TV review - Hammer House of Horror (1980)

Hammer Films made a last desperate gamble at the beginning of the 1980s, turning to television production. Unfortunately it was not enough to save the company but Hammer House of Horror was actually an excellent horror anthology series and it's well worth seeing if you're a fan of Hammer horror movies. Peter Cushing even makes an appearance in one memorable episode.

Here's the link to my review of the second half of this series at Cult TV Lounge. I reviewed the first half of the series here last year.

Time Travelers (TV-movie, 1976)

Time Travelers is pretty unusual - you don't get many collaborations between Irwin Allen and Rod Serling. It’s a TV-movie that was actually made in 1976 as a pilot for a projected Irwin Allen television series that never eventuated.

What's most surprising about this production is that it's actually quite a decent (and even moderately intelligent) science fiction movie.

Here's the link to my review on Cult TV Lounge.

Adam Adamant Lives!

If there’s one thing that’s almost as much fun as the cult movies of the 1960s and 1970s it’s the cult television of the same era. This will be the first of an occasional series of posts on this subject.

One of the less known British adventure series of the 1960s was the BBC’s Adam Adamant Lives! which ran for two seasons in 1966 and 1967. Most of season 1 survives but unfortunately almost all of season 2 is lost.

The premise was a clever one that offered the opportunity for some satirical observations on the social mores of the past and present. Fortunately the fun adventure elements predominate. Adam Adamant (Gerald Harper) was an Edwardian adventurer and secret agent who disappeared in 1902. In fact he was deep-frozen by a dastardly enemy. In 1966 he is revived and resumes his career as crime-fighter, adventurer and secret agent.

Adam finds the world of Swinging London in the 1960s rather perplexing and he finds much of which he disapproves. His old-fashioned attitudes and sense of honour might seem to be a disadvantage in the world of the 1960s but they actually turn out to be more of an asset than a hindrance. Adam is both courageous and determined and wrong-doers find him to be a surprisingly formidable enemy. Adam prefers to use his sword-cane rather than firearms, a habit that causes amusement to his foes until they discover just how dangerous and skillful he is with such a weapon.

Naturally a hero has to have a sidekick and Adam’s sidekick is Georgina Jones (Juliet Harmer), a Swinging 60s chick whose modern attitudes are often disturbing to our hero. In spite of often disapproving of her he can’t help also being rather fond of her. Georgina is brave to the point of foolhardiness and is always getting herself into scrapes but if there’s one thing Adam admires it is courage. Although Adam is a gentleman of the Edwardian era and Georgina is a free-spirited modern girl a considerable mutual respect develops between the two characters. The interplay between Adam Adamant and Georgina Jones is always a delight.

Adam Adamant Lives! is an excellent example of a program that has a very English feel to it, but in a very good way. It has not only the Swinging London of the 60s vibe but also a London of the 1890s vibe as well. And the very English flavour is in this case very definitely an asset.

It is also, for a BBC production, extraordinarily good fun in a light-hearted tongue-in-cheek way. It’s one of the few BBC series that captures the same kind of witty, sexy and good-natured feel that made series like The Avengers so successful. The scripts weren’t always up to the standards of The Avengers but it benefits from a truly wonderful cast with all three recurring characters being just right.

Despite the BBC’s legendary reluctance to spend real money on mere light entertainment such as this the production values are reasonable, a tribute to the ability of BBC producers  to make a very small amount of money stretch surprisingly well.

The stories are fairly typical of 1960s secret agent/crime-fighter series but the unusual nature of the hero gives the series an original and very engaging feel.

The surviving episodes have been released on DVD. Adam Adamant Lives! is immense fun and is highly recommended.

Mystery and Imagination - Curse of the Mummy

Mystery and Imagination was a gothic horror anthology series broadcast on British television between 1966 and 1970. Each episode was based on one of the classic works of gothic fiction. The first three seasons were made by ABC Television. After ABC’s merger with Rediffusion to form Thames television a further six episodes were made. Only two episodes from the ABC era are still in existence but all six Thames episodes survive. The last of the Thames productions, in 1970, was Curse of the Mummy, an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Jewel of the Seven Stars.

This underrated Stoker novel would be adapted by Hammer Films the following year as Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb.

A prominent Egyptologist named Trelawny (Graham Crowden) is found in his house in a state of collapse. He appears to be clinging to life by the slenderest of threads. Curiously enough he has left strict and detailed instructions to be followed in the event of just such an attack.

Dr Malcolm Ross (Patrick Mower) and Sergeant Daw (Murray Hayne) are persuaded by Trelawny’s daughter Margaret (Isobel Black), somewhat against their better judgments, to comply with  Trelawny’s instructions.

Trelawny has an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, including a mummy which he believes to be that of the notorious Egyptian Queen Tera, a queen with a reputation for practising black magic. Margaret Trelawny bears a striking resemblance to the dead queen.

It transpires that Trelawny has hopes of restoring Queen Tera to life, a plan that may have consequences that the Egyptologist has not foreseen.

Thames obviously could not spend anywhere near as much as Hammer would spend on their feature film version but they did a reasonably good job. It does have a very studio-bound feel but that in some ways works in its favour, creating a sense of claustrophobic menace. The episode was shot in colour and looks quite handsome.

John Russell Taylor’s script sticks fairly close to the novel. The episode benefits from some fine acting. Isobel Black looks suitably exotic and does very well in her dual role (events from Queen Tera’s life being told in flashback). The underrated Patrick Mower is effective as the courageous doctor who finds himself falling under Margaret Trelawny’s spell. Or is he falling under Queen Tera’s spell? Graham Crowden overacts, as he always did, and does so to fine effect.

Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb was one of Hammer’s best gothic horror movies. While Curse of the Mummy isn’t in the same league it still stands up quite well and is most certainly worth a look. Recommended.