SCARS OF DRACULA

1970/Director: Roy Ward Baker/Writers: Anthony Hinds as John Elder

Cast: Christopher Lee, Dennis Waterman, Jenny Hanley, Christopher Matthews, Patrick Troughton, Michael Gwynn, Michael Ripper, Wendy Hamilton, Anouska Hempel

For people who say that this is the worst Hammer Dracula film ever made they must have stopped at this 1970 feature and never checked out Dracula A.D. 1972 and then The Satanic Rites of Dracula, the last of the Hammer Dracula features. This is the last of the Hammer series to feature the Count in a Gothic setting however. In this one the Count is back in Transylvania and the continuity the series had followed fairly well over the last three films (Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave and Taste the Blood of Dracula) is jarred by the fact that at the end of Taste the Count is left a pile of powdery, desiccated blood in London. Scars does have the Count start off as powdery blood but there are some  gaps here that leave the last story dangling. How did the powdered blood get to Translyvania and into Dracual’s secure chamber, accessable only from the castle wall overlooking a steep cliff? Earlier features spent a good portion of the early story explaing how Dracula returns from the dead but this one sort of bypasses all that and simply has a bat vomit blood on the red powder. Why? Where did the blood gorged bat come from and how did Dracula control it? We will never know.  The film was shot on a skimpy budget and shot quickly. It was released, sometimes on a double bill with Horror of Frankenstein, only a few months after Taste the Blood of Dracula. It was director Roy Ward Baker’s first stab at a Gothic film and the absence of such maestros of the style like Terence Fisher or Freddie Francis is sorely felt. But to be honest Ward does the best he can with a script that offers very little in the way of something new to add to the series and a small budget and tight schedule. He just does not have the flair that Terence Fisher had but those are pretty big shoes to try and fill in the first place.

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FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN

1967/Director: Terence Fisher/Writer: Anthony Hinds

Cast: Peter Cushing, Susan Denberg, Thorley Walters, Robert Morris, Duncan Lamont

Frankenstein Created Woman is the fourth of the Hammer Frankenstein films and sees the return of Terence fisher as director after a brief absence from the helm while Freddie Francis directed The Evil of Frankenstein. Anthony Hinds is back as script writer under the familiar pseudonym John Elder. We will get to The Evil of Frankenstein another day as I will eventually get all the Hammer Frankenstein efforts reviewed then move on to the Dracula films. But I did want to clear something up that puzzled me for a while regarding the film Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell. In that film I made the error of stating in my review of that film that Baron Frankenstein shows the damage he received at the end of Frankenstein Must Be destroyed. I was recalling that from memory and I am far from an expert on the films but it would seem that in Frankenstein Created Woman Frankenstein already shows some damage to his hands. We may infer from this that the injuries were received at the end of 1964’s The Evil of Frankenstein when the castle burns down and then explodes (like in the James Whale version) though it not shown or explained. Anyway, I always wondered about his hands in that film and need to go back and rewatch Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, a fine Terence fisher film as well, and see if his hands are gloved in that one.

MORE FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN HERE >>

EYES WITHOUT A FACE (Les Yeux Sans Visage)

1960/Director: Georges Franju/Writers: Jean Redon, Pierre Boileau

Cast: Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Juliette Mayniel, Edith Scob, François Guérin, Alexandre Rignault, Béatrice Altariba

I cannot say honestly that I have seen much French cinema. I went through a phase almost a couple decades ago where I watched a batch by the big names like Jean-Luc Goddard and Francois Truffaut but other than the Truffaut film The 400 Blows I can’t remember any of that stuff. I do now recall I saw Goddard’s Breathless and it was so much better than the remake with Richard Gere. I guess the only French filmmaker I may follow at all would be Jean Rollin. Well I had read about the film Yeux Sans Visage for a while and had had it on disk for months before I was in the mood one night for some Euro-fare. I did not expect too much going into the film other than maybe some nice black and white cinematography and loads of spacey acting. I am happy to report that I was surprised by this film and it deserves the praises it normally receives in reviews. The cinematography was great as was the score by Maurice Jarre and the acting was down to earth and believable. I mean, for a French film. I am not into the European ‘existential’ school of depressed method acting. For example like Catherine Deneuve in Polanksi’s Repulsion. Damn, I can’t finish that film no matter how hard I try. I guess depression is scary. I mean just watch Woody Allen’s Interiors. That’s some scary stuff!

