Hammer films began in 1947 under the stewardship of James Carreras and Anthony Hinds. The name Hammer came from Hind’s Father who’s real name was Will Hammer. Originally the studio began life making films from private eye thrillers and radio based shows aimed at male audiences. By the mid 50s they had successfully produced a Sc-Fi film titled The Quatermass Experiment. This film evolved into a trilogy about the very British Scientist Professor Quatermass who thwarted the attempts of aliens to conquer Earth.
The Hammer Rises
Hammer soon found that they had a target audience of young British males to tap into the wallets of using a new Hammer horror-fest concept! Three factors were involved in this marketing coup, firstly there was a more moderate and affluent post war middle class, youngsters had more free time and there was a relaxing of the censorship laws in Britain.
Hammer were also the original British exploiters of the market by advertising Quatermass as The Quatermass Xperiment in 1955 to coincide with the adult X certificate it received from censors. These three factors plus their clever marketing allowed Hammer to home in on the horror genre and turn it into a relative gold mine, certainly in the early years.
Horror Product Begins
Beginning with a re-imagining of the acclaimed Universal horrors of the 1930s Hammer released The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) to impressive box office receipts and much reception. The reception was certainly mixed, warmly received by audiences but critically rejected by many in the establishment The reaction gave Hammer something they were quick to seize on which was great interest and attention in their horror product.
Respect to Universal
Hammer took many of the traditional horror icons made famous by Universal in the 1930s and 1940s such as the already mentioned Frankenstein along with other monster characters like Dracula and The Mummy. What Hammer did well with their own versions was to pay homage to the Universal classics but in their own unique way. The Universal films were made in black and white and very atmospheric relying on suggestion and impression to scare audiences due to the restrictions on censorship at that time.
Hammer showed their interpretations in glorious colour deliberately focusing on the use of red both in clothing and in the blood spattered gory effects used. The relaxing of censorship allowed blood and violence to be shown in a way not yet seen in the 1950s. The other clever aspect to Hammer's horror was a very Gothic setting which was their royal seal in the early years of their horror films.
Name Changes
To allow integration across the Atlantic Hammer also wisely linked up with American Studios doing distribution deals with the likes of Universal and Warner Brother's. When it came to titling their films for the American market they renamed them such as The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula which was re-titled Horror of Dracula (1958). The name changes were to encourage American audiences not to mistake Hammer's new horror features as re-releases of the Universal originals.
Very British Actors
Hammer films also introduced us to some truly wonderful actors who were to epitomise their products through the years. These included such well rounded actors as Andre Morell and Michael Ripper along with many beautiful Hammer girls such as Veronica Carlson, Caroline Munro and Barbara Shelley. The wealth of Hammer Horror films were of course most famous for introducing to a wider audience the acting legends of Peter Cushing and Sir Christopher Lee.
Sources – British Cinema, Film and Television History, The Open University, ISBN# 0749239786
David Hannah - My name is David Hannah, I'm a massive film fan and have a great interest in modern history and current events. The one thing I have ...
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