John Elder Movies

The sixth entry in Hammer Films' Frankenstein series, this film finds Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) in charge of a lunatic asylum. When young doctor Simon Helder (Shane Bryant) is institutionalized for attempting to create synthetic life, Frankenstein is delighted: now he'll have an assistant for his own diabolical experiments. This time out, the monster is played by David Prowse, who later went on to international fame as Darth Vader in Star Wars (though of course Vader's voice was provided by James Earl Jones). A new wrinkle to the old story is the Monster's cannibalistic tendencies, allowing for a number of gruesome, gore-encrusted horror highlights. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of a handful of Hammer "Dracula" films starring Christopher Lee, The Scars of Dracula begins as Count Dracula (Lee) rises from the grave once again. Buckets of blood and vats of violence will delight fans of horror. A young man and his girlfriend find themselves in Dracula's castle where Dracula sinks his teeth into five victims and tortures a servant in a graphically violent scene. A priest is attacked by a bat and meets his maker much earlier than anticipated. Naturally, the girl is soon coveted by Dracula, and the heroic young man must come to her rescue. There are typical scenes of religious defilement, arson, and the requisite wooden cross that wards off the evil bloodsucker. Dracula meets his fiery demise (yeah, right) when the foreboding castle is torched. No matter how he meets his end, rest assured Dracula will rise once again from any grave he finds himself in at the end of every film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This chilling monster film metaphorically examines the horrors brought home by British colonialism. Harry and Valerie (Ray Barrett, Jennifer Daniel) inherit the Cornwall home of Harry's brother, who died under mysterious circumstances. The local villagers are tight-lipped and afraid, and the couple's neighbor, the hostile Dr. Franklin (Noel Willman), hides in a large mansion with his frightened daughter Anna (Jacqueline Pearce) and a strange foreign man (Marne Maitland). The truth is that Franklin had been investigating a secret tribe of snake-people on his last trip to Borneo, and they had reacted to his intrusion by making Anna one of them. As a result, the girl turns into a hideous cobra-woman every winter, with bulging eyes, a scaly face, and large, venomous fangs. Other than the unusual monster, The Reptile may as well be a direct remake of Hammer's The Mummy, a film which this one apes in many of its contrivances. Director John Gilling does manage some effective setpieces, such as the sulfur-spring below the mansion, which keeps Anna warm as she writhes beneath a blanket to shed her skin. Underrated character-actor Michael Ripper appears in one of his more substantial roles as Tom, the local pub-owner, who goes from avoidance to digging up graves and risking his life to save the couple. There are some inconsistencies in Anthony Hinds' script, but the film is handsomely mounted and delivers its share of shocks. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

The life story of the legendary Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin gets the highly fictionalized Hammer Films treatment with this liberal mix of horror and history that presents the mysterious sage as a demonic, otherworldly creature. Christopher Lee stars as the titular monk, who gains entrée to the world of the tsar by casting a hypnotic spell on two courtiers, Dr. Zargo (Richard Pasco) and the beautiful Sonia (Barbara Shelley). Becoming a trusted aide and confidant of the tsarina (Renee Ashershon), Rasputin threatens the national power structure. After Sonia kills herself, Zargo resolves to kill the interloper, but stabbing, poisoning, and even bullets don't seem to be able to kill the diabolical Rasputin. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Hardly the best of Hammer Studios' Frankenstein epics, The Evil of Frankenstein is too much the mixture as before to be truly memorable. Back in business once more is Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing), who finds his fabled monster (Kiwi Kingston) frozen in a block of ice. Once the creature is thawed out, the Baron, worried that the big lug might develop a mind of his own, engages the services of a hypnotist (Peter Woodthorpe). Instead of keeping the monster docile, the hypnotist decides to use old "Frankie" for his own evil designs, and we're off and running again. At 84 minutes, Evil of Frankenstein was too short for a two-hour network TV slot, so Universal (the film's American distributor) tacked on 13 minutes of pointless additional footage, featuring timorous villagers Steven Geray, Maria Palmer and William Phipps. The film was followed by a vastly superior sequel, Frankenstein Created Woman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Gothic melodrama from Hammer Studios is in color, but the plot is basically the same as the two previous efforts. Instead of Paris, the action takes place at the Royal Opera House in London. The Phantom (Herbert Lom) is a facially disfigured musician/composer who had his opera stolen by a conniving composer, the lecherous Lord d'Arcy. The Phantom -- who lives in the sewer beneath the opera house -- has his dwarf assistant (Ian Wilson) kidnap Christine Charles (Heather Sears), the lead actress in Gough's production, with whom he has fallen in love, and trains her to become an opera singer, performing a work he has written. Meanwhile, Christine's fiance, Harry Hunter (Edward de Souza, researches the phantom's history and, after locating his whereabouts and finding him, decides to unmask the mysterious fellow. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide