Operation: 101010 - Movies starring Hammer actors or actresses (non-Hammer)

I finished another one of my Operation: 101010 categories dedicated to 10 non-Hammer Movies starring Hammer actors or actresses.

Surprise, surprise, a good number of those films featured Christopher Lee. If anything I am surprised that I didn't finish this category faster.

I have now finished six of my ten 101010 projects and with only one month to go am doubtful that I'll finish it completely.... though will do my darndest. I have watched movies in each of the remaining categories so from a pure number perspective I may just about manage to wrap it up, but my mind is flighty and I often feel like watching a whole range of other stuff.

So here's what I viewed in the last couple of months:

Trial by Combat (Peter Cushing) - THE discovery of the year for me. Loved the AVENGERS style atmosphere. Pity there is nothing on YouTube for it.

Curse of the Crimson Altar (Lee, Gough, Wetherell, R. Davies)



The Castle of the Living Dead (Christopher Lee)



Royal Flash (Oliver Reed) - This YouTube "clip" is actually the entire movie!



Crimson Rivers 2 (Christopher Lee) - Short Lee part displaying his linguistic skills



Ill Met By Moonlight (Christopher Lee)

Lisbon (Yvonne Furneaux)

The Man Who Was Nobody (Hazel Court)

The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse (Yvonne Furneaux)

Five Golden Dragons (Christopher Lee)

Operation: 101010 - Movies starring non-Hammer Horror icons

Another category finished in the Operation: 101010. These are the 10 movies that I have watched so far this year featuring non-Hammer Horror icons. I am making progress in a number of the categories but not sure if I'll properly finish this project before the year is over.

The Invisible Ghost (Bela Lugosi)



The Story of Mankind (Price, Lorre, J Carradine)



The Shootist (J Carradine)



Stranger on Horseback (J Carradine)



The Black Sleep (Lugosi, Chaney, J Carradine, Rathbone)



Island of Lost Souls (Bela Lugosi)



Spider Baby (Lon Chaney Jr)



The Deerslayer (1920, Bela Lugosi)



The Eve of St Mark (Vincent Price)

The Black Cat (1941, Bela Lugosi, Basil Rathbone)

Operation: 101010 – Sherlock Holmes

The year is drawing to a close and I have yet only properly finished three Operation: 101010 categories.... until today. I just finished my tenth Sherlock Holmes movie of the year and only need another film each to finish two other categories. So there still is some chance that I may actually draw all these to a close.

As for Sherlock Holmes: This proved to be quite a fruitful year. Following the success of last year's cinematic blockbuster, we were treated to a couple of new productions. On the one hand The Asylum's Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes that wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. It did, however, have the most awfully miscast Holmes of all times. Ben Snyder - with no previous cinematic acting experience of any kind, how did he end up with one of the most iconic roles of all times? - plays a soft spoken, near helium voiced Holmes who is at least one head too small and spouts utter nonsense.

Much better were the three episodes of the Beeb's new contemporary Sherlock series that simply redefined the Master Detective for a new and younger generation while staying faithful to the source material.

Thanks to YouTube and Archive.org I also caught up with some older Holmes interpretations that I hadn't been familiar with before. Most prominently those of Arthur Wontner who is a very convincing Holmes in some very slow paced productions.

Below the ten Holmes productions that I enjoyed in 2010:

The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Wontner)



Murder at the Baskervilles (Arthur Wontner)



Batman: The Brave and the Bold – Trials of the Demon

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking



Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (The Asylum)




Sherlock: A Study in Pink



Sherlock: The Blind Banker



Sherlock: The Great Game



The Man Who Disappeared (TV pilot, 1954)



The Masks of Death

Operation: 101010 - Hammer Movies

Finished another one of my Operation: 101010 categories, this time the most obvious one given the nature of this blog: Hammer Movies.

