1 00:00:00,680 --> 00:00:05,000 The following programme contains some scenes of nudity. 2 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 4 00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:12,400 (OMINOUS MUSIC) 5 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:21,440 (VOICEOVER MONTAGE)Hammer Films set what I consider to be... 6 00:00:21,480 --> 00:00:24,160 the modern tone of the horror genre. 7 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:31,160 Hammer was successful because of... 8 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:34,120 a certain alchemy and a certain magic. 9 00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:43,200 They were very... 10 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:45,840 lurid, shocking, Technicolor. 11 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:49,840 You know, they were the opposite of the old Universal horror pictures. 12 00:00:56,680 --> 00:00:59,880 When Hammer came round, it took it to a whole different level. 13 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:02,400 It just felt different from everything else. 14 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:15,680 Hammer Films gave us this amazing brand of... 15 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:18,520 spooky castles and vampires. 16 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:34,600 And suddenly, this small British studio was gonna become a force. 17 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:38,600 It was something people wanted... they wanted to see more of. 18 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:41,440 CHARLES DANCE: A small British film studio, 19 00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:44,160 born in the early 1930s, 20 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:47,880 came to define the entire genre of horror cinema. 21 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:52,240 From humble beginnings, it rose to legendary status, 22 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:54,360 becoming a cultural touchstone... 23 00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:58,240 that still entertains audiences and creators alike. 24 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:02,320 We're about to embark on a voyage 25 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:04,720 through the chronicles of Hammer Films, 26 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:09,080 exploring the lives of the visionaries behind the scenes, 27 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:12,760 how and why they created such groundbreaking films... 28 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,600 ..and the lasting impact they've had on cinema and culture. 29 00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:23,000 This is the story of the heroes, legends and monsters... 30 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:25,160 of Hammer. 31 00:02:33,640 --> 00:02:35,640 Oh, where did it all begin? 32 00:02:37,640 --> 00:02:40,160 Hammer was my father, surprisingly enough. 33 00:02:40,200 --> 00:02:43,840 KINSEY: Hammer Film started as the production arm of... 34 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:46,480 a film distribution company called Exclusive Films. 35 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:48,280 Nineteen, take one. 36 00:02:48,320 --> 00:02:51,360 It was a family-run unit, run by two families. 37 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:53,840 MICHAEL: My grandfather, Enrique Carreras... 38 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:58,960 ..and a man called Will Hammer, or Hinds. 39 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:00,840 He was a... 40 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:03,120 successful businessman and a failed comedian. 41 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:05,800 He failed because he wasn't really very funny. 42 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:09,200 He and another chap did a double act years ago, 43 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:11,040 comic double act, and... 44 00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:14,440 cos his...my father's business was centred in Hammersmith, 45 00:03:14,480 --> 00:03:16,240 they called themselves Hammer and Smith, 46 00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:18,000 and the name Hammer started from that. 47 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:20,640 William Hinds worked in his family business, 48 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:22,600 which was FW Hinds the jewellers. 49 00:03:22,640 --> 00:03:24,480 He was someone who... 50 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:28,240 combined his hobbies and his business skills. 51 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:31,560 In other words, if you like racing bicycles, then, oh, maybe we'll do some of that. 52 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:34,960 He had a bicycle shop, but he also had a particular interest in the theatre. 53 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:36,720 He had his own booking agency, 54 00:03:36,760 --> 00:03:39,000 used to book his own shows, had his own theatres. 55 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:41,240 Gradually, his theatrical interest... 56 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:42,880 started to take a different direction 57 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:46,200 when the motion picture company started. 58 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:50,640 He was very passionate about filmmaking at that time, 59 00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:52,520 which is why it was his idea 60 00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:55,520 to start the production company, use his name. 61 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:59,360 Will Hinds gave his stage name to the fledgling company. 62 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:02,960 But what of the other man responsible for Hammer's creation? 63 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:06,080 Enrique Carreras was Spanish. 64 00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:08,600 Then he came over here in 1909, 65 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:10,920 and it seems to have been a fairly bold, 66 00:04:10,960 --> 00:04:12,840 entrepreneurial kind of figure. 67 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:15,200 He had a chain of cinemas, which was called the Blue Halls, 68 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:17,200 which he'd sold to ABC. 69 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:19,520 And it was him that had formed Exclusive Films, 70 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:21,320 which was now distributing movies. 71 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:23,600 Will Hinds joined with him. 72 00:04:23,640 --> 00:04:26,400 And that was in 1929. 73 00:04:26,440 --> 00:04:28,320 Hammer became two families - 74 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:30,840 the Hinds and the Carreras - all the way through its career. 75 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:33,160 Interesting family. Very. 76 00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:37,160 They made five films between 1934 and 1936. 77 00:04:37,200 --> 00:04:39,120 The two notable ones was... 78 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:41,800 The Mystery Of The Mary Celeste, with Bela Lugosi... 79 00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:43,120 I didn't forget you. 80 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:45,320 ..and Song Of Freedom, with Paul Robeson. 81 00:04:45,360 --> 00:04:47,320 Paul Robeson was a massive artist. 82 00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:49,160 I'd like to sing you a fragment of a song, 83 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:50,920 which I've never sung in public before. 84 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:54,720 So it was a real coup to have those headlining their films. 85 00:04:54,760 --> 00:04:57,200 Unfortunately, they didn't do particularly well. 86 00:04:57,240 --> 00:04:59,600 (SINGS) I hear the voice of my... 87 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:03,880 And the Hammer company was, at that point, allowed to lapse. 88 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:08,040 They continued running Exclusive, which did quite well during the war. 89 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:10,480 And after the war, Enrique's son... 90 00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:14,400 Lieutenant-Colonel Jim Carreras, came back and joined the firm. 91 00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:16,520 This is where the... 92 00:05:16,560 --> 00:05:18,920 Hammer film company proper comes in. 93 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:21,120 PIRIE: It's often said... 94 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:25,680 that no-one succeeds like a son who saw his father fail. 95 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:30,200 And I often think of that phrase when I think of James Carreras. 96 00:05:30,240 --> 00:05:32,720 Who is he? I don't know! 97 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:36,640 James went to Manchester Grammar School... 98 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:42,440 ..where he left at 16 without any qualifications of any kind. 99 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:45,960 He was a salesman... absolutely personified. 100 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:48,520 There is even a story that he sold a car without an engine. 101 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:51,600 He could sell the proverbial ice cubes to Eskimos. 102 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:54,640 Well, James Carreras was exactly the kind of man 103 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:57,160 who had what you call 'a good war'. 104 00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:00,840 He was successful. He was greatly loved by his people. 105 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:05,440 You couldn't have a nicer person work for than Jimmy Carreras. 106 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:07,640 What a distinguished, beautiful-looking man he was. 107 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:09,400 He wasn't a skirt-chaser. 108 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:13,480 He became a colonel in a fairly short space of time... 109 00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:16,480 and liked to be called the Colonel for a time after the war too. 110 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:19,560 And then he came back, and he took over the company. 111 00:06:19,600 --> 00:06:21,440 The power is mine, 112 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:25,080 and I shall use it as I please. 113 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:27,680 Well, he was your typical sort of... 114 00:06:27,720 --> 00:06:31,240 old colonel...type, very well-spoken, 115 00:06:31,280 --> 00:06:33,960 upright man - quite a nice guy. 116 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,720 And that's when Hammer began... 117 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:39,880 to accelerate its commercial activities. 118 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:42,320 The idea of Hammer was to make money. 119 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:46,520 And James Carreras was obviously into the idea of making money. 120 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:48,160 Which is... Who can blame him? 121 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:51,720 My father was a businessman, a salesman. He wasn't a film maker. 122 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:54,080 He was really good at schmoozing people. 123 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:58,280 Our efforts...would be considerably less effective... 124 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:00,720 without the cooperation of you gentlemen. 125 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:06,360 Through his social life and his work for the Variety Club, 126 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:09,600 which he loved, he made contact with American producers. 