Freddie Francis
Crew members recount the production of the 1961 gothic film The Innocents.
An overview of the history of Great Britain's Amicus Films, which was a rival of Hammer Studios in the horror field. Included are interviews with company co-founder Max Rosenberg, cameraman Freddie Francis and director Roy Ward Baker, and clips from various Amicus productions.
This collage of interviews with the producers, John Hurt, and the makeup man comes off as both interesting and informative. Hurt's recollections about the role and the crazy makeup he worked in, are fascinating, as are the stories about the makeup artist using the real remains of John Merrick archived in the London hospital. A shorter bit has the artist explaining the exact construction of his amibitious makup, and he also narrates a slide show that includes color photos of the finished work. There are some mind-boggling stills of the real Merrick's grotesquely contorted skull, where excess bone seems to have grown like tallow dripping from a horrible candle, or a foaming tumor of excess calcification.
A retired farmer and widower in his 70s, Alvin Straight learns one day that his distant brother Lyle has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver's license. Then he hits on the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.
Bristol, England, early 19th century. A beautiful young stranger who speaks a weird language is tried for the crime of begging. But when a man claims that he can translate her dialect, it is understood that the woman is a princess from a far away land. She is then welcomed by a family of haughty aristocrats that only wants to heighten their prestige. However, the local reporter is not at all convinced she is what she claims to be and investigates. Is Caraboo really a princess?
Explore the most legendary horror studio of all time with this fascinating, frightening journey hosted by terror titans Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. England's most successful independent film company, the "fear factory" of Hammer Studios, has a history filled with feuds, censorship battles and streaks of luck both good and bad. Now the legacy of horror returns, featuring interviews with such Hammer legends as Raquel Welch, Veronica Carlson, Caroline Munro, Ingrid Pitt, Jimmy Sangster, Hazel Court, Martine Beswicke, Freddie Francis, Val Guest and Ray Harryhausen. Plus you'll be treated to behind-the-scenes home movies and nonstop shock scenes from over 40 classic films, including Horror of Dracula, Curse of Frankenstein, The Devil Rides Out, Curse of the Werewolf and many more! It's the definitive study of one of the greatest names in horror!
When David Greene receives a football scholarship to a prestigious prep school in the 1950s, he feels pressure to hide the fact that he is Jewish from his classmates and teachers, fearing that they may be anti-Semitic. He quickly becomes the big man on campus thanks to his football skills, but when his Jewish background is discovered, his worst fears are realized and his friends turn on him with violent threats and public ridicule.
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? Fourteen years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey, bibliophile Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.
A historical recreation of the 1944 attempt by several German High Command Officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and take control of the German government.
A writer of BAD detective novels is in full writers' block. He pretends to be the alibi of a beautiful woman who was arrested for murder at first thinking her innocent, but as she shows more and more interesting abilities (such as knife throwing) he begins to doubt his first assessment.
Mike is a struggling artist who draws the 'Brenda Starr' strip for the papers. When Brenda comes to life in the strip and sees how unappreciated she is by Mike, she leaves the strip. To get her back, and keep his job, Mike draws himself into the strip. In her world, Brenda Starr is the Ace Reporter for the New York Flash. She is talented, fearless, smart and a very snappy dresser. The only competition she has is from the rival paper's top reporter Libby Lipscomb. Brenda heads to the Amazon jungle to find a scientist with a secret formula which will create cheap and powerful gas from ordinary water. (This movie was filmed in 1986 but release was delayed for several years.)
When a window-washer falls to his death from the side of a Barcelona high-rise office building (also killing a unsuspecting pedestrian), security consultant Dennis Randall is called in to investigate. Although he first believes the deaths to be accidental, he soon comes to realize that some strange force is at work inside the building. What could be causing these accidents? More importantly, is there any way it can be stopped?
The US military is running a test for a special type of radio transmitter, to be used to communicate with submarines, in a deep system of underground caves in Central America. When the signal from one of the transmitters suddenly disappears, a team of soldiers led by Major Elbert Stevens (Bottoms) and cave specialists led by Rupert 'Wolf' Wolfsen (Powell) including scientist Leslie Peterson (Blount) are sent in to find out what happened. Exploring deep underground, they stumble upon a tribe of albino cave-dwellers who have apparently been isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years. The cave-dwellers are hurt by radio frequencies and are able to see in infra-red frequencies, tracking the explorers by their body heat.
