Save the Bray studios!!!!

I haven't been writing much for this blog lately as I was busy in real life with my German lessons – and yes, I also teach online (just saying.... just in case LOL) -, with my Massage Therapist course, with other articles for other publications that haven't yet been published and with my favourite activity, traveling. I have just come back from visiting family and friends in Germany and will hop off to San Francisco in a few days. Once back from the States I plan on going back to a more regular publishing schedule. What should help is that I now have a copy of the new ICONS OF SUSPENSE in my hands together with ICONS OF HAMMER HORROR and ADVENTURE sets that I hadn't purchased before. The last two are now available for just about $10 each from DeepDiscount.

Together with the final Hammer Noirs that I still need to review that should give me enough to write about for a while.

In the meantime there's been a number of Hammer related news items that I have failed to report on so far so let's start with the most important and groundbreaking news item in ages:

Bray Studios Facing Closure

Matthew's review of The Stranger Came to Bray with its emphasis on the Bray locations was timely as the first bit of news is gigantic for anyone even remotely interested in Hammer movies: After nearly 60 years in existence the studios now face demolition to make way for apartments and flat complexes. If this were to happen this would be yet another terrible desctruction of an important piece of British cinema history.

I was honoured to have the chance to visit Bray twice over the last couple of years. And you can read more about this here and here. Those meetings count as some of the most memorable of my time in film fandom, having the chance to meet not only the film makers and fellow fans but also to stand on the very hallow'd grounds that countless classics were filmed in.

Apparently leaving the studios as they are is no longer financially viable and it is hard to see what if anything can be done to stop this from happening. Personally I'd rather see these studios to be converted into, say, a Hammer or general film history museum rather than being converted into such a commercial and totally unrelated project.

Robert Simpson has started a Save Bray Studios Facebook Group to prevent this from happening. Now I am generally very cynical about any of those “Join this group to stop world hunger and child abuse” campaigns but this could just be one campaign worth following as Robert is not only the owner of the Unofficial Hammer Films Site, but has also been involved with Hammer in a lot of different facilities over the years and is currently writing his PhD about “a historical study of the original Exclusive Films, sister company and distribution arm of Hammer Films”.

As such he's been in contact with a number of Hammer and other celebs and his plans seem to include approaching some of those to see if some of the better-known personalities can be convinced to become a prominent figure head for a Save Bray Campaign. He has also just started a new Save Bray Studios Blog and is also available on Twitter.

His campaign is also correctly going to focus on the fact that not only Hammer films were produced in Bray but also a range of other films such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show and episodes of Doctor Who.

So what can you do?

Well, the most important thing right now is to make sure that as many people as possible are aware of this development and about the risk that this wonderful piece of British cinematic history may end up destroyed. So if you have a blog, a Twitter or Facebook account or simply a mouth to speak with, please make sure that as many people as possible are aware of this threat. Then also join the Facebook Group if you have an FB account to make sure that you are always up to date on their next plans. Fingers crossed that this decision may be reversed to save the Bray studios.

