Hammer Time: The Gorgon (1964)

I can remember seeing the first fifteen or so minutes of this on AMC one night at my grandmother's house when I was in my early teens. I'd heard of it beforehand, most notably because it featured Peter Cushing as the antagonist and Christopher Lee as a heroic character, and it also sounded interesting that Hammer would put a monster from Greek mythology into one of their Gothic horrors, but because it was late and I had to go home soon, I didn't see much beyond the moment when the Gorgon's name, Megaera, is first uttered. I never saw it again on TV, and while I vaguely remembered the opening sequence where someone was being stalked in the woods at night, I otherwise virtually forgot about it until Sony released their Hammer DVD set that featured it along with The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, and Scream of Fear. But, as I've said before, I didn't get that set until 2017, making this one of the Hammer movies I saw quite late. This and The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll were the films in that set I was most interested in, especially given how much I love Cushing and Lee and how interesting I thought it would be to see them switch their usual types of roles around. I don't remember what my first impression of the movie was but, upon rewatching it a couple of times recently, I can say that it is up to both Hammer and director Terence Fisher's usual standards of quality, and the story and concept have interesting qualities, but it's not one I absolutely love. It's a very, very slow-paced film, one where the "less is more" approach to the monster is in full effect, and while it does have a lot of atmosphere to it, that approach starts to wear a bit thin here at times. It also doesn't help that, when you finally do get to see the Gorgon, she's hardly worth the wait.

The European police state of Vandorf, 1910. Bruno Heitz, a young artist, rushes off into the forest to speak with the father of his girlfriend, Sascha, whom he's just learned is pregnant with his child. Sascha pursues him, fearing what her father might do to him, but is stalked and attacked by something in the dark woods. The next morning, her body is brought to the Vandorf Medical Institution, where it is to be examined by Dr. Namaroff, but he finds he can't conduct an autopsy, as the body has been turned completely to stone, the latest in a line of such deaths that has plagued the area for the past five years. Bruno is expected to be made into a scapegoat when he's found, but in their search, the police find him hanging from a tree, having apparently been brutalized as well. At an inquest, the case is dismissed as a murder-suicide, but Prof. Heitz, Bruno's father, is not at all convinced, believing the ruling is a cover-up for the real truth, and remains in Vandorf to uncover what it is. He comes to believe that the murderer is a supernatural creature, a Gorgon, which fled to the area centuries ago after her two sisters were slain. After getting no help from Namaroff, and with the villagers violently persecuting him to leave, Heitz sends for his other son, Paul, who is studying at Leipzig University under Prof. Meister. But, before Paul arrives, Heitz has a fatal encounter with the Gorgon at the old, rundown Castle Borski, managing to write his son a letter detailing the horror that hovers over Vandorf before turning to stone. When he comes to Vandorf, Paul is unsatisfied with Namaroff's ruling that his father died of heart failure, and is frustrated when the police refuse to let him see the body. Namaroff, in turn, is interested in the note Heitz left for Paul, and has his assistant, Carla Hoffman, sneak into the millhouse where Paul is staying and memorize as much of it as she can. After she relays it to Namaroff, he tells her that the spirit of the Gorgon, Megaera, has possessed the body of a human being in Vandorf. Paul, meanwhile, has his own encounter with the Gorgon, and though he doesn't die from it, it ages him considerably and leaves him unconscious for five days. During his time recovering at the institution, Paul falls in love with the lovely Carla, but his infatuation may soon prove fatal to him, unless Prof. Meister, who soon arrives in Vandorf, can save him.

In his two year furlough from Hammer following The Phantom of the Opera, Terence Fisher directed two films, though neither of them were works he was particularly proud of; in fact, they were two of the worst experiences he ever had to suffer through in his career. Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace was a West German/French/Italian co-production that starred Christopher Lee as Holmes and Thorley Walters as Dr. Watson, but it was a total disaster from the get-go, as Fisher found his direction compromised by the mostly German crew and, in post-production, the entire cast, including Lee and Walters, were dubbed over by different people, mostly Americans. Not surprisingly, Fisher would never get involved with another Sherlock Holmes film. But, as bad as that experience was, Fisher would say that his follow-up film, The Horror of It All, a musical horror film parody starring Pat Boone, was the movie he despised the most and something he did simply for the money. After that, Fisher was no doubt relieved to get back to familiar territory at Hammer and reunite with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (who, themselves, hadn't worked together in a couple of years; this would also be the last Hammer film in which they would work together with Fisher). He had hoped that The Gorgon would do well and it must have, as Hammer kept him on for the rest of the 60's, although he would often do non-Hammer films in-between his jobs for them, as his directing career slowly but surely began to wind down.

As Dr. Namaroff, Peter Cushing gives one of his coldest and most emotionally detached performances, playing him as a clinician who, unlike his Baron Frankenstein, is very objective in his research without any real aspirations for it, and is completely cold to those in his care, as he, at one point, coldly tells the head of the staff, Ratoff, to put a very disturbed woman in a straight-jacket and, "Keep her in it." He also proves to have quite a bit of authority in the police state of Vandorf, as Inspector Kanof often follows his instructions implicitly, and he plays a large part in the cover-up of the true cause of the murders that have been plaguing the area for the past five years, with he and Kanof surreptitiously plotting to have Bruno Heitz blamed for the death of Sascha Cass at the beginning of the movie. Even when he speaks with Prof. Heitz, Bruno's father, whom he knows, as they were students together, he does nothing to help, writing off his theory about Megaera as nonsense and advising him to leave Vandorf. He similarly hinders Paul Heitz's attempts to find out the truth when he arrives, telling him that his father died of heart failure, and becomes obsessed with learning just how much the professor knew of Megaera, having his assistant and nurse, Carla Hoffman, memorize a secretive letter Heitz left for his son. The relationship that develops between Paul and Carla is a particular sticking point for Namaroff, as he himself is in love with her and is intent upon keeping her for himself, having Ratoff keep tabs on her wherever she goes, especially during the cycle of the full moon, when she has a tendency to lose her memory. He admits to Carla at one point that the spirit of Megaera has taken on human form, though he refuses to tell her who he suspects until he is "sure." In truth, he already knows that it is Carla herself, and when she sneaks out of the institute and goes to Paul, Namaroff becomes obsessed with finding her, intending to use his influence to press charges against Paul. When the police are unable to find her, everything comes to a head at Castle Borski, where both Namaroff and Paul go to find Carla, the former intending to kill her, and they get into a deadly fight, which Namaroff wins, only to then be turned to stone when he sees Magaera.

