Movie review - 'The Devil Ship Pirates" (1964) ***1/2 (re-watching)

 Put this on again just because. It looks so great for a low budget film - the ship, the costumes. Classy with its actors. Jimmy Sangster did a solid script - a lost Spanish ship, conning the locals that the Armada won, conflict within the Spanish (they are former pirates), a hero has a dud arm because the Spanish tortured him, the local leader gives in very quickly.

Could have done with another draft to improve the female roles - they are mostly victims; a traitorous woman would've been great. And maybe one to genuinely fall for a Spaniard. 

But it spanks along.

Top Ten Hammer Horror Leading Ladies

 1) Ingrid Pitt - fabulous star, can't believe she only did two for the company, should've done a heap more

2) The Collinson Twins - a gimmick yes, not sure there was a second film in these two, but a fabulous gimmick

3) Raquel Welch - suited the world of Hammer better than you'd think - her successors in cave outfits never had the same impact

4) Ursula Andress - wonderful in her film, again should've done more with the company

5) Valerie Leon - bewitching, captivating, helps make her mummy film a classic, deserved another movie

6) Barbara Shelley - perfected the sad eyes, secretly-wants-it look, finally got an actual lead in Blood Island 2 but wasn't done justice - still, probably the woman who did best out of Hammer

7) Martine Beswick - had probably the best role for a woman in Hammer as Sister Hyde and did very well

8) Susan Strasberg - she never became the great actress that she was predicted to become but she was very good and developed a neat line in "woman who is terrified" that was very well used in Taste of Fear 

9) Stephanie Beacham - a bright light from a dim period for Hammer

10) Natassa Kinski- her presence is clearly problematic but she has genuine charisma and is perfectly cast 

Movie review - "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?" (1972) **1/2

 Love the grammatically correct title. It was originally called The Gingerbread Man  a more direct allusion to its Hansel and Gretel origin, with Mark Lester and Chloe Franks as two youngies who are captured by Shelley Winters.

Despite some names having worked on it - Jimmy Sangster, Robert Blees, Gavin Lambert - the film doesn't have quite enough story for a feature. It needed a murder or another significant character or something. Like for Ralph Richardon's part of to be bigger - or someone else's.  (Judy Cornwell is wasted.) It definitely needed Winters to kill someone so she's more of a threat.

Curtis Harrington handles it well. Though I did wish for some full on baroque Tim Burton handling. 

Winters gives it her all. The kids are good. Hemdale, who represented Mark Lester, produced this.

US version called it Who Slew Auntie Roo? for the Americans.

TASTE OF FEAR and the Big Twist

(Originally written for the Blacklist website)

(Warning: this essay involves spoilers for the 1961 British film TASTE OF FEAR aka SCREAM OF FEAR)

One of the hallmarks of erotic thrillers are Big Twists. The wife and mistress are in cahoots! The wife and boyfriend are in cahoots! It’s an identical twin/imposter! They killed the wrong person! They’re not really dead/gay/crippled/blind! They’re insane/no they’re not/yes they are/well they weren’t but they are now!

Erotic thrillers also throw in Erotic Twists, which tend to mean one thing: They’re Actually Lesbians (TAL). The first really notable TAL was in the French classic LES DIABOBLIQUES (1954), which revolutionized the thriller genre. It took a while for TAL to establish itself in English-speaking films but once the floodgates opened, boy did they open: BASIC INSTINCT (1992), SINS OF DESIRE (1993), BOUND (1996), WILD THINGS (1998) and its sequels, MULHOLLAND DR. (2001), PASSION (2013), THE HANDMAIDEN (2016) are just some TAL movies. Occasionally guys make out with each other but they lag well behind the girls.

In LES DIABOLIQUES the reveal the two female leads were in bed together was a great shock. It retains some of that power today, mostly because the scene defies expectations you instinctively have when watching a film from 1954, even a French one. But TAL has been used so often in recent years it has no power to surprise in a modern day erotic thriller — it’s really there for character or titillation (depending on the quality of the filmmaker).

