Coming Soon: Blood Orange
The next film to be inducted into the hall of fame that is Hammer’s Limited Collector’s Edition range, will be Blood Orange (1953), a murder-mystery thriller directed by fan-favourite Terence Fisher and starring Tom Conway.
Newly restored in 4K and featuring a significant amount of specially created supporting material, plus some fascinating rarities from the archive that throw fresh light on the production, this release celebrates and gives further insight into the rich history of pre-Gothic Hammer.
So what exactly have we got to look forward to with Blood Orange? We caught up with Hammer’s Steve Rogers to find out…
Hammer News: For anyone who’s never seen or read up on Blood Orange, what’s the film about?
Steve Rogers: It’s a great little crime thriller from the early 1950s, set amidst the swank and hurly burly of a West End fashion house. There’s a lovely, wry central performance from Tom Conway as a private detective and some strong support from Naomi Chance and Richard Wattis. Terence Fisher directs it all at a cracking pace – there’s no padding in this film whatsoever.
HN: Blood Orange feels noirish in places, but without being a film noir. And it looks gorgeous – the photography is a constant delight. How would you describe the tone of the film?
SR: You’re right – it’s not hard-nosed enough to be a Brit Noir but there are certainly some dark scenes in it, balanced out by Conway’s suavity and dry sense of humour. In a lesser director’s hands that could lead to an uneven film, but Fisher uses these different tones like a jazz musician to create a film that’s as entertaining as it is thrilling.
And the way it looks is totally down to Walter Harvey’s cinematography. A perpetually-underrated cinematographer, Harvey’s work here shines thanks to the new 4K restoration from the film negatives.
Lady Marchant (Margaret Halstan) opens her door to a nasty surprise in Blood Orange.
HN: Some critics at the time enjoyed Blood Orange but ventured that not a lot happened in it. That always feels strange to me – it never stops moving forward in terms of mystery, character reveals, twists, murders and especially in the final act, plenty of action and revelations. In fact, it feels very modern, to me at least. Or am I talking out of my hat?
SR: Not a lot happened..? It’s a film that’s perpetually in motion – robberies, murders, fisticuffs, blackmail and a very dangerous looking scene shot on the roof of a tall building in Wardour Street. Not to mention all the ongoing emotional character-building (both text and subtext). Whoever wrote that review needs their eyes checked.
Tom Conway (centre) with Mila Parély and Richard Wattis.
HN: Ha! Glad it’s not just me, then… Talk Blood Orange and we’ve got to talk about the brilliantly suave Tom Conway who plays the central character, a detective, also called (somewhat bizarrely) Tom Conway. Could you tell us a little bit about the actor and the work he’d done prior to this movie?
SR: Conway had been a big name in Hollywood over the previous decade, mainly as suave detectives on both film and radio (The Falcon and The Saint, respectively, among others). He’d also stepped outside his usual range to shine in two bona fide, spooky wartime classics: Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie.
He was arguably a year or two past his peak when he made Blood Orange, but he was still very definitely a marquee name. He’s also noted actor George Sanders’ brother and received wisdom always labels him as the lesser of the two. I don’t believe that for a second - time spent with Tom Conway is always infinitely more enjoyable and rewarding than doing the same thing with his brother.
HN: I agree! Sanders is often fantastic – The Saint in London (1939) is an absolute hoot, but Conway soars as the Falcon as his brother never quite did. On the subject of other relevant actors, Eric Pohlmann deserves to be better remembered. He was a highly acclaimed and well-known actor who plays Mr Mercedes in Blood Orange with a delightful dollop of sinister relish. Could you give us a quick sketch of Pohlmann and suggest why he works so well as the mysterious Mercedes?
Eric Pohlmann (right) confronts the masterful Roger Delgado (left).
SR: Pohlmann was an Austrian who sensibly fled the country before war broke out and relocated to Britain. He did radio work for the BBC during the war, ending up in films by the end of the decade. His swarthy build and exotic accent put him in the frame as "foreign villain" in most instances – a role in which he excelled and which he played for Hammer more than once. He is known to posterity as the original voice of supervillain Blofeld in the Bond movies.
HN: I’m going to get back to Blood Orange specifically in a sec, if that’s okay? Could I first ask you where it fits in with the Hammer story? Is it fairly typical of the films the studio was making at the time?
SR: Broadly, yes. The dominant film genre post-war in the lucrative US market was crime and this was a deliberate attempt by Hammer to tap into that trend. Before Hammer (or, rather, Exclusive) was known for blood and fangs they were known for nearly a decade as a studio that specialised in crime and murder.
A number of their films in the early 1950s were definitely Brit Noirs, featuring very hard-nosed characters following the usual Noir tropes. Blood Orange is more British than that, however. Too British to be a Brit Noir...
Shooting on Blood Orange began in mid-March, 1953 and it went into general release a little over six months later, during October.
