By Terry Sherwood
Forbidden sexuality, blood, cleavage, dashing heroes and often” the most evil and terrible creature to have ever set his seal on civilization’ were just coming attraction trailers for “A Hammer Film”. The thrills, the fun, and the naughty are all present in the documentary Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters.
During the early fifties to the seventies, Britain’s Hammer Studios created or resurrected in some inventive ways that didn’t follow the preceding films, Count Dracula, the Mummy and Frankenstein’s Monster concentrating more on the Baron than the creature. The studio produced, later imitated a series of uniquely British gothic-toned horror films that grew to worldwide prominence and have confirmed fans worldwide. Hammer Studios’ music, magazines, books, posters, living actors and technicians still inspire devotion and entertainment
In ninety swift minutes, “rare footage and expert insights from brilliantly articulate UK authors Jonathan Rigby, Wayne Kinsey, and David Pirie along with surviving Hammer female actors Madaline Smith, Martine Bestwick, and Caroline Munro deliver loving anecdotes and perspective of what it was like to work for ‘The Family’ of Hammer. Hammer executives Michael Carreras, Tony Hinds, writer Jimmy Sangster, and actors Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Veronica Carlson, and others appear in the film, drawing footage from numerous other documentaries.
Today filmmakers influenced by the work of Hammer Studios, including Tim Burton, John Landis, Joe Dante, John Logan and John Carpenter also appear.
The film has some wonderfully sad insights like Michael Carreras’s single-handed battle to keep the brand alive in the early seventies with gambles, and business decisions to compete in a changing market. How something as simple as a studio move from the friendly confines of Bray studios to Pinewood affected the output. The debacle involved the ‘purchase’ of the small Tigon Studios that was thought to save Hammer Films. The exiting of several key personnel, actors and production people like Tony Hinds led to the descent into gratuitous nudity at the hands of producer Michael Style.
The present holder of Hammer’s legacy John Gore outlines the vision and the proud past that will be upheld in the studio’s current resurrection. Entertaining, and informative for those who may not know the story. One of the funniest moments is a sequence during the end credits with Madeline Smith cracking up in a good way. Like the Forry Ackerman cries in Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine of “Lugosi Lives’ and “Lon Chaney Shall Not Die’ the inclusion of a special unexpected AI kicker at the end single-handedly moves Hammer Studios into today
Peter Cushing once remarked in Dracula, ‘I am not unacquainted with evil”. Hammer Studios influenced my early enjoyment of the horror film. Let it be known one of my favourites is the much-maligned The Evil of Frankenstein. These were your old friends the monsters, the sumptuous sets, the dramatic music, the lovely women, the villains, the Heros of a ‘good fight”. Hammer: Heroes, Legends and Monsters is a great primer served with a read jest, a nod to the past and savvy about the future. Let the new thrills and chills begin.
Bloody Flicks 