In this story-within-a-story, Anna is an actress starring opposite Mike in a period piece about the forbidden love between their respective characters, Sarah and Charles. Both actors are involved in serious relationships, but the passionate nature of the script leads to an off-camera love affair as well. While attempting to maintain their composure and professionalism, Anna and Mike struggle to come to terms with their infidelity.
A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London.
Action-packed suspense thriller finds innocuous-looking purser Carter (Harris) the unlikely hero when the floating casino on which he works is hijacked by a heavily armed group of mercenaries, led by John Vernon. Complicating matters, a nuclear warhead has been smuggled aboard as collateral for a rendezvous with another ocean liner, loaded with gold bullion. A cast full of supernovas, dazzling set & stunt work, and a catchy theme tune by Jeff Wayne create a pleasing audio-visual experience light on logic but fast paced and entertaining nonetheless.
A travelling circus in 19th century France adopts and showcases a feral "wolf boy", who grows into adulthood only to kill the one-man band. He runs off to Paris, where he develops a jealous, overprotective crush on a prostitute, leading him to attack her client, incurring a pursuit by a determined police surgeon.
Due to be crowned King of the Netherworld by his mentor Merlin the Magician, Count Downe–the son of Count Dracula–falls in love with the beautiful but human Amber and finds himself in conflict with Baron Frankenstein, who is vying for the same honorary title.
Jack Palance stars as a demented art dealer & antique-shop owner who performs nightly rituals in honor of the African god Chuku, whom he believes will reward him with unimaginable wealth and power if he merely offers up human sacrifice. His methods are fairly creative, ranging from impalement, slashing and burning, to scaring people to death with an ooga-booga fright mask. But it's all about to blow up in his face...
A scientist comes to believe that evil is a disease of the blood and that the flesh of a skeleton he has brought back from New Guinea contains it in a pure form. Convinced that his wife, a Folies Bergere dancer who went insane, manifested this evil he is terrified that it will be passed on to their daughter. He tries to use the skeleton's blood to immunise her against this eventuality, but his attempt has anything but the desired result.
Dr Tremayne is an enigmatic Psychiatrist running an asylum housing four very special cases. Visited by colleague Nicholas, Tremayne explains his amazing and controversial theories as to why each of the four patients went mad...cue four distinct tales each with a different set of characters.
Five people find themselves in a tomb. The Crypt keeper explains why they are there through a series of frightening stories. Based on the classic comic book.
An American actress inherits a castle in Transylvania. What she doesn't know is that her ancestor, the Baroness Catali, was in actuality a vampire countess, and emerges from her tomb to ravage the nearby village and Catholic seminary.
Anthropologist Dr. Brockton unearths a primitive troglodyte -- an Ice Age "missing link": half-caveman, half-ape -- in a local cave. Through medical experimentation, she manages to communicate with him and domesticate him before he's let loose by an irate land developer and goes on a rampage, terrorizing the local citizenry.
A wealthy, fatherless British clan kidnaps bums and hippies and forces them to participate in an elaborate role-playing game in which they are the perfect family; those who refuse or attempt escape are ritualistically murdered.
In the shadow of Castle Dracula, the Prince of Darkness is revived by blood trickling from the head-wound of an unconscious priest attempting exorcism. And once more fear and terror strikes Transylvania as the undead Prince of Darkness stalks the village of Keineneburg to ensnare victims and satisfy his evil thirst.
A group of scientists are possessed by an alien force when they investigate a meteor shower in a rural field.
Man in a Suitcase is a 1967–1968 British television series produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. It originally aired in the United Kingdom on ITV from 27 September 1967, to 17 April 1968. ABC broadcast episodes of Man in a Suitcase in the United States from 3 May 1968, to 20 September 1968.
Five people visit a fairground sideshow run by the sinister Dr. Diabolo. Having shown them a handful of haunted-house-style attractions, he promises them a genuinely scary experience if they will pay extra.
Trouble strikes when an exhausted pop singer, sent on a vacation to a farm, realizes that the farm's owner grows deadly bees.
Inspector Holloway is investigating a series of brutal murders in which a doll of each victim is found at the scene. The dolls, as it turns out,were purchased by the crippled Mrs. Von Sturm, whose home is overcrowded with a doll collection. Her pale, wide-eyed, neurotic son is the prime suspect and the daughter of one of the victims discovers the shocking truth.