This is a rare instance of Christopher Lee getting top billing over Peter Cushing and yet, ironically, he shouldn't have because, after being introduced in a brief scene in the first act, his character of Prof. Meister doesn't arrive in Vandorf until the 50-minute mark, in a movie that's only 83 minutes long in total. In his introductory scene, he tells Paul, who is his student at Leipzig University, that his father has sent for him in Vandorf and tells him to contact him if he needs his help. After Paul is gone for a long time and he doesn't hear from him, Meister takes it upon himself to travel to Vandorf and look in on him. Paul tells him of what's happened, including his own nearly fatal encounter with the Gorgon, and, while he initially isn't sure if he believes that Megaera's spirit is in possession of a human body, Meister does help him look into it, starting with the legend of Megaera fleeing to Vandorf after her sisters were slain. Lee totally owns this role, coming off as wonderfully authoritative and not one who suffers fools, as in his contemptuous argument with Inspector Kanof in his office when he initially refuses to allow him to see the records of all the foreign women in Vandorf. Meister completely shuts Kanof down: "Don't use long words, Inspector, they don't suit you! Of course, if you don't wish to be of assistance, that's entirely your affair! I shall go higher up... I presume that even you, Inspector, acknowledge the existence of a superior?... The foreign secretary, for example? A very valued friend of my dear brother. Oh, but don't bother about it, Inspector. I'll go and see him myself." After that, Kanof allows him to see the records and then, Meister inquires about the murders. When Kanof reacts as if he doesn't know what he's talking about, Meister, again, beats him into submission, telling him, "I'm referring to the ones which you failed to solve, and which your 'democratic' state so carefully concealed, Inspector! When did they start?" "Approximately..." "Not approximately! Exactly." With that, he tells him the answer he needs, which is five years ago, and he and Paul leave, but not before Meister gives one more bit of proof of what a badass he is: "Incidentally, I understand that some of your democratic citizens tried to eject the late professor Heitz. You better warn them not to attempt that sort of behavior with me. Good day."

Meister and Paul try to see Namaroff for further information on Carla Hoffman, but when he turns them down, Meister takes it upon himself to sneak into the institution the following night and steal Carla's file. Looking through it, and finding that Carla's first bout of amnesia occurred in 1905, around the time of the first murder, that Namaroff supposedly cured her of this the following year and kept her on as a nurse, and knowing of Namaroff's infatuation with her, Meister comes to believe that she wasn't cured and may still lose herself to bouts of amnesia around the full moon, when she becomes possessed by Megaera. Unfortunately, Paul is unable to accept that Carla is the Gorgon, despite all of the evidence Meister puts forth, and a conflict grows between them. However, when Carla shows up and Paul takes her in, Meister tries to impede Namaroff and the police force's attempt to search the house and take her away, only stopping when Kanof tells him they have a search warrant. And when Namaroff threatens to charge Paul with kidnapping, saying he can produce the necessary evidence, Meister confronts him with a knife Ratoff used in an attempt to kill Paul earlier. Namaroff tries to evade the questioning, but Meister grabs his coat collar and angrily asks, "Why do you want Paul out of the way, Namaroff? Is it because you're afraid he'll take Carla away from you, or is it because you're afraid he'll find out about the secret you share with Ratoff?! Answer me!" He's forced to stop his interrogation when Kanof threatens him with a gun, and after they leave upon finding no sign of Carla, who escaped the house and who Paul has arranged to take a train to Leipzig, Meister is forced to stop Paul from leaving to search for when he hears she didn't arrive at the station, still believing that Carla is Megaera. But, Paul sneaks out of the house while Meister is asleep, heading to Castle Borski to look for Carla. Meister is awakened when the police force arrive to arrest Paul, but when he's not found, they attempt to force Meister to accompany them to the police station, only for him to escape their grasp and head to the castle himself. There, he finds Paul and Megaera and kills her by approaching her from behind and lopping her head off. However, he's unable to save Paul, who has succumbed to the Gorgon's stare, and can only assure him that Carla has been freed before he completely turns to stone.

Like his father before him, Paul Heitz (Richard Pasco) runs into a conspiracy of cover-ups and silence when he arrives in Vandorf after being summoned there, as he's not allowed to see his father's body and Dr. Namaroff tells him he died of heart failure. Having read the letter his father left for him, he believes there is something horribly wrong in the area and decides to stay in Vandorf to find out what it is, going as far as to stay in the same millhouse as both his brother and father. While there, he meets Carla Hoffman, whom Namaroff sent to memorize the contents of his letter, which he refused to show him while speaking with him. Carla tells Paul that she came over simply to offer her help, telling him that, despite what Namaroff told him, Megaera does exist and implores him to leave, but he refuses, both because he's determined to find the truth and also because he admits that, after having lost his brother and father within a week, he doesn't really care what happens to him. His bravery is tested that night, when he encounters Megaera, whom he catches sight of in a garden pool, and passes out, waking up five days later in the institution and having considerably aged, his hair streaked with gray. This starts to convince him that the Gorgon is real, and he's haunted by the glimpse he got of the monster, having horrific nightmares as a result. During his time recovering at the institution, Paul and Carla form a strong bond, and when he's discharged, he tells Namaroff that he plans to stay in Vandorf to continue searching for the truth. He even tries to get the doctor to help him but Namaroff refuses, forcing Paul to continue on his own. He digs up his father's body and finds it to be solid stone, convincing him once and for all that Megaera is real. Carla meets up with him out there and she confesses to him that Namaroff had her look at his father's letter, hoping to shed new light on the mystery of Megaera, and adds that he won't tell her who he suspects is the Gorgon. She also tells Paul that Namaroff is in love with her but that she fears him, prompting Paul to offer to take her away, but she refuses and runs off. Fortunately for Paul, Prof. Meister arrives in Vandorf and, after telling him of the situation and what's happened, he begins helping him to put together the pieces of the puzzle.

While talking with Carla about trying to get Namaroff to meet with him and Meister, Paul is asked to meet her at the Castle Borski early in the morning. When he does, he finds that she's now willing to leave with him, but when he says they'll leave after they've unmasked Megaera, she says that would be too late and runs away from him. Paul tries to chase after her but is nearly killed by Ratoff, Meister's intervention saving him. In piecing together the evidence while looking through Carla's history, Meister comes to believe that she is the one who is inhabited by the spirit of Megaera, a theory that Paul can't bring himself to accept and he tries to explain away the evidence Meister puts forth. Then, Carla leaves the institution and seeks refuge at the millhouse with Paul, only for Namaroff and the police force to follow her there. Paul helps her escape the house, having arranged for her to take a train to Leipzig, as well as a place for her to stay there. But, when he later calls the train station, he learns she's not been seen and tries to go search for her, only to be stopped by Meister, who goes as far as to slap him in order to keep him from leaving, as he doesn't want to see him destroy himself. But, when Meister falls asleep that night, Paul sneaks out of the house and goes to the castle, searching for Carla. Instead, he finds Namaroff, who attacks him with a scimitar and the two of them get into a violent fight that ends with Paul being knocked unconscious. But, when he awakens, he finds that Namaroff has succumbed to Megaera, and despite how much he resists, he eventually looks upon her face as well, sealing his fate. After Meister beheads her and she reverts back to Carla, Paul is only briefly able to lament his loss before he turns to stone like his father.

Seemingly a minor character at first, Carla Hoffman (Barbara Shelley), Dr. Namaroff's lovely young assistant, turns out to be very significant as the film progresses. From the beginning, when Sascha's petrified body is brought to the institution, she knows it was the work of Megaera and is frustrated at the cover-up, particularly Namaroff's part in it. Nevertheless, when Paul Heitz arrives in Vandorf following the deaths of his brother and father, Carla becomes a pawn in Namaroff's plan to find out what Prof. Heitz knew of the Gorgon, having her sneak into the millhouse where Paul is staying and memorize what she can of the letter Heitz left for his son. When she relays it back to him, Namaroff tells her that the spirit of Megaera has taken human form but he won't tell her who he suspects her vessel to be. Most significantly, Carla, already feeling sympathy for Paul, given what he's been through, grows to love him when she helps nurse him back to health after he has a nearly fatal encounter with Megaera. Unfortunately, this causes Namaroff, who himself is in love with her, to become extremely jealous, and it gets to the point where she tires of his constantly having her watched wherever she goes. Though she initially turns down Paul's offer to take her away, unable to explain why she feels she can't leave Vandorf, she then has him meet her at Castle Borski and agrees to run away with her. But, when Paul says he'll take her away after he's unmasked Megaera, Carla, fearing it would be too late, panics and runs off. She does come back to Paul at the millhouse and he agrees to take her away then but, again, for a reason she can't explain, she says she feels it's now too late for that. Regardless, when Namaroff and the police show up looking for her, Paul helps her escape, having arranged for her to take a train for Leipzig. But, when Paul hears that she didn't arrive at the station, he becomes determined to find her, regardless of Prof. Meister's belief that Carla is the one whose body houses Megaera's spirit, a theory he's formed after learning of Carla's continual bouts of amnesia, which began right before the first murder in Vandorf. As much as Paul doesn't want to believe it, Meister turns out to be right, as Carla's continual memory losses, which are tied with the full moon, are when Megaera's spirit takes possession of her, culminating in the climax at Castle Borski where she kills both Namaroff and dooms Paul before Meister beheads her, freeing Carla from her dual personality.

After being kept offscreen for the entire film, save for fleeting glimpses here and there, Megaera (Prudence Hyman) is finally seen during the climax at Castle Borski, where she dooms both Namaroff and Paul to being turned to stone. Unfortunately, the Gorgon herself makes for one of the film's weakest aspects. While the makeup that Roy Ashton came up for her in the close-ups of her face isn't too bad, and she looks passable when you see her as a figure wearing a glowing, green dress in the distance, what kills the effect is her wig with the horrendously fake snakes that stiffly fidget around rather than slither about her head. Aside from the fact that a Gorgon's "hair" is supposed to be nothing but snakes, rather than hair with snakes sticking out here and there, it's also hurt by how it's not Barbara Shelley playing the Gorgon, something that she was willing to do, and it's been said she even suggested wearing a wig with real snakes woven into it, which frequent producer Anthony Nelson Keys rejected due to time and budget (he later admitted that they should have listened to her). The reason why they cast Prudence Hyman instead was because she was a ballerina rather than an actor and they were hoping that she could achieve an effect of Megaera gliding through the scenery in an otherwordly fashion, but I just think it would have been more affecting to see Shelley turned into this hideous monster after having seen her as this sympathetic, caring, and haunted young woman for the entire film.

Though he doesn't have much screentime before he bites the dust, Prof. Heitz (Michael Goodliffe) comes off as just as much of a no nonsense sort of authority figure as Prof. Meister, one who is not fooled by the conspiracy of silence he finds when he comes to Vandorf for the inquest into the deaths of Sascha Cass and his son, Bruno. After Bruno is made out to be the scapegoat in the case, as well as called all sorts of slanderous names, Heitz, when asked by the condescending coroner if he wishes to add anything before the case is closed, calls them out on their attempt to silence the truth: "I read the newspapers, and I am also a student of human nature. I have read about the unsolved Vandorf murders. I have also listened to the evidence and opinions given in this court. In my opinion, everything I have heard has been generated by fear... evidence so obviously circumstancial, prejudiced, and contrived, making one innocent man the scapegoat. So obviously, indeed, that I can forecast your verdict now: murder and suicide. My son's innocence stained to bring this witch hunt to a smug and satisfactory close. That is all I have to say, Mr. Coroner, but, believe me, I shall not rest until I have cleared my son's good name." Sure enough, he was correct in his predicted ruling, and after it's over, Heitz meets with Dr. Namaroff, who was a school chum of his and who had met his sons before. He tells him how, every time he's tried to make an inquiry, he's been stonewalled, and has come to believe that the real cause behind the deaths is something terrifying and supernatural that the people of Vandorf dare not speak about. He goes as far as to name the culprit as the Gorgon, Megaera, whom he says is believed to have fled to the are following the death of her sisters. Namaroff writes this off, telling him, "We are men of science. I don't believe in ghosts or evil spirits, and I don't think you do, either," to which Heitz retorts, "That's one of the most unscientific remarks I have ever heard. I believe in the existence of everything which the human brain is unable to disprove... That is why I'm remaining in Vandorf. At least, I intend to prove my son was not a murderer." Namaroff himself warns him to leave but Heitz believes he's afraid of what he might find out and remains, even after the angry villagers try to run him off and Inspector Kanof tells him to go as well. He decides to send for his son in Leipzig, but before Paul arrives, Heitz is drawn to the Castle Borski by an eerie sort of singing and comes face to face with the Gorgon. Rushing back to the millhouse, as he's slowly turning to stone, he writes a letter for Paul, telling him everything he knows, before he finally succumbs to the Gorgon's power.

Inspector Kanof (Patrick Troughton), despite being the head of Vandorf's police force, is totally subservient to Namaroff, as the two of them conspire to brand Bruno Heitz as Sascha's killer from the get-go in order to keep the series of murders that have plagued the area for five years a secret. At the inquest, Kanof testifies that Bruno had a reputation for drunkenness and bad public behavior, which is backed up by Sascha's father, who Kanof claims said he wasn't surprised when he heard of his daughter's murder. Following the inquest, and Prof. Heitz's refusal to leave Vandorf until he learns the truth, Kanof is suspiciously late when the villagers attempt to forcefully evict Heitz from the millhouse. When Heitz threatens to hold him responsible if such a thing happens again, Kanof growls, "I'm sorry. My police force is very small. We have other duties besides giving protection to unwelcome visitors." He advises Heitz to leave, saying his business is finished, but when he refuses, Kanof retorts, "Very well. I've warned you. That's the best I can do." After Heitz's death, Kanof bars Paul from seeing his body, but when Prof. Meister arrives and demands to see the records for all the foreign women in Vandorf, Kanof finds himself beaten down and immediately allows him to see them when Meister threatens to go to the foreign secretary if he doesn't comply. He's also forced to tell him when the murders began, and when Meister leaves after telling him to warn the villagers not to try to throw him out in the same manner they did Heitz, Kanof can only slump down in his chair, totally defeated. But, that doesn't stop him from aiding Namaroff in searching for Carla late in the film, using his search warrant to keep Meister from interfering, and he also forces him to end his interrogation of Namaroff by threatening to shoot. Near the end of the movie, he and his men return to arrest Paul, but when he's found to be missing, Kanof tries to force Meister to accompany him to the station but Meister manages to escape.

