Devil Girl from Mars (1954)

Directed by:
David MacDonald

In the middle of winter; reports of a meteor falling in Scottish countryside hit the radio. Also hitting the airwaves is a report of a convicted murderer named Robert Justin, who's just escaped from prison. Robert (Peter Reynolds) shows up at a quaint inn / tavern called The Bonnie Charney, where his former lover Doris (Adrienne Corri) works, claiming to be a stranded hiker who's lost his wallet and now adopting the alias Albert Simpson. Despite the fact he married and then (he claims) accidentally killed another woman, Doris reluctantly agrees to keep his true identity a secret. Robert / Albert makes an agreement with busy-body innkeeper Mrs. Jamieson (Sophie Stewart) and her alcoholic husband (John Laurie) that he'll work to earn his keep by doing odd jobs around the place since he has no money. Also working there is creepy handyman David (James Edmund) and among the few guests are glamorous London model Ellen Prestwick (Hazel Court), who's actually there hiding from her married lover, and Mrs. Jamieson's young nephew Tommy (Anthony Richmond). While out investigating the meteor sighting, reporter Michael Carter (Hugh McDermott) and professor Arnold Hennessey (Joseph Tomelty) get lost and also stumble upon the pub looking for accommodations themselves.

It doesn't take long for a flying saucer to land right outside the pub. Because it's red hot and will take several hours to cool down, Michael and the Professor decide to go into the nearest village seven miles away for help. Unfortunately, they cannot get their car to start. The phones also mysteriously stop working. Once the spaceship finally does open, leather-clad female alien Nyah (Patricia Laffan) emerges. She immediately zaps old David ("a hopeless specimen") with her laser gun, leaving only a pair of eyeglasses behind. The alien then makes her presence and objective known to the humans. Because of a war between men and women on Mars, in which women were the victors, the birth rate has steadily been on the decrease. Nyah not only wants to test out her organic heat-resistant metal spaceship and "perpetual motion chain reactor beam" but also gather up some strong Earth men to take back to Mars to help repopulate. Her ship needs some minor repairs, so she's created an "invisible wall" around the pub so that no one can go in or out.

Also coming along with Nyah is her robot Johnny, a big, clunky thing that looks like a refrigerator with legs. Johnny's head lights up and it's then able to evaporate trees, a car and an entire building with a laser beam. Nyah herself is capable of hypnosis and mind control, which doesn't quite explain why she's unable to keep the small handful of humans she has to deal with in check. She eventually takes little Tommy aboard her ship and agrees to an exchange with one of the adult men for his release. But just who has a life to spare and is in need of a little moral redemption? Checking out the roster of male characters, I'm sure you'll have no problem working that out.

This minor camp classic (named as one of the "100 Most Amusingly Bad Movies Ever Made" in The Official Razzie Movie Guide) is rather set bound and high on talk and corny melodrama. Keeping the whole thing mildly amusing is Laffan, who's pretty hilarious as the bitchy, humorless, short-skirted alien who seems to take great pleasure in tormenting the humans. She casually pushes the old professor aside, telling him "You are a very poor physical specimen," constantly tells the humans how mentally inferior they are and stumbles upon a meeting, noting "It amuses me to watch your puny efforts." This also has a strange, almost obsessive focus on liquor, with characters constantly drinking, talking about drinking or making a big deal about someone else's drinking. Dated special effects (thought not too horribly bad for the time) and some laughable lines (one of the hysterical females notes "I'm scared! Nothing like this has ever happened to me before!") are good for assorted chuckles throughout.

It was based on a (stage?) play by James Eastwood (who also adapted) and John C. Mather. MacDonald (mostly a TV and "quota quickie" director) also made the Tod Slaughter vehicle It's Never Too Late to Mend (1937), ALIAS JOHN PRESTON (1955) with Christopher Lee and a few episodes of the unreleased Boris Karloff series The Veil (1958)."

★★

Man Who Could Cheat Death, The (1959)

Directed by:

Terence Fisher

Dr. Georges Bonnet (Anton Diffring), a talented sculptor and brilliant surgeon, seems awfully well-educated and worldly for someone in their mid 30s. That's because he's not actually in his mid 30s... he just looks it. Actually, Georges is 104 years old. Seventy years earlier, he and his now-elderly colleague, Prof. Ludwig Weiss (Arnold Marle), came up with a way to prolong life and youth with glandular transplants that must be administered every ten years. While Ludwig decided to simply let age run its course, Georges allowed himself to be the guinea pig. He's even concocted a special serum that can temporarily keep him alive while he waits for a new transplant. If he doesn't get the new gland, his face turns yellow, seventy years worth pain and agony flood him all at once... and someone else usually ends up dying. Every ten years, Georges relocates to a new city to begin a new chapter in his life, but the lonliness associated with living forever is finally starting to catch up to him.

