Julie Ege R.I.P.

It is sad that so shortly after announcing Hazel Court's death I also need to report Julie Ege's passing on April 30, 2008. She died of breast cancer in Norway. I remember meeting her during the second Hammer at Bray event in 1999. For more about her life and career, please check my Hammer Glamour pages.

Here is a wonderful photo tribute from a Norwegian website dedicated to Ms Ege.

Hammer stamps to be released in the UK

merFor those of you living in the UK, mark the calendars: According to the Nordic Philatelic site June 10 will see the release of a number of Hammer (and Carry On) related stamps! The designs look smashing and it is wonderful to see those classic movies being celebrated by the Royal Mail. I just wish the German Bundespost would come up with similar ideas to celebrate the classic Edgar Wallace Krimis.

This year is actually quite a good year for some of my heroes being celebrated on stamps. On January 8 Royal Mail had already released a set of Bond related stamps with wonderful reprints of some of the classic paperback designs. I don't own them yet, but will purchase them on my next trip to London or else order them from a philatelic store.

Beyond the Rave, Ep. 5

The new episode is called “Vampire Stripper”.

The teaser photo at the start of the clip shows a sexy lass in a military style regalia apparently ready to strip off.

You press play, are welcomed to a rural pub doubling as a strip joint, see the girl fully clothed, get your expectations (but not much else) up, yet before you can say “Santanico Pandemonico” we are dragged away into the most ridiculously looking fist fight scene between chavvy drug dealers in white track suits and hysterically laughing vampires. Seriously, this is by far the most amateurish looking part of the film yet. Imagine a bunch of school kids trying to choreograph a fight scene, and you get the picture. Well, also add the very same kids writing the accompanying dialogue.

Seriously, now I am starting to get annoyed. This better improve soon.

Beyond the Rave, Ep. 4

On the first release date for BEYOND THE RAVE we were, ahem, treated to three episodes. Going forward it appears that we will just get one short episode every Monday and Thursday.

The forth episodes concentrates on physically building up the stages for the rave in a deserted forest area. The mysterious Head Vampire is also in charge of the rave and pays a concerned farmer off with what appears to be a gold coin…. which would have been a nice touch if we could actually see it clearer to know what’s happening or see a more surprising reaction to this anachronism by the farmer or at the very least have been given any back story or idea why the head guy, who otherwise seems to have adapted very well to modern life, still resorts to this archaic form of payment.

Anyway, farmer walks off and gets killed.

It wasn’t really a spectacular way to pass another four minutes.

The main concern really is that there wasn't much of anything in it that we hadn’t seen a million times before. It really wasn't cut for serialisation at all, so what in other productions may have just been a moderate so-so, turns seriously abysmal here. I think in most general films the four or so minutes of Episode 4 would not have made a huge difference, positively or negatively, however the way the film is distributed forces you to review each episode as a separate event that needs to be judged on its own account and from that base there wasn't anything of any note to observe other than a very luke warm, bordering on piss poor, short clip.

Tributes to Hammer Horror and the Hammer Ladies

I just found this cool Hammer Horror tribute on YouTube, primarily consisting of clips from the Dracula movies. There's also a nice clip dedicated to Hammer Glamour with accompanying music by Kate Bush, a song called... "Hammer Horror". As much as I like Kate Bush I must admit that I never even heard of this song before now, but it sure is appropriate for the subject of the clips.

New Hammer and Beyond graphic

Steve Reed who kindly contributed the Hazel Court obituary also created this new absolutely awesome Hammer and Beyond graphic that I will now use a header for this blog. It looks fantastic and I can't help but think that this would also make an amazing mouse pad.

Hazel Court R.I.P 1926-2008.

I am pleased to announce a new contributor to this blog, Steve Reed, who had recently launched the Quatermass Pit website and also has a blog about the subject. I, of course, wish his first post could have been about a more cheerful subject, but it is with deep regret that we must announce the passing away of one of Hammer's most talented actresses, Hazel Court.

Sad news reached us today, that Horror Queen Hazel Court, died on the 15th April 2008. Hazel who was 82, had been suffering from a yet undisclosed long term illness. Hazel was born in Birmingham in the UK on the 10th of February 1926. She entered Gainsborough Studios during WWII, & stayed there for several years, during which she became known as one of ‘The Gainsborough Girls’. Her first starring role being in the 1944 film Champagne Charlie in which she had a very small role, the role would lead to bigger parts for Court. After the War she married her first husband Dermot Walsh in 1949, to whom she would remain married to until their divorce in 1963.


Above: The UK poster for The Curse of Frankenstein, Hazel’s first Horror role.

During the early 1950s Hazel would appear in an assortment of movies for various film companies including The Rank Organisation. Amongst those films were The Ghost Ship (1952) & Devil Girl From Mars (1954), but her major starring role came when Hammer Films, who then specialised in low budget thrillers & science fiction adaptations from radio & TV gave Hazel the role of Elizabeth in The Curse of Frankenstein in 1957, in which she teamed up with the then to become Horror film legends – Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee. The film went on to worldwide success, breaking box office records around the world, Hazel would soon find herself with offers for all manner of film & TV work.


Above: Hazel Court & Jane Asher in Roger Corman’s The Masque of Red Death


Her next work for Hammer was the 1959 film The Man Who Could Cheat Death, in which she would again work with Christopher Lee & electrifying German actor Anton Diffring. In 1962 she would start work on what would be 3 very different films for director American director Roger Corman, the first being Premature Burial in which she co-starred with actor Ray Milland. Her next Corman film was The Raven with Boris Karloff, but undoubtedly her best film of that era was the superb Corman made The Masque of Red Death in 1964 with Vincent Price. Hazel re-married in 1964 to actor/director Don Taylor with whom she had 1 child. Hazel continued to work in film & television in the USA up until 1981. Hazel then settled for a life of painting, for which she had a real passion. She would also be a regular at some of the organised Horror conventions, including Hammer. Her autobiography Hazel Court – Horror Queen, An Autobiography was published by Tomahawk Press in 2007.

Stephen Reed 2008.