Saturday, March 25, 2006

Hammer Box Set, Day 2 – Hammer Marathon
(First two movies in this box set reviewed on March 16, 2006)

Brides of Dracula – 1960

     I was surprised that this movie had Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, but no Christopher Lee. Then I found out why. No Dracula. Actually, this movie should have been titled the Brides of the Son of Dracula. But when you have these great sets, and this beautiful soundtrack, it’s really tough to be mean to these movies. And every movie in this box set has subtitles, to which I am eternally grateful.

The ending is kind of a let down. This son of Dracula is a wimp!

Three beers out of five

Curse of the Werewolf – 1961

More Oliver Reed goodness. Seriously, if you like ‘ol Olie, this is the box set for you. I think he’s in three of the eight movies. It does seem funny, however, to have a werewolf movie set in Spain, and the werewolf is NOT played by Naschy. No, Sir Oliver Reed is the cursed one here. And like all the old werewolf movies, he’s not very happy about it. I did a couple of werewolf movies earlier in the week, and then there’s the well done and popular Ginger Snaps. When did it become popular to LIKE being a werewolf? I like the tormented soul angle.

Another interesting twist here is that you don’t have to be bitten to become a werewolf. Just born on Christmas Day of “unhappy parentage” (in this case, a bastard due to rape). This would greatly increase the werewolf population, I’d think.

There are some pretty good gore effects here, two full years before Blood Feast made it popular.

And the ending proves that maybe he’s not so much a wolf man as a hairy Hunchback, as he’s a real climber. I didn’t think wolves were that into climbing. This one’s ending was kinda anti-climatic too. Seems to be a weakness of these classic Hammer flicks.

Three beers out of five

Phantom of the Opera – 1962

     A very early impression of this movie was, “Wow, the chorus line of this opera is really kind! No back biting or infighting at all). Once again, the music and the sets are just so outstanding. I really wish that some of these movies had commentaries, so we’d find out just how much of the budget went into set production. Looks like a lot.

I like the fact that the climax of the movie shows up the climax of this opera (the story of Joan of Arc. Is this a real opera? Anyone know?).

If the Phantom looks familiar, that’s cause its Herbert Lom (who most everyone knows as Inspector Charles Dreyfuss from the Pink Panther movies) but genre fans remember for his work in the seminal cult classic Mark of the Devil. And did you recognize the rat catcher? Why, it was Patrick Troughton, who in four years from the time of this movie would become the second Dr. Who!

Three beers out of five.

Paranoiac – 1963

     Yet more Oliver Reed and he plays a creep in this one. You know, he was a great actor. 94 movies, with more great roles than you can shake a stick at. No wonder he was knighted.

Strange, this movie is made after all the previous ones, but it’s in black and white. Maybe they wanted that eerie lighting. Or, maybe this one has a tiny budget, and couldn’t afford color film.

The earlier movies were all directed by Terence Fisher (except Evil of Frankenstein, reviewed on March 16). This one was helmed by Freddie Francis (as was the aforementioned EoF).  Freddie has a long and illustrious career in genre movies, including some personal favorites, such as The Deadly Bees (MST3K Episode 905) and Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (what a great name!)

This movie centers on the death of a brother, and his supposed return. Not the kind of thing I would normally watch. But the acting by Oliver Reed, especially right at the end was really great.

Three beers out of five

Kiss of the Vampire – 1963

     This one is directed by Don Sharp (not nearly the Hammer staple that Fisher or Francis were). He did do the excellent Christopher Lee vehicle Rasputin: The Mad Monk and one of my classic favorites Psychomania.

This movie must have been a real challenge for Mr. Sharp, as it has no stars, no previously known plot points or characters. To make a movie without any of the above anchors is pretty ballsy, as it has no big draws, so you have to rely on good reviews to pull people in.

This is NOT the version you may have seen on TV entitled Kiss of Evil. That cut up, incoherent mess is a pale shadow of this work. This movie actually makes sense, because the scenes that were thought “too graphic for TV” are returned. This film is pretty damn good, all things considered. Too bad about the bats, though. They just couldn’t do bat attacks very well, back then.

Four beers out of five.

Nightmare – 1963

     This is one of those, “is she crazy, or are they driving her crazy?” movies. I’m not a big fan, and this one kind of bored me. Plus, it was getting late, and I’d already seen five movies today (granted, none were over 75 minutes, but still). Finally, it too was in black and white, so the visual splendor didn’t exactly hold my interest. Unfortunately, it’s a poor way to finish out this box set. If you watch them, watch this one early, and finish with Evil of Frankenstein or Kiss of the Vampire.

Two beers out of five