Hammer series?

[Dr Terror]

Hammer planning new telly series.

[David A. Riley]

That's great news, Charles.

I can hardly wait for the UK release of Let Me In. I recently got the DVD for Beyond the Rave, which I enjoyed a lot. Some of the "character" vampires in it were just pure vintage Hammer.

[lemming13]

Yes, I saw something about this on the BBC news website - looks like they're going back to the basics.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11534111

Delighted to hear it. Still waiting for my copy of Beyond the Rave. Not so sure about Let Me In, though - I watched the original, Let the Right One In, and wasn't all that impressed. Very pretty and had its moments, but didn't really live up to the hype, for me. Now, if they were to go and remake some of their own old movies with a nice new budget and CGI (and a script, please Cthulhu, fx are nothing without a script) ... I'd love to see a revamp of Plague of the Zombies.

[Dr Terror]

Don't forget A History of Horror on Monday focuses on Hammer.

[Dr Strange]

I will definitely be in the queue for "Let Me In" - though my worries are that it will just be a pale imitation of "Let The Right One In", which I thought was brilliant (probably the best vampire movie since "Near Dark" IMHO).

[lemming13]

Ah, well, I wasn't that fond of Near Dark either, so there you go. Some good ideas, but too soft an ending for my tastes. Chacun a son gout, though, and a good thing too; if everybody thought the same we'd get tired of listening to each other.

[Dr Strange]

Actually, I agree with you on the ending of "Near Dark", far too upbeat - still, when you think how big a hit the glossy but utterly superficial "Lost Boys" was that year (1987), it shows just how hard against the grain Bigelow was pushing.

[David A. Riley]

All this has got me rewatching all my copies of the Hammer House of Horror series and even some of the follow-up Hammer House of Mystery and Suspence.

Now, I may have misremembered this, but was there an earlier series on TV from Hammer, sometime in the seventies, part of whose opening was on a rollercoaster ride? I can remember this bit vividly and have always thought it was to do with Hammer, unless I'm mistaken.

Can anyone help?

[killercrab]

Journey into the Unknown 1968. Thirteen 50 minute episodes.

KC

[David A. Riley]

Many thanks for that. I knew the Vault would not let me down.

Was this produced by Hammer?

I have found one site where I can buy copies on DVD, though it has never been commercially released.

There are some intriguing episode titles:

Season 1

•Season 1, Episode 1: The New People - Original Air Date—14 April 1969

•Season 1, Episode 2: Somewhere in a Crowd - Original Air Date—21 April 1969

•Season 1, Episode 3: Matakitas Is Coming - Original Air Date—28 April 1969

•Season 1, Episode 4: Jane Brown's Body - Original Air Date—5 May 1969

•Season 1, Episode 5: Do Me a Favour, Kill Me - Original Air Date—12 May 1969

•Season 1, Episode 6: Poor Butterfly - Original Air Date—19 May 1969

•Season 1, Episode 7: The Madison Equation - Original Air Date—2 June 1969

•Season 1, Episode 8: The Girl of My Dreams - Original Air Date—9 June 1969

•Season 1, Episode 9: The Last Visitor - Original Air Date—16 June 1969

•Season 1, Episode 10: Eve - Original Air Date—23 June 1969

•Season 1, Episode 11: The Indian Spirit Guide - Original Air Date—30 June 1969

•Season 1, Episode 12: The Killing Bottle - Original Air Date—9 July 1969

•Season 1, Episode 13: Stranger in the Family - Original Air Date—16 July 1969

•Season 1, Episode 14: The Beckoning Fair One - Original Air Date—23 July 1969

•Season 1, Episode 15: One on a Desert Island - Original Air Date—30 July 1969

•Season 1, Episode 16: Paper Dolls - Original Air Date—3 March 1970

•Season 1, Episode 17: Miss Belle - Original Air Date—8 May 1970

[dem]

Oct 17, 2010 14:38:12 GMT David A. Riley said:

Many thanks for that. I knew the Vault would not let me down.

