54-61, 80-83, 89-92, 183-186, 230-233 Hammer Volumes 1-6

[therewillbeblus]

The jury’s right that vol. 5 can’t hold a candle to 4, though all these adventure films are somewhat entertaining, even if none are great, or often even very good. Visa to Canton is an attempt at James Bond planted into a color noir, with hardboiled narration and apathetic throwaway lines regarding human life. It doesn’t really work with the lead actor failing to charm or imbue the necessary characteristics outside of cheap imitation, but it’s an intermittently fun cheesy experiment. The Pirates of Blood River is the best of the bunch, a forward-momentum pirate tale that works because of the well-paced progression and idiosyncratic details populating the traveling scenes, which can be pretty goofy but engaging nonetheless. The Scarlet Blade is full of misses, but it moves around as a kind of espionage swashbuckler film where some of the stealth action bits nod to spy films, inconsistent in their amusement. The Brigand of Kandahar goes for a Heart of Darkness-lite adaptation as told through a Western-framed war film in foreign terrain. There is a lot of action, which can be passively exciting, but nothing to write home about.

[Reifferschizzle]

Don't know if you can call Visa To Canton an imitation, since it predates Dr.No. To me it was more evidence that most of the elements that would turn into the Bond formula were already kicking around.

[MichaelB]

Don't know if you can call Visa To Canton an imitation, since it predates Dr.No. To me it was more evidence that most of the elements that would turn into the Bond formula were already kicking around.

It's the main reason for its historical interest - it arguably came closer to the 1960s Bond formula than any other thriller that predated Dr No itself including, no doubt coincidentally but decidedly spookily, an actual phrase from what would later become Monty Norman's James Bond theme. Had they put more effort into casting instead of going down the tried and trusted 1950s Hammer route of hiring a has-been (and therefore cheap) American star, and had someone with more cinematic brio than Michael Carreras picked up the megaphone, it might have been rather impressive.

[therewillbeblus]

Good points, I didn’t even think about chronology

[swo17]

Richard Baseheart has never been a has-been, thank you very much

[knives]

Is that because he’s never been a has?

[swo17]

Careful there

[domino harvey]

Paul Massie’s performance in the Two Faces of Dr Jekyll is one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever seen. Not that the film does him or anyone else any favors. Ah yes, the full duality of man: bookworm cuck or slumming misogynist. Half of this box set is so good, but the other half... not so much

[therewillbeblus]

The film had me at the beginning as I appreciated how succinctly the first five minutes explained the themes, almost embarrassing to the source in how quickly two characters drained the well of psychological interest. Though what I expected (and what should have happened) is for this brush under the rug to make room for novel ideas to be explored in narrative, and instead we simply got a more cartoonish divergence of personality.

[MichaelB]

A message from Powerhouse:

Next month marks the 86th anniversary of Hammer Film Productions, founded in November 1934. Starting today, INDICATOR will be celebrating via a number of offers.

First, a collection of five limited edition postcards – each utilising original artwork – will be automatically included with every direct order from our website. Please be aware that, owing to limited numbers, the offer will not be eligible on pre-orders. No code is required for this offer.

Secondly, all of our in-print Hammer titles (box sets and Standard Editions) will be available at a 10% discount. HAMMER VOLUME TWO: CRIMINAL INTENT and HAMMER VOLUME THREE: BLOOD & TERROR are low stock and may go out-of-print before the offer ends (5 November 2020 at 9 a.m.) This offer requires no code and is available for one week only. Hammer titles will not feature in any further 2020 promotions.

All titles can be found in the dedicated HAMMER section of our website.

I've highlighted one bit in bold, because there's also a strong hint that a wider sale is imminent - but it clearly won't include any Hammer titles.

[MichaelB]

With volumes 1 and 2 already OOP, volumes 3 and 4 look set to join them (the latter in record time: they’re down to their last 122 copies less than a year after its original release).

[MichaelB]

Standard editions of The Snorkel, Never Take Sweets from a Stranger, The Full Treatment and Cash on Demand (click on the links for full specs) are being released on 15 February 2021.

As ever, the discs will be identical to the ones the now-OOP Hammer Volume 2 (extras and all), but the booklets and reversible sleeves have been dropped.

[MichaelB]

Bumped to highlight the announcement of Hammer Volume 6: Night Shadows for June, and also to confirm the separate standard editions of titles from the now sold-out Volume 3: The Camp on Blood Island, The Stranglers of Bombay, Yesterday's Enemy and The Terror of the Tongs.

[reaky]

Fantastic news that Indicator have now got the rights to the Universal Hammers previously released by Final Cut. At last, we should get some sensible aspect ratios, plus the customary superb extras.

I already have them on blu, but an Indicator box of Brides of Dracula, Curse of the Werewolf, Kiss of the Vampire and Evil of Frankenstein would be irresistible.

[EddieLarkin]

Shout Factory used new and vastly superior transfers for their recent discs, so if Indicator use the same (which they plainly are with Phantom of the Opera) they will be much better releases than the Final Cut ones, before even considering the supplements. Hopefully all four of those and Paranoiac will be coming from Indicator so I can sell my Universal Hammer set! If they have those and some films from Studio Canal as well, the Hammer sets could continue for a long time yet.

[Glowingwabbit]

If they stick to their pattern I presume the next set would be non-horror again. I'm not very familiar with non-horror Hammer. Are there Universal titles for that too?

