HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR EPISODE 9 - THE CARPATHIAN EAGLE

DIRECTED by Francis Megahy 

SCREENPLAY by Bernie Cooper & Francis Megahy 

STARRING - Anthony Valentine as  D.I. Clifford,  Suzanne Danielle as Natalie,  Sian Phillips as Mrs Henska,  Barry Stanton as Tony,  Jonathan Kent as Tardek

PLOT - A beautiful female serial killer is stalking the streets and bars of London. Her modus operandi is using her alluring looks to pick up men, going back to Thier homes and then brutally murdering them with a ceremonial knife and cutting their hearts out.

Detective Inspector Clifford is assigned the case. Clifford hears of a best selling novel that seems to have inspired the murders and meets with it's writer - an attractive young woman named Natalie.

Natalie tells him that the novel was based on an old Carpathian legend about a ritualistic killer.

As the bodies start to mount, Clifford finds himself falling in love with Natalie - but what is her secret? And more importantly what is her connection to the brutal killer ?...

PERFORMANCES -  At first it looks like Anthony Valentine is playing D.I. Clifford as a fairly typical Police inspector of the type you'd see in many a British police series of the time (i.e. The Sweeny etc), he's gruff when dealing with his subordinates, polite when dealing with female witnesses and hard edged (and handy in a pinch up) when dealing with suspects.

However, scratch the surface and you'll find there's a little bit more going on with Clifford than with your average late 70's/early 80's TV copper.

For example - in one scene Clifford questions Tardek (Johnathan Kent) who just happens to be a transgender drag artiste about his possible connection to the case. Tardek calls him out on this saying that he's only a suspect because of his orientation and Clifford is quick to firmly buy fairly put him straight about this. When Clifford's partner on the case later laughs at Tardek and calls him a "queen" Clifford is quick to jump to Tardek's defence. Considering the prevalent attitudes of the time Clifford is actually quite a good deal more open minded than a lot of his TV contemporaries.

Throughout the story Clifford is shown to be a fairly decent bloke (despite his sometimes gruff exterior) and this essential air of decency, this soft interior, more or less causes him to fall for Natalie (Suzanne Danielle), ultimately this trusting nature proves to be Clifford's downfall.

It's probably a surprise to absolutely nobody that Natalie turns out to be the serial killer. The first we see of Natalie is when Clifford initially interviews her about her novel (she's dressed in a slightly geeky/reserved way at this point) and she seems fairly reserved. A few scenes later we see the killer dressed in a sexy outfit picking up her latest victim in a bar. I'm not sure whether we're supposed to know that Natalie and the killer are one and the same at this point but it's pretty blatantly obvious that they are as Suzanne Danielle is instantly recognisable even when wearing a wig to "disguise" herself. 

In short the identity of the killer is the biggest non-mystery I've ever seen. This doesn't really matter though as the main dramatic tension in the story arises from watching poor doomed D.I. Clifford blunder into a relationship with a woman we know to be a schizoid psychopath.

Danielle manages to capture both sides of Natalie's nature effectively - the respectable and seemingly sweet author and love interest and the merciless remorseless (and sexy) killer.

Just a quick mention of one of Natalie's victims - it's non other than future James Bond Pierce Brosnan in one of his first screen roles. Needless to say he looks ridiculously young and it's weird to hear him speaking with an Irish lilt to his voice. He was yet to become the smooth charismatic star that he is today. Everyone has to start somewhere.

SEX & VIOLENCE - The two go hand in hand in this episode. The basic equation is SEX WITH NATALIE = DEATH. Usually involving a big, sharp, stabby knife.

The best kill is probably when Natalie takes out a bloke called "Randy Andy". This fool (who looks about fifty five but was probably only about thirty - everyone looked older in 1980) really fancies himself as a ladies man. He's basically a sleazebag, so it's quite funny to see Natalie wipe him out.

None of the killings are graphic. You just get a shot of the dagger flashing towards the camera and a shot of the victim's agonised face. Very tame for Hammer House Of Horror. 

The only hint of gore you see is when Natalie inevitably kills Clifford (he dribbles a bit of blood out of his mouth).

For some reason Natalie then sensuously licks Clifford's blood off the still dripping dagger.

SFX - None whatsoever (except for the very, very sparse amount of gore).

RATING - The Carpathian Eagle is a decent enough stab (pun intended) at making a Hammer serial killer thriller (bad alliteration also intended), but if I'm being honest it's probably the weakest episode of the series seen so far.

It's by no means bad but it has several subplots that go nowhere (Tardek being a suspect for one) and there seems to be quite a bit of filler to pad out the runtime. It's worst offence is just being a bit slow in places but compared to other (better) episodes it does let the side down slightly.

These criticisms aside, it's still a hell of a lot better than most things that where being shown at 9.30 pm on a Saturday night on ITV in 1980 (and DEFINITELY streets ahead of anything being shown on that channel in that timeslot in 2025).

Flawed but still fair. 3 and a half sociopathic one night stands out of 5.

ART -