Where Eagles Dare (1968)

I remember watching Where Eagles Dare for the first time about 20 years or so ago. Loved it to bits, but never rewatched it for whatever reason. Of course in the meantime I've been reading so much from Ingrid Pitt about her memories of the filming and her apparently gigantic contribution to the making of it. Trouble is that I could never actually remember seeing her in it.

Now Cinema Retro has published a fantastic special edition of their magazine focusing entirely on this movie on more than 80 richly illustrated pages. So when I finally held a copy of it in my hands, I just knew I was running out of excuses for not seeing this film a second time and popped it into the player again.

And what can I say? It still is one of the best WW2 adventure movies ever. Given that I hadn't seen it in more than two decades I was surprised how much of it I actually remembered, surely a sign how well the images had made an impression on me then. A near perfect film if ever there was one. Glad I watched it again and glad I have the Cinema Retro edition as a special memento.

But what about Ingrid Pitt?

Dammit, her role was so minute! No wonder she appears last on the cast list and no wonder I couldn't remember her. Did she even have a dozen lines in the film? Call me highly amused as to how much she managed to milk her tiny appearance in it over the last couple of years.

What also had me amazed was a contemporary Making Of documentary in which she has more to say than in the entire movie. (Probably because the main stars were busy actually filming.) The announcer's voice introduced her as being German which I put down as just another careless bit of research that we come across so frequently with this kind of promotional material. I was, however, genuinely agog when Ingrid Pitt herself introduced the plethora of different nationalities involved in the production and subsequently spoke of herself as being German!

She was born in Poland and suffered badly under the German occupation, so why would she all of a sudden introduce herself as German as opposed to being Polish? Surely from a production point of view it would have made no difference. It's utterly head scratching.

I definitely would like to know more about the director, Brian Hutton. The article on him in the Special Edition gave fascinating glimpses into this mysterious personality who at the height of a promising directing career decided to vanish into the sunset never to be seen or heard from again. It appears that he may have gotten into real estate, but attempts to contact him proved fruitless. Noone seems to know his whereabouts.

There are of course numerous cases of Hammer starlets gone missing, but this is the first time I am aware of a prestigious film director doing a vanishing act. After all, once a successful director you'd probably have a much vaster industry network than you would if you were a B-movie starlet, so it is intriguing to see how well he ended up staging this disappearance act. Gotta admire a man who lives according to his own rules and leaves when he is getting bored/disillusioned with it all.

Anyway, glad I finally managed to rewatch this production. I'll make sure I won't wait another 20 years to see it again.

The Reptile

Following my announcement of Little Shoppe of Horror's upcoming 23rd issue I had a little Twitter discussion about The Reptile with my good buddy David Rattigan (webmaster of the Dictionary of Hammer Horror) which made me think of writing this little blog post.

I have recently – and quite timely from the looks of it – rewatched the second of Hammer's Cornish horrors after a previous one-off viewing way more than 20 years ago.

The first time round I remember not being too impressed with it, however, this time round I did start to appreciate the Cornish atmosphere as well as the original monster that Hammer created for this movie.

The film does, however, have a number of weird inconsistencies that IMHO stops it from being the masterpiece that a lot of Hammer fans seem to think it is and that reak of lazy storywriting. Mind you, I am generally not the type who obsessively looks for bloopers. If hard pressed ANY film will have some dodgy developments that could be questioned, but life's too short to worry about whether the third extra in the 9th row really carries the correct insignia in a WW2 movie, so when something strikes me as odd it usually means that it is big enough for me to carry an impact.

(I hate to highlight the obvious, but beware of spoilers from now on!)

And one of the biggest question marks I have with regards to The Reptile is over the fact that Harry Spalding (Ray Barrett) manages to escape relatively unharmed from a bite that kills all others in the movie within seconds. He, on the other hand, finds the time to run out of the house, through the forests, into his home and then save his skin by immunising the initial wound. How does he last that long and why hasn't the venom infiltrated his entire body at that stage? None of that is explained and given that in all other circumstances the victims don't even seem to make it past a few steps before collapsing this is an area that really expects the viewer to utterly and completely suspend all disbelief.

Other plot points that worried me:

Towards the end when Noel Willman's character decides to kill his daughter he is ready to strike her, but hears a noise from the cages and decides to first of all release the bunny rabbits. Huh? What kind of priorities does this man have?

Then he gets attacked by Marne Maitland, the cunning evil Indian mastermind behind it all, who attempts to prevent the killing. Once Maitland is disposed off Willman turns to Jennifer Daniel, the heroine, who stood uninvolved in the background and openly accuses her of interfering with the initial killing. How did he come up with that conclusion?

And to make matters worse: From then on in he stops everyone else trying to kill the reptile from doing so.

So.... first he wants to kill the daughter, then he wants to release the rabbits, then he fights off the Indian who wants to stop him from the killing, then he accuses the girl of interfering and rather than proceed with his initial plan he now turns a 180 degrees and effectively does what the Indian wanted to do in the first place.

Scratching my head, but I can't make head nor tail of this. Yes, you could argue that Willman's character turned mad, but I prefer method to my madness rather than this hodge podge change of actions.

Mind you, the film without a doubt overall is quite a worthwhile addition to the Hammer canon, but you will have to foresake a lot of logic when viewing this flick. Then again, logical plot development was never a mandatory ingredient for fan adoration. After all one of Hammer's worst plotted movies of all times, Brides of Dracula, regularly features as one of the studio's best movies of all times.

