QUATERMASS II (1957) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

QUATERMASS II (1957)

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 85 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Director: Val Guest
Cast: Brian Donlevy, Sidney James, John Longden, Bryan Forbes, Vera Day, William Franklyn

Smart-guy adventurer Professor Quatermass, (Brian Donlevy, Curse of the Fly), a sort of precursor to Indian Jones, is Britain's most renowned scientific mind, we catch up with him investigating reports of hundreds of meteorites landing in the Winnerden Flats area of the rural British countryside. He heads that way to investigate along with a colleague, and the pair are startled to discover an industrial complex with a series of domed buildings, which looks suspiciously like a moon base that Quatermass himself has been designing. There his colleague finds a strange rocket-shaped meteorite, picking it up to examine it the meteorite releases a gas, spraying him in the face and leaving behind a strange v-shaped scar. Suddenly from out of nowhere armed security forces arrive on the scene, with the observant scientist noting that they are also sporting similar v-shaped scars. The security forces take his his colleague into custody and force Quatermass to leave the area immediately. 

It doesn't take a scientist to figure out that something strange is afoot, and Quatermass actually being a scientist is alarmed by the encounter, inquiring with local officials in the area who tell him the base is producing a synthetic food of some sort, which doesn't really explain the heightened security and only puzzles him further. The quick-thinking scientist manages to arrange a tour of the facility through Vincent Broadhead (Tom Chatto, The Frozen Dead), a Member of British Parliament. While touring the massive industrial complex things seem a bit off, with Broadhead straying from the group to investigate one of the large domed buildings at the facility, only to reemerge covered in a thick black slime, screaming in pain. 

This ramps up the paranoia quotient quite a bit, with Quatermass barely escaping the complex while alarms rings out, fleeing to the nearby village he comes to realize that, sort of similiar to the Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), that the whole of the local government seems to have been turned into drones under an alien influence. With no where else to turn he teams-up with a mob of angry locals who storm the facility pitchfork and torch style, discovering that a huge blob-like aliens are living in the domes. They angry mob manages to take-over a critical building, cutting-off the life-support system sustaining the blobs, resulting in the aliens breaking-free from their domes, and succumbing to the alien atmosphere of Earth, not unlike the seminal sci-fi film War of the Worlds (1953).  

The films is directed by Val Guest (When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth) and was re titled Enemy From Space for its U.S. theatrical release, which is the title I originally saw the film under on a bad-looking bootleg some years ago, with this Blu-ray presentation thankfully looking many times superior! This is a Hammer film, and while the studio did not go onto  be remembered for their sci-fi output I have to say that I absolutely love the Quatermass films, this slice of cold war era paranoia is a lot of fun and should appeal to fans of vintage sci-fi paranoia like Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Invaders from Mars (1953) with some fun blob-like aliens that brought to mind Caltiki - The Immortal Monster (1959), both of which I think used cow tripe to achieve their blob creatures.   

Audio/Video: Quatermass 2 (1957) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory with a new 2K scan from the only surviving film element, a print of the film. Go into this one with tempered expectations, there's a few rough patches here to overcome, but overall it's a solid archival presentation with surprisingly few blemishes. Grain can be a bit course throughout with crushed blacks and a general lack of finely resolved detail, but all things considered this looks terrific. The specs on the back of the Blu-ray sleeve indicate this is a 1.37:1 full frame transfer, however the image is actually closer to 1.78:1 widescreen, a bit of a flub from Scream Factory.  

Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with optional English subtitles, dialogue and effects sound good, with the  James Bernard score benefiting the most from the lossless upgrade. 

Extras begin with a trio of audio commentaries, the first is an archival commentary with  with director Val Guest and writer Nigel Kneale, plus a pair of newly minted commentaries from filmmaker/film historian Ted Newsom plus a third with author/film historian Steve Haberman and filmmaker/film historian Constantine Nasr - all are solid listens from people who know a thing or three about the Quatermass franchise, both n film and their earlier TV serial incarnations. 

We also get a 21-min interview with the director detailing his career at Hammer plus a pair of shorter interviews with special effects artist Brian Johnson (Alien)
and assistant director Hugh Harlow which total about 5-min together. 


Extras are buttoned-up with a 26-min episode of the 'World of Hammer' spotlighting Hammer sci-fi, 2-min trailer for the film, plus a still gallery. 

The single-disc release arrives in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a reversible sleeve of art, including vintage alternate artwork for the film under the title 'Enemy From Space', the disc itself featuring an excerpt from the key artwork.

