hammer horror films actors

Hammer horror films are legendary for doing a lot with a little, while almost magically repurposing constraint to fuel creativity. [18] In the meantime, Hammer produced another Quatermass -style horror film, X the Unknown, originally intended as part of the series until Kneale denied them permission to use his characters (the writer is known to have disliked Donlevy's performance as Quatermass). The Satanic Rites of Dracula, then called Dracula is Dead... and Well and Living in London, indulged the turn toward self-parody suggested by the title, with some humour appearing in the script, undercutting any sense of horror. The company name came from Hinds' stage name, Will Hammer, which he had taken from the area of London in which he lived, Hammersmith.[7]. For the next production, Dr Morelle - The Case of the Missing Heiress (another radio adaptation), Hammer rented Dial Close, a 23 bedroom mansion beside the River Thames, at Cookham Dean, Maidenhead. Barbara Shelley — the Hammer icon known as "the first leading lady of British horror" — has died. “When I first started doing Hammer, all the so-called classic actors looked down on the horror film. were not prepared to back a film made by Rosenberg and Subotsky, who had just one film to their credit. Neither did I. Lee has been in 266 films since 1948: that’s impressive. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. 1. Plans were made to shoot the film in Eastmancolor – a decision which caused worry at the BBFC. Hammer House of Horror Edit. Jul 23, 2017 - A photo tribute to actors and actresses that made films for Hammer Pictures--the "House of Horror". In 2000, the studio was bought by a consortium including advertising executive and art collector Charles Saatchi and publishing millionaires Neil Mendoza and William Sieghart. The Horror of Hammer cast list. Hammer began looking for alternatives, and with the success of The Curse of Frankenstein signed with Columbia Pictures to distribute The Revenge of Frankenstein and two films from the defaulted a.a.p. Hammer films had always sold, in part, on their violent and sexual content. In a break from their cinema format, these self-contained episodes featured plot twists which usually saw the protagonists fall into the hands of that episode's horror at the end. After a few quiet years, the film The Lodge had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 25 January 2019. Shelley as she appeared in 1964 TV series Rupert of Hentzau. Hammer Films had commercial success with some atypical output during this period, with film versions of several British TV situation comedies, most notably the ITV series On the Buses (1971). During the production of Dick Barton Strikes Back (1948), it became apparent that the company could save a considerable amount of money by shooting in country houses instead of studios. In addition a great deal of polishing and additional material was needed, as the short script had an estimated running time of just 55 minutes, far less than the minimum of 90 minutes needed for distribution in the U.K. The Horror of Hammer cast members have done many other films so be sure to check out the filmographies and individual pages of the stars of The Horror of Hammer. Valerie Leon. Meanwhile, George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) had set a new standard for graphic violence in horror films. [40] Hammer was not the same without him; it responded to the new reality by bringing in new writers and directors, testing new characters, and attempting to rejuvenate their vampire and Frankenstein films with new approaches to familiar material. [12] All were filmed at Marylebone Studios during 1947. Work continued on the script for Dracula, and the second draft was submitted to the BBFC. All the stories were set in contemporary England. Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby was a successful example of psychological horror, while Bonnie and Clyde and The Wild Bunch exposed mainstream audiences to more explicit gore, and were more expertly staged than Hammer films. We must have a great deal more restraint, and much more done by onlookers' reactions instead of by shots of 'pulsating obscenity', hideous scars, hideous sightless faces, etc, etc. The film was unexpectedly popular, and led to the popular 1957 sequel Quatermass 2 – again adapted from one of Kneale's television scripts, this time by Kneale and with a budget double that of the original: £92,000. The film was directed by Terence Fisher, with a look that belied its modest budget. Hammer Horror Edit. length as their previous series, but it was decided to expand them to feature-length to market them as 'movies of the week' in the US. Christopher Lee returned as Dracula for the following six films, which employed ingenuity in finding new ways to resurrect the Count. [32] The academic Christopher Frayling writes, “Dracula introduced fangs, red contact lenses, décolletage, ready-prepared wooden stakes and – in the celebrated credits sequence – blood being spattered from off-screen over the Count's coffin.”