Follow The Leader: Episode 16: It's Hammer Time! Hammer Films!
Martinex1: FOLLOW.... THE.... LEADER!
It is Tuesday after all! Bring us something new and exciting to talk about! You know how it is done!
15 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Discuss Hammer films. Was Christopher Lee a better Dracula than Bela Lugosi ? Was Peter Cushing the definitive Baron Frankenstein ? Or were Hammer films just poor rip-offs of the classic Universal films ? Hammer made a lot more than just horror films but it's those I'm mainly thinking of today so discuss anything about Hammer films.
I don't consider the Hammer movies rip offs because of the decidedly different atmosphere and tone of the more bloody flicks. Compared to the modern day they are sedate, but compared to the restrained Universal originals they are downright lurid. That makes them another thing completely. I like how Hammer had to get creative when Universal refused to let them use the classic designs and that forced them to find new ways of expressing the classic horrors. I have to get into the mood for Hammer movies, but when I do I love to consume a bunch.
Just to clarify - when I said horror I really meant horror/sci-fi/monsters so that includes such Hammer films as "She" and "One Million Years BC". But Hammer also made films such as the "On The Buses" comedy films which would (I assume) be meaningless to non-British readers.
As a kid I thought the Hammer films were inferior, since they did not creep me out like the Universal flicks did. They were also in color, which ruined the mood.
Like most things, I grew up to appreciate the tonal qualities Hammer brought, along with their superior cinematography. Cushing and Lee were used way too often, though technically were brilliant actors/
I love the Hammer films and always have - the first film I saw at the cinema in 1973, aged 7, was Hammer's "When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth". For me Christopher Lee is the definitive Dracula and the fact that Lee was quite posh in real life enabled him to bring a genuine aloof, aristocratic air to the role of Dracula. But in "Dracula, Prince Of Darkness" (1966) he plays Dracula as a terrifying figure who never speaks throughout the entire film but just snarls like an animal. And Peter Cushing was a wonderfully cold and sinister Baron Frankenstein. In "The Curse Of Frankenstein" (1957) the young Baron was played by Melvyn Hayes who was much more famous in the '70s in the BBC comedy series "It Ain't Half Hot, Mum" about a group of soldiers in Burma at the end of World War II.
So. . . when they popped up on television, they tended (I now clearly see) to be HEAVILY edited and cut down for both content and time, which made them less-than-easy to follow for the casual adolescent horror-hungry adolescent. Well, and lots of the best bits were, erm, missing.
Oddly enough, I remember them more from the frequent Famous Monsters of Filmland features that would give a detailed accounting of a movie's plot. If you read that, and then watched the film, you kind of "got it" a lot better.
And I'm all on-board with Christopher Lee over Lugosi, tbh. Heck, how many times did Lugosi actually portray Count Dracula on film? I'm almost certain that number would be exactly Two (2). DRACULA and ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN-- (Karen, this is your area of expertise-- can you confirm?). So Universal had a a heck of a lot of nerve trying to protect its "brand" on these characters, since John Carradine portrayed the count in more of their franchise films than Lugosi ever did (with Carradine sporting a jauntily-angled top-hat in most of them-- certainly an unexpected take on the character-!).
I guess I never found the Hammer films actually scary, though-- just engrossing (as you tried to keep up with the often-meandering plots), and certainly horrifying with some of the disturbingly effective gore-effects.
I love Hammer movies. I always have to watch one if it's on TV - which, thankfully, they always are. They just have so much charm and style, nearly always with excellent casts. Plus their adaptation of, "Quatermass and the Pit," may be my favourite film of all time. That was one Hammer film that did scare me when I was a kid.
Charlie, it is well worth a look. It's quite slow moving, being a six-part serial but it's good stuff, full of brilliantly pulled together ideas and slowly unfolding menace. It's also on YouTube, if you don't fancy a trip to the library. You can find it by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AR2JblsQOQ
The movie version's faster paced and more dynamic but also great.
Thanks for the comments - but there's obviously not much interest in this subject. Ah, well - Hammer films will always hold a special place in my heart. Some other classics include "The Devil Rides Out" which must be one of the best films ever made about devil-worship, "The Nanny" with a sinister performance from Bette Davis, "Blood From The Mummy's Tomb" based on Bram Stoker's story 'The Jewel Of The Seven Stars' plus some female-oriented films with titles like "And Frankenstein Created Woman", "Dr. Jekyll And Sister Hyde" and "Countess Dracula". Hammer even managed to mix vampires and kung-fu in "The Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires". And last but not least...the all-time classic "Holiday On The Buses" :D
Colin J - Well, I must confess I never heard of Hammer films. Not sure why... Perhaps b/c I've never been into horror stuff. Though as I get older I am intrigued with vampires a bit b/c a good friend had me read "The Historian" by Kostova and that is set in some European countries I have an affinity with (France, Hungary). It was a good read.
Though you may not have had a ton of responses, I always agree with the saying, "Variety is the spice of life!" I enjoy a diversion from comics and what others have to say.
