Bruce G. Hallenbeck: Hammer Fantasy & Sci-Fi

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”)

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

“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)

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

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

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

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.