FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Val Guest’s Quatermass and the Pit is a fantastic example of Hammer Studio’s foray into the sci-fi genre (with a fairly large side-order of classic Hammer horror). Your choices, then, for what we’ll be screening of Tuesday 1 April are out of three films that show very different sides of Hammer Studios. Up for the vote are…
The Devil Rides Out (Terence Fisher, UK, 1968)
"In a refreshing change from using monsters of lore and literature as instruments of terror, this Hammer classic harnesses unearthly forces and hellish entities like the Goat of Mendes and the Angel of Death to chill the blood. The result is riveting." Jeremy Aspinall, Radio Times
When the Duc de Richleau (Christopher Lee) arrives at a fashionable party thrown by de Richleau's protégé, Simon Aron (Patrick Mower), he soon suspects that the party is in fact a gathering of a Satanic cult, led by the high priest Mocata (Charles Gray) that plans to initiate the beautiful Tanith (Nike Arrighi) that night. Faced with the forces of Hell itself, will de Richleau be able to defeat the devil-worshiping Mocata and save innocent young Tanith and the others from a terrible fate...? Adapted from Denis Wheatley's classic novel, The Devil Rides Out is a genuinely creepy depiction of the occult, perhaps even to help pave the way for Hollywood's treatment of similar subject matter in Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist.
Hell is a City (Val Guest, UK, 1960)
"Hell Is a City is one of the great British cult classics ... But what adds to its enduring appeal is that it was largely shot on location in Manchester, thus making for an amazing record of the city as it existed a half-century ago." The Guardian
Stanley Baker stars as world-weary Police Inspector Martineau, who rightly guesses that a recently escaped convict will head home to Manchester to pick up the spoils from his last job. Martineau is soon investigating a murder during a street robbery which seems to lead back to the same villain... With a cast that includes a young Billie Whitelaw, Donald Pleasance and Warren Mitchell, Hell is a City is a surprisingly successful stab at British noir.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (Terence Fisher, UK, 1959)
"Peter Cushing gives one of his finest ever performances as the unflappable Baker Street sleuth, and he has fantastic support from André Morell as Dr Watson and Christopher Lee, who's on top haunted form as Sir Henry." Alan Jones, Radio Times
Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson are called out of London to Baskerville Hall, Dartmouth, to investigate the suspicious death of Sir Charles Baskerville - a death supposedly linked to an old family curse. Determined that Sir Charles' heir, Sir Henry Baskerville (a ridiculously dashing Christopher Lee) should not suffer the same fate, Holmes and Watson are soon battling against forces that seem decidedly uncanny. Hammer's adaptation of Conan Doyle's most famous novel is as fun as you'd expect and the brilliant core cast are an absolute joy to behold.