The Stranger Came Home to Bray

by Matthew Coniam
.
Time has been reasonably kind to The Stranger Came Home since its release in 1954: what seemed at the time to be just another middling British support thriller has gained something from its association with the later Hammer films.
With a few more - or more bizarre - plot twists it could almost play as the anticipatory cousin of the black and white psycho thrillers Jimmy Sangster wrote for the company in the sixties, beginning with Taste of Fear in 1961. Likewise the presence of Hollywood leading lady Paulette Goddard at the top of the cast - in truth nothing more than the latest in the ongoing practice of securing the services of a fading Hollywood name to ease US distribution through Robert Lippert - gives it a touch of class, and seems to bring future echoes of The Nanny, Fanatic and The Witches.
And, though it finally fails to follow through on it, the film does have a slightly more sinister feel to it than the average crime programmer, and benefits from a rather creepy lead performance from William Sylvester, a good actor and later star of Devil Doll (1964) and Devils of Darkness (1965).
Pleasing, too, to see the Hammer team in early formation: Sangster (as production manager), Fisher directing, Carreras Jr writing and producing, Phil Leakey (getting a chance to do a nasty scar!) in the make-up chair, and Molly Arbuthnot and Len Harris on board as well.
.The plot, sadly, is not bad but simply not surprising enough to stand comparison with the later Hammer thrillers. It has a very intriguing premise - man believed dead returns home after three years to unmask his would-be murderer - and the development is no less than satisfactory, but there are no shocks in the revelation: the guilty party could be any one of the main suspects - and is. And that's that. A last-minute surprise could have made a perfectly decent little thriller into a major sleeper. (And Paulette is rather dowdily photographed and costumed throughout the movie, never sporting anything even resembling the hairdos and costumes seen in either of the posters reproduced here, bearing the film's American release title.)
But what does make the film of considerable interest to the Hammer afficionado is the extensive photography in and around Down House (doubling as the characters' own house, as was often the Hammer way), giving viewers several clear looks at Bray studios as it was at the time, including some bits of architecture oddly familiar from the later Hammer horrors.
. This all prompts a thought. Even after Hammer had converted the ballroom into a soundstage, and erected the second stage annexe, they continued to make regular use of the house itself: before the stage conversions in 1953 they routinely shot in the ordinary rooms of the house. And it was in this environment that Fisher and the other regulars 'learned' the Hammer style. In other words, how much of that personal style for which Fisher is justly renowned - the economy of visual construction, and mathematical precision of shots - was born of necessity, dictated by the limitations of planning and shooting in the confined spaces of Down House?

Bruce G Hallenbeck: The Hammer Vampire

This nearly went under my radar if it wasn't for a Tweet from@RondoAwards. Already a possible contender for one of the more interesting bits of genre film literature for 2010, Bruce G Hallenbeck's book THE HAMMER VAMPIRE is scheduled for a release in May. It can be ordered within Europe from the publisher, Denis Meikle's Hemlock Books, or in the US from Midnight Marquee.

The author Bruce G Hallenbeck is known to anyone who ever opened a copy of Little Shoppe of Horrors as one of Hammer Film's most fascinating historians and  reviewers. The book promises "an in-depth look at all the films, both the behind-the-scenes and a more cerebral look at the subject matter. Loaded with many rare photos from all the films and if you've liked Bruce's work in LSoH going back to 1981 - and his upcoming making-of articles on the four Hammer Mummy films - you are going to love this. Will be approx 260 pages. UK price will be 17.95Poundsterling. AND will have an extensive color center section."


As for the cover... yeah, don't care much for it either, but for a Hallenbeck book you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

Definitely something to look forward to.

Frankenstein Created Woman behind-the-scenes shots

Adrian Salmon just alerted me through his Bloody Hell of Brit Horror Group of this wonderful (but silent) clip showing behind-the-scenes, well, scenes of Peter Cushing on the set of Frankenstein Created Woman, reading his manuscripts, getting his hair done, giving Susan Denberg a peck on the cheek, discussing the shots with director Terence Fisher and Thorley Walters etc. A more detailed description of this clip can be read on the Pathe website where this was first posted.

Some more Cushing related clips can be found here.

PETER CUSHING

Rondo Award nominated shorts

Rondo Award time is upon us again. I can't believe a year has already passed again. In recent months the amount of online awards has taken on epic proportions, however, the Rondo IMHO still is the only award to aspire to if you are interested in horror and fantasy. Just being nominated for it it a huge honour, winning one is going to be the equivalent of an Oscar if you are in any shape or form associated with producing or reviewing genre movies.

In past years I may have plugged the occasional article, book or website that I felt was due the Rondo, but I now know too many of the talents involved due to the beauty that is Twitter or Facebook that it simply would not be fair to highlight one over the other.

All I know is that if you are reading this blog, you are the kind of person who needs to vote: So steer over to the Rondo website and cast your vote until April 03.

What I do want to highlight here, though, is the category 9. Best Independent Production (film, documentary or short) as Andrea Ricca has recently contacted me.

