Thursday, February 2, 2006

Hammer Horror Double Feature

Curse of Frankenstein - 1957

This is the baby that started it all. Hammer's first Frankenstein movie. Peter Cushing as the doctor (and played as really not a very nice guy) and Christopher Lee as the monster. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Subtitles (YEAH!), and a nice little article about the history of the movie.

One of the things that I find "quaint" about this movie is that it is recorded in the history books that this was considered a very gorey movie. And that there was some concern about censorship. By today's standards, this movie would be a PG rating. There's just nothing here. I can't find any indication that this is a "cut" version, so I can only assume that what was considered "shocking" in 1957 is pretty sedate by today's standards. But still, this is a great movie to watch with your kids. The scene where Paul tries to stop Dr. Frankenstein and ends up damaging the brain is a classic, disturbing even to this day.

Four beers out of five (and without nudity. Truly a worthy flick!)

Taste the Blood of Dracula - 1970

This is about in the middle of the dracula cycle with Hammer. Christopher Lee doesn't appear until the last half hour of the movie. In fact, this has to be Dracula movie with the least "Dracula time" I've ever seen. I bet that he doesn't say one hundred words. IMDB says there's a British version with some topless scenes, but this disc didn't have any. Thats unfortunate, cause it could use some "punching up", as far as I'm concerned. And the hero becomes a vampire expert in like 15 minutes, right at the end. He just happens to know someone who has a cache of vampire lore books. Thats handy.

This side (the two movies are on the two sides of the disc. In the old days of 5.25" floppy discs, we called these "flippies") also has subtitles, but very little else. The picture and the sound were wonderful, and thats good, but I sure wish that they had a little history of the movie or genre like they did for Frankenstein on the other side. But considering I got this disc for under $10, you really can't complain.

Two beers out of five.