HORROR EXPRESS: DOES ARROW HIT THE TARGET WITH REMASTERED BLU RAY

'HORROR EXPRESS' is not unlike a 57 variety soup all in one tin. Explain? Many moons ago when a full time student and living in an abode that could have easily have fallen off the cinema screen during a showing of 'Withnail', the day would eventually arrive when the cupboard was bare for all us seven 'vegetarian' students, bare of all atrractive and palatable nash nosh, and every bean, pluse, rice and dried vegtable would be boiled up in the contents of what we called, 'TSOATP' or 'THE SOUP OF A THOUSAND PLOTS' . .  most of us being media students, we compared each content to that of a movie plot line. 

THE POINT IS, where as most films have one, 'EXPRESS' has not only one plot, but several. Just as the film feels like it's following one direction, it throws in, another.. and another! There are lots of great ideas in this low budget Spanish horror, and each one has made it into the plot. It's not that it damages the film, far from it, it's these winds and bends that makes it very entertaining and never dull. If you are a Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee fan, you won't be a stranger to this film, if you have never seen the movie, I ain't going to add a damaging and de-railing SPOILER, that would no doubt ruin what is going to be for you, quite a unique 84 minute Cushing / Lee experience! But if you DO want more on the film, along with a gallery and plot, HERE IS THE PCAS FEATURE WITH ALL THAT AND MORE!

 

HERE IS THE NEWS: ARROW FILMS has a pulled off a very impressive transfer of 'Horror Express' and if you are a collector who has specific tastes to 'the lightness, the darkness, the contrast' of your purchases, I'll let you chew this one over, on your own. But for me personally, the picture quality looks very good indeed and WAY surpasses any other copy of the film I own from past purchases. This release has been restored to a very clear, clean and crisp 2K version from its original 35mm camera negative, and sits comfortably in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio, plus the team at Arrow have carefully incorporated an additional 35mm interpositive element for the fifth reel, an appreciated and typical attention to detail that you would expect from Arrow!

IF YOU TOO own previous releases of 'EXPRESS' on dvd or blu ray, you'll notice, that the colours through out look natural, with no surprise out of step and colour continuity, of costumes and HAIR colours! As with many films of this era and budget, you would expect an element of grain, but this is pretty much levelled out and never looks really course, as it has on some version releases of the film. Shadows look very much like the quality of the Warner Brothers 'Dracula AD and Satanic Rites' remastered prints, it presents more refined detail than before, which is exactely what is needed for a film that gives us many scenes in the dark or shadows. Blacks are neither blotchy, have that annoying moving pixels element or are so dark you see nothing. Someone has taken great time and effort, to level out contrasts, to an even and impressive picture through out. 

HAVING WATCHED many releases of 'HORROR EXPRESS' over the years I am very very happy to tell you that, THIS remaster has nothing in the way of annoying drop outs and hisses. All of the my previous released versions, watched many times over the years, contained so many 'clicks, thuds and drops' that became almost like expected solo pieces of dialogue from unseen extra characters or old friends.... that even turned up like regular co stars in a tv soap, from one releaase to another! Thankfully, they are absent from Arrows remaster, which DOES come with optional subtitles in English SDH.  

ARROWS AUDIO is presented on an English mono LPCM track. There is one short piece of very minor distortion, see if you can spot it! This element I believe was damage caused during the dubbing of the film during production. For a mono soundtrack, from this age, the sound effects are good, dated but as good as Christopher Lee's DRACULA slamming a wooden door in the iconic 58' Hammer film.

THE SUPPLEMENTARY AND THESE DAYS EXPECTED EXTRAS for the Arrow films remaster include the compulsory audio commentary, this very enteraining and detailed yak track comes from  authors Stephen Jones and Kim Newman; there is also for those who want a little Fangoria stamp of approval in a optional 7-minute introduction to the film from Fangoria’s Chris Alexander; Ticket to Die, another 9-minute appreciation of the film by Steve Haberman; there's another chorus of approval, but with more weight from Night Train to Nowhere, which is a 15-minute appreciation of the film, but this time from producer Bernard Gordon by filmmaker Ted Newsom; Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express, a vintage 14-minute interview with director Eugenio Martin is probably the best of the bunch with BTS pics and stories of the cast and set; Notes From the Blacklist, a vintage 31-minute interview from 2005 with producer Bernard Gordon; Telly and Me, a vintage 8-minute interview with composer John Cacavas; the original theatrical trailer in HD; and a 32-page insert booklet with the essays Horror Express by Adam Scovell and Riding the Horror Express by Mike Hodges, as well as restoration. A rich bag of pickings, where Arrow has dug to find anything, that tries to make up for the problem that most releases face these days . . . little or no contribution material from Christopher Lee and nothing from Peter Cushing. I am sure any forum chats about this release will be littered with comparisons of the SEVERIN dvd and blu ray release.

