The Devil Rides Out

It’s Hammer Time!

This year’s Halloween viewing was Hammer’s sensational “The Devil Rides Out” (1968), one of the greatest achievements from the famous British studio. It moves like a bullet, and segues from one marvelous set piece to another without catching a breath. In that respect, it’s one of the most contemporary of their films, and a splendid introduction to someone unfamiliar with Hammer’s legacy of horror.

Helmed by Hammer’s best director, Terence Fisher, and with a screenplay by famed fantasy writer Richard Matheson, adapting Dennis Wheatley’s best-selling novel, and ominous scoring by James Bernard, it’s Hammer operating at full thrusters, fully confident they are the best in the business and no one is going to tell them otherwise. Along with the great “Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed” (1969), it’s probably the studio’s last classic film, though there were quite a few good titles to come. But everything comes together in “The Devil Rides Out.”

While it’s not particularly scary, it is creepy, and possesses an unworldly aura about it. It’s also as much an adventure film as it is a horror epic. And as an added bonus, it’s set in England in the 1920s, so there’s marvelous period décor to look at and an assortment of beautiful automobiles with running boards,. Running boards come in very handy when one is trying to rescue a beautiful girl from a nighttime Satanic orgy in the forest. (I love running boards on old automobiles).

 

The Duc de Richleau (Christopher Lee, playing the hero for a change and very well too) meets his friend Rex Van Ryn (Rod Taylor look-a-like Leon Greene) to inform him their old friend Simon Aron (Patrick Mower) did not show up for a planned reunion. They go to Simon’s new country house just as a party is going on, filled with odd-looking people of various ages and nationalities, including the mysterious Mocata (plumy-voiced Charles Gray, oozing malevolence out of ever pore in what is arguably his best performance) and a beautiful girl, Tanith (Nike Arrighi), who Rex is instantly attracted to. .

Richleau suspects something is amiss and discovers that Simon has fallen into the hands of Satanists, headed by Mocata, who plans to baptize Simon and Tanith into their cult.

 

For the rest of the movie, Richleau and Rex attempt to keep Simon and Tanith out of Mocata’s clutches. Mocata doesn’t just dabble into the occult, but has supernatural powers, including the ability to affect the actions of other with his mind from far away, and the ability to conjure up all sorts of deviltry (literally) to stop our heroes.

Richleau and company go to the country estate of Richleau’s niece Marie (Sarah Lawson), her husband Paul (Richard Eaton) and their daughter Peggy (Rosalyn Landor), but Mocata follows them there. Rosalyn Landor turned down a role in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (1968) to do this film. Way to go Rosalyn! You made the right choice.

Mocata hypnotizes Marie to tell him where Simon and Tanith are, but is interrupted by Peggy. Marie snaps out of her trance and she orders Mocata out of their house. He says, “I shall not come back. But something will. Tonight. Something will come for Simon and the girl.” Gray delivers these lines with great relish.

With this message in mind, Richleau gathers Simon, Marie and Richard into a magic circle to protect themselves against Mocata’s messenger.

 

I said earlier that everything comes together in “The Devil Rides Out.” Well, maybe not everything. The special effects are sorely lacking, a charge even the film’s staunchest defenders agree with. It’s especially galling as they occur in what should be the highlight of the film, the aforementioned sequence with our heroes standing in a magic circle while the forces of Hell pummel them. On one hand, it’s a lost opportunity but the rest of the film is so strong, the mood and direction so sure, that one can overlook the shoddiness of the special effects.

And they are shoddy. One of Hell’s visitors is a tarantula, which is normal-sized in one scene and giant-sized in the next scene, then back to normal-sized. Most egregious is the appearance of the Messenger of Death on horseback, very badly matted in and with the horse moving backward and forward in fast motion. When Death is revealed, it’s against a black screen with nothing in the background. It’s almost as if they filmed these sequences last and ran out of money.

 

Much more effective in this sequence, are very simple, practical effects, like them hearing a pounding on the door, and Rex’s anguished pleases to be let in and, when refused by Richleau, the voice fades away into the ghostly distance.

In a 1975 issue of CinefantastiqueTerence Fisher was astute enough to identify the film’s other main fault: “The love angle was very superficial. I don’t know why, probably my fault. The relationship between Nike Arrighi and Leon Greene never develops as it should have. The film would have been much stronger if it had. You see, it’s easy to put characters into a situation. It doesn’t matter whether it’s black magic or cops and robbers. It doesn’t matter a damn…but unless those characters have emotion in their interrelation with the situation they are put into, no audience in the world is going to be interested. The important thing is the emotional relationship they have, apart from the situation itself. And the worse the situation you put them into, the more excited the audience will become because they understand their feelings apart from what they are faced with.”

