Hammer Mummy

 

 (tcm.com)

THE MUMMY'S SHROUD-1967-After a lengthy intro about the death of an Egyptian boy king, pompous rude Stanley Preston (John Phillips) and his wife (Elizabeth Sellars) arrive in Cairo intent on locating a missing expedition he funded. The lost group is headed by Sir Basil Walton (Andre Morell), along with his assistant Claire (Maggie Kimberly), Harry (Tim Barrett) and Preston's son Paul (David Buck). They are looking for the tomb of the young prince. 

Preston's group finds the expedition but Basil is bitten by a snake. They find the mummy and the elder Preston proceeds to hog the spotlight and take all the credit. When they get back to Cairo, he even has Walton committed to an insane asylum. A fortune teller's son, Hasmid (Roger Delgado) revives a different mummy and it kills Walton who has escaped the asylum. The second victim is Harry who has acid poured on him and is set on fire. Next is Preston's long-suffering assistant Longbarrow (Michael Ripper) who is thrown out a window. When Preston tries to illegally leave the country (deserting his wife & son) the mummy gets him. Later while trying to apologize to the mummy Hasmid sics the mummy on Claire who with help from David and the chief of police (Richard Warner) says the words of death and the mummy crumbles.

 This Hammer production is a pretty standard horror film, not offering anything new. Director John Gilling (THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES (1966)) wasn't happy with the results. It's the last movie made by Hammer in their Bray Studios. The Mummy is played by Eddie Powell, Christopher Lee's “Dracula” stunt double.

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Black & White Hammer

SHADOW OF THE CAT-1961-With the help of two servants (Michael Crawford and Freda Jackson) Walter (Andre Morell) kills his wife and has her buried in the forest. There are no witnesses except for the victim's cat. All seems to go as planned until the cat keeps popping up, driving the trio to paranoid delusions as they try to kill it. When Walter suffers a heart attack while trying to do in puss, his unsuspecting niece Beth (Barbara Shelly) comes to take care of him. She doesn't understand what the big to-do is about the cat but her boyfriend Michael (Conrad Phillips) suspects the truth (she doesn't believe him though). Deaths by falling, quicksand and stairs eliminate some prying greedy relatives and after they are all gone the cat leads Beth and Michael to the dead woman's grave. 

This little black and white Hammer melodrama was directed by John Gilling (THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS) and plays like an extended version of THRILLER or ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS.

Giant Sized Dinosaur

THE GIANT BEHEMOTH-1959-Some time after a fisherman named Tom is burned to death (his last word is “behemoth”), American scientist Doc Carr (Gene Evans) lectures some stuffy English eggheads about radiation and Bikini island. When “thousands” of dead fish are washed up on the English coast Carr and Prof. Bickford (Andre Morell) investigate the goings on in Cornwall. Naturally there's a giant radiation created dinosaur prowling around. Besides being very big it can also shoot a radioactive ray that burns its victims to cinders. It makes its way to the Thames and sinks a ferry, then rampages through London. After killing the beast, Carr and Bickford get some bad news in the final scene. Jack MacGowran is also featured a paleontologist who helps out.

THE GIANT BEHEMOTH is a fun movie but Willis O'Brien's stop motion animation isn't as good as most of his US output, probably due to budget restraints and the fact that the movie was filmed in England while the special effects were done (with his assistant Pete Peterson) in Los Angeles. 

Director Eugene Lourie (THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS) co-wrote the screenplay with blacklisted writer Daniel James who'd go on to pen the screenplay for GORGO (which Lourie would direct) in 1961.

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Hammer Zombies

THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES-1966-Hammer teamed up with 7 Arts to release this eerie horror film. While on vacation a curmudgeonly doctor Sir James Forbes (Andre Morrell) is summon to Cornwall by his ex-pupil Peter (Brook Williams) to check out the "strange malady" afflicting his wife Alice (Jacqueline Pearce from BLAKE'S SEVEN). After a not so nice welcome, Alice dies and Sir James' daughter Sylvia (Diane Clare who was in THE HAUNTING) is harassed by a group of fox hunters under the charge of Squire Hamilton (John Carson), a weird guy who talks like James Mason. He tries to act gentlemanly by she isn't buying it. While Sylvia is walking home sees a zombie like guy dump Alice's body down a hill. Meanwhile Sir James and Peter are arrested for grave robbing but they get off when the coffin they dug up is empty! Apparently Hamilton is the leader of a Voodoo blood cult that turns folks into zombies and makes them work in the local tin mine. Hamilton wants to zombify Sylvia. Guys in robes wearing masks that have "Daredevil" horns attack a vicar. Later pasty faced zombies rise from the grave but it seems to to a dream sequence. Somehow after nearly being buried alive Sir James saves his daughter and makes the zombies turn against their master and destroy his plans. The best scene is when Alice suddenly becomes a zombie and Sir James decapitates her with a shovel. Michael Ripper is very good as one of the constables who helps out.

Like a lot of Hammer films it takes time to get going but delivers some great scenes. The under rated (at least in America) Morrell is great in the lead role. Director John Gilling also made THE REPTILE the same year. Hammer teamed with 7 Arts to make THE WITCHES the same year too.

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Calling Prof. Quatermass!

QUATERMASS AND THE PIT-1958-This is the third Professor Quatermass serial produced by the BBC. Despite a lot of talk and non-action it's very well done. In a London district, an archeological dig led by Prof. Roney (Cec Linder; Felix Leiter in GOLDFINGER) find evidence of a new hominid and later discover a huge metallic object. 

Roney brings in his friend Prof. Quatermass (Andre Morell) to investigate. Quatermass' war department nemesis the pompous Colonel Breen (Joseph Bushell who later directed TERROR OF THE TONGS for Hammer) gets involved as well. 

When an air tight compartment in the object is finally opened a bunch of dead insect like creatures are found. This leads Quatermass to the theory that the creatures are from Mars and 5 million year ago they came to Earth and experimented on early man! Of course the government will have none of it. A haunted house, telekinesis, ancient myths and a weird machine that can record “visual impressions inside the brain” all figure into this ambitious ahead of it's time story which if it sounds familiar was later re-made by Hammer as the full length film 20 MILLION YEARS TO EARTH. The final speech by Quatermass really rings true!

Also with Christine Finn (the voice of “Tin-Tin” on THE THUNDERBIRDS) & John Stratton. Michael Ripper portrays a army sergeant in the first five segments. Morrell was in THE GIANT BEHEMOTH around this time and played Dr. Watson to Peter Cushing's Sherlock Holmes in Hammer's THE HOUND OF THE BASERVILLES in 1959. 

 

Screenwriter Nigel Kneale had written the feature length film ENEMY FROM SPACE (where American actor Brian Donlevy was the professor) in 1957 and later did screenplays for movies like LOOK BACK IN ANGER, THE ENTERTAINER and FIRST MEN IN THE MOON. Director Rudolph Cartier had a long career in BBC TV.

 

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