Sat 20 Jun 2015
THE GORGON – A Tribute to Christopher Lee (Part 4 of 4) by Jonathan Lewis.
Posted by Steve under Horror movies , Reviews[4] Comments
by Jonathan Lewis
THE GORGON. Hammer Films, UK, 1964; Columbia Pictures, US, 1964. Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Richard Pasco, Barbara Shelley, Michael Goodliffe, Patrick Troughton. Director: Terence Fisher.
It seems only fitting to close out my four-part tribute to Christopher Lee with a Hammer film. Even more fitting is a Hammer production in which he co-starred with long time colleague and personal friend, Peter Cushing.
The Gorgon, a quixotic, not fully realized, attempt to transplant the terrifying Greek mythological female creature into a fictional 19-century century German fantasia, fits the bill.
Directed by Terence Fisher (The Mummy, Dracula), the movie features Peter Cushing as Dr. Namaroff, an urbane man of science (naturally!) reluctantly investigating a series of bizarre murders in his a small German town. Reluctantly, because he suspects that his lovely female assistant, with whom he is in love, might be behind the murders. Even worse, he believes that she may be possessed with the spirit of the ancient Greek mythological creature known as the Gorgon. Its power: to turn whomever looks at her into stone!
But the task at stopping the gorgon’s moonlight murder spree can’t be accomplished by the good Dr. Namaroff alone. Enter: the mustachioed Professor Karl Meister of Leipzig (Christopher Lee). He’s brash, forceful, tough as nails, and not willing to take any crap from the local police who’d rather have him abscond back to his university.
And at the end of the day — or rather, night — it’s up to Professor Meister, silver sword in hand to slay the monster. SPOILER ALERT: When the film ends, it’s Lee’s character, the bold tall man with academic knowledge and physical prowess, that’s left standing. It’s a fitting way to end my tribute to some of Lee’s lesser-known films, don’t you think?
June 20th, 2015 at 3:18 pm
It’s an enjoyable movie, but you’re right in saying that it doesn’t entirely work. The finished film works better than the earlier treatments that I read (with the villagers walking around with little cardboard periscopes on their faces in order to avoid looking at the Gorgon directly) but the mish-mash of Greek Mythology and 19th Century gothic simply doesn’t fit. Hammer tried hard to make its monsters believable, and this just a little bit too far. It’s still fun, though, and no film with Lee, Cushing and Shelley can be bad.
I love the fact that, given the type of role that Cushing usually plays, Lee goes 180 degrees in the opposite direction. Whereas Cushing is normally rather urbane, Lee’s monster hunter is Dirty Harry. He just charges straight to the centre of the mystery, not bothering about the niceties.
There’s a lovely story about Lee and Cushing. During rehearsals, Lee noticed that Cushing would cough when delivering certain dialogue. When asked about it, the latter revealed that it was meant to be a nervous cough that happened whenever the character lied. “In that case” said Lee “I shall call you Doctor Nastycough from now on!” Cushing got the giggles, and from then on throughout the making of the movie, they were unable to look one another in the eyes without breaking down laughing.
June 20th, 2015 at 4:42 pm
Lee’s character is a good deal like the one he plays in HORROR EXPRESS and I like he doesn’t try to channel a Cushing type protagonist. The film doesn’t entirely work, but it is atmospheric and fun, handsome to look at, and worth it for the cast alone.
I rank it a shade higher than you and Bradstreet, but only a shade.
June 21st, 2015 at 12:21 pm
Watching it again recently, it did seem to me to play less like a horror movie and more like a ghost story. In Hammer’s Dracula movies the protagonist’s motives are quite straightforward, whilst here nearly all of the main characters have secret drives, fears and ambitions that drive them forward. They are all haunted characters. Only Meister, who is not emotionally involved, can see the truth and end the horror.
June 22nd, 2015 at 7:33 am
You are correct. It does play like a ghost story.