The Universal Monsters/Hammer Horror Crossover HoF

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The Bride of Frankenstein


A good film it is, I won't say otherwise, but it is not one of my favourites far. Nonetheless, a good nomination, Des!
Thanks, Clazor. I'm happy you enjoyed it.

We're watching two of these this weekend, but I haven't decided which two.



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
Taste of Fear/Scream of Fear


This was awesome! The story, the characters, the acting, everything about this I liked. Totally a new favourite for the top spots in this HoF. From this point I'm diving into spoilers, so if you haven't seen this, DON'T READ FURTHER! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

WARNING: "Everything from Taste of fear" spoilers below
The brilliance of the story lies in the relative simplicity of it, at least that's what you're led to believe. After the death of her close friend, Penny Appleby returns to her father after a decade apart. Arriving at his estate, she finds him missing and gets conflicting explenations as to his health and whereabouts. Late that evening, however, she sees him sitting dead in a chair, but when she returns with help, discovers that he's vanished. Her nervous demeanor's blamed for her apparent visions, but soon she starts to suspect that something else is afoot.

The actors, Strasberg and Lewis in particular, did a magnificent job in this. Strasberg portrays Penny as a woman mouning a close friend, as well as trying to come to terms with a new enviorment and new people around her. Her sudden loss makes her feel powerless, even more so than usual. As she's wheelchair bound, she must rely on others' kindness, something she grows tired of and even starts to despise. The only one not treating her as if she's made of glass is Robert, the family driver played by Lewis. This, as I said, is the other great performer of this movie. For over an hour of this 80 min movie we see him be in Penny's corner; helping, talking, conspiering with her to discover what's going on in the house and trying to stop it. He plays the perfect hero stereotype without fail...until he doesn't.

This is the twist in the drama: Almost from the start the movie seeds the fact that there's something wrong about the new Mrs. Appleby, Penny's step-mother. It seems that she and a mysterious doctor (played by Lee) are conspiering to drive Penny mad in order to get Mr. Appleby's inheritance away from her. He seems to pop out of nowhere, allways at hand sooner than should be possible and repeatedly bringing up the topic of Penny's mental health. In hindsight, I really should've realized something was up, but I fell into the trap of assuming that just because a movie's old, it can't be subtle.

In the end, Robert turns out to be the real danger, sending Penny and her father's body over a cliff in a car. The scene's so well done, I thought it an accident until the camera cuts to a wider view and we see that Robert had been sitting next to the body the whole time, obscured form our view by the backrest of the front carseats. It's very well done, and as we've been acustomed to the view from previous rides in the car, where we only ever sit with Penny in the back, we don't see it coming.

This whole movie feels to me like a very polished and extended episode of Scooby-doo. A mystery has to be unraveled, and piece by piece we discover clues as to what really happens until the very end when, as per usual, the apparent boogy-man's caught and unmasked, revealing the criminal bellow.

Only, this time it's not just the criminal that's getting unmasked.

In a giant double twist, Penny's revealed not to be Penny, but the friend who apparently died in the beginning, Emily. It was Penny who dies by her own hand. Her father was informed of this, so when a letter arrived for Penny a few weeks later, supposedly written by her father, asking her to come home, she grows suspicious. Here we also get an explenation for the Doctor. He's in league with Emily, and has conspired with her to find the truth about her father's fate.


In the end, this is a very well crafted story, in the vein of a live-action Scooby-doo movie (only not trash) and concieved well before a single Scooby-doo episode ever aired. High praise go to McConnaughay, a great nom and a great movie!
__________________
Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris - bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
The Mummy (Lee)


A team of archeologists discover a ancient egyptian tomb while dealing with a mysterious egyptian man who seems to know much of the occupant of said tomb. Inside, an ancient scroll is found, and soon the discoverers are haunted by a living corpse, awoken by the reading aloud of the scroll.

If I was to give you this description and task you to tell me which of the two mummy movies in this HoF I was refering to, could you?

Not to say that it's a rip-off, but Hammer has definately taken the premiss of the '32 mummy and created their own version. And as such, they've done very well. It's updated in several ways, most good, but with one or two I take exception. They've fleshed out the characters of the archeologists a bit, having them be a family unit, as well as putting more into their shared experiences and their feeling toward each other. Cushing's character in particular has taken on more of the role of protagonist, even going so far as to be a part of the actual discovery team. It's his story, leaving even less for the character of the father than he had in the '32 version.

