Cinema Retro
Celebrating Films of the 1960s & 1970s
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Arrow Films’ January Slate Features Arnie
as an Iconic Warrior King and a Suspenseful WWII Epic with Peter O’Toole
On January 30th, Conan The Barbarian, the award-winning epic starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, arrives on 4K UHD and Blu-ray for the first time. John Milius directs Academy Award-winning writer Oliver Stone’s
adaptation of the pulp novels by Robert E. Howard to the big screen. A
global phenomenon ruling the box office upon its initial release in
1982, the fantasy forged Schwarzenegger’s status as a true cinematic
icon. Schwarzenegger stars as Conan – enslaved as a young boy after cult leader Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones)
murders his parents. Conan pushes himself from slave to gladiator to
freed warrior in search of Thulsa Doom to exact his vengeance. Along the
way Conan learns of love, friendship, wisdom, and loyalty. The film
features electrifying star performances by Schwarzenegger and Jones, and
an impressive supporting cast, including Max von Sydow, Sandahl Bergman, Gerry Lopez, and Mako.
The
Limited Edition 4K UHD comes in a 2-Disc set, loaded with extras,
including new interviews with cast and crew, rarely seen footage and
archival materials. The Blu-ray and 4K UHD Limited Edition sets each
include a double-sided fold-out poster, six double-sided collectors’
postcards, an illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by
Walter Chaw and John Walsh, and an archive set report by Paul M. Sammon.
Click here to pre-order from Amazon.
Also on the same day, Conan The Destroyer makes its debut on 4K UHD and Blu-ray. The sequel to the wildly successful Conan The Barbarian, Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as Robert E. Howard’s sword-wielding anti-hero. Conan is offered the opportunity to take a young princess (Olivia D’Abo)
on a quest to retrieve the jeweled horn of the dreaming god Dagoth. In
return, the love of his life Valeria will be brought back to life,
though Conan and his fellowship get more than they bargained for as
Dagoth may not be the benevolent demi-god they expected. Directed by Richard Fleischer, Conan The Destroyer features an international cast that includes supermodel/icon Grace Jones, Olivia D'Abo, NBA Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain, Tracey Walter, and Sarah Douglas.
The
Blu-ray and 4K UHD Limited Edition sets include a double-sided fold-out
poster, six double-sided collectors’ postcards, an illustrated
collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by Walter Chaw and John Walsh,
and an archive set report by Paul M. Sammon.Bonus
features include a brand new 4K restoration from the original negative,
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (2160p) presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10
compatible), newly restored original mono audio and remixed Dolby Atmos
surround audio, archive feature commentary by director Richard
Fleischer, actors Olivia d’Abo, Tracey Walter and Sarah Douglas, newly
filmed interviews and commentary with cast and crew, theatrical
trailers, and an image gallery.
Click here to pre-order from Amazon.
The month ends with a bang in Murphy’s War, coming to Blu-ray on January 30. Peter O’Toole
stars as Murphy, the sole survivor of a German U-boat attack off the
coast of Venezuela at the end of WWII. Nursed back to health by a Quaker
nurse (Siân Phillips),
Murphy has one goal: to destroy the U-boat that killed his mates.
Nothing will stop Murphy from exacting vengeance. Featured co-stars of
O’Toole include Philippe Noiret (La Grande Bouffe, Cinema Paradiso), and Horst Janson (Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter, Shout at the Devil),. The film is directed by Peter Yates (Bullitt) and beautifully shot by Indiana Jones cinematographer Douglas Slocombe, with a propulsive score from John Barry.Special features across the release include Running Out of War, a new visual essay by film critic David Cairns, A Great Adventure, an archive interview with assistant director John Glen, Dougie, Chic and Me, an archive interview with focus puller Robin Vidgeon, One Man Army,
an archive interview with film critic Sheldon Hall, the theatrical
trailer, an image gallery, a reversible sleeve featuring original and
newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain, and an illustrated
collector’s booklet featuring new writing by film critic Philip Kemp.
Click here to pre-order from Amazon.
BY MARK MAWSTON
In the
music scene of the 60’s you had two bands that stood on their own: the Beatles
and the Rolling Stones. In films of the same period and into the early 70s, Amicus and Hammer were the Beatles and the
Stones of the horror film genre. At their best, both reflected the popular
tastes of era as it pertained to movies of this type. The early 70s saw
creative highlights. With Hammer it was the Carmilla trilogy, Vampire Circus, Captain Kronos and, with Amicus, we had
the splendid portmanteau films which had started with Dr Terrors House of Horrors and reaching their creative peak at the
beginning of the new decade. Two of the company’s best efforts are now released
by Second Sight on Blu-ray as stand-alone discs after appearing as part of a
boxed set last year, The House That
Dripped Blood and Asylum-the keystones on which Amicus based
their famous trilogy of Tales from The
Crypt, The Vault of Horror and From
Beyond The Grave, all of which have huge cult followings to this day.
