12.-14. Hammer's Golden Trinity as Cellar Club tweetalongs
In September 2021, Talking Pictures TV launched the Cellar Club, a Friday-night horror / SF triple-bill introduced and hosted by Caroline Munro. Usually they start with a good solid classic, followed up by two more films which are - shall we say? - usually more deservedly obscure. For the first three weeks, the top-billed movies were Hammer's Golden Trinity: The Mummy, Dracula and Curse of Frankenstein (working through them in backwards chronological order of production for some reason). Combined with Caroline Munro hosting them, of course I was going to make the effort to watch those live. And, as I could see that lots of my friends were also talking about them excitedly on Twitter, somehow it felt right to live-tweet them during broadcast.
I don't usually live-tweet films. It's not really a great way to watch a film you haven't seen before, because half the time your eyes are on your device rather than the TV, so you miss visual details and quite often plot points too as you write about the last thing which happened. But I gradually realised there was a whole community of people watching and live-tweeting the top-billed Cellar Club film each week, led by the TheFilmCrowd account. Soon I was not just tweeting my own thoughts into the void, but engaging with other people's and getting feedback on mine. So, although it's still not how I would watch a film I really wanted to engage with deeply, I've come to consider it a different but fun way of watching in its own right. I've also made a bunch of new Twitter friends that way and really enjoyed interacting with them, including between the live-tweets.
The whole thing has posed a problem for the way I record my film viewing in this journal, though. I've been writing at least something here for every film I've watched since 2007. It's a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it absolutely definitely means I don't watch as many films as I might if I didn't do it, because the 'cost' of watching any film is that I have to write an LJ / DW post about it. Although I tried to set a rule at the beginning that they didn't have to be extensive reviews, and just a record and quick reaction would be fine, that simply isn't what I'm like. I always have a lot of thoughts I want to record, which in turn becomes a burden. On the other hand, though, the knowledge that I'll need to write something down after watching has definitely made me more attentive to what I see, and the regular practice of articulating my thoughts has probably made me a better film critic. I'm pretty sure it's the reason why my Cellar Club live-tweets ended up getting me invited onto a live webcast to discuss Hammer films on Sunday.
But I've been struggling with what to do about the fact that I've been gaily watching all these films, and without yet 'writing up' a single one here. Initially I told myself these views 'didn't count', because I wasn't watching 'properly' (due to looking at my device half the time), and at least initially had seen the films before so had written up 'proper' reviews here on earlier occasions anyway. But increasingly as the Cellar Club moved onto films I hadn't seen before, including some I'd been meaning to watch for a while, that position has become unsatisfactory. And in any case, the very nature of the whole thing means that I do have a written record of each film anyway. That's what the live-tweets are! They just aren't here.
So, all this is by way of saying that I'm now going to perform the rather tedious (probably for both me and my subscribers) task of importing the content of these threads here, so that I can integrate them into the record of my other LJ / DW write-ups. Thankfully, every live-tweet is neatly threaded - something I did in the first place mainly to avoid swamping followers who weren't interested with a barrage of tweets about a movie they weren't watching. So my plan in each case is to link directly to the first tweet in the thread, which will mean I can see them again easily in their original context in future. But I'm also (this is the most tedious bit for me) going to copy and paste the content of each individual thread into the body of an LJ / DW entry, so that I don't have to go to Twitter for the details, and indeed I have an independent record in case some day Twitter ceases to exist. (More likely for LJ at the moment, but that's why I also use DW.)
Some of the individual tweets won't make sense any more out of context, even to me, but that's the nature of the thing. I reserve the right to quietly correct typos, break hashtags which I don't want LJ to replicate or insert editorial comments where I can remember the context and want to clarify it, and indeed to include a paragraph of prelude or commentary where I want to say a bit more here than was included in the original thread. It'll take a few entries over a few weeks, so sorry for the spamminess while that's happening. Each thread will always be under a cut anyway, so hopefully not too annoying. And then once I've brought things up to date, I can just keep up the habit on a weekly-or-less-frequent basis, and I'll be back to business as usual but with a better record of my film viewing. Phew!