Fisher is right. Also missing is a scene explaining what attracted Tanith and Simon to Mocata’s coven in the first place. Even a short scene explaining their actions would have gone a long way to making us care about them.

 

“The Devil Rides Out” was based on a novel by Dennis Wheatley, one of England’s most successful novelists of the 20^th century. While he wrote in a variety of genres, it was his stories on the occult and black magic that were most popular. When it was published in 1934, “Goodbye Mr. Chips” and “Random Harvest” author James Hilton called “The Devil Rides Out” the best novel of its kind since “Dracula.”

Wheatley was considered an expert on the occult and his books are full of peeks into hidden rites and ceremonies. Each of his black magic books comes with this preamble:

 I desire to state that I, personally, have never assisted at, or participated in, any ceremony connected with Magic – Black or White.

The literature of occultism is so immense that any conscientious writer can obtain from it abundant material for the background of a romance such as this.

In the present case I have spared no pains to secure accuracy of detail from existing accounts when describing magical rites or formulas for protection against evil, and these have been verified in conversation with certain persons, sought out for that purpose who are actual practitioners of the Art.

All the characters and situations in this book are entirely imaginary but, in the inquiry necessary to the writing of it, I found ample evidence that Black Magic is still practiced in London, and other cities, at the present day.

Should any of my readers incline to a serious study of the subject, and thus come into contact with a man or woman of Power, I find that it is only right to urge them, most strongly, to refrain from being drawn into practice of the Secret Art in any way. My own observations have led me to an absolute conviction that to do so would bring them into dangers of a very real and concrete nature – Dennis Wheatley

 

 

Christopher Lee had been friends with Wheatley and had tried to interest Hammer in his novels. “I had been at Hammer for quite a long time,” Lee  said. “There’s a writer I know very well and he sells all over the world in every language you’ve ever heard of – his books would be ideal. I thought Dennis’ black magic stories were incredibly exciting – not quite Gothic, but very close to it. Hammer were (sic) very worried for a long time because they thought the black magic elements would cause them problems with the Church. I couldn’t understand why, because Dennis’ stories were based on truth: evil against good, the power of darkness against the power of light. The power of light always won, and I couldn’t see how anybody in the Church could object to that. Obviously I would never have advocated showing anything which related to a black mass itself, which would have been an indescribably obscenity and blasphemy.” (Quote taken from the notes to the film’s soundtrack CD).

Lee later said that since the film came out, he has received many calls and letters, and been stopped in the street from representatives and leaders of every major religion, thanking him for making the movie, and showing the very real danger and consequences of getting involved in the occult.

(I remember an afternoon about 30 or 35 years ago at the Catholic church I attended growing up. In all those Sundays, we never heard any sermons about Hell or Satan, except one time, when the pastor related how a teenager in the parish had started experimenting with the occult, and how awful it’s been for him and his family. He asked for our prayers for the family, and admonished the young people in the parish to never, ever delve into the occult. He didn’t go into specifics, but I remember his voice trembling as he said that, and he had very real fear in his voice.)

Hammer filmed two more Wheatley books. His novel “Uncharted Seas” became the basis for the looney tunes, but hugely enjoyable “The Lost Continent” (1968) – think “Ship of Fools” with rubber suited monsters, big breasted women and the Spanish Inquisition. Really.

Hammer’s last horror film was another Wheatley adaptation, “To the Devil A Daughter” (1976) with Christopher Lee as a defrocked priest trying to lure Nastassia Kinski to become a Satanic bride. Richard Widmark was the hero this time, looking like he’d rather be anywhere but there. It’s one of Hammer’s weakest films.

While “The Devil Rides Out” did very well in England, where Wheatley was better known, it died in the States. It had the bad luck to open after George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) and no way could Hammer’s period horror compete with the new breed of zombies. 20^thCentury Fox handled stateside distribution and didn’t like the title, thinking it sounded too much like a western. In the U.S. the title was changed to “The Devil’s Bride”, but it didn’t bring in the money Hammer thought it would.

 

 

There’s a new Blu Ray of the film from England, and supposedly Hammer cleaned up some of the effects and made them more effective. I can’t say I’m very happy about that, but if it must be done at least have the original version available. I find it interesting how technicians in years past overcame budgetary and technological obstacles, and don’t think that should be erased just because it can be done better today.

Regardless, “The Devil Rides Out” continues to enthrall. Its pace is very contemporary and it’s time trickery ending would not be out of place in today’s cinema scene.

It’s funny how superstitions work on us. I consider myself pretty enlightened, and don’t believe in ghosts, or communicating with the dead. Yet, I wouldn’t attend a séance or play with a Ouija board for all the money in the world. I know, I can’t explain it either. I have zero interest in dabbling in the occult. But I will watch movies on the subject as long as they are as enthralling as “The Devil Rides Out.”