The
difference between the Beatles and the Stones was that they looked and sounded
very different whereas Amicus and Hammer tended to cross pollinate in the
public perception. This is probably due to the fact that Amicus used many of
the actors who had made their name at Hammer, such as Christopher Lee, Peter
Cushing and Ingrid Pitt, yet it was Amicus that offered Cushing some of
his most memorable roles, which is another one of the reasons why these films
are held in great affection by fans. Who can ever forget Cushing’s
transformation as Arthur Grimsdyke from Tales
from The Crypt, for example? The main difference between the two was that
Amicus was more hex than sex, driven by its producers to make their films more
family friendly, as in The House That
Dripped Blood, though that didn’t make any of the Robert Bloch portmanteau
films any less scary, as in Asylum.
Although The House That Dripped Blood is seen by
many critics as the best of the Amicus portmanteau films, its 1972’s Asylum that has always held a special
place in my heart and is still to this day one of my favourite horror films
ever, mainly due to The Weird Tailor
segment (again featuring Cushing) which simply terrified me as a child, in the
same way the similar- looking Autons had done in Dr. Who. Perhaps it’s just down to the fact that mannequins were
something I’d see in every store front window when my Mum dragged me shopping,
as opposed to vampires or killer plants. It’s the things from the real world
transferred to the reel world that frighten you most when you’re a kid and I
couldn’t walk past our local Burton’s department store windows for ages without
cupping my hands over my eyes to avoid seeing the snappy 70s style suits on
display on those mustachioed tailor’s dummies. (Looking back, I’d probably do
the same, as those big collared and flared nylon suit styles now look just as
frightening without the mannequins!) The main difference with these new Blu-ray
releases, bar the great transfers, is the wonderful artwork that adorns their
covers by legendary horror poster artist Graham Humphreys. These covers also appear
in his latest movie poster book, Hung,
Drawn and Executed, that I recommend all horror fans to add to their
collections. It contains images that will have the collector salivating.
As a horror
poster collector myself, I always found the original 1970s quads and one sheet
posters lacking when it came to these two iconic titles. So with that in mind,
I asked Graham how he approached both of these cult classics when it came to
designing the reversible covers on the new Blu-ray releases.
‘The
House that Dripped Blood’ and ‘Asylum’ are two films that are hardwired into my
brain. Like all the Amicus anthology films, each has its strengths and
weaknesses, but remain totally entertaining, packed with unforgettable images
and characters.
It’s
always a dilemma when presented with such well-loved genre films, how to
approach the subjects to meet the expectations of the customer. In each
instance, the original posters are well known, but my job is to provide an
alternative. With anthologies, you either try to make a visual summary using
the wrap-around theme, or attempt to portray all the content within.
Watching
the films with fresh eyes, it struck me how powerful the character performances
had grown. I wanted to celebrate the raft of fantastic actors that embody all
the breadth and eccentricities of UK acting talent, still towering above the
self-obsessed, surgically enhanced, botoxed mediocrity of current mainstream
screen candy.
Faces
that are etched with pain, abandon, addiction and cunning... these are what
made these films so visceral and compelling, that’s why I decided to focus on
the faces rather than settings, props or symbolism. It’s a dark parody of
‘heads-in-the-sky’ photocomps, delivered in graveyard colours with funeral
pomp.
Continue reading "AMICUS HORROR CLASSICS "THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD" & "ASYLUM" RELEASED BY SECOND SIGHT AS BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITIONS (UK)"
BY TIM GREAVES
A
chiller-thriller from the pen of Brian Clemens, 1971's See No Evil was a
notably lower-key affair for director Richard Fleischer, former helmer on such
celebrated cinematic epics as The Fantastic Voyage, Doctor Doolittle, Tora!
Tora! Tora! and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Which isn't to imply See No Evil is
inferior. Quite the contrary, in fact.
Left
blind after a horse-riding accident, Sarah (Mia Farrow) moves in with her Aunt
and Uncle, Betty and George Rexton (Dorothy Alison and Robin Bailey) and her
cousin Sandy (Diane Grayson) at their opulent riverside home. Familiar with the
geography of the sprawling house, Sarah is able to confidently go about coping with
her disability. Arriving home after spending the day with an old boyfriend, local
horse breeder Steve (Norman Eshley), Sarah believes the family to be out for
the evening and prepares for bed, unaware that in her absence all three have
been brutally murdered. She eventually stumbles upon the bodies and encounters
the mortally wounded gardener (Brian Robinson) whose dying words warn her that
the killer is certain to return to retrieve a damning piece of evidence he carelessly
left behind…
The
legendary Brian Clemens is probably best known as producer-writer on classic TV
show The Avengers, but he was also the mind behind a batch of very fine Brit
movie chillers, among them And Soon the Darkness, Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde and
Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, the latter which he also directed. His script
for See No Evil is an efficient little knuckle-whitener, questionable perhaps
only in the motivations of its wrongdoer. Is watching a couple of X-certificate
movies – in the opening scene the killer-to-be, face unseen, leaves a cinema screening
‘The Convent Murders’ and ‘Rapist Cult’ (both fictitious) – and getting one’s gaudy
cowboy boots splashed by a passing car really sufficient impetus for a murder
spree? Of course, no-one expects the bad guy in this type of movie to be sane,
but the heavy-handed message during the opening credits sequence that society’s
glorification of violence is the cause for what follows is pretty tenuous.
