Hammer Film Productions, the British company which made a series films from the mid-1950s until the 1970s is best known for which genre?
"Technicolor as ""a crucial element in avoiding the supporting-feature fate of Hammer's previous American releases...and to add an extra emphasis to the unprecedented levels of onscreen gore that the film offered as its major attraction."" Warner Bros. handled the film's global distribution. It grossed over $3 million around the world in its first year, and its influence on B-budget horror productions such as Corman's Poe adaptations for AIP and Italian films of the early 1960s would soon be evident (see ). Hammer, which had made a deal with Universal to ensure that the American major wouldn't sue for copyright infringement"
"(1931) and ""Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"" (1941). After World War II, emphasis shifted to films that more often drew inspiration from the insecurities of life, utilising new technology and dividing into three the subgenres of horror-of-personality, the horror-of-Armageddon and the horror-of-the-demonic. However, during the late 1950s and early 1960s, the British company Hammer Film Productions enjoyed huge international success from Technicolor films involving classic Gothic horror characters, often starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, particularly ""Dracula"" (1958), which resulted in many sequels into the 1970s. The 1983 vampire film ""The Hunger"" provided a highly influential modernised and urbanised version"
"the Atomic Age and the terror of social alienation. Across the pond, the United Kingdom emerged as a major producer of horror films. The Hammer company focused on the genre for the first time, enjoying huge international success from films involving classic horror characters which were shown in color for the first time. Drawing on Universal's precedent, many films produced were ""Frankenstein"" and ""Dracula"" remakes, followed by many sequels. Christopher Lee starred in a number of Hammer Horror films, including ""The Curse of Frankenstein"" (1957), which Professor Patricia MacCormac called the ""first really gory horror film, showing blood and guts"
"in several of these recycled scenes but was not credited. In the late 1950s, British Hammer Film Productions took up the ""Mummy"" theme, beginning with ""The Mummy"" (1959), which, rather than being a remake of the 1932 Karloff film, is based on Universal's ""The Mummy's Hand"" (1940) and ""The Mummy's Tomb"" (1942). Hammer's follow-ups — ""The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb"" (1964), ""The Mummy's Shroud"" (1966) and ""Blood from the Mummy's Tomb"" (1971) — are unrelated to the first film or even to each other. The much later Universal film ""The Mummy"" (1999) also suggests that it is a remake"
"Heiress (1949) and The Adventures of P.C. 49: Investigating the Case of the Guardian Angel (1949) two more early Hammer Film movies. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041236/?ref_=nv_sr_1 Celia (1949 film) Celia is a 1949 British comedy thriller film directed by Francis Searle and starring Hy Hazell, Bruce Lester and John Bailey. Made as a second feature by Hammer Films, it was based on a radio serial. An unemployed actress is persuaded by her private detective boyfriend to pose as a housekeeper at a country mansion to investigate suspicious events occurring there. Filming Location: Dial Close Court, (a large 23 bedroomed country house) at Winter"
"Lavender Hill Mob"" (1951) and ""The Ladykillers"" (1955), but the company ceased production in 1958, after the studios had already been bought by the BBC. Less restrictive censorship towards the end of the 1950s encouraged B-film producer Hammer Films to embark on their series of commercially successful horror films. Beginning with adaptations of Nigel Kneale's BBC science fiction serials ""The Quatermass Experiment"" (1955) and ""Quatermass II"" (1957), Hammer quickly graduated to ""The Curse of Frankenstein"" (1957) and ""Dracula"" (1958), both deceptively lavish and the first gothic horror films in colour. The studio turned out numerous sequels and variants, with English"
"growth of the privately owned company into the most successful British film company in the world. In 1944 he received an MBE. He was knighted in 1970. His son was the film director and producer Michael Carreras. James Carreras Sir James Carreras (30 January 1909–1990) was a British film producer, who, together with William Hinds, founded the legendary British film company Hammer Film Productions. Carreras managed the Oxford cinema ""Manchester"" before entering the distribution side of the film industry in 1934, when he joined Exclusive Films, formed by his father Enrique and William Hinds. During World War II Carreras saw"
