A Quick Pitt Stop
I came across this photograph the other day. It made me smile and it made me a bit sad. It was obviously taken at the height of the Hammer Horror craze, and summed up all the camp sexiness and silliness but great fun of the genre. I could name two of the young ladies in question, There was Madeline Smith, who invariably played the doe eyed damsel in distress who was the target of general wicked beings, and the delightful Ingrid Pitt, who invariably did not.
My memories of Hammer Horror are slightly dim. What I seem to recall is that some time in the late 70’s my parents, who were in some ways ahead of their time, had acquired and newfangled thing – a portable TV. It had something like a 6 inch screen and a big aerial. It was, of course, a black and white TV. I was in my early to mid teens at the time. What I recall is something about Friday or Saturday nights when I was allowed to stay up later, fish and chips for supper (back in those days when “chippies” opened late, and I could eat a mountain of food and still look like a racing snake) and then retiring to bed with said black-and-white TV to watch a film.
I can’t say I have been an avid fan, but something about the photo resonated. I remember the frisson of excitement as a Hammer Horror film would come on, about 10.30-ish. In some senses they were, I suppose, ground breaking. There was a quite calculated sexuality about them, although they were innocent by today’s standards and not at all scary. Christopher Lee was indeed brilliant, but clearly Ingrid Pitt made quite an impression on my adolescent sensibilities. She was sexy as hell, she knew it, and played it for all she was worth, turning the volume up to eleven, to borrow a phrase coined by one critic.
Her Cult status with horror fans stems from “The Vampire Lovers” (1970) and “Countess Dracula” (1971). I am sure she made quite an impression on my juvenile mind. I have had a soft spot for a bad girl and a Vampiress ever since.
I suppose I miss being young and relatively care free – that’s natural. But I also feel sad for what young people have to put up with or expose themselves to these days. To be honest, I must be very unusual because I don’t remember all the teenage “you don’t understand me” thing that they have to do. I was probably too busy taking exams. Another thing I don’t remember is the whole nocturnal thing that teenagers seem to do. Staying up late meant 12 o’clock to see Dracula get frazzled by sunlight in the final reel. From my albeit limited experience, these days it seems to involve all-nighters on gaming sites of dubious integrity and then laying in bed until emerging hollow eyed and sullen at about 2 pm. I can’t say that is an improvement on what I recall a more innocent, yet healthier and happier times.
As for Ms. Pitt, she has sadly departed us now. She led an eventful life, having been placed in a Nazi concentration camp as a child, being taken with her mother to be shot before escaping and living rough with Partisans. In later years she turned author and was much in demand in horror conventions and the like. Whenever I heard or saw her interviewed about these she seemed utterly charming, good-humoured and a real lady. I shall make it my business to acquire the above mentioned films on DVD, and relieve the innocent or perhaps not so innocent moments of my youth. Were they happier, simpler times? Is that how it always feels? And what other titles should I acquire?
Gildas the Monk
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August 23, 2015 at 9:57 am -
Can we name all these assorted virgins and Vampiresses? Our landlord Petunia thinks, probably rightly, that it’s Kate O’ Mara in the middle. I will have a look on the Hammer Horror fan sites and see if I can work out the others
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August 24, 2015 at 4:21 pm -
IIRC Jenny Hanley is second left.
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August 23, 2015 at 9:59 am -
Purely on the trivia front, if my recollections are correct, she also had a monthly column in one of the Diecast toy collector magazines. The growing up boy’s ultimate Dinky Supertoy , I suppose
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August 23, 2015 at 10:03 am -
On further reflection, the magazine might have been more film and Scifi memorabilia based, the diecast stuff just being the part that most took my interest at the time. Whichever, she wrote an interesting column, anyway
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August 23, 2015 at 10:07 am -
Although never personally a fan of the Horror genre per se, it did however offer almost guaranteed female flesh exposure unlike any other at the time, so who cares about the story-line?
I recall a couple of prominent features possessed by the aforementioned Madeline Smith, features which she seemed more than happy to share fully with me and no doubt many other curious and priapic youths – if only for those historic highlights, the genre is to be appreciated. Thanks for that stimulated reminiscence.-
August 23, 2015 at 10:44 am -
I think those prominent features can be seen on this shot…
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August 23, 2015 at 11:13 am -
I think that puts it very well, Mudplugger
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August 23, 2015 at 10:32 am -
A little digging and I think I have worked it out. This is a publicity shot for “The Vampire Lovers” (1970).
Left to right we have:-
Kirsten Lindholm (intriguingly playing “First Vampire”
Pippa Steele (a Hammer regular)
Kate O’Mara
Madeline Smith
Ingrid Pitt (various roles).
It also starred Peter Cushing as General Von Speilsdorf, and one George Cole, pre minder days. And it had probably the best worst trailer ever…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYGk0G9IWfE -
August 23, 2015 at 10:35 am -
Back in the days when ITV regions went their separate ways after ‘News at Ten’ – and who remembers going on holiday to a different part of the country, tuning-in to ‘Hill Street Blues’ and finding it was an episode you’d seen in your own ITV region six months’ previously? – I’m not sure if the Friday night Hammer horror was a networked experience or restricted to Yorkshire TV. Anyway, as with Gildas, the arrival of a B&W portable in the bedroom was a pivotal bridge between childhood and adolescence. I always loved the traditional Gothic Horror genre as a kid, but when I realised there might be the odd exposed heaving breast released from its bodice at some point in a Hammer or Amicus movie, these Friday night fixtures opened a very interesting window indeed.
