NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Indicator Blu-ray (May 2026): Indicator have transferred four Hammer Studio comedies to Blu-ray on their own individual discs in their Hammer Volume Seven: Ships & Giggles Blu-ray package; The Ugly Duckling (1959,) Don’t Panic Chaps (1959,) Watch It, Sailor! (1961,) and A Weekend with Lulu (1961.) All four films are black and white and were photographed on 35mm. They share the typical late-1950s to early-1960s Hammer comedy house style: efficient, studio-based, and functional. The photography is generally bright and even, with clear, readable faces that support comedic timing. Unlike Hammer’s Gothic horrors from the same period, these films avoid heavy contrast and atmospheric lighting in favor of a cleaner, more straightforward look. Detail levels are solid for films of this vintage, with improved clarity in textures and facial features. While these are not the most visually striking Hammer productions, the remasters successfully preserve their bright, functional studio look. Minor source limitations are minimal, and overall the picture quality is a clear step up and does justice to the films’ modest but professional cinematography - where none of the films are particularly ambitious. The 1080P presentations are consistently strong as typical of Indicator.

NOTE: We have added 182 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Indicator use lossless mono tracks all  in the original English language (some Italian in Don’t Panic Chaps and some French in A Weekend with Lulu.) The scores are light and jaunty, designed to support the comedic tone rather than create atmosphere. Dialogue is generally clear and well recorded, which is typical of British studio films of the period. The music - diegetic in The Ugly Duckling by Joe Loss & His Orchestra - are well rendered without distortion, and the overall audio presentation feels natural and respectful of the source material. While the soundfield is necessarily narrow by modern standards, the mono mixes are free of major issues and provide a pleasant, era-appropriate listening experience. Indicator offer optional English (SDH) subtitles on their Region 'B'-locked Blu-rays.

The extras are a stacked as per Indicator Blu-ray's standards offering a wealth of contextual supplements. New featurettes include appreciations by Stephen Laws for each film, Jonathan Rigby’s (Euro Gothic: Classics of Continental Horror Cinema) wide-ranging overview of Hammer comedies, Robert Shail on director Lance Comfort (Silent Dust, Bang! You're Dead, Eight O'Clock Walk,) and several crew interviews such as A Few Weeks On Lulu. Archival material is particularly strong, with the full BEHP interviews with Len Harris, Alfie Cox, and Tilly Day, plus a lengthy 2016 interview with Vera Day (Hell Drivers, Quatermass 2) and David Benson’s presentation on Frankie Howerd. Additional highlights include the complete 1969 Children’s Film Foundation feature Up in the Air (starring Jon Pertwee,) a 1960 charity film with Leslie Phillips, the Don’t Panic Chaps trailer, and extensive image galleries. The limited edition also includes two substantial booklets containing new essays by Josephine Botting, Melanie Williams (David Lean - British Film-Makers,) David Cottis, and Mark Fryers, along with archival articles and pressbook material. This is a very generous selection that significantly enhances the value of the set.

By gathering these four comedies - The Ugly Duckling (1959), Don’t Panic Chaps (1959), A Weekend with Lulu (1961), and Watch It, Sailor! (1961) - the Hammer Volume Seven: Ships & Giggles Blu-ray set reveals a side of Hammer that is often overshadowed by the Gothic horrors that made the studio famous. While The Curse of Frankenstein, and Dracula (1958) were rewriting the rules of horror, Hammer never stopped making comedies. These four films show the studio operating in a more modest, domestic register: economical, star-light but actor-rich, and very much of their moment. By 1959 Hammer was already typecast as a horror studio, yet it continued producing lighter fare for the British market and for Columbia distribution. The Ugly Duckling was even positioned internally as a comic companion piece to the more serious The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960). The other three films sit comfortably alongside earlier Hammer comedies such as Up the Creek (1958) and its sequel, Further Up The Creek. What unites them is a lack of pretension. They were made quickly, used familiar British character actors, and aimed for broad, undemanding entertainment rather than satire or social commentary. In that sense they represent the “other” Hammer - the one that kept the lights on and the crews employed between horror productions. Taken together, these films offer a valuable snapshot of British popular cinema at the very end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s - before the Beatles, before Beyond the Fringe, and before the more abrasive satire of the mid-60s. They are unashamedly middle-of-the-road, which is both their charm and their limitation. The humor is broad, the plots are thin, and some attitudes have dated awkwardly. None of them are lost masterpieces. Two actresses from these Hammer comedies also appeared in the early James Bond films: Shirley Eaton (The Girl Hunters, Ten Little Indians,) who played Deirdre in A Weekend with Lulu before her iconic role as the gold-painted Jill Masterson in Goldfinger, and Nadja Regin, who starred in Don't Panic Chaps and featured in the pre-title sequence of From Russia with Love. Hammer Volume Seven: Ships & Giggles Blu-ray package is not a collection of great films, but it is a revealing one. It shows Hammer as a versatile, hard-working studio that could pivot between Gothic horror and gentle domestic comedy without missing a beat. These four films may never be regarded as highly the Gothic horror output, but together they form a coherent and enjoyable portrait of a particular strand of British cinema - unpretentious, actor-driven, and quietly affectionate toward the eccentricities of its characters. For fans of Hammer’s wider output, or anyone interested in the less celebrated corners of post-war British comedy, this set is a genuine treat. My favorite would be The Ugly Duckling (dir. Lance Comfort) as the most stylistically interesting. It has a genuine fantastical element, some surprisingly dark undertones (a jewel robbery subplot), and strong use of dance-hall and Soho locations. Bernard Bresslaw’s physical transformation and dual performance give it a unique flavor.

Gary Tooze