Then it's the mummy itself. Karloff never spent more than a few minutes of movie time in his mummy form, before leaving to become Ardeth Bey. In the '59 version, Lee never leaves his mummy faze, other than when his backstory's explained, and that is done by another character, the egyptian who guides and commands him. I'd call him a Ardeth Bey stand-in, but he's too uninteresting and too thin of a character even to be mentioned with Karloff's haunting performance. As such, we never get more than a stalking mute shuffeling around the brittish countryside. That said, they did get some expression out of Lee, especially around the eyes. He comes across as a capable mummy, but he's not Karloff. The look of the mummy itself, though, that looks good. They went for a more covered face, but they eyes are still visible and Lee used those to great effect. You can really see when he's mad or confused or unsure. It's a good actor under the bandages, that there's no denying. Lee does a good job when we actually see him close up.

Hardly suprising to you, I still find Karloff to be the better mummy, both as a stalking precense (despite the fact that we hardly see him as such) and in the form of the mysterious stranger facilitating in the uncovering of the tomb.

Actually, about the fact that we hardly see Karloff moving in mummy make-up. In the behind-the-scenes stuff that was on the Blue-ray, they adress this. It seems that they were afraid people would think Karloff overacted if they showed him act in the make-up. He had such a expressive face, they thought, that he seemed overanimated if he left the realm of subtle acting he did as Ardeth Bey.

They thought he was so good at acting, that if he tried more, he would seem to go over the top. Is this the best praise-by-damning or what?

Finally, the one thing I think they did badly was the portrayal of the female role. They pretty much killed my favourite character (after Karloff) from the '32 verion. As I mentioned, I liked the daughter, how smart and not "damsel in distress" she was. Here, they downsized her to one scene where she help by letting down her hair and for the rest of the movie she could be replaced by a cardboard cut-out. Zita Johann did a much better job than Yvonne Furneaux did, or rather, was allowed to do.

In the end, I liked the '32 version better, but this is still a good movie that I'm glad to have seen and enjoyed watching.

Good nom, Nope!



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
The Wolf Man


Intriguing story, well acted and nice special effects.

Too bad it didn't grab me more.

It's a good movie, no question; Chaney does a great job portraying a man who is hounded by a curse he doesn't believe in, and at the same time fears what the next night will bring. It's a tragic story where noone get off without taking a wound, be it literal or figurative.

Unfortunately, Chaney, along with the man playing his father, are the only two actors that seemed to act with any conviction. The rest of the cast seemed wooden, prone to reading lines rather than deliver them. The female lead was weak and the Roma woman who tells Chaney of his fate seemed at once to overact or state thing totally dead-pan. A special nod should go to Lugosi, but he isn't in the movie long enough for his presence to be felt.

No, that's unfair. He goes through the same anguish Chaney does, but in a way where we only see the end rather than the whole journey. Say rather that Chaney overshadows him and gets to show the full transformation from peeping Tom handyman to a tromented man afraid of what he can do...and what he can't stop himself from doing.

Finally, the effects. Both ups and downs here. The transformation scene was very well done. Seeing it now it's easy to tell how it's done, but it is very effectful. Unfortunately the end result doesn't live up to the road it takes. This has puzzled me ever since I first saw the poster. Why this look? No hint of pointed ears or elongated jaw, just massive amounts of hair everywhere. And what's with the poof on the top? It doesn't show as much on the poster, but in the movie it looks like they glued a giant furball to the top of his head.

I know I sound negative, but it's not my intent. I'm honestly bewilldered as to why they chose this route to go down? If anyone knows, please share.

As I said, it is a good movie, but in the end it's not a favourite.

Good pick, Toose!



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
The Devil Rides Out


Another great performance from the late Christopher Lee, now also joined by an overall good cast of people. Although, when you have Dracula for a protagonist and Blowfeld as the utter evil, you can't very well go wrong, can you?

But, seriously, Lee and Gray does carry the movie. Both are these intense, powerful men, working on opposite sides of a conflict centering around a young man who's very soul lies in the balance. The young man in question might not be the best actor, but the pleasure one gets from watching Lee and his friend trying to stop said doofus is worth said sub-par acting. I loved the scene 2/3rds through the movie wherein our heroes have to stay inside a magic circle as to prevent one of the F***ING horsemen of the Apocalyps from riding in and taking one of their souls! And this isn't the final climax of the movie. That said, what follows isn't nearly as intense and if the movie had ended at that point, I wouldn't have complained.

