LISTS… On the Actor Who Transformed Hammer Horror Movies, Ralph Bates

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Talking mostly about Ralph Bates and his unique roles where he turned into a different kind of Hammer horror…

 

Insights about Hammer’s unsung leading and supporting actor, Ralph Bates, then a focus on two very different roles from his five Hammer movies.

 

Judy Matheson with Bates in Lust For A Vampire

Dr Jekyll And Sister Hyde (1971)

Trailer: Lust for a Vampire (1971), Classic Horrors

 

First read the words of my oft-special guest star, the Hammer movie actress, Judy Matheson. Her warm and touching words undoubtedly support the acting skills, camaraderie and endearing personal attributes of her one-time co-star, Ralph Bates. Judy worked with Ralph in the third of his five Hammer horror movies, Lust For A Vampire (1971). She shared with me – to share with you – that,

“I loved working on Lust For A Vampire, & one of the many reasons for that was what an absolute delight Ralph Bates was, both on & off set. He was a terrific actor & took his work seriously but between scenes, he was very witty & great fun.

We had something to chat about, initially, as both our Dads were consultant psychiatrists and both at that time working in Essex. I can’t actually remember if they knew each other, but I imagine they at least knew of each other.

He was an absolute joy.”

 

These words are undoubtedly the only way I could start this post about Ralph Bates. You’ll discover reading about Bates’ Hammer Productions career that he took over the mantle in his role in this film. Bates reportedly took on Peter Cushing’s role after Cushing left this film set for personal reasons. He also was passed the “Frankenstein” baton by Cushing – albeit for one film only – for the role of Frankenstein in The Horror of Frankenstein (1970).

In this post, I will be primarily analysing this talented actor in his debut Hammer movie, Taste of the Blood of Dracula (1970). With two bonuses,  Judy’s fabulous words about his contributions to Lust for a Vampire and my wee review below of Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)… where he in a famous dual character embraced a more feminine side…

 

Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)…

DR Jekyll Sister Hyde (1971 Trailer), Hammer

This versatile actor played the titular lead, Dr. Henry Jekyll in his fourth Hammer movie, Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971). This film plot is famous as it took a unique take on the Robert Louis Stevenson classic tale, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. It came with a 1970’s sensational twist. Instead of this film showing the adaptation favoured masculine looking side of this mild-mannered scientist with Bates as Mr Hyde, Jekyll turns physically into a woman. This woman is introduced as Dr Jekyll’s widowed sister, Edwina Hyde and then played by an actress.

It’s reported by MUBI HERE that Bates was happy to put on women’s clothes for this character (as he would later do in a nun’s habit in the multi titled  I Don’t Want to be Born / The Devil Within Her / The Monster / Sharon’s Baby (1975)), Edwina was played by the one time Bond Girl, Martine Beswick. Bates said,

“At first I wanted to play both parts [in Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde], doing the female part in drag. I am glad that they did get Martine Beswick because she is much prettier than me; I thought Martine was smashing.”

This dual casting made a more credible transformation as both acting talents share similar looks. Thus creating a more striking and convincing body swap story than others in this genre. Despite his character’s appearance as Edwina, Jekyll maintains his male mind and motivations as this story then encompasses both Burke and Hare and Jack the Ripper lore.

It’s a unique treatment of this much filmed book and this makes it definitely one of the most memorable. Interestingly Martine’s fellow Bond girl, Caroline Munro turned this role down due to the nudity involved. And this wasn’t the only transforming role in Bates’ Hammer career…

 

Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)…

Taste The Blood of Dracula (1970) Official Trailer – Christopher Lee, Anthony Higgins Movie HD, Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers

 

Ralph Bates’ career in Hammer began with his debut feature film, Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970). For this film, I was surprised to learn that Ralph Bates had the claim to fame that this debut movie could have been a leading role rather than the supporting one he plays.

 

In the book The Hammer Story, Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes wrote that Christopher Lee was apparently keen on a better pay deal, thanks to the then popularity of Hammer Movies worldwide for this film. But his pay suggestion was turned down. Then he was literally back in the picture, at the funder’s insistence who wanted Dracula in this movie and Lee’s contract was renegotiated.

 

This left Hammer with the quandary of just how to write Dracula in the now completed script.  The script introduced a new character, Lord Courtley played by Ralph Bates. Bates was then known as a television actor, but his roles on television had impressed the head honcho at Hammer. His character was replaced by Lee at an appropriate part of the story with Christopher Lee’s Dracula replacing Bates’ character in the script. The plot then became… Dracula’s bloody revenge Hammer flick. 

