Number Six.
The Mummy (1959)
Directed by Terence Fisher, Screenplay by Jimmy Sangster,
Produced by Michael Carreras, Music by Franz Reizenstein, Cinematography Jack Asher, Edited by Alfred Cox & James Needs, Starring Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee & Yvonne Furneaux.
Distributed by Rank Film (UK)
& Universal Pictures (International)
One by one the archaeologists who discover the 4,000-year-old tomb of Princess Ananka are brutally murdered. Kharis, a high priest in Egypt 40 centuries ago, has been brought to life by the power of the ancient gods and his sole purpose is to destroy those responsible for the desecration of the sacred tomb. But Isobel, the wife of one of the explorers, resembles the beautiful princess, forcing the speechless and tormented monster to defy commands and abduct Isobel to an unknown fate.
Filmed at Hammers Bray Studio, The film stars Peter Cushing as archaeologist John Banning, Yvonne Furneaux as Isobel Banning / Princess Ananka and Christopher Lee as Kharis / The Mummy.
You may think this film is a remake of the Universal Pictures' 1932 film starring Boris Karloff of the same name, but the film derives its plot and characters entirely from two other Universal films, “The Mummy's Hand” (1940) and “The Mummy's Tomb” (1942) with the climax taken directly from “The Mummy's Ghost” (1944)... So there!
But similarities to Universal films were not an issue on this one unlike the Frankenstein films because this film was made in association with Universal Pictures. (Colombia still got their five movies from Hammer in 1959 they were very busy)
Originally the scenes of Kharis's tongue being cut out and being shot with a shotgun were more graphic, but were trimmed for the British censor. Peter Cushing said it was his suggestion for him to drive a spear through the mummy. He was inspired by seeing the pre-release poster which shows the mummy with a shaft of light passing through it.
On its release, the critical response was mixed saying the film looked amazing but was held back by dialogue-heavy exposition and lengthy flashbacks to ceremonies in ancient Egypt affecting the pace of the film.
Variety wrote that the film was "excellently executed" in all technical departments, and while there was "little of actual newness" to the plot, the film "carries the type of action expected, and while chiller aspects aren't too pronounced they're sufficient to those who want to find them".
The film is structurally a string of picturesque and nicely shot killings, The melancholic and almost romantic presentation of the Mummy himself gives the character real atmosphere and depth which does set Christopher Lee’s bandaged psycho apart from the Mummies who had gone before him in cinematic history.
Number Seven.
“The Curse of the Werewolf” (1961)
Directed by Terence Fisher, Written by John Elder, Based on “The Werewolf of Paris”
by Guy Endore, Produced by Anthony Hinds, Music by Benjamin Frankel, Cinematography by Arthur Grant & Edited by Alfred Cox, Starring Oliver Reed, Clifford Evans, Yvonne Romain, Catherine Feller, Anthony Dawson & Michael Ripper, Narrated by Clifford Evans.
A man with brutal and macabre origins, Leon Corledo is raised in the home of Don Alfredo Corledo, his kind and loving adopted father. When he leaves Don Alfredo home to find work, Leon discovers that he has increasingly violent urges. Although these tendencies are calmed by Leon's love for the beautiful Christina, he ultimately cannot contain his curse and transforms into a werewolf, terrorising the Spanish countryside.
This is a strange one, Really watchable, fun and dripping with Gothic horror charm.
This film more than Hammer's previous horror productions has a real “Panto” feel to the acting mainly during the opening prologue scenes which border on the ridiculous.
The panto feel is continued to be upheld by the likes of actor Warren Mitchell who plays
Pepe the Towns… game keeper?
But he does have a great scene where he makes a silver shot for his flintlock.
Oliver Reed… when he eventually appears is fantastically intense in this movie and pretty much is the reason to watch this film. He is just so good and delivers his lines with this “clipped” vocal style like the great stage actors Olivier, Gielgud or Burton.
I was slightly confused since this film is an adaptation of “The Werewolf of Paris” so I wondered why this film was set in Spain? The answer is Hammer already had the Spanish-looking sets constructed for an abandoned Spanish inquisition-themed movie on the lot at Bray Studios so they changed the script from being set in ye olde Paris to ye olde Madrid changed references to francs to pesetas, madame to senora, sir to senor… Perfect!
