Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classic horror characters such as Baron Victor Frankenstein, Count Dracula, and the Mummy, which Hammer reintroduced to audiences by filming them in vivid colour for the first time. Hammer also produced science fiction, thrillers, film noir and comedies, as well as, in later years, television series.
The Mummy is a 1959 British horror film, directed by Terence Fisher and starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. It was written by Jimmy Sangster and produced by Michael Carreras and Anthony Nelson Keys for Hammer Film Productions. The film was distributed in the U.S. in 1959 on a double bill with either the Vincent Price film The Bat or the Universal film Curse of the Undead.
Dracula is a 1958 British gothic horror film directed by Terence Fisher and written by Jimmy Sangster based on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel of the same name. The first in the series of Hammer Horror films starring Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, the film also features Peter Cushing as Doctor Van Helsing, along with Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh, and John Van Eyssen. In the United States, the film was retitled Horror of Dracula to avoid confusion with the U.S. original by Universal Pictures, 1931's Dracula.
Dorothy Ann Todd was an English film, television and stage actress who achieved international fame when she starred in The Seventh Veil (1945). From 1949 to 1957 she was married to David Lean who directed her in The Passionate Friends (1949), Madeleine (1950), and The Sound Barrier (1952). She was a member of The Old Vic theatre company and in 1957 starred in a Broadway play. In her later years she wrote, produced and directed travel documentaries.
Susan Elizabeth Strasberg was an American stage, film, and television actress. Thought to be the next Hepburn-type ingenue, she was nominated for a Tony Award at age 18, playing the title role in The Diary of Anne Frank. She appeared on the covers of LIFE and Newsweek in 1955. A close friend of Marilyn Monroe and Richard Burton, she wrote two best-selling tell-all books. Her later career primarily consisted of slasher and horror films, followed by TV roles, by the 1980s.
The Curse of Frankenstein is a 1957 British horror film by Hammer Film Productions, loosely based on the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley. It was Hammer's first colour horror film, and the first of their Frankenstein series. Its worldwide success led to several sequels, and it was also followed by new versions of Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959), establishing "Hammer Horror" as a distinctive brand of Gothic cinema.
James Henry Kinmel Sangster was a British screenwriter and director, most famous for his work on the initial horror films made by the British company Hammer Films, including The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958).
Dracula Has Risen from the Grave is a 1968 British supernatural horror film directed by Freddie Francis and produced by Hammer Film Productions. It is the fourth entry in Hammer's Dracula series, and the third to feature Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, the titular vampire. The film stars Rupert Davies as a clergyman who exorcises Dracula's castle, and in doing so, unwittingly resurrects the Count back from the dead.
Dracula: Prince of Darkness is a 1966 British gothic supernatural horror film directed by Terence Fisher. The film was produced by Hammer Film Productions, and is the third entry in Hammer's Dracula series, as well as the second to feature Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, the titular vampire. It also stars Andrew Keir, Francis Matthews, and Barbara Shelley.
The Gorgon is a 1964 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher for Hammer Films. It stars Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Richard Pasco and Barbara Shelley.
Scars of Dracula is a 1970 British horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker for Hammer Films. It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, along with Dennis Waterman, Jenny Hanley, Patrick Troughton, and Michael Gwynn.
Paranoiac is a 1963 British psychological thriller film directed by Freddie Francis, and starring Janette Scott, Oliver Reed, Sheila Burrell, and Alexander Davion. The screenplay, written by Jimmy Sangster, was based loosely on the 1949 crime novel Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey.
Taste the Blood of Dracula is a 1970 British supernatural horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions. Directed by Peter Sasdy from a script by Anthony Hinds, it is the fifth installment in Hammer's Dracula series, and the fourth to star Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, the titular vampire. The film also features Geoffrey Keen and Gwen Watford.
Lust for a Vampire, also known as Love for a Vampire or To Love a Vampire, is a 1971 British Hammer Horror film directed by Jimmy Sangster, starring Ralph Bates, Barbara Jefford, Suzanna Leigh, Michael Johnson, and Yutte Stensgaard. It was given an R rating in the United States for some violence, gore, strong adult content and nudity. It is the second film in the Karnstein Trilogy, loosely based on the 1872 Sheridan Le Fanu novella Carmilla. It was preceded by The Vampire Lovers (1970) and followed by Twins of Evil (1971). The three films do not form a chronological development, but use the Karnstein family as the source of the vampiric threat and were somewhat daring for the time in explicitly depicting lesbian themes.
William Frank Jones, known professionally as Christopher Jones, was an American actor. He was best known for his starring roles in the films Wild in the Streets (1968) and Ryan's Daughter (1970), and for playing the title role in the 1960s television series The Legend of Jesse James.
The Man Who Could Cheat Death is a 1959 British horror film, directed by Terence Fisher and starring Anton Diffring, Hazel Court, and Christopher Lee. Jimmy Sangster adapted the screenplay from the play The Man in Half Moon Street by Barré Lyndon, which had been previously filmed in 1945. The Man Who Could Cheat Death was produced by Michael Carreras and Anthony Nelson Keys for Hammer Film Productions. It was released in the US on 19 August 1959 and in the UK on 30 November 1959.
The Terror of the Tongs is a 1961 British adventure film directed by Anthony Bushell and starring Geoffrey Toone, Christopher Lee and Yvonne Monlaur.
Fear in the Night is a 1972 British psychological horror film directed, produced, and co-written by Jimmy Sangster and produced by Hammer Film Productions. The film stars Judy Geeson as a psychologically-fragile woman who, upon relocating to a rural boarding school where her husband has taken a job, finds herself being tormented by a mysterious figure with a prosthetic arm. Peter Cushing and Joan Collins, respectively, also star as the school's mysterious headmaster and his wife.
Crescendo is a 1970 British horror psychological thriller film directed by Alan Gibson and starring Stefanie Powers, James Olson, Margaretta Scott, Jane Lapotaire and Joss Ackland. It was made by Hammer Film Productions.
Frankenstein is a British horror-adventure film series produced by Hammer Film Productions. The films, loosely based on the 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, are centered on Baron Victor Frankenstein, who experiments in creating a creature beyond human. The series is part of the larger Hammer horror oeuvre.