There is another sort of twist, however, that I think would still retain the capacity to shock. It’s used in the 1961 British film TASTE OF FEAR directed by Seth Holt and written by Jimmy Sangster for Hammer Films. At the time Hammer were enjoying success with their horror movies, many written by Sangster, who was getting sick of them, so he decided to try a thriller. Inspired by LES DIABOLIQUES and PSYCHO (1960), TASTE OF FEAR was a success and led to Hammer making a bunch of follow ups, many written by Sangster –MANIAC (1963), PARANOIAC (1963), NIGHTMARE (1964), HYSTERIA (1965), THE NANNY (1965) (the best of the bunch), CRESCENDO (1970), FEAR IN THE NIGHT (1972), etc.

Strictly speaking these films are psycho thrillers rather than erotic ones — they usually deal with someone trying to drive someone else insane rather than sex/obsession/desire. But TASTE OF FEAR has one genuine erotic shock in it worth discussing.

The plot is about wheelchair-bound Susan Strasberg (aged 23) returning to the family home after the mysterious disappearance of her father. She clashes with her stepmother Ann Todd (52) and creepy doctor Christopher Lee (39) but is helped by hunky chauffeur Ronald Lewis (33).

Towards the end of the film, Todd arranges for a car to go off a cliff with Strasberg inside. Todd then turns and passionately embraces… Lewis, a man young enough to be her son.

It’s a real jolt, in part because you expect Todd to be in cahoots with Lee and kill Lewis, but also because she’s an older woman making out with a much younger man — and it’s not a polite peck, they go for it, not once, but three separate times.

And while we didn’t see a lot of women in bed together on screens in 1954 but we do now, we didn’t see a lot of 52 year old women making out with 33 year old men in 1961 and we still don’t now — at least not where the younger men are hunks and adults (often guys who go for older women in films are depicted as inexperienced geeks/teenagers e.g. THE GRADUATE, 1967, THE SUMMER OF ’42, 1971, THE READER, 2008.)

We’re often told it’s hard to shock audiences these days because they’ve seen so much and society is so tolerant, but every society has things which aren’t normally seen — and one of them is still a 52 year old woman with wrinkles making out with a handsome 33 year old man on screen.

Erotic thrillers are still capable of erotic shocks — it’s just what you decide is erotic.

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Movie review - "Deadlier Than the Male" (1967) **1/2

The Rank Film organisation jumps on the James Bond bandwagon - they'd already dabbled with Hot Enough for June - by reviving Bulldog Drummond and changing him from his previous incarnations (neck breaking pseudo fascist in the books, comic gentleman adventurer in the movies) into a modern day sophisticated, womanising spy (although he works for an oil company rather than the government).

Drummond is up against a duo of female assassins - Elke Sommer, Sylva Koscina - who run around knocking off people, usually in some revealing outfit (bikinis, evening gowns, etc). These two are great fun, and several of their scenes are reminiscent of the film Charlies Angels, especially the opening sequence where Sommers attacks a guy on a plane, parachutes out, is met by a bikinied Koscina in a speedboat, then then go someone in bikinis with a spear gun.

Even better the girls have different characters - Sommers is bossy, Koscina a troublesome psychopath, the two bicker. As long as they are around the film is great fun, helped by fantastic costumes and stunning locations. Nigel Green isn't bad as their boss.

The film's more wobbly when it comes to Drummond. Richard Johnson is handsome and clearly a capable actor but is dull as a star. He wouldn't have made a good Bond. The guy who plays his American nephew or whatever is agonisingly irritating - why not make this person a girl helping him? They throw in Suzanna Leigh in the third act, with an accent, but it's too little too late. The action scenes aren't done that well.

But it's bright and cheery and has some smashing looking birds as they used to say.

Apparently the person Jimmy Sangster (who wrote the origianl script) wanted for Drummond was Rod Taylor.

Movie review - "Hysteria" (1965) ** (warning: spoilers)

Jimmy Sangster's psycho thrillers for Hammer tended to concentrate on young women - Susan Strasberg in Scream of Fear, Jeanette Scott in Paranoiac, etc. This one is about a young man, Robert Webber who wakes up as an amnesiac. His only clues are a torn photo from a newspaper and the fact that a mysterious benefactor is paying for the rent on an apartment.

