| Now here's something that's worth shelling out for: a 2-Disc, 4-Film set showcasing some of the lesser-known (but fun) entries from England's famed Hammer Studio, the fine folks that brought us Gothic Technicolor revamps of some of Universal's classic horror characters and made household names out of actors such as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (the latter of whom is featured in three of the four movies in this set).
Disc One, Feature One:
The Pirates Of Blood River (1962) - Directed by John Gilling
How do you make a pirate movie without a ship or water? Hammer's brilliant screenwriter Jimmy Sangster comes up with a solution to the problem by setting the film on land! Having escaped from persecution in France several generations ago, an island full of Huguenots are now experiencing the joys of religious oppression, greed, and cowardice by their town elders (something we Americans are wholly unaccustomed to). Young Jonathon Standing (Kerwin Matthews, the title character from The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad) learns this the hard way when his affair with a married woman lands him to a fifteen-year sentence in a penal colony (on the other side of the island) by his own father, Jason (Andrew Keir - who was, strangely enough, the same age as his onscreen son!).
 When Jonathon escapes from the colony, he is picked up by a group of pirates, led by the one-eyed Captain LaRoche (Christopher Lee), a man obsessed with finding a lost Huguenot treasure he believes to be buried somewhere on the island of piranha-infested waters (the filmmakers didn't call it "Blood River" for nothing, you know). A lot of familiar faces from the wonderful world of British Cinema are on hand to lend their (mostly then-unknown) talents to this enjoyable adventure, including Hammer regular Michael Ripper, a young Oliver Reed, Desmond Llewelyn, Dennis Waterman, as well as future Pink Panther alumni Peter Arne and David Lodge.
Luigi's Useless Information: An out-of-place Glenn Corbett receives second-billing to star Matthews (Lee gets third billing) in an obvious attempt to those darn Yanks to distribute the movie in the States.
 Disc One, Feature Two:
The Devil-Ship Pirates (1963) - Directed by Don Sharp
Not only did Hammer have water in this one, but they had a boat, too! However, the addition of those piratey-elements missing from the previous film don't help a whole lot in this wholly inaccurate entry in sea-faring history. Captain Robeles (Lee again) decides to retire from the rapidly-dwindling Spanish Armada early when it's apparent defeat is imminent and makes way for the English coastline, hoping to repair his ship and slip back into the waters to continue pirating - he even shoots his Spanish "commander", Don Jose Margella (Joseph O'Conor), in the back.
Things begin to go from bad to worse for our villains after they abduct a local girl (Natasha Pyne) when she comes rowing along to prevent her from giving their location away to the British. Soon, the marauding buccaneers invade the local village and force the villagers to assist them in making repairs…until a group of local villagers (led by John Cairney and Andrew Keir) side with Margella's second-in-command Don Manuel (a lisping Barry Warren) to stand up to the Robeles and his men. Ernest Clark plays the spineless village lord who waves the little white flag of cowardice at the first signs of Robeles. Michael Ripper and Duncan Lamont co-star.
Luigi's Useless Information: Michael Ripper was the most frequently-cast actor during Hammer's heyday and appeared in as many as 30 films for the iconic studio.
 Disc Two, Feature One:
The Stranglers Of Bombay (1960) - Directed by Terence Fisher
In case you've never seen Gunga Din, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, or that one episode of "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", you might not know what a Thugee is…so allow me to give you a brief rundown: they were a cult (in India) that strangled and robbed travelers (mostly Indians) all in the name of Kali, the Hindu Tantric Goddess of death and destruction. Some scholars believe that the cult operated for up to 600 years. The end of the cult began when the British came in and said "What's all this, then?"
So then, now that you're up to speed, our movie has Guy Rolfe (the slightly handsome version of Anthony Dawson from such classics as Mr. Sardonicus, the latter Puppet Master installments, and who was related to Pocahontas) as Captain Lewis of the British East India Company, an overlooked individual whose obsession with missing persons finally goes noticed by his superiors one day when everybody complains about hijacked caravans of goods. However, it is only after he is passed up for promotion, and his faithful houseboy disappears that Lewis finds out about the deadly cult…and soon he and his faithful mongoose sidekick (no joke) are on a mission to bring the cult down. Jan Holden (who was Heather Graham long before it was fashionable) plays Mrs. Lewis and George Pastell plays the High Priest of Kali (Pastell also played a similar role in Hammer's version of The Mummy the previous year). Eye gouging, tongue ripping, dismemberments, and eviscerations are just some of the (off camera but nonetheless effective) highlights in this wonderful film.
Luigi's Useless Information: Check it out: there's a kid in here that looks like the Indian version of Arch Hall, Jr.!
 Disc Two, Feature Two:
The Terror Of The Tongs (1961) - Directed by Anthony Bushell
Get ready for extreme yellowface, Hammer style in this re-working of The Stranglers Of Bombay set in Hong Kong. Christopher Lee dons his Fu Manchu makeup for the first time - although he does not play Fu Manchu in this film, but rather stars as the leader of the Red Dragon Tong, an evil underground society that lops off fingers and murders all who would dare expose and oppose them. This, of course, changes when Tong members murder the 16-year-old daughter of Captain Jackson Sale (Geoffrey Toone) and Sale demands vengeance.
