The Shadow Of The Cat (1961)

Mixing together elements of Poe, Hammer and also classic Ealing Studios fare (I, for one, felt a bit of a Kind Hearts & Coronets vibe running through the whole thing), The Shadow Of The Cat is a real treat for fans of the macabre.

Andre Morell plays the main role, a schemer who is shown killing his wife, and then burying her, at the start of the movie. He is helped in this matter by the butler (Andrew Crawford) and maid (Freda Jackson). There are no witnesses to the crime, except the cat owned by the deceased. While everyone involved tries to feign innocence and ignorance as the police investigate the disappearance of the victim, the cat starts to cause tension, and even seems to be deliberately plotting against the dastardly trio.

Written by George Baxt, and directed by John Gilling, this is standard stuff in many ways. The house in which all of the action takes place is full of dark corners and creaking floorboards, the assembled characters are, for the most part, not very nice, and the one true innocent (played by Barbara Shelley) takes a hell of a long time to realise that all isn't quite as it seems. The only main difference is the fact that revenge is being planned by a cat. That should make the whole thing quite laughable and ridiculous, but ends up making it quite amusing and brilliant.

Morell is as wonderful as he usually is in his role, and the scenes featuring him alongside Crawford and Jackson are all pretty great. Shelley is as lovely as ever, Conrad Phillips does his best to help her as the dependable Michael Latimer, a young man helping out the police in their investigation. Richard Warner, William Lucas and Vanda Godsell all do just fine as the other family members who arrive at the house to ensure that they're going to receive some inheritance, and Catherine Lacey plays the ill-fated cat owner for a minute or two at the start of the movie.

Well worth your time, The Shadow Of The Cat is an unjustly neglected slice of macabre fun that deserves to keep delighting fans who stumble across it.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shadow-Cat-dvd-UK-Release/dp/B00IORRBN0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394309535&sr=8-1&keywords=shadow+of+the+cat

The Gorgon (1964)

A Hammer horror movie starring both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. People who know me will know that as soon as The Gorgon started I suspected that I was on to a winner.

Cushing plays Dr. Namaroff, a man who has seen a number of strange deaths in his village. He's not, however, doing anything to draw attention to those deaths, despite the protests of his assistant, Carla (Barbara Shelley). As the villagers, and local law enforcement (led by Inspector Kanof, played by Patrick Troughton), stay on edge, more bodies start to turn up. Bodies of people who have been turned to stone. Richard Pasco plays a young man who may be next in line to get petrified, literally, but he might do okay if he heeds the advice from the visiting Professor Karl Meister (Christopher Lee).

Written by John Gilling (based on the story by J. Llewellyn Devine), The Gorgon is a pleasant surprise for a number of reasons. First of all, let's be upfront here, it should be ridiculous. A movie that's possibly about a gorgon in more modern times - well, it's set in the early 20th century - is something that viewers shouldn't be able to just watch without using all of their energy on the suspension of disbelief. But Gilling just keeps things rattling along so enjoyable, with enough ambiguity, that picking it apart is never a priority.

Terence Fisher directs with his usual style and technical competence. He makes the most out of every set (which are all up to the high standards set by the better movies in the Hammer horror filmography) and creates a nice blend of the melodramatic and the ethereal as the plot unfolds.

As for the cast, Cushing and Lee are both fantastic. The only downside is that they don't share the screen together for more than a minute or two. Shelley is a delight in what may be her best role from the many she was given by Hammer, and Pasco is a decent enough, if slightly bland, potential hero. Troughton is consistently brilliant as the Inspector obeying orders weighted by money more than the law of the land.

The Gorgon falls just short of greatness, simply because the premise is, as a Monty Python character might say, "a bit silly" but it's well worth your time and surprisingly entertaining from start to finish. If you end up hating it then I'll accuse you of being made of stone (*badump-tsshhhhh*).

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Gorgon-DVD-Christopher-Lee/dp/B003AWMWH4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381698986&sr=8-1&keywords=the+gorgon

The Reptile (1966)

Filmed back to back with The Plague Of The Zombies, this Hammer horror movie not only shares many of the same sets with that movie but also treads quite similiar ground when it comes to the actual plot. There are some major main differences, but it actually makes for a nice companion piece alongside the lone zombie movie to be released from Hammer studios in the 20th century.

Ray Barrett and Jennifer Daniel play Mr. and Mrs. Spalding, respectively. The two end up inheriting a cottage in a small country village after Harry's brother dies in mysterious circumstances. Finding out just how his brother died, and dealing with unfriendly locals, becomes the focus for Harry as he and his wife gets used to their new surroundings. A local innkeeper (Michael Ripper) offers some advice, despite the fact that his inn always empties out whenever Harry walks in, and a large finger of suspicion seems to keep pointing at the brusque Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman), a man who spends most of his time being quite harsh to his beautiful daughter (Jacqueline Pearce).

John Gilling is the assured hand in the director's chair, working from a decent, lean script by Anthony Hinds, and there's nothing about this movie that looks or feels cheap. Sharing some of the sets between numerous movies, as they did quite often, was a great move on the part of Hammer, allowing them some more money for practical effects and some impressive set-pieces. At least, thats how it appears to this particular viewer (with the ending of The Reptile being just as enjoyable, as, and quite similiar to, the ending of The Plague Of The Zombies).

