Captain Clegg (1962)

Why so much hype?

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Blistering performances.

"Night Creatures" is in many ways an interesting Hammer entry, because it's unlike most of their other movies. There is no real monster in the movie, with the title referring to a man-made thing instead. It's also interesting due to the fact that there is only one real character in the movie who is sympathetic (the pub woman, who is a secondary character), with the primary characters either being ruthless pirates and smugglers, or agents of the king who are pretty ruthless in their own right as well. Despite the fact that there really isn't any up front character to care about, the movie remains entertaining. Naturally, actor Peter Cushing gives the movie a lot of spark. And the rest of the movie certainly isn't dull, and it does get you wondering how exactly things will be wrapped up in the end, despite the Production Code still being in effect when the movie was made. If you sit down to watch the movie knowing beforehand that it's a quite different Hammer movie than usual, you should find a good deal to enjoy about it.

The movie starts of really well, with the creepy dream like scenes but as the movie went on, it kinda of drags a bit, Yes I did fall a sleep watching this movie last night. The morning, I watch the rest of the movie, the movie started to pick up again and middle part of the movie. This didn't really feel like horror movie, it felt more like Dark Drama movie, with some decent twist and turns.. The acting wasn't to bad from the whole cast, decent, some scenes do see a bit outdated.6 out of 10, loved first few scenes in the movie

"Subterfuge" director Peter Graham Scott's period piece "Night Creatures" (aka "Captain Clegg") qualifies as a rare Hammer film that is neither about supernatural demons nor larger-than-life monsters. Basically, "Night Creatures" concerns British smugglers at war with the Royal Navy. This suspenseful, atmospheric epic came out a year before the Walt Disney picture "Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow" with Patrick McGoohan. Indeed, the uncredited source of John Elder's screenplay with Barbara S. Harper's supplemental dialogue is Russell Thorndike's novel "Dr. Syn." The two films cover roughly the same subject matter, but "Night Passage" director James Neilson's Disney version with McGoohan ranks as the better of the two. Hammer avoided a copyright infringement law suit with Disney by changing the protagonist's name from Dr. Syn to Reverend Blyss. Nevertheless, Hammer serves up an interesting version of its own that ranks as far more realistic. The ending is not as rosy as "Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow" and morality plays an important part in the unhappy conclusion."Night Creatures" unfolds with a prologue set in the year 1776 aboard a sailing ship in the tropics. A stocky mulatto seaman (Milton Reid of "The Spy Who Loved Me") is punished for "willfully and maliciously" attacking the wife of the ship's captain, Captain Clegg, and he is sentenced to have both ears slit and his tongue cut out. Furthermore, the Mulatto is abandoned on the nearest uninhabited shore and left tied to a cross with neither food and water and left to die. Mind you, Scott doesn't provide a reversal shot during the sentencing scene so we never know what Captain Clegg looks like, but the Mulatto remembers him as he pleads for mercy. The scene shifts to a church back in England in the year 1792. A narrator provides the following exposition: "The Romney Marshes,--flat and desolate,--was the land of a proud and independent people. Their shores faced the shores of France--and many was the shipload of wine and brandy smuggled across the sea in defiance of the King's revenue men." The narrator pauses and continues, "Many legends have come from this corner of England--but none so widely believed or widely feared,--as the legend of the Marsh Phantoms--who rode the land on dark, misty nights--and struck fear into the hearts of all who crossed their paths . . ." The Royal Navy dispatches Captain Howard Collier (Patrick Allen of "The Wild Geese") to search for French wine that has been smuggled into England without a tax levied on it. Indeed, somebody is violating the trade embargo against Revolutionary France and Collier and his able-bodied seamen march into a remote British town and turn it upside down. Dr. Blyss (Peter Cushing of "Horror of Dracula") is the village vicar of Dymchurch, a tiny English coastal village, and he welcomes Collier and his men with open arms. Meantime, the people in the village who earn extra income from smuggling set about hiding what is left of what they have. They have created ingenious passageways between various buildings where they have stashed away the untaxed alcohol. The British couldn't have arrived at a worse time because Blyss and company have a rendezvous. Collier, who has been pursuing Clegg on the high seas for years, has brought the Mulatto with him. Collier rescued the mute and plans to use him as a blood hound to sniff out untaxed stores of wine. Blyss and the villagers have their hands full trying to distract Captain Collier. At one point, a frightened villager (Jack MacGowran of "The Exorcist") distracts them while Blyss and company sell their contraband liquor. Eventually, the suspicious Collier threatens to kill the frightened villager if he doesn't take them to the smugglers. Reluctantly, the frightened villagers complies, but Blyss' men have staked out scarecrows as sentinels. Actually, some of the smugglers masquerade as scarecrows to provide an early warning system for their comrades. Meantime, one of the conspirators, an innkeeper Mr. Rash (Martin Benson of "Goldfinger") cracks up and stabs a sailor to death after Blyss has warned him repeatedly not to resort to violence.

Not what I'd call a masterpiece, but quite entertaining, and one of the better offerings in the Hammer Horror Collection (though there's no real horror in it). Peter Cushing gets to buckle some great swash as a smuggler leader and dedicated vicar. Oliver Reed is wonderfully restrained (I had no idea he'd made so many films with Hammer), Hammer stalwart character actor (and Quatermass veteran) Michael Ripper finally gets a meaty role, and the love interest isn't overwhelming. The script is quite good, the photography beautiful, there is some good, sly humor, and the "marsh phantoms" are genuinely spooky. What more would you want?