12. The Mummy (1959), dir. Terence Fisher, broadcast 3 September
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Just settling down to watch Hammer's #TheMummy as part of TalkingPicsTV's inaugural Friday night Cellar Club. It can if you wish be read as an analogy for the Suez crisis, complete with all the right characters: English hero, French wife, Egyptian antagonist & American mediator.
Entrance hall of Down Place (Bray Studios) serving very recognisably as the doctor's office there. #TheMummy
Oily marsh = waters of the Suez canal?? #TheMummy
Actually, it's very interesting that Banning the father lies sick in bed under a red blanket. Later, we'll see the British empire marked out in its traditional bright red colouring on a globe in his son's library. #TheMummy
So if red represents the empire, the connection with Banning père makes it clear that it is sick and dying, as the Suez crisis showed. #TheMummy
Ah, and here's my favourite section of the film - the flash-back to Egypt, where we get to see Christopher Lee in all his beauteous glory speaking actual lines. Don't get me wrong, his eye acting as #TheMummy is excellent, but I do like to see his face and hear his voice too.
Also, it is great seeing Hammer pulling out all the make-up, costume and set stops for this genuinely impressive attempt at an ancient epic sequence. #TheMummy
Nice prominent chess set there in Banning's study as he waits for and then fights off #TheMummy. Hammer often used them (in fact I think usually the same one) in scenes of conflict between antagonists.
This confrontation between Banning and Mehemet Bey is very interesting. I'm pretty sure it is deliberately trying to show Banning as provocatively dismissive of Egyptian belief and culture, allowing Bey by contrast to appear human and complex. #TheMummy
There's no doubt that Banning is still intended as the hero and Bey the villain, but they are both being drawn in shades of grey here, and it's done in a way that expresses distinct post-colonial discomfort with the standard British attitude to other cultures. #TheMummy
And the credits roll! But the Cellar Club is only just getting started. Thanks to TalkingPicsTV for a great night. #TheMummy
13. Dracula (1958), dir. Terence Fisher, broadcast 10 September
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Ah, another lovely evening at TalkingPicsTV's #CellarClub, tonight featuring Hammer's #Dracula. This was the first Hammer film I saw, at the tender age of eight thanks to the new video recorder my Dad had just purchased. It was influential to say the least! ❤️
Wait, what's that, the original UK title card? So we are getting the 2012 version with the recovered footage from Japan after all? Was discussing this with HammerGothic earlier on, and it looks like I was wrong to assume it would be the censored version! #CellarClub #Dracula
Oh, if you'd like to know altogether too much about the Latin motto over Dracula's fireplace and on his letter to Harker, I wrote a blog post all about it! #CellarClub #Dracula
Harker's room features the same chess set we saw last week in #TheMummy, again signalling that he and #Dracula are antagonists. It later appears in Dracula AD 1972 in Lorrimer Van Helsing's house, which I choose to believe mean his ancestor in this film stole it from the castle!
"When, with God's help, I shall forever end this man's reign of terror." With that line, the plot departs radically from Stoker's version, revealing that Harker already knows #Dracula is a vampire and has come to kill him. #CellarClub
I really think the difference that change made to popular perceptions of #Dracula can't be understated. We all know Christopher Lee made the character sexy in this film, but that change also makes him the victim of a hostile intruder (as well as brutal himself). #CellarClub
I think that, together with Lee's performance, opened up a new space for both #Dracula and other vampires to be viewed sympathetically, the results of which could hardly have been anticipated at the time. #CellarClub
Oh dear, there's Harker's fatal mistake... Obviously there wouldn't be much of a film if he just killed #Dracula successfully straight away, but it is frustrating. Meanwhile Dracula's decision to leave the crypt and come back in shows he appreciates the value of a good entrance!
