The Hammer House returns to the theme of reality versus unreality in The Mark of Satan but whereas Rude Awakening goes for the light-hearted, almost camp, approach, The Mark of Satan approaches its theme with menace and a real sense of doom. Kiwi actor James Laurenson enjoys himself immensely three times over as the mysterious Mr Rayburn, the caretaker and the policeman who arrests Shenley at the end. The incongruous words 'Rumpy Pumpy' can be seen scrawled on a wall in the flats, which must be the most refined piece of graffiti ever seen in a tower block. Another good scene is when Shenley and Lolly visit a block of flats, only for it to be in the process of being demolished by a wrecking ball. The owner of the manor house is played by Eleanor Summerfield, indubitably, veraciously, incontrovertibly the wife of Leonard Sachs, that bloke who played the loquacious Master of Ceremonies in The Good Old Days. The scenes in which Shenley visits the manor house only for his wife's dead body to fall out of the dumb waiter and, later, to be told by its owner that she is dead, as is he, are very creepy indeed. The vagueness of the plot should not detract from some great set pieces. In the end he murders his wife in expectation of running off with the lovely Lolly but instead is carted off by the police, his relationship with his secretary being purely wishful thinking. The plot is made more murky by phone calls requesting Mr Shenley to visit a recently vacated manor house, Lower Manor Court, and mysterious voices telling him he shouldn't have killed his wife. She also appears dressed in a raincoat that she takes off to engage in a bout of naked grappling in a phone box. Played by Lucy Gutteridge, who was last seen in Top Secret, a sub Police Squad comedy with Val Kilmer in the early 1980s, she appears in various seductive garbs such as a sexy punk outfit with leather mini skirt and a school girl complete with knee socks. He has a secretary, the enticingly named Lolly, about whom he understandably has regular fantasies. An honourable mention must go to Pat Heywood who is superb as his wife. It concerns Norman Shenley, an estate agent, played with his usual seedy charm by Denholm Elliott, who dreams regular dreams of murdering his wife because she won't give him a divorce. Rude Awakening is a tale that lacks the courage of its convictions because it is not made clear at the end what it is all about. I had completely forgotten that Denholm Elliott starred in Rude Awakening, the one about the estate agent who may or may not have been having an affair with his secretary and may or may not have been the victim of a plot to send him mad. It is strange that way the memory plays tricks on you. All episodes are included but, as Eric Morecambe might have said, they are not necessarily in the right order.
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I have given my impressions of this series below. The production values were good, the scenery was attractive and it had a killer theme tune. The series provided good entertainment with decent, if sometimes impenetrable, plots and some reliable acting. Most of the episodes leave the viewer feeling mildly uneasy and this isn't a bad thing but, as a title, the producer probably thought that the Hammer House of Mild Unease lacked pulling power.
It is not to be confused with Homes Under the Hammer although, and I am well aware that I am writing this out of pure envy, I would like to see some of the prospective property tycoons in the latter on the receiving end of a good haunting.
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It has been rarely shown on TV since but, while there are few genuine moments of horror contained within it, it still has the power to shock. Produced by Roy Skeggs it was Hammer's attempt to break into the TV market. Hammer House of Horror was a thirteen-part series first shown on ITV in the latter part of 1980.
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