Icons of Adventure Collection (1964)

Excellent transfer in proper ratios

Behind the cheap cover artwork (and no front reference to Hammer), this Columbia/Sony collection of 4 movies is great ! Excellent anamorphic transfer, in proper ratios and interesting commentaries. August 27, 2008

Icons a Must for fans of Obscure Hammer!

After all these years, we finally get a copy of Hammer's "Stranglers of Bombay" on DVD...and there's three more obscure Hammer adventure films included on two-discs and they all look and sound awesome. Buy this now! Let's send Sony a message that there are Hammer fans out there willing to part with their hard-earned cash for a great, great bargain. You know who you are! August 11, 2008

More Hammer titles emerge from the vaults

Although this set contains 4 movies, I bought it for 2, specifically Terror of the Tongs and Stranglers of Bombay, as these fit as easily into the "Hammer Horror" collection as in the adventure collection, which I find less interesting. Both films are in fine condition, and in Tongs, it is great to see Christopher Lee in yet another villainous role. Some of the gruesomeness is surprising given the British Board of Film Censors' attitude toward these films, particularly shots of cut -off hands in Stranglers, making me wonder if this is a restoration or the original release. The censorship applied to Tongs results in its being fairly tame, as discussed in detail in the excellent book Hammer Films: The Bray Studios Years. For Hammer collectors, this set is a must-have. Others might find it less interesting. July 25, 2008

Are Christopher Lee and Michael Ripper really icons of adventure?

That caveat aside, this is a rather splendid set of four of Hammer's adventure films of the Sixties with a nice array of extras - including audio commentaries on all four films - and trailers to compliment the fine widescreen transfers.

The Devil-Ship Pirates is an entertaining pirate romp from Hammer that's a part of studio legend. Hammer built a Spanish pirate ship for the film planning to reuse it on other pictures. Unfortunately, it was a death trap - the woodwork was so bad the decks would give way under people's feet and it was so unseaworthy that even in calm landlocked waters the thing would capsize, nearly drowning cast and crew. Things got so bad that even the parsimonious Hammer burnt it for real in the final scenes!
The film itself isn't as good as the story behind it, but it's a neat premise - the crew of Christopher Lee's Spanish privateer convince a small village that the Spanish Armada defeated the British to give them time to make repairs - well executed and an entertaining enough way to fill an hour-and-a-half on a Sunday afternoon.


It's all too easy to understand why Terror of the Tongs is such a rarity now - forget the political incorrectness, the most terrible thing about it is the sheer tedium. One brief scene of mild off-screen torture, a couple of badly choreographed fights and a LOT of sitting around talking to French or Irish actors pretending to be Chinese makes for a very, very long 80 minutes. Lee is mostly inert throughout the movie and has little to do, leading lady's Yvonne Monlaur's thick French accent and bad makeup make a mockery of her every scene and a plot which somehow manages to mix revenge, opium ("the pipe of dreams"), brothels, corruption, secret societies and murder and do nothing of even the remotest interest with them leaves you wondering how many irreplaceable body cells died while you were watching. The only pluses are Arthur Grant's photography and Bernard Robinson's typically beautiful production design and sets, both better than anything you'll see in even the best of Harry Allan Towers' superior Fu Manchu series, but other than that the most memorable thing in the film for me was the curious fact that, made up as a Chinaman, Marne Maitland looks just like my dog - and I don't think she'd be flattered by the comparison!

Only the existence of 'George and Mildred' stops this from being one of Hammer's very, very worst. Dull beyond belief, but don't let that put you off the set - it's more than worth it for the other films.


The Stranglers of Bombay is much more like it. Directed by Terence Fisher at the peak of his powers, it's slightly more accurate than expected - some research has been done into the Thugs, which is more than can be said for Gunga Din - but is still closer in tone to Victorian melodrama than history. Guy Rolfe is typically laid back as the officer trying to persuade the apathetic East India Company to investigate a series of disappearances only to be ignored and ultimately replaced by the a particularly idiotic candidate who went to the right school. Investigating on his own, he soon comes up against the followers of Kali, with results that should entertain anyone who likes Fu Manchu and his ilk. It's particularly interesting just how critical the film is of the British mismanagement of India - although more an Old Boys' network here than the otherwise unemployable dregs of the Empire that made up the Honorable Company's ranks overseas in reality, rather than agents of civilisation, their concern is purely with the bottom line. It's a fast-paced 80 minutes with many of the usual 'British' suspects - George Pastell, Roger Delgado, Tutte Lemkow and Marne Maitland - in black face in the supporting cast, and better production values than you might expect from the obviously low budget.

It's strange that the film is such a rarity since there are many more politically incorrect films still in circulation: maybe its down to the controversy that greeted it on its first release. Nonetheless, well worth a look if it crosses your path, especially in a good widescreen transfer in its original 'StrangloScope!'


July 25, 2008

... and the Gorgon is on her way!

A quick greeting to those other Hammer fans awaiting Terence Fisher's 'The Gorgon' and Seth Holt's 'Scream of Fear' (AKA 'Taste of Fear'): both these films, together with 'Two Faces of Dr Jekyll' and 'Curse of the Mummy's Tomb', will be released by Sony on October 18th. We hope and trust the prints (particularly for the much-loved and much-admired 'Gorgon') will be of the same superb high standard that this set -'Icons of Adventure' - has established... rather dreary cover art notwithstanding. And now, Sony, will you give us Hammer's other rarities, including Losey's legendary 'The Damned' and the impossible-to-find 'Never Take Sweets from a Stranger'? July 4, 2008

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