 

This plot begins in 1905, as Weller (Roy Kinnear) is in a horse and carriage with two men who personify scum and villainy. We learn through Weller’s nervous gittering monologue, that Weller is a businessman. This as he tries to sell one of the men a ye olde snow globe. One man wants it, but doesn’t want to pay for it, he grabs it to claim the snow globe for himself. Then a fight ensues and Weller and his belongings are unceremoniously thrown out of the carriage.

 

Weller falls unconscious and wakes to find it is daynight and he’s in a dark and spooky forest. Possibly to make up for the daynight, Hammer ups the ambience here, as there are spooky noises, groans and howling noises to be heard, as Weller runs as fast as his wee legs will carry him. He then sees Christopher Lee as Dracula in a scene from a shamelessly echoing the end of another Hammer movie. (This content is plonked in this film in a move that even Roger Corman would be ashamed of.)

 

Dracula’s chest has been impaled by a wooden cross and he is dying. After he dies, he disappears and leaves behind some Dracula themed goodies – a clasp (with his name on it, so it’s definitely Dracula, unless this vampire’s mother just liked the name), his cloak, his ring and a lot of crimson paint blood. Weller takes all of this memorabilia into his possession. As you do, but only in a Hammer movie… so you know things won’t end well.

 

We are then introduced to three families, as some parents and their young adult children leave church. Firstly, there’s young, Alice Hargood (Linda Hayden), the blonde, pretty and innocent(ish) daughter of William (Geoffrey Keen) and his downtrodden wife, Martha (Gwen Watford). Also in attendance are Paul (Anthony Corlan) and Lucy (Isla Blair) and their father, Samuel Paxton (Peter Sallis). Finally, there is Danny Trejo’s lookalike, Johnathon Secker (John Carson) and his son, Jeremy (Martin Jarvis).

 

Then it turns into your average rom-com, see The Notebook (2004) etc. We learn that Paul and Alice are dating and he wants to run away with her. This is because her father has banned Alice from seeing Paul (yet her father does “charity work” with his dad). Alice can only spend time with Paul if she climbs down a tree at daynight when her stern father is sleeping. She won’t leave home as worried about how it will affect her mother if she is left alone with the tyrant that is her father. Lucy is dating Jeremy and later gets engaged to him.

 

Their fathers meet up once a month to do “charity work”, in the East End and it doesn’t involve killing prostitutes in Jack the Ripper stylee. Their “charity work” involves going to a pub, and after they enter the back door, behind the back door they appear at a brothel run by Felix (Russell Hunter) In a Hammer related claim to fame, Hunter was a Scottish actor who I believe I once saw as a Dame in pantomime in Glasgow as a kid.. please correct me if I am wrong, Mum / Film Authority…

 

In the brothel, the men are entertained by pretty young ladies with heaving bosuums on display, or dancing provocatively with a python. The only actress, that I recognised from these ladies was Madeline Smith (whose script literally echoes her role in Tam Lin (1970), as she squeals a lot..  and you will find her on Geoffrey Keen’s lap).

 

Suddenly, all the girls squeal with delight, and Madeline Smith’s squeals are now only understandable by bats. The rather dashing and handsome Lord Courtley (Ralph Bates) has arrived at the brothel. Madeline runs to him and gazes up at him, as I would should Alain Delon appear right now wearing a chunky jumper…

 

The brothel proprietor tells us and the men Courtley’s back story. He was disowned and disinherited by his family after he became Dracula’s disciple, and these women pay him for the privilege (double entendre). Courtley tells the three men that he can offer them a much better time than hanging out in a brothel.

 

So Courtley and the men go en masse to Weller’s antique shoppe and buy those expensive artefacts (read cheap tatt) that Dracula left behind at the beginning of the film. These now include Dracula’s dried crimson paint blood in a test tube. Soon after this, they meet Courtley in a church with this swag in daynight. Courtley then starts chanting and cuts his palm adding his blood to Dracula’s dried blood making a crazy Cremola Foam looking drink for all present (PLEASE… Don’t try this at home).

 

Courtley then asks the men to drink this drink, and they refuse. Courtley drinks his and then falls to the floor and screams in pain. So instead of taking him to ye olde hospital, they beat him up and leave him for dead. Meanwhile, Ralph Bates goes full-tilt Doctor Who, and regenerates into Christopher Lee’s Dracula…

Dracula seeks revenge for Courtley’s death, by seeking out those young adult children one by one. He uses his hypnotic gaze to order Alicia, Jeremy and Lucy, to help him in his plan to kill their fathers. The first stop is Alice…

Meanwhile, as her father is out, Alice sneaks out to go to Lucy’s party. After returning and theb entering her bedroom, she is confronted by her drunk father and his stick. As she escapes from his violent threats by her bedroom window  – to escape with the help of that handy tree – her father follows her to the garden. Dracula appears and wills Alice to kill her dad with a handy shovel… She does just that. Dracula chuckles and says “The first” as his revenge plan begins as he disappears with Alice following him like a love-sick puppy… as it’s down one and two to go.

