Michael Carreras Movies

In this drama, bank robbers are exiled to an island off the English coast. They are caught in raging seas and would have died had not the two lighthouse keepers come to their aid. The crooks then try to persuade the keepers into letting them escape. It almost works. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the popular British radio serial of the same name, Spaceways is a dual-market science fiction effort, co-financed by England's Hammer Films and America's Lippert Studios. American rocket scientist Stephen Mitchell (Howard Duff) works day and night to realize his goal of sending the first man-made satellite into outer space. Meanwhile, Mitchell's wife Vanessa (Cecile Chevreau) is carrying on an affair with fellow-scientist Crenshaw (Andrew Osborn). Not long after Mitchell discovers this, the satellite is launched ahead of schedule. Since both his wife and her lover have disappeared at the same time, Mitchell is accused of murdering the pair and stuffing their corpses into the spaceship. To prove his innocence, Mitchell volunteers to go up in a second ship with mathematician Lisa (Eva Bartok) to conduct a search of the satellite. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Blood Orange is an early effort from the British "shock shop" of Hammer Films. Hollywood's Tom Conway stars as a former FBI agent, living in contented retirement in London. Conway's quietude is interrupted when gorgeous model Delphi Lawrence is murdered. Ere the "The End" sign looms into view, Conway learns that the girl's death was tied in with a jewel theft. The film's title refers to the most valuable of the stolen gems. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This disappointing thriller from horror legend Terence Fisher (The Curse of Frankenstein) stars Alex Nicol as James Bradley, an America trumpet-player visiting London. Falsely accused of murdering a Spanish singer, Bradley can only prevent his own execution by finding the real killer. Not one of Fisher's more rousing films, this modestly-budgeted programmer co-stars Geoffrey Keen and Arthur Lane. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Four friends go on a friendly fishing trip but only three return. This suspenseful drama chronicles the fate of the fourth who returns home an amnesiac after a three year absence to get revenge upon the "buddy" who knocked him out and left him to die. Any one of the remaining three could be a suspect as all of them are interested in pursuing his lovely widow. Unfortunately, the man's return coincides with a murder and he ends up blamed. Fortunately, his wife helps him solve the mystery and clear his name. The British title was A Stranger Came Home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This is a so-so early Hammer horror film from Nigel Kneale, who also wrote The Quatermass Experiment. Forrest Tucker and botanist Peter Cushing lead an expedition to the Himalayan Mountains (actually the Pyrenees, but who's complaining?) in search of the legendary Yeti. Several mysterious locals tell them to stay away with the sort of cryptic warnings found only in horror movies, but they carry on regardless. As expected, the furry beast is alive and well and mangles the explorers one by one until the predictable final showdown. The monster isn't shown very often and looks silly when it finally shows up, but there is a fair amount of atmosphere, and the stars are always fun to watch. Director Val Guest's career continued to slide from its 1940's highs until, by the '70s, he was making leering nonsense like The Au Pair Girls. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Originally titled Quatermass II, Enemy from Space was the sequel to The Quatermass Xperiment (US title: The Creeping Unknown). Based on the British TV serial by Nigel Kneale (who reportedly disliked the finished product), the film stars Brian Donlevy, repeating the role of Professor Quatermass. This time, the good professor must contend with a "meteor shower" which turns out to be a secret alien invasion. The extraterrestrials arrive on earth in rocklike vehicles, then take over the minds and nervous systems of earthlings, the better to go about their business undetected. Subliminally a cruel satire of British bureaucracy and obfuscation, Enemy from Space also works on a pure-horror level, building slowly and methodically to a powerhouse finale. For many years a "lost" film due to legal tangles, Enemy from Space has recently become available again on video and cable TV. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This low-budget swashbuckling film is not in the same league with the Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn portrayals, but still fun if the viewer doesn't do comparisons. Standard Robin Hood plot. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

Paul Decker (Peter Van Eyck) arranges what seems to be the perfect murder of his wife, while at her home in Italy. Lightly drugging her into unconsciousness, he seals the room she is in and turns on the gas, and then dons a diving snorkel with hoses drawing air from the outside -- he remains hidden in the room beneath the floorboards even as the police investigate the crime scene. As far as they know, he was just over the border in France when Mrs. Decker committed what appears to be suicide -- and there is no reason to investigate further, beyond a routine inquest. But he doesn't bargain on Candy (Mandy Miller), his wife's daughter by her previous marriage -- she has long believed that Paul killed her own father, and is positive that he was responsible for her mother's death. Try as those around her -- including her guardian (Betts St. John) -- do to convince her otherwise, she won't let go of this idea. And when Paul kills Candy's dog Toto, she tells him he will have to kill her, because otherwise she will kill him. From that moment on, they are on a collision course, as Paul tries at once to protect himself, covering tracks that he never thought anyone would trace -- not having bargained on the obsessive girl -- and to discredit her in preparation for possibly having to kill her. Meanwhile, Candy waits, watches, and asks question after question, hoping for one clue or slip that will allow all of her suspicions to fall into place. And finally, after several rounds of cat-and-mouse, and a near-fatal encounter, they meet face-to-face at the scene of the crime. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

This film is a 1959 WWII drama that focuses on members of a German bomb squad. The fatalistic soldiers pool part of their paychecks into a fund that the last surviving member of the squad will get to keep. One by one, the men meet their deaths until only two remain: Karl Wirtz (Jeff Chandler) and Eric Koertner (Jack Palance). The two men vie for the affections of Margot Hofer (Martine Carol), which adds to the growing tension between them. In the film's climax, Wirtz and Koertner are summoned to dismantle a huge bomb, which adds tension to an already stressful situation between the two of them. Director Robert Aldrich pays meticulous attention to the details of bomb deactivation. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