[33] The film magazine Empire ranked Lee's portrayal as Dracula the 7th Greatest Horror Movie Character of All Time. Audrey Field reported on 10 October 1956: "We are concerned about the flavour of this script, which, in its preoccupation with horror and gruesome detail, goes far beyond what we are accustomed to allow even for the 'X' category. You can use the actors in this list to create a new list, re-rank it to fit your views, then share it on Facebook, Twitter or any other social networks you belong to. "Altogether this is a horrific film and sometimes a crude film, but by no means an unimpressive piece of melodramatic storytelling" wrote one critic of Dracula in The Times in 1958. The Horror of Hammer cast members have done many other films so be sure to check out the filmographies and individual pages of the stars of The Horror of Hammer. The number of set-ups scripted is quite out of proportion to the length of the screenplay, and we suggest that your rewrites are done in master scene form. I am afraid we can give no assurance that we should be able to pass a film based on the present script and a revised script should be sent us for our comments, in which the overall unpleasantness should be mitigated. Establishing the fanged vampire in popular culture, Lee also introduced a dark, brooding sexuality to the character. Also in 1951, Hammer and Exclusive signed a four-year production and distribution contract with Robert Lippert, an American film producer. These latter films were not successful and drew fire not only from critics but from Christopher Lee himself, who refused to appear in any more Dracula films after these. [43] "[23], Regardless of the BBFC's stern warnings, Hinds supervised the shooting of an unchanged script.[24]. The brand is still alive but no one has invested in it for a long time. British horror actress Barbara Shelley has died after being diagnosed with COVID-19. “Hammer was like a family, a very talented family… with a wonderful atmosphere on the set and a wonderful sense of humour,” said Shelley, who born Barbara Kowin in London in 1932. 's Eliot Hyman, through another of his companies, Seven Arts (which later merged with Warner Bros., now the successor-in-interest to a.a.p.). [2] Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies, as well as, in later years, television series. According to an article in Variety detailing the transaction, the new Hammer Films will be run by former Liberty Global execs Simon Oakes and Marc Schipper. During its most successful years, Hammer dominated the horror film market, enjoying worldwide distribution and considerable financial success. Barbara Shelley, best known for her roles in Hammer horror films and Doctor Who, passed away at the age of 88 after contracting coronavirus (COVID-19). [15] Five films were produced there: Man in Black (1949), Room to Let (1949), Someone at the Door (1949), What the Butler Saw (1950), The Lady Craved Excitement (1950). Exclusive survived and on 20 July 1937 purchased the leasehold on 113-117 Wardour Street, and continued to distribute films made by other companies. She was 88. In addition to holding the rights to over 300 Hammer films, De Mol's company plans to restart the studio. The running time varied from 69 to 73 minutes. Although interested in the script, a.a.p. Once again it starred both Peter Cushing (as John Banning) and Christopher Lee (as Kharis the Mummy), and was directed by Terence Fisher from a screenplay from Jimmy Sangster. Simon Oakes, who took over as CEO of the new Hammer, said, "Hammer is a great British brand — we intend to take it back into production and develop its global potential. The sets are not marked clearly on the shot headings, neither is DAY or NIGHT specified in a number of cases. Questions of guilt circulate in these films, where the virtuous can be transformed into vampires through one moment of sexual weakness...[52], This was a fantasy, science fiction and supernatural anthology series which dealt with normal people in everyday situations that found themselves having to experience something out of the ordinary. The new organization acquired the Hammer group's film library, consisting of 295 pictures. Each subsequent movie in the series contains elements that do not relate to (or flatly contradict) the events of the movie that went before, whilst the characteristics of Cushing's Baron vary wildly from film to film, resulting in a series that does not progress as a self-contained narrative cycle. In 1950, Hammer moved again to Gilston Park, a country club in Harlow Essex, which hosted The Black Widow, The Rossiter Case, To Have and to Hold and The Dark Light (all 1950). Hammer made its first color horror film in 1957, and the color was blood red. For the song by Kate Bush, see, For a complete list of films by Hammer Film Productions, see. Hammer's horror films were often praised by critics for their visual style, although rarely taken seriously. The Invisible Man was never produced. And of course, some of the stake-work is prohibitive."[27]. During the late 1960s and 1970s, the saturation of the horror film market by competitors and the loss of American funding forced changes to the previously lucrative Hammer formula, with varying degrees of success. However, only 1/3rd of Hammer films were horror! In April 2012, the company announced it was to make a sequel to The Woman in Black titled The Woman in Black: Angel of Death. Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. All the other things I did, nobody remembers those. As a consequence of the contract with Robert Lippert, American actor Brian Donlevy was imported for the lead role and the title was changed to The Quatermass Xperiment to cash in on the new X certificate for horror films. Hammer is synonymous with horror, after defining the genre in Britain with classics such as Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein and The Mummy, which spawned numerous sequels. (15 Items), Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror. serial. Van Helsing to battle vampire Baron Meinster (David Peel) and the film makes several direct references to the 1958 original. The film is titled Wake Wood and was scheduled for release in the United Kingdom in the Autumn of 2009. It was given a limited UK/Ireland theatrical release in March 2011. 