By the way, check out Wrong Side of the Art's fantastic overview of Hammer posters in case you are wondering where I borrowed the poster image from.

The Gambler and the Lady/Heat Wave

So I finally found the time to look a bit further into my collection of Hammer Noirs and recently treated myself to a little double feature.

I must admit I always find intriguing how little Noir the Hammer Noirs often are. Case in point: The Gambler and the Lady. Though with a very heavy focus on crime, this is primarily a (melo)drama about a gambler (Dane Clark) from the States who tries to establish a gambling empire in London while secretly harbouring the ambition to be accepted by the ruling classes. His often comical attempts at learning the proper manners, however, just make him a laughing stock amongst the often cash poor, but class rich nobility he is dealing with. When some rival American mobsters come and take over his gambling dens and some of his blue blooded society friends take advantage of his ambition, he soon learns that dog-eat-dog is prevalent at all levels of society just as friendship and loyalty can be earned everywhere.

This film proved to be the first of three pictures Hammer shot with American actor Dane Clark who indeed was the most convincing of all the Hammer Noir stars. The film also features supporting roles by Eric Pohlmann and George Pastell and is a generally entertaining and well made time waster, in other words pretty much on a par with the average Hammer Noir entry.

Heat Wave on the other hand is actually a proper Noir movie and one of the best of Hammer’s sub-genre. Though I generally prefer the American release titles in this case the original UK title The House Across the Lake is a much better choice as there is no sign of an Indian Summer Key Largo style anywhere in sight.

Instead we get to meet Alex Nicol (Mark Kendrick) who narrates his downfall in typical Noir style via the use of Flashbacks. Nicol is a starving writer and self confessed male slut who just can’t resist anyone in a skirt, and who one night unexpectedly gets invited to a party in the mansion across the lake from his own much humbler abode. There he befriends the millionaire owner (Sid James) and his man hungry wife (Hillary Brooke, looking a wee bit past her prime in some of the scenes). No points in guessing what devious plan the wife and her new lover will soon concoct and who will ultimately be dropped like a hot spud once the dirty deed is done.

If the story sounds familiar, then that’s because it truly is the quintessiantal Noir plot of good guy turned bad under the influence of a scheming Blonde. It also bears a remarkable resemblance to Bad Blonde/The Flanagan Boy. Let’s see: Ambitious young man makes friends with a friendly rich old man and against his better judgement starts an affair with his manipulating wife. The two decide to get rid of the husband by killing him on a boat near his mansion. Sounds pretty much carbon copy to me.

Both films also star Sid James, though in Heat Wave he has a much more impressive role as the cuckolded husband. If there’s one thing that watching Hammer Noir taught me it is to see James in a much different light. For all those only familiar with his performances from a myriad of Carry On movies only it will come as a surprise to see the full range of this actor.

Future Chitty Chitty Bang Bang director Ken Hughes adapted and directed this flick based on his own novel “High Wray”. The success of this Hammer Noir ensured that he was subsequently able to move on to bigger and better things.

From a geek perspective the most exciting aspect of this production is how well the Bray Studio buildings and the adjacent Thames River locations were utilised. It is hard to name any other Hammer production that presented the building and garden that clearly without any major refurbishments. The way Down Place looks in this film is pretty much the same way it still looks now. I was giddy with excitement when I could easily identify some of the spots I actually stood on myself when attending the Hammer at Bray functions. Incidentally Heat Wave was one of the very first - if not the first - Hammer production shot in Bray Studios and for that fact alone is clearly a Must See for anyone interested in Hammer Films.

Demons of the Mind

Today's the day that Shane Briant's new novel WORST NIGHTMARES is officially going to be released. I have been on a little Briant trip over the last couple of days and amongst others watched Demons of the Mind. My good buddy Ade Salmon at one stage had written a review on one of the discussion groups we frequent and kindly allowed me publish it on my Hammer Glamour pages. Here's what he had to say about this movie:

Demons of the Mind casts a heady brew of incest and murder across an evocitive gothic landscape. Two grown up children, Elizabeth (Gillian Hills) and Emil (Shane Briant), are effectively imprisoned in their mittle euro mansion by their raving father Baron Zorn - played enthusiastically (much slicing of much HAM) - by Robert Hardy. The Creeping Flesh’s escaped madman (Kenneth J Warren) plays his bald pated manservent Karl.

Demons of the Mind is a hard film to truly love - it's meandering storyline demands concentration from the viewer - though it's intention to bring something *new* to the Hammer pot was appreciated. Christopher Wicking's idea of fusing the birth of psychoanalysis within the framework of essentially a psycho costume drama produces variable results. Visually it's a feast - Emil flaunts about like Jim Morrison in acid orange shirt (and bares a vague similarity to Emil from Vampire Circus). The naturalistic forest footage transports you momentarily to the Circus of Nights ambience - but that's pretty much where the similarities end.

60's Popstar Paul Jones (Manfred Mann) makes an appearance as *the hero* - but he's bland at best, whilst Michael Hordern wanders the forest as the comedy relief manic priest. It's all decidedly odd. Patrick Magee's mesmerist psychiatrist Falkberg rounds off the cast - bringing much needed gravitas to the story - his mesmeric twirling *device* reportedly based on real apparatus.

