NEWS!
WELL WE'VE NOT SEEN a package like this in a while!! Mill Creek
Entertainment has announced the release of their 'Hammer Film - Ultimate
Collection' a gathering of 20 Hammer films titles, ranging from the
1950's, 60's and 70's. Just two Cushing titles in there, 'The Revenge of
Frankenstein' starring Cushing, Francis Matthews and Eunice Gayson, 'Cash on Demand' (1960) and
'The Gorgon' with Cushing, Christopher Lee and Barbara Shelley. Those
of familiar with the Mill Creek stock, will recognise these titles from
the triple and double bill releases of the last five years. But, if you
missed your opportunity to bag them then and have gaps in your
collection, here is an opportunity to bag them all together!
AT THE TIME POSTING, I am not aware if these titles are part of and
the same 'remasters' we've seen over the past two years in Europe... but
if that info is released, I'll let you know. The box set is available
for PRE-ORDER NOW at $109.99 MSRP and has a street release of NOVEMBER 17th 2020. Below
is the spec from Mill Creek 😉
'For
more than four decades, Hammer Films’ unique blend of horror, science
fiction, thrills and comedy dominated countless drive-ins and movie
theaters. Enjoy this massive collection from the darkest corners of the
Hammer Imagination!'
Featuring
20 Cult-Classics from the infamous Hammer Studios produced in the 50s,
60s and 70s available together for the first time in high-definition!
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1963) These Are The Damned (1962) The Old Dark House (1963) The Gorgon (1964) The Snorkel (1958) Maniac (1963) Die! Die! My Darling (1965) Scream of Fear (1961) Stop Me Before I Kill! (1961) Never Take Candy From A Stranger (1960) Cash On Demand (1961) The Stranglers of Bombay (1960) The Terror of the Tongs (1961) The Pirates of Blood River (1962) The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964) The Camp on Blood Island (1958) Yesterday's Enemy (1959) Creatures the World Forgot (1971)
Tech Specs: Language: English Discs: 10 Format: Blu-ray Subtitles: English Subtitles Run Time: 2065 min. Rating: Not Rated Region Code: Region A Street Date: 2020-11-17 Color: Color/B&W
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BEGINNING LAST WEEK, I started a series examining
three pairs of films that I felt would make ideal ‘Cushing Double-Bills’, concentrating
primarily on thematic links. Last time, I
looked at Hammer's The Curse of
Frankenstein (1957) and its first sequel The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958). We continue this week with a
pair of films slightly less obvious than our previous selection, 1965’s The Skull and 1972’s The Creeping Flesh. Ostensibly two
unrelated films (excluding the fact that both feature Cushing and Christopher
Lee and are directed by Freddie Francis) our discussion this week concerns the
dark thematic subtext that links both.
MADE IN 1965, The
Skull is often cited as one of Cushing’s very best whilst The Creeping Flesh (despite getting a
great deal of attention from fans and this page in particular) is still sadly
something of an undiscovered gem. The
Skull is one of Amicus’s non-portmanteau features and is based on the short
story The Skull of the Marquis De Sade by
Robert Bloch. A masterpiece of atmosphere, The
Skull has a powerful dreamlike quality that manages to be supremely
unsettling. The Creeping Flesh, on
the other hand, is one of Tony Tenser’s Tigon productions and is far more
visceral in its execution, with some genuinely disturbing scenes..
SO WHAT THEN IS IT, that causes me to group these two
films in particular? Well to begin with both demonstrate British horror studios
attempting to do something different with the Hammer mould and are incredibly
experimental in nature. The Skull, as
well as being a modern day piece it’s far less explicit in exactly what its
threat is than Hammer tend to be, preferring
a slower, subtler build-up. Visually The
Skull is particularly arresting, be it the haunting shots from the Skull’s
perspective or the Kafka-esque dream sequence. Similarly the film embraces a
darkness to an extent that Hammer rarely did, from the depressing ending to the
character of Maitland himself.
ABOVE AND BELOW:THE KAFKA-ESQUE POV SHOTS APPEAR IN
BOTH 'THE SKULL' AND 'THE CREEPING FLESH'
MAITLAND, whilst not unlikeable, is hardly a
charmer and as an audience we are invited to look upon his morbid hobby with a
critical eye. We care about him and wish him no ills but the obsessiveness that
permeates his character causes us to question his gruesome pastime. 'The Creeping Flesh' on the other hand is
from, arguably, the most radical British horror studio in business from the mid
60’s to mid-70’s.
ABOVE: THE OBSESSIVE MAITLAND OF 'THE SKULL' (1965)
IT MUST BE REMEMBERED that whilst Tigon were behind the
gothic pot-boiler The Blood Beast Terror (1967),
they were also the studio famed for producing Michael Reeves his magnum opus, Witchfinder General (1968) and his
earlier The Sorcerers (1967). Away
from Reeves, Tigons output is rich with a ‘radical’ and ‘alternative’ sentiment
and whilst not always successful never cease to be interesting. Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968), Neither the Sea nor the Sand (1972), The Flesh and Blood Show (1972), The Beast in the Cellar (1970) and of
course Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)
are among the most innovative and experimental British horror films in this
period.
