The Gorgon

This is an enjoyable rather forgotten movie from the Hammer studio's, staring both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee again.

I particularly liked the atmosphere of the movie. Unlike many other Hammer movies, this one actually got creepy, which was mainly due to its mysterious build up and overall atmosphere. The first appearance of Megaera is a great horror moment and surprised me quite a bit at how greatly it was done.

But no, unfortunately the movie is a whole isn't among the best the Hammer studios ever provided. The actual story fails to become really interesting and the character treatment isn't the greatest. It took me a while into the movie to realize that Peter Cushing was going to be the 'bad' guy in this and Christoper Lee the good guy. Normally those roles are always turned around. Besides that, Christopher Lee doesn't really get featured until the movie is already halve way through. His character after that also makes a redundant impression and the movie could had easily done without him. He's first billed but don't be fooled, he really isn't the main character in this. It also isn't Christopher Lee's finest acting moment. At times he's just downward horrible. His silly looking make-up and wig also doesn't help much to make his character a good one. Peter Cushing also gets make-up applied. In some sequences he looks so much different than he did in real life! It also takes a while for the movie to introduce its real main character, Paul Heitz.

The story flow also isn't the greatest. The movie gets stuck at times, when the mystery doesn't get explained and not enough is happening in the movie, even though the actual story itself is in its core quite a good one, that's filled with lots of potential, that doesn't really get ever exploited in this movie.

The movie obviously didn't cost a lot to made. Like I said before, the make-up effects aren't the greatest but more distracting are the obvious fake backgrounds and sets. Nevertheless, this has now of course become part of the charm of Hammer horror movies.

Greatly enjoyable to watch for the Hammer fans.

6/10

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I have to say that I'm really surprised that The Gorgon isn't one of the better known Hammer Horror films. Aside from the fact that it stars Hammer's two biggest actors - Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing - The Gorgon also features a fairly original cinematic monster, and it makes for a great fun watch! This film reminded me a lot of The Reptile in the way it plays out, in that it focuses on a mystery surrounding the central monster. It has to be said that, like a lot of Hammer Horror films, the plot is very simplistic; but that's hardly a problem as there's plenty to enjoy outside of the plot in this film. As the title suggests, the film focuses on a mysterious 'Gorgon', a woman with a head full of snakes that can turn people to stone just by looking at them. She's creating quite a problem for the local village, as citizens begin turning up dead - but unlike most dead people, they've turned to stone! The authorities try to cover it up, but as the murders continue, the son of one of the victims decides to investigate.

The film is very typical of Hammer in that it features a lush colour scheme and a lot of eerily Gothic settings. The Gorgon is directed by Hammer's most prolific director, Terence Fisher, and as usual - he does a solid job. The fact that this film stars both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee is definitely to its advantage, although it is unfortunate (as is the case with many of their joint ventures) that they don't get to spend a lot of screen time together. Neither one is at their very best; but even Lee and Cushing on autopilot makes for great viewing, and neither one disappoints. It has to be said that the special effects are a bit shoddy and the monster doesn't look particularly scary; but stuff like that is part of the charm of Hammer Horror, and personally - I wouldn't have it any other way! It all boils down to a pretty standard conclusion, but while nothing about this film stands out too much next the rest of Hammer's output - it still stands up as a more than decent little horror film and I'm certain that my fellow Hammer fanatics wont be disappointed with it!

Those who tiresomely belabor the inadequacy of the snakes on the Gorgon's head at the film's conclusion entirely miss the point. It is not surprising in our cretinous era that some would lament the unavailability of computer generated special effects in 1964. That they persist in doing so, however, only serves to illustrate how very far these modernists are in both sensibility and aesthetic principles from the 19th century Gothic tradition that this film so faithfully seeks to reproduce. The point isn't the snakes but the psychological force behind the baleful facial expression!

In this connection, it is appropriate to observe that Terence Fisher was absolutely right in considering this one of his best films.

And make no mistake: this film is very much in the 19th century Gothic tradition in both story and atmosphere. In that sense, it may be compared to a story by Ludwig Tieck, while its visuals hearken back to the paintings of Jacob van Ruisdael.

Visually, it is among Hammer's most accomplished productions. Michael Reed's effective photographic renderings include: a nocturnal cemetery festooned with fluttering autumnal leaves, the viscerally chilly, fog and frost bitten ravine (you can almost watch your own breath smoke in merely watching it) where a hanged man is discovered, the vast shadowed Castle Borski depicted under a full moon with scudding clouds, to name but a few.

And Mr. Reed is ably abetted by production designer Bernard Robinson whose key piece in this film: the deserted inside of the self-same Castle Borski is a marvel of tattered armorial flags, dust laden furniture, and sinister mirrors. The musical score is also one of Hammer's best and most effectively understated.

But the film belongs to the incomparably lovely Barbara Shelley's "Carla Hoffman"--she of the sweeping pelisse seated on a gilded throne in the deserted castle. It is to be hoped that someday this accomplished beauty will receive all the retrospective attention surely due her. For now, suffice it to say, that few actresses in the history of cinema have constructed a portrayal so wholly and precariously based on an enigma, an enigma Miss Shelley consistently reveals in every gesture, expression and nuance, without allowing her character, "Carla" the possibility of even understanding it herself.

