JOHN GUILLERMIN DIRECTS RICHARD ROUNDTREE 'SHAFT IN AFRICA'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlHJRJE-A1RbYZbYI8FLde9fduyVRHbxaxDNS0sVTvbFZQ82i2WksQrhoTRKtNBL_ZWbYxcVsO8YarNJ1I9QCKxAgXIrfAyIFIWuajYPGCFMKk_oE1yb7xkizA19iwt0dYKzbvokFkmqZVvrorgj4fxSyseC-1T7LZzXQfNEQXiwdnKLwA4T6EcXoAl54H/s1294/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-02%20at%208.57.43%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="1294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlHJRJE-A1RbYZbYI8FLde9fduyVRHbxaxDNS0sVTvbFZQ82i2WksQrhoTRKtNBL_ZWbYxcVsO8YarNJ1I9QCKxAgXIrfAyIFIWuajYPGCFMKk_oE1yb7xkizA19iwt0dYKzbvokFkmqZVvrorgj4fxSyseC-1T7LZzXQfNEQXiwdnKLwA4T6EcXoAl54H/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-02%20at%208.57.43%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Richard Roundtree from SHAFT IN AFRICA Year: 1973 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Director John Guillermin's SHAFT IN AFRICA is such a deliberate espionage/spy movie, at one point the title character... who originated on paper before being adapted into one of the first blaxploitation heroes... is told to (after he actually references James Bond) burn his mission after reading...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>To pose as an African in Africa to be taken into a European slave-trade, which sounds more complicated than it really is... as this final SHAFT sequel's basically one handed-off desert-traipsing adventure sequence after another...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, blaxploitation, espionage, frank finlay, frank mcrea, john guillermin, neda arneric, richard roundtree, seventies, shaft, vonetta mcgee

JOHN GUILLERMIN DIRECTS RICHARD ROUNDTREE 'SHAFT IN AFRICA'

Richard Roundtree from SHAFT IN AFRICA Year: 1973 Rates: ***1/2 Director John Guillermin's SHAFT IN AFRICA is such a deliberate espionag...

JOHN GUILLERMIN'S 'THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN' WITH BEN GAZARRA

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGzNP0XqbXX9lYFs7JEbEOsq4bs8SI9AQuBjBkNNqkLS6N1A6zYDVmDpBXi7S_Jd4URsKbjKMzwLSXQuvhwGGD84mEAMBjtRyC9XmOZVTT6YKUqistWW-9HYrJ6AGEwsUXNmwvAFChM4X4JV7mGX3cvQDaCHDRHu10T7nf1YAs7vwFywV9TpOx_zdpyS_B/s1554/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-30%20at%2011.06.04%20PM%203%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="1554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGzNP0XqbXX9lYFs7JEbEOsq4bs8SI9AQuBjBkNNqkLS6N1A6zYDVmDpBXi7S_Jd4URsKbjKMzwLSXQuvhwGGD84mEAMBjtRyC9XmOZVTT6YKUqistWW-9HYrJ6AGEwsUXNmwvAFChM4X4JV7mGX3cvQDaCHDRHu10T7nf1YAs7vwFywV9TpOx_zdpyS_B/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-30%20at%2011.06.04%20PM%203%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>George Segal and Ben Gazzara in The Bridge at Remagen Year: 1969 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>George Segal had already played a resilient soldier in a World War II movie, KING RAT, who scrounges off the dead and unlucky to make money from the living...<br><br>Which is Ben Gazarra's scene-stealing maverick role in British director John Guillermin's THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN as secondary-lead to Segal's authority-hating, war-weary lieutenant...</p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

anna gaël, ben gazzara, bo hopkins, bradford dillman, e.g. marshall, george segal, hans christian blech, john guillermin, matt clark, robert logan, sixties, steve sandor, world war II

JOHN GUILLERMIN'S 'THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN' WITH BEN GAZARRA

George Segal and Ben Gazzara in The Bridge at Remagen Year: 1969 Rates: *** George Segal had already played a resilient soldier in a World W...

NEDA ARNERIC SPREADS 'VENOM' IN 'THE LEGEND OF SPIDER FOREST'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhzanOkC1P0rZLkGQFEj_9vZPfK1AxtHmiQ0rL5_aAnr7zYtgC_hLnXLK9CZptSOGpRPMNAakzdd5iHtbJLOIzyZbth7sUqz9qHCYEtatKwmaYrdb7AxX_zkVMgFsK2sm4Dg0BER4R-U86rv8OshWcybp-MiK0r6p-RlbKHnq04AdE7onjTZWlrOLPFriI/s1042/1%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="1042" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhzanOkC1P0rZLkGQFEj_9vZPfK1AxtHmiQ0rL5_aAnr7zYtgC_hLnXLK9CZptSOGpRPMNAakzdd5iHtbJLOIzyZbth7sUqz9qHCYEtatKwmaYrdb7AxX_zkVMgFsK2sm4Dg0BER4R-U86rv8OshWcybp-MiK0r6p-RlbKHnq04AdE7onjTZWlrOLPFriI/s16000/1%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Neda Americ in VENOM Alternate: THE LEGEND OF SPIDER FOREST Year: 1971 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>After the grainy, low-budget VENOM aka THE LEGEND OF SPIDER FOREST, British director Peter Sykes landed a job for legendary British horror production Hammer for <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/02/BEAT-hammer-GIRL.html">DEMONS OF THE MIND</a>, with more money, bigger names and continuing the psychological-horror sub-genre, only VENOM is a lot more affective... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Mostly set in a tree-shrouded, shade-soaked, shadow-splintered forest where lovely Neda Arneric (a combination of Sarah Miles and Mia Farrow) plays Anna, a nature-traipsing wild girl with an enigmatic spider tattoo on her shoulder, following bland/handsome journalist Simon Brent around until he winds up, seemingly safe in a local tavern where, once back in the forest, he has more problems connected to a gang of muscularly rural locals liken to the 60's British thriller <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2022/05/shuttered.html">THE SHUTTERED ROOM</a>, only these guys are no (and there really needed someone intriguing like an) Oliver Reed...</p><p><span></span></p>

british, cult, horror, neda arneric, peter sykes, rural, seventies, sheila allen, simon brent, spiders

NEDA ARNERIC SPREADS 'VENOM' IN 'THE LEGEND OF SPIDER FOREST'

Neda Americ in VENOM Alternate: THE LEGEND OF SPIDER FOREST Year: 1971 Rating: *** After the grainy, low-budget VENOM aka THE LEGEND OF SPID...

RALPH BATES & MARTINE BESWICK AS 'DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDXV6wf_o3fue_zRc_6o0PJoJHrJQGmLhzpvOcM_s_rSrZ6vs4Lm8taiyrQYFgP3Wc344bSD8kvzY4lHqHCOmvHj6v3-M0lOqw8ooBX3dKNU3z9mHB0kzhSlO39gSQWsx0ref6LIRq34oA7CK52qpqJDYGIFVMaOaGOZLiDvbbLLpnYHXtw1CcePn5TKr5/s2132/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-15%20at%206.54.25%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="2132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDXV6wf_o3fue_zRc_6o0PJoJHrJQGmLhzpvOcM_s_rSrZ6vs4Lm8taiyrQYFgP3Wc344bSD8kvzY4lHqHCOmvHj6v3-M0lOqw8ooBX3dKNU3z9mHB0kzhSlO39gSQWsx0ref6LIRq34oA7CK52qpqJDYGIFVMaOaGOZLiDvbbLLpnYHXtw1CcePn5TKr5/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-15%20at%206.54.25%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Martine Beswick in DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE Year: 1971 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Seeking a new face during the late 1960's and early 1970's, Ralph Bates was supposed to be Hammer's young resurgence of Christopher Lee and/or Peter Cushing... yet he never completely fit since he tried too hard to be the new antagonistic seducer... which made his role as the half-titular DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE his best, portraying Jekyll with a naturally grounded hybrid of blandly subtle and intensely neurotic...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>With the novelty of turning into a girl instead of his own male alter-ego... and while their new studio exteriors looks more television-based than the plush-colored Victorian big-screen splendor of their prime, HYDE surpasses most of Hammer's 1970's vehicles competing with the R-Rated exploitation era... <br></p><span></span>

gerald sim, hammer films, horror, lewis fiander, martine beswick, ralph bates, seventies, susan brodrick, thriller

RALPH BATES & MARTINE BESWICK AS 'DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE'

Martine Beswick in DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE Year: 1971 Rating: ***1/2 Seeking a new face during the late 1960's and early 1970's...