Five strangers board a train and are joined by a mysterious fortune teller who offers to read their Tarot cards. Five separate stories unfold: An architect returns to his ancestoral home to find a werewolf out for revenge; a doctor discovers his new wife is a vampire; a huge plant takes over a house; a musician gets involved with voodoo; an art critic is pursued by a disembodied hand.
Once hounded from his castle by outraged villagers for creating a monstrous living being, Baron Frankenstein returns to Karlstaad. High in the mountains they stumble on the body of the creature, perfectly preserved in the ice. He is brought back to life with the help of the hypnotist Zoltan who now controls the creature. Can Frankenstein break Zoltan's hypnotic spell that incites the monster to commit these horrific murders or will Zoltan induce the creature to destroy its creator?
A businessman organises a caper to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
Simon Ashby is a wealthy psychotic who is is coddled by his aunt in their palatial mansion outside of London. One day, Ashby's long lost brother mysteriously arrives at the house, but events prove that he is an impostor, sent by Keith Kossett, son of the attorney for the family estate, who has been dipping into the family trust fund.
A shower of meteorites produces a rare night time spectacle that blinds anyone that looks at it. As it was such a beautiful sight, most people were watching, and as a consequence, 99% of the World's population go completely blind. In the original novel, this chaos results in the escape of Triffids: farmed plants harvested for their oils, which are capable of moving themselves around and are carnivorous. In this film version, however, the Triffids are not indigenous plants. Instead they are space aliens whose spores have arrived in this and an earlier meteor shower. Derided by the original novel's author, John Wyndham, for straying so far away from the source material.
An US airman stationed in the UK strikes down his commanding officer. Believing he killed him, the airman goes on the run with a girl. They run into a couple that looks like them and a mix up happens.
A young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted.
The son of a working-class British mining family has dreams of pursuing an art career, but when he strikes up an affair with an older woman from the town it enrages his jealous mother. (TCM.com)
A 22-year-old factory worker lets loose on the weekends: drinking, brawling, and dating two women, one of whom is older and married.
Peter Carter, his wife Sally and their young daughter Jean move to a sleepy Canadian village, where Peter has been hired as a school principal. Their idyll is shattered when Jean becomes the victim of an elderly, and extremely powerful, paedophile. The film was neither a box office nor a critical success, it garnered criticism for breaking a significant public taboo.
An ambitious young accountant schemes to wed a wealthy factory owner's daughter, despite falling in love with a married older woman.
A British woman marries an American writer in spite of her family's disapproval and goes to live with him on a tropical island.
Unassuming planning engineer David Webb finds himself on the Queen Elizabeth to New York with instructions to negotiate a high-powered loan. His lack of confidence means he is completely out of his depth, at least until he finds his personality changes every day during the hour the ship's clocks stop to make allowance for their westward passage.
Alec Graham is sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend Agnes, with whom he spent a weekend at the English country home of the parents of his friend Brian Stanford. Alec's father, David Graham, a not-so-successful writer and alcoholic who has neglected his son in the past, flies in from Canada to visit his son on death row. David then goes on a quest to try and clear his son's name while battling "the bottle."
The script, which was written on a day-to-day basis as the film was being shot, concerns the adventures of a motley crew of swindlers and ne'er-do-wells trying to lay claim to land rich in uranium deposits in Kenya as they wait in a small Italian port to travel aboard an ill-fated tramp steamer en route to Mombasa.
The year is 1940, Pilot Officer T.B. Baird arrives straight out of flight school to join a front line RAF squadron at the height of the Battle of Britain. After an unfortunate start and a drumming down from his commanding officer, Baird must balance the struggle to impress his Group Captain, regain his pride, fit in with his fellow pilots, and survive one of the most intense air battles in history.
An archaeologist stumbles into the territory of an evil crime syndicate and struggles to set things right.
At the height of World War II, the Germans begin dropping a new type of booby-trapped bomb on England. Sammy Rice, a highly-skilled but haunted bomb-disposal officer, must overcome his personal demons to defeat this new threat.
Fearing her husband could become a killer, a woman seeks a psychiatrist's help.
A new batch of Army recruits, from diverse backgrounds and with varying degrees of commitment, is shaped into an efficient fighting unit.