All of the cast do well in their roles, with Barrett and Daniel being a likeable pair of leads. Michael Ripper brightens up any Hammer horror movie (just ask any of his fans if you don't believe me), Noel Willman is the standard, snippy gentleman with a possible dark secret and Jacqueline Pearce is sweet and lovely enough to add some real pathos to the final third of the film. Marne Maitland is also very good, and John Laurie steals his few scenes as Mad Peter, a man who may not be as mad as locals like to make out.

This remains one of my favourite Hammer horror movies, and I hope that many others feel the same way about it.

8/10


N.B. Anyone who enjoyed the film as much as I did should check out the episode of "Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible" entitled Curse of the Blood of the Lizard of Doom. Not only is it hilarious but it's often spot-on too. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Reptile-Blu-ray-DVD-Barrett/dp/B006C1B104/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377374168&sr=8-1&keywords=the+reptile

The Plague Of The Zombies (1966)

Perhaps my very favourite Hammer horror movie (certainly giving The Nanny a good run for its money), this features a crowd of the undead causing problems in a Cornish village. While it's far removed from the type of thing we horror fans have been given by the likes of Romero and Fulci, this still remains a great entry into the zombie movie subgenre and contains at least one quintessential zombie movie moment.

André Morell plays Sir James Forbes, a standard Hammer hero. He's elderly and wise and refined and ends up travelling with his daughter, Sylvia (Diane Clare) to visit his ex-pupil, Dr. Peter Thompson (Brook Williams). The doctor and his wife (Alice, played by the lovely Jacqueline Pearce) have been having a hard time of things lately. They have been living in the small Cornish village for about a year and the doctor has, unfortunately, seen about a dozen deaths in that time. All unexplained and rather mysterious. He would like to perform autopsies to help his investigation but the local squire (played by John Carson) has not allowed him. Meanwhile, there would seem to be far too many spaces in the graveyard that should have bodies inside.

Sharing some cast members, and it's set, with the movie that followed it (The Reptile), it's good to see that, despite the obvious cost-cutting measures brought about by filming two movies with shared resources, there are no corners cut here.

Director John Gilling (working from Peter Bryan's enjoyable script) creates a great atmosphere throughout. Yes, we have the usual fainting female and some overreaction dotted here and there but this movie manages to stay eerie and tense even during it's many daylight scenes (something often quite difficult to achieve in the genre). The acting is all adequate (Morell in particular makes for a good, noble lead, Carson is great and Michael Ripper gets a few decent moments), but what really gives this movie the edge is its portrayal of the zombies themselves and the ritual used to bring them about.

Throw in some amusing cads (aka rich, spoilt gits), a Hammer standard tavern scene and a finale that starts with a poorly executed fight scene but then moves on to some impressive fire damage and you have a film that moves along at a brisk pace while constantly entertaining.

9/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plague-The-Zombies-Blu-ray-DVD/dp/B006C19NQI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368191408&sr=8-1&keywords=the+plague+of+the+zombies

The Mummy's Shroud (1967)

Directed by John Gilling, who also wrote the thing based on a story by Anthony Hinds, The Mummy's Shroud is another one of those movies that makes you think carefully before writing a review whether it's worth expending any more energy on the thing. It's just so . . . . . . middling.

The second-last, and the least (Blood From The Mummy's Tomb was bad but at least had the gorgeous Valerie Leon in it), of Hammer's movies featuring someone swathed in bandages out to kill is a plodding, dull affair that provides neither the horror nor the entertaining drama of those that came before it.

The plot has nothing new in it as a bunch of people uncover a tomb and are then cursed to be killed by the all-too-lively mummy. That's it, with the one addition that someone holding the mummy's shroud and saying the right words can control the creature.

The cast are quite a mixed bag. Andre Morell is quite good but he's not onscreen for that long. I didn't like John Phillips much but his character, the selfish and callous Stanley Preston, was quite a bit of fun when on screen. Elizabeth Sellars is very good as his suffering wife. David Buck is a bit bland as the younger Paul Preston and Maggie Kimberly is a pretty translator. The best performance though, as many fans will be pleased to hear, comes from Michael Ripper and it's his presence alone that makes the film worth watching. His character, Longbarrow, is a weak, toadying man who tries to stay onside with the one person who may help him out.

Even the mummy is a disappointment this time around, the look of the thing certainly not up to the design of either of the first two movies and the backstory doesn't make the creature as sympathetic as it has been in other movies. Oh, it's supposed to, when it's told in the first few minutes of the film (with narration provided by someone who sounds like, but apparently isn't, Peter Cushing), but it doesn't.

I would wholeheartedly encourage everyone to avoid this one if it wasn't for that fantastic turn from Ripper. With that in mind, I have to warn anyone to approach with caution but to give it a watch if you're a fan of one of Hammer's star players.

5/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Mummys-Shroud-Blu-ray-DVD/dp/B0085MXQAG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351953765&sr=8-1