132. Horror of Dracula

132. (07 Jul) Horror of Dracula (1958, Terence Fisher) 63

Fisher's Dracula feels well ahead of its time, brimming with eerie atmosphere almost immediately. However, this version seems oddly truncated. Because there's little build-up before the scares are doled out, the film lacks tension overall. It doesn't help that the vampires are so easily foiled; when Dracula's burnt to a crisp in the final reel, it feels by the numbers enough to make the ending anticlimactic. Still, Fisher's crafted an intelligent, expensive-looking horror movie that lives up to a large fraction of its potential.

The Mummy (1959)

It’s Hammer Time.

Hammer’s first mummy movie, titled simply “The Mummy” (1959), is a real treat, and one of the famed British studio’s best films.

I decided to re-visit this favorite after I got the new issue of Little Shoppe of Horrors, a magazine devoted to Hammer movies. The new issue looks at the making of all the Hammer mummy movies. I continue to be amazed, and delighted, that a magazine exists devoted to Hammer movies. Twenty years from now will there be a magazine devoted to Jerry Bruckheimer movies? I seriously doubt it and if there was, then I think it would be time for God to pull the plug on all of us. (The question if there will even be magazines in 20 years is a question for another day).

Hammer enjoyed worldwide success and broke box office records worldwide with their monster re-treads “The Curse of Frankenstein” (1957) and “Horror of Dracula” (1958). Both films starred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee and were directed by Terence Fisher.

Universal, the great horror movie studio of the 1930s and 1940s, knew a good thing when they saw it and offered up their other past properties for remaking. The next property was “The Mummy” a semi-official remake of the 1932 Boris Karloff classic, and elements from the B movie Kharis series starring Lon Chaney Jr. as the slowest mummy in movie history. As Bill Cosby famously said about these movies, “If you can’t outrun the mummy, you deserve to die.”

For “The Mummy” Cushing and Lee were re-united, along with director Fisher, ace cinematographer Jack Asher and production designer Bernard Robinson, who always made the Hammer movies look more expensive than they were. Regular Hammer composer James Bernard did not return for “The Mummy”, instead replaced by Franz Reizenstein, and it’s one of the film’s happy accidents that Reizenstein’s score accompanies the film. Christopher Lee feels it’s the best score composed for a Hammer movie, and I agree.

Felix Aylmer and Peter Cushing play, respectively Stephen and John Banning, archaeologists looking for the tomb of the Princess Ananka. They discover the tomb, but John doesn’t enter, due to a bad leg. Stephen goes in and accidentally reads from the Scroll of Life, which brings to life the mummy Kharis (Christopher Lee). (A flashback to Ancient Egypt shows Kharis as a priest committing the blasphemous act of using the Scroll of Life to revive his beloved dead Princess Ananka. His punishment was having his tongue cut out, being buried alive in her tomb and serving as her protector for all eternity.)

Shipping the tomb’s contents back to England, the Bannings are followed by Mehment Bay (George Pastell, a terrific performance) who uses the revived mummy to stalk and kill the defilers of Ananka’s tomb. No lumbering Chaney Kharis here, but a fast moving, unstoppable instrument of death. In one of the film’s best scenes, Kharis breaks through the bars and screen of a sanitarium’s window to get at Stephen Banning, who pounds and screams furiously at the door trying to escape.

Eventually, Cushing’s John Banning is the last of the expedition’s members to still be alive, but he’s temporarily saved thanks to wife Isobel (Yvonne Furneaux) who eerily resembles Ananka. Is Isobel the reincarnation of Ananka?

This is a gorgeously shot film, one of Hammer’s most beautiful. The tomb scenes have an eerie green glow to them, and the swamp scenes look like there’s red glowing coals emanating from the marsh grounds. Not sure where the light is coming from but it doesn’t matter. In horror movies I’ll take atmosphere over logic any day of the week and “The Mummy” is drenched in atmosphere.

Lee gives a very good physical performance as Kharis. There’s terrific use of his body and eyes in his scenes when he’s staring at his reincarnated Princess. Cushing, of course, is marvelous, as he always is. Watching Cushing and Lee grapple together in a Hammer Gothic is like watching Fred and Ginger dance…all is happily right with the world.

For a horror film, one of the film’s best scenes is not one of terror but a long dialogue scene between Cushing and George Pastell. Both know what each other’s motives are when Cushing comes to call on the new Egyptian who moved down the road. They feel each other out and soon begin to spar about England’s legitimacy in looting Egypt of its archaeological treasures. Beautifully acted and filled with tension, it really shows off Terence Fisher’s strength as a director. (His other masterpiece, “The Devil Rides Out” (1967), has a similar scene).

