I'm no Hammer Films maven by any means, so of the few I've seen I've generally been taken aback by the film makers' rather generous use of bold, bright colors. 1957's "The Curse of Frankenstein" is a case in point. When I began watching this picture it seemed that perhaps I had been generalizing this idea too much, but then all of a sudden, right in the middle of Dr. Namaroff's lab was this big, bright red couch! What was that all about?
Well here's a tale of the Gorgon, a mysterious and deadly creature, the sight of which can turn the unsuspecting viewer to stone. With seven such deaths in the village of Vandorf over the past five years, it was rather intriguing to me why the villagers weren't the least bit curious to figure out what might have been going on. When the judge declared the deaths of Bruno Heitz and his fiancée a murder and suicide, the factual evidence that her body turned to stone never even came up!
It's too bad the film's most likable character turned out to be the person possessed by the spirit of Maguera the Gorgon. Carla Hoffman (Barbara Shelley) was a genuinely sympathetic individual who didn't seem to have any idea that moon filled nights turned her into a monster. One would suspect that this would lead to a rocky relationship with the newly arrived brother Paul Heitz (Richard Pasco), who's idea of romance would soon be met with stony silence. By the time this movie was approaching it's finale, I found I couldn't help it with all manner of puns from intruding on my mind, so much so that a horrifying ending had to be taken for granite. Imagine my satisfaction when the Gorgon's final roll of the dice turned up snake eyes.
Well here's a tale of the Gorgon, a mysterious and deadly creature, the sight of which can turn the unsuspecting viewer to stone. With seven such deaths in the village of Vandorf over the past five years, it was rather intriguing to me why the villagers weren't the least bit curious to figure out what might have been going on. When the judge declared the deaths of Bruno Heitz and his fiancée a murder and suicide, the factual evidence that her body turned to stone never even came up!
It's too bad the film's most likable character turned out to be the person possessed by the spirit of Maguera the Gorgon. Carla Hoffman (Barbara Shelley) was a genuinely sympathetic individual who didn't seem to have any idea that moon filled nights turned her into a monster. One would suspect that this would lead to a rocky relationship with the newly arrived brother Paul Heitz (Richard Pasco), who's idea of romance would soon be met with stony silence. By the time this movie was approaching it's finale, I found I couldn't help it with all manner of puns from intruding on my mind, so much so that a horrifying ending had to be taken for granite. Imagine my satisfaction when the Gorgon's final roll of the dice turned up snake eyes.