Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/08

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Great news! And I hope 2 things 1.) They have found a better copy of Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll as the VHS release from about 9 years ago was faded so bad it was hard to tell that it was in color. 2.) They continue with more Hammer collections since they still own:
Maniac; Brigand of Kandahar; Sword of Sherwood Forest; These are the Damned; The Crimson Blade; Camp on Blood Island (Maybe owned by Universal); Cash on Demand; Creatures the World Forgot; Yesterday's Enemy, The Snorkel, The Old Dark House. Enough for 2 or 3 more volumes. Keep em coming.

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

i'll probably buy this, they tend to be super cheap

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Fuckin A!

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Great news, especially since the word on the street is that we won't be getting any new-to-R1-DVD vintage genre titles this Fall from either MGM or Universal (notwithstanding another dip for THE MUMMY (1932), and the welcome anamorphic releases of JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN and MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES this Summer), so this will help soften the blow.

Beyond Columbia's remaing Hammer titles that Randy just mentioned, that mainly puts the the onus on Warner and MGM, as far as unreleased Hammer genre titles still MIA in R1--

Warner:

WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH (1969)
SHE (1965)
MOON ZERO TWO (1969)
HYSTERIA (1965)
CRESCENDO (1970)
(plus that restored print of HORROR OF DRACULA that played at Cannes)

MGM:

THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (1956)
TWINS OF EVIL (1971)
HANDS OF THE RIPPER (1971)
VAMPIRE CIRCUS (1971)

On another board, a poster who's privy to what goes on at MGM (but who doesn't call the shots) said that last Fall's batch of "Midnite Movies" tanked, so we won't see any more this year, and perhaps ever. While I bought and enjoyed several of last year's MM batch (especially THE VAMPIRE / RETURN OF DRACULA), they weren't exactly the strongest catalog sci-fi and horror titles MGM had access to. I can't help but think that if we had instead gotten MGM's four major Hammer titles, plus good stuff like BLACK SABBATH (the dubbed AIP version, with Karloff's voice), BURN WITCH BURN, BLOOD ON SATAN'S CLAW, DIARY OF A MADMAN, MASTER OF THE WORLD, THE MANSTER (a legit, non-public domain release) and THE TIME TRAVELERS --and if MGM bothered to cross-promote the line on some of their higher-profile genre DVD releases, maybe they would've moved more units and turned a tidier profit. Oh well...

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

The New York Times ran an article last week about MGM and its problems. It went a little in depth on their agreement with Fox to distribute their DVD’s. It seems that this is the last year of a guaranteed payment from Fox and from now until the contract is over, in a few years, MGM will receive only a percentage of the sales. I would hope that this will give MGM a reason to re do some of their titles that could use some brushing up and also give them incentive to go deeper into their vault. While they have never been a company that listened to suggestions well, it would do them good to monitor this and other forums to hear what people want.

With the guaranteed money being paid each year, which the article stated was around 600 million, MGM did not have real reason to explore their catalogue. Now that they need money to jump start production of 10 in-house films. What better way than to get back to the number of releases they were doing during their heyday before their sale to Sony and Comcast.
Here to hoping we will see some to the great horror classics that they still have locked up. AIP had a lot of great bad films that I would certainly love to put on my shelf.

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Great news!

Now let's finally see a release of VAMPIRE CIRCUS from MGM please!

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

I do hope you're right, but MGM's release schedule for the rest of the year in terms of catalog titles looks grim. Ironically, it seems that at this time, they are turning their back on their library titles. No Midnite Movies this fall, and the only two Halloween titles seem to be SEs of CHILD'S PLAY and PUMPKINHEAD, not at all too thrilling for fans of classic and older horror.

You're right about the "great bad" AIP films that still need to be released from the Lion, and there's still SO MANY not on DVD!

MGM should have released their own Hammer set on the same October date as Sony's (which I anticipate to be one of the best horror DVD releases of the year), with QUATERMASS XPERIMENT, TWINS OF EVIL, HANDS OF THE RIPPER and last but not least, VAMPIRE CIRCUS. There's about as much chance of that happening this year as me making it as a finalist on "So You Think You Can Dance."

It is also ironic that even though MGM has abandoned their Midnite Movies and Soul Cinema lines in terms of DVD releases, they just recently announced the marketing of products associated with the two branded lines. They even mentioned BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (yet there's not even an MGM DVD release on it!). Some of the products coming include action figures of BLACULA and IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE and some KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE figures.

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Updated my list above after checking my McFarland Hammer Filmography last night. There are also a few more Crime Dramas from Columbia that I didn't add but I'm sure most of us will be happy if Columbia just releases 75% of whats on my list above.

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Like it?....i Love it!!!yes!

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

this is indeed good news! I would hope that Columbia will release ICONS OF WAR as their next Hammer selection: The Snorkel, Yesterdays Enemy, Camp on Blood Island etc. Lets keep fingers crossed....
I am hugely disappointed that neither MGM or Universal are planning Halloween horror promotions with so much in their respective libraries still to be released...

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Excellent news! There a couple of films in this set that I've never seen.

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Looks like Sony are giving fans the chance to vote for the cover art of the new set, via another of those Amazon polls here.

All are pretty decent aren't they? I'll take number three please...

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Got to give Sony a big round of cheers for even doing this. They have made huge improvements overnight. Finally releasing more catalog titles with nice transfers and now actually listening to feedback. Many people justly complained about the bad cover art for the "Icons of Adventure" set and instead of just ignoring the complaints they put this poll up for the next set for fans to decide. Well done Sony!

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Interesting... I voted #1

It would be nice to see larger images, though I agree they're all pretty good. I like them in numerical order, though I'm not sure why so many are taken with the third cover with all the floating heads... The first two look much better to me.

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

The flipside appears to be no extras, however...


Because it's the only one to feature all the films, and I do like the still from 'The Gorgon' (someone's bound to yell 'spoiler!' at this point)

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

none of the icon sets do if I remember, maybe a trailer if anything. The Karloff one a few years ago barely had a menu.

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Apparently, according to Sony employee "Precode" (posting on another forum), the trailers for the films will be included in the set (he said he doesn't consider trailers as "extras", per se, rather as a natural part of the basic DVD package), however, there will be no commentaries, vintage shorts, serial chapters, etc, due to the extras budget being used up on the recently-released ICONS OF ADVENTURE Hammer set.

Also, he said it looks like we'll finally be getting an R1 edition of A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (a.k.a. STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN) this year (probably the reason for that very recent pre-order hiccup for it at Amazon.com), as well as the director's cut of Michael Powell's AGE OF CONSENT. And maybe a Charley Chase shorts collection and a set of the three Toho sci-fi flicks (THE H-MAN, BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE and MOTHRA) sometime in 2009, but nothing firm yet (treat these as encouraging "Rumor Mill" type items).

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Blimey; God bless Grover Crisp...thank you Peter.

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Any word on Joseph Losey's THESE ARE THE DAMNED? It's certainly going to be difficult to "pigeon-hole" that one in a set.

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Maybe a set of "Controversial Classics" with Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (wholly underrated and unjustly forgotten movie) and the Blood Island pictures? Doesn't Columbia have rights to those?

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Looks like cover #2 is leading. Nothing wrong with it except it only shows one of the films.

Personally I prefer options #1 or #2



But whichever one it ends up being it'll be much more pleasing than.............

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

I don't like any of the choices, to be honest. I wish they'd take an entirely different approach to cover art. For example:







Or they could do a photo-cover using a still from one of the films in the set, like this elegant shot from Terence Fisher's The Gorgon:



But Hammer fan that I am, I would buy the set in a white paper sleeve, because I know the transfers are going to be worth it.

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

Forget that British stuff, lets get the artwork designer from E-M-S:

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/07

#2 is by far the most attractive cover. The other ones may feature all of the movies, but they're ugly, although #1 is better than #3.

Anyway...I never even looked at this thread until now because of the bad date... I figured it was something I'd already looked at and decided against.
I'll be sure to pick this one up--sounds enjoyable!

Re: Icons of Horror:4 Hammer Films - 10/14/08

And the winner is....

Icons of Horror - Hammer Films

How did I miss knowing this was being released. I just ordered in on Amazon. Can't wait! I love these films.



Icons of Horror - Hammer Films

Icons of Horror Collection - Hammer Films.


Icons of Horror - Hammer Films

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964)

The Gorgon (1964) Scream of Fear (1961)

Though perhaps not as iconic as their Dracula and Frankenstein pictures, this quartet of fright flicks from England's Hammer Films deliver enough Saturday afternoon creature feature thrills to please devotees of the legendary studio's output and vintage horror fans alike. 1964's The Gorgon will be the title to attract the most immediate attention due to the presence of Hammer's biggest stars, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, in its cast, and its most celebrated director, Terence Fisher, behind the camera. It's an atmospheric and offbeat entry in the Hammer canon, with one of its most unusual villains: a snake-haired fiend from Greek mythology who turns men into stone. Cushing and Lee are typically fine (both are on the side of the angels for once), and the picture's sole stumbling block is the lackluster makeup for its monster. Lee is also present in supporting roles in two other films in the collection: Scream of Fear (1961), one of several competent psychological suspense features made by Hammer in the wake of Psycho, with Susan Strasberg as a fragile young woman plagued by terrible visions and a house full of suspicious types; and Fisher's The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960), a revamp of the Stevenson story with Paul Massie as the dour scientist whose personality experiments unleash a virile but unhinged alter ego. Hardcore Hammer aficionados will be thrilled to discover that the DVD version is uncut and preserves much of the (mildly) salacious material trimmed for its release in America under the title House of Fright. The final film on Icons of Horror is Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, with Hammer exec Michael Carreras (son of company founder James Carreras) behind the camera for a featherweight monster romp that doesn't hold a candle to Terence Fisher's Mummy in 1959. Unlike previous Icons of Horror DVDs, the supplemental features here are slim--just the theatrical trailers for each film--though they do offer their own degree of charm, especially the ballyhoo-heavy tone of Mummy and the oddly elegant and unnerving preview for Scream of Fear, which is centered solely around an image of Strasberg's face.

GOOD FOR YOU BRADLEY!!!!!

I justed picked up my set yesterday evening and I may sink in and watch them tonight!

I originally saw THE GORGON (1964) and CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB (1964) at a neighbourhood theatre in mid-January 1965 (what a crazy time to release a film) and loved them both.

It is interesting that all four films in the collection have been newly restored and digitally remastered from the original 35mm (?) source elements and I don't hear Columbia-Tristar Home Entertainment (or rather Sony) balking at the time and expense invested on what would (likely) be considered relatively insignificant films to produce a quality DVD release.

This is a commendable practice that the other major DVD distribution companies could learn and profit from.

Jeff T.