IF FOR YEARS, YOU'VE BEEN stuck with a duff and sub-standard version of 'HORROR EXPRESS' buy your ticket and grab your copy now, of an exception remastering of a Cushing and Lee classic. It's all here and detail-wise, you'll be having hours of fun, visually spotting elements you could never have seen or spotted before. It really can not be  denied, this film has never looked or sounded better. Arrow has technically turned a well known and fan familiar terror train trip into what is a remastered, very SOUND and VISUALLY exciting, Monster hit Roller-Coaster ride! Well done, Arrow! 

ALL CHANGE : LAST CALL FOR FRANKENSTEIN AND MONSTER MONDAYS

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY! A lovely and rare transparency of Peter Cushing with 'that head' from the 'Curse of Frankenstein' (1957) served up on a background platter of the ultra rare press-book from the same film... This is our last #frankensteinfriday post today, and in fact for a little while. I am putting the day away to bye byes. I think you are all a little Frankenstein Friday'd OUT! SO a new themed day next FRIDAY and also NEXT MONDAY #MonsterMonday has a long well earned sleep too, so TWO new Cushing Themed DAYS next week. - Marcus

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA . 

ROGUE ONE : 3D BLU RAY RELEASE : YOUR EASTER TREAT WITH GIFS

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: A throwback, only to the end of last year when, 'A Peter Cushing', but not as some of us were expecting, burst onto the cinema screen. Rogue One has been a roaring box office success, and love or loath the Governor's CGI appearance, most were very happy to see Guy Henry's interpretation of Cushing's master villain.

#THE DVD is superb, the Blu Ray excellent, the 3D Blu Ray outstanding. The extra's disc is a credit to all involved in the film. I am, along with my family very much lovers of the whole #STARWARS series, Rogue One is an unexpected journey back to the experience I had back in 1977...And in 3D, the power of the DeathStar and the presence of Tarkin, really is quite awesome! I opted for this as my EASTER HOLIDAY present! It's a healthier choice, last longer than an Easter egg, and three times as tasty! I would love to hear any comments / opinions from anyone who has purchased and watched the film on any format.

INTERVIEW: GUY HENRY ON CGI : PLAYING TARKIN AND THE USE OF CGI : HERE!

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us reach our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th 2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!

ROGUE ONE BLU RAY DVD AND 3D CONTENTS REVEALED : TRAILER : CASES ART WORK

NEWS: ROGUE ONE BLU RAY CONTENTS REVEALED AND TRAILER! And the line up of the contents sound good too! Can't wait to own this one. What do YOU think of the contents???

THE STAR WARS stand-alone has earned more than $1 billion at the box office. Disney has revealed that Rogue One will hit Digital HD on March 24 and Blu-ray on April 4th. There are a very large helping of bonus features, but a few of the more intriguing ones include "Epilogue: The Story Continues," which is billed as the cast and crew looking forward to the Star Wars tales to come, and "Rogue Connections," which looks at the film's Easter eggs.

AS WE HOPED, there also is a featurette examining the visual effects that went into resurrecting Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin and brought back a young Princess Leia (The late Carrie Fisher). Rogue One earned more than $1 billion worldwide at the box office, including $528.8 million in the U.S. The second Star Wars stand-alone movie, about a young Han Solo, will be released in May 2018.

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MONSTER FROM HELL: CUSHING FRANKENSTEIN SWAN SONG: UK BLU RAY REVIEW

Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974) The gloriously gory swansong for Hammer’s Gothic horror series gets an uncut Blu-ray release His brain came from a genius. His body came from a killer. His soul came from Hell. Convicted of bodysnatching, Dr Simon Helder (Shane Briant) is sentenced to an insane asylum. On arrival, he recognises the resident surgeon as the infamous Baron Victor Frankenstein (Peter Cushing), who has been hiding out there under the guise of Dr Carl Victor.