ERIC PORTER & ANGHARAD REES IN HAMMER'S 'HANDS OF THE RIPPER'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO__VF_ZKqOIsDJRswzLylcX5e5VYnvX65x51sDDcASH6iMFAvEExaJZ-pGQTq2KW0IJm_jnFEHsNmf41wugVXMbDlo0WI42LJoLBQ3dVsYJdNzL0UTzuyOfWAGIzL93E0srtg2zebxwYzHV_VS8uaz1tiA7k_bJVnsKxsuKdSYNusJPFSHgzwXdwH3Zcs/s1334/1%202%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="1334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO__VF_ZKqOIsDJRswzLylcX5e5VYnvX65x51sDDcASH6iMFAvEExaJZ-pGQTq2KW0IJm_jnFEHsNmf41wugVXMbDlo0WI42LJoLBQ3dVsYJdNzL0UTzuyOfWAGIzL93E0srtg2zebxwYzHV_VS8uaz1tiA7k_bJVnsKxsuKdSYNusJPFSHgzwXdwH3Zcs/s16000/1%202%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: HANDS OF THE RIPPER Year: 1971 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In 1971, Hammer Films managed to get two films centering not really on Jack the Ripper himself, but his legacy: in <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2025/01/hammerhyde.html">DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE</a>, the Robert Louis Stevenson-based antagonists slay like Jack in the fog-shrouded England, while HANDS OF THE RIPPER only opens with Jack murdering his wife, witnessed by young daughter Anna, who would (after being raised by an abusive charlatan) grow into the titular RIPPER... <br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But not intentionally, since all the killings occur during hypnotic spells after a psychologist... played by stern-faced character-actor Eric Porter, bringing a more cerebral, stage-like sophistication in the absence of legendary regulars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee... adopts the teenage Anna played by Angharad Rees, who's both girl-next-door-lovely (with <i>a touch of</i> Tuesday Weld) and intensely-enigmatic...</p><p><span></span></p>

angharad rees, april wilding, body-count, derek godfrey, eric porter, hammer films, horror, jane merrow, lynda baron, seventies

ERIC PORTER & ANGHARAD REES IN HAMMER'S 'HANDS OF THE RIPPER'

Title: HANDS OF THE RIPPER Year: 1971 Rating: ****1/2 In 1971, Hammer Films managed to get two films centering not really on Jack the Ripper...

RICHARD BASEHART STANDS PAUL DOUGLAS IN 'FOURTEEN HOURS'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ-IVNrm9-qXO7eflkRquYkyxJea0b4AKHfA2fSy1sJ9Asdg861TnTuWD9m2WZaJS8tt7y7q_3jLilHIrbDYuUAJs4KckJwirSuiwLRIwwzuhHP2mR_40ygCB0uRuYKJe0C0HSXP-XqJ60OuTWqKUWaRbhIRGp2gbOIgi4aInEYjW66avjY1VKdKbB88eG/s1788/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-28%20at%208.37.33%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="1788" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ-IVNrm9-qXO7eflkRquYkyxJea0b4AKHfA2fSy1sJ9Asdg861TnTuWD9m2WZaJS8tt7y7q_3jLilHIrbDYuUAJs4KckJwirSuiwLRIwwzuhHP2mR_40ygCB0uRuYKJe0C0HSXP-XqJ60OuTWqKUWaRbhIRGp2gbOIgi4aInEYjW66avjY1VKdKbB88eG/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-28%20at%208.37.33%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Richard Basehart in FOURTEEN HOURS Year: 1951 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The sparse poster for FOURTEEN HOURS has a rendering of Barbara Bel Geddes' screaming face looking up, surrounded by the hands of a clock, misleading in two aspects: that this intriguing film noir is a high-octane/race-against-time thriller, and that Barbara has a large role, actually only turning up in the last fifteen minutes...<br><br>Of a movie that, directed by Henry Hathaway, is more a social commentary dealing less about troubled would-be jumper Richard Basehart, standing on a hotel ledge threatening suicide, and more about affable working-man's beat cop Paul Douglas, the only person Basehart trusts to possibly talk him down while his lawman superiors (and several psychologists) are desperately meandering on the sidelines...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>

barbara bel geddes, debra paget, fifties, film noir or melodrama, grace kelly, howard da silva, james warren, jeff corey, jeffrey hunter, john randolph, paul douglas, richard basehart, thriller

RICHARD BASEHART STANDS PAUL DOUGLAS IN 'FOURTEEN HOURS'

Richard Basehart in FOURTEEN HOURS Year: 1951 Rating: ****1/2 The sparse poster for FOURTEEN HOURS has a rendering of Barbara Bel Geddes...

WILLIAM LUCAS & JOHN RUTLAND WEATHERING 'CALCULATED RISK'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxOiKr5iZKVCfke243dJUBlNVeJBmqw_I4WXsNTQ8SCXgw_K1WnFMoImQIR9k9QJRZhuvs12kdYFKJqecMylAzZqXYIIVdKOLaXcqhxTVJrhNf4CCef-YHFH8bWESukDBGMUARN2WIYo-Pl2VvAIgchdPnn6R9xOG_Ba1mVtpklnfa94udDxCbxC6l3w/s2122/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%204.59.37%20AM-1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1203" data-original-width="2122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxOiKr5iZKVCfke243dJUBlNVeJBmqw_I4WXsNTQ8SCXgw_K1WnFMoImQIR9k9QJRZhuvs12kdYFKJqecMylAzZqXYIIVdKOLaXcqhxTVJrhNf4CCef-YHFH8bWESukDBGMUARN2WIYo-Pl2VvAIgchdPnn6R9xOG_Ba1mVtpklnfa94udDxCbxC6l3w/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%204.59.37%20AM-1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>William Lucas in CALCULATED RISK Year: 1963 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Low-budget thriller has <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/02/gimme-a.html">THE BREAK</a> baddie and overall capable <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/british%20new%20wave">British New Wave</a> actor William Lucas in CALCULATED RISK, a hybrid of THE ASPHALT JUNGLE as a newly-released older short guy has big plans for a big heist (John Rutland doing Sam Jaffe) and LARCENY INC since they must dig through a pair of locations to reach the targeted goal... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Which aren't stores but bombed-out houses from twenty-years past, leading to a lucrative bank vault while Lucas, as a sophisticated yet crooked businessman (like ASPHALT backer Louis Calhern), who really doesn't need the bread (unlike Calhern and more like shifty Marc Lawrence), heads up a group of thugs resembling dockyard barflies...<br> </p>

british neo noir, british new wave, caper, dilys watling, george martin, heist, john rutland, sixties, suspense, terence cooper, thriller, warren mitchell, william lucas

WILLIAM LUCAS & JOHN RUTLAND WEATHERING 'CALCULATED RISK'

William Lucas in CALCULATED RISK Year: 1963 Rating: ***1/2 Low-budget thriller has THE BREAK baddie and overall capable British New Wave a...

LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM LUCAS IN 'TOUCH OF DEATH'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigBh1PkLw6km1RmRjArGxlyt7LgzGfGmQrRtiOPZDNsDQUpL0OjbpSOB_qR_HDCAk7be4u7zV8W5aRVOFerExpa594MSu1Hj1vHSlvg5hVgm5-F9dL1jMwjFao7YERijvjHoCrXRKDwaWWHsIM4Cs9s7pLsZxGXIhYk4rgr32pISgLaOJoFdzs0MtkGXT0/s1920/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-22%20at%2011.40.27%20PM-1%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1132" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigBh1PkLw6km1RmRjArGxlyt7LgzGfGmQrRtiOPZDNsDQUpL0OjbpSOB_qR_HDCAk7be4u7zV8W5aRVOFerExpa594MSu1Hj1vHSlvg5hVgm5-F9dL1jMwjFao7YERijvjHoCrXRKDwaWWHsIM4Cs9s7pLsZxGXIhYk4rgr32pISgLaOJoFdzs0MtkGXT0/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-22%20at%2011.40.27%20PM-1%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>William Lucas in Lance Comfort's TOUCH OF DEATH Year: 1961 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Four years after TOUCH OF DEATH, when British b-movie director directed British tough guy actor <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/02/gimme-a.html">William Lucas in THE BREAK</a>, he never reached the boat that would take him to freedom... which happens here after a somewhat rushed gas station safe heist, in which to blast the thing open, a poison's used...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Making DEATH a combination of several American film noirs (that inspired these kind of British kitchen-sink crime-fillers of the late-1950's/early-1960's), from CITY OF FEAR bringing in the poisoned crooks/race-against-time element; THE ASPHALT JUNGLE with a safe cracking heist backed by a troubled old rich man (a subplot that comes to nothing)...</p><p><span></span></p>

british neo noir, crime, david sumner, heist, jan waters, lance comfort, roberta tovey, sixties, william lucas

LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM LUCAS IN 'TOUCH OF DEATH'

William Lucas in Lance Comfort's TOUCH OF DEATH Year: 1961 Rating: ***1/2 Four years after TOUCH OF DEATH, when British b-movie director...

