Starring Clifford Evans, Edward de Souza, Noel Willman, Jennifer Daniel, Barry Warren
Directed by Don Sharp
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A honeymooning couple, after being stranded in a small village, welcome the dinner invitation of a doctor from a nearby castle, unaware that he's the head of a cult of vampires.
With sumptuous color photography and costuming, a good cast, and a driving pace from director Sharp, this is a fine vampire film from Hammer, set apart from their Dracula pictures, although with a similar look and feel. For example, James Bernard doesn't repeat any material from his Dracula scores, and incorporates a macabre piano piece into his main title that becomes a key musical interlude in the film. However, the themes still build maniacally to loud crescendoes in the same unsettling effect we've come to know from the composer. Set in a similar Bavarian Germanic locale as to a number of Hammer films, the art direction again features beautiful scenery belying the evil its innocent characters will soon encounter. Evans, the movie's vampire hunter, is not a copy of Peter Cushing's Van Helsing, but brings to life an oft-drunk if still determined man with a personal connection to one of Willman's victims. Willman is a fascinating vampire, wielding a haughty air, not about to hide his superiority complex in public company, even as he lures his victims. The highlight of the film may be a masquerade ball, perhaps influenced by Roger Vadim's earlier film Blood And Roses, with the men all outfitted in gruesome masks, as part of a plot to abduct Daniel from de Souza. Even more famous is the picture's ending, utilizing a rejected finale from Hammer's Brides Of Dracula, which despite the limitations of the special effects is remarkably choreographed and comes off very well.
Showing posts with label Clifford Evans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clifford Evans. Show all posts
Friday, August 23, 2019
Sunday, May 12, 2019
The Curse Of The Werewolf (1961)
Starring Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed, Yvonne Romain, Catherine Feller, Anthony Dawson
Directed by Terence Fisher
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A young boy grows up cursed to transform into a werewolf, which his adoptive father is able to combat with love, but when he reaches manhood, the beast is again unleashed.
Hammer's only werewolf film, to the best of my knowledge, it's a very good one, well-directed by Fisher, and with an exceptional performance by Reed in the title role. Based on Guy Endore's Werewolf Of Paris, but very loosely by Anthony Hinds, writing under his pen name of John Elder, Hinds provides a different setting and backstory. Wikipedia credits the film as being set in Spain, and production designer Bernard Robinson's set decorations and Molly Arbuthnot's costumes really add flavor to the film, and make it seem a unique world far away from Hammer's British studio. Roy Ashton's creature makeup for Reed is also exceptional, and packs a wallop when it's finally exposed to the audience at the film's climax. I've never really cared for the violent prologue in which an innocent beggar is imprisoned and turned into a beastly man who eventually becomes father to the werewolf, as it seems largely unnecessary but once the boy is adopted by the kindly Evans and his nurturing servant played by Hira Talfrey, and we see their relationship and their struggles with his curse, the film starts to take off for me. I found Benjamin Frankel's score, which features many sequences of cascading notes, a bit too busy for me, but it does convey the proper dark themes for the story. Overall, it's still a wonderful production from Hammer and a very memorable film.
Directed by Terence Fisher
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A young boy grows up cursed to transform into a werewolf, which his adoptive father is able to combat with love, but when he reaches manhood, the beast is again unleashed.
Hammer's only werewolf film, to the best of my knowledge, it's a very good one, well-directed by Fisher, and with an exceptional performance by Reed in the title role. Based on Guy Endore's Werewolf Of Paris, but very loosely by Anthony Hinds, writing under his pen name of John Elder, Hinds provides a different setting and backstory. Wikipedia credits the film as being set in Spain, and production designer Bernard Robinson's set decorations and Molly Arbuthnot's costumes really add flavor to the film, and make it seem a unique world far away from Hammer's British studio. Roy Ashton's creature makeup for Reed is also exceptional, and packs a wallop when it's finally exposed to the audience at the film's climax. I've never really cared for the violent prologue in which an innocent beggar is imprisoned and turned into a beastly man who eventually becomes father to the werewolf, as it seems largely unnecessary but once the boy is adopted by the kindly Evans and his nurturing servant played by Hira Talfrey, and we see their relationship and their struggles with his curse, the film starts to take off for me. I found Benjamin Frankel's score, which features many sequences of cascading notes, a bit too busy for me, but it does convey the proper dark themes for the story. Overall, it's still a wonderful production from Hammer and a very memorable film.
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