Hammer Films Festival

I can go for months monitoring the schedule of Turner Classic Movies and not find anything I would like at a reasonable time of day. Earlier this year they ran a retrospective of Akira Kurosawa films and the ones I really wanted to see were on well past my ability to stay awake for. Then I let my eye wonder from the schedule and something like the Hammer Films Festival comes to the channel. So I missed the first two Fridays worth of movies but I (and you) still have three left.

Friday, October 15^th, they will be running the entire Mummy series of Hammer Films beginning at 7PM Central Time. THE MUMMY, the first in the series reunites Peter Cushing (as John Banning) and Christopher Lee (as the Mummy, Kharis) with direction by Terence Fisher (a name to watch for when viewing Hammer Films). It will be followed by THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB, THE MUMMY'S SHROUD, and BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY'S TOMB which is the order they were released in. If you can keep going, TCM is following those up with the 1984 film REPO MAN. This is a classic film well worth watching right up to the ending when they find out what is in the trunk of the car they have repossessed. With the SyFy Channel going to wrestling on Friday nights – this is a great alternative.

Friday, October 22^nd, we get four of the lesser known Hammer entries. X THE UNKNOWN, FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH (a film adaption of the BBC miniseries Quatermass and the Pit. It scared the pants off me when I was a kid), THESE ARE THE DAMNED, and THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY. While Hammer films actually adapted the first three Quartermass miniseries into movies, which at that time was the only way American audiences could get to see them, FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH was the best known and the only one filmed in color. It was directed by another directorial name to watch for Roy Ward Baker. It was written by Nigel Kneale, who wrote the script for both the movie and the TV miniseries. Have fun, be scared, but think nice thoughts about your neighbors – even if they are Martians.

Finally on Friday, October 29^th, after a full day of classic monster movies, TCM will be showing about half of the Frankenstein movies Hammer created. THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN, FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN, and FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED all star Peter Cushing as the good doctor as he prefects his reanimating techniques through 19^th century Europe. Terence Fisher is again the director of all these films. And the classic horror movies don't stop there. Right up through Halloween night TCM will keep the chills going with the horror movies we all grew up with. It's going to be a tough weekend to get through but it will be great fun.