MEL BROOKS PRESENTS DAVID LYNCH'S ICONIC 'THE ELEPHANT MAN'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh-z-YOkkJdTZ9nmgkZ0ZrfHRN6Sqkw1b9Q0ORg2a6dkbOTunWlYiLqzZWpiO5m-Q-Erk2qAzJm3YErGniwUOhZ5gpwhebH7jnga0DzlWeNx_kF_7w8E9X-ftxLvWxtKVpu5UXHB-cP5F-J0S0lDH33YTZN0dHDz-v-c8f6Rv8pqeiQi8Q6locj4tGUxDz/s1786/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-22%20at%201.37.58%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="792" data-original-width="1786" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh-z-YOkkJdTZ9nmgkZ0ZrfHRN6Sqkw1b9Q0ORg2a6dkbOTunWlYiLqzZWpiO5m-Q-Erk2qAzJm3YErGniwUOhZ5gpwhebH7jnga0DzlWeNx_kF_7w8E9X-ftxLvWxtKVpu5UXHB-cP5F-J0S0lDH33YTZN0dHDz-v-c8f6Rv8pqeiQi8Q6locj4tGUxDz/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-22%20at%201.37.58%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Anthony Hopkins in David Lynch's THE ELEPHANT MAN Year: 1980 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>After the bleak B&W, nightmarishly bizarre ERASERHEAD, otherwise comedy producer Mel Brooks hired offbeat auteur David Lynch to provide 1880's England the same kind of Industrial-doomed, smokestack-bursting aesthetic...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yet what's expected of Lynch's signature weirdness (before and after), THE ELEPHANT MAN mostly plays out like an against-the-odds high school bully flick... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

anne bancroft, anthony hopkins, british, david lynch, eighties, freddie francis, freddie jones, frederick treves, hannah gordon, history, john geilgud, time period

MEL BROOKS PRESENTS DAVID LYNCH'S ICONIC 'THE ELEPHANT MAN'

Anthony Hopkins in David Lynch's THE ELEPHANT MAN Year: 1980 Rating: **** After the bleak B&W, nightmarishly bizarre ERASERHEAD, oth...

VILLAINOUS OLIVER REED AND KLAUS KINSKI BITING INTO 'VENOM'

<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC8ju3yKCxQfiIQzger758e-boCfKIZi8J33q4CoTF7oLck4JK1BQhTKZW_sgugbYtMiFCBR9bw9yc1WA1yIsY96IISeM4Jr6p6tK-MC3SLMLFqO6MlhyphenhyphenXQGmRt5XD4K6fPJnI7SVEHl5zSpJU6QNpXWKBi3fk-D9W74ZhhtCESFft5kUW88ioG6dejR9w/s1454/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-20%20at%2011.51.03%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="692" data-original-width="1454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC8ju3yKCxQfiIQzger758e-boCfKIZi8J33q4CoTF7oLck4JK1BQhTKZW_sgugbYtMiFCBR9bw9yc1WA1yIsY96IISeM4Jr6p6tK-MC3SLMLFqO6MlhyphenhyphenXQGmRt5XD4K6fPJnI7SVEHl5zSpJU6QNpXWKBi3fk-D9W74ZhhtCESFft5kUW88ioG6dejR9w/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-20%20at%2011.51.03%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: VENOM Year: 1981 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: small;">In England, a sickly child and his grandfather are overtaken by the help in their family estate: Earlier that day, the boy picked up the wrong snake from a pet shop: A</span><span style="font-size: small;">nd now a</span><span style="font-size: small;"> deadly Black Mamba slithers around, mostly inside the vents for a snake-eye viewpoint...</span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: small;">A clever enough premise for a group of otherwise shady and hardened DESPERATE HOURS-inspired characters to be paranoid and terrified while cloistered in a doubly-dangerous setting...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span></span></p>

cornelia sharpe, creature, drama, eighties, exploitation, horror, hostage, klaus kinski, nicol williamson, oliver reed, sarah miles, snake, sterling hayden, susan george, suspense, thriller

VILLAINOUS OLIVER REED AND KLAUS KINSKI BITING INTO 'VENOM'

Title: VENOM Year: 1981 Rating: **** In England, a sickly child and his grandfather are overtaken by the help in their family estate: Earli...

DARGIO ARGENTO PRESENTS LAMBERTO BAVA'S HORROR 'DEMONS'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinlBAoPqVQMzWnRUWuhxdNVKQySWjcACMb2qq20N5UNLJLqaWs-ghe7NiTgfJIDEa7iF1ZqzCg-zo80z67vIjaj3lpvwgrfArFHLroNpf244H6d404FEYLyr4IDM2Bs7goePRhIyi3HUpC49lMB6_4_04ds9oBVEVEyhtc0TuziR62XNbZ49BkdmseTDdo/s2208/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-22%20at%208.22.36%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="2208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinlBAoPqVQMzWnRUWuhxdNVKQySWjcACMb2qq20N5UNLJLqaWs-ghe7NiTgfJIDEa7iF1ZqzCg-zo80z67vIjaj3lpvwgrfArFHLroNpf244H6d404FEYLyr4IDM2Bs7goePRhIyi3HUpC49lMB6_4_04ds9oBVEVEyhtc0TuziR62XNbZ49BkdmseTDdo/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-22%20at%208.22.36%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: DEMONS from DEMONI Year: 1985 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>It's a shame when, after thirty-minutes, when an audience watching a violent slasher-horror picture begin dying inside the theater... practically right alongside the movie playing on the screen... one of the bloody victims tells the frenzied and confused group, who were beginning to figure out this premise on their own, "It's not the movie, it's the theater..."</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Because producer Dargio Argento's DEMONS directed by fellow Italian genre-auteur Lamberto Bava goes from this highly creative meta premise into a fight-or-die DAWN OF THE DEAD retread, inside a theater instead of a mall... including a resiliently cool black dude leader...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, bettina ciampolini, bobby rhodes, body-count, dario argento, horror, italian, lamberto bava, natasha hovey, nicoletta elmi, urbano barberini, zombie

DARGIO ARGENTO PRESENTS LAMBERTO BAVA'S HORROR 'DEMONS'

Title: DEMONS from DEMONI Year: 1985 Rating: ***1/2 It's a shame when, after thirty-minutes, when an audience watching a violent slasher...

DONNA DENTON & REBECCA FERRATTI SHARING 'OUTLAW OF GOR'

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMrcyqKNXmg2Od1hF_Q2hUAJOzIPGipiqZgSod55YWBO2AsdF6X-iSKiOovtu9VXLciPYR7_vS3G0t3w3L5beV7XRYK5sMaCZrkiG56Ab-VDO_YPPa3sWI4CbIRgE8X3JWw2iThInXY34mLkc_Or_q7cOuTIMtmmmbFS1Op6OtZY2mFvxhkXS-4OAOjEiW/s2094/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-18%20at%203.21.57%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1084" data-original-width="2094" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMrcyqKNXmg2Od1hF_Q2hUAJOzIPGipiqZgSod55YWBO2AsdF6X-iSKiOovtu9VXLciPYR7_vS3G0t3w3L5beV7XRYK5sMaCZrkiG56Ab-VDO_YPPa3sWI4CbIRgE8X3JWw2iThInXY34mLkc_Or_q7cOuTIMtmmmbFS1Op6OtZY2mFvxhkXS-4OAOjEiW/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-18%20at%203.21.57%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: OUTLAW OF GOR aka GOR II Year: 1988 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>Cannon's fantasy exploitation GOR was more obviously leading towards a sequel than even the original STAR WARS... instead of just Darth Vader's tie-fighter flying off into space, there were several villains intentionally leading to a direct followup, played by last-minute cameo Jack Palance and the extremely beautiful Donna Denton...<br><br>Both taking the menacing mantle formerly handled by British actor Oliver Reed... but OUTLAW OF GOR has Denton in charge, here as a climbing princess turned evil queen making the once-freed barbarian-canyon village full of enslaved slave girls once again...</p><p><span></span></p>

adventure, cannon, donna denton, eighties, fantasy, jack palance, michelle clarke, nigel chipps, rebecca ferratti, science-fiction, sequel, urbano barberini

DONNA DENTON & REBECCA FERRATTI SHARING 'OUTLAW OF GOR'

Title: OUTLAW OF GOR aka GOR II Year: 1988 Rating: *** Cannon's fantasy exploitation GOR was more obviously leading towards a sequel tha...