In
any event, See No Evil (which I first saw on late night TV as Blind Terror, its
original UK theatrical release title) is less of a tawdry exploitationer than
it might have been, making up for any perceived deficiency in that regard with
a goodly infusion of nerve-jangling suspense. Indeed, Fleischer and Clemens aim
for burgeoning ill-ease as opposed to gory spectacle and for my money they hit
the target square on. There are occasional moments of nastiness peppered
throughout – the sudden reveal of Sandy’s corpse, a haunting shot of George
immersed in a bathtub of bloody water – but they're fleeting and it’s fair to say
the film works primarily as an exercise in measured pacing and sustained
suspense. Take for example a protracted sequence in which Sarah goes about her daily
routine unaware that she's just feet away from the dead bodies of her family.
Throughout this stretch Fleischer toys mercilessly with the audience and Gerry
Fisher's cinematography really comes into its own as we're treated to a series
of impressive tracking shots, each homing in on a dropped or discarded item,
increasingly telegraphing the sense that something bad has happened, until the
eventual reveal of the Rextons’ corpses. Of course whilst we, the audience,
witness all this – including broken glass on the kitchen floor (which we just know
will be trodden on at some point and, in a wince-inducing moment, it is) –
poor, sightless Sarah sees none of it. Once she finally realises what's
happening the pace quickens and the story mutates into an extended game of cat
and (blind) mouse. There's a beautifully framed instance of tease when our
cowboy-booted killer climbs a flight of stairs; Sarah stands foreground, hidden
from him, and the camera circles so that whilst it remains focused on her it
simultaneously observes the killer's ascent. One can't help but strain to see
the face that remains tantalisingly out of shot! If the suspense loses momentum
a tad when Sarah's plight changes from being pursued by the murderer to an
unexpected ordeal instigated by a latecomer to the party, well, it's only a
minor blip.
As
with any murder mystery worth its mettle there's a proliferation of suspects on
hand too – a gypsy encampment just down the lane from the Rexton abode offers
up a whole shoal of red herrings – and it’s not too surprising that one's eye
is frequently drawn to inspect a character’s footwear.
Mia
Farrow conveys blindness convincingly and Norman Eshley makes for a suitably
handsome hero, whilst Lila Kaye and a surly Michael Elphick stand out among the
myriad of gypsies. It’s nice to see Paul Nicholas and Christopher Matthews in
small but not insignificant roles. Elmer Bernstein furnishes the proceedings
with a lush score, although rather amusingly he can't help slipping into The
Magnificent Seven territory during a sequence when Sarah and Steve are out
riding on horseback.
Continue reading "REVIEW: "SEE NO EVIL" (AKA "BLIND TERROR") (1972) STARRING MIA FARROW; UK BLU-RAY RELEASE FROM INDICATOR"
BY TIM GREAVES
Anyone who enjoyed the family friendly spectral
shenanigans of The Amazing Mr Blunden should
find much to enjoy in mid-70s Brit TV series Nobody's House, out now on DVD in the UK from Network. Written by Michael
Hall and Derrick Sherwin, and lensed by stalwart TV director Michael Ferguson,
it was a self-contained tale spanning 7 episodes – with an open ending for a
second series that never happened. And, as with many such shows, in a slightly pared-down
format it would have made for a very workable movie.
The story revolves around
the Sinclair family – Dad (William Gaunt), Mum (Wendy Gifford) and children (Stuart
Wilde and Mandy Woodward) – who move into Cornerstones, a fixer-upper residence
that a century earlier functioned as a workhouse for orphaned children. One of
them, a nameless young boy (Kevin Moreton) died of the plague and his ghost continues
to haunt the premises. The Sinclair children befriend him and name him Nobody.
The youngsters may be the
focus of the series, but one of the major draws here for viewers of a certain
age will be the eminently watchable William Gaunt, best remembered perhaps as
one of the telepathic trio in ITC’s 60s supernatural-tinged tele-actioner The Champions. Although, in this
writer’s opinion, he never really got the break he deserved, Gaunt continued to
work steadily across the decades, recently showing up in impressive inde
western The Timber. There are also
guest appearances throughout the series – some as less than affable ghosts – from
Flash Gordon’s Brian Blessed, Legend’s Annabelle Lanyon and Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter’s John Cater
(married to lead Wendy Gifford), as well as TV reliables Brian Wilde and Joe
Gladwin.
Although the flavour is
there, Nobody’s House admittedly doesn't
share the emotional heft of the aforementioned Blunden – indeed, it's played more for light comedy – and it
probably won't entice many folks unfamiliar with it. But those who recall it (and
its infectious Anthony Isaac theme music) fondly from the original run between
September and November 1976 won't be able to resist wallowing in the memories
and perhaps even introducing it to the younger members of their own families.