Was this produced by Hammer?

according to John E. Lewis & Penny Stempel's Ultimate TV Guide (orion, 1999), Journey To The Unknown, "Hammer Films' second TV venture (after Tales Of Frankenstein was an American-financed anthology mostly of supernatural suspensers but also incorporating sci-fi and murder most foul) ... In Britain ... screenings were scattered across the ITV regions (beginning with LWT) for several years."

Oct 17, 2010 14:38:12 GMT David A. Riley said:

There are some intriguing episode titles:

you're not wrong! i used the imdb for this which is not always 100% reliable, but some excellent source material among this lot.

Oscar Millard & John Gould (based on a story by Charles Beaumont) - The New People
Michael J. Bird - Somewhere in a Crowd
Robert Heverly - Matakitas Is Coming
Anthony Skene (based on a story by Cornell Woolrich) - Jane Brown's Body
Stanley Miller (based on a story by Frederick Rawlings) - Do Me a Favor and Kill Me
William Abney - Poor Butterfly
Michael J. Bird - The Madison Equation
Michael J. Bird & Robert Bloch (based on a story by Richard Matheson) - Girl Of My Dreams
Alfred Shaughnessy - The Last Visitor
Michael Ashe (based on a story by John Collier) - Eve (possibly an adaptation of Special Delivery?)
Robert Bloch - The Indian Spirit Guide
Julian Bond (based on a story by L.P. Hartley) - The Killing Bottle
David Campton - Stranger in the Family
John Gould (based on a story by Oliver Onions) - The Beckoning Fair One
Oscar Millard (based on a story by Donald E. Westlake) - One on an Island
Oscar Millard (based on a novel by Leslie P. Davies) - Paper Dolls
Sarett Rudley (based on a story by Charles Beaumont) - Miss Belle (almost certainly an adaptation of Miss Gentibelle)

Later
real nice feature with stills from each episode at
Maverick Media

[killercrab]

There is nothing particularly Hammer about the series - it's a fairly decent anthology show akin to many others from that time. I enjoyed it well enough.

KC

[dem]

Re: the proposed Hammer House of Horror "anthology series" TV project, this snippet from the Ghost Story Society Newsletter # 5, May 1990:

In May, Hammer begins filming THE HAUNTED HOUSE OF HAMMER, a series of 26 half-hour ghost story films for television. Not all will be classics, in fact some look very much like 'make-weights' (nine by Chetwynd-Hayes, for instance): but these are balanced by some exciting inclusions. Among the most interesting are adaptations of M. R. James' Canon Alberic's Scrapbook and Oh Whistle And I'll Come To You, My Lad, F. Marion Crawford's The Doll's Ghost, Bram Stoker's The Judge's House, J. K. Bangs' The Water Ghost Of Harrowby Hall, Elizabeth Walters' Come And Get Me and The Ghost Of Sherlock Holmes by Leslie Halliwell.

nothing came of it, but now i'm wondering if this latest revamped version of Hammer are going to dust off the mothballs and finally go ahead with the project? Likewise, from Stephen Jones's The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein (Robinson, 1994):

[Chetwynd-Hayes's] recent novel The Psychic Detective has attracted the interest of Hammer Films and Warner Bros, and his short story The Thing has been optioned as an animated film for television

[lemming13]

Fingers crossed this goes ahead. I can add another lost series, if not Hammer, to the collection: This was the pilot for a series supposed to be shown somewhere in the 2000s, featuring the Night Scholars - a group of shadowy and ruthless people fighting against the ever-growing cult of Cthulhu. I have a copy on dvd, and in the accompanying booklet it lists the stories they planned for it. It looks terrific, and the pilot is marvellous (low budget, rough fx and all). But it never got off the air, largely because the Beeb thought Torchwood was the only thing they needed in that line.

[Dr Strange]

Is that the bloke out of Blakes 7? It's a really interesting idea, and I would definitely have watched it - but they really would need to put a bit more effort (i.e. money) into the FX if they wanted to avoid endless piss-taking (which is never good for anything claiming to be "horror").