These are the ten Hammer movies I have watched so far this year and that I also blogged/tweeted/FB'd about:

Wings of Danger
Paid to Kill
The Unholy Four
The Stranglers of Bombay
The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (Rewatch)
Danger List
The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb
Rasputin – The Mad Monk (Rewatch)
To the Devil a Daughter (Rewatch)
The Man Who Could Cheat Death

Not sure if I will be able to finish the entire Operation: 101010 by the end of the year. I am nearly done with some more of the categories but with some others have barely started. Still, nothing better to keep me focused.

The Whistler Movies – Operation: 101010

So it looks like I have managed to finish another one of my Operation: 101010 categories as I have watched the entire series of Whistler movies over the last few weeks:

The Whistler
The Mark of the Whistler
The Power of the Whistler
Voice of the Whistler
Mysterious Intruder
The Secret of the Whistler
The Thirteenth Hour
The Return of the Whistler

Eagle eyed readers of my blog will notice two things:

First of all, yes, this is a new category. I had previously not chosen these movies as contenders for the Operation: 101010 as I wasn't aware at the start of the year that I would watch them all or even that I would finally be able to get a hold of anyone of those productions. As such I am dropping my Mario Bava challenge and replace it with these films.

See, the original Whistler movie from 1944 was always one of my absolute favourite  films. I first watched it in the early 1980s on German television. Usually movies there are always dubbed but in this case they showed the flick in English with German subs. Which meant that this was one of the very first shows that I was able to practice my school English on. That alone was a fab experience for a young movie/language buff.

But the film itself also had me hooked outside of the language challenge. At first glance this is nothing much more than yet another take on Jules Verne's TRIBULATIONS OF A CHINAMAN IN CHINA: Man hires his own killer, then comes across news that'll make him want to live again but can't seem to be able to cancel his contract. Hammer itself had also once covered this ground with Paid to Kill/Five Days, yet another unofficial Verne adaptation.

For me The Whistler was the first time I remember coming across this premise and it had me hooked for the novelty factor alone then as I really liked the moral conundrum posed by this scenario shrouded in the mood of a classic bargain basement Film Noir.

Even more importantly I really liked the persona of the actual Whistler, a mysterious figure of the night who we only ever see as a shadow on the wall and who acts as the omniscient narrator of the movie. In this first entry of what was ultimately going to become a series, the character also acts somewhat as a convenient Deus ex Machina as his idiosyncratic whistling tune approaching the scene of a crime is also indirectly responsible for events taking a slight turn one way or the other.

The character of the Whistler was based on the eponymous classic radio series that ran from 1942 to 1955. These moody half hour mystery shows always ended in a (sometimes-not-so) surprise twist and always started off with The Whistler's immortal words:

“I am the Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night. I know many strange tales, hidden in the hearts of men and women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes ... I know the nameless terrors of which they dare not speak.”

The movies weren't really all that focused on surprise twists but instead relayed good basic Noir plot standards. From the second film on The Whistler (and more in line with the radio show) also exclusively became a narrator again and was never again responsible for turning things around with his sudden appearances.

What set those films apart is that with the exception of the last one they all starred Richard Dix, however, never in the same role twice. Sometimes a villain, sometimes a victim, he graced 7 of the 8 films with his solid performances and deep, melifluous voice.

The reason these films succeeded despite the fact that they had been very cheaply produced is that they had such reliable talent in front of and behind the camera. Half of the films were directed by a pre-gimmick William Castle in some of his first outings. Two of those (The Mark of the Whistler, Return of the Whistler) also were based on stories written by Roman Noir ace Cornell Woolrich.

So needless to say: Did those films hold up well?

Hell yeah!

Apart from the first film I had also seen one or two of the others as well before (though couldn't quite tell you which ones they were). So when I finally had a chance to revisit these as well as the remaining films of the series I jumped at it though with a slight dread as to whether my memory may have been playing tricks with me. Nothing worse than rediscovering a teenage classic that would have better been left alone as a rose tinted memento in one's personal memory box.

