Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Friday, 16 November 2012
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BOB? PLOT HOLE IN DRACULA AD 1972 HAMMER FILMS
WHAT HAPPENED TO BOB?? Here's a question for
all the Hammer Dracula Fans out there. This is actor Phillip Miller as
the character BOB in Hammer Films Dracula AD 1972. Bob, was the
boyfriend of Van Helsing's daughter Jessica, who becomes a vampire and
lures Jessica into the Count's lair...But, what became of the character?
What was his fate? We think we have the answer and you'll find it over on the UK Peter Cushing Appreciation Society Facebook Fan page.
Thursday, 15 November 2012
TOM BAKER DR WHO: THE DOCTOR GETS A LITTLE TLC AND A BAND AID. OR IS IT?
There must be a story behind this one. Tom Baker with Mary Tamm in the doorway of the Tardis posing for a publicity shot, with a band aid on his top lip. Anyone?
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
TEAM HAMMER: CHRISTOPHER LEE AND PETER CUSHING TAKE PHOTO OP WITH QUEENS AWARD : EXECUTIVES AND STAFF
TEAM HAMMER: Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee
join the line up of Hammer Films executives, guests and staff on the
day Hammer Films were presented with the Queen's Award to Industry at
Pinewood Studios on May 29th 1968.
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
STEPHEN WEEKS AND PETER CUSHING: YOUR CHANCE TO ASK QUESTIONS.
The UK Peter Cushing Appreciation Society are giving the opportunity to it's members on their facebook fan page to fire some questions at director / writer Stephen Weeks. So, if you have some burning questions you always wanted ask about I MONSTER or Stephen's other Peter Cushing collaboration SWORD OF THE VALIANT, here's your chance. Just pop along to the Facebook Fan Page, join up and submit your question!
All submissions must be in by FRIDAY 16th NOVEMBER 2012.
THE HOUSE IN NIGHTMARE PARK: FRANKIE HOWERD MAKES TITTERS IN THE DARK!
CAST:
Frankie Howerd (Foster Twelvetrees), Ray
Milland (Stewart Henderson), Hugh Burden (Reggie Henderson), Elizabeth
MacLennan (Verity Henderson), Kenneth Griffith (Ernest Henderson), John
Bennett (Patel), Rosalie Crutchley (Jessica Henderson), Ruth Denning
(Agnes Henderson)
PRODUCTION:
Director – Peter Sykes,
Screenplay/Producers – Clive Exton & Terry Nation, Photography – Ian
Wilson, Music – Harry Robinson, Makeup – Jill Carpenter, Art Direction –
Maurice Carter. Production Company – Associated London Films/Extonation
Productions.
UK. 1973.
COMMENTARY:
Foster Twelvetrees (Frankie Howerd)
is a small time actor on the Edwardian stage - and the stages are
usually small time as well, as are the audiences. Tonight he has just
finished performing a monologue when he gets the offer to venture to a
very big house in the country and entertain its residents, but he should
have known better to accept a job without at first making sure he knew
what he was getting into. For a start, the carriage taking him there
won't go any further than half a mile from the mansion, so Foster is
forced to trudge the way though the oncoming storm, getting spooked at
what sounds like a scream in the forests... and that's not all.
Although probably most successful in his work in radio and television as
far as his media work went, eccentric comedian Frankie Howerd did grace
the cinema in a few vehicles for his unique style and delivery. This
one was a horror comedy in the mould of The Cat and the Canary,
a genre that had once been a staple of the movies (admittedly a lot of
them pretty cheap ones) but by 1973 was dying out aside from the odd try
at recapturing those glory days of comedians starring in their own
tailor made roles: that happens now, of course, but humorous thrillers
don't appear to have made it back onto the public's radar, not of this
type at any rate.
Howerd had his script penned for him by two writers best known for their
television work, Clive Exton and Terry Nation. Exton might be most
celebrated for bringing both Jeeves and Wooster and Poirot to the small
screen nearer the end of his career, while Nation of course was the man
who created the Daleks for Doctor Who; he had started out in comedy so
was better suited to Howerd's persona than he might have appeared, and
besides, this was still a horror film, with Nation a man who knew how to
put the wind up his audience. If The House in Nightmare Park wasn't
frightening exactly, it did place its star in a selection of perilous
scenes that could just as easily be played for scares.
And there was still a light mood of disquiet, mainly down to the tatty
nature of the production, though whether that was by accident or design
is debatable. When Foster visits the old dark house, he thinks the
place is deserted initially, but then discovers appearances can be
deceptive and meets with a motley collection of relatives, all of whom
turn out to be his own relatives too, not that he has any idea about
that for most of the plot. Ray Milland
plays Stewart Henderson, the patriarch, who tells Foster that he's
simply there to entertain the gathering, and never mind that his
elderly, veiled mother has just tried to bury a meat cleaver in his
bonce as there's nothing for him to worry about really.
