curled up and fully immersed!

It's the first installment in what promises to be an epic adventure with three more volumes following until the conclusion is reached after a total of 320 pages. No doubt Messieurs Vokes and Tinnell have a lot more surprises and gorgeous imagery left in store for us. This is the kind of material that New Hammer should be making if they were really serious about carrying on their tradition.

In the meantime, however, we have Flesh and Blood.

Flesh & Blood – An interview with Robert Tinnell

2011-10-08T20:51:00.001+01:00

This is the second part of our Flesh & Blood cover this weekend. The first part, an interview with Neil Vokes, can be found here. A proper review of the comic book is in the works and should show up over the next day or two.

I provided the same questions to Robert Tinnell, the comic's writer.

I also know Bob from round about the same time that I met Neil as those two were hanging out in the same murky corners of the Internet chatting up Hammer, Eurotrash and all things cult.

My first experience with one of his works, however, was way back when I was still living in Germany and saw Surf Nazis Must Die for the first time. He was the producer for this Troma movie and at the time it was still possible to shock some of my German countrymen with the concept of Surfer Nazi Dudes Who Have to Pass Away as that idea was still a wee bit offensive then and some of my folks were still suffering from bouts of collective guilt.

Happy memories.

He also produced the award-winning and David Fincher directed Paula Abdul video for “Straight Up”. A quick look at IMDb reveals his true range. Prior to working as a producer he also was a production manager in some of Fred Olen Ray's movies (The Tomb, Armed Response, Prison Ship) before establishing himself as a writer/director (Frankenstein and Me, Kids of the Round Table). Frankenstein and Me already foreshadowed the Hammer slant that is also dominating Flesh & Blood.

With Neil Vokes he worked together for the Black Forest and Wicked West comics books. Tinnell also wrote Feast of the Seven Fishes which was nominated for the Eisner Award, EZ Street and The Chelation Kid.

Together with artist Ade Salmon he created the amazing The Faceless: A Terry Sharp Story for which he is currently writing a follow-up that I am awaiting probably just as eagerly as the remaining Flesh & Blood parts.

Your new comic book collaboration Flesh & Blood will be out later this month. I know of a bunch of guys who are eagerly awaiting this (myself included) but what would be your elevator speech if you met someone who hadn't yet heard about this?

ROBERT: I think FLESH AND BLOOD is the monster rally fans of ‘50’s/’60’s/’70’s British horror wanted to see and never got. When Universal did their rallies the films were very much rooted in German expressionism and a sort of never-never-land quality. Our approach is more grounded in Gothic literature – in the same way the movies that inspired us were grounded in the same. And of course, FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN definitely did not have nudity. Plus we’re doing the book at Monsterverse who are setting themselves up to be a real force in horror comics – which, if you know anything about Kerry Gammill and Sam Park, is a no brainer. They are passionate about the medium and you’ll never meet two bigger monster geeks.

Flesh & Blood is not the first time the two of you have worked together. Previous collaborations include The Black Forest and Wicked West books. Can you describe how the creative process works between the two of you? Are you living relatively close by or in different parts of the States? How often do you get to meet in person during the creation of such a book and what major challenges are involved in this process?

ROBERT: Some years we see each other more than others – and at times we’re on the phone frequently. Although of late, my schedule has been so hectic we don’t get to talk nearly enough. But the thing is – our sensibilities and inspirations are so intertwined that it’s a fairly effortless process as far as collaborating goes. If you read my scripts to Neil, often they’ll digress into “can you draw this like the scene from so-and-so film?” and he’ll know immediately what I mean. But before we start anything we usually get on the phone for hours and riff. The other aspect to our working relationship that makes it successful is that we’ve now done so much work together that I’ve learned to write to Neil’s strengths. When I’m writing FLESH AND BLOOD I’m seeing it laid out as I know Neil will do it. And I’m rarely surprised.

How did the two of you meet for the very first time? And was it love at first sight? ;-)

ROBERT: We met at a Fanex convention many years ago – mid-to-late ‘90’s. But we never discussed collaborating for quite some time – I bet it was a good five-six years before we decided to do The Black Forest. Originally, we were just guys who enjoyed hanging in the bar talking films and comics. It honestly never occurred to me to ask him if he’d work with me. And then he was talking to Todd Livingston and me in the bar at a con one night and we told him about our idea for THE WICKED WEST – and that was originally what we were gonna do first. But then he decided he wanted to do THE BLACK FOREST – which we had written as a screenplay. Neil just does what he wants so - we did that first.

Though Flesh & Blood is an entirely original adventure lots of references to the old Hammer Horror movies can be discovered. In actual fact it often feels that this is the type of story New Hammer should have adapted if they had followed in the footsteps of Terence Fisher & Co. What is your own personal relationship with the Classic Hammer Horrors?

ROBERT: I remember my first exposure to Hammer was when KISS OF THE VAMPIRE was gonna be on TV. My mom wouldn’t let me watch it. And the imagery haunted me. It was a few years later – on a stormy afternoon – my brother and I watched Horror of Dracula – and freaked out. As time went on we started seeing more and more of these films – and I started recognizing the actors – not just Cushing and Christopher Lee but even folks like Michael Ripper and Veronica Carlson – and then eventually the name Hammer. And we started to seek them out. I was particularly inspired by Peter Cushing. As an actor, of course, but more by the types of characters he played. The smart warrior/scientist/monk guy – whether he was Van Helsing or Sherlock Holmes or even – or should I say especially – as Frankenstein in FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN – I particularly loved that take on the character. And, of course, I loved the women in the movies. Why lie? As I got a little older I got into horror movie magazines like THE MONSTER TIMES and fanzines like PHOTON and GORE CREATURES and LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS. Plus David Pirie’s brilliant study A HERITAGE OF HORROR which blew my fourteen-year-old mind and really opened me up to Gothic literature and film criticism and the codes and rituals and themes that ran through these films. Ruined me.

What are your favourite Hammer films and why?

ROBERT: HORROR OF DRACULA is my favorite. The elegance – the economy of storytelling – and the skill that Fisher brings to the direction – married I’m sure to my nostalgia for the way it shot a lightning bolt through my heart – all make it so important to me. A close second would be FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED. It’s a virtuoso piece of filmmaking, in my opinion. Creepy – subversive – Fisher at the peak of his powers. I do like FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN for the reasons mentioned above. BRIDES OF DRACULA is marvellous – and I’ve grown to appreciate DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS more and more through the years – it got some really suspenseful sequences. I love THE DEVIL RIDES OUT and THE VAMPIRE LOVERS. I think THE MUMMY holds up well. Look I love all the good ones! And tolerate many of the bad! And by the way, I haven’t even mentioned the Quatermass stuff – love them. Kneale’s approach was very much on my mind when writing the OPERATION SATAN back-up story that Bob Hall is drawing - the lead character in that will eventually enter the FLESH AND BLOOD storyline…

Any guilty pleasures (with regards to Hammer)?

ROBERT: Of course – LUST FOR A VAMPIRE. In spite of its flaws I think it’s entertaining as hell.

Say Hollywood came calling and Flesh & Blood was going to be adapted who would you like to see star and direct?

ROBERT: I think it would make an awesome mini-series – it’s too epic for one movie. But that being said – Guillermo Del Toro, obviously. Guy Ritchie. Someone who understands the genre but also recognizes our efforts to make characters into something more than cartoons.

I may be oversimplifying but some of the main differences between the US and non-US (in particular European) comic books appear to be that American comics for a large part are geared towards the monthly 20+ page market whereas a lot of the European material is allowed a much larger scope right from the start. I am in particular thinking about the works of Jacques Tardi, Milo Manara, Hugo Pratt etc. When reading your comics I often sense more of an auteur feeling along those lines. Am I talking through my arse? As writer and illustrator what are your influences and are you actually inspired by non-US comic book creators?

ROBERT: Calling myself an auteur would probably result in my getting eviscerated by outraged auteurs everywhere! Now, it is true that some of my films seemed to be better received in Europe – I just don’t want that “we’re huge in Denmark” label, you know? There are comics that have greatly influenced me that originated elsewhere. Lone Wolf and Cub. A lot of stuff Vertigo was putting out in the early ‘90’s that had a decidedly English sensibility. Years ago my buddy, Andy Sands, turned me on to Strontium Dog and it blew my mind. The storytelling is compact yet so evocative. Having said all that – there are themes and ideas I like to explore beyond just being a slave to plot and whiz-bang stuff. God knows I go back to Frankenstein enough. Tim Lucas does a pretty good job of analysing me in the intro to Flesh and Blood and I must admit it gave me pause and some newfound insight into my storytelling.

Writer, Director, Producer. How do you mainly define yourself and are there any special projects you have not yet tackled? What would you rate as your most personal project to date?

ROBERT: I’m actually starting to think of myself as “storyteller” and no longer let any particular medium define me. If anything I’m thinking about other things I’d like to do outside of film and comics. Stuff like installation pieces. I went crazy for vegetable gardening and I kinda view my gardens as art. Which is weird I supposed but it makes sense in my head. A friend recently described my gravitation towards maybe creating some installations as a desire for permanence. Like I have this crazy idea. There’s a tiny creek on my farm and I want to divert a little waterfall there – just long enough to create an Arthurian mosaic of the Lady of the Lake on the bottom. Then restore the flow. And not tell anyone. Just see if they ever see it. And before anyone gets riled up – I am devoted to restoring the ecology on my land – don’t want to trash anything or harm the ecosystem. But I do want to do this one little thing. Don’t know why – it just appeals to me.

As far as super personal? Probably FEAST OF THE SEVEN FISHES and EZ STREET are my two most personal comic works. I know the latter drove my wife crazy. Although in a weird way FLESH AND BLOOD is very personal. In film, both KIDS OF THE ROUND TABLE and FRANKENSTEIN AND ME. But there are bits and pieces of my personality and concerns and interests that run through all my work. Again – I’d defer to Tim Lucas.

Any memorable stories about Surf Nazis Must Die you would like to share?

ROBERT: It all goes back to SURF NAZIS MUST DIE, doesn’t it, Holger? It will be etched on my tombstone. The entire process of making that film was such a happy, positive one. Peter George, the director, remains a good friend as does Jon McCallum, who composed the music. We worked really hard – and probably played a little too hard – and it paid off. When people ask me what I remember I usually go back to Peter wrecking the boat near the end of the shoot or the impromptu football game we had one night after wrap. Lots of aggression got worked out that night…

Last but not least: I hate the term “graphic novel”. What's wrong with calling a comic book a “comic book”? Discuss!

ROBERT: For me, I perceive the term graphic novel as pertaining to length – not quality. That’s not much of an answer, I know, but it’s the way it works in my head. I happily tell people I write comics.

Flesh & Blood – An interview with Neil Vokes

2011-10-08T18:59:00.001+01:00

Mark your calendars, folks.

October 19 will see the release of the first part of Neil Vokes' and Robert Tinnell's new 4-part comic book ouevre Flesh & Blood which will be of special interest to all the readers of this blog as this is not just created by two of the biggest Hammer Horror (and Glamour!) Fans in the industry but also because the epic story contains a lot of Hammer related references.

Prior to the book release Neil and Robert have kindly agreed to an interview conducted by email. Both had more or less received the same questions and I had initially planned on posting this Q&A as one long post with both of their replies but plans changed when I received their answers. They simply were far too in-depth and detailed to have appear in just one single post. I therefore decided to release this interview in two parts, one with Neil's answers, the other with Robert's replies. Following that I will also post a review of the actual comic.

But for starters here are Neil's replies.

I first started chatting to Neil Vokes sometime in the early 2000s when I first joined the Eurotrash Paradise. At that time I had no idea who he was and mainly knew him as the witty defender of all things Bava, Hammer and Western.

I finally learned of him as a comic book artist with the release of PARLIAMENT OF JUSTICE which incidentally maps the time when he moved from working for The Man and drawing other people's stuff to creating his own Vokesian universe based on characters drawn by him and created by a range of writers, first among those his good buddy Robert Tinnell.

As is often the case when you notice that someone you know socially is actually out there as a creator, I was initially a bit hesitant to approach his work. What if I didn't like it? Would I have to pretend that I did?

But I needn't have feared: PARLIAMENT OF JUSTICE and even more so the two BLACK FOREST (for which he and Bob Tinnell won the Rondo Awards) and WICKED WEST books had me hooked as a fan. He also regularly published in “Little Shoppe of Horrors” and provided the chapter illustrations for two film books: IN ALL SINCERITY, PETER CUSHING by Chris Gullo and VINCENT PRICE: THE ART OF FEAR by Denis Meikle.

His style is very distinct, halfway between cartoon and realism, and his female characters just ooze good old fashioned glamour yet with a very modern sensitivity. I have since met him in person (together with Dick Klemensen and a bunch of folks from the ETP) for the last Fanex a couple of years ago and am proud to call him a friend.

Other comics he has drawn include: SUPERMAN ADVENTURES; TARZAN THE WARRIOR; THE ADVENTURES OF THE MASK; UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN: STRANGE ENCOUNTERS; JONNY DEMON; TEENAGENTS; CONGORILLA; NINJAK; TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MEET FLAMING CARROT and of course his first major sojourn into the field EAGLE which has recently been reprinted.

Also look out for his contribution to BELA LUGOSI'S TALES FROM THE GRAVE # 2 and for DR. STRANGE: FROM THE MARVEL VAULT #1 ...and many, many more. He also just finished 50 sketch cards for the Hammer Films Trading Card 2 set and has also done some Iron Man 2 cards.

Your new comic book collaboration Flesh & Blood will be out later this month. I know of a bunch of guys who are eagerly awaiting this (myself included) but what would be your elevator speech if you met someone who hadn't yet heard about this?

NEIL: If you've ever enjoyed the old Universal Pictures monster rallies and /or Hammer Films' classic Dracula, Frankenstein, etc. adaptations, you’ll get a kick out of this new series- we gather together all the legendary characters from horror film and literature and throw them into one storyline where they all clash.

Flesh & Blood is not the first time the two of you have worked together. Previous collaborations include The Black Forest and Wicked West books. Can you describe how the creative process works between the two of you? Are you living relatively close by or in different parts of the States? How often do you get to meet in person during the creation of such a book and what major challenges are involved in this process?

NEIL: Basically Bob tells me what to draw and I draw what I want anyway- but seriously, we work out a story between us, with Bob doing all the heavy lifting when it comes to story construction and dialog. I’ll draw layouts based on his plot/script and work on the visual storytelling-kind of like being the director/art director/photographer/editor- then after I'm done, Bob goes in and adjusts the dialog and adds whatever captions, etc. that it needs. We don't live anywhere near each other-more the shame-but then, if we did, we’d probably get even less work done-lol. So we rarely get together for a face to face and work thru the Net and the phone. This seems to work for us, so far-but I wish we could do more in person.

How did the two of you meet for the very first time? And was it love at first sight? ;-)

NEIL: Pretty much- we met at a horror con thru mutual friends-we hit it off right away mainly because Bob was a filmmaker who loved comic books and I was a comic book artist who loved films. Sometime later we talked about some of his unrealized projects-THE WICKED WEST and THE BLACK FOREST-I thought the BLACK FOREST screenplay would make a very cool comic and Bob let me take a crack at it- the rest is history.

Though Flesh & Blood is an entirely original adventure lots of references to the old Hammer Horror movies can be discovered. In actual fact it often feels that this is the type of story New Hammer should have adapted if they had followed in the footsteps of Terence Fisher & Co. What is your own personal relationship with the Classic Hammer Horrors?

NEIL: I saw my 1st Hammers at a drive in back in 1964 at the impressionable age of ten-the reissue double feature of HORROR OF DRACULA and CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN-I was already a film fan-I watched movies on TV all the time growing up- but horror and westerns are probably my top two favorite genres. Those two films by Terence Fisher with Lee and Cushing just blew me away- the visuals, the colors, the music, the performances, everything made my ten year old heart fall madly in love. I attribute much of my storytelling abilities to film-true I am very influenced by comic books, but when I draw a story I'm making a 2D film on paper-those Hammer classics went a long way to making me the artist I am today.

What are your favourite Hammer films and why?