Like any respectable 1970's offering from the house that originally dripped blood - we get some fleeting full frontal nudity from Virginia Wetherall (albeit through a mirror image) and much bloodletting - the suicide of Zorn's wife a throat gushing extreme example - that sets us up nicely for the giant burning cross staking that film culminates on! BLOOD forms the subtext of the film (original title – Blood Will Have Blood) , though its intended lychanthropic storyline got vetoed early on - for the more serious study of a cursed hereditory bloodline associated with madness rather than furry fiends. If the film falls short anywhere it's in the fact it reverts to the Hammer *default* towards the end - where regulation torch wielding villagers chase Zorn through the deep woods - whilst Hordern struggles along with the burning crucifix.

999 Project Update

Over the last couple of weeks I watched some films that fall into my 999 category. Been meaning to write up more about those, but can’t seem to find the time. Those productions aren’t all that important from a Hammer point of view anyway, so here are just a few short summaries about them. If any of you feel like discussing those more in depth, fire ahead in the comment section. Would love to chat more about any of these.

Knives of the Avenger

While gradually reading through my copy of hernia breaking, absolutely superb, megalomaniac super film book All the Colors of the Dark by Bava Fan Extraordinaire and Video Watchdog editor Tim Lucas (there’s something deliciously decadent about blowing a few days wages on one single book) I am also working my way through the excellent Bava movie box sets that were recently released (plus the cheapo Warriors 50 Movie Pack Collection
that also includes a number of productions Bava was involved in in various capacities).

Knives of the Avenger is Bava’s interpretation of the classic Western Shane, this time set amongst the backdrop of a Viking action movie. Cameron Mitchell is as always highly watchable even though he has to sport some of the most unfashionably dyed piss yellow hair ever. The film is excellently staged, maybe a little bit too talkative at times, but some of the action scenes are quite drastic for a film of that age. One particular “shoot out” with knives instead of guns is particularly involving.

This is a coloured production regardless of the b/w trailer.





The Perfume of the Lady in Black

Excellent very atmospheric giallo. Something is clearly not right when Mimsy Farmer’s character starts losing track of time, has visions of the eponymous lady in black and gets confronted with very lifelike memories of some childhood trauma. Is she really losing the plot or is someone trying to drive her mad? Perfume is beautifully filmed with an amazing score. True, nothing much seems to happen throughout most of the film and the murders (as few as there are) may initially not be quite as harrowing as those of better known gialli, but the film is a beauty to look at and has a shocking conclusion that comes out of nowhere.

Does any of that truly make sense? Probably not. Then again there aren’t a lot of gialli that can claim logic as their strongest point. It often is style over substance, and Perfume sure oozes enough style to keep me happy.

It also features Nike Arrighi (The Devil Rides Out, Countess Dracula) in a small part as a clairvoyant.





Empire of the Ants

For the longest time this H.G. Wells adaptation featuring Joan Collins and scores of overblown ants had escaped me. I heard that this was meant to be one of the worst movies of all times. Maybe I have become jaded, but I found this to be a lot of silly and enjoyable fun. Definitely a film I’d love to revisit again some time.





Oasis of Fear/Dirty Pictures

This is by the wackiest of those four films and possibly the revelation of the year for me so far. A very young Ornella Muti in one of her first films travels around Europe with her boyfriend Ray Lovelock and sells pornography bought in Sweden to finance her vacation (as one does). They soon get the attention of the law and become involved with Irene Papas as a middle aged lady who initially seems to be frightened of them, but soon starts to play her own kind of cat and mouse game with them.

Umberto Lenzi is a director who can be very much hit and miss, though here he is at his most entertainingly best. I challenge you not to keep humming some of the truly outrageous soundtrack tunes for days on end. And you know that times have changed when selling sleazy pornography involved hawking off records (!) with just the sounds of people having sex.

Ah, happy days…..

The Vulture (1967)

The other day I managed to view the rare Brit Horror The Vulture and was pleasantly surprised to spot Diane Clare in this one, apparently her last cinematic release. Of course I also saw her this month in Hammer’s own Plague of the Zombies. She was also in The Trygon Factor, though I am embarrassed to admit that I failed to mention that in my recent review for the new Krimi blog.

The discovery of an empty grave and some gold coins in a little Cornish village leads to a centuries old tale of revenge perpetrated by a Vulture like monster created in an underground cellar with the help of some nuclear shenanigans that are better left unexplained.

The good news about The Vulture: The makers (or should I say “maker” as this seems to be primarily the brain child of director/producer/writer Lawrence Huntington) quite clearly were anxious to create a new kind of film monster rather than follow the usual well tread horror movie film path.

The bad news: They chose a creature half Man, half Vulture to do so. And were obviously well aware of the ludicrousness of the entire concept as we very rarely even get a glimpse of the monster. We see giant claws descending for the first time half way into the movie. The next attack is even off screen and it is not until the very rushed and anti-climactic final that we have a short view of the entire creature. Clearly a man-vulture creature looked better on the pages of a comic book and I hasten to say that Spiderman’s eponymous foe (created in 1963) was quite possibly an inspiration for the film’s title character.

Wearing a long black cloaked coat and hat (and carrying two walking canes) Akim Tamiroff as the local antiquarian/evil scientist looks very much like Bela Lugosi in one of his last screen outings.