Steve - As a proud homeowner in Chicagoland, I pay $325 a year in library tax. I try to exercise that wonderful system and will request "Quartermass and the Pit" from there! I don't mind at all that the Brit series is a slower paced. I mean, if I can watch "Smiley's People" and "Tinker,Tailor, Soldier, Spy" I can probably handle the pace of Quartermass, LOL. (I did really enjoy Le Carre's earlier works though, in all seriousness.)
I could never consider the Hammer films to be rip offs of the earlier Universal pictures for the simple fact that both were sourced from material that appeared in even earlier works, be they literary or theatrical.
Outside of Creature of the Black Lagoon I can't think of any totally original Universal monster and even that one is stretching the concept.
But Hammer films have a dynamic, an energy to them. Maybe it was the skill of the performers, the talents of the production staff, or the fact that they were operating on a shoe string budget that might easily snap before filming was finished, but the Best of Bray Studios just picks me up and runs off with me.
Hey Humanbelly, I remember Lugosi playing Dracula in some comedy short where he put the bite on an actress doing a Betty Boop impersonation. I recall him saying something to the nature that she had "booped her last boop."
Almost as good as dialogue as 'Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman'.
Scariest was definitely Sir Christopher Lee's portrayal of Dracula, although Lugosi's influence pervades nearly all Dracula performances up to this day. Bela was the first to play the Count as a suave, charismatic and seductive character in contrast to the earlier ghoulish portrayals like Count Orlock in Nosferatu.
All in all, they don't make them like Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee anymore!
Lugosi only played Dracula twice in movies, Dracula (1931) and A&C Meet Frankenstein (1948). He did play the character many times on stage, on Broadway in the 1920's, and later in road shows and summer stock. He also played Count Mora in MGM's Mark of the Vampire (1935), and Count Armand Tesla in Columbia's Return of the Vampire (1943).
I never thought of Hammer's films as rip-offs of Universal's. In the case of Dracula and Frankenstein, they were different movies (and with a very different style) based on the same books. Later, Universal even made a deal with Hammer to distribute the movies in the US: The Mummy (1959) was officially a remake of Universal's 1940's series. Universal also released Curse of the Werewolf and The Evil of Frankenstein.
15 comments:
Discuss Hammer films. Was Christopher Lee a better Dracula than Bela Lugosi ? Was Peter Cushing the definitive Baron Frankenstein ? Or were Hammer films just poor rip-offs of the classic Universal films ? Hammer made a lot more than just horror films but it's those I'm mainly thinking of today so discuss anything about Hammer films.
I don't consider the Hammer movies rip offs because of the decidedly different atmosphere and tone of the more bloody flicks. Compared to the modern day they are sedate, but compared to the restrained Universal originals they are downright lurid. That makes them another thing completely. I like how Hammer had to get creative when Universal refused to let them use the classic designs and that forced them to find new ways of expressing the classic horrors. I have to get into the mood for Hammer movies, but when I do I love to consume a bunch.
Rip Off
Just to clarify - when I said horror I really meant horror/sci-fi/monsters so that includes such Hammer films as "She" and "One Million Years BC". But Hammer also made films such as the "On The Buses" comedy films which would (I assume) be meaningless to non-British readers.
As a kid I thought the Hammer films were inferior, since they did not creep me out like the Universal flicks did. They were also in color, which ruined the mood.
Like most things, I grew up to appreciate the tonal qualities Hammer brought, along with their superior cinematography. Cushing and Lee were used way too often, though technically were brilliant actors/
Yoyo
I love the Hammer films and always have - the first film I saw at the cinema in 1973, aged 7, was Hammer's "When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth". For me Christopher Lee is the definitive Dracula and the fact that Lee was quite posh in real life enabled him to bring a genuine aloof, aristocratic air to the role of Dracula. But in "Dracula, Prince Of Darkness" (1966) he plays Dracula as a terrifying figure who never speaks throughout the entire film but just snarls like an animal. And Peter Cushing was a wonderfully cold and sinister Baron Frankenstein. In "The Curse Of Frankenstein" (1957) the young Baron was played by Melvyn Hayes who was much more famous in the '70s in the BBC comedy series "It Ain't Half Hot, Mum" about a group of soldiers in Burma at the end of World War II.
So. . . when they popped up on television, they tended (I now clearly see) to be HEAVILY edited and cut down for both content and time, which made them less-than-easy to follow for the casual adolescent horror-hungry adolescent. Well, and lots of the best bits were, erm, missing.
Oddly enough, I remember them more from the frequent Famous Monsters of Filmland features that would give a detailed accounting of a movie's plot. If you read that, and then watched the film, you kind of "got it" a lot better.
