Tag: Hammer Horror

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

Posted on by fenrisfil

For tonight’s movie, I’m hitting the Werewolf sub-genre again and finally checking out Hammer Horror’s take on the beast from 1961. This is from legendary director Terence Fisher and stars legendary actor Oliver Reed (In his first lead role). It also features a 12 tone serials score from Benjamin Frankel. That is, the score avoids being in any key by ensuring that every note in the chromatic scale is played the same amount. Arthur Grant provides cinematography and Anthony Hinds (Credited as John Elder) wrote the screenplay.

In 18th-century Spain a beggar is imprisoned by a cruel marques and left for years forgotten in his dungeon. For years he is seen only by a mute serving girl that sends him his food. Over time he becomes a feral beast in that dungeon. After the serving girl is put into the same cell for refusing the marques advances, she is raped by the feral beggar. Begging for a freedom she is taken to the marques, but kills him and flees. Later she is found by a kindly gentleman-scholar, who lives alone with his housekeeper. They tend to her but she dies giving birth to the child of the feral beggar. The scholar raises the boy as his own, but it becomes apparent he is cursed.

Origin of the Curse

This really is a film of two halves. Specifically, Oliver Reed is only in the second half. The first half tells of his origin story, explaining why he was born with the curse. This section of the movie drags somewhat and involves a number of characters that are long gone by the time you get to Reed’s section. It’s not that this section is actually bad, it just feels like part of a different story. A lot of the story is setting up the “Marqués Siniestro” as an over the top evil villain. However, he’s dead before Oliver Reed turns up, so feels wasted. He is there to explain how a beggar ended up abandoned in the prison until driven into a feral form. Really, wasn’t neccisary.

The beggar in the dungeon is given it’s prologue, showing why the Beggar is in the dungeon. It’s not much of a reason either and amounts to the Marqués being a dick. But this too is given a prologue explaining why the beggar has turned up to this feast to end up in the dungeon. Then this entire section exists as a prologue to showing the child version of Reed’s character and revealing that he has the curse. It’s a very long winded origin story. Which would be fine if there was a lot to the main story, but by this point we’ve only got 45 minutes left. So the second half ends up feeling rushed.

Classic Werewolf Tragedy

Despite having three very distinct and isolated acts, these are individually very well put together. The acting is all good and the individual stories are relatively compelling. The downside is they are all too short. It’s the screenplay that is the problem here, this was Hinds first full screenplay and he simply put too much in it. It’s actually the middle act where this drags, because at this stage I realized the entire first act was not going to impact the rest of the film and I just wanted them to hurry up and get to an adult Leon. What I will say though is the child they had play Leon as a child really does look like Oliver Reed. He wasn’t a great actor, so I’m guessing they cast him on looks.

When we finally get to Reed’s section, it’s actually very good. Rushed, but good. Leon is quickly thrown into a relationship with the unobtainable daughter of his new employer. But as fast as it happens, it’s not fast enough to avoid the curse. Having killed an innocent girl, Leon wants to die and goes as far as to ask to be burned to death. Eventually when he changes, escapes and is hunted down it becomes a classic werewolf tragedy. We’ve seen it in the original “Wolf Man” movie, and we’ve seen it done best in “American Werewolf in London”. This is werewolf movie bread and butter. Reed plays a great tragic character. He is doomed from the start and ultimately only wanting to protect others from the beast within.

Conclusion

This is a well directed movie, with great sets, great and original music and quality acting. Unfortunately the plot is hampered by spending so much time in the set up and doing no more than the standard Wolfman thing for it’s final act. It features a great villain and a tragic hero that never actually have anything to do with each other. It’s actually the kind of movie that could work better these days, where they’d just extend it by another 40 minutes, allowing for a lot more meat to the main section. But Hammer Horror movies tended to be around the 90 minute mark and so that wasn’t to be. This is still a solid 6/10 however. Not a must see, but recommended as a solid werewolf movie.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Brides of Dracula (1960)

Posted on by fenrisfil

I was introduced to Hammer’s Dracula around about age ten. So for me Christopher Lee will always be my Dracula. So on the surface it may seem odd that I’ve never seen this sequel to 1958’s “Dracula” (“Horror of Dracula” to my US readers). But when you realize this is a sequel that features neither Christopher Lee nor Dracula you can probably see why I would skip it. A harsh decision to be sure, because it is still directed by the great Terence Fisher and still stars the legendary Peter cushing. Almost any Hammer film worth watching involves one or both of those people. So time to give it a chance. Jimmy Sangster, Peter Bryan and Edward Percy provide the screenplay and Jack Asher the cinematography. Composer Malcolm Williamson provides a score in the classic Hammer style of James Bernard.

Dracula is gone, but his disciples still plague Transylvania. One such vampire, “Baron Meinster” has so far been contained by his mother, the Baroness. He is kept chained in his private quarters at their castle. While his mother wishes to contain this evil, she still feeds it. The Baroness brings young women to the castle, kills them and feed his son their blood. One potential victim, “Marianne”, a school teacher passing through the area instead frees the Baron. This unleashes the evil and makes her the focus of the Baron’s dark desires. Fortunately for her, while feeling the castle she is picked up by a travelling “Doctor Van Helsing” (Cushing), in the area to hunt for just such monsters.

Brides of Meinster

Hammer horrors are formulaic, there’s no denying that. However they usually well made, have a great soundtrack and get elevated by a small number of great actors putting in powerful performances. Christopher Lee, André Morell, Michael Gough and Charles Gray are on that list of actors. But none were more important to Hammer films than Peter Cushing, who appeared in no less than twenty two of their movies. Peter of course stars here. However, there is no Christopher Lee in this “Dracula” movie. Christopher was concerned about being type cast and turned down the role. Obvious he got over it later (Appearing in another six sequels after this).

Instead of recasting Dracula, they stuck with the ending of the previous movie from 1958 and moved on to a new vampire threat. Fine in theory, though it makes the title even more misleading. “Brides of Dracula” in the novel refers to the vampire women that reside with the Count. So the two vampire women in the story could be called “Brides” but not really of “Dracula”. They actually contribute very little to the story too. But the bigger problem is the substitute “Baron Meinster” is a poor imitation. Played by a mediocre David Peel, who retired from acting not long after. His acting is solid though compared to the “Brides”.

Conclusion

While the brides role is minimal so easy to forgive, leading lady Yvonne Monlaur’s acting is inconsistent throughout. At times she’s very good, at times notably poor. Perhaps I am being a bit harsh though because this is all in comparison to Peter Cushing’s naturally flawless performance as Van Helsing. It may also be unfair to compare Meinster to Christopher Lee’s Dracula. I acknowledge that, but it’s impossible not to make that comparison in a Hammer film with “Dracula” in the title. It’s also worth noting Lee wasn’t always great as Dracula, though only because he didn’t want to be there for those later films. At his peak, there was no better Dracula.

More importantly and far less debatable is that there is no better Van Helsing than Peter Cushing. His presence raises this film up by at least one star. The music helps too. This is classic Hammer and while it doesn’t do anything new it works perfectly well. Sadly the story starts far more interestingly than it ends and it’s notable the good part of the story is the bit before Van Helsing turns up. This means the film never really peaks. Terrence Fisher competently directs throughout, but this isn’t his best work. For that, we’d have to wait another eight years for “The Devil Rides Out”. Sadly I can only give this a 5.5/10. Worthwhile for Hammer fans, but otherwise forgettable.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.