ekyll (cert 15), Taste of Fear (12) and The Gorgon (12) all made their Region 2 DVD debuts on Monday 15 February. Each title has been sourced from a high definition master, and comes complete with a trailer and a 24-page booklet illustrated with images from the Columbia Pictures archive. The booklets are written by Hammer Films' historian Marcus Hearn. "Sony have once again done a fantastic job with the picture quality on these discs," he says. "I'm especially pleased to report that this version of The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll is longer than both the American and British release prints."The Archive loves The Gorgon - this was Hammer's attempt to create their own original monster franchise, and although not as successful as their Dracula and Frankenstein movies it is still a mighty fine British chiller.
Related: Next on the Archive we review the 1958 Hammer classic, Dracula which starred Christopher Lee. Lee is still the definitive screen Dracula. Bela who?
1 comment:
One of the greatest moments of my life was when I went up to Bray Studios (back in the 70s this was)to take a looks-ee at the special effects department of Space:1999.
It was with a great glow of pleasure as I realized that the Gothic building was where Hammer had made so many of their films.
One tech showed me an external window and said look through it - it was the Gents lavs. He laughed then and told me that in one of the Dracula films, Christopher Lee had made his way into the building that way....
incidentally, did you hear the fab radio play, 'The Blood Beast Terror' on Radio 4 a few Saturday afternoons ago? It was about the terrible time Vincent Price had with young director Michael Reeves while making 'Witchfinder General'.
Brilliant piece of work, with a laugh-out-loud performance from Nicholas Grace as a rather high-camp Mr Price. And it's worth listening alone for the amazing job one of the actors does as Ian Ogilvy - when I first heard it I thought he was playing himself! That's how good the portrayal is.
And if you can't find it online, I have it on my hard drive (saved as an mp3 so it won't just vanish after the seven day Iplayer limit)
Ariba, underlay!
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