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1964 - UK Directed By: Terence Fisher. Starring: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Barbara Shelley, Richard Pasco, Michael Goodliffe, Patrick Troughton, Jack Watson, Joseph O'Conor, Redmond Phillips and Prudence Hyman.
Current Availability
Not available on DVD as yet. Unfortunately The Gorgon is one of several Hammer pictures owned by Columbia who seem to have little interest in releasing any of their back catalogue British genre titles. All old VHS releases of this film are presently much sought after and tend to command a decent price on E-Bay. Predictably dodgy DVD-R's crop up fairly regularly on E-Bay too, while some of these are obvious VHS dupes others seem to have been sourced from a French laserdisc and actually boast pretty decent widescreen image quality. Given the large demand for this title amongst Hammer fans I'm surprised Columbia don't pull their fingers out and give this film an official DVD release.
Recommended?
Only mildly recommended to die hard fans of Hammer and British horror cinema. Despite boasting a unique, effective atmosphere and some decent performances The Gorgon is certainly a lesser Hammer picture.
Review
Having covered all their bases as regards to Universal’s classic monsters with their wildly popular Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummy pictures, Britain’s horror pioneers Hammer delved into the world of myth and legend for their excursion into horror/fantasy territory The Gorgon. Despite combining the directorial talents of the great Terence Fisher with the immortal double act of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, The Gorgon is a decidedly uninspiring affair which, despite boasting a terrific gothic ambience, by and large fails to capture the magic of classic “golden age” Hammer.
The Gorgon takes place in the remote Eastern European town of Vandorf. When his son stands accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend (who was found petrified into solid stone) before taking his own life, Professor Jules Heitz (Goodliffe) travels to Vandorf to clear his dead sons good name but encounters a conspiracy of silence from the fearful and the townspeople. Heitz ignores the warnings of the towns foremost medical authority Dr Namaroff (Cushing) and pays with his life when siren-like calls lure him at the dead of night to the ruins of Castle Borski where he has a fatal encounter with the snake-haired Megaera – the last of the Gorgon’s, whose gaze turns anyone who looks upon her into stone.
Heitz promptly perishes but in his last hours manages to send of a letter to his surviving son Paul who promptly arrives in Vandorf to take up the reigns of his fathers investigation. Shortly after his arrival Paul has a hair-raising encounter of his own with Megaera from which he barely escapes with his life. Whilst recuperating under the care of Dr Namaroff, Paul soon falls for the doctor’s beautiful assistant Carla Hoffman (Shelley) but their romance is hampered by the fact that Carla seems to be living ina constant state of mortal fear, although Paul cannot ascertain why.
Meanwhile the strange goings on in Vandorf have by this point piqued the interest of Paul’s tutor Professor Meister (Lee) who arrives in the town with the intention of getting to the bottom f the mystery. Although a man of science Professor Meister is convinced of the existence of the Gorgon Megaera and soon arrives at the conclusion that Megaera spends her days disguised in human form. When Meister consults with Paul and learns of Carla’s seemingly irrational behavior he starts to draw his conclusions…
Alas, despite its low-level cult following in British horror circles The Gorgon is a minor masterpiece of subtle gothic ambience, but a fudged hodgepodge of storytelling. The Gorgon suffers from a singularly uninvolving narrative that is given over to far too much talky, bloated expositional scenes. The film also suffers horribly from the refusal of John Gilling’s script to ever present viewers with a solid, engaging central protagonist. The headstrong, dignified Professor Heitz (superbly played by Mark Goodliffe) appears to fit the bill but no sooner than the viewer has begun to take an interest in his quest to clear his son’s muddied name, he is nonsensically killed off. The focus then shifts over to his son Paul, but Richard Pasco’s performance is too bland and colourless and the script gives him nothing more to do other than whimper a lot and snivel around Barbara Shelley like a lovesick puppy. It is a role that the then near-forty year old Pasco somehow seems much too old to be playing. If this were not dissatisfying enough the script then more or less jettisons him too at the halfway point when Christoper Lee’s brash Professor Meister blusters onto the scene to take up the reigns of the investigation and demonstrates all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop in doing so. This constant flitting of the films central focus simply disengages viewer interest in the narrative, which is not helped either by the fact that most viewers will have the plainly obvious true identity of Magaera pegged within fifteen minutes at best. Personally I almost felt patronised that any attempt was made to keep up the pretence of a mystery.
