Hammer Horror: the name rings so ubiquitously in the realms of cinema, and especially around Halloween. Hearing the name, you’re likely to picture one of a number of the British studio’s releases between the 1950s and early 1970s which boasted decadent set design and an intensity of fear and playfulness. A studio of progressive storytelling compared to other offerings of the time, in Hammer’s horror subdivision could be found Technicolor horror (and its subgenres), often sexually and socially provocative, taking classical source material and turning it on its head. Seen as vulgar to the critics, audiences loved the low-budget thrills of Hammer Horror as a refreshing alternative to Hollywood, with two actors in particular becoming distinct heroes of the cycle, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.But what are the sounds behind the horror? The wonder of movie soundtracks can be put on best display in the horror genre,...
- 10/24/2022
- MUBI
Anthony Asquith’s unusual look at wartime espionage garnered good notices in 1958, perhaps from reviewers rebelling against the trend toward ruthless screen violence. Star Paul Massie is fine as an emotionally-stricken Allied assassin who balks at carrying out his mission; the acting support from Irene Worth and Leslie French is superb. Screenwriter Paul Dehn was an ace at sharp, no-nonsense thrillers, but this story is soft around the edges — it seems to be explaining non-chivalric warfare to your sweet old grandmother. Which reminds us, Lillian Gish has a small role, too.
Orders to Kill
Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1958 / B&w / 1:75 widescreen / 112 93 min. / Street Date September 20, 2022 / available from Amazon / 34.99
Starring: Eddie Albert, Paul Massie, Lillian Gish, James Robertson Justice, Leslie French, Irene Worth, John Crawford, Lionel Jeffries, Sandra Dorne, Lillabea (Lillie Bea) Gifford, Anne Blake, Sam Kydd, Ann Walford, Denyse Alexander, Ralph Nosseck.
Cinematography: Desmond Dickinson
Art Director: John Howell
Film...
Orders to Kill
Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1958 / B&w / 1:75 widescreen / 112 93 min. / Street Date September 20, 2022 / available from Amazon / 34.99
Starring: Eddie Albert, Paul Massie, Lillian Gish, James Robertson Justice, Leslie French, Irene Worth, John Crawford, Lionel Jeffries, Sandra Dorne, Lillabea (Lillie Bea) Gifford, Anne Blake, Sam Kydd, Ann Walford, Denyse Alexander, Ralph Nosseck.
Cinematography: Desmond Dickinson
Art Director: John Howell
Film...
- 9/17/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Rip-roaring Oliver Reed’s silver-coated were-beast is one of Hammer Films’ very best screen monsters, which is more than enough reason to sample this colorful 1961 shocker. It was apparently ripped to shreds by the U.K. censors, a horror-crime spared us lucky Americans. The movie has been released more than once on Blu-ray but Shout’s new 4K scan restores it to prime condition. Numerous extras trace its stormy path through the slights and deletions of The Curse of the BBFC.
The Curse of the Werewolf
Blu-ray
Shout! Scream Factory
1961 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date April 21, 2020 / Collector’s Edition / Available from Scream Factory
Starring: Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed, Yvonne Romain, Catherine Feller, Anthony Dawson.
Cinematography: Arthur Grant
Film Editor: Alfred Cox
Original Music: Benjamin Frankel
Written by John Elder (Anthony Hinds) from The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore
Produced by Michael Carreras, Anthony Hinds
Directed by Terence Fisher
When stab comes to gouge,...
The Curse of the Werewolf
Blu-ray
Shout! Scream Factory
1961 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date April 21, 2020 / Collector’s Edition / Available from Scream Factory
Starring: Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed, Yvonne Romain, Catherine Feller, Anthony Dawson.
Cinematography: Arthur Grant
Film Editor: Alfred Cox
Original Music: Benjamin Frankel
Written by John Elder (Anthony Hinds) from The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore
Produced by Michael Carreras, Anthony Hinds
Directed by Terence Fisher
When stab comes to gouge,...
- 5/19/2020
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Have the classic films of Hammer been subjected to more reissues than The Beatles? Not by a long shot but it can feel that way to dedicated Hammer-heads. The relentless tide of upgrades and re-packagings both foreign and domestic, each with their own pleasures and pitfalls, could inspire loyal fans to lobby for their own version of the Consumer Protection Agency – Home Video Division. Here’s a look at what should have been the definitive collection – from 2016, Universal’s Hammer Horror 8 Film Collection.
Hammer Horror 8 Film Collection
Blu ray
Universal
1960-1964/ 2:1 – 2:35.1 / 686 min.
