Tag: Peter Cushing

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.

The Beast Must Die (1974)

Posted on by fenrisfil

Tonight’s movie is the British Werewolf film “The Beast Must Die” from 1974. Directed by Paul Annett (Who usually sticks to directing for TV, but made a handful of films in his career too). The film stars Calvin Lockhart (Who you may recognise as “King Willie” from Predator 2), as millionaire and obsessed hunter “Tom Newcliffe”. This is an ensemble film though so he is supported by the likes of Peter Cushing, Charles Grey, Michael Gambon, Tom Chadbon, Anton Diffring and Marlene Clark.

October Review Challenge – Day 11

This movie isn’t just a Werewolf movie, it is also a “Strangers in a Room” movie and unfortunately a gimmick movie. The gimmick here is as the narrator tells you at the start that you have to pay close attention to all the clues and figure out who the Werewolf is. This is sort of pointless as you’d be doing that anyway, but this comes up again about twenty minutes before the end when there is a “Werewolf break” for you to debate and decide who the beast is. Honestly the movie could have done without that.

Anyway, the story effectively follows the rich and determined hunter Tom Newcliffe (Lockhart) as he pursues his greatest quarry, a Werewolf. To do this he has drawn together a small group of individuals which he suspect of possibly carrying the curse. He has done this on the eve of a Full Moon, with the plan to draw the beast out and take it down. The story then progresses over three nights of the full moon as Lockhart begins his pursuit, but the Wolf is no fool and the question remains who is hunting who? Meanwhile the guests all start to question if Lockhart is telling the truth and if one of them is the beast. Accusations fly, tempers flair but ultimately the Werewolf will be revealed

Funky Disco Wolf

One thing I think is worth pointing out is the music. While liked it in isolation, it didn’t fit even remotely with the film. Instead it makes the film seem like a spy action/thriller. The music features lots of horn stabs and wah peddle guitar playing, which is very 1970’s but not what you would expect to hear on a Horror film (even in the 70’s). To be fair some elements of the soundtrack such as the bass does work (and similar basslines can be heard in the great Goblin soundtracks of Dario Argento films), but the rest didn’t and while there are moments of more fitting music the tensions is constantly broken by the sexy action hero theme.

The Price of Knowledge

Between the music and the gimmick I can see why this has a low (though not abysmal) rating on IMDB. But if you can look past that there is actually a lot to like about the movie. The plot isn’t without holes, but it is serviceable and this is a good selection of actors, especially of course including horror legend Peter Cushing. Cushing’s character Dr. Christopher Lundgren doesn’t have a lot to do in the movie action wise but has a good portion of dialogue which is his strength anyway.

The films lead Calvin Lockhart plays the obsessed Tom Newcliffe well. The character is not at all concerned at how people see him or if they like him, he has a singular purpose to hunt and kill a Werewolf. Calvin does intense well (as those that remember him in Predator 2 will attest to). He is a little hampered by the outfits they get him to wear (Again very 70’s) but the performance shines through the costumes. The lengths he goes to track and hunt the werewolf allows the film to stand out from the crowd as a Werewolf film. It is an interesting approach, if not the most compelling.

Werewolf Mafia

The setup of “Find the werewolf” combined with the “Strangers in a room” format works well, but given that is basically the setup of the game “Werewolf” otherwise known as Mafia that is no surprise. It is one of the angles of Werewolf movies that while heavily done in the modern day was virtually untouched when this film was made. It’s not a case that these movies and games based on the “Mafia/Werewolf” premise wouldn’t exist without this movie. I would guess most of the creators of those projects never heard about it. It is however probably the first. So it gets points for that.

Conclusion

Ultimately this is much better than you would probably expect and a refreshingly different approach to the genre. It is hampered however by gimmickry and being unable to escape the sheer 70’s-ness of it’s production. Overall though I think I will be generous and give it a 6/10. I can see myself watching this again sometime (Even though a re-watch makes the “Guess the Werewolf” gimmick even more pointless).

Rating: 6 out of 10.