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Anthony Asquith’s unusual look at wartime espionage garnered good notices in 1958, perhaps from reviewers rebelling against the trend toward ruthless screen violence. Star Paul Massie is fine as an emotionally-stricken Allied assassin who balks at carrying out his mission; the acting support from Irene Worth and Leslie French is superb. Screenwriter Paul Dehn was an ace at sharp, no-nonsense thrillers, but this story is soft around the edges — it seems to be explaining non-chivalric warfare to your sweet old grandmother. Which reminds us, Lillian Gish has a small role, too.

Orders to Kill

Blu-ray

Powerhouse Indicator

1958 / B&w / 1:75 widescreen / 112 93 min. / Street Date September 20, 2022 / available from Amazon / 34.99

Starring: Eddie Albert, Paul Massie, Lillian Gish, James Robertson Justice, Leslie French, Irene Worth, John Crawford, Lionel Jeffries, Sandra Dorne, Lillabea (Lillie Bea) Gifford, Anne Blake, Sam Kydd, Ann Walford, Denyse Alexander, Ralph Nosseck.

Cinematography: Desmond Dickinson

Art Director: John Howell

Film...

It’s Hammer Time again, folks! I’ve covered witches and vampires and demons (insert your Oz joke here), but now we’re going to look within the inner recesses of the soul, where the wicked resides in each of us. Some need a little pick-me-up to bring out that worst however, and The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) finds evil not only in the lab but around every shadowed corner.

Released by Columbia Pictures in the U.K. in late October, with an A.I.P. rollout stateside the following spring, The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll was not a moneymaker for Hammer and the reviews were mixed at best; no doubt in response (at least on the part of audiences) to the more muted approach to the material, and quite removed from the ribald textures that usually came from the Hammer stable at the time. Regardless, it remains...

Constance Cummings: Stage and film actress ca. early 1940s. Constance Cummings on stage: From Sacha Guitry to Clifford Odets (See previous post: “Constance Cummings: Flawless 'Blithe Spirit,' Supporter of Political Refugees.”) In the post-World War II years, Constance Cummings' stage reputation continued to grow on the English stage, in plays as diverse as: Stephen Powys (pseudonym for P.G. Wodehouse) and Guy Bolton's English-language adaptation of Sacha Guitry's Don't Listen, Ladies! (1948), with Cummings as one of shop clerk Denholm Elliott's mistresses (the other one was Betty Marsden). “Miss Cummings and Miss Marsden act as fetchingly as they look,” commented The Spectator. Rodney Ackland's Before the Party (1949), delivering “a superb performance of controlled hysteria” according to theater director and Michael Redgrave biographer Alan Strachan, writing for The Independent at the time of Cummings' death. Clifford Odets' Winter Journey / The Country Girl (1952), as...

Hammer horror fans are in for a treat, as respective collections of five William Castle films and five Hammer horror movies are coming out on Blu-ray in August, and The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant has been set to come out on Blu-ray.

The William Castle and Hammer horror collections will respectively come out on DVD August 18th from Mill Creek. The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant, meanwhile, is slated for release later this year by Kino Lorber. Stay tuned to Daily Dead for further updates.

From Mill Creek: "Iconic horror director William Castle created a simple, but winning formula for his films: a little comedy, a lot of scares, a preposterous gimmick, and a clear sense that fright films should be fun. This even meant Castle would, like Alfred Hitchcock, appear in his trailers and even the movies themselves. Though his career spanned 35 years and included everything from westerns to crime thrillers, he'll...

Sir Christopher Lee, one of the world's most celebrated actors, has died at the age of 93.

In a career spanning seven decades, Sir Christopher had over 280 screen credits in film and TV, and brought some of cinema's most iconic characters to life - Dracula, Saruman, Mycroft Holmes, Count Dooku, Frankenstein's monster, The Wicker Man's Lord Summerisle and James Bond villain Scaramanga, to name just a few.

Take a look back at some of his most memorable career moments below:

1940s: Career beginnings with Rank

Sir Christopher Lee started his film career in the late 1940s following service in the Raf during World War II.

After the war ended, he turned down his old job at pharmaceutical company Beechams to train at the Rank Organisation's Company of Youth - nicknamed the 'Rank Charm School'.

1957: The Curse of Frankenstein

He made his debut with gothic horror producers Hammer Films in The Curse of Frankenstein.

Actor turned teacher, he quit the screen at the height of his fame

There are some actors who, having disappeared from the public gaze early in their careers, always prompt the question, "Whatever happened to ... ?" The answer, in the case of Paul Massie, who has died of lung cancer aged 78, is that, at the height of his fame on films and television, he gave it up at the age of 40 to teach drama at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

The son of a Baptist minister, Massie was born Arthur Massé in the city of St Catharines, in the Niagara region of Ontario. Although he was brought up in Canada, almost his entire 16-year acting career was in Britain. In fact, the only film he made in Canada was his first, Philip Leacock's High Tide at Noon (1957), a Rank Organisation melodrama shot in Nova Scotia. Although it was a bit part,...