Let's Talk Hammer

[dedwyre]

I'm referring to the film company, not the old school rapper.

It's been a whilse since we've talked about them, but I've finally gotten the chance to see a number of old Hammer Horror films recently, so I thought I'd reopen the discussion. Previously, the only one I'd seen was Curse of the Werewolf, which was good but did not involve Christopher Lee or Peter Cushing.

Now I've seen The Curse of Frankenstein, The Horror of Dracula, and The Satanic Rites of Dracula, and I'm in the middle of The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll. Next on the list are Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, The Gorgon, and Scream of Fear.

So, my obvious question to those of you who've seen any or all of these movies is, "Which did you like and which did you not?" Also, any other recommendations? They're not the easiest to get over here if I don't want to buy them, but I can get some though inter-library loans.

[keywolf]

Ah, Hammer. First, my top 5, including 2 you've already seen:

1. Horror of Dracula (seriously deviates from the novel, but still probably my favourite version)

2. The Mummy (Lee and Cushing again! Pure class.)

3. The Devil Rides Out (some very shonky effects but otherwise pretty top-notch. Plus Lee gets to play the good guy for once)

4. Plague of the Zombies (Creepy, atmospheric and actually quite ground breaking- it came out several years before Night of the Living Dead)

5. Curse of the Werewolf (I'm sure I don't need to explain this to you guys, even though it's not the best Hammer have to offer)

I'd also like to mention a captivating movie called Straight On Til Morning- imagine Peter Pan as a horror/thriller set in 1970's London and you're close. I loved it.

Also, you can't really go wrong with any Hammer vampire movie, especially Vampire Circus, The Vampire Lovers (an adaptation of Carmilla) and Captain Kronos- Vampire Hunter, a really fun action horrror.

As for the others you mention, I really liked Curse of Frankenstein, really didn't like Satanic Rites, The Gorgon isn't bad, Scream of Fear is more of a thriller so less interesting to me, and as for Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, it's a pretty lacklustre sequel to the much better The Mummy.
The Two Faces of Doctor Jekyll might be the only Hammer Horror I haven't seen.

Hope that helps!

[dedwyre]

Satanic Rites is a weird one; it's about Dracula taking control of a big corporation in the 70's as part of a plan to destroy humanity. Cushing is a descendant of Van Helsing who has to stop him. There's also a bunch of nudity and satanic rituals that I can't really connect to the main plot line. It was Lee's last Dracula movie, as he was getting upset with the direction they were taking.

Oddly, it's been sold in bargain DVD sets along with various public domain monster movies (that's how I got it), yet I don't think it's in the public domain.

I should probably give my thoughts on the ones I've seen...

I really liked Horror of Dracula until the end when Dracula was fleeing on a carriage and running away like a normal person. I thought that greatly diminished his power and made it less impressive when Van Helsing killed him. I didn't mind the deviation from the novel.

Curse of Frankenstein was also very good except for a one small thing. Frankenstein's assistant (Paul? I forget his name) turned against him and his experiments, yet still stayed in his house for a long time. You'd think he'd have been kicked out or something, but no. I also didn't mind the deviation from the novel here, though now that I think about it, it would have been cool to see Christopher Lee playing the monster as he appeared in the original story.

Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll was like a serious version of The Nutty Professor. Jekyll was under-confident and weak-willed. His wife was cheating on him and he had no sway over her. Hyde was handsome, charismatic, and pretty darn mean. And Christopher Lee wasn't playing a monster, though he wasn't really a good guy, either.

[Werewolf]

Dracula AD1976 (Think that was the title??) was another werid one but worth watching just to see Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Curse of the Werewolf was one of my favourates as were the Frankenstein ones, but again i'm a huge Lee and Cushing fan and it was nice to see Cushing play evil for a change.

[Marcus]

Been a long time since I've seen hammer films. Keep looking at the boxset they have on amazon and trying to resist buying it - as it's not a complete collection.

The horrible Dr Phebes was a hammer film wasn't it? with Vincent Price staring. If not it's still worth hunting out. Also The Witchfinder General and Masque of the Red Death

[keywolf]

'Dracula AD1972' was indeed a weird one! Instantly dated and with a terrible funky soundtrack throwing off any attempts at horror. 'Satanic Rites' is the follow up to this one.

Marcus, I can see why you'd think so but no, the Dr Phibes movies weren't Hammer, neither were Witchfinder General or Masque of the Red Death- both were (loosely) part of Roger Corman's 'Poe cycle' (in the US Witchfinder General was called The Conqueror Worm after the Poe poem, despite having nothing to do with it). Sadly Vincent Price was never in a Hammer Horror.

The movies that are most commonly mistaken for Hammer are usually Amicus horror films- not only do they look and sound like Hammer films, but they sometimes starred Lee and Cushing (and Price). 'The Beast Must Die' is an Amicus film for example.

[Werewolf]

I always had it in my head that "The Beast Must Die" was a Hammer. Is that one where they are all sat in the mansion trying to work out who was the werewolf?

[keywolf]

That's the one, including the fantasticly gimmicky 'werewolf break'! No, sadly for us Hammer only ever did one werewolf movie.

[Marcus]

I really should buy some of these old horror films. It's a glaring gap in my collection of films.

Yup, Beast Must Die is that one. where a rich hunter invites a group of people, each one wth a background that could indicate one of them is a werewolf, so he can find uncover a real werewolf so he can than hunt it.

[Werewolf]

I find it quite strange that they made so many Dracula and Frankenstein movies but yet made only one werewolf movie. I would if maybe it didn't do as good at the box office as the rest?

[dedwyre]

I saw a movie I thought was a Hammer film called Scream and Scream Again. Cushing and Lee were both in it, but not for very long (especially Cushing). Price was an important character, though.

Saw Curse of the Mummy's Tomb. I slept through a lot of it. Not because it was bad, but because I was tired. What I saw was good. You can watch it online at Crackle.com, in case you're interested.