Hammer's 50 —

Hammer of England have been churning out Technicolor horrors since Terence Fisher's re-discovery of Dracula and Frankenstein. Lately_:, past the 100 film mark, Hammer have gone "prestige". No longer those double bills with the same sets and faces—although, to give them their due, they did make some real beauts (The Damned, The Nanny)—and instead we have high quality productions like One Million Years BC. The most recent have both suffered from the affliction of name-changes. The Devil's Own was The Witches, and Joan Fontaine, more than ably supported by Kaye Walsh, comes off beautifully in her first film for some time. The theme is witchcraft and Cyril Frankel slowly builds up the drama to its climatic ending, even though the virginal sacrifice is averted at the last minute. Great stuff, Equally so is Five Million Years to Earth (originally Quatermass and the Pit), a very well produced yarn about strange happenings down a subway under construction. Good, even horrifying effects, although the dialogue often doesn't match the visual quality. Queen of horror, Barbara Shelley, is on hand for her stint when the bottled-up Martians (that's where the new title comes in) get hold of her. Plausibly directed by Roy Ward Baker whose hew Bette Davis movie, The Anniversary, will be here soon.