But nothing can compare to Kharis’ first attack on the Banning mansion. Kharis smashes through the windows and is unstopped by Banning’s shotgun blasts and skewering by a harpoon. Reizenstein’s music is gloriously all out here, filled with pounding intensity and booming chords. Kharis disarms Banning and begins to strangle him, when Isobel enters the room and screams. Kharis looks at her and Reizenstein’s evocative main theme kicks in, redolent of all things Ancient Egypt. With this piece of music, we know Kharis is looking at the visage of his beloved Princess. The whole sequence is a wonderful textbook example of how effective good film music can be.

According to the Little Shoppe of Horrors, “The Mummy” played in the United States on a double feature with Universal’s odd vampire western “Curse of the Undead (1959). If I was a kid back then and knew that double feature was coming, I would have been unable to sleep for weeks. “Curse of the Undead” has a lot wrong with it, but not the poster. It’s one of my all time favorite posters. Isn’t this stunning?

Hammer followed with other mummy movies with middling success, but none to match the timeless appeal of their first one. It’s one of the best films from the studio and one of the great Gothic horror masterpieces of all time. A wonderful movie.

Taste the Blood of Angels & Demons; Other Weekend Viewing

A much too late recap of movie viewing over the Memorial Day weekend.

Taste the Blood of Dracula

It’s Hammer Time.

Another Dracula flick, this one the gloriously titled “Taste the Blood of Dracula” (1970) again with Christopher Lee baring his fangs at some of Victorian England’s loveliest ladies, including the delectable Linda Hayden.

Hayden plays Alice, whose father (Geoffrey Keen, a familiar face from several of the Roger Moore 007 movies) is symbolic of Victorian hypocrisy. Along with two friends, these three men enjoy the highest respectable standing in their communities when not visiting a brothel to taste the darker side of life. They meet Lord Courtney (a wonderfully cast Ralph Bates), the black sheep of an aristocratic family, one whom all sorts of unearthly rumors are spoken about. He promises the three pleasures of the flesh that will extend into infinity if they will only front the money to buy some supplies for a ceremony to resurrect you know who.

The movie is as much a look at hypocrisy as it is a Dracula flick. Keen also has an unhealthy interest in his daughter, staring down the front of her dress and muttering in a drunken state, “I haven’t beaten you since you were a little girl.”

For the first 45 minutes or so out of its 90-minute running time, Dracula barely makes an appearance. The first half of the movie is really quite good, and it seems a shame that Dracula needs to show up at all.

The resurrection scene is nicely staged by director Peter Sasdy, but when the three chicken out at the last minute and kill Lord Courtney in a rage during the rite, Dracula comes back to avenge the death of his disciple.

Since he has limited screen time, and hardly any dialogue, Lee drags out his dialogue into as many syllables as he can.

After the first killing, he intones, “The f…i….r….s….ttttt.”

A little later on, we get, “The s….e….c…o…n….dddddd.”

Finally, “The t….h…i…r….ddddd.”

For such short words, Lee sure does drag them out for maximum effect. It sounds like I’m knocking it and I’m not. I revel in juicy line readings like these. I wish we had more of them in today’s movies.

But as I’ve said before, I fully understand why Lee doesn’t want to be remembered as Dracula. There’s not much for him to do in these movies, except lend his considerable physical presence, stare a lot and snarl.

He’s easily dispatched too, in what is probably the lamest in the Hammer series. Dracula has been using an abandoned church as his base of operations, but when it is re-consecrated again, it’s too much for him and he makes noises and falls on an altar. The basic idea is good, but director Sasdy’s handing is pretty bad. Who does this re-consecrating of the church but Paul (Anthony Corlan), the wispy boyfriend of Alice. Paul knows nothing about vampires save for what his father wrote down in a book.

This is Dracula, the King of the Vampires, done in by a kid who barely knows anything? The nerve. Being dispatched so easily, it’s a miracle Dracula has any reputation at all.

On the plus side, we get one of James Bernard’s best scores, with the love theme being one of his loveliest melodies. There’s a scene where Alice sneaks out of the house to attend a dance with Paul (against the wishes of her father), and climbs out a second-story window and down a tree into Paul’s arms, supported by a lovely treatment of Bernard’s gorgeous theme. The music, set design and lighting put one to mind of a fairy tale. Hammer Films excelled at being fairy tales for adults, and this sequence is one of the best examples I know of in showcasing the Hammer magic.

It’s a terrific film, and I’m very fond of it. But there’s more than a nagging suspicion that it would have been better without Dracula in it.

Angels and Demons

The less said about the humorless and overlong “Angels and Demons” the better. It’s more watchable than “The DaVinci Code” (2006) but that’s not saying much. It’s as contrived as all get out, which is now the norm for thrillers like this.

I do like the fact that its central hero Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) is an educated man. In a culture that celebrates stupidity and crassness, it’s refreshing to see an intelligent person not be made the butt of a joke. His exchanges of historical lore with Vittoria (Ayelet Zurer) generate some sparks between them, sparks more potent than kisses and foreplay for this highly educated duo.