As this film claims to be set in Cornwall it makes for a nice addition to Hammer’s duo of Cornish horror movies. The Vulture in style comes across as a coloured mix of the American Sci Fi creature movies of the 1950s and the classic Universal horror movies.

The leads all play this straight and not for laughs and as usual it is refreshing to see an adult cast of paunchy and mature characters in a horror movie that refuse to nudge nudge wink wink ironically even when confronted with ludicrous and off-beat plot developments. Diane Clare, however, could have been infused with a bit more personality as her character is nothing more than the prim and proper and ever so faithful and understanding wife of Robert Hutton’s lead character.

Overall The Vulture is a surprisingly entertaining, yet daft British production that is fun to spend an hour and a half with and a shame that this has apparently not made it to DVD yet.

Assignment to Kill (1968)

At the height of the Bond boom in the 1960s a very small number of films followed in the vein by presenting insurance investigators as some of the most unlikeliest professionals to ever grace the action screen (also see my review for Deadlier than the Male).

I recently caught a rare screening of Assignment to Kill with Patrick O’Neal in the role of Richard Cutting, the globetrotting, gun swinging, drink swilling and babe bedding investigator on the track of a multi million dollar insurance fraud.

I was pleasantly surprised to see so many Hammer actors in this production, hardly Hammer regulars but still familiar faces for Hammer aficionados.

Peter van Eyck (The Snorkel) is the guy that everyone is after. In the knowledge of proof of a gigantic insurance swindle that cost countless lives, the bad guys want him dead, the insurance companies want the info that he apparently has in his possession.

Herbert Lom (The Phantom of the Opera) for the first part of the movie comes across as the slick, professional Baddie who’s got it all under control. He is ice cool, witty, ironic and intelligent, exudes the charm of Evil and appears fully in charge… until the tables turn and his own boss starts selling him out following the advice of O’Neal’s character. Lom soon becomes a helpless pawn in a bigger game. Lom is as usual highly watchable. I am always surprised how much I enjoy his performances and how little I then follow up on actively tracking more of his movies. (Mind you: I did buy his novel Enter a Spy about Christopher Marlowe the moment I saw it in a second hand book store all those years ago, so hopefully that alone allows me to carry the fan badge.)

Leon Greene’s (The Devil Rides Out) character does not carry a name, talks very little and is just being introduced as “The Big Man”. He is one of Lom’s henchmen and effectively carries out his dirty work. Though he is the tough, quiet and cruel type, his body language alone also indicates how much he seems to enjoy getting involved with every twist and turn of this intelligent cat and mouse game. In actual fact, for the most part the film seems to be focused primarily on playful winks, attacks and counter attacks that it comes as quite a shock when halfway through the production The Big Man’s actions end up responsible for a tragic event that happens to a character we have grown to like.

Though it seems obvious that the financial backers for Assignment to Kill were hoping for a movie following in the footsteps of a certain Double-0 agent, the film for the most part foregoes lengthy action scenes in favour of witty repartees in an atmosphere of mutual distrust between the characters. Lies are countered with lies and in the end no one is ever the wiser as to what had really happened. The search for the illusive proof about the insurance caper becomes the ultimate MacGuffin and the overall feel of the production for the longest time resembles a different kind of spy thriller and is indeed very reminiscent of Hitchcock’s early works. We even have a scene in which John Gielgud, the ultimate evil mastermind in this film stands in front of an awe inspiring scenery of the Swiss mountains and inwardly probably reminisces about his time with Hitch when filming Secret Agent. Another Hitchcock actor appearing here is Oskar Homolka (Sabotage) in a wonderful performance as a police inspector who is fully aware that his hands are bound. What he can’t do in active pursuit of the leads, he makes up in covering up some of Cutting’s actions.

Assignment to Kill appears to have been director Sheldon Reynolds last feature film, although it seems that 12 years later he may also have been involved in some episodes of a Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson TV series. (What was he involved in in the interim?) Prior to Assignment he had already dabbled in some spy capers when filming the Eurospy portmanteau movie Killer’s Carnival (starring Stewart Granger, Pierre Brice, Lex Barker, Klaus Kinski, Margaret Lee and Karin Dor).

Plague of the Zombies (1966)

I am currently reading Jamie Russell’s truly excellent Book of the Dead and felt it only appropriate to therefore rewatch Hammer’s Plague of the Zombies even at the risk of seeing it yet again during Don Fearney’s John Carson tribute later this year.

Russell highlights quite correctly that Plague is the first Zombie feature that abandons the racial elements of earlier genre productions such as White Zombie in favour of more typical (for Hammer) elements of class themes. He does not go very in depth into something that became quite poignant upon this viewing, the striking similarities with Hammer’s most aristocratic Undead, their original Dracula.

It’s amazing how much of Plague was lifted directly from this earlier Hammer classic.

When Sylvia Forbes (Diane Clare) gets accosted by the Squire’s (John Carson) Young Bloods in his mansion, threatened and tossed around, it is the Squire who puts an end to this when he arrives at the top of a staircase, screaming his commands before running down the stairs and punishing the main perpetrator. Compare this with Dracula interrupting the attack against Jonathan Harker by his female vampire and remember that in Bram Stoker’s source novel he was actually attacked by a whole group of Dracula’s “brides”, not just the one.

