URSULA ANDRESS: TROY HOWARTH REVIEWS HAMMER FILMS 'SHE' WITH COLOUR TRANSPARENCY GALLERY

Intrepid adventurers Major Holly (Peter Cushing), Leo (John Richardson) and Job (Bernard Cribbins) are lead to the forbidden city, while is ruled over by the beautiful and eternal Ayesha (Ursula Andress)....

She: A History of Adventure was published in serial form between late 1886 and early 1887.  It was written by the prolific fantasy and adventure novelist H. Rider Haggard and, along with his Alan Quartermain adventures, it remains his most popular and oft-adapted book.  It has the distinction of influencing one of the earliest motion pictures, Georges Melies' La Colonne de feu (The Pillar of Fire), which was made in 1899.  Subsequent adaptations cropped up in 1911, 1916, and 1917 - and in 1925, Haggard himself worked on an adaptation which starred silent film star Betty Blythe in the title role.  The most lavish version emerged in 1935, courtesy of producer Merian C. Cooper.

Cooper had already unleashed King Kong (1933) on a thrill-hungry depression-era audience, and he spared no expense in mounting this particular adaptation.  Helen Gahagan made for an appropriately glamorous Ayesha, with stolid Randolph Scott providing beefcake as Leo.  Future big screen Dr. Watson Nigel Bruce was cast as Major Holly in this version, which was co-directed by sometimes-character-actor Irving Pichel, whom horror buffs will remember as the creepy Sandor in Universal's Dracula's Daughter (1936).  The story would then go on something of a moratorium for a period of time, until Hammer Films unleashed their own version in 1964.  After that, the story would be overhauled as a trashy, post apocalyptic piece starring Sandhal Bergman in 1982.  The most recent film version came in 2001, as a direct to video release.

Inevitably, it is the Hammer version with which we concern ourselves here.  She was one of producer Michael Carreras' pet projects and offered a fine example of his vision for the company.  Carreras was never overly enamored of the gothic horror genre, and it was he who tried to push Hammer towards making David Lean-style spectaculars.  The problem was, Hammer simply didn't have access to Lean's resources.  As such, his attempts at making bigger, more ambitious films tended to result in pictures which, paradoxically, looked a bit cheaper than the smaller scale gothic fare for which the studio was best known.  In short, a story such a She, with its widescreen vistas and elaborate settings, represented a case of Hammer's reach exceeding its grasp.

The film is problematic on many levels.  First off, Robert Day was perhaps not the ideal director for such a project.  Day had directed Boris Karloff's two best 1950s vehicles - The Haunted Strangler (1957) and Corridors of Blood (1958) - and he also had ample experience directing for the small screen.  She was probably the biggest project of his career, and while he did the best job he could under the circumstances, he fails to capture the story's magic and sense of exotica.  Hammer's ace production designer, Bernard Robinson, was allowed to sit this one out for some reason - and in his place, the capable Robert Jones (who also worked as art director on Roger Corman's masterpiece Masque of the Red Death, 1964, before going on to design Hammer's Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, 1971) does a professional if uninspired job.  The sets look solid enough, but they lack size and dimension.  For this reason, the production had to rely on a lot of matte work by the great Les Bowie - and while Bowie could sometimes create minor miracles, his matte work here is ill served by the film - it looks exactly like what it is: paintings.

There's also the casting to consider.  Ursula Andress was a hot ticket commodity based on her iconic appearance in the first of EON's James Bond adventures, Dr. No (1962), but the Swedish-born actress was still not comfortable in English and needed to be dubbed.  She was also, quite simply, not the most expressive of actresses.  She looks absolutely ravishing and fulfills the character's irresistible physical presence well enough, but she is unable to tap into the character's deeper nuances, resulting in a performance that is pure surface gloss.  John Richardson (Mario Bava's Black Sunday, 1960) was similarly wooden and superficial - his good looks ensured him a number of acting gigs (and rumor has it that he was at one point considered to play James Bond), but his performances were always flat and uninvolving - and despite being a native English speaker, he was regularly dubbed in his film roles, including this one.
 

