The Hound of the Baskervilles

Year:  1959

Director:  Terence Fisher

Screenplay:  Peter Bryan, based on the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Starring:  Peter Cushing, André Morell, Christopher Lee, Marla Landi, David Oxley

Running Time:  87 minutes

Genre:  Mystery, thriller

According to legend, since the 1700s when notorious squire Hugo Baskerville (Oxley) met a gruesome end, the Baskerville family of Dartmoor have been cursed by a ghastly Hell Hound.  When Sir Charles Baskerville dies under mysterious circumstances, his best friend Dr. Richard Mortimer (Francis de Wolff) consults the famous detective Sherlock Holmes (Cushing) and Dr. Watson (Morell).  To make matters more urgent, the last surviving Baskerville, Sir Henry (Lee), intends to return to the ancestral seat of Baskerville Hall on Dartmoor.  Legend or no legend, Holmes is convinced that Sir Henry's life is in serious danger.

First serialised in the Strand magazine from 1901 to 1902, The Hound of the Baskervilles is probably the single best known of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's evergreen Sherlock Holmes stories, and with it's plot revolving around old family curses and iconic imagery of the huge, ghostly Hound on the mist shrouded moors a perfect choice for Britain's Hammer Films, and their signature "Hammer Horror" style.  The film sticks more or less to the plot of the original story, and the narrative moves along at a brisk pace.  Peter Cushing, who was a fan of the original Sherlock Holmes stories, makes for an energetic Holmes with a nice line in acidic retorts.  André Morell anchors the film with his charismatic, heroic Watson.  Christopher Lee is good as ever as the stern, sceptical Sir Henry Baskerville, except the scenes where he is being threatened never really seem that convincing, one of Lee's glares would be enough to send even the most fearsome Hound of Hell scampering back to it's kennel.  Marla Landi plays the mysterious Spanish born daughter of a local farmer who falls for Sir Henry's grim charms.  The film has plenty of gothic atmosphere, with plenty of mist shrouded ruins and strange lights.  The hound never really looks as fearsome as it should, however.  It's an enjoyable slice of vintage mystery with some impressive performances, and also one of the more faithful Holmes adaptations.

 Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in The Hound of the Baskervilles

Dr. Terror's House of Horrors

Year:  1965

Director:  Freddie Francis

Screenplay:  Milton Subotsky

Starring:  Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Max Adrian, Alan Freeman, Ann Bell, Peter Madden, Donald Sutherland, Roy Castle, Michael Gough

Running Time:  98 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Six strangers meet in a train carriage.  One of them, Dr. Schreck (Cushing), whose name, we're told, means "terror" in German, offers to tell the others' fortunes with his tarot deck (which he calls his "house of horrors").  His five companions are each told their grim fates in a series of stories involving werewolves, killer vines, voodoo curses, vengeful disembodied hands and vampires.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Hammer Films held British horror cinema in it's cold, undead grasp.  However one of their main competitors was Amicus Films, which had a similar look to the Hammer Films and often used the same actors (Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were both regulars in Amicus films as well as their better known Hammer films).  However Amicus usually had a contemporary setting, as opposed to Hammer's usual period settings, and they really found their niche with a series of anthology, or "portmanteau", films.  Instead of having a single narrative running throughout the film, these consisted of four or five separate short stories usually connected by a framing story.  Dr. Terror's House of Horrors was the first of these (and was followed by Torture Garden (1967), The House That Dripped Blood (1970), Tales from the Crypt (1972), Asylum (1972), The Vault of Horror (1973) and From Beyond the Grave (1974)).  These films, by their very nature, were usually something of a mixed bag, but if you weren't enjoying one story, you didn't have to wait too long for something else to come along.  As with all of these films, the title promises far more scares and gore than it delivers, it really is very mild particularly by modern standards.  The special effects are really basic, with the killer plant being someone shaking a vine off-screen, the disembodied hand is a rubber glove fitted with a pump and then there is the rubber bat bobbing along on a wire.  The cast is very eclectic with veterans such as Christopher Lee as an obnoxious art critic, Peter Cushing as the creepy fortune teller and Michael Gough, alongside Roy Castle who would later become beloved to decades of British children as the host of Record Breakers (1972-1994), jazz singer Kenny Lynch, future Hollywood star Donald Sutherland in an early role, and a rare acting role from DJ Alan "Fluff" Freeman ("Not 'arf, pop-pickers!") doing battle with killer weeds.  Everyone plays the material as best they can, providing impressive gravitas.  The stories are enjoyable, with some welcome humour.  The story with the vengeful hand is probably the best of the bunch, the worst being the voodoo story which has not aged well (even though it does feature a weird little in-joke where Roy Castle is terrified by a lurid poster for Dr. Terror's House of Horrors).  It all ends with a surprisingly eerie conclusion.  

