Horror 2023 Countdown: Captain Clegg

 Captain Clegg (1962) dir. Peter Graham Scott, Hammer Film Productions 

Now this is a treat. 

1776

The Imogene, ship of the infamous Captain Clegg, makes dock at a remote island. A party goes ashore, but their reasons are less treasure and more revenge. A crewman (Milton Reid) assaulted and killed the captain's wife. The captain is less than pleased with this and orders the man mutilated and left to die on the beach, which he probably would have if not for the efforts of Captain Collier (Patrick Allen), a Royal Navy officer assigned to hunt pirates. 

1796

In the quant little English back country of the Romney Marsch and the even smaller village of Dymchurch, a man (Sydny Bromley) runs for his life among the bog when shadowy creatures surround him. He promptly drops dead of fright. 

Captain Collier, meanwhile, is a bit put out. That dead man was his only informant regarding the rampant smuggling that plagues the area and the rest of the simple country folk clearly aren't interested in helping him, mostly due to fear of the night creatures but in reality most of the folk work for the smugglers. Collier ignores such superstition, after all, he knows that the pirate Captain Clegg was hanged in that every village and buried there too. 

The village consists quite a few people, but the notable ones include Parson Blyss (Peter Cushing), who actually runs the smugglers.

Rash (Martin Benson)-innkeeper, plus his inn connects via a tunnel to:

Mipps (Michael Ripper)-undertaker and Blyss's second in command

Harry Cobtree (Oliver Reed), son of the local squire (Derek Francis) and eager follower of Blyss

There's also Rash's ward, Imogene (Yvonne Romain) who's in love with Harry. 

Collier wants to crush the smuggling rings but he can't help but notice his man; the former Clegg crewman by the way, seems to fly into a homicidal fury every he sees Blyss. Can Collier figure it out? Will Imogene and Harry be together?

Man, what a story about this one. Sold as Night Creatures (the America title) and it was going to be an adaption of I am Legend. Disney also figured into this too, adapting the story for their Wonderful World of Color so Hammer had to really work make their version different. I'd say they succeeded.