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Just under the top echelon of British sci-fi lurks this well-produced, absorbing ‘expedition to terror!’ that surprises us by paying off on an intellectual plane. After building his monster but before defeating Dracula, Peter Cushing found himself in a real fix on a snowy mountain peak. Sure, the race of enormous Yeti are shiver-inducing, but Cushing must also withstand the mind games of a suspiciously solicitous Tibetan Lhama, and a piratical double-cross by an American huckster who goes by the deceptive name, ‘Friend.’

The Abominable Snowman

Blu-ray

Shout! Scream Factory

1957 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 85, 90 min. / The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas / Street Date December 10, 2020

Starring: Peter Cushing, Forrest Tucker, Maureen Connell, Arnold Marlé, Richard Wattis, Robert Brown, Michael Brill, Wolfe Morris, Anthony Chinn.

Cinematography: Arthur Grant

Film Editor: Bill Lenny

Original Music: Humphrey Searle

Written by Nigel Kneale from his teleplay The Creature

Produced by Aubrey Baring, Michael Carreras, Anthony Nelson-Keys...

A thyroid operation every ten years, plus regular libations of an eerie green liquid, has allowed Anton Diffring to live over a hundred years without looking a year over forty. Hammer’s medical horror show features Christopher Lee, Hazel Court and sumptuous cinematography, but not a whole lot of surprises.

The Man Who Could Cheat Death

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1959 / Color/ 1:66 widescreen / 83 min. / Street Date March 14, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Anton Diffring, Hazel Court, Christopher Lee, Arnold Marle, Delphi Lawrence.

Cinematography: Jack Asher

Production Design: Bernard Robinson

Art Direction: Roy Ashton

Film Editor: John Dunsford

Original Music: Richard Rodney Bennett

Written by Jimmy Sangster from a play by Barré Lyndon

Produced by Michael Carreras

Directed by Terence Fisher

For its first two years of Technicolor horror Hammer Films could seemingly do no wrong. In just a few months their revivals of classic horror motifs were being bankrolled and...

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone more attractive to an anglophile. With gaunt, angular features and a proper aristocratic accent, Peter Cushing could just as easily sell you a first-edition Charles Dickens novel as he could read a line of dialogue. Inserting those proper English characteristics into tales of bloodthirsty creatures is part of what makes Hammer films so entertaining. In the case of Val Guest’s 1957 creature feature, The Abominable Snowman, those admirable characteristics are also integral parts of the plot.

The Abominable Snowman follows Dr. John Rollason (Peter Cushing) on a botanical expedition in the Himalayas. On his journey, Rollason is approached by Dr. Tom Friend (Forrest Tucker) who, along with Ed Shelley (Robert Brown), Andrew McNee (Michael Brill), and Kusang (Wolfe Morris), is in search of the mythical Yeti that is claimed to inhabit the mountain. Rollason’s wife, Helen (Maureen Connell), is convinced that he...

Living forever comes with a cost. Co-starring the late, great Christopher Lee, The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959) will be released on Blu-ray and DVD in March from Kino Lorber, and we have the film's official list of special features and a look at the cover art.

From Kino Lorber Studio Classics: "Coming March 14th on DVD and Blu-ray!

The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959) with optional English subtitles

• Audio Commentary by Film Historian Troy Howarth

• Interview with critic and novelist Kim Newman (17:09)

• Interview with author and historian Jonathan Rigby (16:52)

• Trailer Gallery"

Synopsis (via Blu-ray.com): "Dr. Georges Bonnet has figured out a way to live forever. All he needs are the glands of some very unwilling donors! Anton Diffring stars as the mad doctor in this chilling Hammer Horror classic. As he struggles against the inevitable icy grip of death, the doctor begins a descent into...

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger officially become ‘The Archers’ for this sterling morale-propaganda picture lauding the help of the valiant Dutch resistance. It’s a joyful show of spirit, terrific casting (with a couple of surprises) and first-class English filmmaking.

One of Our Aircraft is Missing

Blu-ray

Olive Films

1942 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy /103 82 min. / Street Date November 15, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98

Starring Godfrey Tearle, Eric Portman, Hugh Williams, Bernard Miles, Hugh Burden, Emrys Jones, Pamela Brown, Joyce Redman, Googie Withers, Hay Petrie, Arnold Marlé, Robert Helpmann, Peter Ustinov, Roland Culver, Robert Beatty, Michael Powell.

Cinematography Ronald Neame

Film Editor David Lean

Camera Crew Robert Krasker, Guy Green

Written by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Produced by The Archers

Directed by Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

There are still a few more key Powell-Pressburger ‘Archer’ films waiting for a quality disc release, Contraband and Gone to Earth for just two.

Dr. Georges Bonnet (Anton Diffring) is not a bad guy, but he’s starting to do some bad things. Having found a medical solution that prevents him from aging (it has to do with “glands,” so fashionable in this era), he has maintained his youthful appearance despite having lived for 104 years. But time is running out. The doctor who has performed the maintenance surgeries (Arnold Marle) can no longer operate, and he’s running late in even arriving. Georges has also fallen deeply in love, and isn’t ready yet to leave town, as his cover story demands. Can this polite society man maintain propriety with death knocking?

In the booklet accompanying Eureka’s new Blu-ray edition of The Man Who Could Cheat Death, Marcus Hearn quotes Hammer Film Productions managing director James Carreras in a 1958 interview as saying:

We’ve found a formula for spine-chillers that never misses…. You...

President & CEO of Hammer and Vice-Chairman of Exclusive Media, Simon Oakes, announced today that Hammer, an Exclusive Media company, will produce a new version of The Abominable Snowman. The project is being developed by Hammer in association with Ben Holden (The Quiet Ones, The Woman in Black: Angel of Death).

In this modern take on the Yeti myth, a scientific expedition's illegal assent up an unclimbed peak of one of the World's most formidable mountains accidentally awakens an ancient creature that could spell a certain end for them all.

The original screenplay by Matthew Read (Pusher, Hammer of the Gods) and Jon Croker (The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, Desert Dancer) will put a modern twist on the 1957 iconic original film from Hammer's extensive canon of work. The project marks a continuation of Hammer's ongoing campaign to maintain their heritage of producing enduring British horror films which are original,...