       

Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Alan Freeman, Neil McCallum and Roy Castle in Dr. Terror's House of Horrors

Dracula

Year of Release:  1958

Director:  Terence Fisher

Screenplay:  Jimmy Sangster, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker

Starring:  Peter Cushing, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Christopher Lee

Running Time:  82 minutes

Genre:  Horror

In 1885, Doctor Van Helsing (Cushing) investigates the disappearance of his friend Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen), vampire hunter, at the Castle Dracula.   Van Helsing soon realises that Harker has fallen victim to the evil vampire Dracula (Lee) who has now set his sights on Harker's friends and family.  

Produced by the now legendary Hammer Films, this is probably the highpoint of what is known as "Hammer Horror".  It features the Hammer hallmarks of lavish production values (despite a low budget), classically trained actors, stories based on legendary horror tales, and most importantly all the blood and heaving bosoms that the 1950s censors would allow, photographed in vivid colour.  Christopher Lee turned in a star making performance as Dracula.  Lee made Dracula sexy and physical, moving from suave sophistication to demoniac monster.  Peter Cushing complements him as the rational but compassionate Van Helsing.  The film suffers from a low budget and some obvious day-for-night shooting, as well as an indeterminate sense of place where, despite being set in Eastern Europe, everyone seems to be English, but the qualities far outweigh the negatives.  Lee and Cushing became horror icons with this film.  Right from the opening images of Dracula's tomb spattered with blood this is empty of any inessentials.  This is a full blooded horror, which brought blood, fangs and sex to the vampire film.   

Christopher Lee is Dracula

Dracula: Prince of Darkness

Year of Release:  1966
Director:  Terence Fisher
Screenplay:  Jimmy Sangster (as John Sansom), story by Anthony Hinds (as John Elder), based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker
Starring:  Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Andrew Keir, Francis Matthews, Suzan Farmer
Running Time:  90 minutes
Genre:  Horror

It has been ten years since the evil vampire Count Dracula (Lee) last terrorized the good people of the Carpathian Mountains, however the toothy terror has not been forgotten, and when four English tourists decide to spend the night at the palatial Castle Dracula, they soon find themselves pitched against the newly resurrected Count, and his human servant Klove (Philip Latham).  Only gruff, boozy monk Father Sandor (Keir) knows how to stop the vampire for good.

This was the third film in Hammer Films successful series of Dracula movies, following Dracula (1958) and The Brides of Dracula (1960), and the second to star Christopher Lee in what would become, at least for awhile, his signature role (despite the title, Count Dracula does not appear at all in The Brides of Dracula).  For those who have forgotten or who missed it, Dracula: Prince of Darkness opens with a short prologue, replaying the finale of Dracula, before moving forward ten years with an arresting scene where Father Sandor brusquely stops the local worthies from staking the body of a young woman as if she were a vampire.  This is a good slice of what would become known as "Hammer Horror", and the hallmarks are all present and correct: Lavish (for the time and budget) production values, full-blooded (no pun intended) performances, vivid colour, and plenty of blood and heaving bosoms (again, considering the time).  The film suffers from it's slow patches, and the quartet that make up Dracula's prey are fairly bland (with the exception of Hammer stalwart Barbara Shelley who gives a great performance moving from nervous buttoned down Victorian lady to savagely seductive vampire).  Aside from the prologue, Christopher Lee does not appear as Count Dracula until quite late into a fairly short film and when he does, he is completely silent, with the exception of the odd hiss.  According to Lee, Dracula did have dialogue in the script, but it was so bad, that he just refused to say it.  However according to writer Jimmy Sangster, Dracula was never intended to have any dialogue, because Sangster didn't believe vampires would be particularly chatty.  Whatever the real reason, Lee still makes the most of his scenes, turning in an energetic physical performance, and Andrew Keir is good as tough, shotgun wielding monk Father Sandor.  Francis Matthews and Suzan Farmer are effective if kind of bland as Dracula's targets.  The film is very creaky by modern standards, and it all looks quite tame now, with the exception of Barbara Shelley, the female characters have very little to do, except swoon, and it's all very white.  It has some good set pieces, Dracula's resurrection scene with it's semi-religious overtones, is very effective, and surprisingly gruesome, and the watery climax is imaginative.