Webber gives a solid, professional performance but to be honest I didn't really care what happened to him - I get that Sangster was trying to mix things up with a male protagonist but it would have been better with a female: they seem more vulnerable; its easier to believe people thinking they are going insane. Or maybe it could have worked with a guy, just someone more likeable or at least empathetic - Webber's a cold actor, who struggles to convey fear/paranoia in an interesting way.

The storyline rips off tropes from Laura (person they think is dead isn't) Gaslight (being driven insane) and Vertigo (fake dead girl is all part of a scheme to frame someone for murder). And really there isn't enough here for a feature - it's like enough plot for a one hour anthology episode or something. They pad it out with flashbacks to Webber's past.

The snazzy flat in London lacks creepy atmosphere you get in earlier movies in the series. I had heard that director Freddie Francis wasn't really into the project and you can tell - it receives lethargic handling. And this is the sort of movie that badly needs energetic, atmospheric direction.

On the plus side, the acting is strong - as said before, Webber isn't a great star but can act; Jennifer Jayne is winning as the nurse who falls for Webber (she's shamefully under-used in the story, even as a red herring); Mauriece Denham offers authority as a private investigator; Leila Goldoni adds glamour as the Kim Novak figure.

Movie review - "The Horror of Dracula" (1958) **** (re-viewing)

I've seen this film a few times now and it wouldn't be my favourite Hammer - I admit to being more frightened by Dracula - Prince of Darkness. But it works beautifully - Christopher Lee deservedly became a star with his count, all virility and action; he was a mediocre Frankenstein's monster, but a beautiful Dracula. And has there ever been a better Van Helsing than Peter Cushing - brilliant, whip smart, tough, imposing.

The music and art direction are first rate; Jimmy Sangster's script is a expert example in low budget adaptation. The limited budget helps - it adds to the feeling of isolation and spookiness. And there is a pleasing sexual frankness to it all: clearly the women can't wait to get a decent ravaging from Dracula, especially Melissa Stribling.

In the support cast, Michael Gough and John Van Eyssen are particularly drippy as the supporting men - respectively a disbelieving idiot (and clearly a lousy lay) and not particularly effective assassin. The women aren't as attractive as you'd get later on, but the acting is pretty good. Spectacular finale.

Movie review - "Curse of Frankenstein" (1957) *** (another viewing)

This screened on TCM and I can never resist the chance to re-watch Hammer horror. The print wasn't the best - or maybe the colour photography for the first Hammer horror simply wasn't that great. The art direction remains impressive.

I was struck by how inherently inexpensive the film has been constructed - screenwriter Jimmy Sangster was a production manager and used to be able to budget his scripts himself down to the last cent (or pence, rather). Most of the action is two handers or three handers - Robert Urquhart and the young Frankenstein, Urquhart and Cushing, Cushing and Hazel Court, Cushing and Lee, etc. It also mostly takes place indoors

A lot of it is also like a play, or TV play - scenes of people sitting/standing around talking. There are some staircases and entrances and exits to keep it a bit lively and Terence Fisher does an okay job - but it only gets up and moving at certain times. (I think this is budget more than Fisher because in other films such as Dracula - Prince of Darkness things are very cinematic.)

Peter Cushing's performance looks better over the years - intense, glowering, dynamic. Christopher Lee's monster remains spectacularly unimpressive - a very mediocre turn (anyone could have played this, really - no sympathy). Hazel Court is wasted in a nothing part but Valerie Gaunt gets a flashy role as the maid seduced by Frankenstein (Gaunt is fine just not as charismatic or sexy as Court - I wish they'd swapped roles). Urquhart does his best in what is a terrible role really, as Frankenstein's friend, who has to help him, then get offended. (I always struggle with this part in Frankenstein movies - it's better if Frankenstein's assistant is fully committed.)

Script review - "The Horror of Dracula" by Jimmy Sangster (1958)

Publication of the beautiful script by Jimmy Sanger - elegant, simple and scary even to read. The character of Arthur remains a big dill, and that of Dracula genuinely terrifying. Sangster did have Stoker to draw on but he has changed a fair bit.