NEIL: Damn- I pretty much love them all-lol- but I'd put virtually all of Terence Fisher's Hammer films at the top of the list-I'm a Dracula nut-as Bob is a Frankenstein nut-a perfect match. Lee’s performances as the Count are definitive for me-not so much the stories, which diverged from the novel a lot-but his characterization of Dracula is everything I think of when I read that novel or think about him when drawing. The Frankensteins, with Peter Cushing though are the better stories-His character actually has an arc, culminating in my favorite Baron film, FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED- a gripping, taut tale with Cushing's Baron in full on "I'm going to do these horrible things in spite of everyone else's feelings because I'm right and they are all wrong-so get out of the way!" Wonderful film. Then there's THE GORGON,CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF,THE MUMMY,BRIDES OF DRACULA-four of the most beautiful looking Hammers-and...Well, I could do the whole interview on what Hammers I love and why...back to FLESH & BLOOD.

Any guilty pleasures (with regards to Hammer)?

NEIL: Heh...I'll stick to one for now-probably LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES,which I saw in a Times Square theater in the '70s with COUNT DRACULA AND HIS VAMPIRE BRIDE (or SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA)-GOLDEN VAMPIRES is not a great Hammer-the Kung Fu is poor, the editing a bit awkward, no Lee Dracula (awful!),etc. but it has Cushing's Van Helsing, James Bernard's score and an undeniable charm.

Say Hollywood came calling and Flesh & Blood was going to be adapted who would you like to see star and direct?

NEIL: We talk about films of our books all the time, Bob and I-maybe it will happen someday. But should it actually take place, Guillermo Del Toro is my 1st choice as director-his visual eye is glorious-Fisher meets Bava- the stars...Mark Strong or Jason Issacs as Dracula, maybe Ralph Fiennes or Jeremy Irons as the Baron, Scarlett Johannsen as Carmilla, maybe as the Countess, Eva Green as crazy Katya, Gerard Butler as Horst and Ryan Gosling or Jake Glyllenhaal as Van Helsing...but I'll probably have no say in the matter-lol.

I may be oversimplifying but some of the main differences between the US and non-US (in particular European) comic books appear to be that American comics for a large part are geared towards the monthly 20+ page market whereas a lot of the European material is allowed a much larger scope right from the start. I am in particular thinking about the works of Jacques Tardi, Milo Manara, Hugo Pratt etc. When reading your comics I often sense more of an auteur feeling along those lines. Am I talking through my arse? As writer and illustrator what are your influences and are you actually inspired by non-US comic book creators?

NEIL: As to "auteur”, well, I suppose Bob and I do tend to do certain thematic things in our books-Bob has definitely got a Frankenstein jones-but as we need each other and other collaborators to make our books, I think auteur is a bit much.

My main influences are American comics, but I do enjoy Moebius, Manara and some others- I think my stuff tends to differ from most American artists because of my love of film. Again, when I draw a story, I’m pointing a camera at a set and actors. If anything, my influences are Bava, Fisher, Del Toro, Welles and other visual storytellers in that vein.

Not counting Flesh & Blood what has been your favourite work so far and are there any dream projects you would like to tackle?

NEIL: My favorite creator owned book may very well be EAGLE (which has just been reprinted) because it gave me my first taste of artistic freedom back when I was still figuring out what kind of artist I was-and my fans from those days are still with me, thank goodness-but...it was PARLIAMENT OF JUSTICE, which I did with writer Mike Oeming-that truly changed my career around for the better. It got me out of the "work for hire" gutter and brought out my true "voice" (and my love of ink wash)-I was allowed to break out of years of following the guidelines within corporate comics (which is not to say I didn't enjoy working on many of those books)-it lead directly to THE BLACK FOREST, FLESH & BLOOD and an ongoing partnership with Bob Tinnell. If you want to know my favorite work for hire comic then maybe CONGORILLA or TARZAN THE WARRIOR or SUPERMAN ADVENTURES or...heh-I dug a lot of them.

Dream projects? THE VOICE, written by Bob as another screenplay-a dark, goes for the gut horror tale with supernatural undertones-I’ve already laid out 22 pages and hope to finish it someday. EAGLE, of course-I dream of returning to that one all the time- Again I’ve started a new story and my old writing partner, Jack Herman has rejoined me to script it-someday…then there’s that adaptation of DRACULA I hope to do one day-hah-that’ll never happen-and who would want to see it anyway? There are a half dozen “someday” projects I want to do before I’m physically incapable of doing them (including new chapters of BLACK FOREST, WICKED WEST and FLESH & BLOOD) …time will tell.

Last but not least: I hate the term “graphic novel”. What's wrong with calling a comic book a “comic book”? Discuss!

NEIL: No discussion necessary-I agree- when asked by anyone what I do, I say I'm a comic book artist-calling myself a "graphic novelist" is like a garbage man calling himself a "sanitation worker"...nuff said...;o)

Pirates of Blood River (German Film Program)

2011-09-23T18:07:00.000+01:00

Scans of the Illustrierte Film-Bühne #6165, dedicated to The Pirates of Blood River (aka Piraten vom Todesfluss). This is a 4-page film program providing a lengthy synopsis amid the credits and a collage of crucial scenes. Scan 1 and 4 are effectively the front and back page, 2 and 3 are the interior pages and should ideally be held next to each other. As is, the text is unfortunately disrupted.

Alas, none of the images can even attempt to properly portray the truly awful faux French accents used by most of the actors (including Christopher Lee).

Bruce G. Hallenbeck: Hammer Fantasy & Sci-Fi

2011-09-08T20:12:00.000+01:00

Bruce G. Hallenbeck and Hemlock Books have done it again. Following their first publication (The Hammer Vampire: Read my review, buy the book, do it now!) the two have teamed up again and this time focused on Hammer Fantasy & Sci-Fi.

And just like the previous book this one's a keeper.

For starters: This is the first full length work dedicated to the Hammer Fantasy and Sci-Fi movies. As much as I have enjoyed most of the Hammer books that have come out in the last couple of years, most have covered well trodden grounds and either focus on general Hammer history or more particularly on their Gothic heritage. It's significant that a lot of the last few books about Hammer were very much visual treats. I love a coffee table book just like the next fan but the recent glut of those is symptomatic for the fact that, well, there really is only so much that can be said about them. Very soon we are going to have a situation similar to the Universal industry where writers have to depend on dragging out Dwight Frye's next-door neighbor's second cousin's grandson to come up with anything remotely new.

With Hammer we're luckily not quite there yet and some parts of their filmography are still relative Terra Incognita... or should I say Uncharted Seas? Their Sci-Fi and Fantasy output e.g. was only ever covered in a few articles here or there and even then primarily focused on some of the films individually but was never deemed sufficiently interesting enough to warrant a proper book.

Until now.

Hammer Fantasy & Sci-Fi is also a beauty to look at. Starting with one of the most stunning looking Hammer book covers I have ever seen it then follows the format of the previous work. It's richly illustrated mainly in black and white but also carries a coloured 8-page section in the middle.

So it's got a relatively unexplored subject matter. It's gorgeous to look at. But is it a good read?

And yes, this was a rhetorical question.

By now we already know that Hallenbeck is one of a handful of Hammer's most important historians. And he certainly hasn't started losing his mojo with this tome.

This is not just a film by film analysis. This is a proper history of those movies. Hallenbeck is not just contend to review the individual movies but also properly places them in a general Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Hammer movie timeline to depict what prior influences resulted in their productions and how they in turn influenced the next films down the line.

As such he bookends the Hammer chapters with a short history of Science Fantasy before and after. For the early years he even manages to draw attention to some films I had never even previously heard of (Verdens Undergang, Just Imagine). In the later chapter he highlights the similarities between James Cameron's Avatar and Hammer's Slave Girls making me for the first time wanting to see it. Avatar that is, not Slave Girls which I have already seen and enjoyed. And raises the possibility again that maybe, just maybe, New Hammer may eventually decide to tackle Quatermass one more time.

At first glance the films discussed in this book of course appear far more disjointed than, say, the Hammer vampire films reviewed in the first oeuvre. Needless to say Hammer's Science Fiction movies predated their Gothic Horrors and Hallenbeck does a great job in establishing a proper historical context for those.

He identifies the Dick Barton movies as the earliest examples of Sci Fi influence with Hammer. These were clearly part of their radio adaptations and quota quickies which led to them being involved with Robert Lippert, primarily in a series of Hammer Noirs though films such as Stolen Face also already displayed more overt Science Fiction elements. TV soon overturned radio as the prime source for entertainment, so Hammer continued the previously established trend to adapt the new medium's stories (The Quatermass Xperiment) which in turn eventually led to Hammer's more famous coloured Gothics. From then....

Ah, who am I fooling? It's all in the book and Hallenbeck narrates the history of events far better and way more in depth than I could ever do.

When it comes to reviews Hallenbeck is no undiscerning fanboy but he is able to see the beauty and fun in films that have often been unfairly relegated to the sidelines: Moon Zero Two, Slave Girls, The Lost Continent et al all get their fair due. When a turd is a turd he lets you know but in all cases he gives a very fair and always highly enjoyable evaluation of the film's merits and also includes references to Sci-Fi elements in their Journey to the Unknown, a TV show I have yet to continue covering to my shame.

Martine Beswicke provides the foreword and dispells the myth that she was one of the dancers in the Dr. No credit sequence, a myth that I was only too happy to embrace when I first came across it and probably did my fair share over the years to distribute further on. At last we can now lay this one to rest.

Denis Meikle is co-author of Chapter 3.

Hammer Fantasy & Sci-Fi is available through Amazon but I'll be damned if I give you that link as the best offers are directly from Hemlock where right now you can order this as well as The Hammer Vampire (in a new cover: Thanks for listening) for just £26.95.

The ten Hammer films I’m most ashamed never to have seen (not including “Straight On Till Morning”)

2011-09-03T18:18:00.019+01:00

In preparation for a forthcoming post on my blog The Dennis Wheatley Project, I watched The Lost Continent for the first time the other night.
I’d owned a copy of it for ages, but I’d been saving it until after I’d read Uncharted Seas, the Dennis Wheatley novel it’s based on. (I’m reading all Wheatley’s novels in order. Don’t ask. It’s a long story.)
As usual when I catch up with a Hammer film I’ve never seen before, I enjoyed every second of it, and was struck again by the fact that there’s just something... some weird, indefinable alchemical something... about Hammer films - all Hammer films - that perfectly suits my cinematic metabolism.

I can see that their best films are their best films, but even the ones that inspire nothing but complete disdain from even sympathetic reviewers – like this one – invariably give me nothing but pleasure.
From the first time I saw Lust For a Vampire I knew that it was a film I would be periodically watching again and again for the rest of my life. Dracula AD 1972 gets better every time I see it. I got The Vengeance of She as part of a box set and didn’t get round to it for over a year, so persuaded was I by its reputation as perhaps the worst of all the major Hammer movies - and when I finally gave it a chance I loved it from the first frame to the last. My most recent viewing was my fourth and it won’t be the last.

The vast majority of the Hammer films I’ve seen, and all the most famous and important ones, I saw between the ages of ten and eighteen, in a lucky, happy time when they seemed hardly ever absent from British tv, on BBC2 on Saturday nights, and ITV in the week.
Heady days they were, and I was able to indulge so regularly and with such repeated pleasure that it’s only comparatively recently that its occurred to me that there are gaps still to plug here. In the last couple of years I've tracked down - and adored - those last few major stragglers, like Captain Clegg, most of those black and white Jimmy Sangsters, and, best of all, The Mummy's Shroud. (Even the fact that those fabulous stills of the mummy looming up behind a négligée-clad Maggie Kimberly turned out to be another case of the Susan Denbergs didn't spoil it for me.)

There remain, however, just a few significant chapters in the Hammer saga that still remain just titles and stills to me.
Here are ten of the most notable – accompanied by my pledge to catch up with all of them over the next year.
Anyone got a copy of The Old Dark House?

1. X- The Unknown
2. The Abominable Snowman
I’ve seen the two black and white Quatermasses, but never did get round to these remaining black and white proto-Hammer horrors, the first written by Sangster in Nigel Kneale mode, the second by Kneale himself and with Peter Cushing in the cast. No excuse, no excuse. I always thought it would have been interesting if Hammer had retained Nigel Kneale as a regular screenwriter and just let him do whatever he wanted: his obviously more cerebral approach would have made for an interesting counterpoint to Sangster and Hinds. I can't see Sir James giving him a free hand, though. Incidentally, my former day job brought me into contact with Judith Kerr, Kneale’s widow, last year, and necessitated me visiting her at their daughter's house - which has the largest tank of tropical fish I’ve ever seen. It all seemed very Quatermass, somehow.

3. Shadow of the Cat
Bit of an interloper this. Nowadays, the is-it-or-isn’t-it-a-true-Hammer-Horror battle is over, and the verdict is yes. But I got into Hammer at a time when nobody had even heard of it, and I lived through those bitter years when the pro- and anti- forces besieged each other. I sided instinctively with the nays, for some reason, despite my love of Barbara and André, and I’ve never really accepted it into the family, certainly not in the blasé way in which it now turns up in all the lists, without even a comment to indicate its mongrel status. But still, there’s no excuse for not ever having seen it.

4. The Damned
I’m beginning to notice a running theme so far: I’ve missed most of the black and white ones.
I’m sure it’s a coincidence (and in any event we’re switching to colour from this point on) but it’s certainly true that colour is, to me, one of the defining features of Hammer. Another is a certain traditional kind of ambiance, even in modern-setting productions. This, I’ll wager lacks the latter every bit as much as the former, and in truth I’m really not in any great hurry to catch up with this. For my money Joseph Losey, like Alan Parker, is one of those names that practically guarantees an infuriating time.

5. Terror of the Tongs
This looks like great fun, rather more so I should think than Stranglers of Bombay, a(nother) black and whiter with which it is invariably if mysteriously paired. Christopher Lee in Fu Manchu rehearsal, the docks of Peking recreated at Bray and the famous bone scraping scene... and all I can do is imagine it.
The same goes for The Scarlet Blade, and for The Devil Ship Pirates, and for...

6. Pirates of Blood River
I’m sure I'd love them all, but Pirates just edges ahead in my wish list because of its rare casting of two of my minor Hammer glamour favourites: Baskerville minx Marla Landi, whose uniquely mangled dialogue is a delight in that movie and I'm sure will be again here, and the incredible Marie Devereux, for whom no justifying comment is necessary.

7. She
8. Slave Girls
There are a few reasons why I really should get around to seeing this. It’s a key Hammer movie, of course, along with One Million Years BC (the closest I've got to a Hammer film I couldn't get all the way through) one of the anomalous smash successes among the studio's sandy adventure films that convinced them there was potential in the subgenre. A score of flops later they were still trying. But this one features both Lee and Cushing – which actually is a rarer event than you might have thought at Hammer – and I have, let’s not forget, seen The Vengeance of She four times, so it feels somewhat perverse to have never watched this.
And Slave Girls just looks like good fun, with Martine Beswick in a scandalously rare swaggering lead, the potential of which just pushes the film ahead of The Viking Queen and Creatures the World Forgot in my ten.

9. The Old Dark House
Can this really be as bad as they all say? Surely not.
I doubt it’s a patch on the 1932 original – few films are – but then, it doesn’t sound like it’s all that similar either. The prospect of William Castle working for Hammer is one to savour, and so is this cast: Janette Scott, Fenella Fielding, Peter Bull, Robert Morley, Joyce Grenfell...
I’m willing to bet that this is a little gem in hiding, desperately long overdue sympathetic re-evaluation. I can't even guess what it's really like. But will we ever get the chance to see it?

10. The Anniversary
I like The Nanny; love Bette Davis… So how come I’ve never made the effort to see this? Search me. Anyway, I promised to limit this list to ten, which means, as predicted, there’s no room for Straight On Till Morning.

What are the most glaring gaps in your circle of Hammer film acquaintances?

RIP, Jimmy Sangster: The man who invented Hammer Horror

2011-08-20T14:15:00.042+01:00

“I can remember thirty years ago like it was last week.
Last week I can't remember at all.”
Jimmy Sangster, Inside Hammer

From a lifetime of memories...

