THE CREEPING FLESH - Paul Ferris - "Evil, Insanity, and Revenge" (1973)

If it looks and tastes like Hammer, then it must be a Columbia Picture, hey, what the heck?? Either way, it doesn't matter, because"The Creeping Flesh" is a great little flick, and the good news, your early X-Mas present is, that it streams beautifully for free over at this Crackle Website!! Sure, there are a couple of very brief commercials, but it's worth it to be able to see this awesome flick gratis!

Peter Cushing is Emmanuel Hildern, and this is his very hip pad. Chicks dig the big skeleton guy he brought back from New Guinea!

Emmanuel's brother is James Hildern, portrayed by Christopher Lee, they have a very competitive relationship! Just how many movies did Pete and Chris make together anyway? Only 22? I thought it was in the 100's! Christopher Lee not only did all his own stunts, but he was also at one time a 'scratch' golfer, but it makes sense when you consider that he is the consummate performer, no matter what!

This is Emmanuel Hildern's daughter, Lorna Heilbron as Penelope. Lorna was busy for years but mostly on TV! She was only in 5 other movies besides this one!! Penelope is a sweet and innocent girl who has never quite gotten over the death of her Mother!!

Mrs Hildern, Penelope's Mom, who was played by Jenny Longacre, is featured briefly in a dream sequence. Jenny was working a lot in the 70's and 80's, and even put in an appearance in the 2009 flick, "Boogie Woogie," that also had Christopher Lee in it!

Jolly old Victorian England, if you had a problem, you had two choices, shock therapy or............

..........Pub Therapy! Hey Doc, pour me another draft, and send one of them wenches on over!!!

Here's the deal, that big skeleton turns to flesh when it gets wet, so by mistake, Emmanuel re-constituted a finger. Not by mistake, he drew some blood from the finger he cut off, and shot up his daughter with it, and shall we say, Penelope's had quite a personality change, and, on top of that, she's drinking!!

This jackass buys her a drink, because he thinks she's a hooker, but she resists his advances, so he pushes even harder!

To which she reaches out and in perfect Freddie Francis fashion, scratches his face like some kind of wild animal!!

Penelope then proceeds to go back downstairs to dance and flirt, and let this guy know she didn't want to dance, by slicing his jugular vein with a broken bottle!!

She runs out of the pub, and everyone chases her, and crazy Lenny, who was so mean, that he had earlier cleared the pub single-handedly, tries to help her get away, and this is how she repays him!!! A hand stomp is next!!
Kenneth J. Warren had the role of Lenny! Ken managed to be involved in 91 TV and movie projects in his short 43 years on the planet, playing characters with colourful names like Clobber, Jumbo, Dingus, Curly, and Warlock!

Emmanuel and his assistant had also injected a monkey with the blood serum, and the monkey freaked out and messed up the Doc's place, then Emmanuel gets the news about his daughter, who now resides at his brother's sanitarium, and his buddy tells him, "Well, Thank God we didn't use it on any humans!!" Oh, Shit!!

Now it's time to shift gears, and here's what happened!

Richard Hildern decides to take advantage of his brother's untimely confusion, and steals the big skeleton! He doesn't know anything about the finger, so the pounding rainstorm has no meaning to him! In a nutshell, the carriage crashes and releases the newly re-formed creature!!

And he wants his finger back!!!

Peter instinctively knows exactly what the Hell is going on, and realizes he is in deep, deep crap!!

It's been a while since we've seen a movie with a real monster in it, and before I forget, the music for "The Creeping Flesh" was composed by Paul Ferris, who had a total of 13 films he composed for, including "She Beast," "The Sorcerers," "The Blood Beast Terror," and "Witchfinder General!"

Another classic Freddie Francis POV shot from inside the monster's head! Freddie rarely fails to deliver the goods! So, what are you waiting for? Go check it out! You've got nothing to lose, except maybe a finger or two!!