Charles Gray, as perviously stated, does help the movie rise to something special. I think that with a lesser antagonist, this would've felt unbalanced. He gives off an aura of authority, not least as he marches into the house where our heroes seek refuge and hypnotizes the lady of the house (a brave woman who, while knowing of his power still lets him in just in case there is some information to glean from him). Aother fine acting job from her, by the way.

This was a very entertaining movie and it's another that will have to fight for the top spots on my future ballot. Great actors, interesting plot and a semi-finale that will stick with me for awhile yet.

Great nom, Justin!



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
Horror of Dracula


I loved the opening to this. A seemingly unaware librarian comes to the house of Dracula seeking employment, only to be revealed as a veteran vampire hunter out for his final prey. The way he acts in these first few scenes, he must assume the count's watching and tries to act accordingly. He is a bit cold towards the woman he encounters though, not quite acting as someone meeting a frightend individual would. He calm and concerned, yes, but doesn't seem affected by her pleas for help. He knows what she is, and that he's already too late, therefore he comes of as almost cold, beyond the mere pretence of trying to help.

And then...the Count enters.

Lee doesn't have many lines in this first outing as the infamous vampire. Most of the time he lets his face and body convay meaning. Here, though, he has a few paragraphs of dialouge, and it struck me that he seemed to be rushing through them. Whether it's intentional or not, he goes through the lines as if eager to get them over with. No time is put into letting him preform his lines, they are just rushed out, delivered, a means to get the guest and us in the audience into a room he then securely locks to keep us under control.

Compare this to the first time we meet Lugosi's Dracula. Like Lee he's walking down a flight of stairs, adressing a newcomer in his castle. The difference is that Lugosi gets to take his time. His slow, measured voice and slow pace gives room for breath and space to study him, feel the charisma radiating from him. What we feel is not yet fear, but we do get a feeling that this is a important man somehow, capable of great things.

Lee has more the air of a man talking to a subordinet. He's welcoming, but also brisk, curt almost. The matter at hand is buisness and he dives straight into it. After discussing Harker's future position and determening when he can start, it's moving right along into a bedroom where he can be kept from wandering. The Count informs his new librarian that he will be gone overnight, wishes him a good night's sleep and closes the door. From this points on, to my recollection, Lee never speaks until the last minutes of the movie.

And thus we get to the cellar scene. I won't talk overly much about it here, but suffice to say that it's a very atmospheric scene that gives proof to the suspicions Harker has. This is a frist glimps of hw effective Lee can be at creating dread and tension. Here, he outstrides Lugosi in my oppinion, as I never really got any sense of dread from him. Lee does. And as that cellar door closes, we know Harker's fate is sealed.

As we move on, Cushing appears, portraying Van Hellsing. Together with Lee he's easily the best actor in this, and his character is a true badass. The final confrontation of the movie sees him counter Dracula at every turn and in the end defeat him. An awesome finish to the first Hammer Dracula.

Overall, a good movie. I liked Cushing's version of Van Hellsing, part academic, part monsterslayer. Lee does a great job as the Count, lessened at times by hurrid dialouge. But as a whole, a very entertaining movie which I'd gladly watch again.



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
The Black Cat


Whoever made the decision to put Lugosi and Karloff in the same movie...great choice!

They compliment each other in a very nice way; Lugosi being his flamboyant, almost overacting way (even akin to silent movie acting at times), while Karloff keeps his reserved, quiet and more menacing style. Plus, I find the way Lugosi pronounces Karloffs' character's name very funny, but that's probably because it's a germanic/scandinavian name and he has trouble pronouncing it correctly, combined with the fact he puts so much emotion behind it every time. Two different schools of acting that combine to make a very entertaining dialouge.

While the two main characters aren't bad actors, they do pale in comparison to Lugosi and Karloff. They pretty much give us as the audience someone to follow and witness the confrontations, but little more. The focus is heavely put upon Lugosi and his need for revenge against the man who stole everything from him.

The movie itself circles around this, a dangerous game of cat and mouse where the roles often are uncertain. Is it Lugosi that hunts Karloff, or is his need for revenge only a part of Karloff's plan, something that was counted on and used to further an as of yet secret agenda?