 

The fact that these two pretty but vapid performers inhabit the center of what is supposed to be a passionate love story creates a vacuum from which the film simply cannot recover.  On the plus side, Hammer saw fit to enlist their top stars, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, to play juicy supporting roles. 

Cushing is a joy as the adventure-hungry Major Holly, and the scene wherein he explains the complex emotions inherent in love has a heartbreaking ring of truth to it - it was reportedly a speech the actor wrote himself, and given how truthful it is in a script which is otherwise efficient at best, one may well believe it.  Lee is required to wear a succession of garish and silly looking head gear as the stoic Billali, who helps to protect Ayesha while secretly plotting against her, but he gives a strong performance.  There's a marvelous scene between him and Cushing wherein Lee quietly but powerfully asserts himself that makes a viewing of this film almost mandatory for fans of these two marvelous actors.  Bernard Cribbins (Hitchcock's Frenzy, 1972) is effective as Cushing's comic sidekick/servant, while the wonderful Andre Morell (Hammer's Plague of the Zombies, 1966) is wasted in a nothing role - and to add insult to injury, the powers that be at Hammer clearly decided that his cultured voice wasn't exotic enough for the character he plays, so he was ultimately dubbed by another familiar Hammer veteran, George Pastell.  One wonders why they didn't simply cast Pastell in the first place.

The film also benefits from an achingly beautiful score by James Bernard.  Bernard loved scoring Hammer's blood and thunder horrors, but this gentle natured composer always had a yen to score a great love story - and She, for all its shortcomings, finally gave him that chance.  His central theme is one of the most beautiful and melodic of his career, while the various adventure and action oriented pieces are appropriately rousing.  Cinematographer Harry Waxman (The Wicker Man, 1973) provides some slick cinematography which helps to compensate for some of the film's less impressive production attributes.

Ultimately, one doesn't wish to be too hard on She.  It's not a bad film, and it certainly looks very fine when compared to Hammer's pointless (and quite inept) sequel The Vengeance of She (1967 - with Richardson and Morell being the only cast members to return; Morell got to keep his voice in that one, at least), but it doesn't quite capture the flavor and mystique of its titular character.

Images: Marcus Brooks.

 

ICON / HAMMER PRESS RELEASE 'THE MUMMY' BLU RAY SCREEN CAPS

On 14^th October Hammer’s classic film THE MUMMY will be released for the first time ever in HD on Blu-ray and on DVD double play and presented in its original UK theatrical aspect ratio of 1.66:1. Fans will also be treated to a host of brand new extras never seen before. Starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in their iconic roles in this the 3^rd of Hammer’s original Gothic classics, THE MUMMY (1959) was directed by the legendary Terence Fisher who previously helmed DRACULA and THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

 

Release date: Monday, October 14, 2013 Certificate: 12 Running time: 84 minutes Director: Terence Fisher Cast: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Yvonne Furneaux

 

'CREATED WOMEN' BLU RAY GETS OCTOBER 12TH RELEASE

NEWS: Hammer Films 'Frankenstein Created Woman' Australia blu ray release October 11th 2013. Here is the cover...but it may not be the final design. Extras: Featurette “Hammer Glamour”, Commentary Track, Animated Picture Gallery.

LOOKS FAMILIAR: BURGESS MEREDITH AND PETER CUSHING WITH DENNIS NORDEN

Peter Cushing as a guest on the UK Thames television programme 'Looks Familiar', broadcast 25th January 1979. Pictured here with presenter Dennis Norden are journalist, film and tv critic Dilys Powell and actor Burgess Meredith, who starred alongside Cushing in Amicus Films 'Torture Garden' in 1967. This was Peter Cushing's second appearance on the series, he first was with guests, Ernie Wise and Evelyn Laye broadcast on 23rd October 1975.