Definitely more innocent times in that there was a necessary build-up to eventual exposure to hardcore porn; the female form was revealed gradually over a period of years, like a slow-motion striptease. It’s a shame that no longer applies, and I’m glad I had what I had when I had it.-
August 23, 2015 at 3:51 pm -
I’d always assumed a whole nation of throbbing adolescence was tuning in on a Friday to grab the same glimpse of a bewitching wench in a flowing white gown – the idea that only those of us wearing tiny cloth-caps may have been engaged in this pursuit is quite interesting. In the same way that alien abduction stories all seem to have sprang from depictions in literature/tv/cinema, I wonder if some modern-day myths couldn’t be traced back to similar representations in the media.
The Savile ‘berobed Satanic ritual’ rubbish from the Express/Sinason sounds like something straight out of a Hammer-film. And it probably is! If there were strong regional differences in that to which we were ‘exposed’ as maleable youngsters then there might be corresponding “nutter clusters” along similar lines.
[I’ve mentioned before that one of Exagaro’s gruesome stories – the Miss Marplesque ‘Toffington Hall Killers’ – has a graphic description bearing an uncanny resemblance to a famed scene from a ‘video nasty’. Supposedly the police have decided not to proceed with their investigations (although I live in hope that they’ll haul the time-wasting & justice-perverting journos in for a deserved grilling). Poor old “Darren”/”Michael”…]
A black & white portable was the only televison I’ve ever owned, and it travelled all over with me ’til I realised I was wasting my life watching any old crap on it – I spontaneously picked it up, jumped on a bus & flogged it down ‘Notting Hill Music & Video Exchange’. Er, then I became a Radio 4 addict instead! (And now we have the bloody internet…)
Following on from the Friday night flesh of Hammer in a young lad’s development were the ‘art’ films of BBC 2, usually French, usually with a reasonable chance of a breast (or two!). Monday morning schoool conversations would revolve around how many times we had… well, enough of that. It makes me feel incredibly old to mention it, but I didn’t even have headphones with which to secretly listen to the Gallic grunting, instead relying on a crystal-earpiece that came with the Sanyo. (A bit like a Morrisey-style NHS hearing-aid, for those too young to know what I’m on about. And if you’re too young to know who Morrisey might be then you’re out of luck.)Ah, here she is!
https://n0tice-static.s3.amazonaws.com/image/1373639278265bd2d2d408602dac74ade3ee0ef1cd0f0-mediumoriginalaspectdouble.jpg-
August 23, 2015 at 4:51 pm -
Good God, talk about words being taken out of one’s mouth! I forgot to mention the progression from late-night ITV Hammer Horror to late-night BBC2 Gallic romance. I too had the ‘hearing aid’ for a largely unnecessary audio soundtrack. I subsequently became quite a devotee of French cinema, eventually realising it had more merits than mere flesh, though I do recall one I watched around 1980, one I’ve still never been able to name and have therefore never seen since. Let’s just say it was akin to the best sex-education I ever received!
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August 23, 2015 at 6:04 pm -
*smiles”
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August 23, 2015 at 10:26 pm -
Those filthy Frenchies – under cover of a bit of naughtiness they surreptitiously ‘groomed’ a nation of vulnerable youths into an appreciation of arthouse cinema!
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August 23, 2015 at 11:16 am -
You might like “Twins of Evil” with the delightful Collinson twins. Not much personality, but certainly plenty of “personality”.
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August 23, 2015 at 1:16 pm -
I saw the 1958 film “Brides of Frankenstein” on release in London as one of a group. We were howling with laughter. It was one of the funniest films we had ever seen.
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August 23, 2015 at 4:21 pm -
Didn’t Oliver Reed cut his teeth on Hammer films?
Hammer films, or should have that been Hammier? Hardly horrific, but the ladies were the subject of many adolescent fantasies.
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August 23, 2015 at 11:06 pm -
Both “The Vampire Lovers” (1970) and “Countess Dracula” (1971) seem to be available on torrents. I must resist the temptation to fire up Transmission and download…
In any case, I rather think that neither film would work for my “Saturday night movie with a guinea pig” slot – they don’t like anything scary and generally prefer historical romances or nature programs (providing that there are no predators involved).
That said, maybe I could watch on my own, sans guinea pigs? But alone – scary movie – fit vampires ??? Might be too much… Oh the horror!
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August 24, 2015 at 8:32 am -
It seems from most comments above that such films were probably designed to be watched alone, ideally in the privacy of the bedroom. Be brave and give it a try, Gareth, with a little effort you may come to enjoy it.
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August 24, 2015 at 1:24 pm -
Much hilarity!
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August 24, 2015 at 5:58 pm -
On the night she was due to make her debut (in Mother Courage) at the Berliner Ensemble, while the rest of the cast were changing into their costumes she slipped out of the back door and swam across the River Spree to freedom. Amazing person!
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