Special Features:

- NEW 2K scan of a pristine archival film print

- NEW audio commentary with filmmaker/film historian Ted Newsom

- NEW audio commentary with author/film historian Steve Haberman and filmmaker/film historian Constantine Nasr

- NEW interview with Academy Award-winning special effects artist Brian Johnson (Alien)(3 min) HD

- NEW interview with assistant director Hugh Harlow (2 min) HD 

- Vintage interview with director Val Guest (21 min) 

- Audio Commentary with director Val Guest and writer Nigel Kneale

- World of Hammer – Sci-Fi (26 min) 

- U.S. Theatrical Trailer – ENEMY OF SPACE

- Theatrical Trailers (2 min) 
- Still Gallery (3 min) 

Quatermass II (1957) is an entertaining slice of cold war era paranoia with an adventurer-scientist and cool blob-like alien creatures, it makes for a fun watch. I am very pleased to to see this film and it's sequel finally getting a U.S. release, giving these Hammer sci-fi gems new life on home video for both vintage and future fans who have yet to discover it. 

WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH (1970) (Blu-ray Review)

WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH (1970) 

Label: Warner Archive
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 100 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director:   Val Guest
Cast:  Sean Caffrey, Robin Hawdon, Patrick Allen, Drewe Henley, Victoria Vetri

Synopsis: After Raquel Welch conquered the screen in One Million Years B.C., Hammer Studios followed up with When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, written and directed by Val Guest (The Quatermass Xperiment) and based on a story by J.G. Ballard (Crash). Victoria Vetri stars as Sanna, rescued from ritual sacrifice by Tara (Robin Hawdon), a member of a rival tribe. Her survival coincides with the mysterious formation of a new "fire" in the sky: the moon! Sanna's old tribe blames her for this affront to the sun; Sanna flees their wrath and Tara follows. Their shared adventures loom as large as the giants who once ruled the earth! 

When dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) was the third entry in Hammer's "Cave Girl" series, preceded by One Million Years B.C. (1966) and Prehistoric Women (1967). The star of the movie is curvy cave girl Sanna (Victoria Vetri,  Invasion of the Bee Girls, also Playmate of the Year in 1968!) as a member of a cliff dwelling clan who worship the sun. The clan are just about to sacrifice poor Sanna to their sun god, it seems that the sun god prefers blonds! As the sacrifice is about to commence the Earth's nascent Moon begins to form in the night sky causing a big storm, in the commotion Sanna escapes and falls into the ocean and is swept out to sea. Adrift and alone she is rescued by Tara (Robin Hawdon, Burke and Hare) and a small raft of men from a neighboring tribe. 

Tara takes Sanna back his seaside clan where she is met with scorn by brunette cave girl Ayak (Imogen Hassall, Carry On Loving) whom is also competing for the affections of the kind-hearted caveman Tara. In typical cave girl movie fashion the tribe-crossed lovers must fight for survival, not just against the neighboring tribe, who want Sanna back, but against a plethora of menacing stop-motion animated dinosaurs!

As a kid the main draw for me to these cave girl films were obviously the scantily clad babes in animal skins, which were pretty much fur bikinis, with their ample breasts constantly threatening to bust loose from their prehistoric garb. Watching these well-endowed woman fighting-off dinosaurs and the Quaternary period male chauvinism made for some fun watching. The movie even has it's own language, which even at a young age I was able to more or less decipher, not that it was hard to decipher, it could have been just cavemen grunting and the story is pretty easy to follow. The abbreviated vocabulary is made up of just 27 words, annoyingly the characters say "akita" about as many times as you hear the name "Carol Anne" in Poltergeist III, and it did begin to wear on me after about 10 minutes. 

Ray Harryhausen had done the stop-motion special effects for Hammer's One Million Years B.C. but he did not return for When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, but fear not stop-motion lovers, in his place we got the very capable Jim Danforth (The Stuff) who created some truly amazing dinosaur creations for the movie. They're all very meticulous with smooth motion, this is fantastic stuff. In particular the scene of the amphibious elasmosaurus attacking the seaside village is wondrous, with the beast being set aflame and dying, the battle is ferocious and I found myself feeling like a kid again watching it. The movie locations look great, filmed in the Canary Islands and enhanced by some epic matte painting work. It is also worth noting that the late David Allen (Puppet Master, Robot Jox) also did some stop-motion work on the movie. 

Other cool anachronistic dino-creations include a fearsome chasmosaurus, vultures, giant fiddler crabs and the flying menace of a rhamphorhynchus (not a pterodactyl as I had remembered), plus a real life boa constrictor and a lizard dressed up as more fearsome dino-creature, which  was maybe the worst effect in the movie after an ill-looking carnivorous plant, which tries to take a bit out of Sanna, only to make off with some of her hair. Otherwise the special effects are top notch, earning this movie an Oscar nomination for Best Special Effects that year.