As much as I liked this film, my heart did go out to poor Ralph Bates as after his screen death – and learning his filming was reduced to 5 days –  as he didn’t reappear in the rest of the movie. It was just a shame, as Lord Courtley, that he wasn’t kept in this storyline in some way. Perhaps Courtley could have met with Dracula in daynight trysts to discuss their revenge plot or for Courtley to get some tips from old Dracula.

As his apprentice, Courtley could take more of a lead in the subsequent events where Lee is seen in the movie. Christopher Lee then could have had the perfect movie to hand over the reins for to this new character and thus avoid more Dracula roles. Everybody happy.

On watching the events with Dracula, he appears on occasion to will those children to kill their fathers as his revenge plan, for the death of his protege. His power is seen in the mesmerising look in his eyes as these younger characters fall under his spell. In addition to these scenes, after his revenge act is completed, and as each of the three fathers dies in grim ways, Dracula counts his victims, eg “The first…”. These moments of evil, Darlin Husband noted could have easily been replaced by another Dracula. This being the Count von Count Muppet in the vein of “Number one, ha, ha, ha”.

The fathers were played with gusto by a Bond recurring character, as Geoffrey Keen played British Defence Minister Sir Frederick Gray in this film franchise. To me, Keen was the most credible of the three, but sadly killed off as the first victim. The others from the less to least credible were number John Carson who I kept thinking was Danny Trejo and therefore expected him to boot Dracula’s arse. Peter Sallis for me is now synonymous with Cleggy in Last of the Summer Wine (1973-2010) and as the voice of Wallace and Gromit.

Although Bates’s part was significantly reduced, his character made the biggest impact on me with his commanding and masterful performance. I could easily see why those ladies of the night adored him and paid for his time. This leads to the question of why Courtley didn’t get them to help him buy those Dracua artefacts, I am sure they would have obliged.  I would have happily emptied my bank account…

I did like the new revenge plot but though at times, this film felt too much like a rom-com… Girl loves Boy, Boy loves Girl, tyrant dad doesn’t want Girl to date Boy, Boy loses Girl to Dracula… but does Boy get Girl back?? Also in a scene where the girls, Alice and Lucy deliberate together about what colour of frocks they will wear to the party, as their menfolk take the mickey… I kid you not, in a Hammer film.

The casting of these young adult children, also kind of jarred with me. I associated Martin Jarvis and Isla Blair with their much later, British telly roles.  Also, Linda Hayden, the leading young adult was only 16 or 17 during filming. This meant I half expected her after she met Paul after scaling down a tree in one scene, to then run to a gazebo with him. Then both stars would sing the “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” song as immortalised by Liesel von Trapp and Rolf, the Nazi Youth in The Sound of Music (1965).

Finally back to Bates, and I have still to watch him in another titular role in the film, The Horror of Frankenstein. In this second movie with Hammer Productions, he created a monster with an actor from the Star Wars franchise… Possibly my next Hammer tribute with him will be one where I check out his final film where he starred with Joan Collins and there is Fear in the Night (1972) … or more about where he had  A Lust For A Vampire…

 

But I am sure that had Lord Courtley teamed up with Dracula on his killing rampage, he just might have eclipsed Christopher Lee. But instead, as his young apprentice would,  – to quote that song from Melody (1971) from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – or could have had an apt ending track to the movie, with these lyrics, 

 

“Teach your their children well
Their father’s hell…”

 

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Hammer Amicus Blogathon IV 2023

This film was added to my and Barry from Cinematic Catharsis’s Hammer Amicus Blogathon IV. Ralph Bates stars in The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Thriller and I Don’t Want to Be Born. Christopher Lee in The Devil Rides Out, Airport 77, Charlie’s Angels and Dracula 1972 AD. Geoffrey Keen in Doctor in the House, many of those Roger Moore James Bond Films, Doctor Zhivago, A View to a Kill and Holocaust 2000. Linda Hayden inHart to Hart.Madeline Smith in Theatre of Blood, All Creatures Great and Small and The Ballad of Tam Lin / The Devil’s Widow. Peter Sallis in Doctor WhoandThe Avengers,. Roy Kinnear in The Ray Bradbury Theatre, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Juggernaut, Melody and The Sweeney.  Isla Blair in Space 1999 and Great Britons of Stage and Screen: In Conversation by Barbara Roisman Cooper. Judy Matheson in The Flesh and Blood Show, this two part interview HERE and HERE. She also added her words to my tribute to Dennis Waterman HERE. Martine Beswick in Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell.

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