In order to gain a hypnotic influence with the females of the household, the Squire, just like Dracula, needs to first of all be invited to the house and then draw the ladies’ blood. Following that they are in a state of possession and under his spell.

Even the scene where the doctor (Brooks Williams) and Sir James (Andre Morell) visit Alice’s (Jaqueline Pearce) grave, see her come to life again and kill her off, mirrors the killing of Lucy in the earlier production.

Any other similarities I may have missed? It’s interesting to see how alike those scenes actually are given that neither the writer (Peter Bryan) nor the director (John Gilling) were involved with Dracula.

The Witches (1966)

Been watching Hammer's Witches about a month or so ago and ever since then had every intention to do a little write up, but everytime I started to put virtual pen to virtual white paper I couldn't come up with any angle. It's only now I figured out why.

The Witches is by far Hammer's most average production. It's neither good enough to praise it in any way, nor bad enough to mock or condemn it. Heck, it is one production where they begged the censor to give it an X rating, though he left it with an A as there really is nothing adult or scary in it. At all.

Screenplay is by Nigel Kneale. Given the amount of energy he wasted bitching about how Hammer in his opinion ruined their Quatermass adaptations, it is surprising he managed to keep so quiet about this production.

So what can I say about the production. Nothing much other than..... Meh!!!!

Watch Me When I Kill

Just watched my first Giallo for the year a few days ago and here's the review on Den of Geek.

Blackout/Murder by Proxy (1953)

Blackout is the first Hammer Noir I came across that can properly claim to be on a level with the classic Hollywood Film Noirs. Most of the other Hammer Noirs I have seen were all passable. I have yet to find a truly dreadful movie of that subgenre, but I also hadn’t experienced a really outstanding one until I watched Blackout (original UK title: Murder by Proxy).

A man down on his luck (Dane Clark) drowns his sorrows in a bar and meets a stunning Blonde (Belinda Lee) who offers him £500 to marry her. The next morning he wakes up in the apartment of yet another dame with the mother of all hangovers and no recollection of what happened the night before and soon finds himself in the centre of a murder investigation desperately trying to clear his name.

That kind of plot is the stuff that proper Noirs are made of. There’s nothing like seeing an innocent amnesiac caught in a web of deceit of scheming ladies and scumbag lawyers to get you in the mood for bourbon, babes and cigarettes.

Tightly plotted (courtesy of Richard Landau) and excellently directed by Terence Fisher, Blackout also offers great acting all around. With three Hammer Noirs to his name Dane Clark (who also appeared in The Gambler and the Lady and Five Days aka Paid to Kill) would prove to be Hammer’s most popular Noir lead. Belinda Lee is absolutely amazing as an archetypical Film Noir Blonde. She oozes sex appeal and charisma and is able to be both cold as ice as well as charmingly warm or even vulnerable depending on the situation. It’s a pity that she died far too young at the age of just 26 following a car accident.

As in a lot of other Hammer films at the time Jimmy Sangster is again the Assistant Director.

There are still a number of other Hammer Noirs waiting for me, so fingers crossed I can find some more of those gems.

A new 999 Challenger

Looks like we got a new 999 Challenger. Mermaid Heather decided to join our little group after hearing about this from Cattleworks. Heather writes a fantastic blog focusing on all kinds of horror reviews. This is properly reflected in her list of 999 Challenges:

"1. 9 Hammer films. Since I have watched all of one film from Hammer, this will give me an excuse to watch more.
2. 9 Universal Classics. Even though I have explored this area some already, I still have plenty of movies to go.
3. 9 remakes. One of the things horror movies are known for are how many remakes get made. I'm sure I can come up with nine remakes I haven't watched yet.
4. 9 haunted houses. Since I love a good ghost story, this will give me a good reason to find more of what I like.
5. 9 werewolf films. An underused genre. It would be fun to explore this one more.
6. 9 Masters Of Horror episodes. I have watched a few, but I keep pushing actual movies in front of these. Time to stop that and watch some more.
7. 9 Linnea Quigley films. I have watched a few already, but I'm sure I can find nine more films she has been in. She was one of the biggest scream queens after all.
8. 9 Mad doctors/scientists. A genre I have barely explored so far.
9. 9 films where a child dies. Did you really think I would leave this one out? Of course I will have to research this one, and some of the others, but there is no way I am leaving this one out. Not an offical sub genre, but one I am working on making!"

This list is so up my alley!!! I am really looking forward to reading more about her 999 journey and of course I am especially interested in hearing what she thinks about the Hammer movies she is choosing.

The Wrestler/My Bloody Valentine

As part of the 999 Challenge I promised I’d watch 9 movies in the cinema and blog about them this year, even if there were no connections to Hammer.

So I thought I’d go off to a good start and managed to catch two that I would both whole heartedly recommend (even though none of them are flawless).

The Wrestler

Must admit I always liked Mickey Rourke right from the start and had watched pretty much all his 80s stuff when it first came out and then, like so many others, thought he’d gone off his game when he turned to pro-boxing, however, over the last couple of years realised that rather than to be questioned about this (and some other decisions he made), he should be lauded for simply sticking to his guns and doing what he wanted to do, living his life according to his own rules. Really, how many people can seriously claim to do so?