[reaky]

Indicator seem to have kept the non-supernatural films for this collection, making me wonder if the next might be on the theme of monsters or the gothic. Paranoiac is the only Hammer thriller from the Universals left, I think.

[Florinaldo]

Full specs for this box set are now up on the Indicator Web site (https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/colle ... shadows-le). Phantom of the Opera is mostly a port of the Shout! edition, with a few short tidbits added like a Kim Newman intro (he does one for each of the four titles); Shadow of the Cat uses the same features from the recent Universal Vol. 6, but then adds a whole slew of other interesting extras. The other two titles look entirely new to me and are certainly very welcome. David Huckvale provides his usually essential discussions of the musical scores on each title.

[Drucker]

Honestly miffed at how good this set looks. Figured I could get away with having Hammer 1-4 and be satisfied, but now I need six which means my OCD will force me to get five. The injustice of it all.

[swo17]

My only peeve is that if there are going to be countless volumes of this series, I wish they were all more economical in terms of shelf space, like the Columbia Noir sets

[alacal2]

Some interesting new commentators. New to me at any rate.

[Gerald Christie]

Clearly, those Hammer boxsets must be doing really well for them if they keep releasing them. Honestly, they have never done much for me and they do not interest me in the slightest. That being said, I'm happy for the people that love and enjoy these films.
My only issue and I'm surprised no one has said anything is the fact that Indicator keeps using ancient masters. It looks like a comprehensive package and special features/booklets are great and all, but would it kill them to commission new remasters?
Honestly, this has been a general problem I have with Indicator. Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love them as a label and have many of their films, but they tend to use what the label supplies them and not do much. Dandy in Aspic, the Hammer films and in general a lot of the British films are clearly very dated masters. I know that Sony doesn't allow labels to commission new remasters, but what about Universal and other labels. The fact is that Criterion, Arrow, Severin and even Kino restore a lot of their films, so hopefully moving forward Indicator do the same.

[rapta]

Fantastic news that Indicator have now got the rights to the Universal Hammers previously released by Final Cut. At last, we should get some sensible aspect ratios, plus the customary superb extras.

I already have them on blu, but an Indicator box of Brides of Dracula, Curse of the Werewolf, Kiss of the Vampire and Evil of Frankenstein would be irresistible.

I reckon there's a good chance those last four you mentioned could be one of the next volumes (maybe even Volume Seven). I don't think they'll have Paranoiac until Final Cut lose the rights - they released it in 2017, shortly after Eureka lost the rights (I own the Eureka disc myself). I imagine if Indicator get it, they could add it to a later volume if Universal allow them, but otherwise would have to release it separately (I'm sure they could twist Universal's arm, they managed to get StudioCanal and Sony to 'collaborate' on Volume Five).

Honestly miffed at how good this set looks. Figured I could get away with having Hammer 1-4 and be satisfied, but now I need six which means my OCD will force me to get five. The injustice of it all.

I'll admit, my indifference to getting these box sets at first has made me feel foolish - being picky at first, I only got volumes Two and Four, convincing myself One and Five had one or two titles I wasn't interested in, but these sets are so nice as a whole package I now slightly regret that. I recently ordered three quarters of the Volume One titles in the recent sale - as standard editions - and also bought Volume Five as I actually often prefer the non-horror Hammer titles. I also slightly regret not getting Volume Three before now - I actually really wanted the first two of them, and have some interest in the third, and could've bought the set in a sale at some point (it was sub-£30 a few times).

I guess this is what happens if you don't fully commit to the volumes in a series - you buy one, you feel like you need them all! Luckily I'm way ahead on the Columbia Noir sets...

[Boosmahn]

This set looks great, and I'm excited to return to the Hammer filmography. Between these and the Columbia Noir sets, Indicator isn't giving me much of a break!

Although I am let down that the speculation of the set being animal-themed ("Menagerie of Menance," as reaky put it) turned out to be misguided.

[M Sanderson]

Clearly, those Hammer boxsets must be doing really well for them if they keep releasing them. Honestly, they have never done much for me and they do not interest me in the slightest. That being said, I'm happy for the people that love and enjoy these films.
My only issue and I'm surprised no one has said anything is the fact that Indicator keeps using ancient masters. It looks like a comprehensive package and special features/booklets are great and all, but would it kill them to commission new remasters?
Honestly, this has been a general problem I have with Indicator. Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love them as a label and have many of their films, but they tend to use what the label supplies them and not do much. Dandy in Aspic, the Hammer films and in general a lot of the British films are clearly very dated masters. I know that Sony doesn't allow labels to commission new remasters, but what about Universal and other labels. The fact is that Criterion, Arrow, Severin and even Kino restore a lot of their films, so hopefully moving forward Indicator do the same.

True, many are, I believe, better encodes of titles released by Mill Creek, for instance; however definitely there have been some very good to excellent presentations, such as The Damned, and also Revenge of Frankenstein, the latter of which is up there with the best of the Shout Factory restorations.

I’ll be buying the next set, basically only for Phantom of the Opera, as it’s a restoration of a film by a director (Terence Fisher) I admire.

If indicator are able to include Brides of Dracula, Evil of Frankenstein and other Shout Factory restos collected together in future sets, that would certainly be worth shelling out for, to me.