The only person who knows of the truth about Carla aside from Namaroff is Ratoff (Jack Watson), Namaroff's brutish head of staff at the institution, whom he often has keep tabs on her during the full moon. These assignments bring him into conflict with both Paul and Meister, as he attempts to kill the former at one point when he meets with Carla, and later unsuccessfully tries to stop Carla from meeting with Paul at the millhouse. Ratoff also often has to deal with Martha, a disturbed patient who tends to escape her room, and threatens to kill her at one point, with Namaroff having to sternly tell him to return her unharmed. However, when he does find her, she's almost near death, with Ratoff later telling Namaroff that she had enough life left in her to spit in his face before expiring. One last noteworthy character is the coroner (Joseph O'Conor), who's only in the one scene of the inquest regarding Sascha and Bruno's deaths, but manages to leave a mark in how utterly pompous and condescending he is, eager to get it over with as quickly as possible, cutting the various testimonies short to that end. His interaction with Prof. Heitz is particularly indicative, as he refers to Bruno as a "bohemian" and a "libertine," much to Heitz's aggravation, and when he says he can't believe his son was a murderer, the coroner smugly says, "You are his father." And while he does allow Heitz to say his peace, when he's done, he indignantly tells him, "If you have finished, you may stand down," and, just as Heitz predicted, he declares, "I find that the dead woman was murdered by her fiance, Bruno Heitz, who then, in a fit of remorse, took his own life."

Cinematography-wise, The Gorgon has a somewhat darker and more muted color palette than some of the previous films by Hammer, which comes from its having been shot in Eastman Color rather than Technicolor. It fits well with the oppressive setting of the police state of Vandorf, though there are moments that hint back to Jack Asher's colorful work, like when you see spots of golden sunlight in scenes that take place near dusk or early in the morning. The nighttime scenes, in particular, are very nicely photographed, especially since they were actually done at night rather than day-for-night, with blue lighting meant to be moonlight, and have an effective atmosphere to them, particularly in the scenes that take place in the woods, at Castle Borski, and the cemetery where Paul Heitz digs up his father's body, often with an occasional shot of the full moon in the cloudy sky. And while the Gorgon herself could have been executed much better, the way in which Terence Fisher and cinematographer Michael Reed shoot her the few times she is onscreen often make up for it as, until the climax, they give you only fleeting and often obscured glimpses of her, as well as focus on her reflection in a mirror or a rippling pool of water, or show her as a transparent apparition when Paul first encounters her.

If the interior of Castle Borski looks familiar, that's because it's the same massive set at Bray that Bernard Robinson used for the main hall of Castle Dracula, this time looking old, completely rundown, and overgrown with ivy and cobwebs, as well as sporting different architecture, such as a large statue in the middle of the floor, a short series of steps leading to a raised landing in the back of the room, and a throne up at the top of said landing. That main room is all you ever see of the castle's interior but it's more than enough to get across the necessary Gothic feeling you'd expect. After that, the most notable sets are the interiors of the Vandorf Medical Institution, consisting of Dr. Namaroff's large laboratory, which has the overall shape and feel of an operating theater, full of tables and shelves of test tubes and chemicals, small cages where he keeps experimental animals, a main desk where he does his research, and a large section of the floor where he performs autopsies (it's not unlike a set you'd see in one of the Frankenstein films); his office, which Prof. Meister breaks into in order to find Carla Hoffman's information; and his very comfortable and posh sitting room. The small millhouse where all of the Heitzes stay over the course of the story is one of those nice, cozy sorts of locations you often get in these films, with a main sitting room full of the artwork and painting materials Bruno used, a small bedroom upstairs, and an exterior with a lovely garden complete with a small pool in the back (you can tell it's another interior set, specifically the one that's been used for tiny, secluded graveyards in films like The Revenge of Frankenstein). And the film also makes good use of both the backlot at Bray for the exteriors of the medical institution and, more than likely, Black Park for the fog-filled woods around Vandorf and sections of the ridge leading up to Castle Borski, at least when the latter isn't obviously on a soundstage itself.

Physical sets are not the only elements The Gorgon borrows from past Hammer movies, as it actually takes some miniatures and effects shots directly from The Evil of Frankenstein. Specifically, the miniature of Castle Borski that you see throughout the movie is actually the same one used for Frankenstein's chateau from that film, just slightly altered, and the opening of the movie also uses a nighttime matte shot from that film for an establishing shot of the countryside following the opening credits.

Hearing the title The Gorgon could make you think you're in for a full-on monster movie, perhaps one in the style of the movies Ray Harryhausen was making during this period, but this is very much in the Hammer tradition and the way in which they handled the title character is interesting and a unique way of making it their own. Instead of having a woman with snakes for hair lurking in Castle Borski and wandering the woods near Vandorf, turning anyone who comes across her to stone, they instead went with the concept of Megaera's spirit taking possession of a human body from time to time, specifically making use of Carla Hoffman's frequent amnesia during the cycle of the full moon to do so. Not only is that a creative way to go in and of itself but, in addition, Terence Fisher's approach to it in the story is akin to the way he tackled vampirism in Dracula, in that he doesn't totally shy away from the fact that what's going on is supernatural, as you do see people who've been turned to stone and glimpses of Megaera before she's totally revealed in the climax, but he doesn't revel in it either. Instead, the story focuses mainly on first trying to uncover what is behind the deaths and, once it's decided that the spirit of Megaera is real, it then shifts to trying to uncover whose body she's possessing, leading Prof. Meister to check the records of all the women who've come to Vandorf around the time the murders began and then look into Carla's disquieting history of amnesia. When he finds that her first lapses of memory coincide with the first murders, and learns from Paul Heitz that Dr. Namaroff allowed her to continue her nursing career, despite her condition, as well as that Namaroff often has Ratoff watch her, Meister decides that it is her, but it's treated less like she's possessed by the spirit of a Gorgon and more like she has a dangerous mental illness that resurfaces from time to time, causing her to become a potential murderer. The connection with the full moon may seem overly supernatural but not when you remember that there are ties between the full moon and psychosis in people. And again, it's only during the climax that the true extent of Megaera's true, unearthly presence within Carla is revealed.

