If I Had a Hammer, Part IV

Continuing our idiosyncratic survey of some noteworthy Hammer films and related items.

Scars of Dracula (1970): By now, Hammer was clearly wondering what to do with its two main franchises, and provided one of the worst answers in the form of The Horror of Frankenstein (1970). Jimmy Sangster directed a remake of his own script for The Curse of Frankenstein that had its tongue far too firmly in cheek and, worse, starred flavor du jour Ralph Bates as the Baron; the presence of David (Darth Vader) Prowse as the Monster and lovely Veronica Carlson were among the few compensations. Meanwhile, the last of their period Dracula films to star Christopher Lee is a bit of a disappointment, despite being directed by Roy Ward Baker. Featuring Patrick (Dr. Who) Troughton as Dracula’s servant, Klove; Michael Gwynn as a priest killed by a vampire bat; and the old crawling-down-the-castle-wall-to-the-coffin-room shtick, resurrected from Bram Stoker’s novel.

The Vampire Lovers (1970): This version of the oft-filmed J. Sheridan LeFanu lesbian vampire classic “Carmilla” is remarkably faithful. Cushing plays General Spielsdorf, Douglas Wilmer is vampire hunter Baron Hartog, Jon Finch (who would star in Roman Polanski’s Macbeth the next year) is the ineffectual hero, and Ingrid (Where Eagles Dare) Pitt is the sensual bloodsucker. Her climactic beheading is very realistic, and the ample nudity showed Hammer plunging into the ’70s with enthusiasm. Possibly Baker’s best genre film, although Quatermass and the Pit is also a contender; Tudor Gates soon wrote a pair of sequels, Lust for a Vampire and Twins of Evil.

When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970): I haven’t seen this for years, and in fact I hate caveman movies (it’s hard for a card-carrying Word-Man to appreciate a movie whose dialogue is of the “ook ook ack ack” variety), but as I recall it has nice Jim Danforth stop-motion dinosaurs…which is more than can be said of director Don Chaffey’s conspicuously creature-free Creatures the World Forgot (1971)!

Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971): The first of three adaptations of Stoker’s Jewel of the Seven Stars, followed by The Awakening and Bram Stoker’s [Legend of] the Mummy. In a sad behind-the-scenes story recalling that of the similarly ill-fated Lust for a Vampire, which apparently may have been shot first and released second, Hammer stalwart Andrew Keir (Dracula—Prince of Darkness, Quatermass and the Pit) replaced Cushing soon after shooting started when the latter’s ailing wife Helen died, and mediocrity-meister Michael Carreras stepped in, uncredited, for the final week of filming after director Seth Holt himself dropped dead. All things considered, it’s perhaps surprising it turned out as well as it did, despite a typically muddled script by Christopher Wicking (Cry of the Banshee). Keir is an archaeologist whose wife dies giving birth to their daughter at the moment he and his colleagues open the tomb of the dreaded Queen Tera; among the colleagues, systematically mown down as the story unfolds, are James Villiers and George Coulouris. While it’s sad to speculate what the film might have been like with Cushing, Keir is always a welcome presence, as is sexy Valerie Leon in the dual role of Tera and the daughter.

Countess Dracula (1971): The always-game Pitt plays Elizabeth Bathory in Peter Sasdy’s version of the oft-told tale about the real-life Hungarian countess who kept herself young-looking by bathing in virgins’ blood, with Nigel Green (an excellent Nayland Smith in The Face of Fu Manchu) as her henchman. Despite the title, she doesn’t imbibe blood, just sheds and wallows in it.

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971): Gender-bending version in which Jekyll turns into a beautiful but deadly “Jackie the Ripper.” Writer-producer Brian Clemens (Captain Kronos—Vampire Hunter, The Avengers) even threw Burke and Hare into the mix as well, for good measure. The casting of Martine Beswick (Thunderball), who really looks like a female Ralph Bates, sells it.

Hands of the Ripper (1971): I have not seen this Sasdy offering about the Ripper’s daughter and her deadly urges for many years, and I’m sorry to say I have not felt a great compulsion to do so.

Lust for a Vampire (aka To Love a Vampire; 1971): The followup to The Vampire Lovers is a big disappointment, despite the felicitous setting of a finishing school in which lesbian—or in this case bisexual—vampire Carmilla Karnstein (here played by the attractive but unemotive Yutte Stensgaard; most of the cast compensates by overacting shamelessly) runs amok, and ironically, the tamer U.S. alternate title, under which it was reportedly filmed originally, is more accurate. Michael Johnson (who he?) plays writer Richard LeStrange (yeah, right), who tricks his way into the school as an English teacher in order to glom the girls and ends up finding a “Strange Love” (the hilariously awful theme song) with Carmilla. The sadly ubiquitous Bates is Giles Barton, the headmaster who wants her to enlist him as a servant of Satan and gets drained for his trouble. Alas, after recovering from the broken leg that bumped him from Dracula Has Risen from the Grave, and directing the superior Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, Terence Fisher managed to break the SAME leg in the SAME place in a SECOND traffic accident, and so was replaced here by Sangster, a variable screenwriter but never more than a competent director at best. What’s worse is that Cushing, cast as Giles, pulled out to tend to his dying wife and was supplanted by Bates (who had just assumed the former’s signature role in Sangster’s directorial debut, Horror of Frankenstein), although Cushing returned for the final Karnstein entry.

Twins of Evil (1971): Featuring Cushing as the ill-fated witchfinder Gustav Weil, along with a superior script and cinematography, the conclusion of the Karnstein trilogy is a marked improvement over Lust for a Vampire, although in this case Carmilla is mostly sidelined in favor of Count Karnstein (Damien Thomas) and the titular sisters played by Playboy’s first twin Playmates, Mary and Madeleine Collinson. I won’t make any sophomoric “twin” jokes about their ample anatomical assets, but it’s tempting, as are they; the ever-annoying Dennis Price is the primary liability.

Demons of the Mind (aka Blood Evil, Blood Will Have Blood, Nightmare of Terror; 1972): I haven’t seen this since I was a kid, didn’t like it at the time, and am not a fan of latter-day Hammer director Peter Sykes or screenwriter Wicking. But it has its proponents, so I’ll take another look someday. Shane Briant and Gillian Hills are kept imprisoned by their father, Robert Hardy, who believes that the family bloodline is tainted; the rampant depravity suggests he’s correct. Patrick Magee and Michael Hordern co-star with Mrs. Ralph Bates, Virginia Wetherell.

To be concluded.

Those interested in Hammer Films would do well to check out the blog Watching Hammer (http://watchinghammer.blogspot.com/), which among other things features a very nice rundown on Fanatic, about which you can read in greater detail in Richard Matheson on Film.