Book review - "The Revenge of Frankenstein" (1958) (warning: spoilers)

Another in Bear Manor Media's excellent series of re-printed novelisations, this is a reminder of what a first-rate sequel Jimmy Sangster penned. It picks up right on the end of the first Frankenstein, tracks the action logically and pays due attention to continuity (something definitely not apparent in later entries in the series), really fleshes out the character of Dr Frankenstein, has a strong supporting casting including a devoted supporting doctor Hans, a female lead with a bit of spunk (though it's a shame there's no romance between her and either Frankenstein or Hans) and most of all a completely sympathetic monster - Karl, the hunchback who just wants a normal life. This is what gives the story real heart and emotion.

There are lots of effective moments - Frankenstein's lab of bits and pieces, the inner monologues of Karl - and a very satisfying conclusion, with Hans performing some deft work on his old mentor to keep him going.

Movie review - "Crescendo" (1970) **

One of the last of the Hammer psycho thrillers, again from a script by Jimmy Sangster who seems keen to recycle many of the elements of his earlier work in this genre, particularly Scream of Fear - there's a young woman protagonist, a mansion in the South of France, a matriarch who is possible crazy, a rich person in a wheelchair, a pool, spooky scenes of the heroine poking around at night. it also rips off Jane Eyre and Rebecca.

Stefanie Powers rarely got to play a lead role but I liked her a lot here; she's very pretty (several bikini swims, thank you very much, plus even a topless scene towards the end) and has an engaging presence. Joss Ackland adds some gravitas and power as the mysterious chauffeur.

However the other three members of the cast are less good. James Olsen is a solid actor, but lacks a little in the leading man looks department, and doesn't have the presence of a say Oliver Reed or even Ronald Lewis. He lacks chemistry with Powers who is far too good looking for him - I didn't buy it for a second she'd go for him. 

Jane Lapotaire isn't nearly sexy enough to play the saucy maid who teases and flirts around Olsen; there were much better looking actresses and actors on display in Hammer films and I'm surprised they couldn't find someone better. (This is harsh and a personal opinion, I know, but I'd be lying if I didn't feel it hurt the movie for me.). 

Finally, Margaretta Scott lacks presence as the mother, in a role that could have used with some aging film starlet. Stronger casting for these three roles would have made this so, so much more interesting.

The direction lets things down, too. Scenes that Seth Holt or Freddie Francis had knocked out of the park in earlier Sangster psycho thrillers - such as Power poking around the house at night following the sounds of music, discovery of a doll with its face smashed in - which should have given jolts, aren't very scary here. And despite being in colour the movie isn't very attractive and lacks atmosphere. 

If I were Powers I'd be really annoyed because it was a lead role for her and the film isn't as good as she is. Jimmy Sangster has less reason to complain since he's re-heating old elements most of the time, but the director could have been much better.

Alan Gibson directed.

Movie review - "Jack the Ripper" (1959) **1/2

In his book Adventures in the Screen Trade, William Goldman talks a bit about Joseph E Levine (in the section on A Bridge Too Far), telling a story about how he bought the US rights to this movie, and had a big meeting with exhibitors where he brought out $1 million in cash - literally in cash - and vowed to spend that money on making the hit. Levine later claimed this made him a healthy profit but the movie did not become particularly well known - certainly not in the league of, say, Levine's Hercules.

Still, it's not a bad flick, Hammer-inspired but in black and white, from a script by Jimmy Sangster. The plot is a basic redo of the world's favourite serial killer knocking off loose women in Victorian London - they hold off the big reveal until ten minutes towards the end but pretty much everyone will guess it before then. Among the fresh twists Sangster brings to the story are the fact the Ripper is searching out a particular woman "Mary Clarke", a hunchback who is accused of the attack, and a visiting American detective.

It does lack star power and I wish it had been in colour rather than black and white but there is plenty of action, the Ripper gets squashed by a lift at the end (rather tame), and the handling is reasonably vigorous.