Whereas most reviewers name Sin City as the comeback point in his career, I re-discovered him a few years earlier when to my utmost surprise I noticed that it was his character who beat Enrique Iglesias to a pulp in the video to the obnoxious Hero single. And who could forget his appearance in Robert Rodriguez’ excellent Once Upon a Time in Mexico, a film that is chockfull with eccentric characters, none more so than Mickey Rourke with his handful of small designer dogs.

Rourke, the former pretty boy, now has a physique that is as rugged as the Grand Canyon and a voice that could give Batman a run for his money and his Wrestler is a character in the tradition of the good old classic American anti-heroes, a Hemingway type of character who does what he has to do regardless of the outcome for himself. It is refreshing to see a US production that does not revel in “winning” but for a change again just focuses on “doing” and being true to yourself. Too much time over the years has been spent on feel good movies that celebrate physical victory and ignoring the fact that sometimes those deemed “losers” (oh, how I hate that word) make much more interesting characters in a story.

His portrayal as Randy “The Ram” Robinson is clearly auto-biographical and the speech he holds towards the end of the film has definitely been written with Rourke in mind and I wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t even had a say in it himself.

Rourke’s performance is mammoth and quite rightly deserved an Oscar nomination. In actual fact the film *is* his performance and would be nothing without him. If one thing can be said in criticism it is that, though I was always very much immersed in his performance, I was never all that much immersed in the rest of the movie.

Marisa Tomei is in this one, too, and she also received an Oscar nomination as the aging stripper Rourke is involved with. Aging stripper? Hell, it wasn’t all that long ago that she was the Next Big Thing to watch out for. Damn, I am feeling old. This is also a career high for Tomei who has never before shown herself so revealing, both physically (niiiiiiiicccceeee) and emotionally.



My Bloody Valentine 3-D

The original My Bloody Valentine had eluded me up until the end of last year when I finally saw it. It soon became one of my favourite slasher movies of all times (OK, admittedly not a genre I am all too fond of to start with) with its unusual settings and memorable characters, original murder pieces starting with the fetishistic scene of the first killing and it had me hooked right until the final credits with this really amazing quasi-folk song about the killings.

As for 3-D movies I always wanted to immerse myself more in them, but the only one I ever caught in a theatre was Comin’ at Ya! and five minutes in the entire audience demanded their money back as the effects weren’t working properly.

So given my low regards for remakes in general and the less than stellar history I had with cinematic 3-D effects I wasn’t too sure what to expect and kept my expectations low, but – Boy! – did I enjoy this one!!!

I can’t recall the last time I had such unadulterated fun with my clothes on. This was definitely one of the most entertaining nights in a cinema in ages. If you have even the slightest inkling of seeing this, make sure you do so before it leaves the theatres as this is something that must be seen on a big screen and unless you have one hell of a home cinema you are not going to enjoy this properly. The 3-D effects are fantastic, not just when they haul things at you (there is one particular, ahem, jaw dropping scene), but more so even when confronted with the claustrophobic environment of the mines. In the middle part it drags a small little bit, but overall it is a rollercoaster ride of a movie and even includes an over the top nude scene, the type that hasn’t been done in a mainstream movie since the 80s.

Without revealing too much it needs to be said, however, that there is one particular plot development that redefines “audience cheat” and is the one sore point in an otherwise fab production. This is especially annoying as it would have taken very little to correct this. No idea, what made them drop the ball when they were previously doing such a great job.

Interestingly enough this is one film where the trailer does NOT give away the best moments or effects.

The Golden Compass (2007)

I have never read any of Philip Pullman’s books, but apparently these Fantasy books have a very anti-religious message at its core and the film has been criticised for watering this message down quite a notch. No idea how much this does indeed come across in the books, but there are still more than enough anti-religious and anti-authoritarian stances in this production. In actual fact if there is one thing this film can be accused of is that this is way too preachy. I got no problem with the overall message, but anytime something gets explained (and there are lots of those situations around!) we are confronted with over the top, heavy duty, let’s-make-sure-even-the-biggest-dunce-in-the-theatre-understands-this symbolism. This is not an allegory, but a frigging preachy sermon that just won’t stop. If the books equally hit you over the head with those more than obvious messages, then I doubt I’d ever feel the need to read them.

Truth be told: I am probably not the right person to judge this kind of production. Twee Fantasy epics with annoying kids in a CGI environment aren’t exactly my favourite genre, and I doubt that I’d have ever given The Golden Compass a chance if it wasn’t for the fact that Christopher Lee was in it.

Mr Lee’s part is, however, minute. He appears for just about a minute or two spouting some threatening plan to rid the world of children’s independent spirits or some such and then is never seen again. What did surprise me was, however, that Hammer star Edward De Souza could also be seen in the same scene, alas without any dialogue whatsoever and a look that seems to ask where his next drink could be found.

Man Bait/The Last Page (1951)

Man Bait is one of those Hammer Noirs that had much more effective and lurid titles in the States than for their British releases. In the UK it was more widely known under the more obscure title The Last Page that was in a way referring to the fact that this film had a very unusual setting placed primarily within the confines of a second hand book store.

Based on a play by thriller writer James Hadley Chase this film focuses on a blackmail attempt gone wrong, leading towards a murder chase against the innocent manager of the store.

It is a fast paced and entertaining production directed by Terence Fisher in his first assignment for Hammer so in that regards this is indeed a key film for the production company. It is also of importance as it brought Hammer’s James Carreras together with Robert Lippert, thus ensuring a lengthy relationship that helped see the release of their films in the US.

