Blood Orange (1953)

The latest in Hammer's series of posh whistles and bells releases is what many will consider to be this curious choice from before the studio made it big with THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT (1955) and the gothics that followed. It's a film not many will have heard of and while it will have Hammer fans nodding at some familiar faces in the cast and names in the credits, it's not a film to expect too much from if you've never seen it before.

Tom Conway plays Tom Conway (yes, really) a private investigator who works for Mr Mercedes (Eric Pohlman), a man who lends jewellery to a fashion house for their exhibitions and gives them a percentage should anyone wish to buy it. When some of the jewellery is stolen and the police (headed by Richard Wattis) are called in, things rapidly get worse when women wearing the house's 'Blood Orange' dress start dying. Is Mr Mercedes behind it? Is it the owners of the fashion house? Or perhaps one or more of the other models?

BLOOD ORANGE is what one can kindly call a solid mystery picture of the period and is strictly 'B' programmer stuff. In fact if you're expecting something of the quality of Merton Park's slightly later series of Edgar Wallace pictures you're going to be disappointed. It's directed by Terence Fisher but there's little evidence of the style he would bring to his later gothics. Cast-wise familiar faces also include Michael Ripper and Roger Delgado, and fans will spot Jimmy Sangster and Renee Glynne's name in the credits. 

Hammer have done their best to dress BLOOD ORANGE up with a wealth of extras. You get UK and US versions of the film, the latter under the title THREE STOPS TO MURDER and with a slightly different title sequence but the running time is the same for both. There's a different commentary track for each. If you don't know much about Hammer and Exclusive Films then start with the track by Lucy Bolton and Phuong Le. Advanced students of Hammer (and British Film) will want to go straight to the commentary from Kim Newman and Barry Forshaw. 

Otherwise extras include Dressed to Kill in which David Pirie and Wayne Kinsey look at the work of producer Michael Carreras during Hammer's 'early' days. I'm Just a Girl! has Alice Lowe discussing the film's male gaze, while The House of Glamour has fashion historian Liz Tregenza discussing the fashion industry at the time the film was made. The ABC of British B! has three academics sitting round a table (or rather on stools) discussing British B movies of the period. Finally there's a still gallery.

Also included in the set (but not provided for review) is a handsome-looking paperback featuring new writing on the making of the film, Exclusive Films, Hammer's femme fatales, Tom Conway, James Carreras. As with their release of SHATTER some will find it's less the film and more all these extras that will make BLOOD ORANGE an essential purchase.

Hammer's BLOOD ORANGE will be released in a limited collector's edition including both UHD and Blu-ray transfers of the film as well as a book and slipcase on Monday 11th August 2025