hammer releases?? (1 Viewer)

[PhilipG]

BTW, Chris, Jim_K has written a nice little Hammer primer hidden in the polls section. I mostly agree with what he has to say there.

You should note that the non-anamorphic Anchor Bay Hammer releases are from the very early days of DVD releases. Do not expect great video/compression quality. Later releases are much better.

 

[soop.spoon]

a note to Hammer fans...

Please be aware that many (if not all) copies of Anchor Bay's Hammer titles The Witches and Frankenstein Created Woman have "gone bad". I've replaced each one multiple times and they always freeze up.

 

[ChrisBEA]

Got some catching up to do. Just remembered I have seen Plague of the Zombies on VHS and enjoyed it.

 

[AlanP]

WHERE ARE TWO OF THE BIGGEST HAMMER FILMS ??
MIA
ARE
"BRIDES OF DRACULA"
AND
"CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF" !!!!!!!!
WHAT GIVES, THESE ARE UNIVERSAL, AND THEY NEED
TO ISSUE THESE

 

[Joshua_W]

"To the Devil a Daughter" isn't quite as bad as it's made out to be, though it's certainly not one of Hammer's best offerings. It was pretty much an attempt to swing Hammer into the direction of modern-at-the-time horror films like "The Excorist" and "Rosemary's Baby." It does have decent performances by Christopher Lee and Denholm Elliot, not to mention Nastassja Kinski.

Probaby the best Hammer films were "Horror of Dracula," "The Mummy," and "Curse of Frankenstein."

Other recommended titles would be:

The rest of the Dracula movies:

Horror of Dracula
Brides of Dracula*
Dracula Prince of Darkness
Dracula has Risen from the Grave*
Taste the Blood of Dracula*
Scars of Dracula

The rest of the Frankenstein movies:

Curse of Frankenstein
Revenge of Frankenstein
Evil of Frankenstein*
Frankenstein Must be Destroyed*
Frankenstein Created Woman
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell

And:

Curse of the Werewolf*
Mummy
Mummy's Shroud
Curse of the Mummy's Tomb*
Blood from the Mummy's Tomb
Plague of the Zombies
Rasputin the Mad Monk
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Devil Rides Out
To the Devil a Daughter
Quatermass Experiment*
Quatermass 2
Quatermass and the Pit
Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter
Countess Dracula
Vampire Lovers

This is MY list of Essential Hammer films, others may have differing opinions. I left off a few of the Frankenstein and Dracula films -- Dracula 1972 AD, Satanic Rites of Dracula, Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, and Horror of Frankenstein -- as I have found them to be of generally poor quality, misguided attempts to either reimagine the various franchises or pull them into the modern day where they don't really belong.)

(* Titles are not yet available on DVD. Should be noted that Warners is apparently planning on releasing "Taste the Blood of Dracula," "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave," and "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed" sometime next year. So now we just have to pester Universal into releasing "Brides of Dracula," "Curse of the Werewolf," and "Evil of Frankenstein.")

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Jack, have you done the replacement program for Frankenstein Created Woman and The Witches directly with Anchor Bay & Crest National? These are supposedly repressed discs that should not have the problem lacquer. My replacement discs from this program play fine (or they did last I checked, suppose I should check them again).

 

[ChrisBEA]

What does everyone think of the Hammer Double Feature disks?
I picked up 4 of them:
Quartermass/Quartermass 2
Frankenstein Created Woman/Legend of the 7 golden vampires
Devil Rides Out/Rasputin the Mad monk
Dracula, Prince of Darkness/Scars of Dracula

I have seen/am considering:
Mummy's Shroud/Plague of the Zombies (I already have Plague)
Four sided triagle/X the Unknown
Vengeance of She/Viking Queen
Prehistoric Women/The Witches
I know there are others, but anyway

Thoughts? Recommendations?
Thanks.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

I have the singles, so I don't need the double features. That said, from your list:

X THE UNKNOWN is essential
THE WITCHES is pretty good
VIKING QUEEN is okay
VENGEANCE OF SHE is terrible
MUMMY'S SHROUD is dull
FOUR SIDED TRIANGLE is okay
PREHISTORIC WOMEN is fun

You also need THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN - it's one of the best.

 

[ChrisBEA]

My current Hammer collection is:
Midnite Movies: Countess Dracula/Vampire Lovers
The Mummy
Hound of the Baskervilles
Horror of Dracula
Plague of the Zombies
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter
Curse of Frankenstein
The Devil Rides Out/Rasputin the Mad Monk
Dracula Prince of Darkness/Satanic Rites of Dracula
Frankenstein Created Woman/Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires
Quartermass and the Pit/Quartermass2

I will also say, I am relative newcomer to Hammer films, I like what I've seen so far, which is most of the titles I own. My faves are The Mummy and Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires.

Looks like I'll pick up the X the Unknown/Four sided Triangle set. I'll Pass on Mummy's Shroud/Plague as I already have Plague and Mummy's shroud haven't heard much good...
May get Prehistoric Women/The Witches.
The other I am looking at is Lost Continent/Reptile.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Michael-de-Mat]

The region 2, PAL release of "The Quatermass Experiment" from "Hammer" is excellent. It includes a great 23 page viewing notes booklet.

Why does "Warner" use those lousy snap cases for some of their "Hammer" horror releases?

 

[R-T-C Tim]

Fantastic news for all Hammer fans. The UK based DD-Video have cut a deal with Columbia/Sony to release a variety of their Hammer owned titles to DVD:

A spokesman for DD is keen to stress that the exact titles due to be released are dependent on the results of an ongoing evaluation of archive materials, but we can confirm that the thirteen Hammer titles provisionally scheduled for release are The Camp On Blood Island, Cash on Demand, Creatures the World Forgot, The Damned, Don’t Panic Chaps, The Gorgon, Maniac, Never Take Sweets From a Stranger, The Stranglers of Bombay, Sword of Sherwood Forest, Taste of Fear, The Terror of the Tongs and Watch it Sailor. There may be other titles to follow.

The releases are R2/UK only for now, but a successful release in the UK could herald similar treatment in the USA in the near future (or a lot of eager importing!). Should fill a good few gaps in folk's collections!

 

[James Phillips]

About bleedin' time, too!

 

[John Hodson]

For those interested, full details at HammerWeb

 

[Jim_K]

Nice to hear but I'd be more excited if this were R1 (more specifically non-PAL).

 

[Richard--W]

Welcome news in any region.

That still leaves The Man Who Could Death and The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, both directed by Terence Fisher, two of Hammer's best and most unique films. I hope they will receive attention as well. Columbia also controls Crescendo and Moon Zero Two, two of Hammer's weakest films.

While we're at it, I wonder if Warner Brothers / Seven Arts still controls When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. Everybody wants to see When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. What's holding that up?

And who controls Hysteria?

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

WOW WOW WOW...

I can't believe that there's finally a possibility of CASH ON DEMAND getting released...I could live without the others, but COD is one of the best character dramas I've ever seen. Cushing, Morell, and the rest of the cast are crackerjack, as is the writing, pacing (all in real-time) and direction. One of the best films Hammer ever made, and if ya don't believe me, watch it for yourself (if it actually does come out) and you'll see I ain't just whistlin' Oh Britannia...

It's so scarcely seen that I can't wait to see how it's reviewed by critics. It's never been released to any video format anywhere in the world, to my knowledge. The only copies I've seen about have been booted from old off-air tapes of British broadcast television, and naturally leave much to be desired. I'm picking this up the second it hits, and if it hits R1 eventually, I'll buy it again. This is one film that's worth at least a double-dip.

Oh yes, and NEVER TAKE SWEETS FROM A STRANGER will be nice too...like COD, I've only seen it in a lackluster grey-market transfer, misframed to boot (pun intended).

 

[Richard--W]

I agree CASH ON DEMAND is a particularly well-written and well-acted suspense drama, along the lines of ROPE only without the color. Atypical Hammer. Too bad they didn't produce more like it.

 

[Jim Bur]

R-T-C Tim: Thanks for the wonderful news. I think "The Stranglers of Bombay" is one of the outstanding films in the Hammer canon.

For those interested in the ouvre of Hammer's top director, Terence Fisher (i.e. Horror of Dracula, The Devil Rides Out, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Revenge of Frankenstein, Brides of Dracula, The Curse of the Werewolf, Frankenstein Created Woman, The Mummy, etc., we will at long last be getting one of his best and most neglected works out on DVD.

c Jim Bur

 

[Jim Bur]

Richard: I agree with you that Terence Fisher's "The Man Who Could Cheat Dath" and 'The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll" would make outstanding DVD releases. If I'm not mistaken, didn't Paramount have the U.S. distribution rights to 'The Man Who Could Cheat Death" ?

 

[Joe Lugoff]

Yes, they did -- probably because they released "The Man in Half Moon Street" in 1944, and this was a remake of that.