Movie review - "Blood of the Vampire" (1958) **1/2

The success of Curse of Frankenstein and The Horror of Dracula prompted the English producing team of Baker and Berman to hire Jimmy Sangster to write this entertaining knock off, which despite the title has more to do with the former than the latter. It feels very Frankenstein-y, with doctor Vincent Ball - falsely imprisoned for a crime - being rescued from prison by mad doctor Donald Wolfit who puts Ball to use doing mad experiments.

Wolfit looks like a vampire, is very interested in blood and was actually brought back from the dead - but isn't actually a vampire. He has a decent enough presence - he's no Cushing or Lee but can munch on scenery with the best of them. Ball is a handsome hero, whose Australian accent can be ascertained in most scenes. Barbara Shelley has a disappointingly small role as Ball's love who goes looking for him - she mostly appears in the last third. The best performance is from Victor Maddern as a hunchback assistants (these were always turning up in Sangster screenplays).

There is colour, decent production design, a fair bit of blood and body parts. Sometimes the handling could have been more vigorous, particularly at the end - the final fight and escape in the dungeon feels way too stagey. But I enjoyed it a lot and it deserves to be better known.

Movie review - "The Trollenberg Terror" (1958) **1/2

Not a Hammer movie although surely the producers were inspired by The Abominable Snowman - which I didn't think had been that big a hit, but anyway we've got Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster doing the script, a TV show origin (many of Hammers early films were based on TV shows) and Snowman's star Forrest Tucker again hanging around the Alps looking into mysterious goings ons.

I saw this right after Fiend Without a Face and the movies seemed to have a fair bit in common, including it's American star, undeveloped love interest, mad scientist support actor (here played by Warren Mitchell), indistinguishable minor parts, baddie creatures that practice mind control, a climax where the creatures (here aliens from outerspace) attack the goodies in an enclosed location (in this case a cable car) and fight them off.

It doesn't make sense and there are logic holes you could drive a truck through but it's a lot of fun, there's plenty of action (the opening scene has someone fall off a mountain), Janet Munro is effective as a psychic, there is lots of violence (decapitations, hackings) which they get around censor wise by describing them.

Movie review - "The Criminal" (1960) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

A fusion of the American and British gangster film - expat director Joe Losey has a high old time with this tale of hardened crim Stanley Baker who gets out of prison, where he is top dog, and sets about promptly going back to his old ways, organising a stick up of a race trek (shades of The Killing!), and winds up back there.

Baker is in his element here as a hard man, who thinks he's on top of it all, but winds up being outwitted by women, prison guards and his fellow crims. There's an interesting jazz soundtrack (Cleo Laine sings the title song), Aussies will love seeing a huge bald Aussie prisoner in gaol, an unflinching look at prison life, some effective riot sequences, funky cinematography.

Like a lot of Losey movies the female characters aren't that great - Baker is tormented by his over acting, drunken ex and sleeps with a gangster groupie. Also the plot feels repetitive - get out of gaol, rob something, wind up back in gaol, escape from gaol. But it's good, tough entertainment with fine work from Baker and the male support cast (including Patrick Magee as a sadistic warden).

Book review - "The Hammer Vault" by Marcus Hearn

Another typically excellent Hammer book from Hearn, with plenty of glossy photos and pictures, including of old call sheets, etc. This one gives key prominence to non horror films such as Yesterday's Enemy which is a nice change and I think puts things in more perspective - although it doesn't really deal heavily with the very early Hammers, which I understand. Most of the information will be familiar to the regular fan (including Hearn's opinions e.g. bagging The Terror of the Tongs) but this is still worth buying if you're into Hammer. Oh, it is quite large and hefty.

Movie review – “The Anniversary” (1968) **1/2

Jimmy Sangster always wanted to shoot his psycho thrillers in black and white – this was the first in colour. He was right. Black and white suits psycho thriller-dom a lot more than colour. It doesn’t help the material isn’t quite psycho-y – no one is drivig anyone insane or dies, it’s more a black family melodrama in the tradition of The Little Foxes. Once I got that, I began appreciating this film for what it was rather than what it could have been, and it’s quite entertaining.