127 00:07:10,720 --> 00:07:15,360 Who needed what you might call half-arsed British product 128 00:07:15,400 --> 00:07:18,120 with fading American stars... 129 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:20,480 to produce what were called 'quota quickies'. 130 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:22,640 There's no question that Jimmy Carreras, 131 00:07:22,680 --> 00:07:25,080 in his backslapping, glad-handing, 132 00:07:25,120 --> 00:07:27,480 Variety Club way... 133 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:30,760 was a genius of promotion. 134 00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:33,600 Through James Carreras' networking abilities... 135 00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:37,400 he was able to take advantage of the first key opportunity 136 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:40,200 that arose for his new production company. 137 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:43,000 In a post-war move to grow the economy, 138 00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:46,760 the UK Government aimed to boost the British film business 139 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:48,800 by taxing American movies, 140 00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:51,520 creating greater demand for home-grown features. 141 00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:54,280 You're lucky it all worked. 142 00:07:54,320 --> 00:07:57,080 Lucky? This is only the beginning. 143 00:07:57,880 --> 00:07:59,680 So James Carreras... 144 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:02,400 reintroduced the Hammer brand, Hammer Films was made again, 145 00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:05,240 and they started making little stocking fillers. 146 00:08:05,280 --> 00:08:08,920 (DRAMATIC MUSIC) 147 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:11,880 Dick Barton was, in fact, a radio serial... 148 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:13,920 on the BBC Light Programme, 149 00:08:13,960 --> 00:08:16,640 which pre-dated The Archers. 150 00:08:16,680 --> 00:08:18,720 And from there, in a very small way, 151 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:22,520 we started to make a series of radio-orientated characters 152 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:25,520 and bringing them to life in the cinemas for the first time. 153 00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:28,720 We actually had a production programme of six pictures a year, 154 00:08:28,760 --> 00:08:31,080 all based on the radio series. 155 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:34,560 And from that, slowly, whatever the company policies were, 156 00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:39,320 in changing names, but Exclusive seguewayed into Hammer Films. 157 00:08:39,360 --> 00:08:42,400 And we were then... 158 00:08:42,440 --> 00:08:46,800 the first British company to have a permanent American relationship 159 00:08:46,840 --> 00:08:49,360 and actually get American release 160 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:51,880 for what were, really, some very small British pictures. 161 00:08:51,920 --> 00:08:54,480 Oh, we've done it! (LAUGHTER) 162 00:08:54,520 --> 00:08:56,520 The Hammer set up at that time is that, really, 163 00:08:56,560 --> 00:08:58,480 James Carreras is leading the company. 164 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:02,640 And Will Hinds' son Tony, who's now joined, Tony Hinds, 165 00:09:02,680 --> 00:09:05,120 is Hammer's primary producer. 166 00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:09,320 (GONG CLANGS) 167 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:13,440 TONY: I went to see Jim Carreras. We seemed to get on alright. 168 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:15,360 And he said why didn't I join. 169 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:18,600 I'd just come out of the air force, and I really hadn't anything to do. 170 00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:22,480 So we got together, and I joined the firm. 171 00:09:22,520 --> 00:09:25,760 On the production side, and later, screenwriting side, 172 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:27,920 Anthony Hinds was... 173 00:09:27,960 --> 00:09:30,160 extraordinarily important force at Hammer. 174 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:33,760 He was born in 1922, in London. 175 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:37,280 When he came out of the RAF after the war, 176 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:39,440 they were making a film called Death In High Heels, 177 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:42,440 and the Producer disappeared, went AWOL. 178 00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:44,200 They got Tony Hinds in to do it. 179 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:47,600 He did a good job, and that was the start of it. From then... 180 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:51,240 ..something really extraordinary happens - a creative flair... 181 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:53,040 I don't think anyone had dreamt was there. 182 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:56,320 And in a sense, that is where we identify, I think, 183 00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:58,120 the uniqueness that was Hammer. 184 00:09:58,160 --> 00:09:59,880 Tony Hinds was a filmmaker. 185 00:09:59,920 --> 00:10:02,320 I mean, Tony Hinds, was a better filmmaker than I was. 186 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:05,240 He was, you know, a definitive filmmaker. 187 00:10:05,280 --> 00:10:07,040 Tony only lived to make films. 188 00:10:07,080 --> 00:10:08,840 Anthony, in particular, 189 00:10:08,880 --> 00:10:11,720 is what you might call a producer-auteur, 190 00:10:11,760 --> 00:10:15,160 because his handprint is definitely visible 191 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:16,880 on all of the films he worked on, 192 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:20,080 whether it was in a production capacity, a producer role... 193 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:21,960 or whether he wrote the screenplay, 194 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:24,760 which he often did under the pseudonym John Elder. 195 00:10:24,800 --> 00:10:27,520 And it was a joke on an old Art Director that worked for Hammer, 196 00:10:27,560 --> 00:10:31,120 called James Elder Wills - he took the name from that. 197 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:33,520 PIRIE: He was described by the Daily Cinema as looking like 198 00:10:33,560 --> 00:10:36,120 'a doctor of divinity about to take his finals.' 199 00:10:36,160 --> 00:10:39,320 There was one thing he did which enraged everybody. 200 00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:42,320 He decided to put a microphone... 201 00:10:42,360 --> 00:10:44,600 on the stage... 202 00:10:44,640 --> 00:10:47,040 linked to his office, 203 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:51,880 so at any time he could listen down what was going on on the set. 204 00:10:51,920 --> 00:10:54,000 And if he felt, 'Hang on, they're not filming,' 205 00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:56,680 and there was a bit of a lapse and things had slowed down a bit, 206 00:10:56,720 --> 00:10:58,520 and he knew what the schedule was... 207 00:10:58,560 --> 00:11:02,720 he would then race down onto the set and get them to sort it out. 208 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:04,880 Nose to the grindstone. 209 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:07,640 (DOOR CLOSES) 210 00:11:07,680 --> 00:11:10,400 It was often said that if they were running behind schedule, 211 00:11:10,440 --> 00:11:12,480 he would get the script and tear a page out. 212 00:11:12,520 --> 00:11:14,440 There you are. You're back on schedule now. 213 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:18,480 And he was quite a revered producer within the Hammer company. 214 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:21,360 And Michael Carreras started off as his assistant. 215 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:27,000 I would say the monsters of Hammer... 216 00:11:28,480 --> 00:11:31,240 ..like all monsters, are good and bad. 217 00:11:31,280 --> 00:11:34,600 And I'd say they're James Carreras and Michael Carreras. 218 00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:38,480 You know, men who created greatness. 219 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:41,560 And yet something within them... 220 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:44,560 kept them from communicating... 221 00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:47,480 or achieving peace within themselves. 222 00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:49,800 And that's the essence of what a monster is. 223 00:11:49,840 --> 00:11:53,800 When I first reported for work as an office boy in Wardour Street, 224 00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:56,920 I soon, luckily with influence, 225 00:11:56,960 --> 00:11:59,520 became Director of Publicity, 226 00:11:59,560 --> 00:12:02,960 which entailed putting six black-and-white stills, 227 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:05,360 and a poster, into an envelope and... 228 00:12:05,400 --> 00:12:08,560 sending it off to the cinema that was going to show an Exclusive film. 229 00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:10,480 And that... As nobody else was doing it, 230 00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:14,120 I was Director of Publicity within minutes of joining the company. 231 00:12:14,160 --> 00:12:16,400 The fastest promotion you've ever heard of. 232 00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:19,360 Michael Henry Carreras was born in London, 233 00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:21,760 on 21st December 1927. 234 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:24,600 His parents were James Carreras and Vera Smart. 235 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:28,120 There seemed to be a very uneasy relationship between father and son. 236 00:12:28,160 --> 00:12:31,800 James Carreras was very much the architect of Hammer from the... 237 00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:34,200 business point of view. Michael had... 238 00:12:35,040 --> 00:12:37,720 ..you know, multiple talents. He wasn't his father. 239 00:12:37,760 --> 00:12:39,240 I wasn't a businessman. 240 00:12:39,280 --> 00:12:41,960 Michael was a creative force at Hammer. 241 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:45,120 The different skills brought by the father-and-son team 242 00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:47,960 were initially of great benefit to Hammer. 243 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:52,320 But in time, Michael's focus on creativity over business 244 00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:54,440 could well come back to bite him. 245 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:57,360 Michael was born when James was only 21, 246 00:12:57,400 --> 00:12:59,360 and I think it was very much a surprise. 247 00:12:59,400 --> 00:13:02,400 Their family history is steeped in horrificness, 248 00:13:02,440 --> 00:13:06,160 and in things that are almost Gothic. 249 00:13:06,200 --> 00:13:10,280 I'm not sure if James really wanted to have a kid at that age. 250 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:12,480 Did James want to be a father? 251 00:13:12,520 --> 00:13:14,680 I suspect he did, in fact, 252 00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:16,600 but not at that time. 253 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:18,600 I don't know why I put up with you at all. 254 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:21,680 I should have drowned you at birth. Thank you, Father. 255 00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:23,520 His father, James, 256 00:13:23,560 --> 00:13:28,680 ended up putting his mother, Vera, into a sanitorium for a while. 257 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:30,160 That's a Gothic trope. 258 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:33,600 And Michael had to come and live with his grandparents. 