As a practicing Catholic, I didn’t even object to the film’s central thesis of dark and mysterious conspiracies emanating from the Vatican. After all, I think there’s a rousing movie waiting to be made detailing the sex lives of medieval popes. But I will firmly admit to finding little entertainment in not one but two scenes of priests set on fire while still alive.

Director Ron Howard’s hand is too leisurely for this type of material. Like so many thrillers today, there’s about three climaxes too many. Each time I thought it was going to end, whoosh, off to another climax.

“The DaVinci Code” was one of the murkiest-looking big budget Hollywood movies I can remember seeing, so I was glad that returning cinematographer Salvatore Totino spent money to buy some high-quality bulbs for his lighting equipment. You can actually see what is happening this time.

Alas, we are still subjected to muddy sound recording, with too many actors delivering lines in a hushed excited manner that often makes it hard to understand what they are saying (especially true in the case of Ms. Zurer).

Also returning, unfortunately, is composer Hans Zimmer. I hated the way his scoring of the ending helicopter sequence at the end took away whatever tension the scene had. The scene goes on forever and Zimmer’s faux-inspirational scoring makes the scene appear twice as long as it already is. Rarely in the history of movies has a composer communicated so little using so many notes.

On the plus side, like the book, the movie did make me want to make a trip one day to see Italy and the Vatican. And Ewan McGregor’s Irish accent was good for a few laughs.

Operation Crossbow

Another thriller, but one with real thrills. This is more like it. Based on a true story, “Operation Crossbow” (1965) details Great Britain’s attempts to stop Germany’s rocket experiments during World War II. Germany actually launched V-1 rockets from Germany into London, causing considerable damage. Though Germany was losing the war, the successful rocket program could have gone badly for the Allies. Using engineers smuggled into the missile facility at Peenemunde, British intelligence learned of the imminent launch of a more powerful rocket, the V-2, that could have decimated London. The saboteurs are able to call in an air strike to destroy the underground rocket base.

The fiery conclusion puts one to mind of a World War II version of a James Bond movie. The underground rocket base is manned by many extras, and has the clean, shiny look of a SPECTRE facility. There’s some pretty impressive explosions on display here.

Before that, we get a taut story starring George Peppard as a German-speaking American Army engineer who joins a squad of soldiers with engineering experience in infiltrating the Peenemunde facility using the identities of dead German engineers. All is well and good until Sophia Loren shows up as the wife of Peppard’s character. Peppard pretends to be her husband’s friend and is only traveling with him, but how long can that ruse continue? Loren is top billed but is only featured in the central portion of the film. Top billing came about no doubt to the film’s producer, her husband Carlo Ponti.

Listening to the actors here was pure joy after suffering through the breathy whispers of “Angels and Demons.” Just a quick look at the supporting cast of old pros and one knows one will be reveling in crisp line readings: Trevor Howard, John Mills, Richard Johnson, Tom Courteney, Jeremy Kemp, Anthony Quayle (as a Nazi!), Lilli Palmer, Paul Henreid, Helmut Dantine, Richard Todd, John Fraser, Maurice Denham and Patrick Wymark. Every young actor in Hollywood today should watch this movie for lessons in dictation. Please, do it right now. Please?

That’s Entertainment III

“That’s Entertainment III” (1994) was the third look back at M-G-M musicals and if it doesn’t attain the glories of the first film, it’s certainly better than the second one. The third film touches on some of the less noteworthy aspects of the studio and American Society, especially in the Lena Horne-narrated segment. She notes how many of her appearances in M-G-M musicals were specialty numbers, so could be easily snipped by theater owners in the South. A number from “Cabin in the Sky” (1943) was excised from the final print as it was considered too shocking to show Horne, a black woman, enjoying a bubble bath!

The film showcases other cut numbers, mainly due to length. A splendid movie.

Equally enjoyable was the fourth disc in the DVD box set, containing all sorts of terrific extras. One shows the famous lunch in 1949 celebrating the studio’s 25th anniversary, which gathered as many M-G-M stars as possible for the event. Footage from the lunch appears in the first “That’s Entertainment” film, but here we get extra footage. Some stars look up and smile as the camera passes by, while others could barely be bothered. There’s priceless footage of host George Murphy introducing the stars as they come into the room. Right before Kathryn Grayson is introduced, in comes Errol Flynn, on loan to M-G-M from Warner Bros. to make “That Forsythe Woman” (1949), who cuts through the line, and nods to Murphy, who seems flustered that the carefully planned event has been temporarily derailed. Did bad boy Flynn sabotage the introductions on purpose, or was it an accident? I don’t know, but I was delighted to see it.