Not so with this series. I cherished every single moment of every single one of those hour long features. Even the last one without Dix had not suffered from that dreaded serial malaise but instead had one of the series' most outstanding plots courtesy of Cornell Woolrich's original Noir story.

In case I haven't made myself entirely clear but this is by far the best classic film series you likely never heard of before and a prime contender for a classic in most urgent need of a DVD release. I understand that in the US some (though not all) of these movies may show up every once in a while on TCM. If they do, then do yourself a favour and set the timer the next time this may be on.

I mentioned at the start of this post that you may notice two things about this Operation: 101010 entry and the second aspect is that the Whistler series of course only contains eight movies, not ten as generally required for this challenge. To this I have a choice of the following responses:

My challenge. My rules. Live with it.

Alternatively - and to be a bit less confrontational - I may highlight that I have also listened to a couple of the original Whistler radio shows since the start of this year. They are available on Archive.org, but I also have them stored on numerous CDs from way back when I first came across them. So if I extend the challenge to an overall Whistler challenge on film and radio, I could easily close the gap.

And as a last possibility to show you I wasn't slacking I could also highlight that I have watched two Mario Bava movies for my previous (now dropped) challenge and could of course also just add them:

Roy Colt & Winchester Jack
The Road to Fort Alamo

Yes, two Bava Westerns. Say what you want but if there is one thing Bava is not, it is a Western director. Both productions verged between the utterly ridiculous (Roy Colt and Winchester Jack) and the utterly Meh. Certainly not two of his master works.

Either way, pop the cork. Another category down, eight more to go. Will I make all ten categories until the end of this year? Only time will tell.

Oh, and do yourself a favour and drop by this website dedicated to Richard Dix with a wonderful collection of Whistlerana.

Operation: 101010 – Japan and Yakuza

As much as I liked the idea of my 999 Challenge last year I had promised myself not to get involved in such a project again this year as I sucked so awfully in it. When Final Girl, however, unveiled that she is going to have a similar Operation: 101010 I decided to give it another try with the proviso that I would not necessarily be blogging about the movies (errrghh, too much work) but instead may also just be allowed to tweet about them.

Five months in I have watched a number of movies in some of my chosen areas and now finished the first complete category: 10 Japanese movies (apart from Kaiju Eiga).

So if you have followed me on Twitter you would have noticed me referencing the following Japanese productions:

Yakuza Graveyard
Street Mobster
The Yin-Yang Master
The Street Fighter
Return of the Street Fighter
The Street Fighter's Last Revenge
Cops Vs Thugs
The Hidden Fortress
Graveyard of Honour
Japan Organized Crime Boss

Some of my tweets vanished into thin air, others generated some interesting discussions. What is quite clear from this list is that I may nearly have called this category “The Kinji Fukasaku Challenge” as this director clearly predominates the list and was quite a discovery for me.

I had previously only seen a few modern Yakuza movies by Takashi Miike and now wanted to familiarise myself with the classics of which I knew pretty much nothing about. So I borrowed Yakuza Graveyard and Street Mobster not knowing that they were from one and the same guy. Being absolutely wowed over by their very unusual styles it didn't take much to figure out that they were shot by the same director.

Imagine my surprise when I then also learned that Fukasaku was also behind the likes of The Green Slime and Battle Royale, two films I have always admired. I was absolutely stunned by the fact that Battle Royale, a production that feels like it was shot by a vigorous, highly talented, up-and-coming young film maker, was indeed made by a guy in or around his 80s at the time!

Needless to say I needed to learn more about his films and subsequently hired a couple more.

If I learnt a bit of a new director (for me at least) during that challenge, I also learnt a sad truth about myself that will likely expel me from the University of Movie Snobs forever and that is.... I really don't take to Akira Kurosawa. There, I said it. And it feels good.

Don't get me wrong: I am actually in awe of Rashomon and quite like The Seven Samurai, but over the last couple of years I noticed that it feels like quite a slog for me to make it through his other films. I never even made it through Kagemusha. And it now took me nearly two weeks and a handful of small attempts to make it through The Hidden Fortress. At that stage then I felt that I had cheated myself for far too long and needed to stand up and openly proclaim that, yeah, Kurosawa is really not my thing. (Give me Fukasaku over him any time.)