259 00:13:33,640 --> 00:13:36,320 I'm going to disown my son and send him away to the country. 260 00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:39,520 It's a Victorian-slash-Gothic horror movie, 261 00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:41,520 which is exactly where they found their... 262 00:13:41,560 --> 00:13:43,760 ironically, their power and their strength. 263 00:13:43,800 --> 00:13:46,680 The most curious family history. 264 00:13:46,720 --> 00:13:49,240 Michael was a kind and jovial character. 265 00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:51,480 He got involved, stuck in, with all the films, 266 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:53,320 and all the people that worked on the films. 267 00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:56,360 He was very good at bringing creative people together. 268 00:13:56,400 --> 00:13:59,080 He was a Producer that was hands-on. 269 00:13:59,120 --> 00:14:01,120 Michael Carreras was doing everything - he was... 270 00:14:01,160 --> 00:14:03,480 playing with electrics, with sound, with casting. 271 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:05,880 He had the best sense of humour. 272 00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:08,520 Oh, my God. He made me laugh so much. 273 00:14:08,560 --> 00:14:12,480 Michael Carreras' and Tony Hinds' skill sets and personalities 274 00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:14,800 turned out to be an unlikely... 275 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:16,800 but successful pairing. 276 00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:20,360 We're totally opposites, and that was great too, because... 277 00:14:20,400 --> 00:14:23,560 certain types of films that he enjoyed making, I didn't, 278 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:26,360 and certain types of films I liked making, he didn't. 279 00:14:26,400 --> 00:14:30,000 They kind of had a sort of instinct for genre, 280 00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:33,920 I think, adventure, suspense, swashbuckling - 281 00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:36,400 all that are ingredients of Gothic. 282 00:14:36,440 --> 00:14:40,360 They made one film at a time, and the same crew came back, 283 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:42,360 film after film after film. 284 00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:45,200 And their crew were the envy of the British film industry. 285 00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:49,280 REYNOLDS: You realised you was working at...a special company. 286 00:14:49,320 --> 00:14:51,360 When we went to various offices, 287 00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:53,760 you said you was from Hammer Films. 288 00:14:53,800 --> 00:14:57,320 Then they all knew who you were talking about. 289 00:14:59,368 --> 00:15:01,440 The changing winds of the media landscape 290 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:04,320 were about to blow in Hammer's favour. 291 00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:06,760 Although they didn't yet realise it, 292 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:08,960 Hammer's cottage industry approach, 293 00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:11,640 utilising the same crew again and again, 294 00:15:11,680 --> 00:15:13,560 was starting to pay off. 295 00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:18,520 It was about to allow them to take advantage of another opportunity. 296 00:15:18,560 --> 00:15:21,480 We are on the edge of a new dimension of discovery. 297 00:15:22,320 --> 00:15:24,800 It's a great chance to leave our vices behind. 298 00:15:24,840 --> 00:15:29,360 So, 1953 is really a pivotal year for British television, 299 00:15:29,400 --> 00:15:31,880 and historically, radio had always been... 300 00:15:31,920 --> 00:15:34,280 the medium that was the sort of nation's favourite. 301 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:36,280 But the big thing that happened in 1953 302 00:15:36,320 --> 00:15:38,480 was that a lot more people got television sets 303 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:40,840 because of the Coronation. 304 00:15:40,880 --> 00:15:43,880 More people got hold of a television in the two months 305 00:15:43,920 --> 00:15:47,360 in the run up to the Coronation than in any of the preceding two months. 306 00:15:47,400 --> 00:15:49,520 In 1953, until... 307 00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:52,480 for another few years after that, television is BBC television. 308 00:15:52,520 --> 00:15:55,160 There is nothing else in this country, just the one channel. 309 00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:57,920 And a lot of the plays that were on were adaptations... 310 00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:01,520 of stage works or had a literary basis. 311 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:04,800 So there wasn't much that was truly original. 312 00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:07,320 And the BBC script unit was two people - 313 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:09,160 Nigel Kneale and George Kerr. 314 00:16:13,880 --> 00:16:18,200 Nigel Kneale was an enormously talented writer. Enormously. 315 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:22,240 My name is Matthew Kneale, 316 00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:24,720 and my dad was... 317 00:16:24,760 --> 00:16:26,800 uh...Nigel Kneale. 318 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:28,600 WOMAN: Eleven, take one. 319 00:16:28,640 --> 00:16:31,320 Nigel Kneale was a... Boy. 320 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:34,440 He had a falling out with... 321 00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:37,840 famously, with John Carpenter in Hollywood. 322 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:41,160 He was not a nice man. Not a nice man at all. 323 00:16:41,200 --> 00:16:44,760 HADOKE: I wish Nigel Kneale had had a happier time of everything. 324 00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:48,920 He created Quatermass, which is one of the seminal sci-fi texts. 325 00:16:48,960 --> 00:16:51,000 It's a landmark of television, 326 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:53,360 and then it's a landmark of film. 327 00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:55,880 It spawns so much that came after it. 328 00:16:55,920 --> 00:16:58,120 (CACOPHONOUS CLANGING AND RINGING) 329 00:16:58,160 --> 00:17:02,080 VOICEOVER: Three men went into outer space. Only one of them came back... 330 00:17:02,120 --> 00:17:04,800 came back a strange, distorted creature, 331 00:17:04,840 --> 00:17:08,320 haunted and possessed by something beyond human understanding. 332 00:17:08,360 --> 00:17:10,800 And it doesn't seem to have made him... 333 00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:13,720 particularly happy, and I think that's a shame. 334 00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:15,360 Don't cry, please. 335 00:17:15,400 --> 00:17:18,320 Probably The Curse Of Frankenstein would never have been made 336 00:17:18,360 --> 00:17:22,720 had not Nigel Kneale done the Quatermass series on television. 337 00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:26,880 My father was actually born in Barrow-in-Furness, 338 00:17:26,920 --> 00:17:29,080 and both his parents were from the Isle of Man. 339 00:17:29,120 --> 00:17:31,160 The Isle of Man is steeped in legend, 340 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:33,640 and steeped in folklore, and steeped... 341 00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:36,320 if we're thinking about how he writes dialogue for people, 342 00:17:36,360 --> 00:17:37,960 steeped in the oral tradition. 343 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:41,760 MURRAY: He actually developed a form of skin sensitivity to sunlight. 344 00:17:41,800 --> 00:17:44,760 Which he regarded almost in a Manx way as a kind of curse. 345 00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:48,080 For the whole of his life, really, he had to stay out of the sun. 346 00:17:48,120 --> 00:17:50,160 His brother gave me a wonderful phrase - 347 00:17:50,200 --> 00:17:53,120 'Nigel was always walking in the shadows.' 348 00:17:54,920 --> 00:17:56,600 (SCREAMS) 349 00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:59,240 I think it's fairly easy to make the link 350 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:02,120 that somebody has to stay out of the sunlight - what do you do? 351 00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:04,320 In those days, you sit and read. 352 00:18:04,360 --> 00:18:07,000 What does that do to your imagination? 353 00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:09,480 Kneale was always writing stories, 354 00:18:09,520 --> 00:18:13,120 a lot of which are embedded in the Manx folklore of his childhood. 355 00:18:13,160 --> 00:18:16,600 He was a very interesting writer... 356 00:18:16,640 --> 00:18:18,600 and forward thinker. 357 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:22,800 He went to London and trained as an actor at RADA, 358 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:24,760 and around the time he finished, 359 00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:27,480 his short stories were published as a volume. 360 00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:30,120 I think he was interested in the meeting point 361 00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:32,840 of the rational and the irrational. 362 00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:35,200 And he won the Somerset Maugham prize 363 00:18:35,240 --> 00:18:38,640 and thought he was set as a writer - a book writer, a prose writer. 364 00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:41,880 He went travelling around Europe with the money he got from... 365 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:43,960 the Somerset Maugham prize. 366 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,160 Came back expecting to be... 367 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:48,480 rich with royalties - found there was nothing. 368 00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:51,160 Where's my money, then? Where is it? 369 00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:54,080 He looked around for a job and found something in the BBC. 370 00:18:54,120 --> 00:18:56,000 And he became a scriptwriter. 371 00:18:56,040 --> 00:18:59,240 In 1953, there was a gap in the schedules... 372 00:18:59,280 --> 00:19:02,720 of six weeks, where he needed to... 373 00:19:02,760 --> 00:19:07,000 provide them with something, and it was to be an original work. 374 00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:09,960 He had a relatively free hand and... 375 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:14,240 came up with the idea for a science fiction series called Quatermass. 376 00:19:14,280 --> 00:19:16,920 And...that was the beginning of it all. 377 00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:20,600 It might be significant. 378 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:24,520 The original Quatermass Xperiment was the most modern... 379 00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:28,960 present-day science fiction thriller that had been put on television. 380 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:31,160 Kneale was definitely kind of influenced by... 381 00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:33,240 by what was going on in the real world. 382 00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:35,400 1953 is the time when... 383 00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:38,960 that kind of idea of the Space Race was just starting to come along. 384 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:41,800 That idea of, 'OK, we're sending rockets into space. 385 00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:43,640 What happens if we do that? 386 00:19:43,680 --> 00:19:46,480 What will they bring back? What will they encounter?' 387 00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:49,280 When Kneale first wrote the synopsis for the story, 388 00:19:49,320 --> 00:19:51,560 it was a character called Professor Charlton. 