The image and sound
quality on Network’s DVD is about what you'd expect from a mid-70s TV show:
acceptable, nothing more. Technically the only bonus feature is a short (but still
worthwhile) gallery of production photos, but pleasingly several of the
episodes are tail-ended by original previews for the following week’s story,
and all of them open with the nostalgia-tweaking Tyne Tees television ident and
finish with a plug for the tie-in novel penned by series co-scripter Michael
Hall (which this writer recalls as vividly as the TV show itself).
CLICK HERE TO ORDER
By
Adrian Smith
Just
one night after the world had enjoyed the astronomical spectacle of a real
Blood Moon, Cinema Retro were invited to attend the cast and crew screening of
a new British-made western about the mythical Skinwalkers, native Americans
with the power to shape-shift during this rare lunar activity. A stagecoach
full of passengers, a mysterious gunslinger and two outlaw brothers find
themselves trapped in a ghost town and under attack from an eight feet tall
werewolf. The screening, held at the glorious Genesis Cinema in Whitechapel,
was packed out and everyone was having a great time. It was, of course, the
first time this writer has seen an entire audience stay in their seats until
the end of the credits.
Blood Moon is set in Colorado, but was
actually shot in the "real" western town of Laredo, built by western
enthusiasts in a field in Kent, England, and has the muddy, lived-in look of
spaghetti-westerns like Django (1966). This is the director Jeremy
Wooding's third feature film, and he has years of experience in television
comedy and drama. The screenplay was written by Alan Wightman, who we've been told is a regular Cinema Retro reader, which explains his affection for classic film genres. His affection for Hammer horror and
westerns is very clear, with the lead character Calhoun, played brilliantly by
Shaun Dooley, coming across as a hybrid of Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name
and Horst Janson's Captain Kronos.
The
film has now been released on DVD and digital download by Studio Canal, and is
available in the United States and the UK with loads of extra features. Blood
Moon is a loud and joyous celebration of the western genre, and one can
only hope that we get to see the further adventures of Calhoun as he heads west
in search of demons, vampires and other beasts to vanquish.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON USA
CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON UK
Screenwriter and producer Brian Clemens has passed away at age 83 in his native England. Clemens wrote scripts for some of the most revered British television programs of the 1960s and 1970s including "Danger Man" (aka "Secret Agent"), "The Avengers", "The Persuaders", "The Professionals", "The Baron" and "The New Avengers". Clemens also produced or executive produced several of the aforementioned shows. He also contributed single episode scripts for other popular shows including "Highlander", "The Protectors" and "Remington Steele". Clemens wrote numerous scripts for "Father Dowling Mysteries" and three "Perry Mason" TV movies in the early 1990s. A prolific writer, he also wrote screenplays for feature films beginning in the 1950s. His credits include "Station Six Sahara", "The Corrupt Ones" (aka "The Peking Medallion"), "See No Evil", "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad", Disney's "The Watcher in the Woods", "Highlander II: The Quickening" and the Hammer horror film "Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter", which he also directed and produced. According to his son, Clemens was still actively involved in working on scripts when he passed away on Saturday. In 2010, he was honored by the Queen for his significant contributions to British broadcasting and drama. For more click here.
“If a movie makes you happy, for whatever
reason, then it’s a good movie.â€
—Big
E
*******WARNING:
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*******
BY ERNIE MAGNOTTA
If there’s one thing I love, it’s 1970s
made-for-TV horror films. I remember sitting in front of the television as a
kid and watching a plethora of films
such as Gargoyles, Bad Ronald, Satan’s School for Girls, Horror
at 37,000 Feet, Devil Dog: Hound of
Hell, Scream Pretty Peggy, Don’t Be
Afraid of the Dark, Moon of the Wolf
and The Initiation of Sarah just to
name a few. Some of those are better than others, but all were fun.
When I think back, there have been some
legendary names associated with small screen horrors. Genre masters John
Carpenter (Halloween), Steven
Spielberg (Jaws), Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm Street), Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and Joseph
Stefano (Psycho) all took shots at
television horror and created the amazing films Someone’s Watching Me!, Duel,
Summer of Fear, Salem’s Lot and Home for the
Holidays respectively.
However, there was one man whose name
became synonymous with 1970s made-for-TV horrors. When it came to scaring the
living daylights out of people in the privacy of their own homes, producer/director
Dan Curtis was king.
Curtis’ first foray into television
horror was as a producer of the 1960s classic, gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, which ran successfully
from 1966-1971. Then, in 1968, he produced his first TV horror movie The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
which starred the late, great Jack Palance (Shane,
Torture Garden, Alone in the Dark, City
Slickers) in the title role.