The actual plot is more than convoluted and forced (SPOILER ALERTS): We are expected to believe that shop assistant Ruby Bruce (Diana Dors) is so naïve to make a date with a guy who she catches stealing a book (Peter Reynolds). When she accidentally rips her blouse on a shelf and then very very briefly snatches a quick innocent kiss from her boss (John Harman) we are then to believe that she does not find it the slightest bit weird that her new boyfriend (who she had hardly exchanged ten words with) demands she blackmail the boss. The boss of course does not fire her or bring her to the attention of the police as he threatens. Nay, not even when his frail wife dies of shock when receiving a letter about the non-incident does he do what anyone with half a brain would do and instead fires more than the demanded sum at the Dors character. Even worse, when she accidentally gets killed herself (I told you this was getting convoluted), he doesn’t simply relate everything to the police but instead goes running for no apparent reason bringing all suspicions on himself.

At one time this film saw its release as part of a Double Feature with Bad Blonde. Strangely enough Diana Dors was presented as a new “introducing” actress, yet already had been in film for about five years with a dozen movies to her record. It was, however, this production that established her name in the US. Dors would later re-appear for Hammer in Children of the Full Moon, an episode for the TV Show Hammer House of Horror. Quite interesting to see that she was therefore associated with Hammer’s earliest productions as well as with their last ones, though never with their classic phase.

Phil Leakey provided the Make up; Jimmy Sangster is again listed as the Assistant Director.

In short: Forced plot, but fast and entertaining and at least of important historical value for Hammer.

Prehistoric Women (1966)

Slave Girls aka Prehistoric Women (1966) is one of the Hammer films with the absolutely worst reputation ever. Not only is it not getting a lot of love from snotty nosed regular critics, it also gets little respect from the general Fandom and during 1994’s Fanex convention was even voted the Worst Hammer movie ever.

Now I gotta admit that I often enjoy Hammer films with dodgy reputations and even go as far as saying that Lost Continent is a genuinely underrated classic that deserves a better rep. And though I wouldn’t go as far as saying that Prehistoric Women is genuinely good, I do have to admit that I found it thoroughly enjoyable on a shlocky level. There’s more than enough that this film has to offer to warrant giving this a chance.

Prehistoric Women is the longer US cut of the movie that was released in the UK under the title Slave Girls and not only recycles the fur bikinis from the previous year’s One Million Years B.C., it also recycles story lines and concepts from other productions such as Martine Beswicke’s cat fight from From Russia With Love, the idea of having the queen of a long lost tribe fall in love with a contemporary male from Hammer’s own She or the dubious imperialistic attitude towards native tribes from just about any Tarzan flick.

All of this makes for a strangely familiar, yet entertaining hodge podge of ideas. I couldn’t help but be mesmerised by the very blatant symbolism of the infamous white rhino’s horns (see Beswicke caressing it and you get it easily, see the male lead doing likewise and lift a knowing eye brow) or the obviously phallic shape of the demon’s nose (or whatever he is meant to be) regularly lurking in the jungle. Listen in amazement at hero Michael Latimer’s equal rights for men and women speech! Listen to the haunting tunes and dances of the natives (well, white ladies in fur coats) and try and get the melodies out of your head before you go bonkers! Laugh out loud at the dodgy back screen projections that make some extras behind Latimer look like 9 foot giants!

Yes, it is bad, but it is also strangely entertaining and best viewed with a six pack of your favourite brew.

Let’s not forget that one of the main reasons (nay, *the* reason) for this picture was to show scores of lovely ladies with little clothing. And if you’re only remotely interested in Hammer Glamour, this is the film for you. Martine Beswicke was born for this kind of role and displays an amazing screen presence and athleticism. One of the main (ahem) revelations for me was Edina Ronay as one of the blonde haired slave rebels and love interest for the hero. Ronay later became a popular fashion designer who is still quite popular amongst the fashionistas and even has a portrait of hers displayed in London’s National Portrait Gallery.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to all my readers. As you know 2009 will mark the year where I attempt to view 9 movies from 9 categories and blog about those. I have changed two of the categories to make them fall more in line with the typical posts for this blog:

1. 9 Hammer Movies
2. 9 Movies directed by Hammer directors (non-Hammer)
3. 9 Movies starring Hammer actors (non-Hammer)
4. 9 Movies starring Hammer actresses (non-Hammer)
5. 9 Movies that I haven't seen before starring non-Hammer Horror icons (such as Vincent Price, Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff)
6. 9 Rivals of Hammer (Movies from Amicus or Tigon, 1960s and 70s Brit Horror in general)
7. 9 Mario Bava movies
8. 9 Giallos
9. 9 Movies to be watched in the cinema (i.e. 5 more than I managed this year, sad I know)

We also have another four blogs that are willing to give this a shot. It would be great to have at least 9 blogs in total involved in this exercise, so if there's anyone out there who is interested in participating, please let me know. It is not too late to join yet and a number of the other 999 Challengers have also opted to not just limit this to films only.