Jimmy Sangster, 1927 -2011

Yutte Stensgaard (*May 14, 1946)

2011-07-27T13:37:00.001+01:00

Yutte Stensgaard is a bit of a one hit wonder. Her main claim to fame is the main part in Hammer’s second Karnstein movie, Lust for a Vampire, but what a part that is! Although the film has generally been reviled, it is well worth checking out for its cheese factor alone. The photo of a nude, blood soaked Stensgaard rising out of a coffin has rightly become an iconic image.

Lust was the highlight of her short movie career but Stensgaard also has some other films well worth watching. Her part in Tigon’s so dreadfully awful, you may as well enjoy it Zeta One can arguably also be considered a leading role for which she may not have given but sure showed everything.

Any excuse is a good excuse to (re)watch Scream and Scream Again, so even though she may only have a tiny part in it (some of her scenes ended up being cut out of the finished movie), her torture scenes remain a memorable part in a very off beat movie.

Her last movie role was in Burke and Hare but for mainstream TV viewers of a certain generation she may best be known for her subsequent 24-week stunt as a hostess for The Golden Shot, a UK game show. And let’s also not forget her guest roles in TV series such as The Saint, Jason King or The Persuaders.

She appeared in a Christmas panto in 1970 in RED RIDING HOOD and re-appeared again in theatre in 1971 for a production of the comedy BOEING, BOEING.

Yutte Stensgaard was born Jytte Stensgaard in Denmark. She moved to Swinging London at the age of 19 to become a stenographer and then did the usual round of au pair and modelling jobs before being discovered as a budding actress. It probably didn’t hurt to be married to Amicus Art Director Tony Curtis – no, not *the* Tony Curtis (although she was later to act alongside *that* one) - who was the son of her acting teacher. After the marriage failed she was involved with lyricist Leslie Bricusse (Goldfinger, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) – who had temporarily split up from wife Yvonne Romain - and married to NBC Executive and Producer John Kerwin.

Although that marriage would also ultimately fail, it was instrumental in Stensgaard’s move to the US. There for years she kept a relatively low profile and became a Born Again Christian. She is now the successful National Account Director for Premiere Radio Networks, one of the largest radio networks in the US and home to the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, owns several pieces of property and is an active supporter of the Republican Party.

After being MIA for a considerable numbers of years, Stensgaard was rediscovered by chance in 1988 in Los Angeles when she walked into (Little Shoppe of Horrors correspondent’s) Gary Smith’s travel agency. She initially was very uncomfortable combining her previous modelling career and nude shots with her strong Christian beliefs and refused to talk about her past life. Lately, however, she appears to have been more relaxed about it and even started attending conventions where she is surrounded by fans grateful to discover the re-appearance of one of Hammer’s most seminal Glamour Starlets.

Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Careless Suffragette

2011-07-18T23:08:00.000+01:00

I am making my way through my Sherlock Holmes box set. I love this 1954/55 TV series far more than I probably should but it's a great little time waster and at about 25 minutes never overstays its welcome. My cheapo set has the eps in random order and after the Michael Gough show I have now discovered one with another Hammer personality: Dawn Addams stars in The Case of the Careless Suffragette.

This is an absolute howler with lots of hohumming about women's liberation. Unfortunately, for some strange reason neither Archive.org nor YouTube are carrying this one but if you're based in the US you can see it on Dailymotion (via Hulu).

If you're not based in the US.... well, then you have some tinkering to do. (Little hint: Proxy server. But shhh, don't tell anyone I said so.)

I also just noticed that the US has the only complete set of this series. My Region 2 set only has 25 of the 39 episodes. Guess I'll need to fork out the $6.99 to make sure I have the whole lot.

Fear in the Night

2011-07-18T16:53:00.000+01:00

A young couple moves into a new school where the husband (Ralph Bates) has taken up a new position. The wife (Judy Geeson) is slowly driven mad by mysterious but unconfirmed attacks. Can this be the work of the bonkers headmaster (Peter Cushing) and what does his wife (Joan Collins) have to do with it?

Been meaning to watch Hammer's Fear in the Night forever and a day but given the bad rep that this picture has I always managed to push it a bit further down my To-Watch pile and give preference to other pictures instead.

Now I finally caught up with it and – Wow! - surprised how much I enjoyed it.

It's hardly a master piece but it is far better than the dodgy prestige it is currently “enjoying”. Yes, the story may be kind of predicable but the atmosphere is great and the acting superb.

The film is clearly in line with Hammer's other Sangster-penned psycho thrillers but with attacks committed by black gloved one-armed masked strangers this often comes across much more like one of those continental giallos. There is some beautifully haunting imagery in its empty school halls. Watching Peter Cushing have dinner in front of an empty hall of imaginary students or menacingly approach with shattered glasses is bound to put a shiver down anyone's spine.

Money was probably tight so the majority of the plot takes place in the isolation of the school building with only four main actors. A very small number of other speaking parts make a very short appearance but for the most part this is carried by Cushing, Bates, Collins and Geeson. And even then Cushing only ever turns up in scenes with Geeson.

This set up could go badly wrong but is actually saved by the professionalism of the performers and competence of writer/director Jimmy Sangster who successfully focuses on a slightly offbeat mood and regularly throws in tidbits that will keep you on the edge: the image of a strange hanged man at the start of the film that was slightly reminiscent of Fulci's City of the Living Dead; Joan Collins' character mercilessly shooting a rabbit right in front of an adoring Geeson; Collins again making disparaging remarks about Geeson as a child bride when she herself is married to a considerably older man; Cushing's character being named Michael Carmichael; and did I mention those creepy lonely corridors?

A decade or so later Hammer would use those closed sets and smaller ensembles for their TV shows but not a single one of those episodes has ever gripped me as memorably as their last cinematic psychothriller.

2 Hammer book updates: Hammer Locations, Hammer Fantasy & Sci-Fi

2011-07-05T14:44:00.000+01:00

Hammer Book Update #1:

Bruce G Hallenbeck's follow-up to his excellent Hammer Vampire will now be out on August 08. Hammer Fantasy & Sci-Fi will focus on Hammer's lesser known oeuvre and analyse their prehistoric pictures, Nigel Kneale's Quatermass saga, Ursula Andress in She, their crazy Space Western Moon Zero Two and much more.

Pre-orders are now taken through Hemlock Books and provided you place your order before July 31 you can avail of some great discounts: RRP for the book is £17.95 but if booked in advance you will get it for just £14.95. Even better: If you hadn't had the pleasure to read The Hammer Vampire yet you can order both books for just £24.95 in total (and even get the Hammer Vampire with a new and improved cover).

So what are you waiting for?

Hammer Book Update #2:

Over the last couple of years Wayne Kinsey in connection with Tomahawk Press have published some essential Hammer related books: Hammer Films - The Unsung Heroes or A Life in Pictures belong onto the book shelf of any die-hard Hammerhead.

When I first heard about Wayne's latest project dedicated to exploring the locations where the Hammer movies were shot I was all over it as this is a product that combines my three main passions in life: Travel, Films and Books. It now looks as if Tomahawk may need to gauge the general interest into Hammer Locations before it goes ahead with it. On his Facebook page Wayne wrote the following note:

Attention Hammer fans.The market has really bottomed out for books in recent months.The locations book may now not be out for Xmas (but if not hopefully early in the new year).To help us with this, anyone who is interested in this book (Hammer Films - on location) please go to the Tomahawk Press website and express your interest in it. This does not mean you need to buy it from them - it just gives them an indication of general interest in a book and they can then forward you updates. This helps judge commercialbility and size of print runs etc ... So far there's been very little interest and this is how projects can get lost.My co-author Gordon Thomson has done an amazing job and has found and photographed virtually every location used from Quatermass Xperiment to The Devil a Daughter (international ones aside) and more .. We'll be comparing screengrabs to how they look today(some unchanged - others beyond recognition) and details of how to find them yourself.This will be THE comprehensive guide to Hammer locations and I'd like it to be a big 300 page picture book, page size same as Unsung Heroes.But those spex also depend on your interest, so please contact Tomahawk Press now!Thanks,Wayne

Tomahawk Press' Facebook page also suggested you email them with the subject header "Hammer Locations" to express interest in that book and be kept updated on its progress.

Needless to say I would urge anyone with even slightest bit of interest into this work, to make sure Tomahawk are aware of it. We are not talking about Pre-orders here, just general expressions of interest in this work.

So do your civic duty and let them know.

Time to Make up my Mind

2011-06-26T15:02:00.000+01:00

For the time being this blog will stay PG.

The replies I got with regards to my query were along the following lines:

Hell, yeah! (Love that enthusiasm.)
Don't worry what others think, this is your blog so do what you feel is right.
General comments, questions, concerns as to whether the adult shield may deter people from accessing the blog (especially from work) or whether this may impact findability through Google

Thanks to all who replied.

More importantly than the range of comments, however, was the number.

Cause there weren't all that many.

I'm always surprised about what causes people to comment (here, on Facebook or Twitter). Write a little facetious remark and still get comments days later; write something important, and you may not see that much.

I am the last person to expect others to leave comments. Comments generally indicate the level of involvement with a certain issue and should never be expected by anyone. So if I see that the nudity issue doesn't result in a string of feedback then that is indication for me that it's pretty much a non-issue for my readers. I probably could go either way without offending or enticing anyone but without a particularly strong need I think I better say: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." and will simply continue the way I've operated since the beginning.

I reserve the right to change my decision at some point in the future but for now I am happy to leave things as they are and have always been.

Keep this blog PG rated? - Feedback required

2011-06-23T21:53:00.000+01:00

The first time I set up a Hammer website was sometime in the late 90s. It was entirely devoted to Hammer Glamour and by and large nothing more than a collection of pictures from those actresses often in various stages of undress. I did also write something like an Internet diary then but without blogging software this was hard coded even though I still pride myself of the fact that I came up with a blog-like idea before it was all en vogue.

The trouble was that I must have unwittingly broken rules by my then-website provider as from one day to the other the site was off the air and I could never get a reply from my host as to the reasons for that. I had suspected that a certain someone may have ratted on me about the site but couldn't prove it... but that is neither here nor there.

After sulking about the demise of that site I eventually decided to start another Hammer Glamour site hosted elsewhere. That site has now also been taken offline but at my own accord as this blog really has proven way more successful in relaying all my Hammer related ramblings. I had, however, then made a conscious decision to keep the site PG rated and focus more on writing about the movies and the actresses. So no nudity of any kind was allowed there.

When I moved to Blogger I kept that policy. Though occasionally titillating at the moment all the posts and pictures are pretty much work safe and child friendly. Over the years I learned that Blogger seems to be OK with posting some more risque stuff provided the blog is hosted as an "adult" blog. I especially enjoy the Casual (Un)Dress Friday posts that my buddy David Z posts over at his own blog.

Posting my latest entry about Marie Devereux got me thinking again as most of the pics I have of her from my collection are of the slightly naughty variety that at the moment I am not publishing here.

Question is: Should I occasionally post some more of those kinds of photos?

If I did I'd have to change my blog to an adult blog. This shouldn't make a huge difference to any of my readers who all seem to be clearly adults and are often quite considerably over the legal age and have probably all seen that, done that and bought the T-Shirt to prove it.

If you read these posts from a blog reader you really wouldn't notice a difference, however, anytime you were going to access my blog posts directly you'd get a content warning that you would just need to accept before you are allowed to get to the blog. So really just one slightly annoying click more.

I'd have no trouble continuing the way I did up till now but would like your input whether you would also be OK to get a few more revealing posts every once in a while. Does it annoy you to have to click the content warning? What are experiences from other blog owners: Does it cost readers? Does it gain readers? Did you ever get into trouble with Blogger? What I will never do is post photos with the vital parts blacked out cause that is just pure lame.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated either via the comment section below or through Facebook or Twitter.

Marie Devereux (*1938/40)

2011-06-23T20:04:00.000+01:00

According to what source you read, Marie Devereux was either born as Pat (Patricia) Sutcliffe in 1940 in France and emigrated to England as a child or she was born in 1938 in New Malden/Surrey. She got her slightly exotic looks from her mother who was Spanish.

Her voluptuous 38-23-36 body first gained Michael Caine’s attention who subsequently introduced her as a 16 year old to Glamour photographer George Harrison Marks. She soon graced the pages of countless girly magazines starting with the May 1956 edition of Carnival. She also danced topless at London’s Windmill Theatre. If you want to get an idea of the kind of photos she then shot, check out Solo #8 which was entirely dedicated to her and is now a collector's item. A number of her photos are also available through Nostalgia Publications: check for her name in their two catalogues dedicated to Glamour photos and girly mags including Just Marie Deveraux (sic), a compilation of some of her 1950s photographs. Or simply drop by the Harrison Marks website.

Between June 23 – July 05, 1958 she appeared in Tender Trap for the Queen’s Theatre in Hornchurch, her one and only drama appearance that I am aware of.

Half of her film credits are Hammer productions: She has a small part as a Harem Girl in I Only Arsked (1958). Her most memorable role (hint: THAT cleavage) was as a taunting and sadistic Oriental girl in The Stranglers of Bombay (1960). In the same year she was also one of The Brides of Dracula (1960), the more beautiful, but silent one next to Andree Melly. She spent A Weekend With Lulu (1961) and appeared in The Pirates of Blood River (1962).

Marie Devereux was Elizabeth Taylor’s stand-in for Cleopatra. Following that she could have had her best shot at mainstream fame, had Cassandra’s Iliad been made. That film – based on a screenplay by Mario Puzo - was to star Marlon Brando and to narrate the classic Homer tale from the perspective of Cassandra. And Devereux was meant to play that part. Alas, the film never got off the ground. And – after appearing in two Samuel Fuller movies (Shock Corridor, The Naked Kiss) – Devereux just did a vanishing act and was never to be seen or heard from again. Not a very uncommon fate for a Hammer Girl.

Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Perfect Husband

2011-06-16T01:02:00.001+01:00

I recently went to a car boot sale and purchased a box set of 25 episodes of the 1954/55 TV show "Sherlock Holmes", a US TV show produced by Sheldon Reynolds and shot in France. It featured Ronald Howard as Sherlock Holmes and Howard Marion-Crawford as Watson.

I am now gradually working my way through it. They may not be the most canonical films ever but they are a lot of fun and at a little over 25 minutes never overstay their welcome. A good number of the shows are also available through Archive.org and YouTube.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that one of the episodes, The Case of the Perfect Husband, featured Michael Gough in a tremendous role as a deliciously malicious Bluebeard who announces his intention to kill his wife to her with 24-hour notice. Great stuff and love that suit!

(I am embedding the three parts of the YouTube video but you can also see it in one piece at the Archive. Trouble with the Archive version is that I can embed it but not modify it to suit Blogger's page size.)

Boris Karloff on Radio - Update

2011-06-14T16:52:00.000+01:00

A year and a half ago I participated in the Boris Karloff Blogathon by providing a list of Boris Karloff radio shows and where possible indicate links where the relevant shows can be found.

I have recently been listening to a lot of OTR again and by chance came across Radio Macabre. Imagine my surprise when I noticed how many of the Karloff shows they have made available online. Well worth checking out!

Zeta One (UK, 1969)

2011-06-03T19:15:00.000+01:00

“Don’t Be Afraid/She Only Wants Love!”

Bootilicious semi-naked ladies in the title sequence and shwinging 60s musak introduce us to Zeta who is “all around you/yet not here at all” And in case we can’t spell, then the singer helps us out. It’s “Zee Eee Teee Aaaaa” and she’s “the feeling of love/from a girl so warm/but mysterious”.

That title sequence looks and sounds fab, but really doesn’t help at all when trying to figure out what the blazes is going on in this movie.

Apparently it is about Zeta (Dawn Addams) who comes from a different galaxy, surrounds herself with a colony of gorgeous babes and tries to take over our world, but in a good way or something.