I also like the film's approach to the Gorgon's legendary power of turning people who look upon her face to stone, in that it doesn't happen instantly but is excruciatingly slow, as seen when Prof. Heitz encounters her at Castle Borski. He's able to run back to the millhouse but, by the time he gets there, his chalk-white face and dark circles around his eyes (Roy Ashton's makeup is truly excellent), shortness of breath, and almost being unable to speak shows that he's doomed, and we also get an inkling of what it must feel like, as Paul reads in his letter that he wrote about having agonizing chest pains before dying. Combined with the rational and logical approach to the story, it helps make the fantastic concept of someone turning to stone feel uncomfortably real. Moreover, even seeing her reflection or a glimpse of her isn't a safe alternative, as Paul looks horribly aged and sickly when he wakes up in the medical institution and sees himself in the mirror; Prof. Meister himself even comments that Paul looks as if he's been in his grave and dug his way out of it. And, as a way of hinting at Megaera's presence without showing her, they decided to make her something of a Siren, as she can be heard eerily singing and vocalizing in the distance, drawing some of her victims to her.

But, as much as I can appreciate and enjoy this less is more approach when it's done well, one of my issues with The Gorgon is, despite its being well-made and atmospheric, how very slow-paced it is and, while I never find it boring, I do find myself wishing it would get to the point already, especially near the end, as it starts to fill like it's dragging its feet. Also, while I'll give it some props for actually attempting to develop the relationship between Paul and Carla by having them grow close during Paul's time recovering at the medical institution, unlike most of these movies, where the main couple fall in love about as soon as they meet, I think it could have benefited from having us actually see just a little bit more of their bonding, perhaps a nice, peaceful moment between them, aside from one that occurs while she's trying to comfort him after he's had a bad dream. Another flaw is how we never get to see Carla's moments of memory loss through her own eyes, other than several moments where she tells Paul they can't run away together but can't put her finger on why she feels that way, and a moment where she demands Namaroff tell her what happens during those moments when he claims she shouldn't be alone. I think if we'd been able to see how unsettling it could be for her in the moment whenever she periodically forgets who she is or what she did the night before, it would have added to what a tragic character she is, which would have made seeing her lose herself completely to Megaera at the end all the impactful. In fact, we don't ever see her again after Paul, offscreen, helps her escape from the millhouse when Namaroff and the police come for her, and it might have been effective to see her attempting to reach the train to Leipzig, only to then suffer a bout of amnesia and thus, allow Megaera to take possession of her once more. And finally, it's never explained how exactly Bruno Heitz and Martha, the one patient at the institution, died, as they're not found turned to stone. If it had just been Bruno, you could have deduced that he either hanged himself upon finding Sascha's petrified body or that she wasn't kidding when she warned him that her father would kill him for impregnating her, but since it happens to Martha as well, it suggests that Megaera does that to people she doesn't turn to stone but it's never made clear. You could say that Ratoff was simply lying when he told Namaroff he found Martha like that but that would have made it a totally pointless addition to the story and, even so, the autopsy Namaroff is shown performing on Martha's body never factors in at all.

Even though most of the deaths in the film revolve around people who have been turned to stone, there's still an "ick" factor to it in the scene where Carla wheels Sascha's body in, the hand knocks into something, and the tip of the finger breaks off. There's also an instance of the type of gruesome operations seen in the Frankenstein films when Namaroff removes Martha's brain and places it in a jar of water, and Meister's beheading of Megaera at the end of the movie is quite bloody, with a lot of gore around the point of severance at the base of the neck, though the head itself is clearly rubber. And after the beheading, we see the head turn back into Carla's head, with the snakes retracting through the hair in one shot and a bizarre, stop-motion type of melting effect accompanied by lap-dissolves in another to complete the illusion. Interesting effect, but the fakeness of both of the heads hurts it a bit.

Following the opening credits, which roll over a shot of Castle Borski that slowly transitions from day to night, we get an opening crawl that reads, "Overshadowing the village of Vandorf stands the Castle Borski. From the turn of the century, a monster from an ancient age of history came to live here. No living thing survived and the specter of death hovered in waiting for her next victim." The movie proper then begins at the millhouse in the countryside, where Bruno Heitz is drawing a portrait of his lover, Sascha Cass, while she's nude from the waist up (you only see her from the back or in a close-up of her face, though). When Sascha asks Bruno if he's going to marry her, and he fails to give a definitive answer, she breaks the news that she's pregnant with his child. Bruno puts on his coat and prepares to go see Sascha's father in order to tell him he's not going to duck out on her because of this. Sascha tries to warn Bruno that her father will kill him over this but Bruno doesn't listen and storms out into the night. Sascha quickly grabs her blouse, slips it on, and follows after him into the dark woods. Seeing a figure up ahead, she follows after it, figuring it's Bruno, but loses sight it in the dark. She passes by the eerie sight of a crucifix in a small alcove by the trail and she looks up into the sky to see that it's a full moon, while another cutaway shows that she's close to Castle Borski. She then stops and sees something offscreen that causes her to scream in terror. She tries to run away but stops and looks back, screaming again and falling to the ground, the scene ending on another shot of the full moon as some clouds pass over it.

The next morning, at the Vandorf Medical Institution, Dr. Namaroff is introduced as he works in his laboratory, when Carla Hoffman comes in to tell him they're bringing in a body, and she also tells him that Inspector Kanof is waiting to see him. He joins Kanof in the hallway outside the lab and learns that the victim is the daughter of Janus Cass, the landlord of a local inn. They discuss whether or not it's akin to the past deaths and also if the woman's young lover could be responsible, as he's still missing. Kanof goes on to tell Namaroff that the young man in question is Bruno Heitz, the son of Prof. Jules Heitz of Berlin University, which gets Namaroff's attention as he knows the professor. Namaroff then advises Kanof not to contact the professor about what's happened until they find his son. Meanwhile, Ratoff wheels Sascha's body into the lab and Carla takes over to wheel the gurney into the center of the room, when the chalk white hand that's hanging down from under the sheet bumps against the side of a table and snaps off the end of one of the fingers. Carla is completely taken aback by this and backs away, but before she can scream, someone else does so outside. She runs out into the main hall, as does Namaroff, and they see a young, deranged woman, Martha, being restrained by the staff. Namaroff orders her to be put in a straight-jacket, and is about to rejoin Kanof, when he sees how upset Carla is in the doorway to the lab. Looking over at the gurney and seeing the hand sticking out from under the sheet, as well as the severed finger on the floor, Namaroff walks over to the gurney and removes the sheet. Kanof enters and asks if Namaroff will perform an autopsy, to which he responds, "On a body that's turned to stone?" The film then switches to the police searching the woods for Bruno, as the dogs pick up the scent. One officer tells Kanof that he feels they're a little too close to the castle and Kanof tells him to use his gun if he has to. He also says he wants Bruno taken alive, but his order immediately becomes irrelevant, as they then come across Bruno's body hanging from a tree, his face all scratched up.