Even better is an ABC special promoting the opening of the first “That’s Entertainment” back in 1974. This was a big, old school event celebrating the Golden Age of Hollywood. Dozens of stars attended the premiere and lined up for a picture. I’ve seen the picture reproduced before, but never the gathering for the picture. Amazing stuff. Astaire, Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Glenn Ford, Elizabeth Taylor, etc. Roddy McDowall comes out with Lassie. Jimmy Durante shows up in a wheelchair and gets a huge ovation. Ava Gardner and Charlton Heston stand next to each other. Did they come right from the set of “Earthquake?” There was no love lost between the two, but they seem to be making the best of it. My favorite moment comes when Marjorie Main is introduced. She was no spring chicken when she starred as Ma Kettle, and gets one of the biggest ovations of the night. Great, great, historic footage. I was sorry to see it over.

Dracula A.D. 1972

It’s Hammer Time.

I watched “Dracula A.D. 1972” (1972, naturally) the other night and, while recognizing its faults, thoroughly enjoyed myself. When I first saw it 20-some years ago I didn’t care for it at all, and hated the “mod” aspects that Hammer brought to their Dracula films.

Now it’s almost like a period film, with the 1970s music, fashions and slang seeming almost as antiquated as the Victorian-era costumes and manners of Hammer’s earlier Dracula films.

“Dracula A.D. 1972” opens with a poorly staged and photographed prologue showing a runaway coach and fight scene between Dracula (Christopher Lee) and his nemesis Van Helsing (Peter Cushing). Dracula is impaled by a broken coach wheel and disintegrates into dust.

One hundred years later Dracula is revived by a disciple Johnny Alucard (dig that groovy spelling kids) during a black mass at an unconsecrated church. The resurrection scene here is very effective. Director Alan Gibson doesn’t skimp on the chills here. While not possessing large budgets, Hammer always made their films look good, and the abandoned church and fog-drenched graveyard adjacent to it is a marvelously atmospheric set.

At this point, the film picks up here to its credit and detriment.

Credit: Dracula starts biting members of the group that resurrected him. Scotland Yard calls in Professor Van Helsing (Cushing again) because he has helped them before on a case involving the occult, and Van Helsing’s granddaughter Jessica (Stephanie Beacham) knew the victims. Unknown to her grandfather, Jessica had been at the ceremony but fled in terror.

Detriment: Unfortunately Hammer wanted to keep the Gothic continuity of its previous films, so kept Dracula confined to the church and graveyard. Hammer was happy to bring him to 1972 but only so far. He may as well be stuck in the 1870s for all that he interacts here with modern London. This was a fatal mistake on the part of the film makers. Producer Michael Carreras takes the blame here.

Credit: Dracula’s first victim is Laura (Caroline Munro, in her first large role) and I was sorry to see her go so soon. Like many guys my age, Caroline Munro was a particular favorite growing up. She’s quite good here, and her reactions to Dracula approaching her in the church are very effective. No bimbo acting style her, her tears and cries for help seem very real. It’s too bad she didn’t stick around longer through the movie, it would have been better for it. (If Hammer knew how popular she would become, she probably would have.)

I’ve met Caroline Munro twice at conventions and a nicer celebrity I’ve never met. She’s a welcome presence in any film and I only wish she had more scenes in “Dracula A.D. 1972.”

Detriment: Christopher Lee didn’t care for the Dracula films that Hammer forced him to make and watching them, one completely understands where he’s coming from. Here he’s given hardly anything to do, sporting little dialogue, snarling his lines and being easily dispatched. By staying confined to one set, he’s hardly the Vampire King.

Credit: Peter Cushing is, as always, remarkable. He likely knows what a piece of junk he’s in, but you’d never know it from his performance here. Never condescending to the material, he gives it all he has. It’s a pleasure to hear him detail the vampire lore he possesses. Always a very physical actor, Cushing engages in fight and chase scenes with the energy of a man several decades younger.

The film’s biggest detriment is the opening society party scene, crashed by Johnny Alucard and his friends who dance to the music of Stoneground. This party scene is interminable, and goes on for what seems like days.

One year later, Warner Bros. would release “The Exorcist” and forever change the face of horror films. Entertaining romps like “Dracula A.D. 1972” to enjoy on a Saturday night out would soon be history.

There’s a lot wrong with “Dracula A.D. 1972” but a lot to like, especially the Cushing performance and the pulp-like narrative. I’ll probably watch it again sooner than more lauded classics. It’s that kind of movie.

The Devil-Ship Pirates

It’s Hammer Time!

“The Devil-Ship Pirates” (1964) has a most intriguing scenario for a swashbuckler. After the Spanish Armada is defeated, a lone battered, beaten Spanish galleon finds itself awash on an isolated portion of the English coast. While the crew attempts to repair the ship, the Spanish captain and his officers convince the nearby villagers that England has been defeated by the Spanish and they are now an occupied nation. They order the villagers to help repair the ship, which needs to be done in four days so they can sail on the next tide. They need to keep the ruse up for those four days before the villagers discover the truth. It’s like “Mission: Impossible” Elizabethan style.