A secret agent called James - no, not that one – Word (who incidentally reports to someone called W: Reverse that!) stumbles into the first scene all complete with a fake 60s tache and then spends the next 20 minutes of the film playing strip poker with Miss Olsen (Yutte Stensgaard). Now I really don’t mind spending such an inordinate amount of time ogling at this beautiful Swede in the buff, but still must admit that this hardly makes for ingenious script writing.

In actual fact it is amazing that any plot as feeble as that was chosen by Tigon who produced it to help set up a company to rival the likes of Hammer and Amicus. If it wasn’t for a bunch of actors and actresses who are generally better known for their appearances in Hammer films and Carry On style productions, it is doubtful that anyone these days would still remember the movie. What drove such a relatively eclectic cast to agree to appear in such drivel is beyond comprehension. Hard to believe any of them had ever read the script, if even there was one.

Following the strip poker sequence, Word and Olson jump into bed and Word narrates what had happened previously.

Y’see, Word (Robin Hawden) is the world’s most incompetent agent (not a spy, as he himself insists) and was ordered to investigate the disappearance of a series of gals from all over the world. Without really doing anything else but jumping into bed with any girl that crosses his path, he discovers that they were kidnapped by Zeta to be brainwashed and serve in Angvia.

Angvia is out in space somewhere, but perhaps it’s not, perhaps it’s right here in a different time scale or something. All we know is that it exists. If you think this sounds vague: Believe me, it is pretty much quoted verbatim from the dialogue.

All of that really is an excuse to see as many topless 60s girls as possible. How nice that the Angvians are generally not only dressed in the most cleverly designed topless swimsuits (courtesy of Colette Du Plessis), but they also make sure that one of their victims is a stripper (Wendy Lingham).

James Robertson Justice and Charles Hawtrey are part of a group of men who aim to capture Zeta and destroy her operation. In order to do so they’re not averse to torturing an Angvian. That violent, fetishistic torture sequence is strangely out of place in this generally more comic titillation caper. When they stage a Most Dangerous Game style (wo)manhunt, their group gets killed by the invading topless ladies, one of them being Valerie Leon. These appealing aliens have a superior power that helps them win over the men: They can shoot invisible bullets out of their fingers! Ever improvised a cowboys and Indians game as a kid with nothing but your empty hands as revolvers? Well, that’s the general idea in those ridiculous looking fight scenes. The term “budgetary restraints” must have been invented for that production.

Even the most hardened admirer of this film must admit that it is ridiculous to the extreme. It does, however, make for some titillating viewing. It’s a Must for Hammer Glamour fans: Yutte Stensgaard has her most memorable part in this film. The expression “Everything But the Nipple” (generally associated with this actress) must have originated for Valerie Leon in this film as she does display pretty much her entire body if it wasn’t for a micro bikini bottom and one of those stripper nipple protectors that display, well, everything but the nipple. Dawn Addams is the only lady who does not display her wares. The spaceship (insemination room included) makes for some fun psychedelic viewing. And, in case I haven’t said it enough, it also has Yutte Stensgaard. In the nude. A lot.

Robin Hawden, who played the stumbling and womanising secret agent, subsequently went on to bigger and better things, by, ahem, next starring in Hammer’s When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970). He also wrote a couple of books, some which can still be bought from Amazon and Amazon UK.

Look closely and you can also discover Kirsten Lindholm as one of the Angvisa girls.

Kirsten Lindholm (* September 01, 1943)

2011-06-03T18:47:00.000+01:00

Born: Kirsten Lindholm Andreassen
Alias: Kirsten Betts, Eleandra Kirsten Meredith

Born in Odense (Denmark) during the German occupation, her father emigrated with her family to New Zealand where she lived for most of her early years. She studied languages and while at university got her first couple of modelling jobs and also featured in some TV commercials.

Her first husband, John Betts, was a Latin and Greek lecturer with whom she moved to England in 1966 when he got a position at Bristol University.

For two short years between 1969-1971 Lindholm turned starlet and appeared in bit parts in all three Hammer Karnstein movies (the only actress to do so) as well as making the odd guest appearance on television (The Persuaders, UFO).

She fell in love with her Yoga teacher, a former musician who had played with the likes of Eric Burden and the Animals, Dusty Springfield and others. The two of them married in May 1972. Rather than become a Bond Girl - as she was discovered by Harry Saltzman when he saw her in the Hammer horrors - she moved to the US where she joined the Ashram Yoga community. She and her husband are now living in a Hawaiian retreat where she practices Yoga and alternative holistic medicine and goes under the name of Eleandra. She has now devoted her life entirely to studying and teaching alternative healing methods, though as revealed in Little Shoppe of Horrors #16, still fondly remembers her time with Hammer.

It Might Be You!

2011-06-02T08:16:00.000+01:00

Just discovered this short movie on YouTube: a road safety film from 1947 with Peter Cushing.

Julie Ege Discography

2011-05-08T22:21:00.000+01:00

In her hey day Julie Ege released two singles: Love/In One Of Your Weaker Moments (CBS 5431) – an interpretation of the John Lennon song – and, ahem, Touch Me/Stop It I Like It (Starbox SX 1158) in 1977. Producers had subsequently asked her to record an LP (that's a long playing record for all you teenies out there), but Ege refused as she never really considered herself to be a proper singer.

I am personally only familiar with In One Of Your Weaker Moments and, hmmm, what can I say about it without sounding too insulting?

OK! Remember William Shatner singing Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds? Well, Julie Ege’s track isn’t quite that bad… but only just.

She isn’t really singing this piece. She’s more talking through it while mainly being accompanied by a piano. You can get away with this style of song interpretation if you’re a guy and you’re name is Telly Savalas. For anyone else this is a cop out, especially when she does attempt a quasi-singing approach occasionally and consistently misses the right notes.

Based on that performance alone it is no surprise that she had to include a semi-nude picture of herself for her recording of John Lennon’s Love in order to instil some kind of interest in her single. Still, well worth checking out even just for curiosity’s sake. Graham Groom’s discussion group has an MP3 version of the song in their file section.

Ege also appeared as Columbia in the Norwegian language recording of The Rocky Horror Show. Originally recorded in Oslo on October 24 & 25, 1977, there have been several releases, both official and bootleg. The most recent release can be found on CD in 2002 by Universal Music AS (Catalog # 014728 2).

The Rocky Music site is well worth checking out as it has a lot of info on this particular recording. The entire CD is available as an MP3 download from Amazon. The site also has clips to listen to though Ege is not individually highlighted so appears to have possibly only contributed as part of the various artists involved in "Tiden blir skrudd" ("The Time Warp").

Julie Ege Bibliography

2011-05-08T21:05:00.001+01:00

The good news: Unbeknownst to many a Julie Ege fan she has actually published an autobiography. There has also been a study out about Norwegian actresses in Hollywood that extensively covers her as well and was also transferred into a feature length documentary that is available on video.

The bad news: Unless you have a penchant for Scandinavian languages you will not be able to understand them as they have only been published in Norwegian.

Julie Ege’s autobiography Naken (“Naked”) was published in 2002 and covers “her childhood, her time as a factory worker, her budding career as a model, and her breakthrough in the Miss Norway contest that lead to an exhaustive movie career. She also writes about the time when she as a mother of small children was pursuing a degree in nursing, life with the writer Anders Bye, herself being diagnosed with breast cancer and becoming a grandmother”. Unfortunately that book now appears to be completely out of print and extremely rare. I can't even locate a cover scan for this anywhere.

Norwegian theatre and film director Niels Petter Solberg (aka the World's Leading Authority on Julie Ege) wrote Norske Filmdivaer in Hollywood (“Norwegian film divas in Hollywood”, 2001). This is a coffee table book that is chock galore with often rare posters, stills and private photos of Norwegian actresses that looked for fame and fortune in Hollywood (and – apparently – Blighty). 26 of the book’s 140 pages are dedicated to Julie Ege. The remainder covers Greta Nissen, Sigrid Gurie, Greta Gynt, Anna-Lisa and Vera Zorina.

Niels subsequently directed a documentary on a similar subject: Norske kvinner i Hollywood (“Norwegian actresses in Hollywood” 2001).

He had also accompanied Ege to the Hammer at Bray II event in 1999 and conducted an interview with her that was published in both Psychotronic Video # 24 and Little Shoppe of Horrors # 15.

Up Pompeii (UK, 1971)

2011-05-08T20:41:00.000+01:00

This screen adaptation of the popular British TV series Up Pompeii takes place just before the Vesuvius erupts and buries all of Pompeii. The very loose plot centres around a visit by Nero and a plot to assassinate the Emperor. Documents get mixed up, wrong people get accused and everything ends in pieces when the city gets destroyed.

The film - just like the TV series - is full of double entendres, cheap jokes and titillation. In actual fact, the entire first half-hour is one ongoing orgy joke. ("Everything is laid out but the girls... and the men will see to that.") All the jokes are pretty much in line with similar material from the early 70s such as the Carry On... series or Hammer's own adaptations of On The Buses.

Words cannot easily convey the sheer daftness of Up Pompeii 's jokes. If you’re familiar with the TV series, you will know what to expect in the movie: The jokes are pretty much the same. So switch off your brain, have a few cans and Beware! You may just about start to enjoy these outrageous Shenanigans. It's a journey back in time.... not to ancient Rome, but to early 70s Britain before everything became PC.

Julie Ege is pretty much the only one of the cast not sporting a Cockney accent. Come to think of it: Her thick Scandinavian accent is probably closer to the historic truth than any of the Modern English on display in the film. Not that anyone of the filmmakers really lost some sleep over historical accuracy. In actual fact: The film is full of modernisms: girls wear satin nickers, characters complain about the cost of inflation etc.

Ege received a special mention during the film's opening credits: A sign of her popularity at the time. She plays Voluptia, wife of the pro-consul, and apparently "she has the makings of a pro, too." Although not appearing nude as such, some of her costumes leave very little to the imagination.

Madeline Smith plays Ludicrus Sextus' nymphomaniac daughter Erotica. The first time we see her in the movie she's in her father’s yard with her Ex-Lover and we are reminded that "X is Latin for 10". D'oh! She's got a memorable, short nude bathing scene midway through the movie.

Some of the male Up Pompeii cast has also appeared in Hammer movies. Bernard Bresslaw who plays Gorgo, the invincible gladiator, is most famous for starring in The Ugly Duckling (1959) - Hammer's "lost" comedic take on the Jeckyll & Hyde theme. He was also in I Only Arsked (1959) and Moon Zero Two (1969). Frankie Howerd played in Further Up The Creek (1958), Michael Hordern in Demons of the Mind (1972).

The last scene of the film shows the entire main cast as tourists being guided through modern Pompeii. All act astonished at some of the erotic pieces they discover on the ancient murals, but their inner thoughts reveal that not an awful lot has changed since then. They're still the lusty bunch they were before.

The success of Up Pompeii led to two "sequels" of sorts: Up The Chastity Belt (1971) and Up The Front (1972). The last one again featured Madeline Smith.

Julie Ege (*November 12, 1943 - April 29, 2008)

2011-05-08T20:19:00.001+01:00

Gorgeous girl from abroad with little inhibitions decides to trade on her looks and make it to one of the capitals of the Swinging 60s. Following a succession of stunning photo shoots, she becomes the Belle of the Ball and gets the chance to star in a bunch of movies that focus primarily on her beauty as opposed to her modest acting talent. After being the talk of the town for a while, what can she do? Where else can she go?

Well, one option is to “do a Denberg”, get involved with the wrong crowd, speed up a gear or three and enjoy the fast life with drinks, drugs and one man after the other before heading towards the inevitable mental breakdown.

As similar as both Susan Denberg’s and Julie Ege’s career paths at times seem to be, Ege personality-wise appears to have been the complete opposite to her Austrian fellow Hammer Girl. Despite being in the public eye at quite a young age, she eventually comes across as quite level handed. At the height of her career, she even did a complete U Turn and decided to move back to her native Norway and pursue a career as a nurse, an old childhood dream of hers and also earned a degree in English and History from the University of Oslo.

Julie (some sources claim she was originally named Dzuli, but that is completely unfounded) was born on November 12, 1943 in Sandnes, a small fishing village 15 minutes away from Stavanger, located at the coast in the South West of Norway and with just 115.000 people still the country’s forth biggest city. Nowadays Sandnes is known as the “Bicycle Town”: When you visit it you can borrow one of 200 bikes for touring around. It’s also a popular place for BMX tracks and dirt races. But I digress.

Ege started modelling right after finishing school at 15 and at the age of 19 became Miss Norway. She decided to move to London to pursue an acting and modelling career. She also worked as an au pair in the capital. (I know what you guys think now. Stop it!) Her first major break was being in the UK edition of Penthouse Magazine in May 1967 that led to a bit part in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) and a small, but memorable and very nude role in the Martin Feldman vehicle Every Home Should Have One (1970).

In 1970 Julie – who at that stage had already been married and divorced twice - was personally chosen by Michael Carreras to be “The New Sex Symbol of the 70s”. In a competition she beat more than 900 other girls worldwide to this title and was offered a contract by Hammer. Prior to this competition her 36-24-36 physique had already generated a staggering 1657 column inches in British papers in a two year period. It remains one of the eternal mysteries why Hammer then subsequently decided to seriously tone down her looks for her prehistoric outing in Creatures the World Forgot. It’s the one movie in Hammer’s prehistoric series in which the female lead purposely does not come across like a Glamour Girl from B.C…. and I’m not talking British Columbia here, folks.

It took Hammer until 1973 before they starred her again in one of their movies. The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1973) is a much ridiculed, but taken in (or with) the right spirits a thoroughly entertaining Vampire/Kung Fu action movie in which she played side-by-side with Peter Cushing in his last performance as Van Helsing. Christopher Lee had already given up his Dracula role to slightly less impressive John Forbes Robertson.

In between the two Hammer movies Ege mainly appeared in a couple of comedies – Up Pompeii (1971), The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971) and Not Now Darling (1973). Her popular It Girl status was confirmed when she was allowed a cameo appearance in The Alf Garnett Saga (1972).

Prior to her move back to Norway she again mainly starred in comedies – Percy’s Progress (1974), The Amorous Milkman (1974) – and Horror/Sci-Fi movies – The Final Programme (1973), Craze (1973) and the truly bizarre The Mutations (1974). She also recorded a couple of songs that turned into minor hits.

Ege regrettably passed away far too young from breast cancer on March 29, 2008, and left behind two daughters, Joanna (who lives in Shanghai) and Ella.

The Munro Mystique/Caroline Munro Newsletter #4 (1983)

2011-04-17T18:13:00.000+01:00

The Munro Mystique/Caroline Munro Newsletter #3 (1982)

2011-04-17T18:10:00.000+01:00

The Munro Mystique/Caroline Munro Newsletter #2 (1981)

2011-04-17T18:08:00.000+01:00

The Munro Mystique/Caroline Munro Newsletter #1 (1981)

2011-04-17T18:03:00.001+01:00

It goes without saying: Click on the image to get a larger version of the scan!

Goodbye WORLD OF HAMMER GLAMOUR

2011-04-17T17:49:00.000+01:00

All good things must come to an end and I have now transferred the entire old World of Hammer Glamour website over to my harddrive. It was a doodle thanks to the HTTrack Website Copier that saved me the hassle of having to store every individual page one by one.

I haven't really done anything with that website since 2007. It only cost $5.95 per month to host but over the years it added up to a ridiculous amount that I'd rather have in my pockets than in Topcities'. I also can't say that I got a lot of contacts through it lately so no point in keeping it around any further.

No idea how long the site will remain in cyberspace once my subscription has been cancelled. If you're ripping you'll miss the info, don't worry as I have already started transferring some of it over. Just check on the Hammer Glamour Site Update tag in this blog.

I will gradually transfer all the rest over as well.... or at least whatever I may still deem noteworthy.

While transferring the data I noticed a couple of items that I had even forgotten I had previously published. Correction: That I had even forgotten I ever had!

Top of the list are scans of The Munro Mystique. Prior to the current Fanclub magazine this was the first fanzine dedicated to Caroline Munro. There were at least 4 issues published in and around 1981. It was initially called Caroline Munro Newsletter. Thanks to Ken Chin from my Caroline Munro Yahoo group I got scans for most issues and had them available for readers of the website. Over the next hour or two I will now repost them on this blog. Enjoy!