 

He also discovers that Frankenstein has been assembling a new creature using the body of an insane murderer (David Prowse), the brain of a musical and mathematical genius (Charles Lloyd Pack) and the hands of a sculptor (Bernard Lee). Unable to operate himself due to his hands having been burnt, Frankenstein has been relying on his mute assistant Sarah (Madeline Smith) to stitch the body parts together. Now he turns to Helder for help. The operation is a success, but the creature (Prowse) is torn between the conflicting aspects of itself – an intelligent, artistic person imprisoned in the body of a murderous hulk. Escaping from its cell, the creature then sets out to hunt down those who abused him – starting with the asylum’s corrupt director (John Stratton)… 

Filmed in September 1972, but not released until May 1974, this was the last of Hammer’s long-running series of Frankenstein films that had started with 1957’s The Curse of Frankenstein, and was 68-year-old director Terence Fisher’s final feature film. Fans and critics also consider it to be a gloriously gory swan song to the studios gothic era.

 

With the drama taking place entirely within the claustrophobic clinical confines of the asylum, this is the most downbeat of all the films in the series, and there’s a real sense that the end is nigh (the drab sets and laughable model used for the exterior shots emphasis this), but Fisher goes out on a high with a truly perverse idea (this time round Frankenstein is building his new creature only to mate with his mute assistant) and imbues his twisted tale with lashings of gore, including disembodied eyeballs, graphic transplants and stitching of limbs, and bloody body parts being flung about (when the lunatics take over the asylum).

Peter Cushing also gives his mad Baron (which he had played five times before) a suitably chilling send off. Now totally detached from the outside world, Frankenstein repeats his experiments almost out of habit than conviction. But it is Cushing’s conviction in the role that is the real draw here. No matter how depraved the premise or silly the wig he wears (which he said made him look like Helen Hayes), he gives his mad monster maker pathos and believability. Even when he’s using his teeth to hold an artery, which could have come off as comic relief, he makes it look like he’s man obsessed. Famously, Cushing and Prowse (who had also played the creature in Hammer’s 1970 spoof The Horror of Frankenstein) would re-unite four years later, playing two of the most iconic villains in the cinematic galaxy Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader in Star Wars.

 

As a Hammer horror fan, I relish each new restoration from the studios horror archives. But the best thing is that these Blu-ray releases are also giving new audiences the opportunity to appreciate the class and care that went into these films. Plus, you can catch Cushing doing what he does best, making us believe in the unbelievable.

THE UK RELEASE
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell is out on Blu-ray/DVD Double Play from 28 April 2014 in the UK from Icon Home Entertainment.

THE EXTRAS
• Taking of the Asylum: The Making of Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell featurette with contributing from Denis Meikle, Jonathan Rigby, David Miller, Shane Briant, Philip Voss, Janet Hargreaves, Madeline Smith and David Prowse.
• Charming Evil: Terence Fisher at Hammer featurette, with Mikey Harding (Fisher’s daughter) and Sue Cowie (Hammer convention organiser).
• Animated stills gallery.

Peter Fuller's Blog: HERE

DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS: CUSHING CLASSIC WITH A FULL DECK

The horror anthology can be traced back as far as German expressionist cinema, with early classics like Richard Oswald’s Eerie Tales (1919) and Paul Leni’s Waxworks (1924), but for many viewers it begins with the Ealing Studios’ production of Dead of Night (1945).

This portmanteau of macabre tales made a profound impression on many people, including a young Milton Subotsky.  Born in New York in 1921, Subotsky was a film buff from an early age and began producing in the 1950s.  He had a particular passion for horror, fantasy and sci-fi and would partner with fellow New Yorker Max J. Rosenberg to form Amicus Productions.  Amicus would initially focus on rock and roll pictures, but in 1964 they decided to switch gears and offer up some health competition to England’s reigning “horror factory,” Hammer Film Productions.  Subotsky explicitly referenced Dead of Night when he set about to write the studio’s first “official” horror film (bearing in mind, they had produced the well-regarded City of the Dead under the banner of Vulcan Productions), ultimately released as Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors.