It then abruptly cuts to the inquest, where first Kanof makes his testimonial, followed by Sascha's father, who tells the coroner that he told his daughter to have nothing to do with Bruno, as he was not a good person, and that he often frequented the inn. The coroner deduces that Bruno became violent when he was drunk, cuts Cass' testimony short, as he did Kanof's, and then calls up Namaroff, who testifies that Sascha's death came about as a result of severe violence, saying he found abrasions in her forehead and indentations in the skull, which he attributes to some sort of weapon made of metal. Next, Prof. Heitz is called, and he disagrees with the coroner's referring to Bruno as a bohemian and a libertine, as well as disbelieves that he was a murderer. When asked if he has anything else to add, he says that he believes Bruno is being used as a scapegoat for the latest in a series of unsolved murders that the Vandorf police force have been unable to solve, and also that he's not going to leave until he learns the truth. He then stands down and, as he said he would, the coroner rules the case a murder-suicide. Once the court is adjourned, Carla goes to say something to Heitz as she's leaving but Namaroff stops her and the two of them walk out, with Heitz being the last one to stand up and leave. Later, at the institution, Carla confronts Namaroff over the part he played in blaming Bruno, saying that she knows it wasn't him, "Because she has come back. She is here, somewhere, in this hospital! I know it!" There's a knock at the door and Ratoff shows in Prof. Heitz. Carla leaves the two men alone and, after asking Namaroff what his impressions were of Bruno when he met him at their home in Berlin, Heitz goes on to tell him of a conspiracy of silence he's found waiting for him at every turn in Vandorf and that he believes that Bruno was made the scapegoat because he allowed for a tangible explanation, something the real killer isn't. He mentions the legend of Megaera, the Gorgon, and how she's said to have fled to the area after her sisters were slain, which Namaroff says isn't plausible at all. Heitz tells him that he's staying in Vandorf to find the truth regardless, and ignores Namaroff's warning him to leave, saying he's afraid of what he might find out.

Later, at the millhouse, Heitz is reading up on the legend, when his servant, Hans, hears some villagers outside yelling at them to get out of Vandorf. Just as he's about to ask Heitz if they should do something, someone breaks the window and tosses a torch into the room. Hans tries to extinguish the spreading flames by smacking them with a broom, while Heitz throws back some curtains and opens a pair of French windows, where he's confronted by the villagers. The group barges their way inside, telling Heitz to get out, and when the professor orders them to leave, he gets smacked across the chin. Hans rushes at the mob but isn't able to do much to fend them off with the broom, as they easily yank it out of his hands. Before the man who punched Heitz can do the same to Hans, one of the villagers sees the police coming and they run for it. Inspector Kanof arrives with two constables, but when Heitz threatens to hold him responsible if there's another such attack, the inspector suggests he leave. Heitz refuses, saying his business is far from finished, and Kanof and his men leave without further incident, but not before saying that he'll see Heitz is protected on his way to the station should he change his mind. Once they're gone, Heitz tells Hans to send a telegram to Prof. Meister at Leipzig University. The film then cuts there, to Meister's office, where Paul enters and is given the telegram from his father, asking him to join him in Vandorf. He decides to go the next morning and Meister tells him to send for him if he needs any help.

That night, Heitz is working in the millhouse, when he hears what sounds like a woman singing in the far distance. At first, he thinks nothing of it and tries to concentrate on his research, when he hears it again a couple of more times. Unable to ignore it, he gets up and follows the sound of it outside, through the French windows. He goes around back, through the garden, and out the gate to the property. The full moon is revealed behind some clouds as Heitz walks through the woods, passing the same alcove with the crucifix that Sascha did, and making his way up to Castle Borski. Walking inside the main foyer of the castle, and nearly tripping over something in his way, as well as being startled when a small piece of the ceiling falls in, he makes his way to the back of the place. An alternate angle reveals that he's being watched, and after he's startled by a large flock of pigeons nesting in the place that come flying at him, he sees a figure in the darkness by the throne on the landing. Trying to get a better look, his eyes then widen in horror and, as there's a quick cut to a tight close-up of his eyes, he screams and rushes back the way he came, stumbling out the door, as the Gorgon recedes back into the dark. Heitz makes his way back to the millhouse and yells for Hans when he staggers through the door and nearly collapses at the table. Hans comes downstairs, carrying an oil lantern, and is horrified when Heitz looks up at him, his face and hair chalk white and with large, dark circles around his reddened eyes. He tells Hans that he has to write a letter to Paul, who should be there the next day, and instructs him to give it to him and let no one else see it. He then tells Hans to leave, saying there's nothing he can do, and says goodbye to him before he goes back upstairs. Clumsily grabbing a piece of paper and a pen, he writes as fast as he can before he turns completely to stone, which happens right as he writes as such near the end of his three-page letter to Paul.

Once Paul has arrived and received his father's letter, he goes to Namaroff to see a copy of the death certificate, as the police have refused to allow him to see the body. He challenges Namaroff's ruling that his father died of heart failure and, taking out the letter, which he refuses to allow Namaroff to see per his father's instructions, reads about the conspiracy and mentions Megaera. Again, Namaroff dismisses such claims and suggests Paul offer his opinion at the upcoming inquest before seeing him out. Like his father, Paul stays at the millhouse Bruno used to rent and, after a sequence where he mills around the place, ending up in the garden in the back and sitting on the edge of the pool there, he sees a shadow pass over him and jumps to his feet. Not seeing anyone around, he calmly walks back up to the landing above the garden and sees someone through the window. Walking through the door, he surprises Carla, who swings around with a start and apologizes, saying the door was open. She introduces herself and says that she came by to see if there were anything she could do for him. Putting away his father's letter, which he'd left out, he talks to her about his discussion with Namaroff. She tells him that, contrary to what Namaroff may have told him, the spirit of Megaera wanders the area and that he and everyone else tries to deny her existence. Carla also warns Paul that if he doesn't leave Vandorf, he may be found turned to stone as well, but he says he can't leave without learning the truth and that, after everything he's been through, he doesn't care what happens to him. Before she leaves, Carla tells him that she does care about what becomes of him. That night, Paul goes over what his father wrote in his letter, while at the same time, at the institution, Carla tries to remember what the letter said for Namaroff, only managing to have made it to the details about the Gorgons before Paul came in on her. Namaroff tells her that he believes the letter may shed some light on the mystery surrounding Megaera, when they're interrupted by Ratoff coming in to report that Martha has escaped again. Namaroff sends him out to find her and tells her not to return without her. Once Ratoff has left, Namaroff tells Carla that Megaera has taken human form.