Additions to the Hammer library

2011-04-17T16:10:00.000+01:00

There was a time when books and magazines about Hammer made up a small corner of my library. Little Shoppe of Horrors was the only publication to keep the fires burning... every two years or so. And once in a blue moon we'd have a book dedicated to our favourite studio.

But times have changed. My Hammer book collection now is at least a shelf wide. And new publications keep on being announced. No sign of a draught in sight. But can the market sustain that kind of onslaught for what must still be considered something of a niche market? Or will it ultimately crash and burn like a tycoon's property empire? Does anyone really need all those books? Hell, I haven't even started reading The Unsung Heroes yet.... though I have no doubt that I am going to enjoy it once I come around to it.

For now I am going to enjoy all the attention Hammer seems to be getting over the last couple of years but I can foresee that I may possibly feel oversaturated at a point in the not too distant future and say: "Enough is enough." (Come to think of it, I have yet to order any of Hammer's recently announced series of Hammer Movie novelisations.)

And one of these days I may even write a new "proper" blog post again rather than just another trade announcement.

In the meantime I am pleased to announced that LSoH #26 has just arrived on my doorsteps. Regardless of my previous rant this magazine is always a welcome addition to my collection and it's great to see it on a regular twice-annual schedule. I have only managed a very preliminary cursory reading so far but it's the usual mixture of well researched feature articles (this time focusing on Hands of the Ripper) and additional reviews and overviews. Let's face it: Chances are you are all already more than familiar with the mag so I am preaching to the choir.

For those of you in the US, you can order it through the official website; for those of us living somewhere in the Olde Worlde Hemlock Books may be the best option and help save you on some of the postage fees.

If you still have available shelf space, mark September 27 cause that is when a new cooperation between Marcus Hearn and Titan Books will open up The Hammer Vault and present some of the companies rarities:

"This book tells the story of Hammer Films through previously unseen treasures from the company's archive. Beginning with the company's incorporation documents from 1934, and ending with promotional material from the 2011 release of The Resident, The Hammer Vault presents original correspondence, lobby cards, script pages and rare photographs alongside a commentary from the people who made some of the company's greatest films.

Highlights include:
· Letters to and from some of the company's stars
· Pages from Peter Cushing's scrapbooks
· Pages from the scrapbook of managing director Michael Carreras
· Premiere tickets
· Pre-production artwork, and poster artwork from films that were never made
· Production designs
· A map of Bray Studios
· Hammer's Queen's Award to Industry certificate
· An appendix featuring the original outline of the unmade story Kali - Devil Bride of Dracula

The result is a compelling visual history of the legendary film production company, and the greatest scrapbook of Hammer collectibles ever assembled."

New Hammer Book trailer available on YouTube

2011-03-22T14:03:00.001Z

Hammer has just released a new trailer for their new series of horror novels. My understanding is that these will be printed six times a year and feature completely new titles as well as movie tie-ins and reprints of older works.

Just yesterday I have finished reading my first Graham Masterton novel, CHARNEL HOUSE, so I am more than happy to see that he will be one of the authors featured in this series. Shaun Hutson is also a name to look forward to.

The first books of that series have just been released: a movie tie-in for THE RESIDENT by Francis Cottam and Peter Curtis' THE WITCHES.

Speaking of THE RESIDENT: Prior to its cinematic release in the UK the film had already been officially made available on DVD and Blu-Ray in Germany. Hammer's WAKE WOOD will be cinematically released this Friday, followed by a DVD release next week!

Given the close proximity of these DVD releases to their cinematic releases I have opted out of seeing them in the cinemas and will instead review them here once I have the relevant DVDs.

Shane Briant's THE DREAMHEALER now available

2011-03-22T13:32:00.000Z

You may recall how much I enjoyed Shane Briant's modern horror novel WORST NIGHTMARES when it first came out. You may even recall that Shane was kind enough to provide an exclusive interview for Hammer and Beyond at about the same time. Since then he has become quite active on Facebook and interacts regularly there with his fans and admirers. My kind of star.

When WORST NIGHTMARES first came out he had mentioned that a sequel was already written. It has now been made available as an eBook through Smashwords together with one of his previous novels, HITKIDS, that I have been very curious about ever since I had heard about it following my research for the interview.

In order to purchase either one of these books you will need to register with Smashwords but it's a painfree and quick process. The books are available for just $5.99 and $6.50 respectively which IMHO is pretty good value for money. Once purchased you can download them in whatever electronic format best suits your needs.

I haven't read any of the books yet but am looking forward to catching some free time over the next few days to make some headway. Only question remaining: Which one to start with?

RIP Michael Gough, 1917-2011

2011-03-18T07:13:00.003Z

Over at Carfax Abbey last November, I combined my obituary of Ingrid Pitt with a birthday tribute to Michael Gough, who had then just turned 94.
Alas, now it is Gough's own turn for the solemn farewell.

Elsewhere I have called him one of the true unsung heroes of the British horror film, and it seems certain to me that we should think of him in relation to Lee and Cushing in the same sort of way that we think of Zucco or Atwill or Carradine in relation to Karloff and Lugosi. Like those men he was a reliable supporting presence in prestige horrors, a beautifully uninhibited star turn in the more cheap and cheerful varieties, and outside of the genre entirely, a talented and respected character actor.
His two Hammer Horror roles highlight this dichotomy, and stand as excellent tribute to his gifts.
In Dracula his resourceful Arthur Holmwood makes an excellent partner to Cushing's Van Helsing, his early mistrust of the eccentric vampirologist (as seen in the powerful scene in which, grief-stricken after Lucy's death, he tries to rudely dismiss him from the room) giving way to respect and friendship as he grasps the true nature of the danger to his friends and family, and joins Cushing in his crusade.
By contrast, as Lord Ambrose D'Arcy, the chop-licking villain of The Phantom of the Opera (above), he is a wonderfully malevolent presence: petty, vindictive, brutal, a sexual predator, and prepared to lie, cheat and destroy in pursuit of success. Gough comes at the role running, with his hair greased back and nostrils flaring, making the man - though a grotesque of near-Tod Slaughter proportions - nonetheless convincingly unpleasant with his propensity for drunken lechery, callous indifference to suffering and sudden explosions of rage. It is a measure of his excellence in the role that we feel cheated when deined the splashy death scene we have so long been anticipating for his character!

If you want to see him in charge of a whole show, look to his several collaborations with Herman Cohen, who used him rather as PRC used George Zucco. Like Zucco, Gough seems to love the opportunity to seize the main spotlight and really let rip, in an unforgettable gallery of mad scientists, psychopathic deviants and perverts.
Truly, he was one of the most important and cherishable figures in British horror.

(Matthew Coniam)

Look What the Postman Brought In

2011-02-24T11:20:00.000Z

Announcement of two major Hammer events

2011-02-09T17:11:00.004Z

First of all: Welcome to all my new followers. The blog now has 150 followers. Nice number. Of course, 200 would sound even nicer. ;-)

The Black Box Club has just announced the new event by Don Fearney. Mark your calendars: On October 15 you can meet Shane Briant (as well as the usual large range of other Hammer celebs) in person at the Cine Lumiere in London to celebrate a FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL reunion.

Tickets will be £30, a bit higher than usual as Don needs to fly Shane in from Australia. They can be ordered at the usual address from Donald Fearney at 25 High Hill Ferry, Bakers Hill, London, E5 9 HG (tel: 0208 8066915).

Ever since my interview with Shane I've been dying to meet him in person. He seems to be one of the nicest guys around and is now also very active on Facebook and always ready to chat with his fans. So I'll do my darndest to make it.... even though I must admit that I have a number of other travel plans this year so am not 100% certain if I can get to London this year. Let's wait and see.

If you have never been any of Don't events you're in for a treat. If you have already, then you know what to expect and will no doubt start saving up already for the trip.

Just a few days ago though I noticed that it has been ages since I last visited Paris and lo and behold the Musee d'Orsay has a Hammer festival "In the Clutches of Hammer" from March 11 - 27. Seriously doubt that I'll be there for it but am hoping that I may have some French followers who could attend and provide photos and an update. My understanding is that this is primarily an retrospective with many of their movies on show in a big screen auditorium. Not sure if there is also a separate exhibition or publication about the company.

For more info check out Hammer's Official website or go directly to the Museum's program info.

A couple of things I learned while watching THE GIRL FROM RIO

2011-01-28T23:44:00.000Z

OK, I am clutching at straws here with regards to the Hammer connection but, hey, wasn't Shirley Eaton also in A WEEKEND WITH LULU? So without further ado, here are a couple of things I learnt while watching Jess Franco's THE GIRL FROM RIO.

Tough guys get manicures. Though they call it a MANicure.
It's OK to swim with a telephone in your hand. It'll still work.
1960s clothes are utterly vavavavoom.
1960s wigs not so much.
When you film a nude scene you really should focus on the nudes not the vase in the foreground.
Oriental style funeral hearses are totally inconspicuous when they follow you right behind but stick out like a sore thumb when not in motion.
You better think twice than to jump into a plane with practically topless stewardesses carrying machine guns regardless of how friendly they might appear.
Note to self: There is no new mask for oxygen.
George Sanders could have done worse for a paid vacation.
1960s people didn't just drink J&B but also VAT69.
But they did drink J&B!
I can't find the city of Femina on a map.
Suave evil masterminds read Popeye comics.
Randomly pause the movie and you always get an awesome image.
Sumuru's motto: "I don't believe in banks" was far ahead of its time.
As long as you keep an eyebrow arched up and an ironic look on your face there's no need to be afraid of women.
Even if they do sometimes put you into awkward positions.
Being irresistible to men can be taught in classes and apparently involves mathematical formulas not just scanty dresses.
It's possible to talk freely even if your mouth is tied with duct tape.
Chinese water torture is for wimps. Real torture is being kissed by three girls.
Especially if two others then decide to stand on your belly.
Bare midriffs are pretty sexy.
George Sanders with a young girl on the lap on the other hand: Awkward. Very very awkward.
Nothing like a local festival to film crowd scenes on the cheap and make the budget look much bigger.
So there is at least one movie that features Maria Rohm but not Maria Perschy.
Yep, that's an SS insignia on one of the girl's uniforms.
When coming up against girls in fetish outfits wearing Hawaiian style clothing is pretty... well.... emasculating.
If you tie a girl up on a rack common decency demands that you leave her ridiculously large summer hat on.
It's a bit hard to feel threatened by invisible torture rays.
Blonde or brunette... Shirley Eaton looks great regardless.
But the only one wearing green should be Robin Hood.
If you shoot at helicopters, girls, then aim at them not the blue sky.
Mini skirted black mourning clothes work surprisingly well. I wonder why they never really caught on.
I really need to start reading Sax Rohmer's SUMURU stories to check what - if any - connection this film has to them.
Jess Franco is way better when under the reign of a watchful producer.
Harry Alan Towers just can't do wrong.
Like it? Love it!

I forgot to say it...

2011-01-24T16:51:00.001Z

.... but The Black Box Club is live now. (I had previously mentioned some background info about the site here.)

Glen Davies: Last Bus to Bray – The Unfilmed Hammer

2011-01-21T12:42:00.000Z

When I first heard of Glen Davies' 2-volume magazine publication of LAST BUS TO BRAY: THE UNFILMED HAMMER I was getting quite excited. Published as a special edition by Little Shoppe of Horrors these tomes were going to focus on all the movies Hammer had at one stage planned but then for various reasons abandoned. Yes, this was screaming niche niche market but I was ready to explore the murkey alleys of all the What Ifs that Hammer had once promised further. And LSoH always promises high quality research and excellent bang for your bucks. Some of the recent issues – such as the Amicus Special from a while back – were effectively standalone books in their own right for half the price of what it would have cost to have them properly published in either hardcover or paperback.

The moment LAST BUS was out I started getting emails from readers telling me that I may possibly need to lower my ridiculously high expectations and complaints were raised about anything from the general layout to the selection of photos as well as an abundance of typos and a general subpar experience.

So what is my stance now that I have read it?

LAST BUS is quite obviously a labour of love. Glen Davies has researched this subject extensively since the 1980s and it shows from the amount of info displayed here. The first volume deals with “The Glory Years” from 1950-1970, the second one with the “Decline, Fall and Rebirth” from 1970-2010. Some of the entries are short, others quite extensive. Whenever possible we get to read not just about the project itself but also what may have happened, whether it may have been filmed before or after it was dropped by Hammer. If it was based on a novel, then you can rely on additional info about the book, cover scans, short reviews etc. The author even highlights films that appear to have been announced by Hammer but were in actual fact spoofs concocted by fans such as DRACULA WALKS BY NIGHT, a “story which tied the legend of Vlad the Impaler and Sherlock Holmes into a vampire yarn set in London in 1895”. Or projects such as ROSEMARY'S BABY and DOCTORS WEAR BLACK (later to be filmed as INCENSE FOR THE DAMNED) that were suggested to Hammer by Terence Fisher but never adopted by the company.

So if you're in any way interested in that area of Hammer research, then on that level you won't be disappointed.

The trouble is that a publication such as this one cannot be judged on the general contents alone regardless of how fascinating they may be.

And one of the first things anyone is going to notice is indeed the abundance of typos and and other kinds of editing errors. Though richly illustrated there is a general feel of a slapdash approach to the layout. Now I have been raised on cheaply produced fanzines from the 1980s and overall this alone doesn't bother me too much if only the contents are worthwhile.

Those 80s fanzines, however, only cost a few pesetas. The retail price for LAST BUS, on the other hand is $32.95 for both editions combined plus postage. So when I ordered this I ended up paying a bit more than £30 (p&p included). That is a staggering amount for a small press publication and I could have easily have got an entire McFarland book for that deal.

So with that in mind I do feel that the publication would have been better off a) proofread and b) in the regular format (either as a regular LSoH or Special Issue) at the normal rate of around $8.95 (plus postage). Had it been published that way, I am sure I would have praised it to the hills. As it is I do, however, feel that it fails with its price-value ratio.

Now I absolutely adore the ground that Dick Klemensen is walking on. He has done more than ANYONE over the years to help carry Hammer's candle on and in his publication has always provided groundbreaking Hammer (and general Brit Horror) related research. And LAST BUS TO BRAY is indeed a typical example for the kind of publication that noone else but Dick would touch. It will be well thumped by me over the years (no doubt about that) but given all the numerous layout issues and the price it retails at readers may indeed think twice about forking out their hard earned cash for this LSoH Special.