OLIVER REED & REBECCA FERRATTI IN THE CANNON FANTASY 'GOR'

<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8rEQKW4rOjYoz_GJWqO3fY3yTPIn8a7o3Tlk1Fjtit8YTo2MSjCvbaNKEqDrI7DXIwGiP3U9HwoPH6UeXSK7letWJzECGRuv3its9tJp5-HtA64rdhhlbNyM4s3en3LmvskgfhrRK5ZKR9JCvmB6Tb3dsKUUgFjcbdMMLH9S4aaX-D7mpsnM5awDZ_uU/s2134/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1206" data-original-width="2134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8rEQKW4rOjYoz_GJWqO3fY3yTPIn8a7o3Tlk1Fjtit8YTo2MSjCvbaNKEqDrI7DXIwGiP3U9HwoPH6UeXSK7letWJzECGRuv3its9tJp5-HtA64rdhhlbNyM4s3en3LmvskgfhrRK5ZKR9JCvmB6Tb3dsKUUgFjcbdMMLH9S4aaX-D7mpsnM5awDZ_uU/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Oliver Reed in GOR Year: 1987 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Beginning with an uptight, otherwise average-looking, spectacle-wearing professor lecturing a university classroom before being thrust into an otherworld adventure, Cannon Films' infamous GOR seems equally inspired by RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK as the more obvious CONAN similarities including scantily-clad chicks and muscular men in a barbarian world... where the professor goes from wimp to warrior, taking enough time to provide Urbano Barberini a realistically transitional performance...</p><p></p><p></p><p>Although known for having British veteran actor Oliver Reed as the spider-mask-wearing overlord, stealing what's called a home-stone for his own greed before seeking revenge on our hero for accidentally killing his son... it's brunette model/actress Rebecca Ferratti who really steals the show...<br></p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, cannon, donna denton, eighties, fantasy, jack palance, nigel chipps, oliver reed, paul l. smith, rebecca ferratti, science-fiction, urbano barberini

OLIVER REED & REBECCA FERRATTI IN THE CANNON FANTASY 'GOR'

Oliver Reed in GOR Year: 1987 Rating: ***1/2 Beginning with an uptight, otherwise average-looking, spectacle-wearing professor lecturing a u...

KATHERINE WOODVILLE & OLIVER REED 'THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGJgdHTg9jouuDL9LWn2FDTm575jdn136A8qpd2H0YNwOG5cGoQeJgeRv4B1Ek9x0Z1bSlhRvpzBEuVUaqV7HUYxug74go32_LK6VX9yl-_fCGb1Pj5fY5GC2OrZtqNtf5rQIRLut8LsK-EVpJkVTUJr0X31qrg7RXmbX3zP4Om48UqRwSPIQnam2CUjBz/s1700/2%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="1700" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGJgdHTg9jouuDL9LWn2FDTm575jdn136A8qpd2H0YNwOG5cGoQeJgeRv4B1Ek9x0Z1bSlhRvpzBEuVUaqV7HUYxug74go32_LK6VX9yl-_fCGb1Pj5fY5GC2OrZtqNtf5rQIRLut8LsK-EVpJkVTUJr0X31qrg7RXmbX3zP4Om48UqRwSPIQnam2CUjBz/s16000/2%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Katherine Woodville in THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR Year: 1965 Rating: **1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>With the seven Hammer Films featuring then-rising young star Oliver Reed, sometimes there's a feeling they didn't quite know how great a thing they had... even in his very own titular horror, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/03/reedwolf.html">CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF</a>, he doesn't appear until around forty-five-minutes (although the previous sequences are intensely entertaining)... and in <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/03/land-pirates.html">THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER</a>, he dies way too soon...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Same thing happens here, since, as the leader of a band of holed-up Indian (from India) rebels who kidnap Ronald Lewis... playing a half-Caucasian/Indian treated unfairly by fellow British soldiers led by Duncan Lamont... Reed's not supposed to be the main star, billed second to Hammer's square-jawed <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/03/SOfear.html">SCREAM OF FEAR</a> and <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/11/fullT.html">STOP ME BEFORE I KILL</a> Lewis... </p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, duncan lamont, glyn houston, hammer films, katherine woodville, oliver reed, ronald lewis, sixties, yvonne romain

KATHERINE WOODVILLE & OLIVER REED 'THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR'

Katherine Woodville in THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR Year: 1965 Rating: **1/2 With the seven Hammer Films featuring then-rising young star Oliver ...

LIZABETH SCOTT AND PAUL HENREID IN HAMMER'S 'STOLEN FACE'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinsujolPhpg8ZjniWjkhfmaYu1C8bciT0MQUqjeJD7jgsPEd3n0Ezert8DQ1Nur-cgD4Q7Sf_Di8coohaNtPE2hrDUubFHhyphenhyphenpLhcJQV6jNVtQQABg7V2YI9qO6j35oYsmd4lZLmtkIm7FvRfn621CT3vY-I1VVUR-GVLj7roOm4Jo18fnq_3dov6Sk3Fup/s1842/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-16%20at%204.23.51%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1258" data-original-width="1842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinsujolPhpg8ZjniWjkhfmaYu1C8bciT0MQUqjeJD7jgsPEd3n0Ezert8DQ1Nur-cgD4Q7Sf_Di8coohaNtPE2hrDUubFHhyphenhyphenpLhcJQV6jNVtQQABg7V2YI9qO6j35oYsmd4lZLmtkIm7FvRfn621CT3vY-I1VVUR-GVLj7roOm4Jo18fnq_3dov6Sk3Fup/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-16%20at%204.23.51%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: Stolen Face Year: 1952 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Passive CASABLANCA French actor Paul Henreid's cheated on again, here in Hammer's noirish-drama STOLEN FACE, describing how Henreid, a plastic surgeon, made a badly scarred female career-criminal look exactly like the beautiful (and surreptitiously engaged) sophisticated pianist he fell for during the first half, resembling more of a Douglas Sirk melodrama than the intended crime-thriller by Hammer's future stock auteur Terence Fisher...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Enter American import Lizabeth Scott, who turned to England what she couldn't find in America, having portrayed both good and bad girls in stateside noir films, and here she plays both... despite only the original classic pianist character baring her own famously sultry low voice, which would have fit better than dubbing the original pre-surgery Mary Mackenzie for consistency (which wouldn't matter given the initial far-fetched premise)...</p><p><span></span></p>

andre morell, fifties, hammer films, hammer noir, lizabeth scott, melodrama, paul henreid, romance, russel napier, terence fisher, thriller

LIZABETH SCOTT AND PAUL HENREID IN HAMMER'S 'STOLEN FACE'

Title: Stolen Face Year: 1952 Rating: *** Passive CASABLANCA French actor Paul Henreid's cheated on again, here in Hammer's noirish-...

TERENCE FISHER DIRECTS DIANA DORS IN HAMMER'S 'MAN BAIT'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1SuOytRPDlSILJhEvueNk1-I93rnyL42ebSQ4ASQlvrKC6XcXmV3Q81zgnowN9D5CTfeD5wRolR4wlF2d2CfYVthOw8MEH3jSFHzFK0QG9pwSSkNuSWt2nHLH3y1XTiUaSmym2beSzkQJhTVEyD2aIyDeo_Y8U-LJqGmf7oS5nLn8pEBQhQyQdxX_9AGd/s2138/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-15%20at%209.21.32%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1238" data-original-width="2138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1SuOytRPDlSILJhEvueNk1-I93rnyL42ebSQ4ASQlvrKC6XcXmV3Q81zgnowN9D5CTfeD5wRolR4wlF2d2CfYVthOw8MEH3jSFHzFK0QG9pwSSkNuSWt2nHLH3y1XTiUaSmym2beSzkQJhTVEyD2aIyDeo_Y8U-LJqGmf7oS5nLn8pEBQhQyQdxX_9AGd/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-15%20at%209.21.32%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: MAN BAIT aka THE LAST PAGE Year: 1952 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Following <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2019/05/BadBlonde.html">BAD BLONDE</a>, here's another Hammer British Film Noir dealing with a blonde: in this case, beautiful Diana Dors, where any expression wields not only a full-lipped pout, but a seductively vicious pout as the story, centering on blackmail at a high-end English bookstore, slowly... through chatty exposition dialogue... unfolds...<br><br>Dors plays Ruby Bruce, whose stunning appearance alone turns men into jelly. Although her rich boss, with a lucrative insurance policy, is tougher than most pawns: So Ruby teams with ex-convict con man Jeffrey Hart to collect the money as the slow, meticulous nature in which the plot pans out is intriguing... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

blackmail, british film noir, diana dors, fifties, george brent, hammer films, hammer noir, marguerite chapman, meredith edwards, peter reynolds, terence fisher

TERENCE FISHER DIRECTS DIANA DORS IN HAMMER'S 'MAN BAIT'

Title: MAN BAIT aka THE LAST PAGE Year: 1952 Rating: ***1/2 Following BAD BLONDE , here's another Hammer British Film Noir dealing with ...