While it isn't a milestone in filmmaking like Seven Brides For Seven Brothers or The 7 Brothers Meet Dracula, The Terror Of The Tongs still succeeds in being fun with all of the finger-lopping and hatchet-wielding (not to mention they actually kill off an innocent teenager in the film - something American filmmakers don't dare do these days), but some people will no doubt be put off by the whole yellowface thing. The supporting cast of out-of-place actors and actresses include Yvonne Monlaur, Brian Worth, Ewan Solan, Milton Reid, Richard Leech, and Burt Kwouk (Cato from the original Pink Panther series) is the only credited Asian actor that plays an Asian character in the film.
Luigi's Useless Information: If Christopher Lee's 6' 5" height has you doubting he could be Chinese, then just remember: Yao Ming is a foot taller.
Presentation
The first three films are presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen, with the fourth, The Terror Of The Tongs, in an anamorphic 1.66:1 ratio. I can only hope this title finds its way to Blu-ray soon because the digitally remastered transfers of these films are outstanding! Sometimes it's hard to tell how old some of the footage truly is!
Sound-wise, each movie has a very robust 2-Channel Mono Stereo (another score), with an optional French 2-Channel Mono Stereo track available on every film (except The Stranglers Of Bombay). English and French Subtitles are included on each title.
Extras
It's pretty rare that this sort of thing happens, but all four films included in this set contain an Audio Commentary! Disc One's Commentaries feature writer Jimmy Sangster, art director Don Mingaye and mediator/historian/writer Marcus Hearn. While it may be a bit droll at times and poor Mingaye doesn't remember half of what he did all those years ago, the Commentaries are nonetheless very informative and entertaining, particularly the scene from The Pirates Of Blood River where our stars make a treacherous trek through the rank-smelling, germ-laden waters of Black Park in which Hearn points out how truly uncomfortable poor Christopher Lee looks! Sangster also points out that he just plain didn't care about historical accuracy on The Devil-Ship Pirates and wrote the movie to be more appealing for big screen audiences (much like modern filmmakers do).
Disc One also contains the Chapter One of the Sam Katzman-produced Columbia Serial The Great Adventures Of Captain Kidd (21:32) with Richard Crane, David Bruce, John Crawford, and George Wallace. The whole first chapter of this 1953 cheapie consists of flashbacks(!) and is narrated by Knox Manning (as were many of Columbia's Serials). This is really a wonderful addition (especially for Serial fanatics) and we can only hope Sony will release the entire Serial (along with the many, many others in the vault!!!!) on DVD someday.
 Merry Mutineers (7:18)
A
a 1936 Columbia cartoon short, features animated characters Scrappy and Brat warring against each other with mini-pirate ships (each of which is manned by celebrity caricatures: the Marx Bros., Bing Crosby, Charles Laughton, the Three Stooges, Jimmy Durante, Laurel & Hardy, W.C. Fields, Joe E. Brown, etc.).
The final Bonus Features on Disc One are the original (U.S.) Theatrical Trailers for The Pirates Of Blood River (2:03) and The Devil-Ship Pirates (2:50).
The Stranglers Of Bombay
Screenwriter David Z. Goodman is on-hand for the first Audio Commentary on Disc Two, while Hearn, Sangster return with editor Chris Barnes for The Terror Of The Tongs.
The next Bonus on Disc Two is Hot Paprika (17:15): an Andy Clyde two-reeler from 1935 with Three Stooges regular Bud Jamison as a doctor who informs Andy he has only three months to live (a bad joke to stop his chronic hiccoughs), so the naïve Mr. Clyde takes off to fictional country Paprika to enjoy what remains of his life and winds up getting caught in a revolution. B-Western regular Julian Rivero co-stars along with several comedy bit-players including Helen Martinez, Ethelreda Leopold, June Gittelson (the heavy-set lady in many of the Three Stooges shorts), former Hal Roach actor Er Brandenburg, the great Harry Semels, and Bobby Barber (who appeared in many an Abbott & Costello film).
Disc Two also features several trailers: The Stranglers Of Bombay (2:01), The Terror Of The Tongs (2:29), a promo for the Ray Harryhausen In Color Collection (0:54) including 50s sci/fi milestones Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers and It Came From Beneath The Sea and Classic Westerns on DVD (2:10).
 The Bottom Line
This 2-Disc Set kicks some major ass and is definitely worth buying! The original press release for this set advertised it as Icons Of Adventure: The Hammer Films Collection, Vol. 1, but it has since lost its subtitle. Hopefully, this doesn't mean the good folks at Sony will not release any more sets like this.
Keep 'em coming, Sony: Hammer, Serials, lost shorts, the whole lot - and we'll lap it up like ice cream!
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