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Title: Icons of Adventure Collection (The Pirates of Blood River / The Devil-Ship Pirates / The Stranglers of Bombay / The Terror of the Tongs) (2008) |
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Review of Icons of Adventure Collection (The Pirates of Blood River / The Devil-Ship Pirates / The Stranglers of Bombay / The Terror of the Tongs)
- HAMMER WASN'T JUST HORROR...The legendary British studio is justly reverred for its classic horror movies but they actually made all kinds of pictures and this first Sony collection of their best films presents four pulse-pounding adventures - all new to DVD - three of them starring Hammer icon Christopher Lee. He's at his snarling best as blood-thirsty buccaneers in the rousing swashbuckers The Pirates of Blood River and The Devil-Ship Pirates. Then he warms up for his famed Fu Manchu series by playing an evil Chinese crime lord in The Terror of the Tongs. Rounding out the set is the rarely-seen The Stranglers of Bombay based on the chilling true story of how the British attempted to vanquish the Thuggees the notorious death cult that terrorized India for centuries. So strap yourself in for the most rip-roaring group of movies since Errol Flynn laid down his sword!System Requirements:Running Time: 332 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR/CLASSICS UPC: 043396243156 Manufacturer No: 24315
Product Description
- Icons of Adventure is a terrific quartet of picaresque features from Britain's Hammer studios, best known for such unique horror films as The Curse of Frankenstein and the 1958 Dracula, both starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Lee was also the star of three of the films in the Icons set, two of those colorful pirate adventures. The 1962 The Pirates of Blood River finds Lee playing a deceptively docile buccaneer, one-eyed Captain LaRoche, who convinces a fugitive from a penal colony to help him locate a Huguenot colony on a large island. The runaway prisoner (Kerwin Matthews) is actually the son of a colony founder, sentenced to hard labor for challenging the establishment's tight grip on personal freedom. When the hero discovers that LaRoche simply intends to overwhelm the colony and use it as a new base of operation, he leads the fight to protect the authorities who previously threw him into hell. The more elegant and engaging The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964) is a 16th century tale of a Spanish pirate, Captain Robeles (Lee), who convinces a small village on the British coast that Spain has won its Spanish Armada battle against England. Pretending to be an official, occupying force instead of a bunch of swashbucklers, Robeles rules the village with an iron fist while being hectored by a real Spanish naval officer who doesn't agree with his methods.
Lee turns up again as the imperious leader of a cutthroat tong--a secretive, organized criminal society--in the exotic 1961 Terror of the Tongs. Geoffrey Toone plays the captain of a British passenger ship whose daughter is murdered by the Red Dragon Tong during the latter's attempt to find incriminating papers smuggled (against her knowledge) within her possessions. As the captain seeks vengeance, he gets close to the dangerous heart of the tong, which exacts punishment over anyone who does not cooperate by hacking off his or her fingers. The fourth feature in Icons of Adventure is very different from the others and doesn't involve Lee. The Stranglers of Bombay (1960) stars Guy Rolfe as Captain Harry Lewis, a career soldier helping to protect the interests of exporters the British East India Company. Stationed in India for years, Lewis has conducted a thorough study of a rash of disappearances and anticipates a military assignment to solve the long-running mystery. When the job goes to an outsider who knows nothing about India, Lewis works independently and discovers a religious cult called the Stranglers, who waylay travelers and steal their possessions. A tense thriller involving crazed rituals of bloodletting, torture, wild-eyed sacraments and poisonous snakes, The Stranglers of Bombay looks like an influence on Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. --Tom Keogh
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Comments for Icons of Adventure Collection (The Pirates of Blood River / The Devil-Ship Pirates / The Stranglers of Bombay / The Terror of the Tongs)
- Posted on 2008-07-04
... and the Gorgon is on her way!
A quick greeting to those other Hammer fans awaiting Terence Fisher's 'The Gorgon' and Seth Holt's 'Scream of Fear' (AKA 'Taste of Fear'): both these films, together with 'Two Faces of Dr Jekyll' and 'Curse of the Mummy's Tomb', will be released by Sony on October 18th. We hope and trust the prints (particularly for the much-loved and much-admired 'Gorgon') will be of the same superb high standard that this set -'Icons of Adventure' - has established... rather dreary cover art notwithstanding. And now, Sony, will you give us Hammer's other rarities, including Losey's legendary 'The Damned' and the impossible-to-find 'Never Take Sweets from a Stranger'?