CHRISTOPHER LEE STOKING HAMMER'S 'THE DEVIL RIDES OUT'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgezbGgOAq2Z1a1EecqiOOsCMCyxXARxFhGG8_euxEFJ7rulauI6nEY9YGVP243X_cuN_4JYFrTcPIKNZ3iLDB7GKM0VGCbPEAwJoiHWDbyD49-zcXsic-BIJAWjV3HmaPsfZ6UTg5h0SeF42_PJywaCRNm-GJ98N7rILeaXT_2niq7Tcp9iB2UquGCt-g4/s1734/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-11%20at%201.00.35%20AM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="984" data-original-width="1734" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgezbGgOAq2Z1a1EecqiOOsCMCyxXARxFhGG8_euxEFJ7rulauI6nEY9YGVP243X_cuN_4JYFrTcPIKNZ3iLDB7GKM0VGCbPEAwJoiHWDbyD49-zcXsic-BIJAWjV3HmaPsfZ6UTg5h0SeF42_PJywaCRNm-GJ98N7rILeaXT_2niq7Tcp9iB2UquGCt-g4/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-11%20at%201.00.35%20AM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christopher Lee & Nike Arrighi in The Devil Rides Out/The Devil's Bride Year: 1968 Rating: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In two of Hammer legend Christopher Lee's favorite Hammer movies, he's a regular fella, not a monster or killer... although in the <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/07/2F.html">THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL</a> he's a double-crossing scoundrel, having sex with his titular best friend's wife and suffering constant gambling debts that he talks the initially vulnerable cuckold into paying... <br><br>Yet in THE DEVIL RIDES OUT, with the same director in Hammer staple Terence Fisher, he's actually the hero... and it was Lee's own persistence to bring author Dennis Wheatley's occult novel to the big screen...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

charles gray, christopher lee, hammer films, horror, nike arrighi, occult, sixties, terence fisher

CHRISTOPHER LEE STOKING HAMMER'S 'THE DEVIL RIDES OUT'

Christopher Lee & Nike Arrighi in The Devil Rides Out/The Devil's Bride Year: 1968 Rating: ** In two of Hammer legend Christopher Le...

CHRISTOPHER LEE WITH PETER CUSHING IN 'HORROR OF DRACULA'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisSHSEEWAKGX89FRujgO2Bsg_p6jHmqdlJ3jY2ki8UUDL7dGY71phNbkrlCZRh13DH9iUwnAToArYPOg827ONDgSCJRe_YjItL3XeaCtvKNFjiI-enBQi5LphTiW7cWBK8GJPFRQdQqWKJVJ2MmyPRknmRr1h1FW0Ia6vBgXGmVH_B66cbV6KcoKptepp6/s1946/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-09%20at%2012.38.57%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1340" data-original-width="1946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisSHSEEWAKGX89FRujgO2Bsg_p6jHmqdlJ3jY2ki8UUDL7dGY71phNbkrlCZRh13DH9iUwnAToArYPOg827ONDgSCJRe_YjItL3XeaCtvKNFjiI-enBQi5LphTiW7cWBK8GJPFRQdQqWKJVJ2MmyPRknmRr1h1FW0Ia6vBgXGmVH_B66cbV6KcoKptepp6/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-09%20at%2012.38.57%20AM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Valerie Gaunt facing Christopher Lee's poster image for HORROR OF DRACULA/DRACULA Year: 1958 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>While Hammer's groundbreaking horror-remake <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2025/01/cushingcurse.html">THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN</a> proved that Frankenstein was a man and not the monster, their follow-up HORROR OF DRACULA was to also show the monstrous Dracula as a man...<br><br>And quite dashing and attractive he is... especially when Christopher Lee first shows himself, along with a barrage of sinister music, to solicitor Jonathan Harker, exactly what he's supposed to be... a gentleman wealthy enough to need someone to look over his books, getting his business in order...</p><p><span></span></p>

carol marsh, christopher lee, dracula, hammer films, horror, janina faye, john van eyssen, melissa stribling, michael gough, peter cushing, terence fisher, valerie gaunt

CHRISTOPHER LEE WITH PETER CUSHING IN 'HORROR OF DRACULA'

Valerie Gaunt facing Christopher Lee's poster image for HORROR OF DRACULA/DRACULA Year: 1958 Rating: ***1/2 While Hammer's groundbre...

PETER CUSHING CREATES HAMMER'S 'THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN'

<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZbtuqhdjT3ERevHxGNLuDwUCrhMM0pcV5ec6c-VVkOcl_gPRjEQLR8BRiwJX32gEyHqTBoFHz3qVTY-wPohU4n_jWammKgnbu_FToK1MjCY1BJ6sBTxxITExQimyxSQ4LDRwMjv6tp0ZD1jQNrz8BkJT-wuXJ9VQeJY7Quzm3T9hpBe49ofP6AV6oxOhN/s1262/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-08%20at%201.03.07%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="870" data-original-width="1262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZbtuqhdjT3ERevHxGNLuDwUCrhMM0pcV5ec6c-VVkOcl_gPRjEQLR8BRiwJX32gEyHqTBoFHz3qVTY-wPohU4n_jWammKgnbu_FToK1MjCY1BJ6sBTxxITExQimyxSQ4LDRwMjv6tp0ZD1jQNrz8BkJT-wuXJ9VQeJY7Quzm3T9hpBe49ofP6AV6oxOhN/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-08%20at%201.03.07%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN Year: 1957 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>What Hammer did for FRANKENSTEIN is made people know that, unlike what it seems having grown up with James Whale's otherwise brilliant Universal double-feature, is that that's not the name of the monster, whose name is basically, The Monster, but here he's constantly established as the Victorian-era scientist himself...<br><br>As classy and sophisticated phenom turned idealistic heir, with a castle all to himself, Victor Frankenstein begins as a frustrated teenager, and there's never been such aesthetically perfect casting from child to man...</p><p><span></span></p>

christopher lee, fifties, frankenstein, hammer films, hazel court, horror, peter cushing, robert urquhart, science-fiction, terence fisher, valerie gaunt

PETER CUSHING CREATES HAMMER'S 'THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN'

Title: THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN Year: 1957 Rating: **** What Hammer did for FRANKENSTEIN is made people know that, unlike what it seems hav...

PETER CUSHING IN HAMMER'S 'FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6K30jalFBBX6nNXMrmxGhQVvwso3dWNVvu3G0Ch4iBOlSRbap2-a1jxgtWIXhk26XzmUXTMs13UwpjV8zAxelbIzRhDvp5Q-JOc188ws4t_6hfPOHkYiCSblURPyijQ7VYdwfJV4YlUHps7GxlOwtCqAQiEdTw5n2DfYoL2iGthTII9ghNeKQAAyR4sEd/s2034/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-07%20at%208.45.37%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1388" data-original-width="2034" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6K30jalFBBX6nNXMrmxGhQVvwso3dWNVvu3G0Ch4iBOlSRbap2-a1jxgtWIXhk26XzmUXTMs13UwpjV8zAxelbIzRhDvp5Q-JOc188ws4t_6hfPOHkYiCSblURPyijQ7VYdwfJV4YlUHps7GxlOwtCqAQiEdTw5n2DfYoL2iGthTII9ghNeKQAAyR4sEd/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-07%20at%208.45.37%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED Year: 1969 Rating: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Penultimate FRANKENSTEIN film for Hammer's most prolific director Terence Fisher, who made <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2025/01/cushingcurse.html">THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN</a> that got the ball rolling a year before their more famous, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2025/01/horrordrac.html">HORROR OF DRACULA</a>, which he also directed and where Peter Cushing plays intense good guy Van Helsing...<br><br>As Baron Frankenstein, he began a kind of misunderstood idealist more than the mad, mad scientist he'd turn into... but the title of <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2025/01/FMBD.html">FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED</a> suits a film in which... for Peter Cushing and blonde <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2025/01/hipsterdrac.html">DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAV</a>E bombshell Veronica Carlson... was a catastrophe because of one quick scene...</p><p><span></span></p>

frankenstein, freddie jones, hammer films, peter cushing, simon ward, sixties, terence fisher, veronica carlson

PETER CUSHING IN HAMMER'S 'FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED'

Title: FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED Year: 1969 Rating: ** Penultimate FRANKENSTEIN film for Hammer's most prolific director Terence Fi...