The full moon appears from behind the clouds in the sky, as a gust of wind blows open the millhouse's French windows and extinguishes the flame of Paul's lantern. He walks outside and around the back to the garden, apparently drawn by the sound of eerie singing. It starts pouring rain on him as he moves down the steps and walks towards the pool, looking into the rippling water. The sudden downpour immediately ceases and the water becomes calm, when Megaera's reflection appears in the water across from his own, illuminated by a flash of lightning. Paul recoils and runs back the way he came, only to run into Megaera's transparent image. He quickly doubles back to the garden, passing out next to the pool, his hand splashing into the water. The scene transitions to show him lying in a bed, looking close to death, and as he slowly awakens and opens his eyes, Carla's benevolent face is the first thing he sees. She tells him not to try to talk and then walks to the door as Ratoff passes by, telling him to have Namaroff come up. Ratoff heads downstairs to the laboratory, where Namaroff is looking over the body of Martha, and tells him what Carla said. Before he walks back, Namaroff asks Ratoff if it's true that Martha wasn't quite dead when he found her and he confirms that is the case. Namaroff then heads up to Paul's room and dismisses Carla. Paul, managing to speak, asks what happened and he's told he was found lying beside the pool in his garden five days before. Namaroff asks him if he can remember what happened and Paul, after some thinking, remembers the horrifying face he saw reflected in the pool. Namaroff tells him to rest but Paul wants to know the truth about what he saw, insisting he's alright. That's when Namaroff gives him a small mirror and, when he sees his reflection, Paul is shocked at how aged and sickly he looks. Namaroff asks him to do as he says and leaves the room.

During his time at the institution, Paul suffers from horrifying nightmares about Megaera, one of which causes him to wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Carla rushes in and calms him down, telling him that he just had a bad dream and that nobody's been in his room, which is what he believes happened. She manages to soothe him back down into the bed and tells him to rest. Come the day of his discharge, he stops by to speak with Namaroff before leaving, and as he walks into his office, he grips Carla's hand, which Namaroff does notice. Sitting down, and after learning that he's missed the inquest into his father's death, Paul surprises Namaroff when he tells him he isn't leaving Vandorf yet but, rather, is going back to the millhouse. Like his father before him, he tries to persuade Namaroff to help him but Namaroff feigns ignorance about the mystery he speaks of and forces him to leave. On his way out the door, Paul turns and asks, "You're afraid of her like the rest of them, aren't you?" Namaroff merely glances at him, when Paul adds, "Well, I intend to find this creature... and destroy it." He then leaves and Namaroff, after rubbing his face, calls Ratoff into his office. He tells him, "There's a full moon tonight. Don't let her out of your sight." That then leads to this exchange: "Is she in danger?" "She may be close to death." Come nightfall, Paul goes to the cemetery, digs up his father's grave, and, as Carla watches from the shadows, pries open the coffin and removes a sheet to reveal his totally petrified body. Carla then makes her presence known and Paul asks her who Namaroff is trying to protect by putting out a false death certificate. She, in turn, tells him that Namaroff had her memorize part of his father's letter, hoping it would shed some light on the mystery of Megaera, and that Namaroff won't tell her who is harboring Megaera's spirit. Getting her to admit that Namaroff is in love with her, but that she is afraid of him, Paul offers to take her away with him, but she backs away upon hearing this. The two of them admit that they love each other but Carla tells him that, she can't leave Namaroff, though she says she doesn't know exactly why. She then heads back, asking Paul not to ask her to leave with him again.

Despondent, Paul returns to the millhouse and glumly sits down at the table, when the bell at the door rings. He gets up and answers it, seeing a figure standing in the dark beyond. The figure asks, "Well? Do you propose to keep me standing out here all night?", and as he comes in, he reveals himself to be Prof. Meister. Paul is ecstatic that he's there, but when he walks into the light, Meister is taken aback by his condition, which Paul explains away by saying he's been ill. Meister then explains he came because he hadn't heard from him in a long time and sits down at the table, asking him to tell him what's been going on. Meanwhile, at the institution, Namaroff removes the brain from Martha's body, when Carla walks in. He asks where she'd been and she said she'd gone for a walk. He also asks if she were alone and she says she was, but the look he gives her belies his disbelief in her. Once he's removed the brain, put it into a jar of water, and taken it over to the counter, he begins washing his hands and Carla asks him if Martha were Megaera's human form. He says she wasn't, but refuses to answer her next question, which is if he suspects someone else. She says she has a right to know but he merely responds, "Not until I'm sure. Good night, Carla." Defeated, Carla leaves the room. Back at the millhouse, after having heard Paul's story, Meister figures that Paul's having seen Megaera's reflection rather than looking directly at her was what saved him from being turned to stone like his father and Sascha. Meister clarifies that he neither believes nor disbelieves that Megaera is real, but decides to help Paul by starting there. After some investigating and basic threatening of Inspector Kanof, he manages to find the necessary information on Carla and tries to arrange a meeting with Namaroff. At the institution, Carla comes to Namaroff in his lab and tells him about it. Namaroff refuses to see them, but before Carla can leave the room, he confronts her, saying that he knows she was with Paul. Knowing it's because he had Ratoff follow her, she demands to know why he does this but he refuses to elaborate further than saying there are times where she shouldn't be alone. She, in turn, tells him she believes it's something he's come up to use to frighten her into submission, adding, "I've had enough. I am sick of your jealousy. I am sick of you!", and storms out of the lab. She gets back on the phone with Paul, telling him that Namaroff won't see him, but also tells him to meet her at the castle at 7:00 the next morning.

As it's getting light, Paul arrives at Castle Borski and finds Carla waiting for him inside, sitting on the throne up on the landing. She explains that she asked him there because she was less likely to be followed and, when the two of them meet on the stairs, she tells him she's decided to leave with him after all. Paul is very happy to hear this and the two of them kiss passionately, but things turn sour when Carla says they must leave immediately and Paul says they can't until he and Prof. Meister have uncovered the one possessed by Megaera. She begs him to take her away right then but, when he again refuses, she pulls away from him, telling him it would be too late if they waited, and runs out the door, telling him she may never see him again. Paul heads back down the side of the mountain from the castle, but doesn't see Ratoff emerge from an opening in the rocks behind him. Meister appears and tries to stop Ratoff but he gets thrown off and is only able to yell a warning to Paul. Paul turns around and sees Ratoff fling a knife his way, which sticks into a tree next to him. Ratoff flees the scene and Meister asks Paul if he recognized him. When he answers in the affirmative and wonders why Ratoff would try to kill him, Meister suggests he ask Namaroff that question. That night, Meister sneaks into Namaroff's office at the institution through the window and quietly uses a crowbar to pry open the locked file drawer. While looking through the files, he has to duck out of sight when Namaroff, who's been working in his sitting room, emerges and enters the laboratory, searching for Carla. He almost enters the office but heads back out into the hall, where he meets Ratoff, who tells him that Carla is on her way up to her room. Meister continues looking through the files until he finds Carla's, while Carla herself is sneaking out the building through a door in the back.