Oh, the change of tone from dark happenings in the castle crypt to crisp irritation in a drawing room! One of several tonal changes in the film which really keep the interest - another being Harker trapped in the crypt to VH entering the village pub. #CellarClub #Dracula
Love the way #Dracula glides into Lucy's room on a draft of autumn leaves. Almost all of the Hammer Dracula films are set in the autumn if you watch the details closely. (I mean, this one was also filmed in autumn / winter, but those leaves were not serendipitous). #CellarClub
The Cushing finger! #Dracula #CellarClub
Mina and Arthur now both properly clad in black to signal their mourning for Lucy. #CellarClub #Dracula
It took me years to realise that Tania is Gerda's daughter rather than the Holmwoods' because of how Mina interacts with her in this scene and the way she speaks about 'Aunt Lucy'. Van Helsing does refer to her as 'Gerda's child' later, but this comes first. #Dracula #CellarClub
What sealed it for me in the end was getting to read the shooting script, which was issued as a pdf on a recent DVD version. In that, it's specified that Tania is Gerda's daughter and that they share a bedroom together in the servants' quarter. #CellarClub #Dracula
Oh, sorry, there's the reference to 'Gerda's child'. It was Holmwood, not Van Helsing. #CellarClub #Dracula
"We believe it's possible"; "The Undead as we call them". The plurals there hint at a cabal of vampire hunters, with many still remaining despite Jonathan Harker's death. #Dracula #CellarClub
This little bit of set here at the undertaker's puzzles me. It's never covered in publications about the set designs for this film (e.g. https://peverilpublishing.co.uk/the-hammer-dracula-scrapbook/). Was it part of a left-over set from another previous production? #Dracula #CellarClub
Oh, Miles Malleson, you simply could not be more perfect! ❤️❤️❤️"He came to pay his last respects and remained to share 'em!" 🤣 #Dracula #CellarClub
Oh, oh, here comes sexy restored footage! #CellarClub #Dracula
Oh! OK... Even more surprising. We did not have it, so this is not the restored version after all. Even though it had the original UK title card. Truly confused now... #CellarClub #Dracula
"Now you'll need plenty of fluid: tea, coffee, or better still wine." My kind of doctor. #CellarClub #Dracula
(Yes, I know there are good plot reasons why they need to be drinking wine, but it's still funny.) #CellarClub #Dracula
I cannot articulate how much I love this Final Chase music. The music is of course brilliant throughout, and I should have given due credit to that earlier. Here's raising a glass to the wondrous work of James Bernard! 🍷 #Dracula #CellarClub
And here's what the text says on that zodiac wheel in the final scene: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_(1958_film)#Zodiac_wheel_in_final_scene Lovely hints of paganism which add enormous depths to #Dracula's character and history for me. #CellarClub
Over all too soon... Though once again there is more to be had at the #CellarClub! Thanks again to TalkingPicsTV for the Friday night thrills we all deserve.
14. The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), dir. Terence Fisher, broadcast 17 September
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Ah, it's Friday night again and time to pull up our now-familiar chairs at the TalkingPicsTV #CellarClub! Sticking with the Hammer theme, it's their first great colour Gothic, The Curse of #Frankenstein. Can't wait...
It's truly the dream team on this one, every name in the opening credits a treasure and every one of them giving of their absolute best. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
The doors of Down Place (Bray Studios) serving as the interior entrance to the police station there - and their fire buckets, which appeared in several other Hammer films too. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
These study montages between the Baron and Krempe depict quite the bromance, don't they? Certainly once the age gap is removed. The shared passions, the held breath, the significant looks... They even become joint parents of the little puppy they revive. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Nice establishment of the acid bath here, ready for later. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Enter the lovely Valerie Gaunt. ❤️ This plus the vampire woman in #Dracula were her only ever film credits. A sad loss, I think. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Rapidly followed by the equally lovely Hazel Court, who happily enjoyed a longer career. ❤️ #CellarClub #Frankenstein
The Baron still only has eyes for Paul Krempe, though! Elizabeth will be lucky if she _does_ see them at dinner. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
"It will be your duty to serve my cousin Elizabeth, and see to her every need as thoroughly as you have mine... in a different way of course." Is the Baron proposing BDSM-based polyamory to Justine there?? #CellarClub #Frankenstein
An amazing discordant variation on the main theme from James Bernard there, as the Baron heads for the charnel house. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Interesting that although the whole story is supposedly set in Switzerland, only Professor Bernstein has anything approaching a (Germanic) Swiss accent - because the stereotype of the German-sounding Professor is so strong #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Don't trust him, Professor! #CellarClub #Frankenstein
It's not Science unless you have flasks full of bubbling coloured liquid - and a skull on the shelf, of course! #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Now Paul is wandering round his bedroom, clearly unable to stop himself thinking about the Baron as he throws himself onto the bed. #QueerHammer #CellarClub #Frankenstein