In 1972, Curtis would team with
legendary author Richard Matheson (I Am
Legend, Twilight Zone, Incredible Shrinking Man, Duel) and, over the next five years,
they would create a series of unforgettable made-for-TV horror films. Their
first collaboration is, arguably, their best. The two genre masters would bring
author Jeff Rice’s original novel The
Kolchak Papers to the small screen. Curtis would produce while Matheson
adapted Rice’s story. The film, now retitled The Night Stalker, was directed by John Llewellyn Moxey (City of the Dead aka Horror Hotel) and starred the great
Darren McGavin (Mike Hammer, Airport ’77, A Christmas Story) as intrepid reporter Carl Kolchak hot on the
trail of a nightmarish modern day vampire who’s stalking the back alleys of Las
Vegas.
Released to ABC-TV on January 11th,
1972, The Night Stalker became the
highest rated television film at that time and it would hold that title for
many years. The film’s enormous success led to an immediate sequel titled The Night Strangler. This time, Curtis
would not only produce, but also direct from an original script by Matheson. The
film was another huge hit, so, naturally, ABC wanted a third Kolchak adventure.
Matheson wrote a script entitled The
Night Killers, but unfortunately the movie was never made. The Night Stalker instead became a
weekly television series.
Unconvinced that Kolchak could be done
properly on a weekly basis, Dan Curtis decided to bow out of the series.
Instead, in 1973, he produced and directed another great made-for-TV horror
film titled The Norliss Tapes. This
ABC Movie of the Week was very similar to The
Night Stalker in that it involved a writer investing the occult. The movie,
which was set in California, also served as the pilot to a series that,
unfortunately, was never produced. Written by William F. Nolan (Logan’s Run, Burnt Offerings), the film starred Roy Thinnes (The Invaders) and Angie Dickinson (Rio Bravo, Police Woman, Dressed to Kill).
1973 would see three more TV horrors
from busy producer/director Curtis. The
Invasion of Carol Enders which starred Meredith Baxter (All the President’s Men, Family Ties, Ben), The Picture of Dorian
Gray starring Shane Briant (Frankenstein
and the Monster from Hell, Captain Kronos
– Vampire Hunter, Demons of the Mind)
and Frankenstein starring Robert
Foxworth (Death Moon, Damien: Omen 2, Prophecy, Falcon Crest, Transformers), Bo Svenson (Walking Tall, Snowbeast, Inglorious
Bastards, Night Warning, Heartbreak Ridge, Kill Bill Vol. 2) and Susan Strasberg (Picnic, Scream of Fear, Rollercoaster, The Manitou, Bloody Birthday,
Sweet Sixteen, Delta Force).
In 1974, Curtis and Matheson would
reunite for two more made-for-TV films which Curtis would once again produce
and direct. Scream of the Wolf,
starring Peter Graves (It Conquered the
World, Mission: Impossible, Airplane), Clint Walker (The Dirty Dozen, Killdozer, Snowbeast) and
Jo Ann Pflug (M.A.S.H., The Night Strangler, The Fall Guy), and the excellent Bram Stoker’s Dracula starring Jack
Palance, Simon Ward (Frankenstein Must Be
Destroyed, The Monster Club),
Nigel Davenport (Chariots of Fire, A Man for all Seasons) and Fiona Lewis (Fearless Vampire Killers, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, Dead Kids, The Fury). Curtis’ last television horror film of 1974 would be Turn of the Screw. William F. Nolan
adapted the classic Henry James novel which Curtis produced and directed.
In 1975, Curtis scored big once again
by producing and directing an amazing made-for-TV anthology film titled Trilogy of Terror. The movie, again
written by William Nolan from a collection of short stories by Richard
Matheson, starred the always wonderful Karen Black (Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces,
Airport 1975, Family Plot, Burnt Offerings,
House of 1000 Corpses) who headlined
all three tales. The final segment, entitled Amelia, is the most remembered due to Black’s horrifying battle
with the now iconic Zuni fetish doll. Curtis would produce and direct another
made-for-TV horror anthology called Dead
of Night. Released in 1977, the film was once again scripted by Richard
Matheson.
Although 1977 would see the last of Dan
Curtis’ 70s horror creations, there was still one more film to go. Curtis’ 1970s
horror swan song would be the ABC made-for-TV chiller Curse of the Black Widow.
Continue reading "BIG E'S “BAD†MOVIES THAT HURT SO GOOD: “CURSE OF THE BLACK WIDOW†(1977, TV MOVIE)"
Saturday
9th November 2013
Report
by Adrian Smith
On
Saturday in the shadow of Westminster Abbey, amidst the power-hungry elite of
Whitehall and Downing Street, gathered an even more sinister and corrupting
influence. Darth Vader rubbed shoulders with evil twins, corrupted children,
vampires, zombies and even Jack the Ripper. Overseeing this evil conclave were
directors whose films were so depraved that sometimes sick bags were supplied
to the audience.