CHRISTOPHER LEE IN HAMMER'S 'DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPskI6uNnYJi-leEpz-xdYtKQNXQEA2mvVazd91L35iIPxuy2Ha7P1WTxyNrIiIRwj1nNLS4RuyH4tcgqxQd6U3ALRrWWUWFpGBK9C15PzfguhE2iKsFTtSe7ANzGVGJAn9w2Na6P2ykecw7fhULmE-_kkf1hM0Y-iXwaMbpibtT3VsEuUz6BWSr70oDz/s1486/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-06%20at%203.05.29%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="1486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPskI6uNnYJi-leEpz-xdYtKQNXQEA2mvVazd91L35iIPxuy2Ha7P1WTxyNrIiIRwj1nNLS4RuyH4tcgqxQd6U3ALRrWWUWFpGBK9C15PzfguhE2iKsFTtSe7ANzGVGJAn9w2Na6P2ykecw7fhULmE-_kkf1hM0Y-iXwaMbpibtT3VsEuUz6BWSr70oDz/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-06%20at%203.05.29%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christopher Lee in DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS Year: 1966 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Opening with a jaundiced-eye view from the climax of the original, HORROR OF DRACULA, another suitable name for DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS would be HAMMER HOTEL since the basic premise is the luring of two couples into Dracula's castle and featuring two gorgeous women: one in her cautious thirties, the other her lithe-naive-twenties... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But the <i>luring</i> isn't really a temptation but rather, like most Hammer Films, tons of expository dialogue (mostly uttered by intensely bearded Andrew Kier) that, halfway through, finally gets this lost stranded foursome into the murky manor where of course, DRACULA will inevitably rise in the form of the iconic Christopher Lee...</p><p><span></span></p>

barbara shelley, body count, christopher lee, dracula, francis matthews, hammer films, horror, philip latham, sixties, suzan farmer

CHRISTOPHER LEE IN HAMMER'S 'DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS'

Christopher Lee in DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS Year: 1966 Rates: ***1/2 Opening with a jaundiced-eye view from the climax of the original, H...

CHRISTOPHER LEE & LINDA HAYDEN 'TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA'

<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNjalysZWd4PzQXbJ9S_c2SimTvEecMAHHamhoLxKS1ARLzUNSaHv4lhPnC71AdQSWz9zvzzdxNIUwtBot8WUvbaLNlNQX1gwdYvLYeAGI2ESSU2RzZyS6WJwTfrF7xn9qrNfWkHHXIiDFMR3jfUpXHi2Mq2P7ANXaXsdeIMLmFLAv1QCrTbFYkVuOl3yT/s2040/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-06%20at%201.27.20%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1114" data-original-width="2040" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNjalysZWd4PzQXbJ9S_c2SimTvEecMAHHamhoLxKS1ARLzUNSaHv4lhPnC71AdQSWz9zvzzdxNIUwtBot8WUvbaLNlNQX1gwdYvLYeAGI2ESSU2RzZyS6WJwTfrF7xn9qrNfWkHHXIiDFMR3jfUpXHi2Mq2P7ANXaXsdeIMLmFLAv1QCrTbFYkVuOl3yT/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-06%20at%201.27.20%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christopher Lee, Linda Hayden & Isla Blair Taste the Blood of Dracula Year: 1970 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Foreshadowing GHOST STORY with three older, wealthy, distinguished, sophisticated Victorian Era gentlemen who, with a curious penchant for the macabre, become involved in a strange, semi-accidental murder before being stalked and picked off one by one...</p><p></p><p></p><p>And not by Christopher Lee, returning in Hammer's TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA in which he seeks vengeance against these fathers of one young man and most importantly, two token girls/women he bites and hypnotizes... this time for a particular reason other than eternal enslavement...</p><p><span></span></p>

anthony higgins, christopher lee, dracula, geoffrey keen, hammer, hammer films, horror, isla blair, john carson, linda hayden, madeline smith, peter sallis, ralph bates, roy kinnear, seventies, vampire

CHRISTOPHER LEE & LINDA HAYDEN 'TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA'

Christopher Lee, Linda Hayden & Isla Blair Taste the Blood of Dracula Year: 1970 Rates: ***1/2 Foreshadowing GHOST STORY with three olde...

CHRISTPHER LEE VAMPING 'DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE'

<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rthS1vQ51nxcM6ueNZJeOY9fWIc3O7_zjTRz423vsVfG7Ki-_WLqIzSgc_LHgSkPcNN5aw6rA9Ggjof6k4HRJg7DDkRb81Qnf1y_cR94ssv-DBjUDt3P2Q85mv1NfUv-IGh6Ke_lDhR_iMYF0cYAjsfuz_xqwDq7qFkOUlSkUw_-BD4d7RyAXEr7KtWz/s1718/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-05%20at%2012.19.50%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="952" data-original-width="1718" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rthS1vQ51nxcM6ueNZJeOY9fWIc3O7_zjTRz423vsVfG7Ki-_WLqIzSgc_LHgSkPcNN5aw6rA9Ggjof6k4HRJg7DDkRb81Qnf1y_cR94ssv-DBjUDt3P2Q85mv1NfUv-IGh6Ke_lDhR_iMYF0cYAjsfuz_xqwDq7qFkOUlSkUw_-BD4d7RyAXEr7KtWz/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-05%20at%2012.19.50%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE Year: 1968 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Hammer's DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE came out in 1968, and the studio must have really needed younger viewers to relate with the hero as Barry Andrews looks far from the Victorian Era setting... </p><p></p><p></p><p>With a frizzy perm, groovy clothes and being a proud and confident Atheist scholar (for <i>what</i> it's never clear), his girlfriend... niece of the monsignor who accidentally resurrected DRACULA while exorcising a cursed church... is what GRAVE is really all about...</p><p><span></span></p>

barbara ewing, barry andrews, christopher lee, dracula, ewan hooper, franchise, freddie francis, hammer films, horror, michael ripper, sixties, veronica carlson

CHRISTPHER LEE VAMPING 'DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE'

Title: DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE Year: 1968 Rating: *** Hammer's DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE came out in 1968, and the studi...

PETER CUSHING TRACKS 'THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVw_Wv079ks-z9W5sruiADLjP6EKarZVqcSRKYOflGFxr-ns9kwSVQJufTIdguCjeA3zsANQAkTW0Zc17jT26CYrcT6q8oneIjHVBex2IWczxML0dVd2onm0bbkJ94Hb62sSuNEqeLQnM4EB1xupIin0LM4WuSmGuy3R9IK6Fnw6aP9S7d5fGjMInuGbT/s1956/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-04%20at%208.20.09%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="910" data-original-width="1956" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVw_Wv079ks-z9W5sruiADLjP6EKarZVqcSRKYOflGFxr-ns9kwSVQJufTIdguCjeA3zsANQAkTW0Zc17jT26CYrcT6q8oneIjHVBex2IWczxML0dVd2onm0bbkJ94Hb62sSuNEqeLQnM4EB1xupIin0LM4WuSmGuy3R9IK6Fnw6aP9S7d5fGjMInuGbT/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-04%20at%208.20.09%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: </u><u>THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES</u><u> Year: 1973 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Director Roy Ward Baker had nothing but complaints about the dank/uncomfortable sets in Hong Kong for what would bring the ENTER THE DRAGON martial arts craze into Hammer's horror, Count Dracula in particular, played by <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2024/12/vamplovers.html">THE VAMPIRE LOVERS</a> Christopher Lee surrogate John Forbes-Robinson who, during the ten-minute expository prologue, morphs into the body of roaming Satanic monk Shen Chan in order to bring together the titular LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES...<br><br>And Hammer regular Baker actually hardly used those supposedly troublesome interiors since most of GOLDEN occurs in daylight, as Cushing's college-lecturing Van Helsing ventures out with buried leads/karate-ringers David Chiang and his sister Szu Shih; Van Helsing's blandly handsome son Robin Stewart and the token Hammer blonde hottie Julie Ege...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, hammer films, horror, julie ege, karate, peter cushing, seventies, shen chan, szu shih, vampire

PETER CUSHING TRACKS 'THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES'

Title:  THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES Year: 1973 Rates: *** Director Roy Ward Baker had nothing but complaints about the dank/uncomfo...