And the Baron comes in, gently perspiring, begging Paul to come back to him for one last fling. "You're going to help me, Paul - whatever you say." #QueerHammer #CellarClub #Frankenstein
FINALLY CHRISTOPHER LEE! #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Lee's mingled suspicion and fear here, conveyed through nothing but facial expressions and body-language, is absolutely magnificent. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Poor Justine... Her claim to be pregnant sets up a nice contrast with the Baron's scientific experiments. Has he created life in the more conventional way after all? #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Creeping about at night in her white nightgown she anticipates her role in #Dracula - but this time she is to be the victim. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Oh, hadn't noticed that before! She is specifically the victim of being locked (by the Baron) in a room with the monster, but in the next film she'll reverse that, making a victim of Jonathan Harker by UNlocking a (very similar-looking) door. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Love this man with the punch! Hammer's changes of tone and comic relief don't always work, but when they do they're great. Perhaps best of all in this particular film, the crisp "Pass the marmalade, my dear" straight after violent murder in the attic. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Another masterful scene here from Lee, capturing the shame and pathos of the creature's condition, and showing the Baron up as the real monster by doing so. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
One very clever detail in this film - after Bernstein's death, the bannister is never repaired, so that every time we see it we're reminded of the Baron's crime and his utter lack of interest in anything other than his experiments. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Absolutely love Cushing's conveyance of breathless unfitness as he pursues the creature onto the roof-top. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
...and there's the acid bath pay-off. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
The Baron's "yes, Yes, YES!" when he hears that Paul has returned to him in his desperation at last! 😆 #QueerHammer #CellarClub #Frankenstein
It's fully all over now, though. Paul rejects him for the last time, prompting an outpouring of desperate emotion from the Baron such as we haven't seen through all the murders and skulduggery which preceded it. #QueerHammer #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Magnificent. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
"For you lovers of the macabre, we bring you... a Bucket of Blood!" Aw, Caroline - you shouldn't have! ❤️#CellarClub TalkingPicsTV
OK, that wasn't too bad actually. I think I can catch up in this way reasonably quickly. Probably not this week, as I'm going to Oxford on Thursday and need to pack for that tomorrow evening. But judging by this first experiment, it seems feasible and a reasonable compromise for the sake of my record-keeping. Cool.
I don't usually live-tweet films. It's not really a great way to watch a film you haven't seen before, because half the time your eyes are on your device rather than the TV, so you miss visual details and quite often plot points too as you write about the last thing which happened. But I gradually realised there was a whole community of people watching and live-tweeting the top-billed Cellar Club film each week, led by the TheFilmCrowd account. Soon I was not just tweeting my own thoughts into the void, but engaging with other people's and getting feedback on mine. So, although it's still not how I would watch a film I really wanted to engage with deeply, I've come to consider it a different but fun way of watching in its own right. I've also made a bunch of new Twitter friends that way and really enjoyed interacting with them, including between the live-tweets.
The whole thing has posed a problem for the way I record my film viewing in this journal, though. I've been writing at least something here for every film I've watched since 2007. It's a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it absolutely definitely means I don't watch as many films as I might if I didn't do it, because the 'cost' of watching any film is that I have to write an LJ / DW post about it. Although I tried to set a rule at the beginning that they didn't have to be extensive reviews, and just a record and quick reaction would be fine, that simply isn't what I'm like. I always have a lot of thoughts I want to record, which in turn becomes a burden. On the other hand, though, the knowledge that I'll need to write something down after watching has definitely made me more attentive to what I see, and the regular practice of articulating my thoughts has probably made me a better film critic. I'm pretty sure it's the reason why my Cellar Club live-tweets ended up getting me invited onto a live webcast to discuss Hammer films on Sunday.
But I've been struggling with what to do about the fact that I've been gaily watching all these films, and without yet 'writing up' a single one here. Initially I told myself these views 'didn't count', because I wasn't watching 'properly' (due to looking at my device half the time), and at least initially had seen the films before so had written up 'proper' reviews here on earlier occasions anyway. But increasingly as the Cellar Club moved onto films I hadn't seen before, including some I'd been meaning to watch for a while, that position has become unsatisfactory. And in any case, the very nature of the whole thing means that I do have a written record of each film anyway. That's what the live-tweets are! They just aren't here.