Horror
film buffs were of course overjoyed at the fantastic selection of stars at this
Hammer and Horror Film event. Representing the Bond girls were Caroline Munro,
Caron Gardner, Martine Beswick and Madeline Smith. They were alongside horror
queens Barbara Shelley, Kate O'Mara, Judy Matheson, Janina Faye and Emily
Booth. Barbara Shelley sat with some of the alien children from her classic
British sci-fi Village of the Damned, Teri and Lesley Scoble and Martin
Stephens (also star of The Innocents). David Warner (Tron), Dave Prowse (Star Wars) and John Carson (Plague
of the Zombies) were all very friendly and accommodating of the multitude
of demanding fans, and writer-directors Michael Armstong (Mark of the Devil),
Norman J. Warren (Satan's Slave) and Brian Clemens (The Avengers)
were also there discussing their work and meeting old friends.
The
focus of the day was the recent restoration of Hammer's Twins of Evil. To
celebrate the director John Hough met up with Damien Thomas, who played Count
Karnstein, Judy Matheson, burnt at the stake by Peter Cushing, and good twin
Mary Collinson, who had travelled to the event from Milan. Sir Christopher
Frayling, one of the UK’s leading authorities on vampire fiction, lead the
onstage discussion. He provided a fascinating history of the Karnstein story
from its origins in the work of Sheridan Le Fanu to Hammer’s lesbian vampire
trilogy. They all clearly enjoyed the reunion, and Hough did his best to
convince the audience that the Collinson girls' voices were not dubbed, despite
what all the film history books say. Mary explained that they both received
elocution lessons, as neither of them were trained actors. Twins of Evil was
to be their last film, released when they were only nineteen, and they returned
to modelling.
Other
guests were also interviewed throughout the day. Brian Clemens, Caroline Munro
and John Carson got together to discuss the magnificent Captain Kronos:
Vampire Hunter, agreed by one and all to be the last good film Hammer made
in the 1970s. Norman J. Warren described the difficulties of making Satan's
Slave with money raised by your producer re-mortgaging his house. They had
such small funds that star Michael Gough had to supply his own wardrobe and
sleep on a friend's sofa for three weeks, all for the grand sum of £300.
David
Warner was especially mischievous during his interview, reacting with horror
every time a clip was shown from his extensive back-catalogue (including Tom
Jones, The Omen, Time
After Time and Star Trek). He had the room in gales of
laughter and explained that as an actor without any ambition he is very happy
to have never been a star, something that many in the room disagreed with.
What
makes one of these conventions so enjoyable is that alongside the guests are
dozens of stalls weighed down with rare DVDs, obscure film posters, original
James Bond toys, vinyl, novelisations; virtually every kind of film memorabilia
and ephemera that you can think of (and many you can't) from all over the
world. From Thai Evil Dead posters to original Hammer Quads it was a
collectors dream, even though you may also need to re-mortgage your home
yourself in order to pay for everything you want. Cinema Retro came home laden with
press books, lobby cards, old magazines, books and rare Spanish 1960s superhero
movies, and could easily have gone around the hall several more times.
They
hold the London Film Memorabilia Convention several times a year in
Westminster, and often feature special guests. You can find out what is coming
up on their website at http://www.londonfilmmemorabiliaconvention.co.uk.
(For Cinema Retro's review of the U.S. special Blu-ray edition of Twins of Evil, click here)
By Darren Allison, Soundtrack Editor
Virgin
Sacrifice (1959) (MMM-1973) starred David DaLie as Samson, an American hunter
on a safari in Guatemala. While tracking game, Samson encounters a strange
ceremony in which a young woman named Morena (Angelica Morales) is to be
sacrificed at the bidding of her father to appease the gods following a vicious
animal attack. Morena is able to escape, and Samson gives chase, hoping to
rescue her before the tribesmen can capture her and complete the ritual. Sound
like drivel? Well… you’d be right. So let’s waste little time and talk about
the finer side of Virgin Sacrifice, the team of Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter. Sawtell
and Shefter are no strangers to Monstrous Movie Music soundtracks, with
previous releases including Kronos, It! The Terror From Beyond Space and The
Last Man on Earth. For collectors of Sawtell and Shefter, this rarely seen
exploitation film contains a rather unique and satisfying score from the pair.
Diverse and subjective in its approach, the score leads us through the beauty
and dangers of its Guatemalan jungle setting. The music is peppered with
expressive and melancholy cues. The film’s main title is both tranquil and
dramatic, before both male and female chanting is applied, perhaps in order to
remind us that this is a jungle movie. Tracks such as Medal of Death make
clever use of keyboard tricks (provided by Jack Cookerly’s ‘magic box’ organ)
and work to startling effect. Flittering clarinets and brooding flutes maintain
that the majority of score is designed to hold us in suspense whilst providing
a sense of mystery throughout. However, it is the use of Hammond organ that
really provides the pay-off, used sparingly in tracks such as Through the Cave,
it makes a wonderfully spooky touch. At 54 minutes, Virgin Sacrifice is a
generous score that benefits from some fine orchestration. Collectors of
Sawtell in particular, might well be reminded of his music from the Tarzan
films he wrote for RKO. Again, an excellent 20 page booklet provides a unique
and well researched written history of the production.