Hammer what ifs and if onlys

2010-12-20T14:53:00.013Z

by Matthew ConiamI first watched Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb on the 23rd of December, 1983. I was ten years old, and by the time 1984 rolled round I’d seen it at least twice more. Since then it’s become a regular Christmas ritual, and I’ve often written about my uncertainty as to the ratio of objectivity to nostalgia informing my conviction that it is by a comfortable margin the best film Hammer ever made in the nineteen-seventies.
But could it have been even better? It was very nearly considerably different. I’m not sure how much difference it would have made to the end product if director Seth Holt had lived long enough to supervise the final cut: it's to Michael Carreras’s credit that the film never overtly betrays the presence of a substitute director.
What is regrettable, however, is the loss of Peter Cushing in the central role of Professor Fuchs. Not because there’s much wrong with Andrew Keir, Cushing’s last minute replacement when he left the film to tend his ailing wife: there isn’t. But all Hammer fans know that a Cushing performance adds to any movie. It's partly that he spells Hammer like no other actor, and his presence is so reassuring a symbol of continuity in the studio’s output, a fixed point in the studio's fifties, sixties and seventies incarnations. It’s such a shame he wasn’t able to lend that presence to this one. Had he done so, I think we’d all be calling the film a masterpiece.
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I suspect all Hammer fans have their own list of what ifs - not just the might have beens and the nearly weres, but also the if onlys, where our imaginations run wilder even than that of James Carreras looking at a picture of Victoria Vetri and a rubber dinosaur.
As well as the Hammer films that really did nearly star Cary Grant, Brigitte Bardot and Vincent Price there are those which were never even considered but of which I dream all the same: Barbara Steele in The Vampire Lovers, for instance.
But no fantasy casting can seem as odd today as the genuine what if prospect of Bernard Bresslaw as the Creature in Curse of Frankenstein.
The irony has been noted that Christopher Lee owed his Hammer career to the very thing that had stood in his way as a leading man hitherto: his slightly otherworldly demeanour and his considerable height. But how much stranger that those same characteristics might have made a horror icon of Bernie! All the studio were looking for when casting the role, when Bresslaw was top of their list, was physical suitability, and Bresslaw would certainly have fit the bill in that department. Separate his features from their association with goonish comedy roles in the Carry On series and they start to seem surprisingly appropriate too. Bresslaw was soon to appear in Blood of the Vampire, written by Jimmy Sangster, and he was certainly no stranger to Hammer, for whom he appeared on a number of occasions, most notably as a comic Jekyll and Hyde in The Ugly Duckling.
But still, how strange to speculate on what might have happened - both to Bresslaw's career and to Lee's - if the original casting had prevailed! Might Bresslaw have become an international horror star? Probably not - he could never have played Dracula.
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Then there are all those unrealised projects, the famous posters for movies that were never made: Victim of His Imagination, Nessie, Vampirella or of course my personal favourite, Zeppelin Vs Pterodactyls. And imagine if The Hound of the Baskervilles had rung the box office bell a little more resoundingly, and Hammer had responded with a whole series of richly coloured, horror-tinged Sherlock Holmes movies. That, surely, is a prospect to savour: imagine Hammer’s take on The Speckled Band, The Devil’s Foot, The Sussex Vampire, The Creeping Man...
This what-if game can get mighty infectious!
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Returning to Blood From the Mummy's Tomb, though, I can't help thinking that we can justifiably curse the fact that Valerie Leon's was a one-shot performance for the company, and in particular that she was never cast as a vampiress.
Critical consensus has never been too effusive about her performance in Blood, but time has rightly made an icon of her all the same. None of the studio's other starlets was so genuinely spooky, so weirdly sensual and ethereal, an effect accentuated by her transfixing eyes and eerily melodious voice.
I don't know and will never understand why her performance is so consistently underrated, or how it didn't lead to other starring roles for the studio (or, indeed, any studio: it's her only ever movie lead). How did she never get to play a vampire? Think of her in Adrienne Corri's role in Vampire Circus, Anoushka Hempel's in Scars of Dracula, even, dare I say it, Martine Beswick's in Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde? Leon had a very special quality that was tailor-made for horror films, that went far deeper than mere gorgeousness and physical majesty, the only attributes that were tapped in her more frequent appearances in British comedies.
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But the Hammer what if my imagination grapples with most often is one that was all set to become reality, and yet remains almost completely unimaginable: Lust For a Vampire directed by Terence Fisher.
The first, Bray-era classics with which Fisher's name is synonymous seem a world away from the later, more brazenly exploitational films of the studio’s final decade, of which Lust For a Vampire is so emblematic. It's hard placing Terence Fisher and Yutte Stensgaard in the same universe - the idea of them collaborating on the same film is just ridiculous.
And yet, but for a twist of fate, not only would the film have starred Cushing in Ralph Bates’s pervy headmaster role, but it would indeed have been directed by Fisher, who was signed and ready before being forced to pull out after breaking his leg in a traffic accident.
I just can't begin to imagine how the film might differ with Fisher at the helm, what he would have chosen to play up or play down, how he would have handled the script's emphasis on softcore eroticism, if he would have attempted to reign in some of its more absurd or excessive contrivances or just rolled with them, and what his working relationship with Fine and Style would have been.
I don't have many bad words to say about Lust as it exists: it seems to me one of the most unfairly maligned of the later Hammers. But still, Fisher's version is one I'd give anything to see, and an unfortunate loss to the studio's filmography.
.Ready when you are, Mr Fisher...
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What unrealised Hammer projects most excite your imagination? If any readers would like to submit their own favourite what ifs and if onlys in the comments, please do so!

The Scarlet Blade (1963)

2010-11-30T15:30:00.002Z

Following the success of Pirates of Blood River (1962), director John Gilling was asked to again helm Hammer’s next swashbuckling adventure The Scarlet Blade.

Jack Hedley as Robin Hood, sorry: The Scarlet Blade, has to go undercover and battle for his king against his opponents. Though set during the English Civil War there really is very little that differentiates The Scarlet Blade from the more traditional Robin Hood fare. It has all the typical elements of undercover war fare in the forest, friends being lost and rescued, scheming baddies, chivalric heroes and ladies who can’t help but fall for the outlaw. Nothing we haven’t seen done much better before.

The film is sorely lacking in big name actors. Oliver Reed is the one charismatic actor in the production and pretty much carries the movie with his moody looks and mellifluous voice. His character, Capt. Tom Sylvester, becomes traitor against Cromwell out of love for his Colonel’s (Lionel Jeffries) daughter (June Thorburn) who has turned against her father to support the king. When he discovers that his love interest has herself fallen for The Scarlet Blade the pendulum swings back and he again betrays the royal supporters. When his treachery gets discovered he outs the Colonel’s daughter as one of the main key figures in the fight against Cromwell and ends up being shot by her protective father.

It is hard not to root for his egotistic cause at times as he is clearly used and his emotions are being played with by the nominal heroes of the movie. It is these moral dilemmas that on the one hand distinguish The Scarlet Blade from similar productions, on the other hand make it such an utter disappointment: We see a daughter turn against her father and use a lovesick soldier for her cause; a father trying to protect her daughter from becoming a victim of the very same system he supports; a jilted lover twice turning traitor and finally ending up being pretty much the only one of the main cast who ends up dead, yet he’s the one who’s the least of all interested in any one side.

This moral ambivalence is carried through right to the end of the very short running time, though rather than making this an exercise in ethical dilemma, the overall ending just comes across as an anti-climactic let down. After barely 80 minutes – at a time when the viewer could usually expect some kind of show down between the opposing parties – we see The Scarlet Blade and the Colonel’s daughter escaping from Cromwell’s troops and finding refuge in a gypsy camp run by Michael Ripper in quite possibly his worst make up job ever. The Colonel searches through the camp. Now will he or will he not discover daughter and lover there? Will The Scarlet Blade be captured and battle him to the death? Will we see a fight scene that will be imitated by all the teenage boys on their way out of the cinema?

Err, no…..

He discovers both of the fugitives, then turns to Michael Ripper and advises him to make sure his gypsies remain in the forest. As he rides off the credits announce that we have just seen a “Hammer Production”.

This denouement is by far Hammer’s worst ending ever. Forget about Dracula removing his stake or seeing the devil in To the Devil… A Daughter being killed off by a simple stone. The Scarlet Blade will have you look at your neighbour in sheer disbelief with a quiet look of “What the….” on your face.

Jack Hedley is a very competent actor, but not the first person you’d have in mind for a swashbuckling debonair role. He is generally better suited for authoritative, grumpy old man parts as in Lucio Fulci’s New York Ripper (1982).

For June Thorburn this would prove to be her second last movie. A promising career that had previously included Peter Cushing’s Fury at Smuggler’s Bay (also directed by John Gilling) was cut short when she died heavily pregnant in a plane accident.

The film is Suzan Farmer’s debut Hammer production. She has very little to do in her small part as Hedley’s sister Constance Beverley, a few lines and a terrified scream when she is led away by Cromwell’s troups.

John Gilling would soon direct his most famous movies, Hammer’s Cornish Horror duo The Reptile (1966) and Plague of the Zombies (1966).

Overall The Scarlet Blade is quite pedestrian and generally very unexciting. It is by far not Hammer’s worst swashbuckler - that dubious honour will have to go to A Challenge for Robin Hood (1967), an utterly charmless movie with moustachioed Merry Men that look as if they’re right out of an early porn production -, but it certainly was far from being one of the company’s best either.

Michael Gough in CANDIDATE FOR MURDER (Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre)

2010-11-30T15:16:00.001Z

I recently posted some screen caps from Hazel Court's Merton Park Wallace THE MAN WHO WAS NOBODY. Michael Gough was also in one those films. CANDIDATE FOR MURDER features him as a jealous husband hiring a German contract killer to off his wife but the killer has his own plans. It's probably one of the best Merton Park Wallaces around and well worth searching for.

Operation: 101010 - Movies starring Hammer actors or actresses (non-Hammer)

2010-11-30T14:51:00.000Z

I finished another one of my Operation: 101010 categories dedicated to 10 non-Hammer Movies starring Hammer actors or actresses.

Surprise, surprise, a good number of those films featured Christopher Lee. If anything I am surprised that I didn't finish this category faster.

I have now finished six of my ten 101010 projects and with only one month to go am doubtful that I'll finish it completely.... though will do my darndest. I have watched movies in each of the remaining categories so from a pure number perspective I may just about manage to wrap it up, but my mind is flighty and I often feel like watching a whole range of other stuff.

So here's what I viewed in the last couple of months:

Trial by Combat (Peter Cushing) - THE discovery of the year for me. Loved the AVENGERS style atmosphere. Pity there is nothing on YouTube for it.

Curse of the Crimson Altar (Lee, Gough, Wetherell, R. Davies)

The Castle of the Living Dead (Christopher Lee)

Royal Flash (Oliver Reed) - This YouTube "clip" is actually the entire movie!

Crimson Rivers 2 (Christopher Lee) - Short Lee part displaying his linguistic skills

Ill Met By Moonlight (Christopher Lee)

Lisbon (Yvonne Furneaux)

The Man Who Was Nobody (Hazel Court)

The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse (Yvonne Furneaux)

Five Golden Dragons (Christopher Lee)

Ingrid Pitt's most personal film project

2010-11-27T21:30:00.000Z

Amongst all the tributes that have poured in following Ingrid Pitt's passing I just learned about probably the last and definitely most personal project she was ever involved in: an animated short movie about her time in the Stutthof concentration that she provided the voice over for. The film is not yet finished but a clip on YouTube gives a first glimpse at what's to come.

Do widzenia, Ingrid!

2010-11-24T17:45:00.000Z

Really saddened to hear about the passing of Ingrid Pitt just two days after her 73rd birthday. I only heard about this late last night when I returned home from work and noticed how much the Internet was abuzz with news about her death in Facebook tributes, countless blog posts and numerous tweets... truly an indication how much Pitt was loved and admired by several generations of Hammer Fans.

She was one of the most prominent female Hammer Stars despite the fact that she only ever acted in two of their movies and one of which (Countess Dracula) really wasn't all that great. The other one (Vampire Lovers), however, launched a whole new wave of lesbian vampire movies and messed around with many a teenage boy's - and their father's! - hormones for years to come.

Given that Pitt's most iconic decade were the 1970s it bears reminding that during that period she only ever shot five feature films: the two Hammers as well as The Wicker Man, The House That Dripped Blood and the virtually unknown Nobody Ordered Love.

It is a sign of Pitt's resilience that out of this handful of movies she managed to create a lasting image in an active career that lasted up to her final days.

These days you're labelled a “survivor” just for making it through a bout of flu. Pitt, however, clearly had managed to beat the odds against her from an early age on when she survived the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp. She also escaped into the West by swimming through the Berlin River Spree.

Her most prominent role in the 1960s was alongside Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton in Where Eagles Dare, though she was also an extra in Doctor Zhivago and Chimes at Midnight, battled invisible dinosaurs (to save on special effects costs) in Sound of Horror and was the unfaithful wife in super cheap jungle adventure The Omegans.

Her key roles demonstrated that she not only had a very unusual Slavic sensuality – she was never what could be called the girl next door – but also a true ability to act that was never properly acknowledged at the time and even strangely covered when her voice was dubbed for Countess Dracula. An Easter European actress playing an Easter European aristocrat with an Easter European accent apparently was too radical a concept for Hammer.

After a break of a couple of years she returned back to the screens again in a small number of supporting roles in the 1980s such as Who Dares Wins, Wild Geese II and Underworld (aka Transmutations).

Probably noticing that her cinematic heyday was likely going to be over soon and not content to exclusively appear on the convention circuit like so many other female genre stars of her time, she switched over to writing. Her debut novel, Cuckoo Run, was published in 1980 followed by a number of other fictional books. Over several years Pitt had a regular monthly column in the sadly defunct Shivers magazine. Her autobiography, Life's a Scream, is essential reading for all Pitt Fans and she also penned a number of books about various aspects of Fantastic film and literature including the delightfully titled Ingrid Pitt Book of Murder, Depravity and Torture.

Over the last couple of years she lovingly held court over her fans during meet-ups organised by herself and her fan club, in Don Fearney's fabulous Hammer events as well as during other conventions and gradually became somewhat of an eccentric auntie who was always loving and grateful but never afraid to speak her mind.

It is my understanding that Pitt's latest (and now sadly last) book dedicated to The Hammer Xperience had only recently been finished and will hopefully soon find a publisher. Ingrid Pitt, Queen of Horror by McFarland, the first book covering her entire career, is also due out December 01.

I think I am not the only one who over the next couple of days will honour Pitt's memory by watching some of her movies and/or reading her books and silently thanking her for all the pleasure she brought us over the years. Her presence and larger-than-life personality will sorely be missed.

Operation: 101010 - Movies starring non-Hammer Horror icons

2010-11-24T14:35:00.001Z

Another category finished in the Operation: 101010. These are the 10 movies that I have watched so far this year featuring non-Hammer Horror icons. I am making progress in a number of the categories but not sure if I'll properly finish this project before the year is over.

The Invisible Ghost (Bela Lugosi)

The Story of Mankind (Price, Lorre, J Carradine)

The Shootist (J Carradine)

Stranger on Horseback (J Carradine)

The Black Sleep (Lugosi, Chaney, J Carradine, Rathbone)

Island of Lost Souls (Bela Lugosi)

Spider Baby (Lon Chaney Jr)

The Deerslayer (1920, Bela Lugosi)

The Eve of St Mark (Vincent Price)

The Black Cat (1941, Bela Lugosi, Basil Rathbone)

Peter Cushing Lives in Whitstable

2010-11-21T19:50:00.000Z

What can I say?

When I woke up this morning I had never heard about this song by The Jellybottys.

And now I know of two versions.

Guess this day was not quite in vain.

The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (UK, 1971)

2010-11-19T13:11:00.000Z

The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins is a comedy that in the past has had its fair share of detractors. In actual fact, if you believe most reviews prior to the Region 2 DVD release from a few years ago, you may even expect this to be a complete flop. It is now, however, possible to re-evaluate it afresh and the film comes off as surprisingly imaginative and even inventive. The most fascinating aspect nowadays is that the star studded production offers a glimpse of British comedy at a time when the older “Oooh, errr!” style antics gradually became replaced by Monty Python’s new kind of imaginative comedy. Whereas all the episodes were shot by the same director, they were in fact all written by a bunch of different comedic talents and starred people from backgrounds as diverse as Goons, Carry On and Monty Python. As such it is possible to clearly watch how one style of humour started being transformed into a more contemporary one. In a way The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins is for the history of British Humour what the Missing Link would be for Evolution. (OK, I admit I’m probably stretching credulity here a bit.)

Also of note is that the film was produced by Hammer’s smaller rival Tigon (Curse of the Crimson Altar, Scream and Scream Again).

The knee slappingly hilarious episode Gluttony features Leslie Phillips as an Executive for an international Health Food company opposite Julie Ege as the boss who invites him for dinner (and more?) up to her place. The humour of this piece is primarily based on the fact that Phillips is a gluttonous Gourmand who would love to eat anything but the company’s dry health food that he is made to consume at any given opportunity. Even when confronted with Ege’s charms, he is more tempted by her culinary promises as opposed to the other delights she's offering up. Penthouse Magazine publisher Bob Guccione also has a bit part in this episode showing him during a photo shoot with Penthouse Pet Tina McDowell. Monty Python’s very own Graham Chapman penned this script together with Barry Cryer and was also responsible for the Wrath episode.

Though Ege’s Gluttony is the funniest, the subsequent Lust is the best overall episode of the movie. Yes, seeing pervy Harry Corbett travelling around London and getting kicks out of watching Swinging Chicks of the early 70s is a lot of fun, but Marty Feldman’s script manages to land a vicious punch at the end that’ll have you not only feel sorry for Corbett’s character but also depressed about the general state of the Human Condition. Anouska Hempel has a small part as a Blonde Girl that Corbett tries to chat up.