It’s no world-beater, but I had an enjoyable time watching “The Devil-Ship Pirates.” It packs a lot of story and incident in its 85-minute running time.

Despite its limited budget, Hammer Studios could make its films appear a little more lavish than they are. So what that 99 percent of a pirate movie takes place on dry land? There’s still plenty of action to be had.

Christopher Lee took a break from scaring audiences and appears in good form as the supremely arrogant captain of the Spanish ship. I’ve always enjoyed Lee in his swashbuckling appearances. He wears costumes well and fences with great skill. From doing battle with Errol Flynn in “The Warriors” (1955) through his marvelous Rochefort in “The Three Musketeers” (1973) and “The Four Musketeers” (1974), and the various mid-level Hammer swashbucklers in between, Christopher Lee with sword in hand is always good for an entertaining time.

Other familiar faces from Hammer films show up, including Andrew Keir and Suzan Farmer, who would co-star with Lee a year later in “Dracula, Prince of Darkness” and Michael Ripper, co-star of far too many Hammer films to mention.

An actor named John Cairney appears as one of the villagers, the blacksmith who is not going to accept Spanish tyranny under any circumstances. His left arm is crippled but he has enough strength in his right arm to effectively wield a weapon – whatever is handy - against the Spanish. Cairney’s voice and appearance were familiar to me, but I couldn’t place him. Then about halfway through it dawned on me. He played Hylas in “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963). Some actors can claim awards or starring in a top-grossing film, but to star in a Hammer and a Harryhausen one year apart is worth about a dozen prizes.

Director Don Sharp keeps things flowing nicely, though the film does suffer from the typical Hammer failing of having its English actors speak in their normal voices, whatever the role. Here, the Spanish sailors sound like they’ve come from an audition of “Alfie.” The only way to tell the Spanish apart from the English is the Spanish sailors wear darkened skin make-up.

But that’s part of the fun of Hammer movies. You could have a Dracula flick set in Transylvania or Baron Frankenstein carving up dead bodies in Central Europe, and you still have everyone sound like they’re from the South of London.

The DVD wide-screen transfer, on a disc with three other Hammer adventure films, is a real treat. Such bright and vibrant colors! How come we can’t have color like that in movies today?

I have “The Pirates of Blood River” (1962), “The Terror of the Tongs” (1961), both starring Christopher Lee, and “The Stranglers of Bombay” (1960) (thuggees and Kali worshippers) to look forward to. Good stuff. As Charlie Brown would say, “Happiness is a Hammer movie.”

The Man Who Could Cheat Death; The Bride and the Beast

It’s Hammer Time!

From the famed British studio comes “The Man Who Could Cheat Death” (1959) a glossy horror flick about a man who has discovered the secret of eternal life. This being a horror flick, such a discovery comes with a price, in this case, killing young, beautiful women and then secreting their glands to keep him going. He looks to be in his mid-30s, but in reality he’s 104 years old.

It’s Paris in the 1880s, and Anton Diffring plays the eternal man, a sculptor who first sculpts busts of his female models before killing them. It’s a good performance from Diffring, who excelled at playing these cold, aristocratic types. His latest victim is played by the stunningly beautiful Hazel Court, whose red hair and alabaster skin made her one of the most beautiful actresses of that era. She’s a wonderful actress too; no ingénue type, but you can feel her growing love for her sculptor, not knowing what he really has in mind for her. Christopher Lee brings up the rear as a doctor who sees his sweetheart fall under the spell of the artist.

The film has a lot going for it. Good cast, great production design (Hammer always made their films look more expensive than they actually were), and evocative lighting. I particularly liked the scene where Diffring opens his safe to drink his mixture to keep from going old. A luminescent green spills over the cup and fills the screen. The mixture looks like Mountain Dew, which made me go to the refrigerator and get a Dew. See, movies can influence behavior.

On the debit side, the film is awfully talky and slow-going. Director Terence Fisher could be a marvelous director, but this is one of his weakest efforts. Horror moments are few and far between, and there’s probably one talk too many about the dangers of prolonging life. The score by the usually reliable Richard Rodney Bennett is pretty undistinguished. The film needed some good old James Bernard bombast to spice things up at the end.

“The Man Who Could Cheat Death” is based on a play by Barre Lyndon called “The Man in Half Moon Street.” (Lyndon wrote the screenplay for “The Lodger” (1944) and “Hangover Square” (1945), two of my all-time favorite Victorian melodramas.)

“The Man in Half Moon Street” was made into a movie by Paramount Pictures in 1944 with Nils Asther and Helen Walker. I haven’t seen that version in probably 30+ years and don’t remember a thing about it, but I would be interested in seeing it again and comparing it to the remake.