So, all this is by way of saying that I'm now going to perform the rather tedious (probably for both me and my subscribers) task of importing the content of these threads here, so that I can integrate them into the record of my other LJ / DW write-ups. Thankfully, every live-tweet is neatly threaded - something I did in the first place mainly to avoid swamping followers who weren't interested with a barrage of tweets about a movie they weren't watching. So my plan in each case is to link directly to the first tweet in the thread, which will mean I can see them again easily in their original context in future. But I'm also (this is the most tedious bit for me) going to copy and paste the content of each individual thread into the body of an LJ / DW entry, so that I don't have to go to Twitter for the details, and indeed I have an independent record in case some day Twitter ceases to exist. (More likely for LJ at the moment, but that's why I also use DW.)
Some of the individual tweets won't make sense any more out of context, even to me, but that's the nature of the thing. I reserve the right to quietly correct typos, break hashtags which I don't want LJ to replicate or insert editorial comments where I can remember the context and want to clarify it, and indeed to include a paragraph of prelude or commentary where I want to say a bit more here than was included in the original thread. It'll take a few entries over a few weeks, so sorry for the spamminess while that's happening. Each thread will always be under a cut anyway, so hopefully not too annoying. And then once I've brought things up to date, I can just keep up the habit on a weekly-or-less-frequent basis, and I'll be back to business as usual but with a better record of my film viewing. Phew!
12. The Mummy (1959), dir. Terence Fisher, broadcast 3 September
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Just settling down to watch Hammer's #TheMummy as part of TalkingPicsTV's inaugural Friday night Cellar Club. It can if you wish be read as an analogy for the Suez crisis, complete with all the right characters: English hero, French wife, Egyptian antagonist & American mediator.
Entrance hall of Down Place (Bray Studios) serving very recognisably as the doctor's office there. #TheMummy
Oily marsh = waters of the Suez canal?? #TheMummy
Actually, it's very interesting that Banning the father lies sick in bed under a red blanket. Later, we'll see the British empire marked out in its traditional bright red colouring on a globe in his son's library. #TheMummy
So if red represents the empire, the connection with Banning père makes it clear that it is sick and dying, as the Suez crisis showed. #TheMummy
Ah, and here's my favourite section of the film - the flash-back to Egypt, where we get to see Christopher Lee in all his beauteous glory speaking actual lines. Don't get me wrong, his eye acting as #TheMummy is excellent, but I do like to see his face and hear his voice too.
Also, it is great seeing Hammer pulling out all the make-up, costume and set stops for this genuinely impressive attempt at an ancient epic sequence. #TheMummy
Nice prominent chess set there in Banning's study as he waits for and then fights off #TheMummy. Hammer often used them (in fact I think usually the same one) in scenes of conflict between antagonists.
This confrontation between Banning and Mehemet Bey is very interesting. I'm pretty sure it is deliberately trying to show Banning as provocatively dismissive of Egyptian belief and culture, allowing Bey by contrast to appear human and complex. #TheMummy
There's no doubt that Banning is still intended as the hero and Bey the villain, but they are both being drawn in shades of grey here, and it's done in a way that expresses distinct post-colonial discomfort with the standard British attitude to other cultures. #TheMummy
And the credits roll! But the Cellar Club is only just getting started. Thanks to TalkingPicsTV for a great night. #TheMummy
13. Dracula (1958), dir. Terence Fisher, broadcast 10 September
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Ah, another lovely evening at TalkingPicsTV's #CellarClub, tonight featuring Hammer's #Dracula. This was the first Hammer film I saw, at the tender age of eight thanks to the new video recorder my Dad had just purchased. It was influential to say the least! ❤️
Wait, what's that, the original UK title card? So we are getting the 2012 version with the recovered footage from Japan after all? Was discussing this with HammerGothic earlier on, and it looks like I was wrong to assume it would be the censored version! #CellarClub #Dracula
Oh, if you'd like to know altogether too much about the Latin motto over Dracula's fireplace and on his letter to Harker, I wrote a blog post all about it! #CellarClub #Dracula
Harker's room features the same chess set we saw last week in #TheMummy, again signalling that he and #Dracula are antagonists. It later appears in Dracula AD 1972 in Lorrimer Van Helsing's house, which I choose to believe mean his ancestor in this film stole it from the castle!