The episode with the third Hammer Girl, Madeline Smith, in this film – Sloth – is easily the worst and unfunniest, but also blissfully the shortest. Scripted by Spike Milligan, he is up to his usual nonsensical escapades. I know the notion of nonsense implies that it’ll make utterly - well - no sense to anyone, so if you’re into that kind of humour you may see your appreciation of it shoot up. It’s all about people who can’t be bothered: Marty Feldman bounces against a tree rather than walk around it; Madeline Smith plays the unsatisfied wife of a guy who is too lazy to, ahem, make an effort; Milligan himself is a tramp who prefers to starve than to raise his arm and reach for an apple. There’s also an ongoing walnut joke. (Don’t ask: I told you it made no sense.) It’s shot in sepia toned, rapidly cut silent movie style. All the dozen or so comedians in it, including Smith, appear for all but a few seconds. Blink and you’ll miss them. And you just may be better off without it. If the only reason you were going to watch the movie was for Maddy Smith, then learn from the characters in this episode and don’t bother... unless you really need to watch absolutely everything she ever appeared in.

The remaining four episodes do not feature any Hammer Glamour, but are still chokablock with British Comic Talent such as Bruce Forsyth, Bernard Bresslaw, Joan Sims (Avarice), Harry Secombe, Geoffrey Bayldon (Envy), Ian Carmichael, Alfie Bass (Pride), Ronald Fraser and Arthur Howard (Wrath). Pretty much all of them are entertaining and tightly scripted enough as not to overstay their welcome. Pride’s tale of class snobbery on the motorways is the one of the remaining that’ll stick out the most with regards to the execution of general premise.

It is good to see The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins popping up in a budget DVD release here in Region 2 land. It’s a half forgotten film well worth checking out. Quite clearly not a hidden pearl as such, but much better than you have previously been made to believe. Time to judge for yourself if you have so far only heard about it. [Wow, this reviews brings me back a few years. The film has now been on the market for the best part of a decade.]

Yvonne Romain (* February 17, 1938)

2010-11-19T12:42:00.001Z

Also known as Yvonne Romaine and Yvonne Warren.

Despite her exotic looks and French name, Yvonne Romain is a born and bred Londoner. Her parents are of Maltese and British decent and her maiden name was Yvonne Warren. She took the stage name Romain after the family name of her grandmother and great-grandmother.

Educated in St Mary’s Abbey, her mother sent her to the Italia Conti acting school at an early age and from the age of 12 on she appeared in children’s television shows and repertory. Unfortunately nothing more in depth is currently known about any of these childhood performances.

Her measures at the height of her success were a stunning 38-22-36. Just what Hammer generally looked for in their female stars: She first played Oliver Reed’s mother in Curse of the Werewolf, then became his fiancée in Captain Clegg, before sharing her third and final screen appearance with him in his (and her!) last Hammer outing The Brigand of Kandahar.

Other memorable roles include: Action of the Tiger with a young Sean Connery. She also starred with him again in The Frightened City, the year before he made it big as 007. Corridors of Blood unites her with screen legend Boris Karloff. She gets fed to the lions in the excellent Circus of Horrors. One of her final British roles was in Lindsay Shonteff’s shlock classic and ventriloquist horror movie Devil Doll.

She fell in love with and married composer Leslie Bricusse (Goldfinger, You Only Twice as well as the excellent Sherlock Holmes – The Musical) and subsequently moved to L.A. At that time she had to turn down a seven year contract with Fellini as that would have meant spending all the time in Rome away from her Hollywood based husband and little son. Once based in the US, she gradually moved away from the film business. Her last two roles in the 60s were in the groovy The Swinger opposite Ann Margret and she became one of Elvis’ film gals for Double Trouble. She then practically retired and only returned to the screen briefly for the excellent murder mystery The Last of Sheila: She’s Sheila, which means she is dead and an all star cast of familiar 1970s faces is attempting to solve the Whodunnit as to who killed her off.

Still stunning looking at over 70 she occasionally shows up at Fan Get-Togethers like Wayne Kinsey’s first book launch.

Sexy and sultry, she may not have made a huge number of screen appearances, but is fondly remembered by male Hammer Fans the world over.

If you're interested in reading more about her, check out Yvonne Romain's by far lengthiest interview (to my knowledge) in The House That Hammer Built #18, p. 99-102. This is Wayne Kinsey’s special Captain Clegg issue, so it is only fitting that he manages to extract a lot of valuable info from her for this one. 90% of the biographical info I have published for this blog post came courtesy of this single interview!

Hazel Court in THE MAN WHO WAS NOBODY (Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre)

2010-11-18T17:42:00.000Z

In the early 1960s Merton Park Studios adapted a number of Edgar Wallace books for the big - or should I say: small? - screen as those hour-long shows got cinematic releases but were also screened as a TV series under the heading “The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre”.

Most of the episodes are quite talky and bordering on the dull though some are still of interest these days due to some of the guest stars on view. They sure aren't as much fun as the German Rialto series from about the same time, though I have long discovered that I am gradually turning into a Wallace completist so all of the episodes are fair game to me.... provided I can get a hold of them. They are notoriously difficult to trace and I have so far only managed to get my dirty grips on about a dozen of them thanks to a very kind Procurator.

THE MAN WHO WAS NOBODY is only the second and one of the most interesting films of the series as it features Hazel Court in unusual modern gear for a nice change. If you look at the screen caps below you may think: “How classily dressed she is!” Ironically, though, her character is meant to be an incredibly hip (not classy), boho and unconventional female private eye in search of a missing man and possible diamond smuggler. Look she even does Yoga! How radical!

I wish I could say this was a long lost treasure but it really is still a very talky affair with the added benefit of seeing Court in an unusual lead role far away from the Gothic parts she generally took.

Victoria Vetri (* September 26, 1944)

2010-11-09T14:56:00.000Z

Though born Victoria Cecilia Vetry to an Italian-American family in San Francisco, for the first couple of years of her career the actress/model worked under the pseudonym Angela Dorian, reminiscent of the famous ill fated schooner “SS. Andrea Doria” until she changed her name back to her original native version following the advice of Roman Polanski with whom she had filmed Rosemary’s Baby (1968). In that movie there is a famous scene in which Mia Farrow’s character asks Angela Dorian as to whether she was the actress Victoria Vetri which she denies. That scene came straight from the book though in there the character was asked whether she was Piper Laurie. Some sources also indicate that at some stage she used the surname Rathgeb.

Prior to her supporting role in the Polanski thriller she had parts in a large number of popular TV shows of the time. He biggest career jump was when she was nominated as Playboy’s Playmate of the Month in September 1967 and subsequently became Playmate of the Year 1968. At the time she was such a popular Playmate that some practical joker in NASA even went so far as to secretly place her photo into Apollo 12’s check list. Years later Vetri reappeared for a couple of new topless photos for Playboys April 1984 edition.

Hammer hired her for their prehistoric romp, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970). Some of the versions of the film show her in the nude. She also displayed a lot of flesh for Group Marriage (1973) and Invasion of the Bee Girls/Graveyard Tramps (1973). For most genre fans the the image of a blonde cave girl in the Hammer production is the way Vetri would most of all be remembered, however, she is a natural brunette who had point blank refused to get her hair dyed and instead insisted on wearing a blonde wig.

For a while it appeared as if she was going to start a promising B-movie career, however, nothing much was heard off her afterwards other than that she was reportedly suffering from a broken nose and ribs following a brutal attack in her house in 1980.

Some sources claim that she also attempted a rock music career, however, I have yet to come across any reference to recorded singles or albums under any of her pseudonyms.

She still seems to raise quite a few male hart beats: Bestseller author Dan Brown sounds like a fan given the fact that the female lead character in his Angels and Demons was called... Vittoria Vetra. Unfortunately, since October 2010 she will likely be remembered as much for her movies as for the fact that she was arrested following the alleged attempted murder of her boyfriend and is now facing possible jail time.

Hammer Fantasy & Sci Fi book

2010-11-08T12:35:00.001Z

An hour or so after posting my current Hammer book overview I received a jpg of Bruce G Hallenbeck's upcoming book due out around March 2011. Now is that a beauty or is that a beauty?

Following this publication another two books are planned in the series focusing on Hammer Noir and Gothic.

'Nuff said.

Books galore

2010-11-08T11:18:00.003Z

Marcus Hearn's ART OF HAMMER does exactly what it says on the tin and presents close to 200 pages of wonderfully reproduced posters for most of the classic Hammer movies, both horror and non-horror. Apart from a short introduction the book almost exclusively focuses on the reproductions with a few explanatory words here or there.

No matter how long you have been fascinated with Hammer, you are bound to discover a couple of images you have likely never come across before.

This is an absolute feast for the eyes. You know a coffee table book has gone the whole way when you remove the dust wrapper and subsequently unearth not a just a blank black cover but another set of striking images both for the front as well as the back cover.

Definitely a Must Have for anyone only remotely interested in classic Hammer. One of these days I would also like to see a similar production featuring all the different lobby cards and other promotional and press material.

Another Must Have is Wayne Kinsey's new book dedicated to HAMMER FILMS – THE UNSUNG HEROES. I purchased it a week ago during the official launch at Don Fearney's latest Hammer event in London's Cine Lumiere but haven't come around to reading it yet.

If you're exclusively interested in reading about the Hammer actors, don't bother as you won't find anything in this tome. As the title suggests this is about all the folks behind the camera.

Initially I thought that he may just rely on entries he had already penned for his “House That Hammer Built” zine but I should have guessed that Wayne won't go the lazy way. A cursory glance through it reveals that he didn't just recycle old posts but instead wrote extensive new biographical entries about the directors, technicians, management and other dedicated Hammer artists. As usual with his books we also get a huge number of rare and often previously unpublished behind-the-scenes photographs both in black and white and colour.

The book is available in a strictly limited to 500 hardcover edition and the standard softcover variant from Tomahawk Press.

Wayne is already working on his next oeuvre dedicated to the Hammer film locations. If you're like me and enjoy travelling as much as watching films or reading books, then you can't help but remain in high anticipation of this one. No idea how Wayne manages to write so many well researched books while still having a highly demanding day job. Hmmm, maybe he just doesn't sleep at night.

If my pidgin French was any better I'd probably also opt for Nicolas Stanzick's DANS LES GRIFFES DE LA HAMMER. It is a reworking of a previous edition which was the first feature length French book about our favourite film studio. This is what Yvonne Monlaur wrote about it in her latest blog entry:

“In France, DANS LES GRIFFES DE LA HAMMER, the first book entirely devoted to the studios, has just been republished in a more complete version. The author, Nicolas Stanzick, whom I had the pleasure to meet at this opportunity, is a young journalist with a passion for the famous film company. His richly documented book proposes to discover Hammer films through the controversial articles of the French critics at the time of their release. It is also an homage to the early supporters of Hammer films. The annex contains very in-depth interviews with, among others, Jean-Pierre Bouyxou and Gérard Lenne.”

I'd appreciate any comments from French language readers who are familiar with this book or its predecessor as to what can be expected. I have a small smattering of French so may understand a small bit. Would it be worth my while? Are there any illustrations of e.g. French promotional material that may make it worth a purchase?

In a way it's a pity that the author did not make it to London for the UNSUNG HEROES launch as this took place in the French Cine Lumiere Institute and he probably would have been able to plug a few copies and give us all an insight into the contents.

But of course that isn't all.

Sometime later this year/early next year we should also see Bruce G. Hallenbeck's follow up to his excellent HAMMER VAMPIRE oeuvre dedicated to Hammer Sci Fi & Fantasy. It will again be published by Hemlock Books.

Speaking of Hemlock: They are also the British distributors of the 2-volume set of LAST BUS TO BRAY, dedicated to all of Hammer's unfinished projects. The first volume covers the years 1950-1970; the second volume 1970 – 2010. These volumes should be out any day now.

You may notice that I have now published a Hemlock Books logo with a link to their page at the top right corner of my blog. I don't get any commission from this, so this is entirely a show of appreciation for the great work they do in both providing new Hammer and general movie and horror related material as well as help distribute US mags such as “Little Shoppe of Horrors” (Issue #25 now out with a focus on Blood on Satan's Claw) to UK/Ireland and other countries close by. They sure helped save me the occasional penny or two in postage and always provide great service.

I do get a – paltry – commission from my Amazon links. In the interest of total disclosure: $26.75 worth of Amazon gift vouchers for the year so far. Keeping up this blog is time consuming and indirectly also a drain on my financial resources. (Ah, who am I fooling: I'd buy those books and movies anyway.) On some very rare occasions I have been provided with review copies but for the most part paid hard cash for everything on review here. With Christmas around the corner please consider ordering through some of my review links if anything tickles your fancy or even if you just feel like ordering anything from Amazon anyway.

End of desperate commercial appeal.

While at the UNSUNG HEROES book lauch I was approached by one of the folks behind FAB Press. Those guys have been responsible for some of the most lavishly illustrated, back breaking tomes on cult cinema and now it appears that a HAMMER A-Z is due by them sometime in the New Year.

Other books in various stages of production are Ingrid Pitt's view at Hammer history, a doctoral thesis about the Exclusive films and another unofficial guide to Hammer movies.

Did I forget anything?

Time to get a new shelf methinks.

Let Me In

2010-11-08T00:30:00.000Z

Watched Hammer's first cinematic release in more than 30 years today, Let Me In, and was pleasantly surprised how well it turned out.

You may recall that I was not a huge fan of the original. Add to that my aversion to English language remakes of foreign productions, and I initially had major misgivings about the new release.

Then something strange happened. People whose opinions I value started raving about the film when they saw it a few weeks ago in the States. And my initial disdain for the idea started to wane and I was actually ever so slightly beginning to look forward to the movie but didn't dare raise my hopes too highly.

The moment I then saw the Hammer logo on the big screen with a collage of their most iconic classic movie posters I felt a small lump in my throat.

The film itself is very similar to Let The Right One In though there are a number of important changes. Most importantly the pacing is much better in the Hammer version. There are longer, more elegiac moments but overall whereas the original seemed to entirely consist of those (often overlong shots), here we have a right mix of slow burn and occasional fast paced.

The characters are also much more believable in Let Me In and don't act as if they're all on valium. Those ludicrous scenes of depressed Swedish people sitting in a bar are gone completely and some of the scenes now are much better directed and truly haunting. There is also one particular scene showing a car accident shot from the perspective of people inside the car that is pretty amazing.

Unfortunately none of the really dark scenes of the source novel made it over - in my interview with Simon Oakes he explains why -, but overall this is a film that New Hammer can be proud of. I would have enjoyed it more if that had been completely new territory but for a remake this was quite first rate and bodes well for future new cinematic releases.

At last we can we can forget about the truly awful Beyond the Rave and instead see the true vision the new producers were having in mind.

Will Hammer ever be the kind of horror power house again with their new productions that fans will fondly remember decades later?

Probably not.

But they are again a major player worth looking out for. And that's fine enough for me.

Operation: 101010 – Sherlock Holmes

2010-11-07T16:30:00.000Z

The year is drawing to a close and I have yet only properly finished three Operation: 101010 categories.... until today. I just finished my tenth Sherlock Holmes movie of the year and only need another film each to finish two other categories. So there still is some chance that I may actually draw all these to a close.

As for Sherlock Holmes: This proved to be quite a fruitful year. Following the success of last year's cinematic blockbuster, we were treated to a couple of new productions. On the one hand The Asylum's Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes that wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. It did, however, have the most awfully miscast Holmes of all times. Ben Snyder - with no previous cinematic acting experience of any kind, how did he end up with one of the most iconic roles of all times? - plays a soft spoken, near helium voiced Holmes who is at least one head too small and spouts utter nonsense.

Much better were the three episodes of the Beeb's new contemporary Sherlock series that simply redefined the Master Detective for a new and younger generation while staying faithful to the source material.