He is the director of the Rondo nominated short movie THE GUARDIAN and one of a two-man team of Italian No-Budget film makers with a love for fantasy, a computer, Mini DV camera and some 3-D animation skills. His other films and more background information can be found on his website.

It is amazing what you can come up with with the right attitude and passion for your subject. Personally I'd rather watch these $0 short movies than any number of stratospherically overpriced and overlong Hollywood productions. THE GUARDIAN shows a nod to Ray Harryhausen. His latest oeuvre, THE FURFANGS, is influenced by the whole GREMLINS/CRITTERS style sub-genre. My favourite of his shorts is UFO RACE as it doesn't just nod to his favourites but actually comes up with his own little story.







Looking at these shorts made me wonder what other Rondo nominated short movies are out there that could be featured here. To my surprise there don't seem to be a lot of short movie makers out there as most of the productions in this category are feature length movies or documentaries. The only other short movie on that list is THE INSTITUTE OF SEANCE. Below the trailer. Would love to have shown the entire movie, but you actually need to purchase the 10-minute short for $10 on DVD. If interested drop by their website, but consider me too stingy to shill out that much for so little.



Anyway..... don't forget to do your civic duty and cast your votes if you haven't done so yet.

'Nuff said.

A new kid on the blog

Looks like someone started a new Hammer movie blog: http://www.watchinghammer.blogspot.com/

And based on the first post dedicated to The Secret of Blood Island this won't just be about the usual fare so I definitely wish that blogger all the best and will drop by regularly. And so should you.

And now for something completely different.....

OK, this has nothing remotely to do with the general topics of this blog, but what the heck.

Yesterday I watched The Usual Suspects for the very first time in full. I had previously attempted to see it but switched off after about 20 minutes or so as I couldn't find anything remotely interesting in it. After hearing about the production time and time again over the last couple of years I finally decided to give the movie yet another try to see what this is all about, but – lo and behold – I still don't get it.

Here are some of the points that left me scratching my head. (Though no names will be given, the way how this is discussed will reveal to any but the most braindead who I am talking about. So if you're one of the two people interested in seeing this who hasn't watched it yet, read no further.)

• Kayzer Soze. The big elephant in the room. What's the deal with him? After all I heard I thought he'd be a quasi-demonic presence throughout the entire picture. The yardstick I would measure this against for me is The Third Man where Harry Lime doesn't even appear until way into the second half, yet his evil presence permeates every minute of the movie from the very start on. Here? Apart from one or two utterances Kayzer Soze doesn't even feature prominently at all until halfway through the film. And even then I never really got anything like a Third Man feel for the character.
• Who is Kayzer Soze? Well, this hardly was a mystery at all given that from the start we only really had one surviving member of the group. I kept on telling myself that surely this is way too easy and some major surprise may be in store. But, nay, it was indeed the only survivor. Bit of an anti-climax that one, methinks.
• Chazz Palminteri's character at the end discovers from a look at his notice board that he was fed a whole bunch of lies. It appears that events and characters were invented by looking at coffee cups, mug shots etc. Yet, we as viewers have seen these events taking place in flashbacks! Now there is a well established movie making 101 rule that says that flashbacks need to always tell the truth. They may sometimes show one person's interpretation of the truth (e.g. Kurosawa's Rashomon) but even then we can accept that these were events how the characters saw them. Making up flashback scenes that never happened that way is not clever. At all. It is a major audience cheat and totally disingenious. And completely unworthy of a critically acclaimed picture such as this one. The remake of My Bloody Valentine was mauled over a similar plot device that wasn't anywhere as intrusive as what's in store for this production.
• The sting. Or should I say stings? If this was meant to be anything like a proper heist movie, then it failed big time. Cause the big movie stings always involve intricate planning and a few surprises up the sleeve. Here we don't have one sting but a series of them, none of them very intricate as all that was required was show up and point a gun, get the loot and be gone.
• The characters weren't exactly very involving. Can I quote a single line of dialogue a day after seeing the film? Nope. Not a one.

So....... is The Usual Suspects one of the most overrated films of all time?

Discuss!