389 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:54,840 As he fleshed it out, he wanted to give the character a better name. 390 00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:57,320 When he looked in the phone directory, and in the Isle of Man, 391 00:19:57,360 --> 00:19:59,440 a lot of the names - in fact, almost all the surnames - 392 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:03,080 begin with a K or a Q-U, and he found Quatermass. 393 00:20:03,120 --> 00:20:04,920 He had a good eye for the name, 394 00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:07,640 and I suppose 'mass' sounded slightly scientific. 395 00:20:07,680 --> 00:20:09,960 And it's a dramatic name, so it was a good choice. 396 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:13,400 The original TV series of The Quatermass Xperiment 397 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:15,200 was a real success. 398 00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:18,400 Viewing figures were good, the reviews were very good. 399 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:22,480 Even before it finished going out, there was conversations going on 400 00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:24,440 about...can we turn this into a film? 401 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:27,240 Tony Hinds and others at Hammer pricked up their ears, 402 00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:29,120 and then Hammer put in an offer, 403 00:20:29,160 --> 00:20:32,040 which was way over what they should have, perhaps, put in. 404 00:20:32,080 --> 00:20:35,560 I've seen people refer to it as a bad business decision. It wasn't. 405 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:37,440 So at that point, 406 00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:42,080 Nigel Kneale is very happy that his television series... 407 00:20:42,120 --> 00:20:44,880 is being looked at to be made by a film company. 408 00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:47,160 He is delighted by that. 409 00:20:47,200 --> 00:20:51,320 History tells us that Nigel Kneale didn't remain delighted for long, 410 00:20:51,360 --> 00:20:54,520 and he remained undelighted... 411 00:20:54,560 --> 00:20:56,560 for the rest of his days. 412 00:20:57,640 --> 00:21:01,800 When my dad wrote the first Quatermass television series, 413 00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:05,640 for the BBC, he asked, 'Well, what would happen if it was sold on?' 414 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:09,360 And he was told, 'Oh, of course you'll be recompensed.' 415 00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:12,320 And then after Quatermass became such a hit, 416 00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:15,520 the BBC rather... changed their minds about this. 417 00:21:15,560 --> 00:21:18,520 And my dad felt that he'd been mistreated. 418 00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:23,000 Hammer's newly acquired rights to create films based on Quatermass 419 00:21:23,040 --> 00:21:25,520 could be a turning point for the company. 420 00:21:25,560 --> 00:21:28,520 But how should they approach this sci-fi feature? 421 00:21:28,560 --> 00:21:31,240 Violence, gore and nudity... 422 00:21:31,280 --> 00:21:33,360 would mean an X certificate, 423 00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:35,760 restricting a film's potential audience. 424 00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:38,440 This could certainly present a challenge 425 00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:41,520 for Hammer's debut horror sci-fi feature. 426 00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:44,960 But where lesser men saw only problems... 427 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:47,480 Tony Hinds saw opportunity... 428 00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:52,920 ..an opportunity that could define Hammer forever. 429 00:21:54,320 --> 00:21:57,040 The Censors, basically, were a huge help to Hammer, 430 00:21:57,080 --> 00:21:59,680 because it gave something to push against. 431 00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:02,240 It forced them to be creative. 432 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:05,720 The Quatermass Xperiment was called The Quatermass 'Xperiment', 433 00:22:05,760 --> 00:22:07,840 because they were exploiting the X rating. 434 00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:10,600 The X thing was still relatively new, so now it's a thing of, 435 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:12,960 'This cannot be shown in the presence of anyone under 16.' 436 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:15,400 HADOKE: The X certificate was a very powerful thing 437 00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:18,640 in terms of making people come to see those films. 438 00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:21,560 And marketing-wise, it was huge. 439 00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:25,400 A young man died of a heart attack during that movie, 440 00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:27,680 but the whole thing... 441 00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:31,440 was bathed in the music of James Bernard. 442 00:22:31,480 --> 00:22:34,320 I thought he was an unbelievable composer. 443 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:38,920 The score for Quatermass... 444 00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:42,120 is like a precursor to Psycho. 445 00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:44,240 James Bernard is certainly a hero, 446 00:22:44,280 --> 00:22:46,200 because the music is... 447 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:48,200 is often phenomenal. 448 00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:50,360 His music is, like... 449 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:54,080 it's as important as the direction, the setting, the actors. 450 00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:58,480 James Bernard did actually have some musical lineage in his family. 451 00:22:58,520 --> 00:23:00,520 One of those was Thomas Arne... 452 00:23:01,400 --> 00:23:03,760 ..who was the composer of Rule Britannia. 453 00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:07,120 James Bernard was born in the Himalayas. 454 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:14,800 He then went to the Wellington College in England. 455 00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:17,800 Eventually, he would actually end up at Bletchley Park, 456 00:23:17,840 --> 00:23:21,200 and he was part of the team that were helping 457 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:24,640 to try and crack the codes of the Enigma machine. 458 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:26,680 He worked with Christopher Lee, 459 00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:29,360 who was actually stationed at the same place as James. 460 00:23:29,400 --> 00:23:32,400 And this is where he first ever encountered Dracula. 461 00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:36,440 I'd just become an officer, and I was billeted... 462 00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:38,920 in a sort of...in an old rectory... 463 00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:43,080 adjoining an old church in a remote village in Buckinghamshire. 464 00:23:43,120 --> 00:23:46,280 It was a full Hammer set, the whole thing, 465 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:48,640 and it was a terribly cold winter. 466 00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:50,560 And I was reading Dracula, 467 00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:53,080 Bram Stoker's original, for the first time. 468 00:23:53,120 --> 00:23:56,360 And I tucked myself up into bed with Dracula... 469 00:23:56,400 --> 00:23:58,760 with the book, I mean. (CHUCKLES) 470 00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:02,720 And I was really enjoying it enormously and totally engrossed. 471 00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:04,880 I suddenly realised I was freezing cold. 472 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,360 So I got out of bed and went to the kitchen of this old rectory, 473 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:10,920 and made myself a hot water bottle. 474 00:24:10,960 --> 00:24:13,760 And I filled this with almost boiling water, 475 00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:16,920 took it back to bed, clutched it to my chest, 476 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:20,040 went on reading Dracula, thoroughly absorbed... 477 00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:23,240 fell asleep with the book on my nose, 478 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:28,000 woke up in the morning and the bottle was clutched to my chest. 479 00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:29,880 So I removed it. 480 00:24:29,920 --> 00:24:33,560 And underneath it was a huge, angry, white blister. 481 00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:35,400 And the blister went, 482 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:38,760 but the scar remained for years and years and years. 483 00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:41,240 And I think it only finally vanished... 484 00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:44,360 when I'd written the score for The Scars Of Dracula, 485 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:46,200 which was my last Dracula film. 486 00:24:46,240 --> 00:24:49,280 VOICEOVER: There is no escape from...(BAT SCREECHES) 487 00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:55,720 James first started working in music for Benjamin Britten. 488 00:24:55,760 --> 00:24:59,320 He would copy the sketches for... 489 00:24:59,360 --> 00:25:02,040 Billy Budd the opera, but after that... 490 00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:06,480 Benjamin Britten told him that he should make his own way, 491 00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:08,800 because if he stayed with him, 492 00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:11,120 he would just swamp him, 493 00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:13,440 and he would not be able to, 494 00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:16,200 you know, make his own way as a composer. 495 00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:19,480 James was very keen to work in film. 496 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:21,760 He had to find a way in. 497 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:25,560 Television hadn't really started up again properly since the war. 498 00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:28,080 His way in was radio plays. 499 00:25:28,120 --> 00:25:30,320 Now, he did a bunch of those 500 00:25:30,360 --> 00:25:33,120 for what is effectively now BBC Radio 3. 501 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:35,320 I think it was The Death Of Hector... 502 00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:37,640 was the first, which was... 503 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:40,440 directed by Sir John Gielgud's brother. 504 00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:43,600 One of the next ones he did was called The Duchess Of Malfy. 505 00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:45,480 It's basically a horror. 506 00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:48,560 Everybody pretty much ends up dead by the end. 507 00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:52,200 And the Duchess Of Malfy was actually recorded to tape. 508 00:25:52,240 --> 00:25:55,000 The Quatermass Xperiment was originally... 509 00:25:55,040 --> 00:25:57,440 assigned to John Hotchkis, 510 00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:00,160 and unfortunately, John fell ill... 511 00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:02,560 and couldn't continue. 512 00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:05,920 Tony Hinds, at Hammer, said to a man called John Hollingsworth... 513 00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:07,840 'We're in a real pickle here, 514 00:26:07,880 --> 00:26:10,240 and we need a composer as soon as possible.' 