THE Umbrella label in Australia have been trawling through the world of 1960s Hammer films of late, and the results have been a little mixed to say the least.
Their first Hammer Triple Shock Collection Blu-ray boxset on that era, released last year, featured a trio of films that, while entertaining in their own right, could hardly be described as A-list material from the studio that famously ‘dripped blood’.
That three-headed horror beast, which brought together Paranoiac (1963), Nightmare (1964) and The Evil Of Frankenstein (1964), failed to get many collector’s pulses racing. Sadly, this latest set isn’t likely to change that.
The slightly underwhelming line up for this second volume on the House of Hammer cobbles together The Shadow Of The Cat (1961), Night Creatures (1962) and Phantom Of The Opera (1963), and the results are, at best, mixed.
Let’s start with the first offering, The Shadow Of The Cat, a film that isn’t even really a Hammer production at all, although it used many of the same crew and even utilised their famous home base at Bray Studios for filming. It’s actually the product of a company called BHP, but it is, in mood and delivery, the kind of spooky fare that Hammer became famous for.
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Directed by Hammer regular John Gilling, it stars Andre Morell as an evil husband who murders his wife: she then seeks revenge from beyond the grave via her ever faithful cat who witnessed the assault. A low-key, moody little pot boiler with the beautiful Barbara Shelley in a central role, it’s a minor but enjoyable period romp.
Next up is Night Creatures, which very much is a Hammer production and stars their main man Peter Cushing. He’s a vicar in a small English town who moonlights as a notorious smuggler by night.
To divert attention from his night-time activities, he puts on some spooky apparitions of an evening to keep away prying eyes.
Perhaps better known by its alternate title, Captain Clegg, it’s a colourful and entertaining swashbuckler that would pass a Sunday afternoon nicely - but it’s hardly a horror classic all the same.
The final film in the set is another flawed gem in Hammer’s early-60s filmography. The Phantom Of The Opera starred Herbert Lom - although both Cary Grant and Christopher Lee were mooted for the role - as the disfigured composer who lurks deep in the catacombs of a London theatre, seeking revenge on a wealthy charlatan (played by the great Michael Gough) who has stolen his latest musical creation for his own.
Slow-moving and ponderous, it looks lush, and came in at almost double the usual Hammer budget of £400,000, but drags badly despite the best efforts of the pitiful Lom and the directorial skills of Terence Fisher.
Fisher would be cast aside after this tanked at the box office, but would return to the Hammer frontline to helm such beauties as Dracula Prince Of Darkness (1965) and Frankenstein Created Woman (1967).
All packaged up nicely with admirable extras, this is an interesting release, but hardly essential.