CINEFANTASTIQUE AND WORLD OF HORROR: AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS

The cover from the Cinefantastique Amicus Special issue and feature from 'World of Horror' magazine. 'And Now The Screaming Starts' starring Peter Cushing, Stephanie Beacham, Ian Ogilvy, Herbert Lom, Patrick Magee and Geoffrey Whitehead. Directed by Roy Ward Baker.

TARDIS DR WHO PETER CUSHING BANNER

In acknowledgment of Peter Cushing's performance as Dr Who in TWO Dr who and the Dalek movies, 'Dr Who and the daleks' (1965) and 'Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD' (1966) and both directed by Gordon Flemyng.

AND THEN HE CREATED WOMAN: SOUL SEARCHING AND DECAPTATIONS IN FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN

Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) discovers a technique of isolating the soul, thus preserving life indefinitely; he chooses a disfigured village girl (Susan Denberg) to experiment with, perfecting her body via surgery and then transferring the soul of her recently-executed lover (Robert Morris) to occupy her body….

Hammer and Universal’s collaboration The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) proved successful at the box office, but it still took a little while for the writers at Hammer to concoct a new Frankenstein adventure.  By the time Anthony Hinds delivered the next installment, he had decided to harken back to a warmed over idea first mooted in the late 50s, which had been designed to cash in on the success of Roger Vadim’s scandalous and successful And God Created Woman.  The reference may have been a little out of date by the time Hinds found a way of making the idea work, but it still had obviously exploitable elements.  In 1966, when the film went before Arthur Grant’s camera, Hammer had split with Universal and they were in the midst of a money-saving production arrangement with Associated British in the UK and Twentieth Century Fox in the U.S.  It was producer Anthony Nelson Keys who concocted the idea of making two films back to back, each utilizing essentially the same sets and much of the same crew.  The first films to employ this tactic were Dracula Prince of Darkness and Rasputin the Mad Monk, produced and released in the UK in 1965 (US release: 1966), and these were followed by the “Cornish duo” of Plague of the Zombies and The Reptile, released in 1966.  Frankenstein Created Woman and The Mummy’s Shroud, both produced and released in the UK in 1966 (US release to follow in 1967), would bring this short-lived tradition to a close.  The advantages of the technique clearly were outweighed by the deficits in the long run, and in terms of what was showing on screen, these last two suffered from production values which appeared positively anemic compared to the lush and beautiful Hammer gothics of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The story is at once intellectually ambitious and thematically troubling.  The concept of Frankenstein using science to “capture” the soul is a heady one – and it is this which has endeared the film to Hammer buff/Oscar winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese – but it is inconsistent with the character’s belief system – or lack thereof.  There’s something inherently troubling about the notion of Frankenstein even accepting the notion of the soul, let alone addressing this “life essence” in such terms.  The screenplay makes no effort to explain how he even came to light upon such an experiment.  The concept of the character is also closer to Hinds’ swashbuckling, light hearted version of the character from Evil – and the presence of the character’s burned hands (which render him incapable of delicate surgery, thus necessitating his use of the drunken village doctor played by Thorley Walters to serve as his hands) definitely ties the film into that previous adventure.  Thus, the fans who insist upon attributing the character’s growth and nuances to director Terence Fisher fail to acknowledge some practical realities.  While Jimmy Sangster had conceived the character as an amoral dandy who ends up literally becoming his own creation, Hinds’ reboot changed him to an altogether more positive force for change and innovation.  After this, in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, the character would change back to the more ruthless nature of the earlier Sangster versions, this time with Bert Batt handling screenwriting duties, while Hinds’ final visitation of the character in Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1972) finds him wedged somewhat between the good natured rogue of his earlier screenplay and the deranged genius of Sangster and Batt.  In any event, the Baron present in Frankenstein Created Woman is virtually reduced to supporting player status – thus making this the closest Hammer ever came to sidelining Peter Cushing in his most iconic genre role, just as they had done with Christopher Lee in the Dracula franchise.  That’s not to say that Cushing isn’t given ample screen time – he certainly is – but the dramatic arc of the story is more concerned with the other characters in the long run.