"When, with God's help, I shall forever end this man's reign of terror." With that line, the plot departs radically from Stoker's version, revealing that Harker already knows #Dracula is a vampire and has come to kill him. #CellarClub
I really think the difference that change made to popular perceptions of #Dracula can't be understated. We all know Christopher Lee made the character sexy in this film, but that change also makes him the victim of a hostile intruder (as well as brutal himself). #CellarClub
I think that, together with Lee's performance, opened up a new space for both #Dracula and other vampires to be viewed sympathetically, the results of which could hardly have been anticipated at the time. #CellarClub
Oh dear, there's Harker's fatal mistake... Obviously there wouldn't be much of a film if he just killed #Dracula successfully straight away, but it is frustrating. Meanwhile Dracula's decision to leave the crypt and come back in shows he appreciates the value of a good entrance!
Oh, the change of tone from dark happenings in the castle crypt to crisp irritation in a drawing room! One of several tonal changes in the film which really keep the interest - another being Harker trapped in the crypt to VH entering the village pub. #CellarClub #Dracula
Love the way #Dracula glides into Lucy's room on a draft of autumn leaves. Almost all of the Hammer Dracula films are set in the autumn if you watch the details closely. (I mean, this one was also filmed in autumn / winter, but those leaves were not serendipitous). #CellarClub
The Cushing finger! #Dracula #CellarClub
Mina and Arthur now both properly clad in black to signal their mourning for Lucy. #CellarClub #Dracula
It took me years to realise that Tania is Gerda's daughter rather than the Holmwoods' because of how Mina interacts with her in this scene and the way she speaks about 'Aunt Lucy'. Van Helsing does refer to her as 'Gerda's child' later, but this comes first. #Dracula #CellarClub
What sealed it for me in the end was getting to read the shooting script, which was issued as a pdf on a recent DVD version. In that, it's specified that Tania is Gerda's daughter and that they share a bedroom together in the servants' quarter. #CellarClub #Dracula
Oh, sorry, there's the reference to 'Gerda's child'. It was Holmwood, not Van Helsing. #CellarClub #Dracula
"We believe it's possible"; "The Undead as we call them". The plurals there hint at a cabal of vampire hunters, with many still remaining despite Jonathan Harker's death. #Dracula #CellarClub
This little bit of set here at the undertaker's puzzles me. It's never covered in publications about the set designs for this film (e.g. https://peverilpublishing.co.uk/the-hammer-dracula-scrapbook/). Was it part of a left-over set from another previous production? #Dracula #CellarClub
Oh, Miles Malleson, you simply could not be more perfect! ❤️❤️❤️"He came to pay his last respects and remained to share 'em!" 🤣 #Dracula #CellarClub
Oh, oh, here comes sexy restored footage! #CellarClub #Dracula
Oh! OK... Even more surprising. We did not have it, so this is not the restored version after all. Even though it had the original UK title card. Truly confused now... #CellarClub #Dracula
"Now you'll need plenty of fluid: tea, coffee, or better still wine." My kind of doctor. #CellarClub #Dracula
(Yes, I know there are good plot reasons why they need to be drinking wine, but it's still funny.) #CellarClub #Dracula
I cannot articulate how much I love this Final Chase music. The music is of course brilliant throughout, and I should have given due credit to that earlier. Here's raising a glass to the wondrous work of James Bernard! 🍷 #Dracula #CellarClub
And here's what the text says on that zodiac wheel in the final scene: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_(1958_film)#Zodiac_wheel_in_final_scene Lovely hints of paganism which add enormous depths to #Dracula's character and history for me. #CellarClub
Over all too soon... Though once again there is more to be had at the #CellarClub! Thanks again to TalkingPicsTV for the Friday night thrills we all deserve.
