Hammer Again

 

STOP ME BEFORE I KILL!-1960-Race driver Alan Colby (Ronald Lewis) has trouble adjusting after a car crash. He's very argumentative and paranoid and has the feeling he wants to kill his wife Denise (Diane Cilento). She convinces him to go see a French doctor Prade (Claude Daupin) who he doesn't like (he punched him at a dinner party!). The doc tries to help him and seems to succeed but then Denise disappears. Has he killed her? 

Interesting if a little drawn out psychological English drama from Hammer Pictures directed by Val Guest (THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN).

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The Yeti

THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN OF THE HIMALAYAS-1957-Dr. John Rawlinson (Peter Cushing) a botanist doing research in the the Himalayas joins up with a boisterous American climber Tom Friend (Forrest Tucker) to find the legendary Yeti. Friend wants to capture one alive and show it on US TV. Rawlinson just wants to prove it exists. There's a lot of climbing and soul searching and Friend turns out to be a cutthroat swindler. After a little Yeti they capture escapes (actually rescued) the group finds some large footprints. Later a big clawed hand appears sticking in their tent. Their guide goes mad when he sees one and runs away (but somehow makes it back to the village) and the head Lama there acts very mysterious. The Yetis seem to have some kind of mental power over the group who hear voices and do crazy things. After Friend is killed in an avalanche Rawlinson meets the snowmen and we get our only view of them too. Rawlinson's wife leads her own expedition and finds hubby nearly frozen to death. Nursed back to health the doctor now admits he was wrong. There is no Yeti waiting for man to die off.

When I was a kid my friends and I were always disappointed by the brief glimpse of the Yeti but today THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN holds up well despite this. The acting is great. Director Val Guest probably took a big chance in not showing too much of the creature in the monster laden age of the late '50's but he still does a good job of story telling. He also made ENEMY FROM SPACE the same year which was also penned by SNOWMAN's screenwriter Nigel Kneale. 

This Hammer production is based on a BBC TV drama entitled THE CREATURE (also written by Kneale).

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Hammer TV

MARK OF THE DEVIL-1984-This is an episode from the made for TV anthology HAMMER HOUSE OF MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE. An in debt gambler (Dirk Bennedict in between BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and THE A TEAM) kills tattoo artist Mr. Lee (Bert Kwouk from THE PINK PANTHER series) in a robbery attempt. Lee, who also dabbled in black magic marks him with a knife in their struggle and a little pinprick grows into a tattoo depicting the murder. No one can help him so he resorts to using a hot iron on his chest! The tattoo gets bigger and he goes crazy. Jenny Seagrove plays his rich fiancee. It's fairly predictable but alright for TV. The screenplay was written by Brian Clemens (THE AVENGERS) and is one of the last efforts by director Val Guest (THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE, WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE WORLD).

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