(1953)
Dir - Terence Fisher
Overall: MEH
Notable as the first horror-adjacent Hammer film to be directed by Terence Fisher, (if not the first horror-adjacent work from the studio, period), Four Sided Triangle adapts William F. Temple's 1949 novel of the same name as a sci-fi tale gone wrong where two scientist friends, (Stephen Murray and John Van Eyssen, respectively), develop a replicator machine that one of them utilizes for less than wholesome means. It is interesting how such a decision is made, where the characters behave logically and compassionately to the impossible scenario and the morally dubious agenda that Murray undergoes under heartbroken determination. As a quickly produced B-movie, Fisher was obviously working within meager means and was therefor unable to generate much atmosphere, let alone being able to maintain an agreeable enough pace for a film with a mostly talky structure and few if any exciting set pieces. It no doubt could have gotten a more flashy and garish treatment had it been made ten years later during the studio's bold color and gothic horror heyday, but here it is merely forgettable.
(1958)
Dir - Guy Green
Overall: MEH
Though its bookending Hitchcockian segments are memorable, the bulk of Hammer's The Snorkel is tedious and underwhelming. The screenplay was by Peter Myers and studio regular Jimmy Sangster, (based on a story from actor Anthony Dawson), though Dawson himself does not appear on screen in the finished product. Instead, Peter van Eyck gets the villainous part as a man who offs his wife and remains under persistent suspicion from his adopted daughter Mandy Miller throughout. Miller's desperate accusations that her mother's husband has now killed both of her parents, (her father believed to have died via a boating accident), fall on deaf ears to everyone that hears them, and she tries, tries, tries, and tries again to convince everyone in literally every one of her scenes. This grows irksome quick, turning the story's victim into an annoyance where we should have her back yet just want Eyck to get busted already so that she can stop her pleading. The film acts as one long waiting game until such busting finally transpires, and thankfully it is a fitting comeuppance that manages to be simple yet surprising, with Eyck meeting his doom due to a seemingly insignificant detail. If the near hour before that moment was better handled and had more to work with, then it could have elevated this to the successful B-thriller that it deserves to be.
(1959)
Dir - Lance Comfort
Overall: MEH
A year before they made their official if still significantly tweaked adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, Hammer did the lighthearted comedy variation The Ugly Duckling. This one does not even try to make its potion-drinking protagonist look different in either of his alter ego forms, yet nobody recognizes six foot seven Bernard Bresslaw when such a transition takes place, a mustache and completely different personality apparently all that is acquired to dupe people. It is an inconsequential nitpick considering the movie's nonsense tone which is not meant to be taken seriously by anyone, let alone anyone involved in the production. Aside from Bresslaw who is amusingly cast as the towering doofus-turned suave criminal, Hammer mainstay Michael Ripper shows up as a gangster and the Third Doctor himself Jon Pertwee gets to indulge in some goofiness as Bresslaw's comparatively more levelheaded brother. Aside from agreeable pacing and the always professional performances, Sid Collins and Jack Davies script is pedestrian and allows for only the broadest of amusing set pieces. Nothing comes close to being laugh-out-loud funny or even clever, but it suffices as an innocent time-waster.
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