What else was there?

I pretended I was Christian Slater and watched the Streetfighter trilogy in the space of just 24 hours. I had seen the first one before but in a God awful copy and as a result wasn't all too impressed, but seeing the trilogy in all its goresome Martial sequences was a lorra lorra fun. Now how all I need to do is to get a hold of the Sister Streetfighter movies.

Paid to Kill/Five Days (1954)

Businessman down on his luck decides to hire a killer for himself to ensure his loved ones are taken care off through the insurance. When his luck surprisingly turns he finds it impossible to cancel the contract and in a desperate race against time trying to stop his own murder learns what life truly is about.

If my constant yabberings about Hammer Noir often not truly being Noir have become repetitive, rejoice... cause Paid to Kill is quintessential Noir material. In actual fact it is so quintessential that it borders on the unoriginal as this kind of story had been filmed before and since, yet this is such a nicely paced and at times very atmospheric production that the stereotypical story is easily forgotten.

Besides when were any of the “Man hires his own Killer” stories ever truly original? Even The Whistler (1944), one of my favourite films of this kind (and a film and subsequent series that screams out for a proper DVD release), only rehashes the plot of Jules Verne's TRIBULATIONS OF A CHINAMAN IN CHINA, to the best of my knowledge the main source for all the subsequent adaptations. (One of these days someone needs to compile a proper list of those movies.)

When every single film with this plot device is nothing but a cheap but undisclosed rehash of a classic novel, then I can of course easily forgive Hammer for also falling on this band wagon. Besides this film does have a unique twist that I won't give away, but that is absolutely ruined by the liner notes of this DVD. So kids, if you don't want your surprise spoilt, refrain from reading anything about it on the DVD cover.

What makes this production so intriguing is the fact that, bar the ever faithful yet long suffering secretary with a crush on the boss, pretty much all the characters are morally dubious. Dane Clark in his third and final Hammer outing proves again that he is the company's quintessential Noir antihero and plays a ruthless businessman who, though madly in love with his wife, ignores her and actively pushes her into the arms of a fellow colleague. The guy he hires is an old friend yet he has no hesitation to use blackmail to force him into committing this atrocious deed. Another board member serves as the film's moral compass, yet is not averse to accepting dividend payments despite his ethical qualms. It's all a wonderfully murky environment courtesy of Hungarian born writer Paul Tabori, a very successful writer of pulp fiction novels and anthologies. (One of his books carries the bizarre title SOCIAL HISTORY OF RAPE. You can tell it's a product from the 1970s.)

Director Montgomery Tully was born in Dublin which may explain the fact that in one short scene we see Clark exiting an Aer Lingus plane, one of the first depictions of the Irish airline in a movie that I can ever recall. (Forgive me for geeking out on this aspect.) Clark also shot Hammer's 36 Hours/Terror Street and The Glass Cage/The Glass Tomb.

Jimmy Sangster was Assistant Director, but – hey – what's new?

Look out for Charles Hawtrey in a non-speaking pre-Carry On role. Looking through his IMDB entry I am surprised just how long he appeared in uncredited cinematic roles before he finally started to receive anything resembling decent parts. We are talking decades here with a first appearance in a 1922 picture. Call me impressed. He doesn't seem to have ever given up.

Overall Paid to Kill is a fairly enjoyable and moody film that must rank as one of Hammer Noir's finest. In actual fact one shot of a darkly lit alley proved so effective that it rightly served as the background image for the DVD covers.

Wings of Danger (1952)

Wings of Danger is probably one of the least Noirish Hammer Noirs. In actual fact one of the only Noir aspects is that this was filmed in BLACK and white... but so were tons of other productions in its time regardless of genre. And it has a hero experiencing a mental blackout which is a typical Noir motif but the one instance it occurs in this production it is clumsily handled and smacks of a cheap trick by writer John Gilling (also the director of Hammer classics such as Pirates of Blood River, The Scarlet Blade, The Brigand of Kandahar as well as The Plague of the Zombies, The Reptile and The Mummy's Shroud) to get the plot moving along.