 

It is very stage-bound – the action only really leaves the house for one sequence, a dinner in the middle of the film, and there’s lots of entrances and exits and telephone calls. The action takes place over one night, an annual dinner marking the wedding anniversary of Bette Davis and her husband – even though he’s been dead for ten years. She torments her kids – a cross dresser, married man with kids and nagging wife who wants to move to Canada, and bratty son who is always bringing home girls he’s engaged too. They try to fight back but ultimately lose (although there’s no real ending for the cross dresser story).

 

Bette looks cool with her different eye patches but she has too much dialogue – her voice really got on my nerves. She also sings ‘Rock of Ages’. Solid support from the British cast, except that youngest son whose arrogance got wearying. This was the film on which Davis famously demanded the director be sacked; he was replaced by Roy Ward Baker. Well, she was the star.

Book review – “Hammer: the Bray Studio Years” by Wayne Kinsey

A book written with passion and devotion but perhaps too much detail. No one can fault Kinsey’s research but it feels very “cut and pastey” – slabs of censorship reports and interviews put in. The censorship stuff is interesting - particularly the challenges faced by the lesser known films made by Hammer such as Never Take Candy from a Stranger, and the swashbucklers and war films (I also love how the censorship readers felt obligated to pass artistic judgement on the movies); but it might have been better served as an appendix in the back. 

 

The book concentrates as the title suggests on Hammer’s life at Bray, although not all the films covered were shot there. There are some diagrams and pictures – after having read the book on Errol Flynn’s house at Mulholland I felt that might have been a better format, colour pictures and lots of them, than what is used here. Or a straight up encyclopedia. Still it’s a fresh approach.

 

I don’t want to be overly-critical: I enjoyed the book and will no doubt be flicking through it in years to come. Full of useful information and great stories: the ship collapsing on The Devil Ship Pirates, the joys of doing a nude scene with Susan Denberg during Frankenstein Created Women, the over-amiable dog on Hound of the Baskervilles. 

 

A worthy companion to Marcus Hearn's books and the Johnson/del Vecchio encyclopedia.

Movie review – “The Man Who Could Cheat Death” (1959) **1/2 (warning: spoilers)

It’s not hard to see the attraction of Barre Lydon play for Hammer – it’s a sort of Dorian Gray tale (NB why did they never film that story?) about an artist/doctor who manages to stay young through operations involving gland extraction. This inevitably leads to – you guessed it – murder. Probably not enough murder to satisfy the Hammer faithful but there are some wonderful sets and costumes, and a strong cast.

Anton Diffring steps into a role that presumably Peter Cushing was too busy to play; but Christopher Lee pops up as Diffring’s romantic rival. There’s also Hazel Court, who poses topless for Diffring – we see her bare back and everything which is pretty racy. The handling doesn’t conquer the stage origins of this story – there’s lots of scenes with people standing around drawing rooms talking. More could have been made of the Lee-Diffring-Court triangle. It’s also a bit slow and lacks fire, even if it ends with a fire (fire finales tend to be ho-hum in horror films of this era, there were so many of them).

On the sunny side, as previously mentioned, it looks gorgeous: sets, colour, costumes, etc. The acting is polished, the women sexy and there are a couple of decent shocks: revelation of all the busts of women and Diffring’s age and finding out Delphi Lawrence is still alive (she looks hotter in her gypsy prison outfit than at the beginning). It’s a shame they didn’t juice this up a little, add some more horror, murders and sex. Hammer would return to the “eternal life” theme with She.

Movie review – “The Snorkel” (1958) **

Tense little thriller from Hammer and writer Jimmy Sangster - an early version of his psycho thrillers which he later made to such great effect in the 60s. Peter van Eyck is very good in the lead, playing a smooth-talking man who kills his wife and sets it up as suicide (a terrific opening sequence) - but the woman's daughter (Mandy Miller) is convinced it was murder. Miller is dreadful - although something of a name at the time (due to her appearance in 1952's Mandy) here she's incredibly annoying; you keep hoping van Eyck will bump her off, and get frustrated when he doesn't. Occasionally it feels padded too (I've seen the 90 minute British version - apparently there's a shorter US version which might work better). Still, an enjoyable thriller.