It isn't merely that her Carla is fatally charming and alluring, but decent and humanitarian as well, a victim, to be sure, but not at all in the degraded, naturalistic way that Jean Seberg's portrayal is in "Lilith" a film to which "The Gorgon" is frequently compared.

Much can always be found to admire in anything Miss Shelley does. For now let us just close with a passing note on her deportment, the absolute self control she exercises in her throaty, perfectly modulated voice and carriage. Would that actresses today would study her technique !!!!!!!!!!!

Watch her in her first confrontation scene with Peter Cushing in his parlor, where she accuses him of stonewalling during the inquest, just prior to the entrance of Paul's father--Professor Heinz. Merely observing her majestically exit the room after being introduced to the Professor is worth the whole price of admission!

As mentioned by many, the Gorgon is not your typical scare-fest horror film. It's driving force is its atmosphere, its lore and understanding various subplots. Cheaply made, the film has no doubt turned some to stone-cold hysterics with its campy effects and home movie-like makeup of the creature. While the story has wonderful elements of mystery and lure, it never reveals certain motivations. For example, why has the Gorgon's spirit returned to earth? What is the Cushing character's intentions? Many of the story's characters know the myth behind the murders (how many variations are there to a creature turning a man to stone with her gaze?), so controlling the creature was no revelation. But all that aside, the film's theme is captivating. If you don't expect a monster movie, but view this film as a mystery based on folklore and with a haunting backdrop, you too will be delighted with this hidden gem. There is a scene in castle, when Mageara first appears and we catch glimpses of her peeking out at a prospective victim. It's a tantalizing prelude to the terror to come. But the scene that had me mesmerized , and that singularly crystalizes the Gorgon's chilling presence is when she has turned a character with her demonic stare, then seemingly drifts back into the shadows. It is a strangely beautiful scene. The Gorgon, called the Mageara, is a true mystery. She has no emotion, no true motivation, and she is not shown stalking her prey. Like a black widow in human form, she merely waits for (perhaps even lures) innocent souls to come to her parlor. Mageara seemingly in incapable of harming man, except for her petrifying gaze; she quietly floats about the castle. If I were to remake this film, I would tell the story from the perspective of the female host, and the struggle to understand her curse. There is sheer tragedy in what Hammer has presented, and I find myself looking upon many of the story's characters with sense of sadness and doom. Finally, I want to say that I wish the stone victims could have turned quickly, like those poor souls in the film "Thief of Baghdad," with Steve Reeves. Oh well, just a last thought.

The Gorgon ranks among Hammer's very best. Its premise is daring and imaginative - a female spectre so hideous that all who gaze on her are turned to stone, a power even more unnerving than the physical ferocity of lycanthropy or vampirism.

It boasts a wealth of Hammer expertise: Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee are at their peak; John Gilling scripted lucidly; James Bernard's score is one of his finest, the familiar overwrought strings underlaid with a spectral organ effect; and Michael Reed's pathecolor photography defines the Hammer ‘look', all sombre interiors and gorgeous autumnal forests. But the triumph is finally director Terence Fisher's.

The film begins beautifully with the credits superimposed against the twilit battlements of Castle Borski. Other touches fleetingly capture the mood of gothic-romantic literature. Professor Heitz beguiled into the forest by the Gorgon Magaera's distant siren-call. Her reflection glimpsed through the dead leaves floating on a mill pond. The encounter by moonlight in the graveyard between Richard Pasco and Barbara Shelley.

The Gorgon is certainly one of Hammer's most pessimistic entries. The setting is turn-of-the-century Middle Europe and the production-design more Teutonic than ever (Hammer, ever economical, transposed the monster of Greek classical myth to their familiar Germanic milieu). When we join the story the village of Vandorf has been under Magaera's baleful spell for seven years. Much of the action takes place in a repressive asylum. And Castle Borski is not the richly appointed seat of other Hammer films but a broken windswept ruin.

Characterisation is equally unrelenting. Cushing's Dr Namaroff is a more ruthless and maniacal variation of Van Helsing. Lee's Professor Meister , though gruffly benevolent, is overbearingly fatalistic. Meanwhile the most sympathetic characters - Carla, Paul, his father and brother - are all killed.

OK, inevitably the Gorgon's makeup is weak (though it scared me when I first saw it at age 11). The sickly green palor and spidery wrinkles are good, but the snake-hair just looks like she washed it the night before and couldn't do a thing with it. Half-glimpsed, her first appearance is remarkably effective, though. Her graceful tiptoe from behind the cobwebs in ghastly counterpoint to what we know will be her terrible visage. A sudden shock close-up and she disappears - almost glides - back into the shadows in long shot, a sequence as well done as anything Fisher has ever constructed. Alas, audience expectation (something Hammer usually deferred to) demanded a full-facial exposure at the end.

The temptation would be to say that The Gorgon might have worked better in black and white - but that would be to deny Michael Reed's disciplined use of colour. Perhaps only today's enhanced computer-graphics could properly pull off the effect required.

That flaw apart, The Gorgon survives as an early Hammer classic that can stand alongside Dracula, Brides of Dracula and The Hound of the Baskervilles.