For many years I’ve been a fan of all things Hammer, and though I was aware of HAMMER HOUSE OF MYSTERY & SUSPENSE, I’d only seen a few episodes on YouTube a few years ago. I completely missed its 1984 American TV run as FOX MYSTERY THEATRE. That’s because it went straight into syndication and wasn’t broadcast on any network. The original U. K. DVD edition has been discontinued, and the episodes are no longer available on You Tube, so I got a German set which, despite the cover, contains the original English soundtracks and credits. I concur with other reviewers in that this is a quality offering, better produced than the earlier HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR series, which has the look of the lower budget TV show that it was.
I find it ironic that Hammer Films, having risen to prominence after WW II by making B movies with lower tier American stars, before hitting it big with horror films in the 1950s and 60s, should wind up producing 70 minute TV movies with U. S. stars in the 1980s. This gives the sense of the company coming full circle. These would be the last movies produced by the old Hammer, which would remain inactive for three decades before starting up again under new management. MYSTERY & SUSPENSE also became the swan song for many long time Hammer collaborators such as directors Val Guest, Peter Sasdy and John Hough, as well as music director Phillip Martell who’d been with the company longer than anyone else.
This set had 13 episodes (how appropriate) and even the ones I wasn’t that impressed with, like BLACK CARRION (pretty good until the payoff) and CZECH MATE (ditto), kept me engaged and entertained. CHILD’S PLAY, which reworks an old TWILIGHT ZONE episode, was quite effective with echoes of director Val Guest’s classic sci-fi film, THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE. As other reviews provide brief summaries of each episode, I’ll refrain from doing the same but will go on record to say MARK OF THE DEVIL (shades of THE ILLUSTRATED MAN), IN POSSESSION, A DISTANT SCREAM, LAST VIDEO AND TESTAMENT (a reworking of 1961’s HOUSE OF MYSTERY) and THE SWEET SCENT OF DEATH were among my favorites. Since their other series, HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR, has been newly issued on Blu-Ray, its time for MYSTERY & SUSPENSE to join them as the original Hammer’s final legacy but unfortunately the ownership rights are far more complicated as was the case with their 1968 TV series JOURNEY TO THE UNKNOWN. Copies of the original U.K. DVD set are very rare and very expensive.
The Capsule Critic 