Starring Peter Cushing, Oliver Reed, Herbert Lom
Directed by Terence Fisher, Freddie Francis, Don Sharp
When production began on the inevitable sequel to Hammer’s Horror of Dracula, Peter Cushing returned as Van Helsing but Christopher Lee’s Count was missing in action – fortunately Cushing was presented with an equally intimidating antagonist in Martita Hunt as the implacable Baroness Meinster.
Hammer Horror 8 Film Collection
Blu ray
Universal
1960-1964/ 2:1 – 2:35.1 / 686 min.
Starring Peter Cushing, Oliver Reed, Herbert Lom
Directed by Terence Fisher, Freddie Francis, Don Sharp
When production began on the inevitable sequel to Hammer’s Horror of Dracula, Peter Cushing returned as Van Helsing but Christopher Lee’s Count was missing in action – fortunately Cushing was presented with an equally intimidating antagonist in Martita Hunt as the implacable Baroness Meinster.
- 10/29/2019
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
This time on the podcast, Scott is joined by David Blakeslee and Sean Hutchinson to discuss Anthony Asquith’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
About the film:
Oscar Wilde’s comic jewel sparkles in Anthony Asquith’s film adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest. Featuring brilliantly polished performances by Michael Redgrave, Joan Greenwood, and Dame Edith Evans, the enduringly hilarious story of two young women who think themselves engaged to the same nonexistent man is given the grand Technicolor treatment. Seldom has a classic stage comedy been so engagingly transferred to the screen.
Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes
Buy the film on Amazon:
Watch a clip from the film:
Episode Links:
The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) – The Criterion Collection The Importance of Being Earnest – From the Current The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) – IMDb The Importance of Being Earnest (1952 film) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Importance of Being Earnest...
About the film:
Oscar Wilde’s comic jewel sparkles in Anthony Asquith’s film adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest. Featuring brilliantly polished performances by Michael Redgrave, Joan Greenwood, and Dame Edith Evans, the enduringly hilarious story of two young women who think themselves engaged to the same nonexistent man is given the grand Technicolor treatment. Seldom has a classic stage comedy been so engagingly transferred to the screen.
Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes
Buy the film on Amazon:
Watch a clip from the film:
Episode Links:
The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) – The Criterion Collection The Importance of Being Earnest – From the Current The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) – IMDb The Importance of Being Earnest (1952 film) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Importance of Being Earnest...
- 10/5/2015
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
Night and the City
Written by Jo Eisinger
Directed by Jules Dassin
UK, 1950
Harry Fabian is probably the best at what he does, even if he is never very successful. Richard Widmark’s character in Night and the City, out now on a gorgeous new Criterion Collection Blu-ray, is a low-level con who works wherever he can, however he can, doing whatever he can to make a buck. He enters Jules Dassin’s 1950 film noir classic on the run; he will always be on the run: always hustling, always running. Sincere though his half-baked plans may be, he is perpetually—pathetically—down on his luck. He has the ambition, there’s no doubt about that, and as he shrewdly stumbles past one obstacle after another, it becomes almost humorous in the way he manages to charm his way through life, always just by the skin of his teeth. He cooks...
Written by Jo Eisinger
Directed by Jules Dassin
UK, 1950
Harry Fabian is probably the best at what he does, even if he is never very successful. Richard Widmark’s character in Night and the City, out now on a gorgeous new Criterion Collection Blu-ray, is a low-level con who works wherever he can, however he can, doing whatever he can to make a buck. He enters Jules Dassin’s 1950 film noir classic on the run; he will always be on the run: always hustling, always running. Sincere though his half-baked plans may be, he is perpetually—pathetically—down on his luck. He has the ambition, there’s no doubt about that, and as he shrewdly stumbles past one obstacle after another, it becomes almost humorous in the way he manages to charm his way through life, always just by the skin of his teeth. He cooks...
- 8/12/2015
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
By Lee Pfeiffer
Sony has released the 1963 remake of the 1932 James Whale horror film The Old Dark House as a burn-to-order DVD. The difference between the versions is supposedly night and day (I haven't seen the original). The remake is a broad, comedic take on the horror genre that keeps only the basic premise of the story, which was based on a novel by J.B. Priestly. Tom Poston, in a rare leading role, plays Tom Pendrel, an American living in London where he works as a car dealer. His flatmate Caspar Femm (Peter Bull) is a strange man who he hardly ever sees. Nevertheless, Caspar induces Tom to deliver his new car to the family's estate in the British countryside. When Tom arrives, he finds Caspar dead, supposedly from an accidental fall. He's already laid out in his coffin in a parlor. Tom then finds himself among a strange group of other Femms,...