"a memorable and famous whistled theme tune composed by Harry Robinson of Hammer Film Productions, and a creepy title sequence that featured a roller coaster filmed at night at a deserted amusement park (Battersea Park Fun Fair in the London Borough of Wandsworth, London). Journey to the Unknown Journey to the Unknown is a British anthology television series, produced by Hammer Film Productions and 20th Century Fox Television. It aired on ABC from September 26, 1968, to January 30, 1969. The series aired in the UK on the ITV network during 1969. The series has a fantasy, science fiction and"
"vampire from the Karnstein family, and is sometimes considered part of the same continuity, albeit set in England rather than Central Europe. The biology of the vampires in Hammer's Karnstein films is different from that of the Dracula series, as the Karnstein vampires can walk about in daylight and are immune to fire. Some of this is retained in the 1972 Hammer film ""Vampire Circus"". The Karnstein Trilogy The Karnstein Trilogy of vampire films were produced by Hammer Films, and were notable at the time for being somewhat daring in explicitly depicting lesbian themes. All three films were scripted by"
"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). In November 1934 William Hinds, a comedian and businessman, registered his film company, Hammer Productions Ltd. It was housed in a three-room office suite at Imperial House, Regent Street, London. The company name came from Hinds' stage name, Will Hammer, which he had taken from the area of London in which he lived, Hammersmith. Work began almost immediately on the first film, ""The Public Life of Henry the Ninth"" at the MGM/ATP studios, with filming"
"emerged as a major filmmaker in the 1940s with ""Brief Encounter"" (1945) and ""Great Expectations"" (1946), with his first big-screen epic ""The Bridge on the River Kwai"" (1957): these are ranked among the best British films. Towards the end of the 1950s, Hammer Films embarked on their series of influential and wildly successful horror films, including lavish colour versions of ""Frankenstein"" (1957), ""Dracula"" (1958) and ""The Mummy"" (1959), with actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee at the forefront. ""The Dam Busters"" (1955), recreates the true story of the RAF's raid on dams in Nazi Germany using Sir Barnes Wallis's invention"
"television serials. Production times were shortened and new features were largely shot on location in Buckinghamshire rather than the more expensive studio backlot. The 'Hammer House of Horror' television series, which appeared in September 1980, was Skeggs' brainchild and was well received in both the United States and the UK. Roy Skeggs Roy Skeggs is a former film producer for Hammer Films who is credited along with Brian Lawrence for revitalising the film company following receivership in 1979. Skeggs and Lawrence were former board members of Hammer Films who had resigned to form their own production company, Cinema Arts. When"
"James Carreras Sir James Carreras (30 January 1909–1990) was a British film producer, who, together with William Hinds, founded the legendary British film company Hammer Film Productions. Carreras managed the Oxford cinema ""Manchester"" before entering the distribution side of the film industry in 1934, when he joined Exclusive Films, formed by his father Enrique and William Hinds. During World War II Carreras saw combat and rose to Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1946 he returned as managing director of ""Exclusive Films"", where he co-produced ""Who Killed Van Loon?"" (1947). From 1949 to 1980 he was chairman of Hammer Film Productions. He oversaw the"
"with 20th Century Fox to produce films under the name Regal Pictures, often westerns or horrors, for it to distribute. Lippert Pictures Lippert Pictures was an American film production and distribution company controlled by Robert L. Lippert. It operated from 1945 under the initial title Screen Guild Productions before changing its name to Lippert in 1948. Lippert enjoyed success producing lower-budget films, occasionally interspersed with more prestigious projects with bigger-name stars. In the early 1950s, Lippert struck up an American distribution deal for Exclusive Films of Britain. The success of this company, subsequently renamed Hammer Films, boosted Lippert's fortunes until"
"early 1930s, while the music hall tradition strongly influenced film comedy into the 1940s with Will Hay and George Formby among the top comedy stars of the time. In England in the late 1940s, Ealing Studios achieved popular success as well as critical acclaim with a series of films known collectively as the ""Ealing comedies"", from 1947 to 1957. They usually included a degree of social comment, and featured ensemble casts which often included Alec Guinness or Stanley Holloway. Among the most famous examples were ""Kind Hearts and Coronets"" (1949), ""The Lavender Hill Mob"" (1951) and "" The Ladykillers"" (1955)."