The film would follow a basic formula which Subotsky would repeat again and again: a group of characters are united in a claustrophobic setting, where they have their fortunes told to them by a mysterious character.  In this instance, the mysterious “seer” is Dr. Schreck, played by Peter Cushing.  Hidden behind bushy eyebrows and a stubbly beard, Cushing is seedier than usual and he plays the role with a nicely understated sense of menace and foreboding.  Cushing would become the company’s mascot of sorts and his loyalty to Subotsky would lead him to accept appearances in some films that he might otherwise have done well to have taken a pass on.

The first of the characters to have their fortunes told is Scottish architect Neil McCallum.  In McCallum’s story, he goes to his ancestral home, which is now owned by grand dame Usrula Howells.  There’s a family curse afoot involving a werewolf and the “surprise” reveal of the creature’s identity shouldn’t come as a surprise to a five year old.  The story may be slim and predictable, but director Freddie Francis and cinematographer Alan Hume give it style and atmosphere to burn.  Of all the segments, it’s the only one that really captures an atmosphere of dread and as such, it’s a good intro that sets the tone for what is to follow.

The second segment deals with family man Alan Freeman (a popular DJ in his day, making a rare acting appearance) who returns from vacation to discover that a strange vine is slowly enveloping his house. Enlisting the aid of scientists Bernard Lee and Jeremy Kemp, Freeman attempts to destroy the pesky plant, but it would appear to have ideas of its own…  Freeman does a credible job and Lee and Kemp do their best to keep a straight face delivering some ridiculous dialogue, but the bargain basement special effects don’t do it any favors.

 

The next segment involves musician Roy Castle, who steals a tune used in a voodoo ceremony and may or may not live to regret it… This is easily the weakest of the film’s stories and is shamelessly ripped off from an episode of the Boris Karloff TV series Thriller, which featured John Ireland in a not-dissimilar role as a musician who runs afoul of a vengeful voodoo god after incorporating a similar tune into one of his night club routines.  Even without the air of plagiarism, the segment is a mess: Castle’s incessant mugging is a constant irritant and the attempts at humor are feeble at best.  On the plus side, the segment has some terrific jazz music by the great Tubby Hayes. Indeed, director Francis had hoped to have Hayes score the entire film, but the musician’s problems with cocaine dependency made him unreliable, so Francis asked for the services of the distinguished Elisabeth Lutyens instead.

Up next, Christopher Lee plays a pompous art critic who drives artist Michael Gough to suicide.  Gough’s hand (which had been severed in an accident engineered by Lee) returns to exact vengeance.  The special effects work is awkward, admittedly, but this segment succeeds due to the heartfelt performances of Lee and Gough.  Lee is at his imperious best as the ultra-bitchy critic whose acerbic words destroy the lives of others, while Gough is genuinely touching and restrained as the sympathetic victim.

The final segment involves newly married doctor Donald Sutherland, who discovers that his wife (Jennifer Jayne, looking lovely but sporting a dicey French accent) is actually a vampire.  The segment has some nice touches, but it’s slowly paced and the payoff is much too predictable.  Sutherland impresses in one of his earliest screen roles, while Max Adrian quietly steals his scenes with one of his less florid and theatrical performances, as Sutherland’s medic colleague.

The film draws to a close as the train carting the characters pulls into the station.  Dr. Schreck disappears into thin air and the characters decide to laugh off what they’ve been shown … but it will be Dr. Schreck who has the last laugh.

Amicus would go on to produce some better anthologies than this one, notably The House That Dripped Blood and From Beyond the Grave, but Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors remains one of their seminal works.  It’s a fun film on its own terms and it shows Freddie Francis working at the top of his game as a director.  Francis’ frustration with being typecast as a horror director (he was no fan of the genre and was very open about this) would later result in some truly hackneyed work, but at this stage in the game he was still doing his best to shore up weak screenplays with plenty of visual fireworks.  Subotsky’s screenplay is derivative and unimaginative, but the anthology format proves to be beneficial in that once one weak story is out of the way, there’s always the chance for something better in the next segment.

In the case of Dr. Terror, the good fortunately outweighs the bad.  The Werewolf and Crawling Hand segments remain highlights in the Amicus canon and the Vampire story is by no means disposable, either.  The fine performances, eerie music score by Lutyens, stylish direction by Francis and expert widescreen color photography from Hume all add up to make this a film worth seeing again and again.

 

Review: Troy Howarth

Gallery: Marcus Brooks

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