MORE EYES WITHOUT A FACE HERE >>

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GIALLO

2009/Director: Dario Argento/Writers: Jim Agnew, Dario Argento

Cast: Adrien Brody, Emmanuelle Seigner, Elsa Pataky, Robert Miano, Byron Deidra

God knows I have tried to like Dario Argento. His name pops up everywhere in the horror world and yet I have to admit I have cared for very little he has ever done. His sycophantic supporters say that even if his newer work is weak we must acknowledge the genius of his ‘high period’ when he helped to usher in the great giallo films of the late 60’s and early 70’s as well as his unique brand of horror. And that may well be unarguable. Some of his films from the period, that I have seen, are Bird With the Crystal Plumage, Tenebre, Deep Red, Suspiria, and Phenomenon. While these are classics of some sort, I guess, I have to admit that  all of these films are some of the most confusing and haphazard movies I have ever sat down to watch. When the killer and her motives is finally revealed in Deep Red (some minor female character who had about two or three minutes of screen time earlier in the film) I was so disappointed. Not to say that that is a reason to pan a film and not see it but I seem to missing something that hordes of other people are getting and don’t know what it is. Why is Deep Red (Profundo Rosso) considered to be one of the great giallo films of the 70’s? It is a mediocre film at best. One defense I have read of Argento (and most Italian giallo and horror in general) is that one must not look for a linear story in the Hollywood fashion and instead you have to let yourself go along with the surreal quality of the film and receive its messages on an almost unconscious level.  One is to not watch and analyze the film as a whole but you have look for those special moments that cannot be found in any other genre. I am not sure about all that but as time has gone on I have to admit I have developed a liking for Italian horror and suspense films I did not have when I was younger. I liked Italian post war dramas and pepla and spaghetti westerns for some reason but was confused by Italian horror until I explored Mario Bava’s work. Then I read that Bava was an inspiration for Argento and the men even worked together on some projects at the end of Bava’s career. I decided there had to be something there my Cro-magnon mind could not fathom. Years later I finally concluded some of the stuff is okay after all though I can still be at a loss and typically cannot finish an Italian made horror or crime film in one setting.

MORE GIALLO HERE >>

TODAY’S FAR OUT FEATURE: TROG

SEE TROG MENACE JOAN CRAWFORD AND MICHAEL GOUGH HERE >>

KONGA

1961/Director: John Lemont/Writers: Herman Cohen, Aben Kandel

Cast: Michael Gough, Margo Johns, Jess Conrad, Claire Gordon, Austin Trevor, Jack Watson, George Pastell

Detroit born producer/writer Herman Cohen is a name that will be popping up here at the Café on a regular basis. Eventually there will be posts on his great dive-in classics The Bride of the Gorilla, Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, I Was a Teenage Werewolf,  I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, How to Make a Monster, and Horrors of the Black Museum. In fact this posts feature, Konga, is not our first introduction to the works of this dedicated film-maker. I reviewed Trog starring Joan Crawford and Michael Gough, a few posts back and it, like Konga, was one of the color films Cohen made while in England during the 60’s and 70’s. He would also make the thriller Berserk (I do not even know if I have that film here or not. I need a hunchbacked, mute assistant to sort out all the stuff I have on DVDs or on my hard-drive) with Crawford while in England and I understand most people like it more than Trog, but I thought Trog was pretty darned entertaining. Appearing in five of his British productions was actor Michael Gough who seems to have been given free reign with his roles and he had the time of his life hamming them up to the extreme. While some consider his ultimate over-the-top achievement to be the insane curator and scientist Edmond Bancroft in Horrors of the Black Museum I think he is utterly hysterical as Dr. Charles Decker in the sadly underrated Konga.