ABOVE:BORIS KARLOFF AND IAN OGILVY IN TIGON FILMS 'THE SORCERERS' (1967)
ABOVE: THE EQUALLY OBSESSIVE EMMANUEL HILDER FROM THE CREEPING FLESH (1972)
THUS The Creeping Flesh similarly
contains elements that go against the traditional mould. Namely, like The Skull, there are few likeable
characters and our main this time, Emmanuel Hildern is equally as obsessive as
Maitland. This time it is science and particularly the desire to make a great
discovery, rather than collecting that absorbs him. The same can be said of his
sadistic brother James (Lee), who covets his brother’s success. The film
questions the nature of evil and in particular uses the Victorian scientist to
do this. The usual hero of Hammer is here reverted to selfish obsessors whose
desire for success and discovery makes them far more horrific, than the
devil-creature that appears at the climax.
ABOVE: THE SADISTIC BROTHER JAMES, PLAYED BY CHRISTOPHER LEE IN 'THE CREEPING FLESH' (1972)
AS PERHAPS I’m already beginning to demonstrate, 'The Skull' and 'The Creeping Flesh', are without doubt two of the most sub textually
rich and intelligent films that Cushing has been involved with. In both, it’s
possible to feel that perhaps more than his other Gothic productions Freddie
Francis is able to identify themes and motifs throughout the stories that
interest him visually. Building on themes of obsession, madness is a prominent
factor in both and indeed can be one of the central elements of fear that
emanates from the films. In 'The Skull' we
are invited to question whether Maitland is actually going insane and the
nature of his haunting is a highly personal one, attacking his mind over his
physical body (at least until the films climax).
ABOVE:MAITLAND HIGHLY PERSONAL MADNESS
ONCE AGAIN in The Creeping Flesh we are invited to
wonder whether our main character is indeed mad, though far more explicitly.
Here the framing structure of the film has Cushing narrating his story, before
at the end revealing that he is an inmate in the asylum ran by Lee. A final
shot leaves us to wonder whether his story is true or not. However the theme of
madness permeates the story far deeper than this, with Cushing living in fear
of hereditary madness that leads him to inject his daughter with the serum
grown from the remains of the skeleton.
IN SHORT, I think of all the double bills I’ll be
discussing, this is easily the most personal. Whilst I love the films of Hammer
these two simply blew me away with relentlessly dark tales that made comments
on obsession, madness and the nature of evil. Whilst calling them Cushing’s two
‘Artsy’ horrors may sound somewhat insulting, I think it perhaps sums them up
best. These films are Freddie Francis’s masterpieces and demonstrate a sub
textual and visual storytelling intelligence far above and beyond any of his
other horror work. Whilst Dracula has
Risen from the Grave is certainly beautiful to look at and contains
interesting commentary on religion, it’s not as rich or as subtle as these two
films.
IT'S A REAL SHAME that whilst The
Skull has r been given a superb Blu-ray treatment, The Creeping Flesh is neglected to a mill-creek triple feature. One
lives in hope that boutique label along the lines of Arrow will recognise the
merit in the film and surprise us with a brand new HD transfer and a wealth of
features. If you’re looking for two of Cushing’s darker, less comfortable films
then these make the perfect double bill.
THE BEST OF A DOUBLE?CASTING AND FILMS, CUSHING AND LEE IN 'THE SKULL' (1965) AND 'THE CREEPING FLESH' (1972)
OH AND THEY BOTH feature skulls. Just saying. Join me NEXT SUNDAY, for another classic DOUBLE BILL!
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coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA
OUR SECOND RARE clip today from 'THE LAST MEETING' raw footage of Peter
Cushing and Christopher Lee meeting for the last time in 1994. Here, Christopher Lee shares the story of how he and Peter were doing the rounds of interviews and promotion for Dracula in 1958 in New York, and the larger than life radio presenter 'Long John' Nebel, giving Hammer films Chairman, James Carreras a piece of advice! Christopher Lee obviously again enjoys making Peter laugh. Just watching them both, so candid and relaxed, Peter obviously loves Lee's stories. It so good to see them both enjoying each others company, for one last time....
This is one of EIGHT clips, in an archive to which we are currently
adding new clips. You can find all eight here in our Facebook video
library or at our Youtube Channel. ENJOY!
We are all very
sad to hear of the passing of Patrick Macnee today. A man who, without
doubt, had incredible style on both on the screen and off it. Know
mostly for playing the role of Steed in the Brit tv series 'The
Avengers' ...in which Peter also appeared in an episode entitled Return
of the Cybernauts, with his faithful side kick Mrs Peel... Macnee also
appeared in a real horror entitled Incense for the Damned aka
Bloodsuckers...terrible. A statement on the actor's website today
reads: "Wherever he went, he left behind a trove of memories."