Critically the film was not well received.
Howard Thompson of The New York Times hit the nail on the head writing,
some of the colour photography was "beautiful," adding that "for a werewolf yarn this Hammer Production has a Gothic type of narrative that is not uninteresting, if broadly acted."
Variety slightly overegged it saying "an outstanding entry of the horror picture genre. Although not a particularly frightening or novel story treatment of the perennial shock film topic (werewolves ranking second only to vampires in cinema), it is a first-class effort in other respects."
The financials regarding this film are not available but it is known it was not a great success at the box office but this did not affect Hammer's relationship with Universal Pictures who distributed the film globally.
But the film is in my top 20 Hammer Hammer Horror things mainly because you have to experience Oliver Reed in this.
Number Eight.
“The Damned” (1963)
A.K.A. “These Are the Damned”
Directed by Joseph Losey, Screenplay by Evan Jones Based on the 1960 novel “The Children of Light” by H.L. Lawrence, Produced by Michael Carreras, Anthony Hinds & Anthony Nelson Keys, Music by James Bernard, Cinematography Arthur Grant, Edited by Reginald Mills, Starring Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field, Oliver Reed, Alexander Knox & Viveca Lindfors.
An American visiting England falls in love with the sister of a sadistic motorbike gang leader, who drives them away with his threats. The pair retreat to a hideaway in a dank cave beneath a military base, where a group of strange, abandoned children become their surrogate family. However, the children hide a grim and fatal secret.
Spoiler Alert! the “Grim and fatal secret” is that the kids are in the bunker because they are radioactive to other living things, they were born that way due to a nuclear accident. This enables them to be resistant to nuclear fallout and the film suggests they will survive the "inevitable" nuclear war to come.
This film was directed for Hammer by American director Joseph Losey who had relocated to England after being blacklisted by Hollywood due to his left-leaning political views.
The script for this project was originally penned by Ben Barzman who wrote a reasonably faithful adaptation of the original novel but Losey got a different writer to do a radical rewrite of the script only two weeks before filming started.
I’m guessing it was to enhance the Anti-nuclear messaging in the story, Losey was passionately against nuclear weapons and the concept of mutually assured destruction. Oliver Reed recalled that Losey,
“used to take the cast out to dinner and preach anti-Bomb stuff to them.”
The film was shot at Hammer's Bray Studios and on location around Weymouth, the Isle of Portland and nearby Chesil Beach. The film also went over budget by £25,000
(£435k in 2024).
The film was shot over 8 weeks in the summer of 1961, It was reviewed by the British censors on 20 December 1961, who gave it an X certificate without any cuts.
However, Colombia Pictures then sat on the film.
I feel the American bosses at Colombia did not appreciate the Anti-nuclear war movie made by a renowned socialist (who would of thought it!) Colombia released the film on the 16th of November 1962 (In Australia) The film was not released in the UK until 20 May 1963, when it was shown in one London cinema as the second half of a double bill of X certificate horror films. Despite of this very discreet release, it was noticed by a film critic from The Times newspaper, who gave it a very positive review,
"Joseph Losey is one of the most intelligent, ambitious and constantly exciting film-makers now working in this country, if not indeed in the world—The Damned is very much a film to be seen, for at its best it hits with a certainty of aim which is as exciting as it is devastating, and hits perhaps in a place where it is important we should be hurt."
It was eventually released in the United States in 1965, Being renamed
“These Are the Damned” and cut down from 94 minutes to 77 minutes and
the complete film wasn’t released in America until 2007.
Critic David McKee noted, "A few American reviewers realized the prescient nature of “These Are the Damned” but it remained mainly the province of Losey scholars and university film societies before being rediscovered through home video."
The Damned has been called "the high point of the first wave of the British postwar Science Fiction films" and I agree. The film is offbeat but it is prescient my only criticism is the "Motorcycle Gang" from a social history standpoint is a weird mish-mash of Mods and Rockers and are just generally confusing but I'm sure it made sense to a middle-aged American like Joseph Losey but I really do recommend you check this one out.
Number Nine.
