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Hammer Horror Halloween weekend continues tonight with THE VAMPIRE LOVERS.
Like many period Hammer films, it's kind of slow and stiff (with maybe one or two too many shots of a young woman sitting up screaming in bed), but quite painless with beauties like Ingrid Pitt, Madeline Smith, Kirsten Lindholm and Kate O'Mara of the Fabulous Cheekbones wandering around in flimsy nighties (and sometimes, uh, less than that.) It's also cool seeing Jon Finch before his imperial phase starring in Polanski's Macbeth and Hitchcock's Frenzy.
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A vampire lovers review ...with a picture but not a picture of Ingrid....tut tut. Best female vampire ever.
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My -- not very surprising -- top 5 :
HOUND OF BASKERVILLE (my favorite one)
DRACULA
QUATERMASS XPERIMENT
QUATERMASS AND THE PIT (never cared of QUATERMASS 2, sorry...)
DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE
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A vampire lovers review ...with a picture but not a picture of Ingrid....tut tut. Best female vampire ever.
Heh. I KNEW you'd say that! 
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Nice to see you back on the board Anabel 
I love Hammer films from The Curse Of Frankenstein to She (1965), I feel it was a not so slow decline after that, the films got worse & looked cheaper (it just wasn't the same after they left Bray studios), but I do have a soft spot for The Lost Continent. Quatermass 2 is my favourite Quatermass film. The Pit is okay (I saw it at the cinema), but I just feel that a Quatermass film should be in murky b/w with a bad tempered Brian Donlevy shouting at someone.
Thanks! There's one that could not make my short list but which is very interesting, kind of "distant" from the Hammer style : Sykes' DEMONS OF THE MIND. And its score by Harry Robertson is terrific!
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Yes welcome back, AB. Curious that attitude towards Q2, but hey why not? Love the whole trilogy myself.
But definitely agree with Harry Robinson. So much good music he's quite underrated. Just the themes for Journey to the Unknown and Twins of Evil puts him into top league for me, lol.
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Yes welcome back, AB. Curious that attitude towards Q2
I miss the exceptional documentary tonality of the first movie : a hell of efficiency with minimum effects. That's why i really can't stand the ludicrous -- to me -- finale in Q2 with that cheap monster...
But definitely agree with Harry Robinson. So much good music he's quite underrated. Just the themes for Journey to the Unknown and Twins of Evil puts him into top league for me, lol.
Yes, he's credited as Harry "Robinson" in that movie ; he's a composer i wasn't familiar with until i saw the Sykes movie. Would love to hear more music from him : thanks for the tip! Some albums are on Spotify!
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Barbara Shelley. Even graced a Peter Davison Doctor Who (Planet of Fire & woefully underused). Missed the boat in a way since that show had it's own family friendly Hammer period in the mid seventies (Tom Baker).
As for Harry Robertson/Robinson, be sure to check out his cheese fest Hawk the Slayer, for which was also a producer. Highly derivative, but a lot of fun.
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"Ahhhh my wife Sybil likes Harold Robinson. After a hard day’s slaving under the hairdryer she needs to unwind with a few aimless thrills...hah!”
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Ha!, but she wouldn't be coming away whistling the infectious theme from Journey to the Unknown!
I still find hard to walk through an echo inducing place like a subway without out doing the slow whistle at the start of the opening titles.
All his best themes show his love of Morricone. Twins of Evil and Hawk the Slayer are perfect examples.
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Yes the little bursts in Hawk for the sword were always a nod to the shrill flute whenever the Man with no name twirled his colt n put it in his holster.
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The only thing I'm not wild about is that bit of echo heard in quiter tracks. Gives the music a slightly colder and more distant feel. And therefore a little less intimate with the film somehow. Something that slightly threatens to take me out of the film ..
This was present in a number of British films in 70s. I'm sure the more technical on here would say it's because it's less close miked or something.
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"Ahhhh my wife Sybil likes Harold Robinson. After a hard day’s slaving under the hairdryer she needs to unwind with a few aimless thrills...hah!”
Bravo!
(Am I the only one that got this? For serious?)
You're not the only one. But other people's memories might be "fawlty."
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You're not the only one. But other people's memories might be "fawlty."
And they may own farty towels!
Or flowery...uh, never mind.
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