515 00:26:10,280 --> 00:26:13,160 So John Hollingsworth remembered James Bernard, 516 00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:16,400 who had conducted the score for The Duchess Of Malfy. 517 00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:19,960 Now, because they had the tapes to The Duchess Of Malfy, 518 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:24,200 He rushed to go retrieve these and play them to Tony Hinds. 519 00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:27,120 Tony Hinds loved it, and immediately, on the spot, 520 00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:31,720 James Bernard was hired and paid the princely sum of £100 521 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:35,280 to write the score for The Quatermass Xperiment. 522 00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:37,200 If you listen to The Duchess Of Malfy, 523 00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:40,000 and you listen to The Quatermass Xperiment, 524 00:26:40,040 --> 00:26:42,240 you're gonna see a lot of similarities. 525 00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:45,400 Because James Bernard was basically touching upon 526 00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:47,600 what he already knew how to do, 527 00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:50,480 and that was writing for strings and percussion. 528 00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:53,680 So they basically have almost the same instrumentation. 529 00:26:53,720 --> 00:26:56,520 When he then went on to do The Curse Of Frankenstein, 530 00:26:56,560 --> 00:27:00,160 he would actually quote, musically, some of his themes and motifs 531 00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,680 from The Duchess Of Malfy. 532 00:27:02,720 --> 00:27:06,440 Hammer's Quatermass Xperiment was successful across the board. 533 00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:10,080 Pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable in cinema 534 00:27:10,120 --> 00:27:12,720 became one of Hammer's driving forces. 535 00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:16,200 The X certificate was nothing to be feared... 536 00:27:16,240 --> 00:27:19,000 but something to bear with pride. 537 00:27:19,040 --> 00:27:21,000 James Carreras felt, instinctively, 538 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:23,920 that this was the route to success for Hammer, 539 00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:28,040 but were this band of British creatives charting the right course? 540 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:30,600 After the success of The Quatermass Xperiment film, 541 00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:34,920 they speak to audiences, and they speak to distributors, and they say, 542 00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:38,080 'This horror thing, this is great. This is what we want.' 543 00:27:38,120 --> 00:27:41,040 So the obvious thing is to try and do a Quatermass sequel. 544 00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:45,320 INTERVIEWER: You tackled your first feature, which was X The Unknown. 545 00:27:45,360 --> 00:27:47,480 Right. How do you feel about that? 546 00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:49,720 We were sort of sitting around the office one day 547 00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:51,600 trying to come up with a story. 548 00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:54,560 I was Production Manager at the time, and... 549 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:58,000 ..it was Tony Hinds and Mike Carreras, 550 00:27:58,040 --> 00:28:00,880 and we were batting around ideas. 551 00:28:00,920 --> 00:28:03,000 And it seemed at the end of a session, 552 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:05,920 I'd come up with the most ideas, so Tony said, 'Go away and write it.' 553 00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:08,400 I said, 'I'm not a writer, I'm a production manager.' 554 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:10,880 And he said, 'Well, write it. If we like it, we'll buy it.' 555 00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:14,120 So I wrote it. And he liked it. And he bought it. 556 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:16,720 Jimmy Sangster started with Hammer in 1948, 557 00:28:16,760 --> 00:28:19,000 on a film called Dick Barton Strikes Back, 558 00:28:19,040 --> 00:28:21,440 as a Second Assistant Director. 559 00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:23,800 He later becomes First Assistant, 560 00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:26,640 and he's the youngest First Assistant Director in the country. 561 00:28:26,680 --> 00:28:30,160 And in 1954, he becomes a Production Manager with the company. 562 00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:32,200 Around this time... 563 00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:36,080 ..Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg come to Hammer 564 00:28:36,120 --> 00:28:38,720 with an old-fashioned Frankenstein script. 565 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:41,200 It was called Frankenstein And The Monster. 566 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:45,560 And it was recommended that they make a film...along those lines, 567 00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:49,040 probably just another of their black-and-white quickies. 568 00:28:49,080 --> 00:28:52,360 Studying the script, they realised that it was actionably similar... 569 00:28:52,400 --> 00:28:54,600 to the old Universal Frankenstein films. 570 00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:57,360 Anthony Hinds reads it and says, 571 00:28:57,400 --> 00:29:01,200 'We can't use it, but this is an idea - to do Frankenstein.' 572 00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:03,480 So they paid off... 573 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:05,840 Rosenberg and Subotsky... 574 00:29:05,880 --> 00:29:08,920 and launched with their own script. 575 00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:11,280 Which was written by... 576 00:29:11,320 --> 00:29:12,920 Jimmy Sangster. 577 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:15,880 I don't think I read the Mary Shelley book, actually. 578 00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:18,560 I mean, one knew the Frankenstein story. 579 00:29:18,600 --> 00:29:20,600 I don't think I read it. I'd just seen all the... 580 00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:22,720 all the old Frankenstein movies. 581 00:29:24,763 --> 00:29:27,680 In the wake of Hammer's newfound success, 582 00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:30,720 Tony Hinds would need to find the right director 583 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:34,720 to deliver his frightening Gothic vision for their next picture, 584 00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:38,320 particularly if they were to unlock its financial potential. 585 00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:43,200 Hinds needed a safe but creative pair of hands for this vital role. 586 00:29:43,240 --> 00:29:48,440 His solution was to turn to his longtime collaborator Terence Fisher. 587 00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:52,320 Terence Fisher being the Director who's given us most of the classics. 588 00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:55,720 I remember that he always wore a jumper and a shirt. 589 00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:59,520 RIGBY: Terence Fisher kickstarted the Gothic trend at Hammer. 590 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:02,720 Probably a sort of crimson-colour jumper. 591 00:30:02,760 --> 00:30:04,360 And he was a really good director. 592 00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:06,160 Possibly with a jacket. 593 00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:10,280 I understand, originally, Hammer wanted to... 594 00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,520 knock The Curse Of Frankenstein out in three weeks. 595 00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:16,320 They offered it to my father, and... 596 00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:18,440 he said, 'I can't possibly do it in three weeks.' 597 00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:20,400 He said, 'It's got to be six.' 598 00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:23,840 He took a while to go away and think about it, a long while, 599 00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,080 and then came back and agreed. 600 00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:28,280 But it wouldn't have been the innovative, 601 00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:30,640 extraordinary film that it was... 602 00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:34,560 if someone hadn't said to Hammer, 'No, I can't do it in three weeks. 603 00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:36,400 Give me six.' (CHUCKLES) 604 00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:39,480 We don't want to be over-hasty, do we? 605 00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:43,200 He's the Director, whether you know it or not, 606 00:30:43,240 --> 00:30:45,440 you think about when you think of Hammer, I think. 607 00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:48,080 He went to boarding schools at a very early age, 608 00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:51,000 went to prep school and then to Christ Hospital. 609 00:30:51,040 --> 00:30:54,480 I think of the two results that boarding school can have... 610 00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:59,080 with pupils is that they either get this arrogance and confidence, 611 00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:02,360 or else they're... just completely cowed. 612 00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:04,120 He was such a dear... 613 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:06,480 kind, cuddly little man. 614 00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:08,680 Very shy. 615 00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:12,280 (WHISPERS) He was very quiet. He talked like that. 616 00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:15,920 So he gave direction. 'Would you mind very much if you... 617 00:31:15,960 --> 00:31:18,240 moved over here... moved over to there. 618 00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:20,720 Thank you very much. And then he would disappear. 619 00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:22,440 A quiet one, are we? 620 00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,040 You've hardly said a word. 621 00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:28,200 My father joined the merchant navy, 622 00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:31,080 and he travelled all round the world... 623 00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:35,000 but never talked about it unless you particularly asked him. 624 00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:36,840 After the merchant navy, 625 00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:39,680 he went back to London...and hadn't a clue what he wanted to do, 626 00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:41,680 but...there was a shop round the corner. 627 00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:44,040 It was Peter Jones - a big department store - 628 00:31:44,080 --> 00:31:46,400 and he became a window dresser there. 629 00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:48,880 And he always said it was quite a good introduction 630 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:52,000 into setting stuff into a frame. 631 00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:55,040 Terence Fisher began in the film industry in... 632 00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:56,960 various different capacities, but... 633 00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:59,040 I think he really found his footing as an editor. 