Now in Paris, Georges is reunited with Janine Dubois (Hazel Court), a beautiful young woman he'd met and fell in love with years earlier but abandoned before things could get too serious. Janine has moved on with her life and is now casually dating Dr. Pierre Gerard (a very serious Christopher Lee), but finds old feelings resurfacing once again now that Georges is back in the picture. Problems arise when Ludwig shows up for their annual operation and, having suffered a crippling stroke, is unable to perform the necessary surgery. Ludwig, as well as Police Inspector LeGris (Francis De Wolff) are also curious about a string of missing models left in Georges wake, including his most recent lover, Margo (Delphi Lawrence).

It's a pretty predictable story (scripted by Jimmy Sangster and based on a Barre Lyndon play that was already filmed in 1945 as THE MAN IN HALF MOON STREET), but as per Hammer Studio's usual, the whole thing looks great. Mostly set indoors, the turn-of-the-century Paris setting is fairly well established through art direction and costumes (certainly not the British and thick German accents). It's also very colorfully photographed (by Jack Asher) and nicely scored (by Richard Bennett), but it's really the solid cast that keeps the whole thing on track since this is very much a dialogue-driven film. Diffring (who'd previously acted in the failed TV pilot TALES OF FRANKENSTEIN for Hammer) does a great job as the conflicted, ageless doctor who ultimately only has his best own interests in mind. His fear of death is so consuming that it's maddening, and he doesn't care who is taken out in the process. Marle gives a wonderful supporting performances and Court is a warm and appealing heroine. Lee, on the other hand, is so uptight and stuffy in his atypical hero role that he's completely overshadowed by the other three stars. Michael Ripper also has a typically tiny role as a morgue attendant.

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A "European version" of the film was released overseas that featured a brief topless scene with Court, which may be the first instance of mainstream nudity filmed in the UK. Neither the video or DVD release (from Legend Films) contain the nude shot.

★★1/2

Masque of the Red Death, The (1964)

Directed by:

Roger Corman

Saying this is the best of Roger Corman's eight Poe adaptations is high praise indeed, since many of the others in the series (HOUSE OF USHER, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM...) are also widely-regarded as classics of the genre. MASQUE was filmed on a low-budget on location in England on a five-week schedule and reaches incredible heights of atmosphere (and overall ambition) for such an inexpensive production. It truly is timeless and comparisons to Bergman (whom Corman names as an influence, along with Hitchcock) are not even out of the question. Vincent Price is his usual impressively evil self as the cruel (to put it mildly!) Prince Prospero, a Satan-worshipping sadist who seals himself inside a large castle with other wealthy noblemen and women while a red death plague ravages the less fortunate workers outside. Prospero truly is one of Price's most reprehensible characters... and in a career like his, that's saying a lot! First seen as his chariots nearly mow over an infant, the prince will go on to humiliate and terrorize every single person in this film. No one is spared his wraith; everyone exists just to be toyed with, degraded, corrupted, judged (his persuasive philosophies of evil are quite intriguing indeed!) and even killed. But there's also retribution lurking outside the castle walls in the form of a red-robed, tarot-card dealing phantom figure…

The supporting cast could not be better... Jane Asher is excellent as Francesca, an innocent, God-fearing peasant girl who Prospero holds hostage in the castle and tries to corrupt, partially by making her chose the fates of her father (Nigel Green) and her lover (David Weston). Asher is never a mannequin in her scenes and seems authentic in her wide-eyed wonder and horrified astonishment. Hazel Court is outstanding as Juliana, a noblewoman in league with the devil. Featured in two of the film's most memorable segments (a branding sequence and an incredibly stylish nightmare sequence where she is murdered over and over again), Court made one of the strongest impressions to me; she's calculating and evil, for sure, but also possesses a streak a airiness. Besides, any actress with the nerve to pledge her eternal love to Satan in a film made in the 1960s, has to be well worth admiring. Excellent British character actor Patrick Magee also has a memorable supporting role as Alfredo, Prospero's pompous and arrogant right-hand man, who gets what he has coming to him after assaulting the wife of a dwarf performer (Skip Martin).

Excellent period atmosphere (it's set in 12th Century Italy), Daniel Haller's elaborate production design, Robert Jones exquisite art direction, Charles Beaumont and R. Wright Campbell's well-turned script (which also wonderfully adds a non-intrusive Hop Toad subplot) and the top-notch performances give this the winning edge over every other Poe adaptation ever attempted. Nicolas Roeg's breathtaking and haunting color cinematography is another asset, best illustrated during several impressive sequences roving through large rooms, each lit with a different color. Good score by David Lee. The MGM release pairs this with THE PREMATURE BURIAL (1962) and each film has been wonderfully re-mastered and features the trailer, plus very informative and detailed interviews with Corman about the productions.

★★★★

Curse of Frankenstein, The (1957)

... aka: Frankenstein and the Monster

Directed by:

Terence Fisher

This milestone British horror effort is notable for many reasons. For starters, it was the first Frankenstein adaptation to be filmed in color. Secondly, it was a huge international hit that not only became the most successful British film of its time but also helped establish Hammer Productions as one of the world's premiere studios specializing in fantasy, science fiction and horror - a title it would retain for the next twenty years. Third, it (along with Hammer's follow-up hit HORROR OF DRACULA) made stars out of leads Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, whose names would become synonymous with the genre. And finally, it helped to usher in a return to Gothic horror after years of atomic age sci-fi films (dealing with alien invasions, giant monsters, etc.) that dominated the early part of the decade. Furthermore, the film also upped the ante in on-screen gruesomeness.

