THE REPTILE - Don Banks - "Ilizardization" (1966)

I don't know what it is with me and Hammer Films, they just don't ever seem to put me in the mix!! Every time I sit down to watch one, I get real excited because they look so classically and colorfully fantastic, but then about half or two thirds through the movie I generally lose interest for some reason or another! "The Reptile" is no exception! It starts off like a house on fire with Charles Spalding getting killed by some monster and dieing a gruesome horrible death, all quite mysteriously! The music is provided by Mr. Don Banks, who had quite an impressive run from 1964-67 that included titles like The Evil of Frankenstein", "Hysteria", "Die, Monster, Die!", The Frozen Dead" and "The Mummy's Shroud!" A lot of Don's music is just dark and foreboding, instead of cool and rockin' or swingin' and largely orchestrated, and that's mainly the reason we haven't written about more Hammer films here! "The Reptile" just kind of slides in because of some terrific sitar music, and I'm not even really sure who gets the credit for that!!

Usually crazy guy's bring a bit of comic relief to the table, this cat, John Laurie as Mad Peter is just generally annoying!!

Australian born Ray Barrett had a nice career than included the voice of John Tracy in over 30 episodes of "The Thunderbirds" and he was also the voice of DJ Ricochet and many of the other voices!!! And did you check out the lugs on that cat??

So here's the deal, your brother wills you his farmhouse, and you're told he died of a heart attack, but all the locals are really uptight when you arrive, including your new rich neighbor, one of those guys with Dr. in his name, who just walks into your house looking for his daughter and then talks rude to you, but when you need help, he always tells you, he's not that kind of Doctor, but then invites you over for supper, and of course you go!!!!

So, here's where the sitar music comes into the scene, after dinner when his beautiful daughter Anna plays some awesome music for you, the Doctor freaks out and smashes the sitar right in front of you, so you decide to excuse yourself and go back to your new house! That's right about where they lost me, this movie is over, you people are nuts, and I'm outta here!! Exit stage left!!!

Last year, the lovely Jacqueline Pearce moved to South Africa to help take care of orphaned Vervet Monkeys.

Accomplished Indian actor Marne Maitland takes the role of The Malay quite seriously, and played guys with names like Turk, Ismet, Abdul, Ganga, El Karish, Majarajah, Hassan, Pandit, and Gaafar and many more for 41 years before passing away in 1991!

The beautiful girl is the monster, and everyone else in the movie can die, I just don't care!!

Roy Ashton's makeup for "The Reptile" mask is quite a bit more effective and scary, when it's just a little blurry, I think you'll agree!!