14. The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), dir. Terence Fisher, broadcast 17 September
Original tweet-along thread
Individual tweets:
Ah, it's Friday night again and time to pull up our now-familiar chairs at the TalkingPicsTV #CellarClub! Sticking with the Hammer theme, it's their first great colour Gothic, The Curse of #Frankenstein. Can't wait...
It's truly the dream team on this one, every name in the opening credits a treasure and every one of them giving of their absolute best. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
The doors of Down Place (Bray Studios) serving as the interior entrance to the police station there - and their fire buckets, which appeared in several other Hammer films too. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
These study montages between the Baron and Krempe depict quite the bromance, don't they? Certainly once the age gap is removed. The shared passions, the held breath, the significant looks... They even become joint parents of the little puppy they revive. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Nice establishment of the acid bath here, ready for later. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Enter the lovely Valerie Gaunt. ❤️ This plus the vampire woman in #Dracula were her only ever film credits. A sad loss, I think. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Rapidly followed by the equally lovely Hazel Court, who happily enjoyed a longer career. ❤️ #CellarClub #Frankenstein
The Baron still only has eyes for Paul Krempe, though! Elizabeth will be lucky if she _does_ see them at dinner. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
"It will be your duty to serve my cousin Elizabeth, and see to her every need as thoroughly as you have mine... in a different way of course." Is the Baron proposing BDSM-based polyamory to Justine there?? #CellarClub #Frankenstein
An amazing discordant variation on the main theme from James Bernard there, as the Baron heads for the charnel house. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Interesting that although the whole story is supposedly set in Switzerland, only Professor Bernstein has anything approaching a (Germanic) Swiss accent - because the stereotype of the German-sounding Professor is so strong #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Don't trust him, Professor! #CellarClub #Frankenstein
It's not Science unless you have flasks full of bubbling coloured liquid - and a skull on the shelf, of course! #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Now Paul is wandering round his bedroom, clearly unable to stop himself thinking about the Baron as he throws himself onto the bed. #QueerHammer #CellarClub #Frankenstein
And the Baron comes in, gently perspiring, begging Paul to come back to him for one last fling. "You're going to help me, Paul - whatever you say." #QueerHammer #CellarClub #Frankenstein
FINALLY CHRISTOPHER LEE! #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Lee's mingled suspicion and fear here, conveyed through nothing but facial expressions and body-language, is absolutely magnificent. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Poor Justine... Her claim to be pregnant sets up a nice contrast with the Baron's scientific experiments. Has he created life in the more conventional way after all? #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Creeping about at night in her white nightgown she anticipates her role in #Dracula - but this time she is to be the victim. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Oh, hadn't noticed that before! She is specifically the victim of being locked (by the Baron) in a room with the monster, but in the next film she'll reverse that, making a victim of Jonathan Harker by UNlocking a (very similar-looking) door. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Love this man with the punch! Hammer's changes of tone and comic relief don't always work, but when they do they're great. Perhaps best of all in this particular film, the crisp "Pass the marmalade, my dear" straight after violent murder in the attic. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Another masterful scene here from Lee, capturing the shame and pathos of the creature's condition, and showing the Baron up as the real monster by doing so. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
One very clever detail in this film - after Bernstein's death, the bannister is never repaired, so that every time we see it we're reminded of the Baron's crime and his utter lack of interest in anything other than his experiments. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Absolutely love Cushing's conveyance of breathless unfitness as he pursues the creature onto the roof-top. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
...and there's the acid bath pay-off. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
The Baron's "yes, Yes, YES!" when he hears that Paul has returned to him in his desperation at last! 😆 #QueerHammer #CellarClub #Frankenstein
It's fully all over now, though. Paul rejects him for the last time, prompting an outpouring of desperate emotion from the Baron such as we haven't seen through all the murders and skulduggery which preceded it. #QueerHammer #CellarClub #Frankenstein
Magnificent. #CellarClub #Frankenstein
"For you lovers of the macabre, we bring you... a Bucket of Blood!" Aw, Caroline - you shouldn't have! ❤️#CellarClub TalkingPicsTV
OK, that wasn't too bad actually. I think I can catch up in this way reasonably quickly. Probably not this week, as I'm going to Oxford on Thursday and need to pack for that tomorrow evening. But judging by this first experiment, it seems feasible and a reasonable compromise for the sake of my record-keeping. Cool.