Christopher Lee and Suzan Farmer in Dracula: Prince of Darkness
     

To the Devil a Daughter

Year of Release:  1976
Director:  Peter Sykes
Screenplay:  Chris Wicking, John Peacock and Gerald Vaughan-Hughes, based on the novel To the Devil - a Daughter by Dennis Wheatley
Starring:  Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee, Honor Blackman, Nastassja Kinski, Denholm Elliott,
Running Time:  95 minutes
Genre:  Horror

John Verney (Widmark), an American horror author living in London, is asked by an old acquaintance, Henry Beddows (Elliott), to collect his teenage daughter, Catherine (Kinski), from the airport.  Catherine is a nun who has lived her entire life with a mysterious heretical order in Bavaria, under the control of the sinister priest, Father Michael Rayner (Lee).  Verner soon discovers that Rayner plans to make Catherine the vessel for a demonic manifestation. 

By the late 1970s Hammer Films were becoming out of date.  With bigger budget and more graphic American horror films coming out of major studios and dealing with contemporary fears, Hammer was becoming quaint and obsolete.  To the Devil a Daughter was their effort to hitch on to the success of films such as The Exorcist (1974).  The film is watchable enough, and it has some entertaining moments.  However the film lacks the campy sense of fun of the studio's previous Dennis Wheatley adaptation, The Devil Rides Out (1968).  It features a supposedly terrifying monster, which is very obviously a cheap puppet, and a ludicrously sudden conclusion.  Hollywood veteran Richard Widmark is a fairly unengaging lead and Christopher Lee is wasted in the chief villain role.  Nastassja Kinski (who was still a teenager at the time) does well with her role as Catherine, however she does have a nude scene which leaves a pretty bad taste in the mouth and sours the whole enterprise.  Particularly as Kinski has said that she was bullied into doing the scene. 
Dennis Wheatley branded the film "obscene" and banned Hammer from ever again adapting any of his books.     

Nastassja Kinski in To the Devil a Daughter

The Devil Rides Out

Year of Release:  1968
Director:  Terence Fisher
Screenplay:  Richard Matheson, based on the novel The Devil Rides Out by Dennis Wheatley
Starring:  Christopher Lee, Charles Gray, Nike Arrighi, Leon Greene, Patrick Mower, Gwen Ffrangcon-Davis, Sarah Lawson, Paul Eddington
Running Time:  95 minutes
Genre:  Horror

Set in England, in 1929, the film tells the story of the Duc de Richlieau (Lee) who learns that his friend, Simon (Mower), has become involved in the occult and is under the influence of the evil Mocata (Gray) and his coven of Satanists.  As Richlieau and his friends attempt to rescue Simon, and another young initiate, Tanith (Arrighi), from the forces of darkness they find themselves in danger from mortal and supernatural forces.

During the 1930s into the 1960s, Dennis Wheatley, dubbed the "Prince of Thriller Writers", was one of the bestselling authors around, although he is now largely forgotten.  Specialising in adventure stories, thrillers and horror novels, and was best known for his books about Black Magic, of which The Devil Rides Out was the first and most popular.
The film itself is from Britain's legendary Hammer Films and is scripted by horror novelist Richard Matheson.  It's really more of an adventure story than a proper horror tale.  While it has plenty of supernatural goings on, it has a heavy focus on car chases, narrow escapes and fist-fights.  It moves along at a fair old pace, and is entertaining enough.  Christopher Lee gives a powerful performance in a heroic role, for once, and the supporting cast all seem to be having a good time.  While there are some memorable set-pieces, the special effects are not very good, with a scene involving a giant spider more funny than frightening.  Another odd element, that was apparently pretty common in Wheatley, is that all the characters are frightfully upper class, and everyone seems to live in huge mansions, when someone asks Richlieau if he can borrow the car, he breezily replies: "Oh, just take any of them".
This is a far from perfect film, but the script is witty, it's well-made, well paced, full of action, and Christopher Lee is at his best.  If you want a couple of hours entertainment, it's worth giving it a shot.

Christopher Lee fights the forces of darkness in The Devil Rides Out     

     

The Man with the Golden Gun

Year:  1974
Director:  Guy Hamilton
Screenplay:  Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz, based on the novel The Man with the Golden Gun by Ian Fleming
Starring:  Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Maud Adams, Herve Villechaize, Richard Loo, Soon-Tek Oh
Running Time:  125 minutes
Genre:  Action, thriller, spy

This film is the ninth in the official series based on the "James Bond" novels by Ian Fleming, and the second to star Roger Moore as the British super-spy.  In this entry, Bond receives information that he is the latest target of legendary hit-man Francisco Scaramanga (Lee), who charges a million dollars a kill and always uses a trademark golden gun.  Bond decides to kill Scaramanga first, and so sets off on a hunt through Beirut, Hong Kong and Bangkok only to discover that Scarmanga's real plot threatens far more than just him.