The story is pretty hackneyed caveman stuff, but the stop-motion effects are pretty darn cool, even today I marvel at the artistry that went into stop-motion in these movies. The movie culminates with the new Moon causing an enormous tidal wave which threatens to destroy everyone, with one of the tribal leaders attempting to command the tidal wave to dissipate, not unlike Moses parting the waters of Red Sea, with less favorable results. 

A fun movie for the dino-spectacle, the story is rote even for it's time, but I still love these stop-motion classics, movies from a bygone era which still manage to capture my imagination.  Of note, this is the original International Theatrical release version which contains some nudity with star Victoria Vetri, so if you're watching this with the kids just know they might get an eyeful of boobie, and please don't deprive them of one of life's simpler pleasures, cave girl boobies from the 70s. 

Audio/Video: When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) arrives on Blu-ray from the cinema lovers over at Warner Archive, framed in 1080p HD widescreen (1.85:1).  Not sure f this is from a print or a new 2K scan of the negative, but the source is in great shape, aside from some white speckling there's not much to critique. The mixing of stop-motion and live action tends to soften the image, but I think this looks grand on Blu-ray. 


Audio is limited to a DTS-HD MA Mono track, there's not a whole lot of dialogue, aside from the 27 words created for the language, but it handles the limited vocabulary, dino sounds and drum-centric score very well and without distortion, very crisp and clean. The only extra on the disc is a 3 minute trailer for the film, I only wish we had a Hammer historian on hand for a commentary on this one. 

Special Features:
- Trailer (3 min) HD 

Fans of vintage prehistoric stop-motion animation and gorgeous 70s babes in fur bikinis need look no further than Hammer's When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth (1970) on Blu-ray from the Warner Archive - and remember, cave girl boobies.  3/5

 

HAMMER FILMS COLLECTION VOL. 1 (1960-1964)

HAMMER FILMS COLLECTION VOL. 1 (1960-1964) 

Label: Mill Creek Entertainment 
Duration: 384 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Region Code: Region 1

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1), Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) 

Directors: Terence Fisher, Seth Hout, Val Guest, Michael Carreras

Cast: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Paul Massie, Susan Strasberg, Terence Howard, Claude Dauphin, Tony Bonner, Ronald Lewis


Another fun set of 60's b-movie has arrived from Mill Creek Entertainment! This set of five Hammer horrors comes licensed from Columbia Pictures and sports anamorphic widescreen transfers - you get a lot of bang for your buck with this one.

THE TWO FACES OF DR. JECKYLL (1960) – Color – 89 Mins – Not Rated
Starring: Paul Massie, Dawn Addams, Christopher Lee, David Kossoff, Norma Marla, Francis De Wolff

Synopsis: Absorbed in research directed towards freeing the two natures of man, Dr. Jekyll degenerates in to Mr. Hyde, a vengeful maniac. While Hyde wants revenge against a gambler whom his wife is in love with, Dr. Jekyll, takes steps to do away with his evil self.

A Hammer take on Robert Louis Stevenson's most famous novel stars Paul Massie in a dual-role as both the bearded Dr. Jekyll and the more debaucherous Mr. Hyde, it also notably features Christopher Lee as Jekyll's money-borrowing slimeball friend Paul Allen, who happens to be sleeping with Jekyll's wife Kitty, who is bored by her reclusive husband who would much rather keep himself locked away in his laboratory than attend social parties. When the boring doc injects himself with his potion he becomes the dapper and reprehensible playboy Mr Hyde, who fails to seduce his own wife, but instead hooks up with a steamy snake-dancer Maria (Norma Marla). Mr. Hyde sets into motion a series of events that will pretty much ruin everyone of the players involved, this Hammer entry has some surprising moments of deviancy that might surprise a few people, it certainly did me. Directed by Hammer alum Terrenec Fisher (The Devild Rides Out) the movie has some pacing issues but it an interesting variation of the time weathered story, draped in gorgeous Victorian sets and fashions, this one might be a bit slow but it had some juice to it.

SCREAM OF FEAR (1961) – B/W – 82 Mins – Not Rated
Starring: Susan Strasberg, Ronald Lewis, Ann Todd, Christopher Lee, John Serret, Leonard Sachs

Synopsis: A young wheelchair-bound woman returns to her father's estate to find he's away on business, but she keeps seeing his dead body in various places. Her stepmother and other house guests employ a plan to drive her insane and take her inheritance.