634 00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:02,440 And I think it was his experience as an editor or a cutter, 635 00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:04,720 as he preferred to call it, 636 00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,640 that really is the key to his work, 637 00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:11,200 really, because he edited the films in his head, 638 00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:13,440 and this made him a very prized collaborator, 639 00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:17,080 because Hammer liked to keep costs down. 640 00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:19,120 You know, they were a smallish operation, 641 00:32:19,160 --> 00:32:21,680 and they were making very lavish looking films... 642 00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:23,440 but on a budget. 643 00:32:23,480 --> 00:32:25,960 Their budgets were minuscule - The Curse Of Frankenstein, 644 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:28,000 in 1956, made for £80,000. 645 00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:31,080 Dracula, in 1957, made for £90,000. 646 00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:32,920 Yet you look at those films, 647 00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:35,600 and they look like they have bigger budgets. 648 00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:38,840 Anthony Hinds made another huge jump here, 649 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:40,600 where he said it should be in colour. 650 00:32:40,640 --> 00:32:44,600 It was pretty amazing when you consider James said yes to colour, 651 00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:47,440 when colour would have cost 10% of the entire budget, 652 00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:50,920 just changing from monochrome to colour, but he did. 653 00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:53,360 Now you can see the blood, and the blood is gonna be red. 654 00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:56,640 And from a marketing point of view, it's pretty genius. 655 00:32:56,680 --> 00:33:00,880 This was an enormous breakthrough - not a single person was thinking of making horror films in colour. 656 00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:02,880 The Americans weren't doing it either. 657 00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:05,400 The critics went mad, you know? They thought this was vile. 658 00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:07,320 But the public absolutely loved it. 659 00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:10,800 And from there on, I think you could say... 660 00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:12,920 the Hammer brand is born. 661 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:16,000 It was the Gothic cycle in colour for the first time. 662 00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:18,000 World audiences were waiting. 663 00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:20,640 And there's another wrinkle here, which is very interesting - 664 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:23,640 by a strange, quixotic turn of fate, 665 00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:27,120 colour was what allowed them to evade the censorship, 666 00:33:27,160 --> 00:33:29,240 which would otherwise have prevailed. 667 00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:32,080 Terence Fisher said, 'Oh, we never had any problem with the Censors,' 668 00:33:32,120 --> 00:33:34,800 which was the most ridiculously disingenuous thing to say. 669 00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:38,480 Because Hammer had titanic problems with the Censors. 670 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:43,160 Hinds worked out if he showed the Censor the films in black-and-white, 671 00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:46,000 but he would say to them, 'Yeah, of course it's in colour,' early on. 672 00:33:46,040 --> 00:33:47,840 Then he'd show them the black-and-white. 673 00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:51,320 No-one remembered that in a letter, six months earlier, 674 00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:53,160 he said, 'By the way, it's in colour.' 675 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:57,520 And then the Censor realises the film is in colour, and they immediately say, 676 00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:00,040 'You've got to show it to us.' And there's a real problem. 677 00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:03,320 Because the Censor has a terrible reaction to the film. 678 00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:05,280 That really was like, 'Argh!' 679 00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:08,160 They nearly had a heart attack. At that point, the real battle started. 680 00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:12,440 And then they were able to force through a few more things 681 00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:14,520 than they would ever have got before. 682 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:16,520 Hammer were really good at, in the end, 683 00:34:16,560 --> 00:34:18,600 getting what they wanted onscreen, 684 00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:21,440 because Hammer would always... they'd build in stuff they knew... 685 00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:24,640 was gonna get cut out, and they'd put a little extra in too. 686 00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:27,000 So they'd go, 'Well, if we cut out... 687 00:34:27,040 --> 00:34:29,120 the bit that you don't like, can we have this in?' 688 00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:32,360 And it'd become a bargaining point - one of the examples you hear about 689 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:35,240 is the disintegration of Dracula. 690 00:34:35,280 --> 00:34:38,520 There was a much longer version that, for many years, was hidden, 691 00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:40,920 because the Censors at the time thought it was too much. 692 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:43,120 And they wanted to cut some stuff out. 693 00:34:43,160 --> 00:34:45,360 And so they did, but they still got a lot of stuff in 694 00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:48,520 because they'd piled so much into that disintegration. 695 00:34:49,600 --> 00:34:51,760 (DRACULA SCREAMS, GASPS) 696 00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:56,440 (GRUNTS) 697 00:35:02,120 --> 00:35:05,320 Phil Leakey was a remarkably talented make-up man. 698 00:35:09,720 --> 00:35:11,840 A very mild-mannered guy, 699 00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:14,440 very much in the background, very quiet. 700 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:16,280 Very skilled, though. 701 00:35:16,320 --> 00:35:18,600 So, of course, what they did was they hung onto him... 702 00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:20,440 and hung on to him for as long as possible. 703 00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:22,480 And they were very lucky he was still around 704 00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:24,600 when the colour Gothic started up. 705 00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:28,000 All make-up artists study anatomy, 706 00:35:28,040 --> 00:35:30,440 and they study cuts and wounds. 707 00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:34,040 But with Phil Leakey, I expect that he had... 708 00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:36,480 a more kind of first-hand knowledge of it, 709 00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:39,080 because of his parents, who were in the sciences. 710 00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:41,000 He knew exactly what to do... 711 00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:44,800 when he had to create a wound on someone's face or a bruise. 712 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:47,360 He'd know the bruise doesn't stay the same colour. 713 00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:49,000 It can change colours. 714 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:51,920 And I imagine that that kind of medical background 715 00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:53,680 would have helped him no end. 716 00:35:53,720 --> 00:35:56,680 Though you think of him as being a make-up artist, 717 00:35:56,720 --> 00:36:00,840 in fact, he was the very first make-up effects artist. 718 00:36:00,880 --> 00:36:04,040 I think he was the first person ever to get that title on film. 719 00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:06,920 What are you going to do? 720 00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:09,440 Take the head off. It's no use to me, anyway. 721 00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:11,960 He crossed a lot of boundaries - 722 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:14,320 for instance, on Curse Of Frankenstein, 723 00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:18,360 he had to make a head that could be dissolved in a tank of acid. 724 00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:20,560 Most make-up artists would never be able to do this 725 00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:23,040 or be able to think about it in the right way. But... 726 00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:26,120 that was Phil's job, and he said, 'OK, I can take that on.' 727 00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:28,600 Using a cast of somebody's head, 728 00:36:28,640 --> 00:36:30,520 he created it out of gelatine, 729 00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:34,120 and he put some kind of latex film over the top of it. 730 00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:37,080 It had a skull in it, a plastic skull, 731 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:42,600 that was buried beneath layers of gelatine muscles and gelatine veins, 732 00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:45,280 and even had a brain in the skull. 733 00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:48,840 And because it was gelatine, they heated the tank up... 734 00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:50,800 so that it was basically boiling water. 735 00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:52,680 And of course, what happens to the gelatine 736 00:36:52,720 --> 00:36:55,080 when you put it in boiling water is it melts. 737 00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:57,680 So they did this great effect where they put the head in, 738 00:36:57,720 --> 00:37:00,280 and it looks like acid, because the head just dissolves, 739 00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:03,440 and everything starts to come apart, 740 00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:06,040 and the skin starts to melt. 741 00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:15,640 It's so good... that it's not in the film. (LAUGHS) 742 00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:18,280 But to be able to think in that way, 743 00:37:18,320 --> 00:37:21,760 sort of lateral thinking about how these things could work, 744 00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:24,200 and how the chemical compounds of various things 745 00:37:24,240 --> 00:37:27,880 can be put together to achieve an effect is very, very clever. 746 00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:31,480 The Curse Of Frankenstein gave me nightmares, 747 00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:33,240 because of the... 748 00:37:33,280 --> 00:37:35,040 Phil Leakey's make-up. Argh! 749 00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:38,120 A lot of people up until that point, if they thought of Frankenstein, 750 00:37:38,160 --> 00:37:40,040 thought of the Boris Karloff Frankenstein 751 00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:42,520 and the Jack Pierce make-up. 752 00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:44,640 We couldn't use the idea of a... 753 00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:47,720 the Boris Karloff-type monster with a bolt through his neck. 754 00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:49,880 They had a copyright on the monster. 755 00:37:49,920 --> 00:37:53,440 In the tiny bit of pre-production that they had, 756 00:37:53,480 --> 00:37:56,880 you had Phil Leakey and Roy Ashton... 