The “monster” this time is played by Susan Denberg, a former Playboy centerfold who caught the eye of Hammer’s managing director, Sir James Carreras.  Carreras knew an exploitable asset when he saw it, and he wasted no time arranging for the stills photographer to shoot a variety of pictures of Denberg (kitted out in a sort of bikini made of bandages) being “birthed” by Cushing.  These images captured the imagination of fans, and a rumor persists in some circles that they are the only surviving evidence of a “creation scene” which was never filmed in the first place.  Denberg had very little actual acting experience at the time of filming, but under the tutelage of Terence Fisher, she delivers a rather touching and effective performance.  She’s dubbed by another performer, but the dubbing is of good quality, and her physical movements and reactions show that she had genuine talent beyond her obvious good looks.

Cushing, of course, performs beautifully.  It would have been easy for him to walk through this part by this stage in the game, but he was much too professional to adopt such a mentality.  He plays the role with warmth and sly humor, making this an altogether more “lovable” Baron Frankenstein than the character we first got to know in The Curse of Frankenstein (1957).

The other standout performance is by Hammer/Fisher favorite Thorley Walters, who plays the drunken and disgraced Dr. Hertz.  Walters always bore a slight resemblance to Nigel Bruce, the English actor known for playing a bumbling version of Dr. Watson against Basil Rathbone’s most canonical Sherlock Holmes, and indeed he was even cast in the role in Fisher’s disastrous experiment in German filmmaking, Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (1962), which cast Christopher Lee as the great detective.  This film, however, presents Walters at his most “Bruce-as-Watson.”  The character is a self described “broken down, drunken old muddlehead,” and he effectively stands in for the audience in his relationship with the brilliant Baron.  It’s Walters’ function to ask an increasingly exasperated Cushing to explain what he’s doing, and it’s a tribute to Walter’s natural likability as an actor that this never comes off as strained or contrived.  Walters would go on to play one more role for Fisher (as the short tempered but even more idiotic police inspector in Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed) and then one last role for Hammer (as the burgomaster in Vampire Circus, 1971), but Dr. Hertz arguably remains his most beloved characterization.

Director Fisher handles the action with grace and economy.  His excellent use of framing and editing is evident throughout.  The various “revenge” scenes, wherein the “possessed” Christina, driven by the vengeful spirit of her lover, visits retribution on the men who used to torment her, are beautifully executed, even verging on the surreal at times.  Indeed, the basic concept of the “monster” taking revenge on three pampered, well-to-do louts would be brushed off and used to even greater effect by Hinds for Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969).  On the downside, despite Fisher’s best efforts, the film simply looks cheap – even tacky at times.  Arthur Grant was always a cinematographer for whom speed and economy meant more than experimentation – his lighting was always perfectly solid and professional, but it never sought to emulate the poetry of Jack Asher or even Michael Reed.  His work here is similarly professional but uninspired, and this, coupled with some unusually cramped looking sets, helps to make this film look the cheapest of all the Hammer Frankenstein films – that is, unless we count Jimmy Sangster’s Horror of Frankenstein (1970), an ill-conceived attempt to rejuvenate the franchise at the box office by casting youthful Ralph Bates in the lead role.

Despite its shortcomings, however, Frankenstein Created Woman remains an engaging film.  Fisher’s flair for handling drama and characterization gives the film genuine “soul,” and the performances help to compensate, as well.  The impact is aided by a wonderful, melancholy soundtrack by James Bernard.  It may not emerge as top tier Fisher, but it is still a well done and enjoyable addition to the franchise.

Images: Marcus Brooks

HAMMER FILMS 'THE MUMMY' PREMIERE AT BRITISH MUSEUM SCREENS CUSHING AND LEE CLASSIC

Screening as we post! This is the first opportunity to see the new cleaned up print of Hammer Films 'THE MUMMY' happening now at the British Museum's Monster Weekend, part of the BFI 'Gothic' season. THE MUMMY stars Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Yvonne Furneax. Directed by Terence Fisher.

More pics to come...