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THE SORCERERS

1967/Director: Michael Reeves/ Writers: Michael Reeves, Tom Baker

Cast: Boris Karloff, Cahterine Lacey, Elizabeth Ercy, Ian Ogilvy, Victor Henry, Sally Sheridan, Susan George

Michael Reeves was an aspiring and ambitious young British director who only directed three films before his untimely death at the age of twenty-five by barbiturate overdose. It has never been assumed his death was a suicide and that he simply took a little too much of the strong medications (often over prescribed in the 60’s) to alleviate his depression and anxiety. His first film is nothing too fancy and often people assume that The Sorcerers was his first project. He actually filmed the low budget Italian horror film Revenge of the Blood Beast (La Sorella di Satana) in 1965 which featured the British actress Barbara Steele who was working in Italy at the time. His last film is considered not only his best but one of the best British horror films of the period, The Witchfinder General. AIP insisted that the film feature Vincent Price and legend has it that Reeves was none too impressed with Price’s trademark overacting and the two were often in heated debate as to the proper interpretation of Price’s Matthew Hopkins character. At one point Price became so infuriated with Reeves’ criticisms that he pronounced “Young man I have made 84 films. What have you done?” to which Reeves replied “I have made two good ones”. In the end Price was to come around to Reeves’ point of view and was more than pleased with the finished product and the two became and the two would work together on The Oblong Box though Reeves’ directorial involvement was cut short due to his premature death.

MORE OF THE SORCERERS WITH BORIS KARLOFF, INCLUDING TRAILER, HERE >>

TODAY’S SHOCKING FEATURE:

BLOODY PIT OF HORROR

SEE BLOODY PIT OF HORROR, WITH MICKEY HARGITAY, HERE >>

TROG

1970 /Director: Freddie Francis/Writers: Peter Bryan, John Gilling

Cast: Joan Crawford,  Michael Gough, Bernard Kay, Kim Braden, David Griffin

Now here is a film that is really beaten nearly to death in reviews over the net and while it deserves some degree of flagellation it is not the total waste of time most people make it out to be. There is some degree, albeit often half hearted, of talent involved with the project and while the movie suffers from an over serious attitude too often found in British low budget films it is nonetheless worth a watch. At least if you are the type who can watch and enjoy other films that producer Herman Cohen produced while he still lived and worked the US such as I was a Teenage Werewolf and I was a Teenage Frankenstein. In fact 1970’s Trog was originally slated to be called I was a Teenage Caveman. Appearing in the film is a regular of Cohen’s other British horror films (Horrors of the Black Museum, Konga, Berserk and The Black Zoo) the manically over the top and hammy Michael Gough. Leading the cast in her swan song film role is Oscar winner Joan Crawford who had all but slipped into 60’s style B movie oblivion after 1962’s Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. While a lot of her films during this time are derided I thought a couple, like Straight Jacket and Cohen’s Berserk, were pretty good “psychotronic” fare. On the set the mercurial Joan was not only downing copious amounts of vodka but more than her fare share of Pepsi as well. In fact, everyone on the set was drinking Pepsi since Joan had become a member of Pepsi’s board of directors and I managed to find a couple amusing shots of Joan sharing a cold bottle of the soft drink with Trog himself. The last piece of talent involved is none other than seasoned Hammer cinematographer and director Freddie Francis (Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, The Evil of Frankentstein, Paranoiac). While Trog will surely not be remembered as the nadir of any of these people’s careers  I found it to be a fair watch. I may be slightly biased here as Trog holds some sentimental value for me. I saw the film a couple times back when it was first released in San Antonio Texas (Joan Crawford’s city of birth) at the Lackland Air Force base Chaparral matinee for all of .35 cents. Some young friends and I had a good time reinacting some of the scenes later.

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