757 00:37:56,920 --> 00:38:00,000 tried just about everything they could think of 758 00:38:00,040 --> 00:38:02,920 to make that creature - you know, latex noses, 759 00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:05,920 and scars in different looks and things. 760 00:38:05,960 --> 00:38:08,160 I did about three tests, if I remember right, 761 00:38:08,200 --> 00:38:11,120 but they were quite dreadful - I mean, one of them made look like... 762 00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:13,200 a combination between a wolf and a pig. 763 00:38:14,120 --> 00:38:16,160 And the other... 764 00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:20,040 was actually, surprisingly, quite close to the Elephant Man. 765 00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:22,680 Part of me, you know, definitely does sympathise... 766 00:38:22,720 --> 00:38:25,560 with what Christopher Lee was going through with those. 767 00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:27,880 And then I think it was I, 768 00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:30,280 or perhaps it was Phil Leakey, the make-up man... 769 00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:32,320 We put our heads together, and... 770 00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:34,800 I think I said, 'Look. 771 00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:37,080 It's bits and pieces of other people, so... 772 00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:39,120 it should be patched together.' 773 00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:42,560 So there were lumps and these scars, and the one dead eye, 774 00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:45,240 and the stitch marks and everything, 775 00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:47,760 uh...which was pretty unpleasant. 776 00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:52,840 And the blind lens that he wore over one eye as Frankenstein... 777 00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:54,600 ..would have made him blind. 778 00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:56,080 Can't see anything! 779 00:38:56,120 --> 00:38:58,200 Remarkably, on The Curse Of Frankenstein, 780 00:38:58,240 --> 00:39:02,000 Hammer, in one coup, cast their two biggest male stars, 781 00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:06,160 who were going to see the studio through all their great horror days. 782 00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:09,680 The simple pairing of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee was phenomenal. 783 00:39:09,720 --> 00:39:11,560 They were blessed with those guys. 784 00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:15,520 It's the kind of thing you dream about. It's like RKO saying... 785 00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:18,520 'OK, we have this tap dancer named Fred Astaire. 786 00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:20,560 He's sort of OK. What are we gonna do with him? 787 00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:23,280 We have this ingenue, named Ginger Rogers, who can kind of dance. 788 00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:25,320 What would happen if we put them together?' 789 00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:27,360 You know, and what happens is magic. 790 00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:31,560 Peter Cushing, potentially one of the greatest British actors. 791 00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:34,560 REYNOLDS: He was a lovely guy, very approachable. 792 00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:36,920 Peter Cushing was the star. He'd come from... 793 00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:39,120 1984 on the BBC. 794 00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:41,480 He was celebrated. He was handsome. 795 00:39:41,520 --> 00:39:44,560 (STAMMERS) You know, he was the guy at Hammer. 796 00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:47,520 I think Christopher Lee is a real legend. 797 00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:53,920 When I first met Christopher, I was just hypnotised by Dracula. 798 00:39:53,960 --> 00:39:57,360 Like, he had such a beautiful, amazing presence. 799 00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:00,200 Christopher Lee in terms of charisma and... 800 00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:03,080 ..sheer presence and... 801 00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:06,200 behaviour onstage was unbeatable. 802 00:40:06,240 --> 00:40:09,280 And Jimmy Carreras needs to be very thankful... 803 00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:12,600 the day that someone looked over and said, 'There's this tall guy, 804 00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:15,040 named Christopher Lee - you think he could be our creature?' 805 00:40:15,080 --> 00:40:16,680 All they were looking for was a big guy. 806 00:40:16,720 --> 00:40:18,640 It was nearly Bernard Bresslaw, wasn't it? 807 00:40:18,680 --> 00:40:21,160 But they lucked out and got somebody who was not only a big guy, 808 00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:24,480 a very impressive guy, but somebody with great presence, who could act. 809 00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:28,160 They gave these solid performances. 810 00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:29,920 I tried to get... 811 00:40:29,960 --> 00:40:33,440 both Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in my movies. 812 00:40:34,280 --> 00:40:38,280 In Halloween, I wanted Peter Cushing to be the Psychiatrist. 813 00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:40,440 Christopher Lee complained he didn't have any lines 814 00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:42,960 in Curse Of Frankenstein, and Cushing said, 815 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:44,800 'Well, you're lucky. I've read the script.' 816 00:40:44,840 --> 00:40:48,080 You're quiet. Cat got your tongue? 817 00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:53,440 I think Jimmy Sangster was of the opinion... 818 00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:58,360 that the success of a screenplay was down to 85% construction. 819 00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:00,760 Construction, it's 85%. 820 00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:02,840 Dialogue's not important. 821 00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:05,000 I think he may have said that because he was well aware 822 00:41:05,040 --> 00:41:07,600 actors tended to rewrite his dialogue. 823 00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:09,680 The actors kind of change the dialogue, anyway. 824 00:41:09,720 --> 00:41:11,840 Peter Cushing in particular did not like... 825 00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:14,560 Jimmy Sangster's dialogue...at all. 826 00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:18,080 At my early film classes at school, 827 00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:22,160 we were given a script that had Peter Cushing's annotations on it, 828 00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:24,160 where he corrected the script. 829 00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:25,960 I think he was looking at lines, going, 830 00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:27,920 'I wouldn't say it that way. I wouldn't... 831 00:41:27,960 --> 00:41:29,960 This needs changing round.' 832 00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:31,800 Christopher Lee's scripts are hysterical. 833 00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:35,880 They're like, 'No! I will not speak! Absurd!' 834 00:41:35,920 --> 00:41:37,760 And Peter Cushing was... 835 00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:41,160 did, indeed, rewrite the majority of it... 836 00:41:41,200 --> 00:41:43,520 and the results were great. So, the sort of... 837 00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:46,360 Sangster-Cushing collaboration, if you like, 838 00:41:46,400 --> 00:41:49,160 you know, was a good one. 839 00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:52,560 But, yes, Sangster was well aware that Cushing didn't like his work. 840 00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:56,280 Despite the creative differences, tensions and challenges, 841 00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:58,480 the Hammer team managed to make one of 842 00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:02,280 the most financially successful films of all time. 843 00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:05,320 The success of The Curse Of Frankenstein led to a... 844 00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:09,440 an explosion of period pictures that were inexplicably... 845 00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:12,120 accepted by kids, 846 00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:15,000 who, ordinarily, would be watching hot-rod movies. 847 00:42:15,040 --> 00:42:17,520 And obviously, they... 848 00:42:17,560 --> 00:42:19,800 realised that they had found lightning in a bottle 849 00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:23,440 and decided that they'll go through the old Universal catalogue 850 00:42:23,480 --> 00:42:25,440 and revisit all the monsters... 851 00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:28,280 except all gussied up with great photography, 852 00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:31,600 and classy looking sets, and good actors. 853 00:42:31,640 --> 00:42:33,800 And, of course, the even bigger hit... 854 00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:37,120 came the next year, which was Dracula. 855 00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:40,480 I remember seeing Dracula, or The Horror Of Dracula, 856 00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:42,440 as we called it America, for the first time, 857 00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:44,640 and it's this lurid colour... 858 00:42:44,680 --> 00:42:48,720 that even the title has this Kensington Gore blood 859 00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:51,320 splattering all over Dracula's name. 860 00:42:51,360 --> 00:42:54,480 It was a very, very shocking moment. It seems so hokey now. 861 00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:56,840 But in that moment, it was just genius. 862 00:42:56,880 --> 00:42:58,880 Dracula was like... 863 00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:02,480 ..it sort of became a sort of thing with me. 864 00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:05,640 Because I just thought it was rather fabulous, 865 00:43:05,680 --> 00:43:08,040 except that it was a bit bloody. 866 00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:12,720 It...pretty much cemented the entire run 867 00:43:12,760 --> 00:43:15,880 of what the studio was gonna be doing for the next decade. 868 00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:18,560 RIGBY: Jimmy Sangster was given Dracula to adapt. 869 00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:21,120 What I remembered the most about Dracula, 870 00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:23,320 there's no wasted time. 871 00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:25,160 It's smart. 872 00:43:25,200 --> 00:43:28,120 And over the years, Jimmy was always saying that people would ask him, 873 00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:30,520 'Why did I write Dracula in that way? 874 00:43:30,560 --> 00:43:32,800 Why did I adapt the novels in the way I did?' 875 00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:34,520 And it was all down to money. 876 00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:38,320 And he knew exactly what he was typing... 877 00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:40,640 ..would cost. 878 00:43:40,680 --> 00:43:43,200 If you read the novel, if you see the Lugosi film, 879 00:43:43,240 --> 00:43:45,720 it all starts in Transylvania. 880 00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:47,800 And they jump on a ship, and they come to England. 881 00:43:47,840 --> 00:43:50,880 Sangster was well aware that Hammer couldn't possibly afford that, 882 00:43:50,920 --> 00:43:53,400 and that if they used stock footage, it would look rubbish. 