The Story of Hammer Films by Ingrid Pitt
Introduces Hammer and the people who set the company on the road to the Queen's Award for Industry. Every picture they made is briefly discussed with an appreciation of the cast of main characters.
Takes the story from the days of films based on radio series such as PC 49 and the mould breaking Quatermass Xperiment, right up to the start of the Horror dominated period of Dracula, and Frankenstein etc.
Takes the Hammer story through the difficult years of the Sixties. There are failures and triumphs. Although Hammer was fast becoming the word for Horror, the output varied from comedy through costume fests to melodrama. Highs like THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN, and THE CAMP ON BLOOD RIVER. Followed, of course, by the massively successful DRACULA in 1958 which shot Christopher Lee to fame. Lows were TEN SECONDS TO HELL and the critically mauled YESTERDAY'S ENEMY. By the end of the sixties Hammer was looking for new blood lines to investigate.
Part 4 of the Hammer Story takes it right up until the final film, THE LADY VANISHES. After this it was all television and broken promises. But watch this space. HAMMER is back in production.
(First published in MODEL & COLLECTORS MART).
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