It is a huge shame that – and this may be considered a spoilers – the make-up for the titular creature is so tatty and unconvincing, because just about everything else about this film is excellent.Charming couple Valerie (Jennifer Daniel) and Harry Spalding (Ray Barrett) arrive at a remote and unfriendly Cornish village to read the will of Harry's recently deceased brother. They have been left only 'the cottage', a place that the locals spare no time in assuring him is not a place they want to live. Assuring landlord Michael Ripper even says 'they don't like strangers round these parts', as Harry succeeds in emptying his pub on more than one occasion.The Spaldings are excellently played, and for a 'second-tier' Hammer film, they are aided by an exceptional cast. Mighty veterans John Laurie, George Woodbridge, Charles Lloyd Pack, Marne Maitland and a superbly sinister Noel Willman prop up every densely atmospheric scene. Future 'Blake's 7' phenomenon Jacqueline Pearce is exceptional as fragile, frightened Anne Franklin, displaying the same compelling talents as she does in 'Plague of the Zombies', which Director John Gilling filmed back-to-back with this, using many of the same sets, and locations.The Cornish coasts have always been used to great effect in surprisingly few horrors, but they once again prove a perfect fit.

"The Reptile" is a competently produced and watchable horror entry from Hammer productions but offers little new to the genre. Once again we have new-comers to a district that harbours a deadly secret, who must deal with hostile locals before getting get sucked into events, while ominous music and the classic 'moors' setting establishes tone. The generic characters don't present much of a challenge to the actors (exceptions being John Laurie, whose Mad Peter manages to avoid the usual town-drunk shtick and Jacqueline Pearce, who is very good as the mysterious girl). Sadly, while the movie effectively builds to a climax, the final scenes are marred by the appearance of the titular creature and its sudden anticlimactic death. A fair amount of suspension of belief is required (especially to the 'basement' of the Franklyn home) and there are some plot-driven inconsistencies (e.g. venom works a lot faster on secondary characters than on primary characters), but otherwise, 'The Reptile' is a pretty good example of mid-sixties British horror (other than the absence of Hammer perennials Cushing and Lee).

With so much going for it, one can't help but wonder why the filmmakers chose to keep THE REPTILE itself under wraps; when it's on screen, it works very well (the makeup is top notch), but, when it's NOT on screen, the movie plods slowly along to its foregone conclusion. It's an old gripe, but a valid one: if you're making a MONSTER movie, it behooves you to get said Monster on screen as often as possible- otherwise, you might as well be making a murder mystery. Not a BAD movie, per se, but by no means a Timeless Classic, THE REPTILE is the kind of Fright Film that only the more devout Hammer fans can appreciate.

Reptile, The (1966) ** 1/2 (out of 4) After the mysterious death of his brother, Harry Spalding (Ray Barrett) and his new wife (Jennifer Daniel) travel to his home where they discover all sorts of strange things. It seems Dr. Franklyn (Noel Willman) and his mysterious daughter (Jacqueline Pearce) might be hiding a few secrets including the fact that she turns into a half-woman, half-snake creature. THE REPTILE isn't the greatest Hammer film but there are enough strong moments to make it worth sitting through. With that said, there are still many, many problems and most of them are due to a rather stupid screenplay that includes some laughable dialogue as well as simply containing way too much dialogue. Once again I'm scratching my head as to why Hammer would go through the trouble of creating a pretty good looking monster but keeping it in the background for the majority of the running time. Again, this wouldn't be a problem if they would have at least given us a decent story but everything is pretty predictable and like I said earlier, the dialogue isn't the greatest. I think the film does benefit from a strong cast with Willman doing a very good job as he makes you hate him one second yet feel sympathy the next. Both Barrett and Daniel are good in their roles as is Hammer regular Michael Ripper. The real standout here is Pearce as she's quite seductive in her role and makes for a great villain. The snake make up is actually a pretty effective one and I especially loved the look of the eyes. The scale-like skin is another plus and I really enjoyed the color as well. THE REPTILE has way too many slow moments to be a complete success but director Gilling is able to create a rather strong atmosphere and add that to the look of the monster then it's worth waiting through all the bad moments for.