"century. While film output peaked in 1936, the ""golden age"" of British cinema occurred in the 1940s, during which the directors David Lean, Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, Carol Reed and Richard Attenborough produced their most highly acclaimed work. Many postwar British actors achieved international fame and critical success, including: Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Peter Sellers and Ben Kingsley. A handful of the films with the largest-ever box office returns have been made in the United Kingdom, including the second and third highest-grossing film series (""Harry Potter"" and ""James Bond""). The identity of the British industry, and its relationship"
"and read by Toby Stephens. The BBC produced a completely new live recording of an original 1951 Dick Barton serial in June 2013, starring Tim Bentinck and Terry Molloy. http://www.bbcshop.com/dick-barton-live/invt/9781910281253 Beginning in 1948, the Hammer film company made three Dick Barton films, which were intended to be the beginning of a long-running series. Don Stannard, the star, was killed in a car crash in 1949, and Hammer decided to discontinue the series after the production of only three films. Hammer shelved plans to film the next Dick Barton film, ""Dick Barton in Africa"" written by John Gilling. In 1979, Southern"
"serialism. A chief example is ""The Wolf Man"" (1940), to which Salter and Skinner both contributed. The British Hammer horrors of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s owed their musical feel to composer James Bernard, whose pacey, often frenetic, jarring scores to films such as ""Dracula"" (1958), ""The Plague of the Zombies"" (1966) and ""The Devil Rides Out"" (1968) are among his best-known. Bernard was fond of using the score to play along with the title of the film—his three-note signature for Dracula can be sung, and by prefiguring it with another four notes, Bernard could underscore the main title of"
"The leaves fall, and the light shines golden and clear; compared with the well-lit contemporary look of the ""angry young men"" films, Hammer's mournful sumptuousness must have been even more striking. They play out a 1950s reverie of contagion, lust and post-Suez anxiety. Questions of guilt circulate in these films, where the virtuous can be transformed into vampires through one moment of sexual weakness... 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. 17 episodes of approximately 50 minutes each"
"Hammer Studios, with additional sections covering Anglo-Amalgamated's ""sadean trilogy"" (""Horrors of the Black Museum"", ""Circus of Horrors"" and ""Peeping Tom""), Amicus Productions, Don Sharp, John Gilling, Vernon Sewell, British science fiction films, Michael Reeves, and Pirie's thoughts on the possible future of the genre. A revised edition entitled ""A New Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema"" was published in 2008. A Heritage of Horror A Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema 1946-1972 is a 1973 book written by David Pirie analysing the horror films made by the British film industry and attempting to claim them as a legitimate"
"humour, it is entirely entertaining, if only mildly."" Of the actors, he wrote, ""An ideal Hayward is aloofly smooth and suitably chilly in a role he created in the original film,"" concluding that ""there’s a really good true Brit cast to support him."" The Saint's Return The Saint's Return (released in the US as The Saint's Girl Friday) is a British crime thriller from 1953, produced by Hammer Film Productions in London. It premiered in London under the original title on 12 October 1953 and was distributed in the UK by Hammer Films own distribution company, Exclusive Films. It was"
"was a notable revival in 20th-century Gothic horror films such the classic Universal monsters films of the 1930s, Hammer Horror films, and Roger Corman's . In Hindi cinema, the Gothic tradition was combined with aspects of Indian culture, particularly reincarnation, to give rise to an ""Indian Gothic"" genre, beginning with the films ""Mahal"" (1949) and ""Madhumati"" (1958). Modern Gothic horror films include ""Sleepy Hollow"", ""Interview with the Vampire"", ""Underworld"", ""The Wolfman"", ""From Hell"", ""Dorian Gray"", ""Let The Right One In"", ""The Woman in Black"", and ""Crimson Peak"". The 1960s Gothic television series ""Dark Shadows"" borrowed liberally from the Gothic tradition"
"style of horror in general. After several years in retirement, Terence Fisher died in June 1980 at the age of 76. The following is a list of the theatrical films in which Terence Fisher received screen credit. Television productions are not included. Terence Fisher Terence Fisher (23 February 1904 – 18 June 1980) was a British film director who worked most notably for Hammer Films. Fisher was one of the most prominent horror directors of the second half of the 20th century. He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full colour, and the sexual overtones and explicit"
"Film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classical film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. The term ""film noir"","
