It’s been 30 years since Hammer Films last released a movie. That film was a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1939 classic THE LADY VANISHES done in collaboration with The Rank Organisation who provided the funding. Rank had just scored a big success with a remake of Hitchcock’s THE 39 STEPS and wanted to try their hand at another film. Hammer was desperate for funding so agreed to make the movie. In an attempt to sell it in America, Cybill Shepherd and Elliot Gould were cast in the film, both of whose careers were at a downturn at that time. Even casting Angela Lansbury as the title character was to no avail. The film resoundingly flopped both sides of the Atlantic was the end of movie making for both companies.
However, like Christopher Lee in his many Hammer Dracula movies, the company has risen from the grave and is back in the business of film making. By the time you read this, be on the lookout for LET ME IN, an English language version of the Swedish vampire vehicle LET THE RIGHT ONE IN which has created quite the buzz in British film circles. Creating even more buzz is the announcement that Daniel Radcliffe has been signed to star in a new version of one of the greatest ghost story movies ever made, THE WOMAN IN BLACK. Nowhere has the news been better received than among old school horror movie aficionados who remember Hammer’s heyday which lasted from 1954-1973.
Hammer first saw the light of day in 1934. Founded by English Music Hall artist William Hinds whose went by the stage name Will Hammer, Hinds and a Spanish immigrant named Enrique Carreras created Exclusive Films one year later to act as distributor for their movies. That same year they made and released THE MYSTERY OF THE MARY CELESTE (edited down and renamed THE PHANTOM SHIP in America) with Bela Lugosi. This was a portent of things to come. Unfortunately their other movies didn’t do well and 3 years later in 1937 Hammer closed its doors while Exclusive remained intact and continued to distribute other companies’ movies. For the next 10 years Hammer’s film productions stood dormant.
In 1947 Enrique’s son James Carreras joined the family business and decided to revive Hammer as a film producing unit. He enlisted Anthony (Tony) Hinds, Will’s son, and together they created the Hammer identity while saving money by using an old country estate as their studio. From 1951-1966, the now legendary Bray Studios produced Hammer’s greatest movies. Their successful run began in 1955 with THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT, a black & white film based on a BBC sci-fi television program. This was followed by 2 sequels and then, in 1957, they hit real pay dirt. Their Technicolor production THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, a remake of Universal’s 1931 FRANKENSTEIN, was a “monster” hit.
The success of CURSE created a world wide market for color horror films and Hammer quickly put together a follow-up. Returning to Universal for their inspiration they released a remake of DRACULA (1931). It was even more of a hit than CURSE. Hammer had made movies in other genres such as Film Noir and Action-Adventure but following the overwhelming success of DRACULA, the die was cast. Sci-fi, psychological thrillers, and especially 19th century period horror films known as Gothics were cranked out regularly. Hammer helped to revive the stagnant post World War II British movie industry and their success made them the most successful independent film company in the world.
The leads in the two films, Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein, the creator of the Monster, and Christopher Lee as Dracula, became internationally recognized stars along with a host of British character actors whose faces and voices would become familiar to moviegoers even if their names did not. Hammer operated like an extended family. They used the same technical personnel (cameramen, set designers, composers) on every movie who, along with the performers, helped to provide a remarkable consistency and distinct appearance to all of their films. Such consistency hadn’t been employed since the old Hollywood Studio System of the 1930s and 40s.
However, changing tastes leaning toward more explicit horror films led by NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968) and THE EXORCIST (1973) along with the withdrawal of American financing and distribution, created a downturn of the company’s fortunes. After 1974, Hammer films either lost money or the profits went to pay off their creditors. In 1979, Michael Carreras, the third generation of his family to run Hammer, was forced to throw in the towel and the company came under new ownership for the first time in their existence. Hammer went on to produce 2 series for TV in the early 1980s, HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR and HAMMER HOUSE OF MYSTERY & SUSPENSE, and then ceased operation.
Hammer was then sold a number of times to various companies only interested in issuing their back catalogue of old movies to home video. In 2008 a Dutch group of investors revived Hammer as a movie making organization and began to produce new films. Their first effort was the vampire film BEYOND THE RAVE followed by the psychological thriller THE RESIDENT, and WAKE WOOD about a community where the dead return to life but only for a limited time. All three were modest successes. The initial returns for LET ME IN have already surpassed those 3 movies combined so Hammer is off and running again. As someone who has always enjoyed Hammer films, it’s great to see them back in business.
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UPDATE 2024: Since I first published this article in 2012, Hammer made 4 more films including THE WOMAN IN BLACK (2012) which became their most successful movie ever followed by the sequel WOMAN IN BLACK: ANGEL OF DARKNESS (2014) which tanked. After one more title THE LODGE (2019), the company changed hands once again in 2023 and is undergoing a reboot. Hammer has just produced a new version of DR JEKYLL with Eddie Izzard as a female version of the titular character. This film has been made available for streaming on various outlets and was released in the U.K. on October 31. So far its box office performance has been underwhelming.
The Capsule Critic 