INGRID PITT AS HAMMER'S 'COUNTESS DRACULA' WITH NIGEL GREEN

<p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL7MD37uO-L_oJWNaEM-nhbRiYRni4NQCSTcaoafx6axk7G1EHu5SpYtAj_mmd3vXZL0FGv39_ztMP_10ImJYHl85bxY6Hgqs2YMQzdwTfnDRMuT9EsL0mv6tu49cQaVKwRZorxwTRcZTll7pgR3A05Ncilqu45VsPF3nj0Qo__cmC0BiBkZZmvF9dE_Xu/s2030/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-03%20at%2010.22.52%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1222" data-original-width="2030" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL7MD37uO-L_oJWNaEM-nhbRiYRni4NQCSTcaoafx6axk7G1EHu5SpYtAj_mmd3vXZL0FGv39_ztMP_10ImJYHl85bxY6Hgqs2YMQzdwTfnDRMuT9EsL0mv6tu49cQaVKwRZorxwTRcZTll7pgR3A05Ncilqu45VsPF3nj0Qo__cmC0BiBkZZmvF9dE_Xu/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-03%20at%2010.22.52%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: COUNTESS DRACULA Year: 1971 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Hammer had a new neck-sucker in Ingrid Pitt after her tour-de-force performance in THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, and the title COUNTESS DRACULA refers not to her character or Dracula but a real life countess she's based on...<br><br>Yet the plot of a haggard rich woman needing blood from virgins to make her young and beautiful... but only for relatively small periods of time as she steals love with an otherwise oblivious handsome man, hiding away after turning even older and uglier each time... borrows straight from the decade-earlier b-movie <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/08/LeechW.html">THE LEECH WOMAN</a>...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

andria lawrence, body count, hammer films, horror, ingrid pitt, lesley-anne down, maurice denham, nigel green, nike arrighi, peter jeffrey, sandor elès, susan brodrick

INGRID PITT AS HAMMER'S 'COUNTESS DRACULA' WITH NIGEL GREEN

Title: COUNTESS DRACULA Year: 1971 Rating: ***1/2 Hammer had a new neck-sucker in Ingrid Pitt after her tour-de-force performance in THE VAM...

HAMMER FILMS PENULTIMATE HORROR 'TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDmBQ3R_8FA2uxX4misTdem9XiaB7CB1BGCzkkPPwTyXeg-gxNAMVSr_3ns3a8EmBk8Cf5LPy4cn7dsFx4ftBYf0aVacMQjKYiiBaEK5oUJ7pk1b6t57aqRBJmc_yvWSa0LW6l0GLc8LBCd4QllcAa530ODLD9MHls344uIQyoO65nj5g06rmMZVedCVN7/s1518/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-04%20at%202.15.02%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="906" data-original-width="1518" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDmBQ3R_8FA2uxX4misTdem9XiaB7CB1BGCzkkPPwTyXeg-gxNAMVSr_3ns3a8EmBk8Cf5LPy4cn7dsFx4ftBYf0aVacMQjKYiiBaEK5oUJ7pk1b6t57aqRBJmc_yvWSa0LW6l0GLc8LBCd4QllcAa530ODLD9MHls344uIQyoO65nj5g06rmMZVedCVN7/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-04%20at%202.15.02%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Nastassja Kinski in TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER Year: 1976 Rating: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Penultimate horror for one of the most famous horror studios, British's Hammer Films, has a young girl, schooled by nuns and dressed accordingly, being surreptitiously groomed into a Satanic coven care-of Hammer's biggest star Christopher Lee (who seems ready to bare fangs at any given moment) playing an ex-priest...<br><br>But the main problem with TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER... where the exploitation aspect's built right into the title, most likely to compete with THE EXORCIST... is that the novelty of a gorgeous young girl being used for Satanic/risque purposes means little since fourteen-year old Nastassja Kinski looks more like a nineteen-year-old old enough for whatever else she's being hidden from...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

christopher lee, denholm elliott, hammer films, honor blackman, horror, nastassja kinski, occult, richard widmark, seventies, thriller

HAMMER FILMS PENULTIMATE HORROR 'TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER'

Nastassja Kinski in TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER Year: 1976 Rating: ** Penultimate horror for one of the most famous horror studios, British'...

CUSHING/LEE RETURN IN HAMMER'S 'THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMLj6wsNMvmOObbLjC4P1KaZdU3v2CbQeM-op0_xy4s3Mb3q43cx0jF2nTEZFQBsv-B6e8JP_ZhOczoF6rX7TyWZECWL0K9xfd4zx6SK9nLVMXj8UHrjMlNPUIG6xlNrgrCcBEWEgiocPjuRC-8EzogmKi1fuRXzfHmKIsEnyY3Hw-8IJA3y4UB9HQJO5J/s1984/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-03%20at%207.56.07%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1048" data-original-width="1984" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMLj6wsNMvmOObbLjC4P1KaZdU3v2CbQeM-op0_xy4s3Mb3q43cx0jF2nTEZFQBsv-B6e8JP_ZhOczoF6rX7TyWZECWL0K9xfd4zx6SK9nLVMXj8UHrjMlNPUIG6xlNrgrCcBEWEgiocPjuRC-8EzogmKi1fuRXzfHmKIsEnyY3Hw-8IJA3y4UB9HQJO5J/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-03%20at%207.56.07%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Hammer's THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA shouldn't be considered Christopher Lee's seventh Dracula but his 2nd... after <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2024/12/drac72.html">DRACULA A. D. 1972</a>, which brought the famous vampire from the signature Victorian-era into the 20th Century including hippies, nightclubs, night parties and one important seance...<br><br>But that was then... and now, two years later, there's a reclusive billionaire inside a spooky corporate building shot in murky wide angle lenses... actually looking more antique Gothic than Dracula's awakening church from 1972...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

body-count, christopher lee, dracula, franchise, freddie jones, hammer films, joanna lumley, michael coles, peter cushing, thriller, vampire, william franklyn

CUSHING/LEE RETURN IN HAMMER'S 'THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA'

Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2 Hammer's THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA shou...

HAMMER'S SWINGING LONDON COMEBACK OF 'DRACULA A.D. 1972'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM7qOR0zD_28WY4P1xpRjVH_o6hAdjsh8XSzI5EjFQ8ha496EIdQlRlZt8g37HnKWqDb9oBnkM0EJDWKoXZ4NwtSnIlFhod9JuZBVojt1Am7mscTe-5WJO-KgXvADiptu0twbFTU24BHQg_FqjGDUdNp_VgpyJK4Oobgk0bk7fg_V_JPeZZuUv4orK2uKm/s1644/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-31%20at%204.28.15%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="894" data-original-width="1644" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM7qOR0zD_28WY4P1xpRjVH_o6hAdjsh8XSzI5EjFQ8ha496EIdQlRlZt8g37HnKWqDb9oBnkM0EJDWKoXZ4NwtSnIlFhod9JuZBVojt1Am7mscTe-5WJO-KgXvADiptu0twbFTU24BHQg_FqjGDUdNp_VgpyJK4Oobgk0bk7fg_V_JPeZZuUv4orK2uKm/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-31%20at%204.28.15%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Peter Cushing scolds Christopher Neame in Dracula A.D. 1972 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>A year after Hammer's progressively-sexual <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/karstein">Karstein Trilogy</a>, thrusting the classic vampire-horror into the counter-culture sensibilities while remaining in their signature Victorian Era, they finally skipped to the present, built right into the DRACULA A. D. 1972 title...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And while Peter Cushing's college professor Van Helsing heir has several long bouts of exposition and two third-act vampire battles, Christopher Lee basically hangs around at the same gothic church where he was reawakened by a young British swinger, who's basically the main character here, or at least, technically speaking, the most important...</p><span></span>

caroline munro, christopher lee, christopher neame, dracula, exploitation, hammer films, janet key, marsha a. hunt, michael coles, peter cushing, pip miller, seventies, stephanie beacham, vampire

HAMMER'S SWINGING LONDON COMEBACK OF 'DRACULA A.D. 1972'

Peter Cushing scolds Christopher Neame in Dracula A.D. 1972 Rating: ****1/2 A year after Hammer's progressively-sexual Karstein Trilogy ...