1. In 1980, Hammer Films created an anthology series for British television, Hammer House of Horror. The series featured a different kind of horror each week, including witches, werewolves, ghosts, devil worship and voodoo, but also included non-supernatural horror themes such as cannibalism, confinement and serial killers. Christopher Lee grew increasingly disillusioned with the direction the character was being taken and with the poor quality of later scripts, although he did improve these slightly himself by adding lines of dialogue from the original novel. In 2010, Hammer, in partnership with Overture Films and Relativity Media, released Let Me In, a remake of Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In.[46]. The Mummy went into general release on 23 October 1959 and broke the box-office records set by Dracula the previous year, both in Great Britain and the U.S. when it was released there in December.[35]. Tributes have been paid to the Hammer Horror film star and Doctor Who actress Barbara Shelley, … The Best! The project was handed to Tony Hinds, who was less impressed with the script than Michael Carreras, and whose vision for the film was a simple black-and-white 'quickie' made in three weeks. In 2003, for example, the studio announced plans to work with Australian company Pictures in Paradise to develop new horror films for the DVD and cinema market. "[21], Further revisions were made to the script, and a working title of Frankenstein and the Monster was chosen. [47] In February 2012, the Hammer and Alliance Films adaptation of The Woman in Black was released. Until The Curse of Frankenstein, horror films had not shown blood in a graphic way, or when they did, it was concealed by monochrome photography. Hammer's financial success also meant the winding-down of the parent film distribution company Exclusive, leaving Hammer to concentrate on filmmaking.[26]. [3] The company announced plans to begin making films again after this, but none were produced. Also in 2012, Hammer and Alliance Films announced two more films going into production during 2012, entitled The Quiet Ones and Gaslight. Towards the end of 1951, the one-year lease on Down Place expired and with its growing success Hammer looked towards more conventional studio-based productions. Michael Carreras' letter to Max Rosenberg, quoted in Kinsey, p51. The film tells the story of Henry Henry, an unemployed London street musician, and the title was a "playful tribute" to Alexander Korda's The Private Life of Henry VIII which was Britain's first Academy Award for Best Picture nominee in 1934. They absolutely ooze with beautiful, vivid artistry, akin to Guillermo Del Toro. Christopher Lee. 2. With a handful of tools – iconic actors, small budgets, simple sets, beautiful heroines, and charismatic heroes – Hammer consistently nailed it, delivering one memorable horror film … [29] However, recent research suggests that the issue of who exactly funded Dracula is still not entirely clear (see Barnett, ‘Hammering out a Deal: The Contractual and Commercial Contexts of The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958)’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, published online 19 November 2013). They must take it away and prune. They eventually entered talks with Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.) Hammer moved into the Exclusive offices in 113-117 Wardour Street, and the building was rechristened "Hammer House".[14]. On 10 May 2007, it was announced that Dutch producer John De Mol had purchased the Hammer Films rights via his private equity firm Cyrte Investments. Because of its major continuity problems, not only with other films of the series but also within itself, it is often considered not to be a part of the Dracula series, but rather another Hammer vampire film. Michael Gough. Certainly strong cautions will be necessary on shots of blood. The Evil of Frankenstein stars Cushing but due to an agreement made with Universal to more closely pastiche their version of the Frankenstein story, it re-tells the Baron's history in flashbacks that bear no resemblance to the two earlier Hammer Frankenstein films, and portrays the Baron with a very different personality, resulting in a film which permanently breaks the chronological continuation of the series. "[4] Since then, it has produced several films, including Let Me In (2010), The Resident (2011), The Woman in Black (2012) and The Quiet Ones (2014). Of her career in horror movies, she said in an interview in 2011: “When I first started doing Hammer, all the so-called classic actors looked down on the horror film. [48] The Quiet Ones tells the story of an unorthodox professor (Jared Harris) who uses controversial methods and leads his best students off the grid to take part in a dangerous experiment: to create a poltergeist. This castmember list includes all major roles and many bit parts for actors in this movie. Hammer produced seven/eight other Dracula films between 1960 and 1974: The first five were direct sequels to the original. See Kinsey (2005) p.86, Universal itself was having financial difficulties at the time. On 20 August 1958, the Daily Cinema reported: "Because of the fantastic business done world-wide by Hammer's Technicolor version of Dracula, Universal-International, its distributors, have made over to Jimmy Carreras' organisation, the remake rights to their entire library of classic films.". 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