60's Hammer Horror Part One

THE GORGON
(1964)
Dir - Terrence Fisher
Overall:  GOOD

Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Terrence Fisher reunited yet again for a Greek mythology based horror outing that unsurprisingly is quite expertly made.  (Very) minor complaints can be found in that both Lee and the title monster are rather underused, though the latter is effectively teased at least.  Written by Plague of the Zombies and The Reptile director and frequent Hammer screenwriter John Gilling, he certainly deserves props for taking a concept like the Gorgon sisters and fitting it into an early 20th Century tale of possession.  It still takes place in a small village with a lot of angry and terrified townsfolk though of course.  Cushing and Lee's characters are both a little grey in the fact that Lee is rather off-putting though ultimately a bigger hero and more noble a protagonist than Cushing's foolish doctor.  Patrick Troughton also makes a minor appearance for classic Doctor Who fans to rejoice over.  It is ultimately rather beautifully directed, acted, and scripted, making it one of Hammer's several, non-Universal monster remakes that were quite solid in their own right.

THE REPTILE
(1966)
Dir - John Gilling
Overall: GOOD

John Gilling's The Reptile is another one of Hammer's excellent "one and done" horror films that is not based off a book of any kind, just a solid, classy creature feature.  Filmed at the same time as the also superb The Plague of the Zombies and using the same sets, location, and one or two cast members, the formula of "outsiders move into small village, murders have been accruing, and the townsfolk are all suspicious and quiet about it" is done to a tee here.  While unavoidably silly at times, the creepy mystery unfolds rather well and is adequately surprising in its reveals.  It also easily features some of the best makeup effects for any such monster movie from the studio, arguably only surpassed by Roy Ashton's work in 1961's The Curse of the Werewolf.  The film is definitely slow in parts and while the cast is more than adequate, (particularly Jacqueline Pearce), it is noticeably void of the more recognizable players in Hammer's usual pool of actors.  Still, it is a top-notch production, one of the many from the studio that was still very much in their heyday at the time.

THE WITCHES
(1966)
Dir - Cyril Frankel
Overall:  GOOD

Adapted by Nigel Kneale from Norah Lots' 1960 novel The Devil's Own, The Witches, is one of Hammer Studios' better, slightly lesser-known films.  Kneal's script takes a great deal of time to lay all of its cards on the table.  Clues and tidbits of information are given to us for well over half of the movie as to the sinister underlinings in the rural English village of Heddaby before anything really goes down.  We are then given a brief slight-of-hand as to what we have been watching, only to have it all laid out in layman's terms for the finale.  Speaking of which, the movie's legacy has somewhat been compromised due to that very same finale where the pagan proceedings inexplicably turn into a choreographed routine of jazz hands practice.  It is also rather cartoonish that the "witches" all dress in tattered rags with filth all over them for no other reason than just...well, because that is what witches do?  Unintentional tone issues aside, director Cyril Frankel, (in one of his few Hammer productions), still manages to create a wonderfully foreboding sense of dread.  Former Alfred Hitchcock leading lady Joan Fontaine is great as well, also making a rare appearance in a straight horror movie.

60's Jesús Franco

THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF
(1961)
Overall:  MEH

Historically important for basically being the first Spanish horror film and it does have one or two creepy moments, but The Awful Dr. Orloff, (Gritos en la noche, Screams in the Night), is really nothing more than a sub-par homage/rip-off of the much lauded Eyes Without a Face.  While this one may have its cult following as its director Jesús Franco surely does, it also pales in comparison to the film whose footsteps it is clearly trying to follow in.  For one, our male hero played by Conrado San Martin makes one of the most mind-numbingly idiotic yet convenient for the plot decisions near the finale that both reeks of cheapness and inept screenwriting.  There is also a throw-away scene at the same moment where he and his partner, (who have been desperately trying to catch the man responsible for kidnapping and murdering so many women), both have a hysterical young girl run up to them in the street saying she was chased by a lunatic with a knife to which the inspector's logical response of course is to say "Ah get outta here will ya.  This whole town's gone crazy."  Besides the stupidity, the film is your standard, "mad doctor kidnaps girls for experiments" stuff where we are just waiting for the inevitable moment where his mute and deformed assistant with a heart of gold turns on him, the main female protagonist outsmarts him, and the hero male comes dashing in.

THE DIABOLICAL DR. Z
(1965)
Overall: MEH

Yet another evil doctor titled horror outing from Jesús Franco emerged in The Diabolical Dr. Z, (Miss Muerte, Dans les griffes du maniaque).  The opening is a bit rough with Antonio Jiménez Escribano appearing as what a five year old would draw if you asked them what a mad scientist looks like, (huge goggles, crazy Gene Wilder white hair, wheelchair, etc).  He rushes into a room full of scientist having some sort of meeting and proceeds to not only get scoffed and threatened for spouting his "crazy but of course correct" theories of good and evil being curable, but he also dies from all the stress right then and there which is pure silliness.  After that though, things become far more interesting and Franco executes them very well.  Mabel Karr is a formidable evil female lead as Doctor Zimmer's deranged daughter and it is a pleasant "twist" to have her be the actual title character.  We even have a surprisingly exciting man-on-man fight to the death near the end, surprising because it is not the ole "one punch to knock em out" stuff.  Estilla Blain is also excellent as the sultry-dancer come unwilling living instrument of revenge.  There are more goofs in the form of several plot points that are just too advantageous to be convincing, but it all remains compelling enough to ultimately work.

SUCCUBUS
(1968)
Overall: WOOF

Succubus, (Necronomicon - Geträumte Sünden), is the first movie that Jesús Franco made outside of his native Spain, at last fully fed-up with said country's strict censorship laws.  A curiosity then in that respect and ripe with many of the elements that Franco would continue to explore throughout the following decade, namely naked women and gore, though the latter is very tame this go around.  It is also an incredibly difficult film to follow.  The opening scene is well executed enough and tips us off appropriately that all is not what it seems, but once the foggy-lensed dream sequences take over for seemingly the rest of the durration, it becomes an unfollowable mess.  Lead Janine Reynaud floats around one setting to another, has interactions with numerous people who call her different names and may or may not have previously known her, there is some guy's eyes we keep seeing who is apparently supposed to be Satan, (which you would never guess), there is a castle she maybe lives in, there is a psychiatrist she talks to, the narration changes characters, and then she starts killing people.  Well, or something.  All this would make for a nice, surreal horror outing if not for the undeniable fact that it is so painstakingly sluggish and boring. Sadly, Franco movies are routinely this humdrum so it is hardly an isolated case.