Overall, a very suspenseful story that is very well acted, both from our big name actors as well as the couple who acts as the audience's stand-ins. I'd never seen this before (which is true about my other nom as well) , but I'd heared good things and I was not dissapointed. It's by far my second favourite performances from Lugosi and Karloff, only surpassed by Dracula and The Mummy respectivley. It is a very twisty movie with an uncertain end. The fact that both players have grand plans for the other is evident, but while Lugosi's plan centers around Karloff, I'm not sure that Karloff holds Lugosi in the same high regard in his plans. Sure, he revels in what he'll do to him, but in the end, that is not the main part of his goal. It's more of a bonus than the ultimate point. As such, you are never really sure who if any will walk out of the story unscathed and in what condition. A very good movie in any case.



The deadline is in a few days (April 7), but I don't think most of the participants have been watching the films. Clazor deserves a freaking round of applause, but I'm curious - what do you guys want to do? I don't want the effort that a few of you (mainly Clazor) have put into this to go wasted. I feel bad, like I should have done something differently. But I don't think anyone is to blame for the lack of activity.

If we get a few lists turned in, I'm game for revealing based simply on those few. We can postpone the deadline if we need to, or if you guys want we can also cancel it. Just let me know.



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
The Satanic Rites of Dracula


Being the final Hammer Dracula movie wherein Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing played against each other, it's too bad it didn't really grip me as much as the first one.

It felt as if they wanted to cram too much into the same movie, while also not being completely sure what they wanted the movie to be. At the same time, they have elements of horror, sci-fi, spythriller and fantasy vying to be front and center, resulting in something I thought lacked focus.

That said, they still had some things down, a sign of experience after doing six other Dracula movies over a period of 15 years. We still have the great chemistry between Dracula and Van Helsing, again played by Lee and Cushing. I still liked their "fight scenes", if you could call them that (confrontations might be a more apt description) and I aslo find their special effects around Dracula's demise to be really well made. I realized I didn't bring that point up in my first Hammer Dracula review, but the disintegration of Dracula's corpse is something to behold. I can't tell if it's stop motion or just several frames fading into each other, but I really liked the look of it, both in the '58 version and this one, made in '73.

The story as such didn't stay with me for long, other than the fact that...

WARNING: "Plot of Satanic Rites" spoilers below
Dracula wants to kill off all of humanity with a newly developed strain of bubonic plauge.


Overall, a clash between Lee and Cushing is never dull, but with a story as full of different elements all trying to vy for prominence and a cast that didn't do much for me (except, again, for Lee and Cushing), I can't really say that I enjoyed it very much outside the scenes were Lee and Cushing stand off against each other.

Sorry, Toose, but this one wasn't one of my favourites.



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
Right, that was the last of them. I'm done. I have to say that this was more fun than I had expected. I don't usually go in for horror too much, but these older movies focus on a side of the horror genre that is totally more of my speed. Less jumpscares, more interesting plot and surreal stories. A big thank you to Swan for getting this off the ground. I will send in my ballot shortly.

As to your question about what's to be done, I'm not surprisingly hoping for some kind of result/end for this HoF if we can manage it. As for wasted effort, there is no such thing on my part at least. I've had a blast watching these movies, some of which I'd probably never seen otherwise. Come what may I've had fun. I'd like it if we could get at least a few lists in so we could get a result, but if you guys aren't interested in finishing, I hold no grudges. You've done a great and fun thing hosting this HoF Swan, so I'm happy either way.



Thanks Clazor. I'm really glad you had fun watching these, that's the most important part. I'll wait a bit to see what others have to say, and hopefully we can get some more lists in.



Let the night air cool you off
I am very sorry to you, Clazor. You have done a tremendous job, and I probably won't be able to fulfill my obligation even with an extended due date. With what I mentioned about my mother in the other thread and school, I just don't think I have the time. Even before I posted in the thread about my mother, we had found out her cancer had come back, but it was at a lower stage, so I didn't say anything here. But that was already taking some of my time away from my hof obligations. Once again, I am very sorry.



No need to be sorry JJ, I already figured with what's going on in your life you wouldn't have the time or energy for this, which is totally understandable. Thanks for letting us know for sure though, much appreciated.



I watched the hell out of these back when I made my last post. I treated myself to that movie marathon on Turner Classic Movies, and went from there. I'll catch up on posting about them "VERY" soon.