"The Gorgon" (1964)
Directed by Terence Fisher, Screenplay by John Gilling & Anthony Nelson Keys,
Story by J. Llewellyn Divine, Produced by Anthony Nelson Keys, Music by James Bernard, Cinematography Michael Reed, Edited by James Needs & Eric Boyd-Perkins,
Starring, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Richard Pasco, Barbara Shelley &
Michael Goodliffe.
A mysterious monster is turning people to stone in a German village in 1910. When his girlfriend is killed, Bruno becomes the prime suspect and his ensuing suicide seems to confirm his guilt, but Professor Carl Maister isn't so sure.
He thinks one of the villagers is possessed by the spirit of Megaera “The Gorgon” (the sister of Medusa).
Professor Maister believes Dr. Namaroff, A gorgeous nurse named Carla and a patient struggling with her mental health are Among the possible culprits.
“The Gorgon” is a belter of a Hammer Horror film it is almost a quintessential example of the form, a horrific mythical creature menaces a community where Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee dressed in period garb (ideally some tweed) get “stuck in” to save the day flanked by some female “eye candy”. What is not to like?
An adorable fact about this film is the story idea for “The Gorgon” was sent to Hammer in a letter from a Hammer Horror movie fan in Canada named J. Llewellyn Divine.
John Gilling (who was known as a film director) and the producer Anthony Nelson Keys expanded on Divine's outline and developed it into an actual screenplay.
Anthony Nelson Keys went on to produce “The Gorgon” but the film was directed by the great Terence Fisher.
For the role of “The Gorgon” Prudence Hyman was cast due to being a former ballerina because the monster was supposed to “float gracefully like a wraith”.
The film was shot at Hammer’s Bray Studios in Berkshire.
The Gorgon was distributed in the UK and the US by Columbia Pictures shown in a double bill with Hammer’s “The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb” (1964)
Release dates, UK 18th of October 1964 and US 17th of February 1965
“The Gorgon” is well-made and very atmospheric. I adore the period setting and the story line is straightforward… some would say predictable, but I don’t listen to those people.
Number Ten.
"Dracula: Prince of Darkness" (1966)
Directed by Terence Fisher, Screenplay by Jimmy Sangster, Story by Anthony Hinds,
Based on the character Count Dracula created by Bram Stoker, Produced by Anthony Nelson Keys, Music by James Bernard, Cinematography by Michael Reed, Edited by Chris Barnes, Starring Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley & Andrew Keir.
Four English travellers arrive at a tiny hamlet in the Carpathian Mountains and ignore warnings from the locals not to travel to Carlsbad, the domain of Count Dracula. A dark, driver-less carriage arrives to take them to the sinister castle, but they discover too late that they have been lured there to provide the blood which will allow Dracula to rise from the grave once more.
Famously this film was Christopher Lee’s return to the role of Dracula after avoiding it for 8 years after the success of Hammer’s “Dracula” (1958) the Dracula character has no actual dialogue in “Dracula: Prince of Darkness” and just hisses in his scenes.
According to Christopher Lee:
"I didn't speak in that picture. The reason was very simple. I read the script and saw the dialogue! I said to Hammer, if you think I'm going to say any of these lines, you're very much mistaken."
The famed Hammer screenwriter Jimmy Sangster disputed this account in his memoir writing: "Vampires don't chat. So I didn't write him any dialogue. Christopher Lee has claimed that he refused to speak the lines he was given… So you can take your pick as to why Christopher Lee didn't have any dialogue in the picture. Or you can take my word for it. I didn't write any."
The film was made at Hammer’s Bray Studios in Berkshire and was shot back to back with “Rasputin, the Mad Monk”(1966), using a lot of the same sets and cast members.
The film was released in 1966 on the 9th of January in the UK and on the 12th of January in the US.
The film was shown in some markets as a double feature with “The Plague of the Zombies” (1966).
This is the film where Dracula is defeated by running water rather than sunlight or a stake to the heart.
As Hammer Horror films go this film is pitch-perfect. Terence Fisher again proves he is the master of this unique brand of Gothic horror and Fisher directing a screenplay penned by Jimmy Sangster was pretty much the dream team in the Hammer canon.