Naturally, this indicates that there's a lot to worry about yet Foster
keeps getting coaxed back to stay, especially when he cottons on that
there's a fortune in diamonds to get his mitts on. Howerd seems as if
he's in a different film to the other actors, delivering his florid,
vain comedy quips and observations with only us in the audience
appreciating how well he's doing in such airless surroundings. He does
get a few very funny moments, yet for the larger part of the film he is
in something of a humour vacuum as the gloomy, even queasy atmosphere of
madness and imminent murder tends to suck the lighthearted aspects out
of the film. On the other hand, these moments of chills, while tugging
in a different direction to Howerd, aren't too bad at all, with the
Hendersons' idea of drawing room diversion - a weird musical act - a
notable highlight. If Frankie never really found a fit in the movie
world, then this was more amusing than some Britiish comedians' tries.
Reviewer: Graeme Clark
Images: Marcus Brooks
Monday, 12 November 2012
THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT : HAMMER FILMS REVIEW AND GALLERY
Director – Val Guest. Screenplay by Richard Landau
& Val Guest, from the TV series scripted by Nigel Kneale.
Producers: Anthony Hinds, Robert Lippert. Original Music by James
Bernard. Cinematography by Walter Harvey. Edited by James Needs. Art
Direction by J. Elder Wills. Makeup by Philip Leakey. Special Effects
by Les Bowie and team.
With: Brian Donlevy, Jack Warner, Margie Dean, Richard Wordsworth
(MGM Archives) (1955) 82 mins. B&W. AR: 1.66:1.
Out in the middle of the English countryside, and a young couple are
laughing and enjoying each other's company. They lie down next to a
haystack and fall into each other's arms, but what's that noise? It
sounds at first like a jet engine, but as it gets louder they begin to
panic and head for the shelter of the woman's cottage. As they reach
the building, an almighty crash is heard and the woman's father goes out
to investigate brandishing a shotgun, only to find a huge space rocket
with its nose plunged deep into the ground. An hour later, and a crowd
has gathered, and so have the fire brigade, the police and an ambulance.
There's one man on the way who has a better idea of what's going on
than anyone else, however: a certain Professor Quatermass, Brian Donlevy...
Before Doctor Who
arrived on the scene, Nigel Kneale's creation Professor Bernard
Quatermass was the main man in British television science fiction thanks
to three sensationally popular serials on the BBC, all of which were
adapted into films by Hammer studios. However, Kneale didn't write the
script for this, the first of the films in the short series (spelled
"Xperiment" to emphasise the then-new X certificate), that honour went
to director Val Guest
and Richard Landau, and so there were a few changes made, not only to
cut the story down to feature length, but also in the incarnation of the
main character.
No longer was Quatermass a British boffin, nope, he was now a
harsh-talking American who inexplicably is heading the United Kingdom
space exploration team, and with that alteration, and thanks to
Donlevy's abrasiveness, the film has a more severe, blatant feeling than
the more thoughtful television version. Not that it harms the story
any, as Quatermass's blind devotion to science no matter what the cost
conjures a panicky, out of control tone to the proceedings. In fact,
the Professor is often sidelined by the other characters such as the
police Inspector Lomax (Jack Warner sharing top billing) who has a determination of his own.
As it is his pet project, Quatermass is not happy about bringing in
anyone into the investigation apart from, well, apart from himself
really. The night of the rocket's "landing" the hatch was opened and
only one man, Victor Caroon (Richard Wordsworth),
emerged - not so much emerged as tumbled out, to be honest. So what
happened to the other two astronauts? The mystery is well sustained, as
various clues crop up; Caroon is in no shape to tell anyone what went
on up there, and his only word in the whole film is a whispered "help"
which we, the audience, never hear.
Wordsworth gives the best performance, a haunted, pathetic study in
unease as he goes from lying in his hospital bed to wandering the
streets on the lookout for food. But he's not going to snack in the
conventional manner, whatever occurred up there has altered his
metabolism and the only way he can gain sustenance is by draining life
from other living things, leaving a trail of shrivelled corpses in his
path (as well a trail of slime). There are still effective scenes of
creepiness, such as Quatermass and his crew viewing the footage taken by
the rocket's camera, or Caroon, his arm turned into a cactus, being
approached by an innocent little girl (a young Jane Asher)
at the river side. And of course, if it wasn't for this film, Hammer
wouldn't have set out on its lucrative domination of the British horror
film. Music by James Bernard.
Review Graeme Clark
Sunday, 11 November 2012
HORROR OF DRACULA BLU RAY RELEASE DATE: DRACULA RESTORED
After the long wait, Hammer Films and Lionsgate have announced release date for the DRACULA / HORROR OF DRACULA blu ray release: MARCH 18th 2013.
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Friday, 9 November 2012
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