This is a pretty straight forward thriller set very unusually in a rural airport in Guernsey depicting the unravelling of a ring of counterfeit smugglers.

Directed by Terence Fisher in one of his first Hammer assignments (The Last Page/Man Bait and Stolen Face are all from the same year) this is a straight forward story with a few nice lines of dialogue that makes up for an enjoyably short 70 minutes running time.

Nothing particularly memorable but worth checking out especially for the Hammer Fans interested in seeing more than just the usual Gothic horrors that the company is generally associated with.

Operation: 101010.... Lite

I always loved the idea of my old 999 Challenge (well, I would say that wouldn't I?): Watch 9 films from 9 different genres in 2009 and blog about them. Of course, I fell flat on my face with that one. Watching those movies was not so much the issue - I think I may have come at least close to that last year -, but writing up about them was what ultimately killed the puppy.

And just when I thought this challenge was dead and gone, Final Girl resurrected it with an evil laugh as Operation: 101010. She is, you guessed it, going to blog about 10 movies from 10 different genres in 2010.

And just like one of those pulp heroes who thinks he has hung up his boots and gone into retirement I hear the siren's song and feel myself dragged back into the murky waters of year long challenges and broken promises.

Of course, they say that the first sign of madness is doing everything exactly the same as before and expecting different results. If I didn't manage to write 81 blog posts last year, what makes me think I can handle 100?

Well, the truth is: I am already admitting defeat before I have begun. There is indeed no way on Earth that I will end up writing all that much this year.

But there is always Twitter. And I'll be damned if I don't manage to watch those flicks and then come up with a 140 characters about them. In factual fact, hmmm, let me see: If I was going to watch Dr Strangelove... or how I stopped worrying and love the bomb the title alone would already account for 61 characters. OK, so maybe I may end up writing the occasional second tweet about the films.

What is important, however, is that I am not going to post those on Hammer and Beyond, so if you want to see what I have to say follow me on Twitter. Maybe I will occasionally give a status report to make sure everyone knows how I am doing, but for the most part this is going to be a Twitter acticity for me. I think it may also be a good idea to use the hash tag #101010 (another 7 characters less to worry about).

I quite liked most of last year's categories and will therefore keep most of them. So without further ado, this is what I am going to focus on this year:

1. 10 Hammer movies – Well, this category as well as the next couple really go without saying given the nature of this blog
2. 10 Movies directed by Hammer directors (non-Hammer)
3. 10 Movies starring Hammer actors or actresses (non-Hammer)
4. 10 Movies that I haven't seen before starring non-Hammer Horror icons (such as Vincent Price, Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff)
5. 10 Mario Bava movies – One of my other goals this year is to finally finish reading Tim Lucas' mammoth Mario Bava book, so accompanying that read I also want to watch the flicks he discusses. I will also include films that don't have Bava as a director. Rule of thumb: If Lucas discusses it, it is fair game
6. 10 Giallos – Love the genre, but haven't seen a hell of a lot of gialli lately, so time to re-acquaint myself
7. 10 Movies to be watched in the cinema – Whatever happened to the times that I went at least once a week? Oh yes, that was when I actually gave a shit about stuff that was released.
8. 10 Kaiju Eiga – I have recently started learning Japanese and intend to surround myself with all things Japanese, hence two Japanese categories
9. 10 Japanese movies (apart from Kaiju Eiga)
10. 10 Sherlock Holmes movies – I have always been a bit of a Holmesian though somewhat lapsed over the last couple of years. Thanks to the new movie the sleuth is everywhere, so no excuse for me not to indulge

Wish me luck. And pray that I survive this new challenge. If I don't make it, Final Girl is to blame.