HN: There may be no way of knowing, but from your research, do you get a sense that the studio execs were happy producing this kind of movie? Hammer was reborn post-war and was shooting some terrific films. Was that enough, or were people like Tony Hinds actively planning how to evolve?
SR: Though managing director James Carreras’s eye was always on the next deal, I don’t think evolution was really a consideration at this point (1952/3). They still had several years to go on an output deal with US producer Robert Lippert and, with the majority of those productions either being crime films or crime-adjacent, they were basically in the groove. Blood Orange wasn’t a Lippert co-production but, by that point, Hammer were very familiar with how to make a production that made money from the American market and so they just followed their own bouncing ball until another genre became dominant and then they would switch.
The crime bubble wouldn’t burst until the mid 1950s, superseded by science fiction and then horror, so you can see that Hammer were keenly aware and in hot pursuit of these trends. With The Curse of Frankenstein they actually overtook the situation and became trendsetters themselves with a new brand of horror that gave them global recognition and the world the phrase "Hammer Horror".
Hammer were at one point known for their crime output, with the studio’s thrillers often featuring US stars to give their releases added currency in the States.
HN: Back to this title specifically… Can you tell us a little about the restoration Blood Orange underwent for this special release?
SR: I should defer to my colleague Mark for this, but I can confirm from looking at his notes that he tracked down the original negatives (the best quality source element) at the BFI and arranged to access those cans of film. They were scanned in 4K at Silver Salt and then went through an exhaustive process consisting of both semi-automatic and manual actions where all of the dirt and defects are digitally repaired.
The resulting file is then colour graded, which sounds daft as it’s a black and white film, but it’s this process that gives such clarity and definition to Walter Harvey’s cinematography. A properly graded monochrome film is a superb thing to see – oftentimes better than it’s ever looked, including on original release in cinemas. Actually, this will be back in cinemas on a limited run so people can see for themselves.
Blood Orange’s director, Terence Fisher, seen here with Barbara Payton, who worked with Tom Conway on Bride of the Gorilla (1951).
HN: That’s good to hear! The Limited Collector’s Edition releases have, to date, always come laden with a mixture of brand new and pre-existing programmes, literature, imagery and much more. Will that be the case with this title? What can we expect to see?
SR: We’ve got the usual range of supporting content that will appeal to both the Hammer fan and general film collectors alike. A brace of fun, informative commentaries – one for the UK version of the film and one for the US one – and new programmes covering Blood Orange, what Hammer were up to at that point, British B movies, fashion and so on. I’m also very pleased to say that award-winning film-maker Alice Lowe agreed to contribute to this release and discusses Blood Orange and female representation in British cinema in one of the highlights of the set. And there’s also the usual 120-page booklet covering the usual wide spread of film and Hammer-related topics.
HN: Hold on! There’s a US version of the film? I just thought the title was changed to Three Stops to Murder for the Stateside release. Tell me more!
SR: You’re correct, it was. To elaborate, we always like to include the US version if we can as, apart from different titles, oftentimes they might be in a different aspect ratio, like Shatter, or in a different edit, like The Quatermass Xperiment - or even in a version that contains alternate shots deemed too strong for British audiences like... actually, I can’t talk about that one yet. In Blood Orange’s case it’s literally just the different titles but, thanks to the wizardry of disc authoring, the film is presented as both versions with a different commentary on each so that fans and collectors have the opportunity to view whichever version takes their fancy.
US marketing material featuring Naomi Chance (centre) and Tom Conway.
HN: Excellent! For me, the best thing about Blood Orange is seeing Tom Conway play the part as a kind of world-weary Falcon. A few years older, a little less likely to win every punch-up, and slightly adrift in a world that’s become more cynical and less clear cut. I love the way he plays the main character. What’s your favourite thing about the film?
SR: Favourite thing..? I have two. Ish. Actually, my almost-favourite thing is the point of revelation where the real villain makes themselves finally known – two excellent actors, ramping up the drama for all they’re worth. Excellent stuff. But if I had to choose one thing and one thing only it would be the final scene – it’s Raymond Chandler via Brief Encounter and about as British an ending to a crime film as you could ever imagine.
HN: This will be the sixth film in Hammer’s Limited Collector’s Edition range. You’ve been working on them since the start. To date, what’s been the most rewarding part about rolling out these releases?
SR: The public response to the mix of titles that we’ve released so far, which has been very positive. Our rolling 4K restoration programme is allowing us to share the full spread of the Hammer archive, including some films that few people would ever know are Hammers without it being pointed out. Fans and collectors are loving that they are effectively able to see "new old" Hammer films for the first time, in brand-new restorations and released as these definitive editions. Luckily, for them and for us, this is just the beginning.
We’re about to do a deep dive with Steve about the range to date and where it’s heading, and you’ll be able to catch that interview very soon. Find out more details about the Blood Orange release here.
Finally, to check out Limited Collector’s Editions that are currently available, plus other titles and an ever-growing range of merch, just visit Hammer’s online shop.