And I'm all on-board with Christopher Lee over Lugosi, tbh. Heck, how many times did Lugosi actually portray Count Dracula on film? I'm almost certain that number would be exactly Two (2). DRACULA and ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN-- (Karen, this is your area of expertise-- can you confirm?). So Universal had a a heck of a lot of nerve trying to protect its "brand" on these characters, since John Carradine portrayed the count in more of their franchise films than Lugosi ever did (with Carradine sporting a jauntily-angled top-hat in most of them-- certainly an unexpected take on the character-!).
I guess I never found the Hammer films actually scary, though-- just engrossing (as you tried to keep up with the often-meandering plots), and certainly horrifying with some of the disturbingly effective gore-effects.
HB (on the run still-- busy days---)
I love Hammer movies. I always have to watch one if it's on TV - which, thankfully, they always are. They just have so much charm and style, nearly always with excellent casts. Plus their adaptation of, "Quatermass and the Pit," may be my favourite film of all time. That was one Hammer film that did scare me when I was a kid.
Help Charlie out! I can get quarter mass and the pit, a BBC serial from 1958 in six parts,from the library. Is it worth a look? Thank you!
Charlie, it is well worth a look. It's quite slow moving, being a six-part serial but it's good stuff, full of brilliantly pulled together ideas and slowly unfolding menace. It's also on YouTube, if you don't fancy a trip to the library. You can find it by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AR2JblsQOQ
The movie version's faster paced and more dynamic but also great.
Thanks for the comments - but there's obviously not much interest in this subject. Ah, well - Hammer films will always hold a special place in my heart. Some other classics include "The Devil Rides Out" which must be one of the best films ever made about devil-worship, "The Nanny" with a sinister performance from Bette Davis, "Blood From The Mummy's Tomb" based on Bram Stoker's story 'The Jewel Of The Seven Stars' plus some female-oriented films with titles like "And Frankenstein Created Woman", "Dr. Jekyll And Sister Hyde" and "Countess Dracula". Hammer even managed to mix vampires and kung-fu in "The Legend Of The Seven Golden Vampires". And last but not least...the all-time classic "Holiday On The Buses" :D
Colin J - Well, I must confess I never heard of Hammer films. Not sure why... Perhaps b/c I've never been into horror stuff. Though as I get older I am intrigued with vampires a bit b/c a good friend had me read "The Historian" by Kostova and that is set in some European countries I have an affinity with (France, Hungary). It was a good read.
Though you may not have had a ton of responses, I always agree with the saying, "Variety is the spice of life!" I enjoy a diversion from comics and what others have to say.
Steve - As a proud homeowner in Chicagoland, I pay $325 a year in library tax. I try to exercise that wonderful system and will request "Quartermass and the Pit" from there! I don't mind at all that the Brit series is a slower paced. I mean, if I can watch "Smiley's People" and "Tinker,Tailor, Soldier, Spy" I can probably handle the pace of Quartermass, LOL. (I did really enjoy Le Carre's earlier works though, in all seriousness.)
Hiya,
I could never consider the Hammer films to be rip offs of the earlier Universal pictures for the simple fact that both were sourced from material that appeared in even earlier works, be they literary or theatrical.
Outside of Creature of the Black Lagoon I can't think of any totally original Universal monster and even that one is stretching the concept.
But Hammer films have a dynamic, an energy to them. Maybe it was the skill of the performers, the talents of the production staff, or the fact that they were operating on a shoe string budget that might easily snap before filming was finished, but the Best of Bray Studios just picks me up and runs off with me.
Hey Humanbelly, I remember Lugosi playing Dracula in some comedy short where he put the bite on an actress doing a Betty Boop impersonation. I recall him saying something to the nature that she had "booped her last boop."
Almost as good as dialogue as 'Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman'.
Seeya,
pfgavigan
Hiya,
Hey Charlie Horse 47 . . .
The following link is a little present for you and anybody else who might enjoy having the %$#@&*! scared out of them.
https://archive.org/details/Quatermass_II_Episode_1of6_1955
Yup, the Internet Archive has, and legally I believe, the second Quatermass story in all six episodes.
Seeya,
pfgavigan
Scariest was definitely Sir Christopher Lee's portrayal of Dracula, although Lugosi's influence pervades nearly all Dracula performances up to this day. Bela was the first to play the Count as a suave, charismatic and seductive character in contrast to the earlier ghoulish portrayals like Count Orlock in Nosferatu.
All in all, they don't make them like Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee anymore!
- Mike 'Hammertime' from Trinidad & Tobago.
Lugosi only played Dracula twice in movies, Dracula (1931) and A&C Meet Frankenstein (1948). He did play the character many times on stage, on Broadway in the 1920's, and later in road shows and summer stock. He also played Count Mora in MGM's Mark of the Vampire (1935), and Count Armand Tesla in Columbia's Return of the Vampire (1943).
I never thought of Hammer's films as rip-offs of Universal's. In the case of Dracula and Frankenstein, they were different movies (and with a very different style) based on the same books. Later, Universal even made a deal with Hammer to distribute the movies in the US: The Mummy (1959) was officially a remake of Universal's 1940's series. Universal also released Curse of the Werewolf and The Evil of Frankenstein.
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