Score: 5
- Posted on 2008-06-27
Icons of Adventure
I'm literally speechless! The set is so beautiful- superb prints! We finally get to see the pirates in the ambush pit - the british censor took it out of the prints showed at the movies in England, so that was a first! Tongs was the biggest pleasure, having only seen elderly,faded prints on rare occasions on TV -now we have it in all its glory, and with out mate Jimmy Sangster's comentary too.What more could we ask for!
Thanks America for cherishing them for us and letting us have them back again.Congrats to all concerned, and thanks to Amazon for their safe and quick delivery
Score: 5 - Posted on 2008-06-25
This is the Hammer top notch DVD ralease of the dekade!
From one of the greatest Hammer Columbia Titles finally surfaced on the DVD market, it's a must for all Pirate/Swashbuckler and Hammer Fans.
3 Movie staring with the great Christopher Lee disc 1: He plays on both a ruthless Spanish buccaneer, the first movie is "Pirates of Blood River",a great movie off all, with splendid costumes and set and real location, a pirate yarn with co string Kerwin Mathews if you can remember him as Sinbad, from (Seventh Voyage of Sinbad) Lee is a pirate, with an eye patch and a useless arm, he really pulls this roll off as a real buccaneer. With great fencing sword duals and action.
The second movie is :Devil-Ship Pirates" he is a Privateer, a real dreadful and caning one, with real galleon and great cinematography and swashbuckling action.
Disc 2: "Terror of the Tongs", a great perphomence by Lee as the Tong Lords,
with great peices of sets and art.
The second movie is "Stranglers of Bombay" a real deal masetpeice, tells the true story behind the Tuggee cult the follower of Kali, that inspired Steven Spilberg and rinvent the stry with Indiana Jones and the Temlpe of Doom.
It's just outstanding lovely set that you can own from the Hammer Productions Library.
The picture quality of all 4 movies is the best out there you ever can get it, colours are strong with great contrast you can't even compare it with today's new released movies on DVD. They are made in High Definition Masters, with bautifull anmorphic widescreen presentation.
. A must for collector's on Pirates and Swashbuckling action.
I carriage Sony to release sooner the other Columbia titles, from the Hammer Production on DVD, just right after their planned Icons of Horror set, and to do their justice same as on the Icons of Adventure Set.
My suggestions:
"Icons of Sin-Fic/Historical Adventure"
Disc one: "Sword of Sherwood of Forest" double dill with "Creatures the World Forgot"
Disc two: "Scarlet Blade" double with "Brigand of Kandahar".
This can be great set, released at the time or sooner with the upcoming Ridley Scott Nottingham the story about Robin Hood.
Score: 5 - Posted on 2008-06-19
Rare Hammer Releases indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
just got through watching these great movies by hammer studios,and all i can say is thank you for these great movies. since this is a 1st volume i read somewhere, maybe you could release your other columbia titles in this series of hammer movies like the gorgon, scream of fear,maniac, curse of the mummy's tomb, etc. i have always been a hammer fan since i was a kid and its great to see these hammer movies i have not seen before released on dvd, even the ones i have mentioned to be released.thanks again.
Score: 5 - Posted on 2008-06-19
Glad to see "The Stranglers" on DVD finally!
I wanted to specifically point out my enthisiasm for "The Stranglers of Bombay". I've been trying to acquire this great 1960 Hammer film for a long time and, finally, it's now available!
This movie is shot in black-and-white and runs for 80 minutes. As I mentioned, this is a Hammer Studios film. It was directed by Terrence Fisher and conveys a sort of story about the Thuggees of India, a murderous religious cult.
Guy Rolfe plays Captain Harry Lewis, a seasoned British officer who trys to persuade the East India Company to investigate a situation where people have disappeared -- he is ignored. Lewis is replaced by an incompetent for all his troubles so he investigates the matter on his own. George Pastell plays the role of the High Priest of Kali.
The big picture is that this is yet another story of British mis-management of one of its colonies, in this case, India.
This is a very rare film and, for this movie alone, this movie set is worth the price. Highly recommended!
Score: 5