At the millhouse, Meister and Paul look through Carla's file and find that she went through a spell of amnesia five years before but was supposedly cured after intense treatment. Meister notes how the first of the Vandorf murders coincided with that period of amnesia and, considering that Namaroff is in love with her and continued to allow her to work as a nurse, he wonders if she was cured as Namaroff claimed. He goes on to figure that Namaroff has Carla watched because she still loses her memory from time to time during the full moon, but Paul is immediately taken aback by his inferring that she's the one harboring Megaera's spirit. He tells Paul that she refused to allow him to take her away before because it was a full moon that night and also that the reason why she begged her to do so that morning was because that night is, as he says, the first night of the cycle (this timeline, however, is completely skewed when you stop and think about it). Paul writes his theory off as guesswork, when they hear Carla calling for Paul outside. The two of them rush out there to find Carla being restrained by Ratoff, who immediately lets go of her and runs off when he sees them coming. Paul helps Carla inside and later, when the two of them are alone, he tells Carla that he'll take her away that day. Carla says it's too late for them to go now, though admits she doesn't know why she feels that way. The bell at the front door rings and Meister tells Paul to take Carla upstairs, while he answers the door. Their visitors are Namarof, Kanof, and a couple of constables, and Namaroff comes in, asking to see Paul. He tells Meister that he's there because Carla was seen on the property and Meister decides not to be coy, letting on that he knows about Carla's amnesia and how potentially dangerous it could be. Paul comes downstairs and when Namaroff demands to know where Carla is, he's told that she's not there. Not believing him, Namaroff orders Kanof and his men to search the house, something Meister tries to prevent but is forced to comply when he's shown a search warrant. Kanof and the constables head upstairs, while Namaroff warns Paul that he intends to charge him with kidnapping if Carla isn't found. That's when Meister confronts Namaroff with the knife Ratoff tried to use to kill Paul and demands to know why he wants Paul out of the way, but he's forced to stand down when Kanof pulls his gun on him. Kanof then tells Namaroff that they've searched every inch of the house but Carla is nowhere to be seen. With no other options, they reluctantly leave. Once they're gone, Meister asks Paul where Carla is and he reveals that he's arranged for her to take a train to Leipzig.

Back at the institution, Namaroff, after some anxious waiting, learns from Ratoff that the police haven't found Carla and they'll stop searching in an hour, since it's a full moon. After Ratoff leaves, Namaroff sits down in his sitting room, aghast of what might happen to Carla. Meanwhile, Paul phones the train station and learns that Carla never arrived. He believes she was caught before she could reach the station but Meister still holds onto his theory about Carla and Megaera. Paul attempts to leave to search for Carla, refusing to wait until morning as Meister tells him, forcing the professor to slap him across the face to keep him from leaving. But, later that night, after Meister has fallen asleep, Paul slips out of the house through his bedroom window and quietly makes his way past the window. He also manages to avoid a police coach that comes into the yard in front of the millhouse and sneaks through the gates. The police disembark from the coach and awaken Meister by ringing the bell. He groggily answers the door, only for Kanof and his men to push their way in. Kanof announces he's there to arrest Paul on the charge of kidnapping Carla and orders Meister to bring him downstairs. Reluctantly, Meister heads upstairs, but unbeknownst to him and the police, Paul is now at Castle Borski. The professor comes back down and tells them that Paul is gone. Kanof then demands he accompany them to the police station but he refuses, shoving away the constables who try to arrest him and rushing upstairs, where he climbs out of the same window as Paul.

With the full moon high in the sky, Paul enters the castle, calling for Carla. But, instead of her, he finds Namaroff, brandishing a scimitar. Paul grabs a long floor candelabra and the two of them engage in a deadly fight about the foyer, with Paul using the candelabra to block Namaroff's scimitar while also attempting to use it as a blunt weapon. Lightning flashes and wind blows through the castle as the fight escalates, with Namaroff managing to trap Paul up against a wall at one point, only for Paul to shove him to the floor and attempt to hit and impale him with the candelabra. A cutaway reveals that Megaera is watching the fight, as Paul this time manages to pin Namaroff against the wall, only to be shoved off. The fight makes its way up the stairs, Namaroff dodging the swings of Paul's candelabra, until he manages to disarm and choke him out, flinging him to the floor near a small section leading to a mirror on the wall. Though he's won the fight, Namaroff realizes he isn't alone and glances at Megaera. Shielding his eyes, he grabs his discarded scimitar and tries to make his way up to her and behead her, only to make the mistake of looking at her face and stagger away, wheezing heavily and grabbing onto a curtain as he collapses. Paul then awakens, gets to his feet, and sees Namaroff's body on the floor. He also sees Megaera's reflection in the mirror as she approaches from behind and tries to shield himself and keep from looking directly at her. But, as Meister arrives and sees what's happening, Paul turns around, looks at Megaera, and immediately falls back. Meister then grabs Namaroff's scimitar, approaches Megaera from behind, and slices her head off with one swing. Her head rolls down the stairs, coming to rest at the bottom, and as both Meister and Paul, who's turning to stone, watch, the snakes in her hair retract and the visage of Megaera's face melts away, revealing Carla's instead. In his last moments before succumbing to the Gorgon's power, Paul helplessly reaches at the head and moans Carla's name, while Meister assures him, "She's free now, Paul. She's free." Paul's life-force gives out and the film ends on a final shot of Carla's severed head.

Surprisingly, James Bernard's score for the film is often quite low-key, a stark contrast to his usual bombastic style, as we've seen before and will see in films to come. While his main title does start out quite strong, swelling as the first few credits play, it suddenly becomes very ethereal and haunting once the movie's title comes up, as you have an eerie, wailing vocalization that plays against a constantly thrumming piece and is accompanied by a rhythmic strumming that comes up now and again and increases in its force each time. That vocalizing is used many times throughout the film, effectively signaling the Gorgon's presence even if you don't see her, and there are times where you're unsure if what you're hearing is part of the score or if the characters themselves are actually hearing it. Bernard also makes use of what sounds like a church organ to underscore such moments as when Prof. Heitz goes up to Castle Borski and when Paul digs up his father's grave, and the moments between Paul and Carla have a very soft and sweet sound to them. Really, the only parts of the score that are bombastic are during the action scenes and the horror moments when someone comes face to face with Megaera, some of which have bits that sound like what was heard in the score for The Quatermass Xperiment; otherwise, Bernard actually managed to show some restraint in his scoring.

The Gorgon is often considered one of Hammer's overlooked gems but, while it has plenty of good ingredients, it's not one I absolutely love. The pros are plentiful: a great cast, with an exceptionally good performance by Chrisopher Lee, and more of a pointed attempt to actually develop the love between Paul and Carla; nicely atmospheric sets and locations; well-done cinematography; an interesting and unique spin on the title monster; and an effective and surprisingly understated music score by James Bernard. But, that said, the slow pace and "less is more" approach do start to work against the movie at a point, there are some plotholes here and there, the development of the main couple's relationship could have used just one more scene to really sell it, it would have been nice to be able to experience what happens to Carla through her own perspective, and the Gorgon herself doesn't look that great when you see her full on at the end of the movie. It's a film that's worth your time if you're a fan of Gothic horror, Hammer, or Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, but I don't think it quite reaches the heights of some of the studio's undisputed classics or even many of their well done, "second tier" films.