Take me back to the 60s/70s....

Ever get the feeling things were so much simpler then...? Like super heroes for instance....

Hammered Again

Gem (Channel 90) seems to have a collection of old Hammer horror movies on file that they bring out of the vaults for lat night enthusiasts on Saturday nights. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, this suits me down to the ground and I'm either catching up on old movies i've missed and only read about, or else reliving my youth watching 1970's styled vampires bite down on buxom women in low-cut blouses. Which brings me to the Gem that was on last night, "Blood from the Mummy's Tomb".

Adapated from Bram Stoker's novel The Jewel of Seven Stars, this stylish Hammer Horror film was director Seth Holt's last picture - he died from a heart attack on the set five weeks into the six week shooting schedule. The typical mummy movie genre is given a slight twist by Hammer, with the voluptuous Valerie Leon (remember we are talking Hammer here). Unsurprisingly, the normal garb of bandages is replaced for as much of Leon's bare flesh in the film as possible in the early 70's.

The director knows she’s the major attraction of the film and Leon is just drop dead gorgeous. She plays a dual role - Margaret the daughter of the expedition leader and Tera, the evil Egyptian queen. Leon spends most of her time as Tera sleeping in a jewelled sarcophagus in golden underwear and essentially does exactly the same as Margaret except she stands up and talks. Leon has an amazing presence and body and Hammer have used both of these to advantage. Filmed on an ultra low budget (200,000 pounds), the film works rather well given the changes from Stoker's original plot line. (It was to be remade as The Awakening years later with Charlton Heston and was even less successful than this effort). Not bad for Hammer, and a little different than the usual bandaged jerky mummy movie, but if it's on late at night, set the timer and record it like I should have.

Burn brightly, Pete.

Cain Enabled

I just discovered that the Guardian this week ran an article announcing the discovery of a lost novel by one of my favourite authors, James M. Cain. Like a hardboiled Hemingway, Cain's pen gave us  stories we've all come across: Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Galatea, Serenade, The Butterfly - many of them made into films, including the recently re-made Mildred Pierce. Writing mainly in the 1930s and 40s, Cain first found success with The Postman Always Rings Twice (what a novel to start a career with!) and his books have always been in publication. I've been a fan since the 80s when I was able to pick up some of his hard to get novels when I was working in the States. So I was overjoyed that writer Max Alan Collins was responsible in part for this piece of literary detective work and the novel (The Cocktail Waitress) has in fact been discovered, is currently being edited and will be published sometime next year. 


Apparently Cain had re-written the ending just before his death and mentioned it in an interview. Both versions have been found and it will be interesting to see which version ends up on the printed page. Hard Case Crime who are publishing the novel said that handwritten notes and edits appear in the margins of numerous pages of the manuscript, and that Cain was working on final revisions until close to the end of his life in the late 70s. Cain died in 1977 at age 85 somewhat dejected that his magnum opus was refused publication - he'd spent 20 years of his life in semi-retirement polishing the novel only to have it knocked back by publishers. So, a cause for celebration in this household and I'll be interested to see what his writing was like in his old age.

Burn brightly, Pete

If I Had a Hammer...

Sitting up late tonight, I'm watching an old favorite from the seventies - Hammer's schlock movie Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde with Ralph Bates and Martine Beswick in the dual lead role. Bates was a well known Hammer horror actor in the 60s and 70s and Beswick also made several Hammer movies (more often than not wearing a bikini),  she is better known for the all-girl fight in the Bond film From Russia with Love, when Sean Connery "wins" her in the gypsy camp. 


Sister Hyde is yet another classic mash-up amalgam of movies, this time with Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (where the potion turns Bates into the voluptuous and alluring Beswick), Burke and Hare stealing bodies for experimentation and Jack the Ripper where Bates/Beswick is killing prostitutes in the West End for their thyroid glands.


The actual scripting is this movie is almost perfect (if you're prepared to overlook the mash-up details) - balanced with dark humour and interesting plot details; the acting standards are high with great performances all round, from Bates’ frail and shrinking Dr Jekyll to Beswick’s irresistible, almost nymphomaniacal Ms Hyde; and everything comes together in one of the final and best studio pieces that Hammer studios were ever to produce.

I first saw this Hammer Horror in a drive-in theatre in the mid 70s in my home town and it is rarely played except on late night TV once every 4 or 5 years, so the DVD recorder worked overtime this weekend. The Channel 9 version is quite a "dirty" print, badly scratched and in need of cleaning, but at least this version went to air uncensored (and very late at night) unlike some of the previous broadcast versions I've watched over the years. A lovely period piece by Hammer which they did so well - an uniquely British in its approach as well.
Burn brightly, Peter