World Famous Comics: Icons of Horror: Hammer Films (2-disc) (The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb / The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll / Scream of Fear / The Gorgon)
Icons of Horror: Hammer Films (2-disc) (The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb / The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll / Scream of Fear / The Gorgon)
Product Description: The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb When European Egyptologists Dubois, Giles and Bray discover the tomb of the Egyptian prince Ra, American entrepreneur and investor Alexander King insists on shipping the treasures and sarcophagus back to England for tour and display. Once there, someone with murderous intent has discovered the means of waking the centuries dead prince...
Scream of Fear After narrowly surviving an accident in which she nearly drowned, the wheelchair bound Penny Appleby returns home to live with her widowed step-mother Jane on the French Riviera. She begins to question her sanity after several times seeing her father's corpse around the house and its grounds, and enlists the help of the friendly chauffeur Bob while attending Doctor Gerrard acts in a suitably sinister manner. No one is who they seem in this tale of intrigue and suspense.
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.
The Gorgon In early-twentieth-century middle-Europe, villagers are literally becoming petrified. Although the authorities try to hush the matter up it is apparent that at the full moon, Medusa leaves her castle lair and anyone looking on her face is turned to stone. When this fate befalls a visitor, experts from the University of Leipzig arrive to try and get to the bottom of it all.
Amazon.com: 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. --Paul Gaita
Finally! The Gorgon! I own over 30 Hammer flicks on DVD, & there are only a few I do not own that I want to( the Cushing-less 'Horror of Frankenstein' is one available that I don't want, 'Kiss of the Vampire' I have 'cuz it came in a box set with other excellent Hammers I DID want ), and this release plugs a very BIG hole in my horror library, sub-group Hammer Films! 'The Gorgon', IMO, is up there with the Cushing Frankensteins & Lee Draculas.
'Curse of the Mummy's Tomb' is not the best of Hammer, but it's hardly the worst - nice to see it in this set. 'Scream of Fear' & 'Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll' I cannot comment on as I have not seen them. But I will..........soon!
Crappy cheesy cover................. wow! this studio should of took some tips from universal hammer collection,great films which i highly recommend but dissapointing artwork. i guess everything can't be perfect. :(
Great ! With Sony Pictures, I suppose the quality will be good. With the release of these DVDs, there is only one "real" Hammer Horror film left that was never released on DVD : The Man who could cheat death (1959). Then we will all R.I.P.
PLUGGING SOME GAPS IN YOUR HAMMER COLLECTION While Columbia was the most faithful purchaser of Hammer productions--crime films, war films, swashbucklers, even comedies--they didn't get the best of their gothic output, which at this time usually went to Universal-International. The films in this set vary in quality. SCREAM OF FEAR was the first of a long line of psychological thrillers from Hammer. It had a strong cast, led by Christopher Lee and a fine director (Seth Holt) at the helm. It's no PSYCHO, but it does it's job. THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL was the first really problematic Hammer production. Some people loved the idea of a handsome Mr. Hyde, others hated it. Since this is Columbia's package, we will hopefully be seeing the version of the film that Columbia released, not the edited melange that appeared in the U.S. under the utterly silly title HOUSE OF FRIGHT. (And while we're at it, let's hope that all of these films are presented in the letterbox format.) THE GORGON is undoubtedly the best film in the set. It offers Terence Fisher directing at the top of his form and a nifty bad guy turn by Peter Cushing as an asylum director with something to hide. Christopher Lee gets to play the hero of sorts as a grumpy classics professor who knows a little something about Gorgons and how to deal with them. The runt of this litter is definitely THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB. It's very similar to the Universal Mummy films of the 1940s, but it does demonstrate the virtues of Hammer's superior production design and the effectiveness of the roster of fine British character actors they could call upon to flesh out even the most uninspired script.
Seldom-seen gems from Hammer Studios With so many acknowledged classics from Hammer Studios already available on DVD, I was beginning to wonder if lesser-known efforts like these would ever be released. In case you may have missed them, here's a bit about the films themselves:
TWO FACES OF DR. JECKYLL is the real gem of the set. Christopher Lee is perfectly cast as the hedonistic friend to Paul Massie's Dr. Jeckyll. Hammer favorite Terence Fisher directs this very adult (for its time) story.
CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB is neither the worst (The Mummy's Shroud) nor best (Blood From the Mummy's Tomb) of Hammer's follow-ups to the 1959 original Mummy. In the worst tradition of Mummy movies, however, it's a pretty dull offering.
THE GORGON is a fine pairing of icons Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, and is among Hammer's most expensive-looking productions. The title creature reminds one of the work done by the great Ray Harryhausen.
SCREAM OF FEAR is another seldom-seen thriller, much in the vein of Psycho (Collector's Edition). It's certainly the most realistic of the films in this collection.
While no single film here (with the possible exception of TWO FACES...) really compares to Hammer's best films, there's still plenty of b-grade thrills for fans of films of this type.
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