The presence of both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing will no doubt prove enough to attract a degree of interest from British genre aficionados. However, while both are typically dependable neither is really anywhere near his respective best and the viewer gets the impression that the Gentlemen Of Horror are both going through the motions, perhaps not especially taken with their underwritten roles. It is however a change to see Lee cast as the hero of the hour and Cushing as a vaguely villainous character, which makes for a fairly radical vice versa alteration of the duo’s usual character dynamic . It should also be noted that the two share only a little screen time, although they do achieve their usual fine chemistry in what little time they are granted. Further down the cast list, Richard Pasco is pretty much nondescript, while Mark Goodliffe is excellent as his headstrong father Professor Heitz. In addition prolific British television/film face Patrick Troughton contributes an amusingly hammy turn as Vandorf’s chief of police. The top acting honors however are easily walked away with by the ever-lovely Barbara Shelley who shimmers as the hauntingly beautiful, fragile Carla. In ensuing years similarly fine performances in Hammer fare such as Dracula: Prince Of Darkness, Rasputin: The Mad Monk (both 1966) and Quatermass And The Pit (1967) confirmed Shelley as perhaps the most purely talented of Hammer’s many buxom starlets.
The chances are that The Gorgon would have been a washout but for the wonderful gothic, fairly-tale like ambience that Fisher succeeds in conjuring, thanks it should be added in no small part due to Michael Reed’s lavish cinematography which is turn complemented perfectly by James Bernard’s eerily evocative score. Shot at the legendary Bray Studio’s The Gorgon gives a fine demonstration of Hammer’s uncanny talent for turning limited studio sets into atmospheric and convincing period European locales.
Scenes of protagonists following ghostly siren-like wails through the woods at night are beautifully composed both aurally and visually and deliver pleasingly subtle chills. Meanwhile the stylised ruins of Castle Borski resemble something straight out of a Mario Bava film. By far Fisher’s best coup however, is a very effective fright sequence in which Paul ventures outside during a storm and is menaced by Magaera’s reflection in the garden pool. Unfortunately when the Gorgon is actually revealed plainly at the films finale it is rather a letdown, even considering the make-up and special effects constraints of its era. The sight of Prudence Hyman painted green and donning a bad snake wig is a less than terrifying and negates much of the tension Fisher had succeeded in generating. It should be noted that the original monster concept called for Barbara Shelley to appear herself as Magaera, donning a headdress of genuine live grass snakes. Sadly higher ups at Hammer stepped in and put pay to that particular idea. I am still mystified however, as to why Hammer hired a different actress to play Magaera instead of getting Shelley to don the green face paint herself. Fortunately the abrupt and distinctly unhappy ending redeems the disappointment of the Gorgon’s appearance somewhat. The shattered love and sadness of the principals grim fates gives the film a sense of tragedy rarely seen in British-made horror films of its period, perhaps with Fisher’s own classic Curse Of The Werewolf proving the exception.
In conclusion there is plenty to admire about The Gorgon, so it is a shame then that its good points happen to be bogged down within such a stodgy, overly verbose and leisurely paced narrative. Given the unique fairytale ambience and wonderful gothic atmosphere of certain sequences, the novel concept and the prevailing sense of doomed love and impending tragedy it is fair to say that all the raw ingredients were there to cook up a true Hammer classic. Alas, it is not be so as the films good intentions are impeded by poor handling of both narrative and character (despite some good performances). Dedicated fans of British horror cinema will no doubt get their moneys worth but nonetheless The Gorgon represents a misfire – albeit an intermittently effective and in some respects well-made one – from our friends at Hammer.
Also Try… The Reptile / Curse Of The Werewolf / The Plague Of The Zombies / Clash Of The Titans.
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