“The Man Who Could Cheat Death” is by no means a bad film. It’s beautiful to look at (the DVD transfer is stunning), and is very well acted. It’s just kinda dull and talky. I’m glad I saw it, but for me, its definitely one of the lesser Hammers from the period.

Rating for “The Man Who Could Cheat Death”: Two and a half stars.

Far worst, but in its own way, more watchable is “The Bride and the Beast” (1958). It’s a terrible movie, but it’s so goofy that I found myself being mildly entertained for most of its 78-minute running time.

If the following sounds like an Ed Wood movie, well, that’s because he wrote the script (but not the original story, called “The Queen of the Gorillas” from Adrian Weiss, who also directed and produced).

Laura Fuller (Charlotte Austin) and her husband Dan (Lance Fuller, there’s a male porn star name for you) spend their wedding night at Dan’s house. Dan goes into the jungle to collect specimens for zoos. In the basement is a caged gorilla named Spanky (I am so not going there).

Spanky gets the hots for Laura, breaks out of his cage and steals up to their bedroom. He rips off her nightgown before being shot by Dan. Strangely, Laura does not feel threatened by the monkey’s advances.

The next day, Laura is hypnotized by a doctor. Regressing to a past life, it is learned she was a gorilla in a previous existence; not just any gorilla, but The Queen of the Gorillas. The doctor explains to Dan this probably explains her penchant for wearing angora sweaters (yep, we’re definitely in Ed Wood territory here).

For their honeymoon Dan takes Laura into the African jungle for his next expedition. You guessed it, Laura’s presence attracts the presence of gorillas in the area, setting the stage for the nail-biting climax – will Laura stay with Dan, or will her past life take over, forcing her to stay in the jungle and reclaim her Queen of the Gorillas moniker?

Before this can be decided, we’re treated to lots and lots of stock footage of wildlife in the jungle, including ferocious scenes of tigers in action. What are tigers doing in Africa? I don’t know either, but its likely producer Weiss had the stock footage, so why let it go to waste? In the film’s defense, the tigers are explained away in a scene where Dan is told that a ship leaving Asia with a shipment of animals lost its bearings on the shoals of Africa, and all the animals got loose and were seen roaming around.

“The Bride and the Beast” is badly acted and poorly directed. Its central story idea is goofy beyond belief. It’s probably a one star movie, but because the movie has several good gorilla suits (always a big plus with me), I have to give it an extra half star. Hey, it was better than “Wanted” (2008).

Rating for “The Bride and the Beast”: One and a half stars.

The Return of Captain Invincible

Before “The Incredibles” (2004) there was “The Return of Captain Invincible” (1983), a satire about a fallen superhero’s return to grace. It’s a really odd film in many ways, and not very good, but I give it high marks for attempting to do something different.

In faux black and white newsreel footage, we see Captain Invincible (Alan Arkin), a World War II superhero fighting Nazis and earning the love and devotion of the American people. In the 1950s he is brought before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and questioned about his loyalties. What exactly was he doing operating behind the Communist lines during the war? He tries to explain he was fighting Panzer tanks, but they don’t believe him and he is branded a traitor to his country.

In disgrace, he disappears for decades until he is tracked down in Sydney, Australia, living on the streets as a bum. The President of the United States (Michael Pate) needs his help, because an arch criminal, Mr. Midnight (Christopher Lee) is set to take over the world, and America needs Captain Invincible back in action.

The first 15 minutes are smart and funny, and I thought this was going to be a real sleeper. About the 20-minute mark the film becomes a musical, when the President launches into the song “Bullshit”, the phrase repeated seemingly hundreds of times as he sings about the help he is getting from his staff. It sounds funnier than it actually is.

I think director Philippe Mora was going for a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” vibe, even hiring the composer, Richard O’Brien, of that score. The songs are pretty bad, unfortunately, but its fun to see stolid Christopher Lee cut loose in a couple of numbers.

What’s strange is this Australian film, set in Australia, filmed in Australia with an Australian crew, and loaded with “guest stars” unknown by me but obviously well known to Australian audiences, is so concerned with the American spirit. There are several scenes with Captain Invincible lamenting what went wrong with America, how can we get our spirit back, we can be the great country we used to be if we just returned to our core values, etc.

I know Australia is a good friend to the United States, but it’s just odd to me that the focus of an Australian film would be the re-birth of American ideals. (Not to mention a musical superhero satire.)

Ultimately by trying to be so many things, it doesn’t do any one thing particularly well. If the songs had been jettisoned and they went straight for the superhero satire, it may have worked better.

But high marks for trying to do something different. For all its faults, “The Return of Captain Invincible” is a one-of-a-kind movie. There hasn’t been anything like it before, or since.

Rating for “The Return of Captain Invincible”: Two stars.