In the 17th century, the arrogant, cruel Hugo Baskerville (David Oxley) brutalizes a servant and prepares to turn the man's daughter over to his equally depraved companions, but she escapes. When he catches up with the girl in a ruined abbey, he kills her and then is attacked and killed himself by a huge hound that is never seen. The audience then learns that this story is being told in flashback to Sherlock Holmes (Peter Cushing) and Dr. Watson (Andre Morell) by Dr. Richard Mortimer (Francis DeWolff). He was the physician and friend to the late Sir Charles Baskerville, who recently died -- apparently of fright -- on the Devonshire moors near that same ruined abbey. Holmes is very skeptical, but agrees to meet Sir Henry Baskerville (Christopher Lee), who has just arrived in London to claim the estate. Sir Henry is cold and aloof but becomes convinced he's in danger when he's almost bitten by a tarantula. Holmes insists that he not go to Baskerville Hall alone, so Holmes sends Watson to Devonshire with Sir Henry.

In Devonshire, Sir Henry and Watson learn that an escaped convict, Selden, is at large on the moor. Watson meets local Bishop Frankland (Miles Malleson), and later on the moor, Baskerville's neighbors, Stapleton (Ewen Solon) and his daughter, Cecile (Marla Landi). Watson is almost trapped in one of the many bogs that dot the moors, but he escapes. Later, leaving Sir Henry stricken with a mild heart attack at the hall, Watson ventures again onto the moors, and to his surprise, discovers Sherlock Holmes there. Holmes has been hiding and watching for developments. They hear the howl of the hound, and are too late to prevent the huge beast from killing a man they take for Sir Henry. But back at Baskerville Hall, they find Sir Henry alive and well: the dead man was the convict Selden, dressed in some old clothes of Sir Henry's. At the ruined abbey, they find evidence that a strange rite has been performed.

When Holmes visits Frankland for information, he learns that someone has stolen the bishop's tarantula. (He's an amateur naturalist.) Meanwhile, near Baskerville Hall, Sir Henry meets Cecile, and they are attracted to one another. Holmes, Mortimer and Stapleton descend into a disused tin mine in search of evidence, but a cave-in almost traps Holmes. That evening, when Sir Henry goes to meet Cecile on the moors, he learns that she actually hates him, and that the hound is now on his trail. Holmes and Watson arrive almost too late to save him, but Holmes kills the hound and reveals it's an ordinary, if large, dog in a mask. The villain is a descendant of Sir Hugo's from "the wrong side of the sheets"; he and his daughter were determined to use the legend of the Hound to kill those standing between them and Baskerville Hall.
No movie version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous novel follows its source very closely, and this colorful Hammer film is no exception. An extra killer is added, events are compressed, and even the novel's most famous line -- "they were the tracks of an enormous hound!" -- is omitted. The film also suffers at times from a budget too low for its ambitions and by extraneous elements aimed at making it more like a Hammer movie, such as the unexplained "rite." However, the movie has a brisk pace and particularly strong characters. Lee, initially icy and arrogant -- perhaps to remind us of Sir Hugo -- thaws into a likable person romantic enough to fall in love, atypically for Lee. Andre Morell is one of the most solid and realistic Watsons ever; there's nothing whatever of the harrumphing Nigel Bruce, no comedy elements to the role at all. He's straightforward, heroic in his own right. But the triumph of the film
was the casting of Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes. Cushing's Holmes is vivid, dynamic and arrogant; the actor does not even attempt to make Holmes likable, but instead plays the character exactly as Doyle wrote him. It's a performance of steely integrity and terrific skill, one of the greatest Holmes performances ever. Cushing later played Holmes in a television series, and became as identified with the role in England as Basil Rathbone was in the United States. Cushing returned once again to the role late in life, in the TV movie The Masks of Death, as well as writing about Holmes for several books. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide

With an award-winning screenplay by director Val Guest, this is a first-rate cops-and-robbers crime drama about a dangerous escaped convict and the police inspector who goes after him. The gritty industrial town of Manchester and its outlying moors provide a somber backdrop to the action. Inspector Martineau (Steve Baker) suspects that the escaped thief, Don Starling (John Crawford) is going to return to Manchester to retrieve a cache of jewels he hid away before being convicted. The sudden, brutal murder of a woman and the missing money she was carrying, tips the Inspector off that his suspicions were right. He starts tracking down the killer and the gang of men he knows must be working with him, as suspense builds at every turn. The gang falls one by one, until only the killer is left. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

After injecting new life into classic movie monsters Dracula and Frankenstein, Hammer Studios apply their Gothic touch to another monster genre with this excellent, stylish piece -- probably the best of the old school (i.e. pre-Rick Baker) man-to-wolf transformation films in the mold of Universal's The Wolf Man. The title curse surfaces when a mute servant girl bears a child on Christmas day after being raped by a bestial madman and first shows itself at the infant's christening, whereupon the holy water begins to boil. Things go downhill from there, as young Leon's development is marred by savage, violent behavior during a full moon. Upon adulthood, Leon's (Oliver Reed) only relief from his murderous impulses comes from the love of Christina (Catherine Feller)... but he soon begins to fear that this cannot contain the beast within. Liberally based on Guy Endore's The Werewolf of Paris (here relocated to Spain), this film represents Hammer at their early best, building tension through mood and character (Reed turns in a bravura performance) and saving the effective monster transformation for the climax. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide