First up, Blood From the Mummy's Tomb based on the 1903 Bram Stoker novel "The Jewel of the Seven Stars". It starred Valerie Leon as both the Egyptian Queen Tera, and the bewitched Margaret Fuchs, Andrew Kier as Prof. Fuchs and James Villiers as the evil Corbeck. While its all a bit slow paced i did rather enjoy it. There are many classic Hammer moments, including the above where Aubery Morris playing Dr Putnam meets a rather grisly end. There's even a brief glimpse of Borehamwood towards the end of the movie, Margaret (in fact Valerie's double Sarah Mathieson ) running through the woods and around a lake - the lake being EMI's water tank on their back lot.
The real star of the movie is again Hammer itself, they created some great publicity shots for the film, which have become classic shots in their own right, some of which you can see at the current Hammer festival at the Idea Generation Gallery in London. If you can't make that then here's a few more.
Valerie Leon is truly an Icon of Iconic British Films, as well as a Hammer star she was a Bond girl in both The Spy Who Loved Me and Never Say Never Again, Numerous Carry On Films and every classic British TV show from the 60's and 70's. If that's not enough, she was the Hai Karate girl!
...And! she drove an Austin 1300GT ... and If you'd like to find out some more, you can go to her Valerie Leon website
I was too afraid to watch hammer films when i was young, so its been a real treat to visit these movie's like new releases. My only association with them is with my old next door neighbor Phoebe who used to be a cleaner at MGM and EMI studios. When she wasn't chasing me around her back garden with a large object, she was having me shovel coal or chop wood for her fire, or sending me around the shops to pick up a packet of Kensitas cigarettes. She was rather fond of Horror and would always tell me there was nothing to be afraid of , cleaning in the studios she knew it was all fake. I was never convinced, and after seeing Antichrist yesterday I'm still not.
