cult film freak: ESCAPE FROM HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR: THE SILENT SCREAM

Ironically the final vehicle for the original HAMMER FILMS wasn't a film but a television series in the anthology vein of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, or in this case THRILLER being of course produced in England, and one episode features Hammer's greatest asset, Peter Cushing as... not to spoil the twist so we'll say he's a scientist working in a surreptitious caged-animal zoo behind a pet store...

And the past legendary Cushing is cast with future horror icon Brian Cox... the latter an ex-con who met the doctor while in prison and now, newly released, answers a letter to make big money for some kind of research which, like any mad scientist venture, winds up an experiment...

Peter Cushing in HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR

But the buried lead is sophisticated, blue-eyed, thin-lipped, porcelain-faced beauty Elaine Donnelly as the ex-con's wife, optimistic for the future but not without a few nags... especially after her once-crooked hubby has plans to ripoff a safe in the zoo's basement, harboring creatures from puppies to panthers....

And he himself winds up in a cage/kennel, providing potential for Cushing to wield torturous vehom... but a majority of the episode has Elaine Donnelly searching around the small town, from police headquarters to the pet score's interior, finding her husband a bit too quickly: and with a few tricks up a somewhat underused Cushing's sleeve, THE SILENT SCREAM is the best of this Hammer series that wound up taking down the entire studio.