Click here to order
Leicester,
13th - 14th July 2012
By
Adrian Smith
An
impressive array of stars and an eclectic lineup of Hammer films at the Phoenix
Square cinema in Leicester marked the launch of a brand new innovative
collaboration between Hammer and the De Montfort University. Their Cinema and
Television History (CATH) Research Centre have become custodians of the Hammer
script archive, meaning they will curate and catalogue the collection and make
them available for research purposes. They have also received a collection of
Jimmy Sangster items donated by his widow Mary Peach, including written
materials and photographs covering not only his time with Hammer but as a
successful independent writer and director.
In
order to celebrate this new relationship the university hosted a two day Hammer
festival attended by fans and academics keen to explore the history and
fascinating output of this uniquely British film company. Hammer were in
production for fifty years and are now making an impressive comeback with films
such as Let Me In (2010) and The Woman in Black (2012). Of
particular interest was the section devoted to the early days of Hammer hosted
by official studio archivist Robert J. E. Simpson. Renée Glynne, now
impressively spry at 86, was interviewed onstage about her work as a script
supervisor. She joined Hammer in 1948 and worked on many important early
productions including The Quatermass Xperiment (1955). She spoke about
her great friendship with American actor Dane Clark and parties with Eva Bartok
during the making of Spaceways (1953) in the manor house at Bray
Studios. Accompanying this was a rare screening of crime thriller River
Patrol (1948), a delightfully quaint police procedural about the problems
with silk nylon smuggling in ration-era London. For those who thought Hammer
started with fangs and Kensington Gore, this helped to put the studio’s
development into a wider context.
Vera
Day was also interviewed on her roles in Quatermass II (1957) and the
comedy short A Clean Sweep (1958), both of which she also introduced.
She recalled that in those days all the filmmakers and producers were after the
girls, but luckily she had an aggressively protective boyfriend. She had fond
memories of the much maligned Brian Donlevy, whose performance as Professor
Quatermass is often dismissed as bullish and inappropriate. According to Day he
had a very dry sense of humour and was fun to work with.
Continue reading "HAMMER FILMS UK CELEBRATION: CINEMA RETRO'S ADRIAN SMITH TAKES YOU THERE"
Cinema Retro London correspondent Adrian Smith brings us the inside story of the recent reunion of Captain Kronos cast members.
The last
eighteen months has seen an impressive array of Hammer-related film events here
in the UK,
most organised by filmmaker and cult-film champion Don Fearney. Saturday, 29 March saw perhaps the most intriguing and popular event so far occur at the Cine
Lumiere in London.
Captain
Kronos: Vampire Hunter is a long forgotten film which was virtually ignored
at the time of its release, even by Hammer themselves. However it has developed
a strong following since becoming available on home video and DVD, and many see
it as one of the strongest entries in the latter end of the Hammer canon,
falling between weaker efforts such as Twins
of Evil and The Satanic Rites of Dracula.
The film
was created and directed by Brian Clemens, best known for his work on TVs The Avengers, and he had also recently
scripted Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde
for Hammer. He has sadly never been asked to direct a film since which is in no
way a reflection of his abilities!
For the
reunion Don Fearney managed to gather the surviving principle actors, including
a rare visit from the star Horst Janson, who is kept very busy on German
television. Fans were delighted to meet Janson along with Brian Clemens,
Caroline Munro, John Cater, William Hobbs, Lois Dane and Lisa Collings. The
queues for autographs lasted well over two hours and circled the lobby of the
Cine Lumiere. The film was screened to rapturous applause, along with Vampire Circus, another favourite with
fans, and Fearney’s new documentary on the Hammer vampire films.
After the
event, Cinema Retro was lucky enough to catch up with Janson, who is still
incredibly handsome after all these years! How did he feel about being at the
event?
“Well I haven’t
seen the film for a long time. It was great to see the film again on a big
screen. It is great especially to see Brian Clemens again, because he is not
the youngest any more! I enjoyed it very much to see all these people again and
to remember the work. We had great fun you know!â€
Having been
a very busy actor for many years now, Janson was unaware of how popular the
film had become. “It was never released in Germany, so the only thing I saw
was when I was dubbing it into German (for the DVD release). I had no idea how
popular it was over here in Britain.
We can only follow these things on the internet. I know how many people are on
my page and mention Captain Kronos!â€
(Read writer Willliam Gagliani's tribute to Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter in issue #9 of Cinema Retro)
If you're among the guys who got socks and underwear from Christmas, here's something to add to your misery. Cinema Retro UK correspondent Adrian Smith was lucky enough to get the new Hammer horror DVD game tossed in among the coal in his stocking.
Now is probably a good time to reflect on
Christmas. Almost every year I hold out great hopes of getting old film-related
presents, with a particular leaning towards relatively obscure horror. I
imagine some of you will no doubt have felt my pain when you unwrap a
promising-looking present to discover something starring Ben Stiller.