"Terence Fisher Terence Fisher (23 February 1904 – 18 June 1980) was a British film director who worked most notably for Hammer Films. Fisher was one of the most prominent horror directors of the second half of the 20th century. He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full colour, and the sexual overtones and explicit horror in his films, while mild by modern standards, were unprecedented in his day. His first major gothic horror film was ""The Curse of Frankenstein"" (1957), which launched Hammer's long association with the genre and made British actors Peter Cushing and Christopher"
"The Mummy (franchise) The Mummy is the title of several horror-adventure film series centered on an ancient Egyptian priest who is accidentally resurrected, bringing with him a powerful curse, and the ensuing efforts of heroic archaeologists to stop him. The original series of films consisted of six installments, which starred iconic horror actors such as Boris Karloff (only in the original one, as Imhotep); Tom Tyler and Lon Chaney Jr. as Kharis; and lastly Eddie Parker, who played Klaris, a cousin of Kharis. The series of films is part of the larger Universal Monsters series. In 1959, the British Hammer"
"Hammer (film) Hammer is a 1972 blaxploitation film directed by Bruce Clark. The film was released following the successes of ""Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song"" and ""Shaft"", notable 1971 films that popularized black cinema. It starred Fred Williamson as B.J. Hammer. Williamson went on to become a staple of the genre. B.J. Hammer is a boxer who rises up the ranks with help from the Mafia. However, Hammer doesn't realize that the help comes with a price: He is asked to throw a fight. Gangsters threaten to harm his girlfriend in an attempt to force him to go through with their"
"living a shared dream in which they are free to rape and murder - both of which they choose to do numerous times before the belated arrival of the police. During the mid-to-late 1970s, maverick directors such as Pete Walker and Norman J. Warren were trying to spice up the much-derided genre of British horror films. These films would later be dubbed ""New Wave"" British horror, on account that they pushed the boundaries of taste as much as was possible within the British Board of Film Classification's strict regime and were set in modern-day 1970s Britain and centered on 20-30"
"the James Bond films form a series. In some of the films, the Baron is a kindly, even heroic figure, while in others he is ruthless and cruel and clearly the villain of the piece. The Hammer Films series (and the actor playing The Creature) consisted of: In 1959, Hammer shot a half-hour pilot episode for a TV series to be called ""Tales of Frankenstein"", in association with Columbia Pictures. Anton Diffring played the Baron, and Don Megowan his creation. Curt Siodmak directed. The series was scrapped, largely because of the two companies's disagreement over what the basic thrust of"
"up the company in February 2001. Jason directs while his younger brother Jonathan produces. Watching Hammer Films was a passion for them both and equal to the terror as they half hid behind pillows was the thrill at being confronted by monsters, swirling mists and dark villainous characters. The love of Hammer progressed to film noir with its enigmatic shadows depicting world's where the good as well as the bad seemed to inhabit the same sinister environment. Darkness in varying forms is a strong trademark in their productions but they also have a lighter side which will be seen in"
"a script by Donne Avenell (based on the John Burke novelization). The cover of issue 2 featured a painting by Brian Lewis of the Baron being attacked by his creation. The Curse of Frankenstein The Curse of Frankenstein is a 1957 British horror film by Hammer Film Productions, loosely based on the novel ""Frankenstein"" (1818) 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 the studio's new versions of ""Dracula"" (1958) and ""The Mummy"" (1959), and established ""Hammer Horror"" as a distinctive brand of"
"Hammer House of Horror Hammer House of Horror is a British television series made in 1980. An anthology series created by Hammer Films in association with Cinema Arts International and ITC Entertainment, it consists of thirteen 51-minute episodes, originally broadcast on ITV. Each self-contained episode features a different kind of horror. These vary from witches, werewolves and ghosts to devil-worship and voodoo, but also include non-supernatural horror themes such as cannibalism, confinement and serial killers. In 2003 Channel 4 placed ""Hammer House of Horror"" at No. 50 in its ""100 Scariest Moments"" show. The clip shown was the children's party"
"gangster drama ""Get Carter"" (1971) starring Michael Caine. Alfred Hitchcock returned to Britain to shoot ""Frenzy"" (1972), Other productions such as Richard Attenborough's ""Young Winston"" (1972) and ""A Bridge Too Far"" (1977) met with mixed commercial success. The British horror film cycle associated with Hammer Film Productions, Amicus and Tigon drew to a close, despite attempts by Hammer to spice up the formula with added nudity and gore. Although some attempts were made to broaden the range of British horror films, such as with ""The Wicker Man"" (1973), these films made little impact at the box office, In 1976, British"