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HAMMER FILMS:
THE ICONS OF SUSPENSE COLLECTION
complete 3-disc boxset


DVD Release Date: April 6, 2010

DVD Studio: Sony Pictures


ABOUT THE BOXSET:
Hammer Films made their name with monsters and vampires, but this third complication from Columbia Pictures ? all new to DVD ? proves they could frighten you without them. Topping the set is the uncut version of the futuristic classic THESE ARE THE DAMNED, directed by the legendary Joseph Losey. Peter Cushing and Andre Morell match wits in CASH ON DEMAND. Oscar?-winning cinematographer Guy Green (1947, Great Expectations) directed THE SNORKEL, about a young girl who can+t convince anyone her stepfather+s a murderer. The renowned Val Guest co-wrote and directed the startling psychodrama STOP ME BEFORE I KILL! Kerwin Matthews finds himself in the middle of a strange mother/daughter threesome in the Jimmy Sangster-written MANIAC. Plus, this ultimate rarity: Cyril Frankel+s astounding NEVER TAKE CANDY FROM A STRANGER, a serious, and still horrifyingly timely, chiller about a small town terrorized by an elderly child molester. You won+t do better than this impeccable collection from the darkest corners of the Hammer imagination.


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DISC ONE
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STOP ME BEFORE I KILL
(Val Guest; 1960, 108 min.)
imdb.com/title/tt0054901/
After a horrific car accident, a race car driver attempts to pick up the pieces. He and his wife go on holiday, but it"s not long after they"ve arrived that he feels a strange urge to strangle his wife. Stop Me Before I Kill! (also known as The Full Treatment) is a fairly ingenious story with a few sharp twists and turns. Direction, from Val Guest, is terrific, and the film takes full advantage of its lavish settings. The picture doesn"t always hold up, but when it comes to first-rate psychological suspense, the film is rife with excitement. 


CASH ON DEMAND
(Quentin Lawrence; 1961, 80 min.)
imdb.com/title/tt0054731/
The terrific Peter Cushing and Andre Morell highlight this razor-sharp cat-and-mouse caper. Cushing really gets to show off his acting chops here delivering one of the best performances of his long, amazing career. Even better, the film is exciting from start to finish, driven by terrific turns and solid performances all around. A truly exciting movie that, in some ways, feels almost like a modern indie thriller shot with black-and-white film noir flair.

BONUS:
# Trailers for each feature.

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DISC TWO
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THE SNORKEL
(Guy Green; 1958, 90 min.)
imdb.com/title/tt0052207/
An incredibly inventive thriller about a husband (Peter Van Eyck) who gases his wife to death, but stages it like a suicide ? hiding under the floorboards and wearing a scuba mask to protect himself. Even the doors to her room are locked which convinces the police investigating that it was suicide. But things go south for Van Eyck when his wife"s daughter suspects he might have committed the crime. While it"s obvious to most modern audiences how this story will play out, the execution is perfectly tense, with solid performances from Peter Van Eyck and Mandy Miller. The story might feel a little stale at times, but it"s refreshed by its clever ingenuity. 


MANIAC
(Michael Carreras, 1963, 86 min.)
imdb.com/title/tt0056219/
A rather strange title for a such a bizarre thriller, the film follows a drifter who finds himself caught in ad odd love triangle between himself, an older woman and her daughter ? and deception is the name of the game. He"s coaxed into staging an escape of a mental patient who, upon his release, starts killing people with an acetylene blowtorch (his preferred killing tool). While the story sounds somewhat grim, the film is fairly harmless, and not particularly graphic. The film boasts a heavy dose of Hitchcock suspense and murder well blended with the film noir aesthetics of the era. 

gespot in: a.b.dvd.classics