In a mountainous village in Switzerland sometime in the 19th Century, Victor Frankenstein (Cushing) is being held in an asylum, and narrates his own story about how he ended up there. After inheriting the Frankenstein fortune upon his parent's death, young Victor decides to hire live-in tutor Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart) to school him in science. After years of study, the two men begin experimenting in bringing the dead back to life, starting with successfully reviving a puppy. Not quite satisfied with that, Victor (with assistance from an increasingly reluctant Paul) decides to move on to experimenting with human corpses. They acquire the dead body of a hulking burglar from the gallows, bring his body back to the lab and discover birds have rendered much of the body unusable. Victor then sets out to find replacement parts, starting with getting the hands from a newly-dead sculptor. Meanwhile, Victor's lovely cousin Elizabeth (Hazel Court) shows up to make good on a marriage arranged during her youth. Little does she know, but Victor is already carrying on an affair with household maid Justine (Valerie Gaunt), and plans to continue doing so regardless of his engagement.

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Realizing things have taken a decidedly wrong turn, Paul chooses to quit assisting in the experiments and tries to encourage Elizabeth (whom he has grown fond of) to leave, but she refuses. Victor keeps acquiring body parts in Charnel houses and such, but when it comes down to getting the right brain for his creation, he's reduced to murdering a brilliant scientist (Paul Hardtmuth) to get it. During a scuffle with Paul, the brain is damaged but Victor decides to use it anyway and finally his creation is complete. Lightning strikes and soon the strong hulking creation (Lee) is brought to life.

From top to bottom, this is a professionally done production. It's well directed by British horror king Terence Fisher, has convincing period detail and boasts an excellent central performance from Cushing, as well as very good supporting ones from Urquhart and Court. Lee himself has just minimal screen-time, but still manages to make an impression as the creature. However, the role itself is more one-dimensional than what we'd previously seen in Boris Karloff's portrayal in the original FRANKENSTEIN films. Other notable contributions come from composer James Bernard, cinematographer Jack Asher, production design and art direction from Ted Marshall and Bernard Robinson and costumes by Molly Arbuthnot. The film is quite grisly at times, with a decapitation, severed hands, eyeballs, brains, a shotgun blast to the face and a fiery finale. The pale green make-up design on the creature (conceived by Philip Leakey) gives it a more zombie-like appearance than previously seen in other adaptations.

Despite an implied execution at the end of the film, Cushing's mad scientist returned again (albeit under the name Victor Stein) in THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN the following year, as well as many other sequels for Hammer, lasting until 1974's Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell.

★★★

Doctor Blood's Coffin (1961)

... aka: Dr. Blood's Coffin

Directed by:

Sidney J. Furie

Dr. Peter Blood (Kieron Moore), recently dejected from medical school for performing questionable experiments, shows up in a small Cornish village shortly after the death of his father (Ian Hunter) to carry on with the old man's experiments. Maddened by his ambition and arrogance, Peter paralyzes unwilling victims with curare (African arrow poison) until their still-beating hearts can be removed and transplanted into other bodies. Will his new widowed nurse girlfriend Linda Parker (Hazel Court, as always, a strong female lead) catch on before it's too late? Saddled with a low-budget and a very implausible plot, and pretty minor compared to some concurrent Corman and Hammer films, this still has good performances from the entire cast (also including Kenneth J. Warren as the village police sergeant and Gerald Lawson as a coroner), decent horror atmosphere, competent art direction, some nice location filming (it was made in and around a beautiful coastal village) and a decent surprise ending. It's also bloodier than most other films from this time period. So while not a particularly noteworthy film, it's put together with enough care and thought to be worth watching.

★★1/2

Raven, The (1963)

Directed by:
Roger Corman

A bona fide schlock horror spoof, set in the 15th Century, finds rival sorcerers Vincent Price and Boris Karloff (both great in their roles, naturally) caught up in a delightful battle-of-powers on their quest for supremacy, which culminates in an exciting sorcerers duel; a classic fusing of comedy and fantasy with some dated, but still fun, special effects. Co-star Peter Lorre has a field day, gets many of the funniest lines and pretty much steals the entire film as a fellow sorcerer who is cursed to occasionally transform into a raven, Hazel Court is asked to do little but stand around looking ravishing in some provocative gowns (though it is to her credit that she generates laughs and great sex appeal when given little to work with) and Jack Nicholson delivers what must be the worst performance of his entire career (rivaling his work in THE TERROR) as Lorre's daffy son. Special effects are imaginative for the time and the screenplay by Richard Matheson (who knows this territory quite well, having adapted HOUSE OF USHER, THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM and others for Corman) has very little, if anything, to do with the Poe poem, but is instead a playful send-up of the entire cycle of films. Corman later claimed that some of the dialogue was ad-libbed and this was one of his all-time favorite movie shoots. Cinematographer Floyd Crosby, composer Les Baxter and others capture the appropriate mood in this fun B flick. Also with Olive Sturgess and John Dierkes.

★★1/2