I have been a fan of Hammer most of my life, since I first set eyes on stills of the likes of Dracula and Frankenstein when I was a young child. Hammer is mostly associated with horror movies but Terror is not one of them. It is a drama set in Hong Kong about a British ship captain, whose daughter is murdered by the evil Tongs, a Chinese criminal gang. He sets out for revenge and justice.
I have just watched this on British TV, it came with a warning that the film "contains outdated racial representations and discriminatory language". One such example of the latter was the captain telling his daughter to "thank your lucky stars you're English". However it was the racial representations that let the film down for me. There are Asian actors among the cast, but mainly in the background. Most of the main characters that are meant to be Oriental are white actors in very unconvincing make up, with equally unconvincing accents. Including Christopher Lee, but to be fair he does play his part with menace. The sets are rich in colour, something that Hammer excelled at during this period. Good musical score. And the film is pretty violent, lots of people being hacked, shot and killed, plus there is a bone scraping torture scene. Yvonne Monlaur adds a nice bit of glamour.
Not a film for everybody but essential viewing for those with an interest in Hammer.
Review of The Terror of the Tongs