Scream of Fear or Taste of Fear as it was known in the UK is a surprise filled suspense film concerning young Penny Appleby (Susan Strasberg), a wheelchair bound young lady who returns home from school after her best friend dies in a drowning accident, only to discover that her beloved father has gone missing, and her cold step mother Jane (Ann Todd) whom at first seems to be ever so nice might be up to no good. She starts to snoop around for answers with the aid of her chauffeur Bob (Ronald Lewis), and begins to see visions of her father's corpse around the house, particularly in the guest house. Meanwhile her mother's friend Doctor Gerrard (Christopher Lee) visits nightly and suggests the visions are a product of  nervous disorder.

This one is loaded with some very fine suspense and twisty turns, a top notch black and white thriller that makes great use of Penny's wheelchair, a scary accident that plunges her into the mansion pool is a particularly effective scene, loved this one. 


THE GORGON (1964) – Color – 83 Mins – Not Rated
Starring: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Richard Pasco, Barbara Shelley, Michael Goddliffe, Patrick Troughton

Synopsis: In a rural village, a series of murders have been committed where each victim was turned into stone. A local professor investigates and finds an evil Gorgon haunting a nearby castle and in search of more victims.

Back into the realm of Gothic horror we gave The Gorgon directed by Hammer vet Terrence Fisher, set in the German village of Vandorf in 1910 we have a series of unsolved murders in the village, each occurring on the night of a full moon. Paul Heitz (Richard Pasco) arrives in the village after his younger brother is found dead. his body turned to stone, and for some reason Dr. Namaroff (Peter Cushing) is falsifying the death certificates to obscure the truth behind the strange deaths. Heitz calls in friend Professor Karl Meister (Christopher Lee) to help him get to the bottom of things. Meanwhile Heitz begins to form a romantic relationship with Namaroff's nurse Carla (Barbara Hershey) and discovers that the spirit of a fabled snake-haired Gorgon sister may be haunting the nearby castle ruins. 

The Gorgon is laced with vintage Gothic fashion and set dressing, dripping with atmosphere and creepiness, but all is nearly undone when the final scene of the snake-haired Megaera is finally revealed, it's a bit on the cheap side but this doesn't spoil the movie, this is good stuff and worth a watch! 

STOP ME BEFIRE I KILL! (1961) – B/W – 108 Mins – Not Rated
Starring: Claude Dauphin, Diane Cilento, Ronald Lewis, Françoise Rosay, Bernard Braden, Katya Douglas

Synopsis: After a horrific car crash, race car driver Alan Colby goes on vacation to recover, but suffers blackouts and violent outbursts. With his wife by his side, he visits a psychiatrist who promises to cure Alan's suffering but they have now encountered a mind more unbalanced and disturbed.

This was a let down considering the Giallo-esque title of the movie, it turned out that not all Hammer thrillers are of the suspenseful variety, straying far from the superior Scream of Fear we have a story about race car driver Alan Colby (Ronald Lewis) vacationing in France after a near fatal accident, in the aftermath he is inexplicably overcome with the desire to strangle his wife Denise (Diane Cilento), both seek the help of psychiatrist David Prade (Claude Dauphin), but even a touch of nudity cannot save this stale thriller. This is the one movie on the set I would say just Skip it.

THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1964) Color - 81 Mins - Not Rated

Starring: Terence Morgan, Ronald Howard, Fred Clark, Jeanne Roland, George Pastell, Jack Gwillim

Synopsis: An American showman and financier disrupts the coffin of a mummified Pharaoh and finds it empty. The mummy has escaped to fulfill the dreadful prophesy and exact a violent and bloody revenge on all those who defiled his final resting place.

The last feature on the two-disc set is The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, a pretty typical set-up for a mummy movie, an American showman Alexander King (Fred King) unearths a tomb f a disgraced Pharaoh. He plans to take it on the road as a way to print money, he steadfastly refuses to allow the discovery to be whisked away to some dusty old museum, and he makes a few enemies because of his entrepreneurial ways. As expected they open the sarcophagus at some point and the mummified Pharaoh is nowhere to be found, but soon those who have done wrong by the ancient Pharaoh are found dead and the lurching creature starts making quite a mess of things. 

Not the most pulse pounding of Hammer entries and a pale shadow of the Terrence Fisher classic The Mummy starring Christopher Lee who was by far a more threatening mass of moldy bandages, but this one has some pretty opulent Egyptian set pieces, the Pharaoh's tomb looks fantastic, but this is still a bit on the slow side, thank goodness for Freddie King who does a fantastic job as the fast-talking PT Barnum type American Showman.

The Hammer Films Collection from Mill Creek Entertainment is highly recommended, not all of them are upper crust Hammer entries but for under $10 this is a fantastic deal and the movies are certainly entertaining to varying degrees. Now bring on the Hammer Films Collection Vol. 2 and make it a Blu-ray! 2.5/5