INGRID PITT STEALS HAMMER'S EXPLOITATION 'THE VAMPIRE LOVERS'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9RBRiDblClxmwWwXslzng7YwqeRNEhgpgrE-I07wsNHFAVzrWFg61w1kFLhkID7T22PP8n5gBRg_CgnA7euY5hsHDfHKmeK5hJD6HIY5C7ntz6Hf-vS8HAi8L1QzraXSQt-1vxoaGFik8jZsmVwqZK3WhwZVA93cPKBciEiV9XjpOHFJvgRYWXCL-d_e_/s2062/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-29%20at%2010.11.20%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1206" data-original-width="2062" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9RBRiDblClxmwWwXslzng7YwqeRNEhgpgrE-I07wsNHFAVzrWFg61w1kFLhkID7T22PP8n5gBRg_CgnA7euY5hsHDfHKmeK5hJD6HIY5C7ntz6Hf-vS8HAi8L1QzraXSQt-1vxoaGFik8jZsmVwqZK3WhwZVA93cPKBciEiV9XjpOHFJvgRYWXCL-d_e_/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-29%20at%2010.11.20%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Ingrid Pitt with Kate O'Mara & Madeline Smith THE VAMPIRE LOVERS Year: 1970 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>At one point in THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, Ingrid Pitt's central vampire Marcilla (then Carmilla) turns to the young, innocent and naive Madeline Smith's Emma and shouts, "You must die... Everyone must die!"<br><br>What sounded like a threat was really a kind of arthouse philosophy lesson... making THE VAMPIRE LOVERS more a Bergmaneque lesbian-fueled melodrama than the harsher followups <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2024/12/lustvamp.html">LUST FOR A VAMPIRE </a>and <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2024/12/eviltwins.html">TWINS OF EVIL</a>... later deemed <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/karstein">The Karstein Trilogy</a>... that brought Hammer Films into the naked-sexy 1970's...</p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

dawn addams, douglas wilmer, exploitation, george cole, hammer films, harvey hall, ingrid pitt, janet key, jon finch, karstein, kate o'mara, lesbian, madeline smith, peter cushing, pippa steel, seventies, vampire

INGRID PITT STEALS HAMMER'S EXPLOITATION 'THE VAMPIRE LOVERS'

Ingrid Pitt with Kate O'Mara & Madeline Smith THE VAMPIRE LOVERS Year: 1970 Rating: ***1/2 At one point in THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, Ingri...

MADELEINE COLLINSON AND MARY COLLINSON IN 'TWINS OF EVIL'

<p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp4dvej3Cj0SZRWufU4li5ysEj8Ohhr5sHs1kXgYetFc5HkYPwqeOH0zCN_G4XggHkhRSxq_ibuIVHS15OYQVDisjZ3w0xebtoN7tzpY51AAV2zqP6iqngZZhFskXLsZuiB2VS2ZFFuvRMenDbblSjXnUSjX2mwSnkrJ1NpqAbCr2gKjf5Y0qlONFLgecP/s1804/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-28%20at%204.33.31%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1804" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp4dvej3Cj0SZRWufU4li5ysEj8Ohhr5sHs1kXgYetFc5HkYPwqeOH0zCN_G4XggHkhRSxq_ibuIVHS15OYQVDisjZ3w0xebtoN7tzpY51AAV2zqP6iqngZZhFskXLsZuiB2VS2ZFFuvRMenDbblSjXnUSjX2mwSnkrJ1NpqAbCr2gKjf5Y0qlONFLgecP/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-28%20at%204.33.31%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Madeleine Collinson in TWINS OF EVIL Year: 1971 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The last in what's called Hammer's <i>Karstein Trilogy</i>, bringing their Victorian-Era horror into the sensuous sensibilities of then-modern drive-in-era 1970's with sex, lesbianism and nudity, TWINS OF EVIL defines exploitation cinema by the novelty casting of real life identical twin sisters who had famously posed for Playboy Magazine...<br><br>As the good and bad siblings, both Mary and Madeleine Collinson are equally gorgeous with full lips and cherubic cheeks (resembling American starlet <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2018/05/checkbounced.html">Leigh Taylor Young</a>)...  </p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

dennis price, hammer films, horror, isobel black, judy matheson, karstein, katya wyeth, luan peters, madeleine collinson, mary collinson, peter cushing, seventies, vampire

MADELEINE COLLINSON AND MARY COLLINSON IN 'TWINS OF EVIL'

Madeleine Collinson in TWINS OF EVIL Year: 1971 Rating: **** The last in what's called Hammer's Karstein Trilogy , bringing their Vi...

YUTTE STENSGAARD NECKING HAMMER'S 'LUST FOR A VAMPIRE'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ39KQSdlZa5Jm_JyXmBRKK6ZDcWfBqvofeQ-Y8AuHIEGKtoKtJn6W1TWEhyNM0jZ5ASuE1H0dhZ1Vo3tcRodBbkX4XZx96h8qWnCMor-ticRyy19qkhDPjGDTHmxP8FAl9wWwKERfYPkOTUt0Wqb7PZp1chM41MQ_j_wS1Nmvz6bUyF5c31a4KIvIHFjn/s1574/1%20Pippa%20Steel,%20Yutte%20Stensgaard.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1574" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ39KQSdlZa5Jm_JyXmBRKK6ZDcWfBqvofeQ-Y8AuHIEGKtoKtJn6W1TWEhyNM0jZ5ASuE1H0dhZ1Vo3tcRodBbkX4XZx96h8qWnCMor-ticRyy19qkhDPjGDTHmxP8FAl9wWwKERfYPkOTUt0Wqb7PZp1chM41MQ_j_wS1Nmvz6bUyF5c31a4KIvIHFjn/s16000/1%20Pippa%20Steel,%20Yutte%20Stensgaard.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Pippa Steel and Yutte Stensgaard in LUST FOR A VAMPIRE Year: 1971 Rating: **<br></u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Following 1970's THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and second in what's deemed The Karnstein Trilogy, Hammer continued putting the then-modern exploitation-cinema sensibilities back into their signature Victorian Age Horror with LUST FOR A VAMPIRE involving lots of nudity, some near-lesbianism and even borderline psychedelia.... at least in one dream by this vampire film's good/innocent guy, a bland writer investigating a girls' school full of bitten beauties that provides the potentially sensuous premise that's the sole reason this movie's a movie at all...<br><br>Yet VAMPIRE never goes further than wanton eye candy... a shame since former Hammer (and Amicus) starlet Suzanne Leigh's around to intensely attempt keeping younger and insanely gorgeous Yutte Stensgaard from falling for the guy (not interesting enough for a potential love-triangle or that titular LUST) who's investigation should have led to spookier scenes that are all dressed up (or taking off their clothes) with absolutely nowhere to go.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

christopher neame, exploitation, hammer films, horror, judy matheson, karstein, mike raven, pippa steel, ralph bates, seventies, suzanna leigh, vampire, yutte stensgaard

YUTTE STENSGAARD NECKING HAMMER'S 'LUST FOR A VAMPIRE'

Pippa Steel and Yutte Stensgaard in LUST FOR A VAMPIRE Year: 1971 Rating: ** Following 1970's THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and second in what'...

ISOBEL BLACK BITING HAMMER'S 'THE KISS OF THE VAMIPRE'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA2WaAJZq6_BIdx4_mFsNqEJtYVHv3WXX92lPa9L5aGLFRQLd5nnlgBVfwn-DxWoitL7cxn2TSbnWhSCUD2pWw0IURwTegWMAzFDKlMvndj4-Q9y-xWyTI0QqLbKaDD01buSMCnnJynaky9_v0H5DEg7osBgly9zE4aBpjr6-42Sm7LOpbFtX5KqeEPteF/s1388/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-26%20at%2012.22.58%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="1388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA2WaAJZq6_BIdx4_mFsNqEJtYVHv3WXX92lPa9L5aGLFRQLd5nnlgBVfwn-DxWoitL7cxn2TSbnWhSCUD2pWw0IURwTegWMAzFDKlMvndj4-Q9y-xWyTI0QqLbKaDD01buSMCnnJynaky9_v0H5DEg7osBgly9zE4aBpjr6-42Sm7LOpbFtX5KqeEPteF/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-26%20at%2012.22.58%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Isobel Black in THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE Year: 1963 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>At one point in the middle of Hammer's THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE, honeymooning husband Edward de Souza, realizing the silence of the castle he's been partying in since well after his vehicle broke down in the middle of a small village, asks where the party is... then where his wife is...<br><br>She'd been partially abducted and, like any vampire flick, seduced into the clutches of the castle-owning patriarch of a family consisting of his own mother and his three kids, two of them daughters...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

clifford evans, edward de souza, hammer films, horror, isobel black, jacquie wallis, jennifer daniel, noel willman, vampire, vera cook

ISOBEL BLACK BITING HAMMER'S 'THE KISS OF THE VAMIPRE'

Isobel Black in THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE Year: 1963 Rating: *** At one point in the middle of Hammer's THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE, honeymoon...