The Gorgon (1964)

[Neville]

A local theatre is running a series of Hammer films, most of the being part of the Frankenstein series, so I'm reviewing all I've seen so far.

This was the first of the films I've seen on that local tyheatre and it seemed a great oportunity to revise the Hammer films, many of them I haven't seen since my childhood. "The Gorgon" deals with a german village in the XIXth  century. Local legends speak of a haunted castle, and the locals try as hard as they can to keep strangers unaware of the unusual rate of killings and suicides around the forests that surround the village.

However, when two young lovers appear dead, one of them petrified, it is impossible to keep the foreign relative of the deceased from wanting to know the truth. The locals, however, won't let it go easily, specially Dr. Namaroff (Peter Cushing), who seems to have a personal interest in keeping things secret.

This is, so far, my least favourite of these bunch of Hammer films. Although Peter Cushing is perfect as the tortured Dr. Namaroff, the script and therefore the movie spends too much around him and the mistery of what he may be hiding and too little in the supernatural aspects of the plot. The supporting cast is also good (specially Christopher Lee as a pompous college teacher who tries to find the truth), but simply one gets tired of seing the plot revolve around the same characters and situations too often. The film only really flies whith the appearences of the titular monster, which director Terence Fisher makes extremely beautiful and disturbing (it often appears in the background or in reflections, which is quite coherent with its nature), but the rest is too restrained and estatic.

[peter johnson]

It's got leaves blowing on the ground, in an artistic fashion, and it has Lee and Cushing.  What more do you want?
Besides, you're seeing these on the Big Screen.  
Jerk . . .
Seething With Green Jealousy, I Remain, Most Faithfully Yours
peter johnson/denny crane

[Gerry]

peter johnson wrote:

> It's got leaves blowing on the ground, in an artistic fashion,
> and it has Lee and Cushing.  What more do you want?
> Besides, you're seeing these on the Big Screen.  

No kidding.  I would be in HEAVEN.

THE GORGON's a personal favorite.  The atmosphere is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

[BoyScoutKevin]

I liked it as well. Something a little different from the usual Hammer Dracula and/or Frankenstein. It also seems that Cushing and Lee switched roles, from what you see them do in the usual Hammer horror.