Sony has released the 1963 remake of the 1932 James Whale horror film The Old Dark House as a burn-to-order DVD. The difference between the versions is supposedly night and day (I haven't seen the original). The remake is a broad, comedic take on the horror genre that keeps only the basic premise of the story, which was based on a novel by J.B. Priestly. Tom Poston, in a rare leading role, plays Tom Pendrel, an American living in London where he works as a car dealer. His flatmate Caspar Femm (Peter Bull) is a strange man who he hardly ever sees. Nevertheless, Caspar induces Tom to deliver his new car to the family's estate in the British countryside. When Tom arrives, he finds Caspar dead, supposedly from an accidental fall. He's already laid out in his coffin in a parlor. Tom then finds himself among a strange group of other Femms,...
- 12/19/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
(Alexander Mackendrick, 1951, Studiocanal, U)
Last September marked the centenary of the birth of Alexander Mackendrick (1912-93). Born in the States, raised in Scotland, he was, with Richard Hamer, one of the two truly great products of Ealing Studios. Their output was small (each made made five movies under Michael Balcon's aegis), but distinguished and distinctive and always digging beneath Ealing's cosy Little England ethos. Oscar-nominated for its screenplay (by Mackendrick, his brother-in-law the playwright Roger MacDougall and John Dighton, Hamer's collaborator on Kind Hearts and Coronets), The Man in the White Suit is arguably Mackendrick's most trenchant comedy.
It stars Alec Guinness as Sidney Stratton, a dreamily eccentric inventor who develops an artificial fibre that's indestructible and resistant to dirt. Apparently a boon to humanity, this fabric spreads alarm in a Lancashire mill town whose prosperity the invention threatens. Management and workers unite against the starry-eyed idealist Stratton, who...
Last September marked the centenary of the birth of Alexander Mackendrick (1912-93). Born in the States, raised in Scotland, he was, with Richard Hamer, one of the two truly great products of Ealing Studios. Their output was small (each made made five movies under Michael Balcon's aegis), but distinguished and distinctive and always digging beneath Ealing's cosy Little England ethos. Oscar-nominated for its screenplay (by Mackendrick, his brother-in-law the playwright Roger MacDougall and John Dighton, Hamer's collaborator on Kind Hearts and Coronets), The Man in the White Suit is arguably Mackendrick's most trenchant comedy.
It stars Alec Guinness as Sidney Stratton, a dreamily eccentric inventor who develops an artificial fibre that's indestructible and resistant to dirt. Apparently a boon to humanity, this fabric spreads alarm in a Lancashire mill town whose prosperity the invention threatens. Management and workers unite against the starry-eyed idealist Stratton, who...
- 12/16/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Quick, what’s the scariest horror film score out there? I’m sure a couple of no-brainers came to mind, and a few of you probably thought of something wholly original. Thanks to the Cinemagic channel on Sirius Xm, we have an official list to choose from. There are a few shocking inclusions, and a couple of omissions, one that I, myself, deem glaring.
See for yourself:
Halloween John Carpenter 1
Psycho Bernard Herrmann 2
The Shining Wendy Carlos/Assorted 3
Jaws John Williams 4
Alien Jerry Goldsmith 5
Omen, The Jerry Goldsmith 6
Bride of Frankenstein Franz Waxman 7
Thing, The Ennio Morricone 8
Exorcist, The Pendereki 9
Fog, The John Carpenter 10
Rosemary’s Baby Christopher Komeda 11
Hellraiser Christopher Young 12
Friday the 13th Harry Manfredini 13
A Nightmare on Elm Street Charles Bernstein 14
Suspira Goblin 15
Poltergeist Jerry Goldsmith 16
Changeling, The Rick Williams 17
Dawn of the Dead Assorted 18
Haunted Palace, The Ronald Stein 19
Amityville Horror, The Lalo Schifrin 20
Creepshow John...
See for yourself:
Halloween John Carpenter 1
Psycho Bernard Herrmann 2
The Shining Wendy Carlos/Assorted 3
Jaws John Williams 4
Alien Jerry Goldsmith 5
Omen, The Jerry Goldsmith 6
Bride of Frankenstein Franz Waxman 7
Thing, The Ennio Morricone 8
Exorcist, The Pendereki 9
Fog, The John Carpenter 10
Rosemary’s Baby Christopher Komeda 11
Hellraiser Christopher Young 12
Friday the 13th Harry Manfredini 13
A Nightmare on Elm Street Charles Bernstein 14
Suspira Goblin 15
Poltergeist Jerry Goldsmith 16
Changeling, The Rick Williams 17
Dawn of the Dead Assorted 18
Haunted Palace, The Ronald Stein 19
Amityville Horror, The Lalo Schifrin 20
Creepshow John...
- 10/30/2009
- by Kirk
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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