Avalard's 999 Challenge has already hit the ground running with two posts on the first day of the New Year dedicated to Twilight and Nightmare Before Christmas 3D. The relevant 9 challenges for Robert are:

1. 9 different interpretations of Sherlock Holmes
2. 9 instalments of "Avalard's Box of Obfuscation" podcast (if I don't add this, I'm worried I might get lazy as the new year starts...)
3. 9 novels (considerably more than I manage most years!)
4. 9 Hitchcock films (need to work my way through the acres of dvds I've got cluttering the office)
5. 9 films at the cinema (I see plenty, but I never write about them!)
6. 9 Michael Caine films
7. 9 classic Britcom television series (only 1 episode of each!)
8. 9 British horror films
9. 9 episodes of the Avengers (at least one from each year of the original 60s run)

Doug from Divine Exploitation will focus on:

1. 9 Jess Franco Films I haven't seen
2. 9 films with people from Franco films that he didn't direct.
3. 9 zombie films I haven't seen
4. 9 minicomics.
5. 9 movies in the 50 pack I bought last year and and still haven't gotten around to watching.
6. 9 novelizations of movies. (The movie had to come first.)
7. 9 non fiction books dealing exclusively with film in some fashion.
8. 9 viewings of the film A Virgin Among The Living Dead with a write up of each time and what I may have missed each time.
9. 9 exploitation films made before 1950

Comic Artist Extraordinaire and all round nice guy Neal Vokes from That's All, Vokes will concentrate on:

1- 9 western films (but only ones from the 90s-1990 to 1999- to keep a theme going here-westerns were virtually non existent by then-should be a challenge-lol )
2- 9 horror films (the same goes for these and the next couple film genres-this helps keep me more focused i think-besides, i haven't bothered with a whole lot of "new" films in the horror/comedy/sci fi/foreign genre-should be enlightening)
3- 9 comedies (same)
4- 9 Sci Fi films (same)
5- 9 foreign films (same)
6- 9 TV series on dvd (I'll keep it to one episode per show to be realistic -
i have at least nine box sets of various shows sitting amongst my dvd collection)
7- 9 books (i have more than nine on my "to read" shelf already-and just added more this Xmas!)
8- 9 albums/cds (again i want to try to listen to bands i haven't before-or at least paid little attention to-also between 1990 to 1999)
9- 9 chapters of a comic strip (i borrowed this idea from fellow blogger Davy Z) I'm not sure about what yet-something i haven't done before, i think-maybe semi autobiographical in nature?
as soon as i've picked the exact films,etc that will be on the list I'll update the entry...;o)

And last not least my buddy Davy Z from Tomb It May Concern (just love the name of this blog!) will accept the challenge with the following categories;

1) 9 Jess Franco films that I have already viewed more than twice. (Every time I revisit a Franco after a few years-and several other films-they tend to inform each other. I'm going to revisit some favorites and see what has changed.)
2) 9 Videogames that are not First Person Shooters. (I play a lot of shooters and love the genre-so it is time to go for something different. RPG, Racing, Casual gaming...we'll see what pops up.)
3) 9 complete runs of horror comics produced between 2001 and 2009. (I have had a lot of trouble connecting to many recent comics-but with some searching, I bet I could locate nine series that would be interesting. For my purposes, mini-series are going to count as one, though I won't cheap out and simply read a bunch of 30 Days Of Night books. The art might make my eyes bleed if I did.)
4) 9 British Horror films. (I'm fairly weak on my britsploitation knowledge. This won't change that fact at all, but may shovel a little sand in to the tide of my ignorance.)
5) 9 Eurospy films that I have not seen. (So many to catch up with, this should be easy!)
6) 9 Peplum Films. (I have a 50 pack that is only 1/3 watched!)
7) 9 Spaghetti Westerns (There are dozens piled up in my backlog)
8) 9 Guy N. Smith novels
9) I'm wondering if actually creating a work of fiction in 9 parts would count. I'll ask those involved and see if it does. If so, then I'll post a 9 part story in 2009. If not...I'm sure I can find something else!

Again, there's ample room for more bloggers to join us. It should be a very fun, productive and focused year for us all. :-)

The 999 Challenge

For the last year or so I have joined the LibraryThing and am tracking all my newly purchased books and am gradually, very VERY gradually, also adding some of the older books in my library as well. One of the site's groups is dedicated to the 999 Challenge: Members pledge to read 9 books of 9 genres (or authors or any other random theme) in, well, 2009.

This got me thinking about doing something similar for films. So over the course of 2009 I now plan on watching (and writing about) the following categories. Given the theme of this blog I will have this heavily Hammer based of sorts, but there will be some films that will be outside this blog's general Mission Statement.

1. 9 Hammer Movies
2. 9 Movies directed by Hammer directors (non-Hammer)
3. 9 Movies starring Hammer actors (non-Hammer)
4. 9 Movies starring Hammer actresses (non-Hammer)
5. 9 Giallos
6. 9 Japanese Movies
7. 9 Mario Bava movies
8. 9 Spy Movies
9. 9 Movies to be watched in the cinema (i.e. 5 more than I managed this year, sad I know)

There may of course be some overlap and I may end up e.g. watching a movie directed by a Hammer director and also starring a Hammer actor. In that case I can add this to both categories (but will attempt to limit this kind of duplicate posting). I also may change my mind about one or two of the categories before the New Year starts, but think this is pretty much good to go.

For all you bloggers out there: Anyone feel like joining me? For all of you that do I would recommend we should all open a side bar at our blogs to track all the other participants and we may want to also list those other blogs at the bottom of our update posts.

Let's see who will be the first to finish that challenge in the New Year!

2009 roll on!