However, last year I did strike it lucky
when I received the intricately structured Hammer horror-themed board game
Forbidden Terrortory. Since Hammer recently came under new ownership all sorts
of innovative methods have been employed to plunder the back catalogue. The
film rights are spread out between many different companies due to complicated
distribution deals struck at the time, so the marketing has focused instead on
the Hammer brand itself. We have had jewellery, fancy-dress costumes, poker
chips and poster reproductions, and now games. If any of you have managed to
play Forbidden Terrortory, which
involves a group of intrepid Hammer heroes including Van Helsing and Captain
Kronos, hunting down Dracula and taking on other classic Hammer monsters
including the mummy and Oliver Reed’s werewolf, please let me know. I’ve had it
for a year now and still not figured out the rules.
Anyway, back to this year. I actually
struck it lucky and got some pretty cool stuff, including the rather
promising-sounding King Kong vs. Godzilla
on DVD. Continuing the Hammer theme I received the new, thankfully simple
interactive DVD game Vampire Terrortory.
The DVD box says the game features “the voice of Countess Dracula star Ingrid Pittâ€. This is somewhat ironic given
that Ingrid was dubbed in Countess Dracula by another actress! Her Polish
accent is suitably thick and gives the game that mittel-Europe feel that the
Hammer Gothics always had. The game has Van Helsing place you on a quest to
rescue the mayor’s daughter from, yes you’ve guessed it, Count Dracula. Each
round consists of viewing a clip from a Hammer movie and answering questions. I
was actually quite surprised at how difficult some of the questions are. I
consider myself somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to Hammer, and quickly
realised that if I didn’t know the answers, the family members I was playing it
with, who can not really be described as Hammer fans in the slightest, would
have no chance.
So all in all, it was a good Christmas for
me, present-wise. I also got some new socks. Vampire Terrortory is a fun game, but I would recommend that you
find other Hammer-minded friends to play it with. Fortunately the game
designers had the foresight to include a single-player option, so those lonely
old horror fans like me can play it alone. I’ll probably play it after a
viewing of King Kong vs. Godzilla,
which I’m also fairly sure I’ll be viewing unaccompanied…
So from this isolated Cinema Retro
correspondent, Happy New Year, and thank goodness that we have the Internet to
bring us together!
A major new book about the history of Hammer films has just been published. One of Cinema Retro's London correspondents, Adrian Smith, was at the star-studded London book launch and brings you the inside story.
On the 27th October 2007 a crowd of Hammer
film fans gathered at the Cine Lumiere in South Kensington,
a stone’s throw from The Natural History Museum and the V&A. The occasion
was the launch of The Hammer Story by
film historians Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes, and to celebrate a number of
Hammer alumni were gathered to meet fans and sign autographs, along with the
screening of three films rarely shown and not available commercially: A Case for P.C. 49 (1951), The Two Faces of Doctor Jekyll (1960)
and Never take Sweets From a Stranger
(1960).
Amongst the guests was Jimmy Sangster, who not only
directed and produced some films but also wrote several of those considered
classics, including The Curse of Frankenstein,
The Mummy and Dracula (aka Horror of Dracula). The latter film is
currently being screened theatrically all around the UK following a restoration by the
British Film Institute. Sangster has been kept busy with interviews for the
last couple of weeks with the likes of Jonathon Ross and The Today Programme,
but still found time to talk to Cinema Retro:
“I’m amazed (about the re-release of Dracula)! It’s a film we made fifty
years ago. When we were making it it was just another movie. I’m very pleased! I
don’t think Hammer are still going though are they? I haven’t seen the new film
(Beyond the Rave). Why didn’t they
ask me to write it? They should give me a call!â€
Also attending was Janina Faye, who was especially
pleased that Never take Sweets From a Stranger
was being screened. Faye starred in this controversial child abuse drama
when she was only ten, having already taken smaller roles with Hammer in Dracula and The Two Faces of Doctor Jekyll. Its depiction of a small town
protecting a known paedophile was too shocking for audiences at the time, and
it was given an X certificate, despite having support from various national
agencies such as The National council of Women, who said “it should be seen by
all parentsâ€. It did not do well commercially, and was banned in several
countries, including France
and Ireland.
When asked about the film, Faye enthused,
“It was such a huge change from what Hammer used to
do. They had tremendous problems from the BBFC whilst shooting the film. In the
courtroom scene we had to change the dialogue because they weren’t allowed to
say rape. To keep the drama within the cast the director (documentary maker
Cyril Frankel) didn’t tell us what was going on, or what happened to any of us.
I wasn’t allowed to see the film, and didn’t see it until they showed it at the
Barbican (in 2004). I think it’s still an incredible film. It’s so powerful.â€
Cinema Retro agrees wholeheartedly, and wishes the
film were available on DVD. DD Home Entertainment have announced an R2 release
in late 2007, but this is currently looking unlikely due to financial
difficulties. We remain hopeful!
Continue reading "EXCLUSIVE! CINEMA RETRO ATTENDS HAMMER FILMS BOOK LAUNCH IN LONDON"
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