Roy Ward Baker dies at 93

Roy Ward Baker, the British film director who sunk the Titanic and sent Quatermass down the pit, has died at the age of 93.

Baker, credited early on in his career simply as Roy Baker, counted The October Man (1947) and A Night to Remember (1958) among his first successes. Before that, he was second assistant director on the Will Hay comedy Oh, Mr Porter! (1937) and first on the Hitchcock thriller The Lady Vanishes (1938).

In the 1960s and 1970s, Baker made a name for himself directed horror, fantasy and science-fiction, including the Hammer horrors Quatermass and the Pit (1967), The Vampire Lovers (1970), The Scars of Dracula (1970), Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971) and the entertaining kung-fu crossover The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974). For Hammer's rival, Amicus, he shot And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973), as well as the anthologies Asylum (1972), Vault of Horror (1973) and The Monster Club (1980).

He was a talented director whose knack for suspense and horror technique could also be his downfall. Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde has some truly memorable moments, but Baker's skill is almost too showy at times. Quatermass and the Pit stands out as one of Hammer's all-time most tense and riveting movies, however. The Scars of Dracula stands out as one of the studio's most embarrassingly bad pictures, while the same year's The Vampire Lovers pleasingly echoes Hammer's very best Gothic style.

Roy Ward Baker, who was born in 1916, in London, passed away on Tuesday, October 5, 2010.

David L Rattigan on the Dr William Lester Show

I'm pleased to be the guest on Dr William Lester's radio show tonight for the second time. William and I will be talking about Hammer horror, and perhaps touching on other classic horror subjects, such as the Universal films of the 1930s and '40s, and the Amicus anthologies of the 1960s and '70s.

You can tune in online at Game Con Radio. The show is from 10pm to 12 midnight ET/7pm to 9pm PST. Alas, for listeners in the UK, that's 3 to 5am GMT!

Hammer's The Reptile (1966)

The Reptile (1966) is a horror film for which I never had any particular affection, and yet over the years it has slowly grown on me. For this reason, I have an inkling it may be one of Hammer's greatest unsung classics. In my experience, the greatest films creep up on you over time.

Holger Haase shares his take on the film at Hammer and Beyond today, and I can't argue with any of his points. Yes, there are a few obvious inconsistencies - but it's never bothered me with any other Hammer film. They were never known for being tight on logic.

There are a few elements that make this a classic for me, though. The first is that it's a very original attempt at a new Gothic monster at a time when Hammer could easily have stuck with recycling the same old favourites.

Second, it has a truly effective atmosphere. I particularly enjoy the rainy graveyard scenes. Bernard Robinson's Cornish village set, built on the backlot at Bray Studios and already used for The Reptile's sister picture The Plague of the Zombies, is partly responsible for this atmosphere. Location filming at nearby Oakley Court also helps. And Arthur Grant's photography is first class as usual, as is Don Banks's score.

Third, it is among my favourite Michael Ripper performances. Although Hammer is popularly known for its bigger stars, such as Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, Ripper was in fact the most prolific of its actors, with supporting roles in over two dozen of their productions. He tended to be typecast in cheeky, often eccentric roles, but The Reptile is a change of pace for him. He plays a subdued character who risks isolation in his small, frightened community by gradually defying fear to pursue the creature of the title.

(Incidentally, the other Michael Ripper Hammer role that really stands out is as Mipps the Undertaker in the excellent Captain Clegg, aka Night Creatures, of 1962.)

There are a few other gems in the cast, too: the wonderful Noel Willman, the exotic Jacqueline Pearce, the strange Marne Maitland.

Hammer risked trying out new monsters several times - The Gorgon (1964), Hands of the Ripper (1971), Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971) - and as here, the results were rarely less than fascinating.