Thanks to YouTube and Archive.org I also caught up with some older Holmes interpretations that I hadn't been familiar with before. Most prominently those of Arthur Wontner who is a very convincing Holmes in some very slow paced productions.

Below the ten Holmes productions that I enjoyed in 2010:

The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Wontner)

Murder at the Baskervilles (Arthur Wontner)

Batman: The Brave and the Bold – Trials of the Demon

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (The Asylum)

Sherlock: A Study in Pink

Sherlock: The Blind Banker

Sherlock: The Great Game

The Man Who Disappeared (TV pilot, 1954)

The Masks of Death

Bela Lugosi's Tales from the Grave

2010-10-24T12:29:00.000+01:00

These days there are less and less new comics that generally excite me. In actual fact my subscriptions for my local comic shop have gradually trickled down to a big fat nothing. Don't get me wrong: I still read comics, but these days it is primarily reprints or second hand comics from comic history's Bronze Age.

Monsterverse's upcoming new release Bela Lugosi's Tales from the Grave, however, is one anthology comic I just need to have. This 48-page issue will be in the comic shops on November 03 and retail at $4.99.

This issue will feature stories and art by Kerry Gammill, James Farr, Chris Moreno, John Cassaday, Rob Brown, Derek McCaw, Rafael Navarro, Martin Powell, Terry Beatty and Brian Denham. The contribution I am most looking forward to is Bruce Timms. For Little Shoppe of Horrors he has drawn some of Hammer's sexiest babes and if I can judge by prerelease images has gone on to draw Vampira (or some Vampira lookalike) for this comic. Oh, and you can also expect an article by leading Lugosi researcher and author Gary D. Rhodes.

If I was living anywhere near Hollywood I know where I'd be on October 28 when there will be a release party for this project at the American Cinematheque in the world famous Hollywood Egyptian Theater.

This is a premiere issue and stories in future issues will likely be written by cult stars such as John Landis, Joe Dante and Rick Baker.

Shane Briant Q&A (Whitby)

2010-10-21T17:23:00.001+01:00

Just found this Q&A that was recorded in Whitby at last week's Bram Stoker Festival. It is part of a series of YouTube videos about the event that can all be accessed through the Black Box Club Channel. The folks behind that YouTube channel used to run one of Peter Cushing's fanclubs back in the days and are soon going to revive their old practise of mailing out a horror related radio show, this time no longer through cassette tapes but via the wonders of the worldwide web. Stay tuned to their website: Broadcasts are going to start from January 01, 2011 on.

Interview with Simon Oakes, CEO of Hammer Films

2010-10-20T17:26:00.000+01:00

Just off Skype with Simon Oakes, CEO of Hammer Films, who kindly agreed to a little interview about the company and the projects they are currently involved in. LET ME IN, Hammer's first theatrical release in more than 30 years, will be in UK cinemas by November 05. And despite my previous issues with the concept, I am now actually really looking forward to it. Folks whose opining I generally value and who have already had a chance to watch this are raving about it and even calling it the best vampire movie of the century so far.

Not too long and we will all be able to judge for ourselves.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy the interview with Simon who comes across as a really nice bloke who is obviously very passionate about the projects Hammer is currently dealing with.

The Art of Hammer: Posters from the Archive of Hammer Films

2010-10-17T11:38:00.000+01:00

This month is going to be a good/costly one for Hammer collectors. Not only will we see the launch of Wayne Kinsey's new book at Don Fearney's event in the Cine Lumiere in London but in just a few days the first copies of Marcus Hearn's - very likely - lavish new production The Art of Hammer: Posters from the Archive of Hammer Films are going to start to ship. Definitely a publication I'll be very much looking forward to.

Oh, and if I am not mistaken then we shall also soon see a new edition of Little Shoppe of Horrors coming our way around Halloween.

See you in 3 weeks

2010-10-06T09:28:00.000+01:00

Less than three weeks to go until Don Fearney's new Hammer event and his tickets look as stunning as ever.

From what I've heard there are only a handful left and you will likely not be able to get any that day on the doors so book now if you haven't yet done so.

Horrorunlimited.com

2010-09-22T09:29:00.000+01:00

Horror Unlimited, a new website dedicated to classic horror, has just been launched and I am proud to be a part of that new - and hopefully soon burgeoning - community: Check out my lengthy piece dedicated to the two made-for-TV horror movies LOOK WHAT'S HAPPENED TO ROSEMARY'S BABY and OMEN IV: THE AWAKENING.

What will differentiate Horror Unlimited from many other horror website out there is that they don't just offer in depth articles about various aspects of the horror genre but - if you sign up with them - will also allow access to a wide range of historic documents, merchandise and collectibles.

STARCRASH lobby cards... as promised

2010-09-14T15:01:00.000+01:00

Starcrash Blu Ray and Curved Space book out

2010-09-14T14:24:00.003+01:00

Today is the official release day for the Starcrash Blu-Ray disc. Parallel to this we will also see the publication of Curved Space – The Adventures of Stella Star, a collection of short stories featuring the further adventures of the movie's scandily clad space heroine as well as forewords by both Luigi Cozzi and Caroline Munro.

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about this announcement... even though I don't even own a Blu Ray player yet (and certainly no region free one as this is a Region 1 release). Starcrash has always been one of my absolute favourite films of all time. And I am not ashamed to admit that this is meant in a totally irony free way. This is one of the movies that have accompanied me throughout my entire life and that regularly gets rewatched. It would probably be also fair to say that watching it as a kid in the cinema all those years ago has probably been one of those life changing moments for me.

I am not going to bore you to tears with why this film is the bee's knees. There are tons of reviews out there about this by people who either love it or hate it so no need to go into any of it again. Suffice it to say, though, that this was the first film I ever saw with the lovely Ms Munro. Well, either that or At the Earth's Core. I can never quite tell but I vividly remember seeing both of them a very short time apart at a relatively tender and impressionable age in the cinema.

At that time I already was a bona fide and probably rather precocious under-age film buff who had started to take note not just of the movie stars but also of the directors behind the movies. It must have been around that time that I had also just started my Hammer love affair though by and large it was then still the usual classics that I was fascinated with: actors such as Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne as well as folks like Jean-Paul Belmondo or Alain Delon who were huge on the Continent at the time.

Starcrash changed all that.

These days it is difficult to fathom but when the film was shown in the cinemas at the time the effects did actually look very convincing and exciting to the impressionable 11 year old that I was. More importantly, however, I quickly learnt that laser swords and space battles seriously improve when performed by a fit looking Amazon scantily clad in fetishistic costume. This is something that the original Star Wars was seriously lacking. Ìn all fairness: Anyone who prefers Leia Organa over Stella Star (Love the name alone!) needs to get their head examined.

Needless to say I told all of my friends about it, most of which didn't have a clue what I was on about. I quickly discovered that once you venture through the gates of B-Moviedom, you are bound to be confronted with the uncomprehending looks in the eyes of normal folks who can barely appreciate a general film obsession, let alone one that leads up some barely trodden movie paths. Pre-Internet - what am I saying? Pre-DVD or even pre-VHS! - this could be a very lonely experience. How easy would it have been to just let things go and focus on the more easily obtainable film goodies. But, no, I soon learnt to appreciate and even love that feeling of smugness that all of us B-Movie Fans feel coming over us when we know we've discovered a gem that few others are aware of.

So as annoying as it initially was when people tried to correct me when I raved on about Caroline Munro (“Of course, you mean Marilyn Monroe, don't you?”), I soon learnt to answer this with my own branded look of smug arrogance when I subsequently corrected those folks in turn.

Learning more about Caroline Munro became my first cinematic mission. Over the following years I managed to see most of her 1970s output in the cinema. (At the time those films were still shown on the big screen years later in Sunday kiddies matinees or during special summer events.) Maybe more importantly, however, I also started getting involved collecting film memorabilia outside of the translated Citadel film books that had made up most of my collection at the time. I discovered that there were a number of English language magazines out there that often had articles about her and quickly needed to learn how to score them and – of course – how to read those buggers given that English was a language I had only just started learning at school. Though always easier to master than the French language mags I also occasionally sourced.

When over the years I got in touch with other Hammer Fans in Germany (got giddy with excitement when I learnt that there were indeed others like me) I also started learning about promo pics and lobby cards and guess whose were my first buys? I also started my small autograph collection by writing letters to my favourite stars: Cushing, Lee, Price, Jacqueline Bisset and Caroline Munro. And was pleasantly surprised when every single one of them actually responded back. Then waited feverishly for the next time a Film Collector's Fair was staged near my area.

When I finally learnt how to access the Internet John Scoleri's old website dedicated to Caroline Munro was one of the first I ever visited. I also started my own CM discussion group all those years ago and set up my very first website dedicated to Hammer Glamour in the days of dial up. (It subsequently was taken down without explanation.)

Other stuff I eventually did thanks to Starcrash included a stay in the Hotel Cala di Volpe in the Costa Smeralda where Munro's scenes for The Spy Who Loved Me were filmed, a little pilgrimage to Luigi Cozzi's Profondo Rosso Shop in Rome (co-owned with Dario Argento) and having lunch with Caroline herself.

I am not usually the type to endlessly upgrade my movies but Starcrash is one I have watched in just about any popular medium at the time: watched it in the cinema, then taped it off TV before purchasing the regular VHS tape and sourcing a French DVD that was the closest to a proper DVD release we so far had of this production (yet still only featured a VHS style presentation albeit with some grainy extras that also included old interviews with Cozzi & Co as well as the completely unofficial nudey rip off Starcrash 2/Escape from Galaxy 3). I even seem to recall watching some Super 8 reels at a friend's house. So now hearing that this is available on Blu-Ray at last has me jumping up and down with joy.... in a very distinguished way, of course. This is now likely going to be the release that will eventually push me over and make me search out the deals for region free Blu-Ray players.

I also always thought that the character of Stella Star was one that was just crying out to be serialised in any kind of form: movies, books, comics, audio books, you name it. Hearing that we will finally have more of her adventures to look forward to makes Curved Space also an essential purchase for me. It's just a pity that the Making Of book that was announced a couple of years ago has hit troubled waters and will not be released anytime soon.

To celebrate the release of the Blu-Ray/Book combo I will also publish a couple of my lobby cards in a separate post. Some of those were previously available on my old Hammer Glamour site but I have also added new ones and re-scanned the old ones.

The Phantom of the Opera (1961)

2010-09-06T10:01:00.000+01:00

At the time Hammer filmed The Phantom of the Opera, the subject had not yet been overkilled through musicals or countless other adaptations. Over the previous decades there had been a small number of other films made based on Gaston Leroux’ novel – most notably Lon Chaney’s famous silent movie from 1925 and Arthur Lubin’s 1943 production -, but time was ripe for a new interpretation and the folks at Hammer were hoping to do for the Phantom what they had previously done for Dracula and Frankenstein and to introduce a new generation to this classic monster.

The production was ambitious. At one stage Cary Grant was even being courted for the lead which could have opened up a whole new audience for Hammer movies. In the end, it was Herbert Lom who accepted the part and brought a lot of class to his role. His acting is very reminiscent of Christopher Lee’s in The Mummy. In both cases we have classic examples of actors overcoming the limitations of a facial mask and demonstrating an incredible acting range that lesser actors without the hindrance of the special makeup can’t even begin to reach. Lom’s mellifluous voice just adds to the subtle range of emotions he is able to display for this role.

Perhaps not unusual given the subject matter, but not very typical for a Hammer movie, The Phantom of the Opera is a very musically oriented production. An original opera based on the life of Joan of Arc was composed for this film by Edwin Astley, lengthy excerpts of which are shown throughout the movie. The cinematography is often stunning. The picture is saturated in full, rich colours and makes the movie not just a feast for the ears, but also for the eyes. Trouble is, however, that it just ain’t very horrific as those lengthy musical interludes, beautiful as they are, just end up distracting from what little horror there is in it. It seems that by aiming this film at a slightly different and more main stream audience, Hammer ran the risk of alienating its loyal fan base as this has little of its usual horror set pieces and also only a small number of Hammer’s regular team of players. Apart from Michael Gough - who as often the case with his roles relishes chewing as much scenery as he can as the truly despicable Lord Ambrose d’Arcy - and Michael Ripper – surprise, surprise in a cameo part – there are few familiar faces.

The film proved to be Edward De Souza’s first major screen role. His next was in Kiss of the Vampire before he became a successful actor in a range of different TV series. Here he convincingly, though not very memorably, plays the part of the bland hero who needs to save Heather Sears’ character out of the clutches of Michael Gough’s lecherous Lord and to ensure that Lom’s Phantom does not cause all too much damage.

Sears as the heroine is terribly miscast. She sure isn’t the type who could infatuate three men all at the same time. Certainly not with that bird’s nest of a hair cut. Sears’ singing voice was dubbed by opera singer Patricia Clark.

The most memorable scene involves future Dr Who Patrick Troughton as a disgusting rat catcher who freaks out some ladies of the night who were visiting the Opera (that atypically is not located in Paris)…. just to be killed by a dwarf (Ian Wilson) through a stab in the eye.

Also look out for Thorley Walters and Miles Malleson.

Overall, this is an interesting and beautiful movie that nevertheless ends up a bit of a failed experiment when it comes to delivering the goods as a horror production with splendid opera scenes aplenty that do, however, drown out most of the action.

Operation: 101010 - Hammer Movies

2010-09-06T09:49:00.000+01:00

Finished another one of my Operation: 101010 categories, this time the most obvious one given the nature of this blog: Hammer Movies.

These are the ten Hammer movies I have watched so far this year and that I also blogged/tweeted/FB'd about:

Wings of Danger
Paid to Kill
The Unholy Four
The Stranglers of Bombay
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (Rewatch)
Danger List
The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
Rasputin – The Mad Monk (Rewatch)
To the Devil a Daughter (Rewatch)
The Man Who Could Cheat Death

Not sure if I will be able to finish the entire Operation: 101010 by the end of the year. I am nearly done with some more of the categories but with some others have barely started. Still, nothing better to keep me focused.

Hammer Films – The Unsung Heroes book launch

2010-09-05T14:17:00.000+01:00

My bags aren't quite packed yet but I am ready to go: Flight and accomodation are booked; tickets are requested. Cine Lumiere, here I come.

Don Fearney's London based Hammer events are always absolute highlights for every Hammer Fan, generally mixing book launches and cinematic presentations with a wonderfully informal approach to meeting your favourite Hammer stars and mingling with other likeminded fans.

This year's launch of Wayne Kinsey's new book – Hammer Films: The Unsung Heroes (The Team Behind the Legend) – promises to be yet another unmissable event.

It takes place on October 30 (right in time for Halloween) at the Cine Lumiere (17 Queensberry Place, Kensington, London).

The following is planned so far:

Exclusive book signing with Barbara Shelley (no charge for book signing)
On stage interview with Vera Day
On stage interview with Joyce Broughton (Peter Cushing’s secretary)
On stage Hammer panel discussion with 3 Hammer guests
The premier of Donald Fearney’s full length feature, Grave Tales (a portmanteau film in the tradition of the best of Amicus)

As usual with those events you can expect a large number of other Hammer celebs to drop in during the day. At a guess I dare say that some if not all of the following may have a chance of showing up as well as all of them have been regular guests in the past: Caroline Munro, Ingrid Pitt, Jimmy Sangster, John Hough, Edward de Souza.

I am particular looking forward to meeting Barbara Shelley as I never had a chance yet to meet her face to face.

I also can't wait to read Wayne's new book that promises to take “you behind the screams at the House of Hammer, department by department, to meet the team that made Hammer’s films a cult success”.

It will be available as a soft back at £25 and as a special limited edition hardback at £35 and will feature “488 pages loaded with blood rare photographs including 8 pages of colour”. Just the right kind of book to start or update one's autograph collection.

Tickets for the event are available for just £15 from Donald Fearney at 25 High Hill Ferry, Bakers Hill, London, E5 9 HG (tel: 0208 8066915).

Anyone reading this who is planning on coming please leave a comment as it would be great to meet up for a chat. You'll likely be able to find me shmoozing in the cafe over a beer or three as the most enjoyable aspect for me is always to meet up again with old buddies and make new Hammer friends.