This film is not the best in the series by any reach and is pretty much average for a 1970s James Bond film.  I have to say I have always enjoyed a James Bond film.  They are pretty much the cinematic equivalent of , not really a Big Mac and fries, something more British than that, fish and chips wrapped in newspaper.  Fun at the time, not particularly nutritious at all and you couldn't really sit through too much at one time, but enjoyable, even if there's not much to trouble the memory after you've seen it.  Although, more recently with Daniel Craig in the lead role, the films have been taking on a more complex, darker and contemporary quality.

This film features the usual Bond film mixture of glamour, guns, girls and gags, with some wonderful exotic picture postcard locations.  It's very much a product of it's time with the 1973 energy crisis being a major theme in the plot, as well as using several elements from the martial arts films that were hugely popular at the time.  1970s daredevil Evel Knievel even gets a namecheck at one point when Bond jumps a river in a car, a sequence which is ruined by a ludicrously comical sound effect.  As with many of the 1970s Bond films the humour doesn't really gel very well with ther action.  One of the problems was that Roger Moore was better at the comedy than he was at being an action man.

Christopher Lee, who was a stepcousin to Ian Fleming and knew him fairly well, steals the film as the urbane villain Scaramanga and Herve Villechaize, as Scaramanga's diminutive assistant Nick Nack, also makes an impression.  One of the film's main problems is the female characters.  Britt Ekland appears as the main "Bond Girl" who is portrayed as the stereotypical "dumb blonde" and is there mainly to get kidnapped, cause chaos and look good in a bikini.  She is also the target of what is probably the most sexist scene in the whole of the James Bond series, and if you know the Bond films then you'll know that is really saying something, when she is angry at Bond's liaison with femme fatale Maud Adams and Bond cheerfully replies "Don't worry, darling, your turn will come."  Probably to most people that line would come across as a slightly coded request for a smack in the mouth, but surprisingly she doesn't hit him.  The film also features an irritating racist redneck stereotype sheriff (Clifton James) who appeared in the previous Bond film Live and Let Die (1973).  Intended to be comedic, he serves no purpose here except to be annoying.  The theme song, perfomed by Lulu, marks one of the low points for the Bond theme songs.  The lyrics are just so full of innuendo it becomes quite funny.

The film is too long, and the storyline could have done with tightening up, but then the important thing with Bond movies is not their stories.  This is watchable enough for fans though, and when the film tries to be serious and deliver a few thrills it can be quite good, and a couple of the set-pieces are genuinely impressive.  It also features at least one genuinely great line from Bond' boss "M" (Bernard Lee).  Whne Bond asks who could possibly want to kill him, "M" snaps back:  "Jealous husbands, humiliated chefs, outraged tailors.  The list is endless."

Christopher Lee and Roger Moore in The Man with the Golden Gun           

Season of the Witch

Year: 2010
Director: Dominic Sena
Screenplay: Bragi F. Schut
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Stephen Campbell Moore, Claire Foy, Robert Sheehan, Ulrich Thomsen, Stephen Graham, Christopher Lee
Running Time: 98 minutes
Genre: Period, action, adventure, horror

Summary: In the 14th Century, two knights fighting in the Crusades, Behman (Cage) and Felson (Perlman), are sickened by the slaughter of innocent people, including women and children, and so decide to leave. Returning home to Europe as deserters, they find their homeland ravaged by the Black Death. Arriving in a town, they are soon arrested, but are offered a pardon if they agree to help transport a young woman (Foy) accused of witchcraft, and who the town's priests believe caused the Black Death by sorcery. The knights are to take her on a dangerous six day journey to a remote monastery where she is to be put on trial and where it is believed the monks will be able to undo her magic. They are accompanied by a third knight (Thomsen), a priest (Moore), an altar boy who wants to become a knight (Sheehan) and a convicted swindler (Graham) who is to serve as a guide. As they embark on their already perilous journey, they soon disover that, despite being bound in chains and held in a cage, their prisoner is not as defenceless as she appears.

Opinions: This movie blends road movie, buddy movie, supernatural horror and medieval action-adventure. However, it is less than successful. Nicolas Cage is not a bad actor at all, he can be very good, but he is annoyingly inconsistent, and it is fair to say that he has made more than his share of turkeys. Certainly he does not convince as a fourteenth century knight. Ron Perlman, however, is impressive as his fellow knight, who provides the film with much needed screen presence and intentional humour. Claire Foy, best known from the BBC television version of Little Dorrit (2008), is impressive as the accused woman, managing to appear both innocent and sinister. In fact, it is a real pity that she is not given more to do.
Visually, it ranges from beign quite good, to some truly horrendous special effects. The producton design is quite effective though and the senes shot on location look good.
The script is very silly in places, and it is not particularly scary. However, there is enough action, and both intentional and unintentional humour, to keep up the interest. The movie will probably become a cult film in the future and is probably best checked out when it is shown on late night TV.


Nicolas Cage in Season of the Witch