From To-Days Cinema Magazine of 8th August 1957 – this advertisement for the Film Distributors shows what would be coming up in the near future.

The Curse of Frankenstein was a big one for Hammer and went incredibly well here and in the USA which was a market that needed cracked by the British Film Companies if they could.

Hammer Films was really a very good studio – not just for horror movies but also for war ones. Remember Val Guest’s films such as CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND and YESTERDAY’S ENEMY. These films were very tense, well paced, sharply shot, with very deep characters. 

I don’t know much about The Steel Bayonet but have found out that it is the story of a group of British soldiers, during WW2, in Tunisia, who get orders to hold a position, in the middle of the desert, in order to prevent Afrika Korps advancing.

The Abominable Snowman was also a good one but I think in Black and White and I reckon Forrest Tucker was in that with Peter Cushing.

The Snorkel is directed by Guy Green who had early in the fifties been the colour camera expert on The Story of Robin Hood for Disney. The film stars Peter van Eyck, Betta St. John, Mandy Miller, Gregoire Aslan & William Franklyn.

 The story has us witness the perfect murder of a wife and mother, and we know who perpetrated it as well, it’s the husband! There’s a gimmick, the snorkel of the title, and film’s success mostly hinges on a devilish twist for the finale. In between the plot revolves around the daughter of the deceased, Candy – Mandy Miller, trying to prove her stepfather has killed her mother even though it appears near impossible for him to have done it. Stepfather has plans for Candy as well.

You will remember Many Miller for films BUT I featured her earlier in Adventures in the Hopfields – which is good.  I don’t remember this film at all – BUT it does sound good.

The Camp on Blood Island I well remember and when I see the picture above it  shows just how horrifying an ordeal it must have been  for those servicemen who were taken prisoner by the Japanese during the Second World War. It stars one of my favourite actors Andre Morell.   Also cast is Edward Underdown – who much later was in Dads Army very odd times – and also Hammer stalwart Barbara Shelley. I will return to this film in a ater post I am sure !