When one thinks Hammer Films, they often think of the company, located in the United Kingdom, which changed the face of horror forever with it's blend of gothic settings, classical monsters like Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein, and eroticism. For you see, if you compare it to the human life cycle, the Universal films of the 1930s which began with the original 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein' is the very beginning of the horror genre: it gets up, walks around a bit, and is disclipined into an art. By it's teen years, it grows into a goofy looking adolescent which still has most of it's childish attributes but just remains a changing period. If you want film proof, add "Abbott and Costello" to any classical monster name and you'll get my meaning. This is around 1940. Then, finally, the horror genre hit puberty at about the late 1950s and 1960s, when a small independent company put some money together to film "The Curse of Frankenstein," the first Hammer Horror film ever *, which mixed our favorite monsters with sexual innuendo and buckets of violence with a dash of gore to punctuate it all. This is where, for lack of a better term, horror truly grew it's pubes.
I hardly need to tell you what Hammer did for it's product for the next few decades. Horror film after horror film that followed the same plot: eroticism mixed with gore all with class (unlike today, but enough of that...) which made Dracula less of a childish monster and more of real monster with real desires and such. Plus, thanks to some ingenious thinking and Universal's threat of a lawsuit, they also made Dr. Frankenstein a monster instead of his creation.
But we come into this story at the end of Hammer's lifecycle. To continue the comparison, the '70s were hard on Hammer. The very original idea that brought them fame had killed them slowly, thanks to imitators who pushed Hammer's limits with more sex, more gore, and so forth. If you go to the IMDB and look at their filmography, it reads like a bad joke. "Dracula 1970 A.D.," where Hammer tries to move the Dracula genre into the then present with horrifying results (imagine Austin Powers taking on Chris Lee and you have it). Various other films that I can't even bring to mind. Surely, the studio needed fresh blood. And they got this by going into other genres with varying success. Also, they partnered up with a few studios that were vastly different from their own. One of these was the Shaw Brothers.
The Shaw Brothers are a lifestyle onto their own. A look at their filmography will bring to light the Ultraman-que movie "Inframan," "Mighty Peking Man," (giant ape movie done Toho-style), and various other high-energy chop-socky efforts. Classical horror with robots who shoot lasers. A marriage born in heaven. Opposites did attract.
But, only for a short time. Hammer and Shaw did only two movies before Hammer Studios finally went out of business in 1976*. The first with a Dracula movie without Christopher Lee BUT with Peter Cushing called "The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires" (aka 'The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula) which involved Dracula helping a bunch of Japanese vampires out while Van Helsing fights alongside seven chop-socky vampire hunters. A truly excellent film which, thanks to Anchor Bay Entertainment, released BOTH movies on the same VHS cassette/DVD. Pay attention: YOU MUST OWN THIS FILM.
The second effort between Hammer and Shaw, however, isn't that good. Also released by Anchor Bay, it's called "Shatter." "Shatter" isn't a bad film. It isn't exactly a good film. In fact, the only truly notable thing is that it is Peter Cushing final performance EVER in a Hammer Studios film. He merely fulfilled his contract by appearing in three brief scenes then vanished, only to die a few years later after "Star Wars." Farewell, Mr. Cushing.
"Shatter" begins with the title character, Shatter (played by Stuart Whitman), killing an African President and his associate with a gun hidden in a camera. Escaping to Hong Kong, he finds out that he was tricked into this job: none of his company's associates know anything about the said case; on the contrary, they were backing this guy. Thinking Shatter a rogue cannon, they start making attempts on his life. Even one of his associates from his agency (I'm thinking CIA), Ratcliff, has his goons beat him violently and tells him to get his ass out of Hong Kong before Shatter ends up in a coffin. Ratcliff is played by Peter Cushing. Of course, the funny part about his scenes is how he pronounces 'Shatter.' It sounds too upbeat, almost sing-songish that makes an easy riffing target. It doesn't help that in each of his expository scenes he seems like he's damn close everytime he has a freaking closeup. "Shatter." "Shatter." ARRRRGGHHH!!!
Anyway, Shatter is helped out by a Chinese busboy after Ratcliff tells him to leave the country. This busboy also happens to be a karate expert who agrees to help Shatter out of trouble, find out who hired him to do the job, while Shatter also falls in love with the busboy's sister. Gee, I wonder who thought up the busboy/karate fighter angle, hmmmmm??
So the movie unravels slowly. Very slowly. So slowly, in fact, upon remembering, I don't know how it really works out. Shatter finds out about who hired him, but also realizes that he can never really leave Hong Kong without being slaughtered for his mistake. On top of it all, his mission of vengeance gets the busboy's sister killed. Ooh, dead relative to a karate fighter, who thought this angle up, hmmmm?? So, at the end, Shatter and the busboy seek vengeance, period. The end, go home.
The rest of the movie, however, it just a bunch of B+ karate fights and Stuart Whitman looking stern and nearly unaffected.
RATING: Not much plot, too much "Shatter," not really up to par considering what kind of hybrid Hammer and Shaw did with "Seven Golden Vampires." Seems like Hammer fell into a basic action plot to showcase Shaw talent then pulled rank and did it in a more calm way. It doesn't work. Both halves pull the movie's rug from underneath it's feet and all we have left is the worst result imaginable. But this is not to say that "Shatter" doesn't work as a movie. It's entertaining in a way, but a relaxing way that is one degree below an early Bond film. It kills time. Two Stars out of Four. If you can't get "Seven Golden Vampires," get this instead. A basic action flick of the '70s with less-than-usual action.
*The end of Hammer is a sorted affair, and
according to "Flesh and Blood" (a Hammer documentary), it involves the
last Hammer feature, "To the Devil, A Daughter" starring Christopher Lee
and Nastassja Kinski. It involves Ms. Kinski to a great deal,
involving her full frontal nude pose presumably in the film. Considering
she was nearly fifteen at the time, it kinda made Michael Carreras (head
of Hammer at the time) realize that Hammer's in the spotlight was truly
gone. Go back. And if you're curious,
wait until Anchor Bay also releases this in 2001.
**I hesitate to say this, since Hammer was doing suspenseful science fiction thrillers before "Curse" made it's way into the spotlight. I believe "X the Unknown" was one. Go back!