ICONS OF ADVENTURE is a two DVD set from Sony Pictures (current owner of Columbia Pictures who released the films included here) that offers 4 action/adventure movies from Hammer Films made in the early 1960s. They are making their first DVD appearance. Other DVDs available in the ICONS series of Hammer films include ICONS OF HORROR which contains TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL / CURSE OF THE MUMMY’S TOMB & THE GORGON / SCREAM OF FEAR as well as ICONS OF SUSPENSE which features 6 B&W titles led by the 1960 THESE ARE THE DAMNED. All are worth checking out and having if you’re a Hammer fan. For the record there is also an ICONS OF SCI-FI disc devoted to Toho Studio’s early Japanese Monster films from the same era. For the purposes of this review, I’ll pass on the 2 pirate movies included (the main reason they were included in this set was to cash in on the success of the Johnny Depp PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN franchise) and focus on the two exotic adventures set in the Far East.
THE TERROR OF THE TONGS is a well made, colorful programmer from 1961 that is set in 1910 Hong Kong. An English ship’s captain (Geoffrey Toone) seeks to avenge the murder of his daughter by the Red Dragon Tong, a secret society rather like a Chinese Cosa Nostra headed up by Christopher Lee (preparing for his Fu Manchu roles later in the decade). Most of Hammer’s stock company at that time (Ewen Solon, Roger Delgado, Charles Lloyd Pack) are seen in oriental make-up playing Chinese characters. In these politically correct times, this offends a number of people but it really shouldn’t as these aren’t really characters but vessels to move the plot forward and there’s no attempt to make the make-up realistic. Think Gilbert & Sullivan’s THE MIKADO. French actress Yvonne Monlaur (BRIDES OF DRACULA) is the exotic Hammer lovely this time around and she’s about as Chinese as the Eiffel Tower. The set design by Hammer regular Bernard Robinson is fabulous and adds to the fun. TONGS is basically a B movie serial given an A picture treatment and should be thought of as such. Disposable entertainment that’s remarkably entertaining.
THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY is a different matter. Instead of exotic and colorful, it’s very grim and monochromatic (it’s even shot in B&W) as it relates to the Thugee cult in India in the 19th century. This is probably the most sadistic film that Hammer ever made as it contains numerous burnings and mutilations which, for the time, are graphically visualized. Much like TONGS where a single British officer stands up against an organization’s brutalities, STRANGLERS features an army captain (Guy Rolfe, best known for William Castle’s MR SARDONICUS) who takes on the murderous cult when his superiors won’t. There is also a strong anti-colonial feel to the film as it criticizes how the British ran India. One British officer gets himself and his retinue killed because of his rank stupidity. As this film is directed by Terence Fisher who did most of Hammer’s FRANKENSTEIN & DRACULA films, good will ultimately triumph over evil but at a heavy cost. There’s no question that this film heavily influenced Steven Spielberg’s INDIANA JONES & THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. Much darker than TONGS, STRANGLERS is loaded with images that are hard to erase.
The Capsule Critic 