883 00:43:53,440 --> 00:43:56,640 So he cut it all together. Hammer's version of Dracula is... 884 00:43:56,680 --> 00:43:59,240 to me, getting on for the definitive one. 885 00:43:59,280 --> 00:44:01,080 And yet it takes huge liberties. 886 00:44:01,120 --> 00:44:03,560 I am Dracula, and I welcome you to my house. 887 00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:06,160 At this point, the Censor was waiting. 888 00:44:06,200 --> 00:44:08,760 They knew what to expect. 889 00:44:08,800 --> 00:44:12,320 And Audrey Field, the implacable opponent of Hammer, says, 890 00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:14,360 'Right. We've seen this in black-and-white. 891 00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:18,120 There are six scenes missing, and it's in colour. Show it to us now.' 892 00:44:18,160 --> 00:44:20,000 So they did. 893 00:44:20,040 --> 00:44:22,840 And there was, again, horrific reaction. 894 00:44:22,880 --> 00:44:26,440 Argh!The Censors definitely asking for cuts. 895 00:44:26,480 --> 00:44:30,080 Hinds putting things in that he could then take out. 896 00:44:30,120 --> 00:44:32,800 And it all boils down to this moment... 897 00:44:32,840 --> 00:44:35,920 when the Censor says they cannot have Mina Harker... 898 00:44:35,960 --> 00:44:41,440 looking at Dracula in this immensely sexual way. We just can't have it. 899 00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:44,120 And, basically, it comes down to two shots - 900 00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:47,320 Dracula approaching... and her looking. 901 00:44:48,240 --> 00:44:51,960 And Hinds and Carreras desperately wanted it. 902 00:44:52,000 --> 00:44:54,040 They desperately wanted these shots in there, 903 00:44:54,080 --> 00:44:56,360 because they knew this would change everything. 904 00:44:56,400 --> 00:44:58,640 I've seen some of those Censor notes, going 905 00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:01,360 'He can't lean over that way. This is outrageous,' 906 00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:03,480 and they push it and go, 'Well, no, he's a vampire - 907 00:45:03,520 --> 00:45:06,200 he's gonna bite her neck. Nothing else is going on.' 908 00:45:06,240 --> 00:45:08,200 But to the audience member, 909 00:45:08,240 --> 00:45:11,320 of course they're feeling the sexual power of those moments, 910 00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:13,480 and that's what makes the film so strong. 911 00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:16,480 And then Hinds sprang his surprise. He said... 912 00:45:16,520 --> 00:45:18,560 'When you saw this in black-and-white, 913 00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:22,320 you gave me to understand that maybe you'd be able to pass this. 914 00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:24,680 I can't see it's any worse in colour. 915 00:45:24,720 --> 00:45:27,000 And I'm sorry - I scored it. 916 00:45:27,040 --> 00:45:30,920 I've set up an orchestra, I've edited it, I've dubbed it. 917 00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,080 It's gonna cost me a fortune to change.' 918 00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:35,120 There was a panicky meeting. 919 00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:39,240 Hinds stuck to his guns. He said, 'It's gonna cost me a lot of money. 920 00:45:39,280 --> 00:45:41,080 Censor was set up to protect them 921 00:45:41,120 --> 00:45:42,960 from local authorities banning films. 922 00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:46,400 It was meant to save the industry money, not create costs. 923 00:45:46,440 --> 00:45:49,560 And he said, 'In this instance, we're gonna let it go. 924 00:45:49,600 --> 00:45:51,680 But don't do it again.' (LAUGHS) 925 00:45:51,720 --> 00:45:54,120 And so Hinds had his shot. 926 00:45:54,160 --> 00:45:56,600 And the extraordinary thing is, you might say, 927 00:45:56,640 --> 00:45:59,160 'Well, it was just an accident, the looks.' 928 00:45:59,200 --> 00:46:02,040 No. Fisher, on the set, actually said to her, 929 00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:04,520 'I want you to look at this... this guy coming towards you 930 00:46:04,560 --> 00:46:06,320 as if he's the greatest love of your life. 931 00:46:06,360 --> 00:46:08,840 You can't wait for him to be back.' And he got a performance. 932 00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:11,760 He was very pleased with the performance he got from Melissa Stribling. 933 00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:13,680 It's gone down in movie history, actually. 934 00:46:13,720 --> 00:46:15,680 This is a really crucial moment, 935 00:46:15,720 --> 00:46:18,880 because this was the point at which the vampire becomes erotic. 936 00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:22,440 There is no going back after that - the floodgates had opened. 937 00:46:24,481 --> 00:46:29,320 Three hits in a row had led Hammer to concoct a winning formula, 938 00:46:29,360 --> 00:46:31,640 a specific blend of the Gothic, 939 00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:34,480 the violent and the teasingly erotic. 940 00:46:35,360 --> 00:46:37,320 But while the discovery of this formula 941 00:46:37,360 --> 00:46:39,480 may have been somewhat accidental, 942 00:46:39,520 --> 00:46:41,760 this serendipity would never have happened 943 00:46:41,800 --> 00:46:43,800 without the right people... 944 00:46:43,840 --> 00:46:46,320 in the right place at the right time. 945 00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:50,640 Their creative achievements were the result of collective effort 946 00:46:50,680 --> 00:46:52,520 and hard work. 947 00:46:52,560 --> 00:46:55,640 The success of Hammer's early Gothic horror films 948 00:46:55,680 --> 00:46:58,560 was very much founded on the team... 949 00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:01,680 ..that Hammer had got together. 950 00:47:01,720 --> 00:47:05,240 They were... like minds, if you like. 951 00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:09,400 You had Terence Fisher directing, Jimmy Sangster writing, 952 00:47:09,440 --> 00:47:11,640 Tony Hinds producing. 953 00:47:11,680 --> 00:47:14,360 Very often, James Bernard scoring. 954 00:47:14,400 --> 00:47:16,800 The thing that I know about the Dracula score, 955 00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:19,040 and how the Dracula theme came about. 956 00:47:19,080 --> 00:47:22,720 It was James Bernard, and Paul Dehn the Writer... 957 00:47:22,760 --> 00:47:26,400 who suggested to James, who was stuck on a theme, 958 00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:30,840 'Why don't you just say... "Dra-cu-la" musically?' 959 00:47:30,880 --> 00:47:32,320 (SINGS) Dracula. 960 00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:34,760 I mean, those big chords would come in. 961 00:47:34,800 --> 00:47:36,800 (BOMBASTIC MUSIC) 962 00:47:44,720 --> 00:47:46,760 (SINGS) Dun-da-da. 963 00:47:46,800 --> 00:47:49,440 That's the score. I can still hear it in my head. 964 00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:52,000 And then he builds the rest of the theme on that. 965 00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:54,600 And that went all the way through a lot of his scores. 966 00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:57,920 You could always hear the name of the film being stamped out. 967 00:47:57,960 --> 00:48:00,960 (DRAMATIC CHORDS FOLLOWING VISUALS) 968 00:48:11,080 --> 00:48:14,800 The film scores were just one of the creative facets 969 00:48:14,840 --> 00:48:17,280 that Hammer was becoming famous for. 970 00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:21,160 The visual and design aspects were also drawing in audiences 971 00:48:21,200 --> 00:48:22,960 ever more deeply. 972 00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:25,800 Other members of the team were making their mark. 973 00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:28,400 The real stars of Hammer, in my opinion... 974 00:48:29,200 --> 00:48:32,720 ..were people like Bernard Robinson, the Art Director. 975 00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:39,080 Bernard was quite a thrifty person at heart. 976 00:48:39,120 --> 00:48:42,880 Hammer loved that because it meant he didn't squander the art direction budget. 977 00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:46,360 But I guess some of that thrift was a hangover from the war days. 978 00:48:46,400 --> 00:48:48,800 You've got to remember that a lot of people... 979 00:48:48,840 --> 00:48:51,080 working for Hammer had just come out of the war 980 00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:53,400 and had brought their experiences with them. 981 00:48:53,440 --> 00:48:57,760 The Camera Operator Len Harris was filming the beaches of D-Day 982 00:48:57,800 --> 00:48:59,640 the day after the landing. 983 00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:02,320 Harry Oakes the Focus Puller was one of the first person 984 00:49:02,360 --> 00:49:04,960 to go into Auschwitz when the doors opened. 985 00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:09,040 One classic example is Les Bowie, special effects pioneer. 986 00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:12,160 Now, Les was a POW during the war. 987 00:49:12,200 --> 00:49:15,720 He could draw like life. He used to forge passports. 988 00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:19,800 So in Dracula, Hammer built the downstairs of Castle Dracula. 989 00:49:19,840 --> 00:49:22,440 When you see those turrets and the mountains in the background, 990 00:49:22,480 --> 00:49:26,880 that's a glass painting, which has been produced by Les Bowie. 991 00:49:26,920 --> 00:49:30,600 Bernard Robertson started in the film industry in 1935. 992 00:49:30,640 --> 00:49:34,280 During the war, he became a camouflage and deco expert 993 00:49:34,320 --> 00:49:36,480 at Shepperton Studios. 994 00:49:36,520 --> 00:49:39,320 And after the war, he met... 995 00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:42,520 a chap called Tony Keys. 996 00:49:42,560 --> 00:49:46,600 And Tony Nelson Keys later became an Associate Producer at Hammer. 997 00:49:46,640 --> 00:49:49,800 I think he started on a Tod Slaughter film in 1939, 998 00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:51,840 called Crimes At The Dark House. 999 00:49:51,880 --> 00:49:55,320 And if you watch that film, you can see the sort of nascent Hammer sets, 1000 00:49:55,360 --> 00:49:58,280 you know, nearly 20 years too soon, as it were. 1001 00:49:58,320 --> 00:50:01,400 Hammer learnt very early on that it was cheaper... 1002 00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:03,280 to rent a country house... 1003 00:50:03,320 --> 00:50:06,680 and shoot the films in the rooms, and in the gardens, 1004 00:50:06,720 --> 00:50:10,360 than renting out expensive space at the established film studios. 1005 00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:13,480 And the most famous one was Oakley Court in Bray. 1006 00:50:13,520 --> 00:50:15,520 MAN: Oakfield Tower... 1007 00:50:16,800 --> 00:50:18,600 Right next door to Oakley Court... 1008 00:50:18,640 --> 00:50:21,080 was another country house called Down Place. 1009 00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:24,160 And in January 1951, Hammer move into Down Place 1010 00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:27,560 and convert it into Bray Studios. 1011 00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:29,520 COURT: There was a terrible thunderstorm. 1012 00:50:29,560 --> 00:50:31,880 Oh, God. The rain came down in sheets. 1013 00:50:31,920 --> 00:50:34,840 The roof's leaking, everything's leaking. 1014 00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:37,080 And Terry Fisher says, 'Carry on!' 1015 00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:39,760 I feel, already, this is my home. 1016 00:50:39,800 --> 00:50:42,320 The first proper home of my life. 1017 00:50:42,360 --> 00:50:45,280 Bernard Robinson was able to revamp a lot of his sets, 1018 00:50:45,320 --> 00:50:48,520 both in a production and between productions. 1019 00:50:48,560 --> 00:50:51,000 They had that studio to themselves. 1020 00:50:51,040 --> 00:50:53,080 So he could build things, leave them up, 1021 00:50:53,120 --> 00:50:54,840 and that's what saved them money. 1022 00:50:54,880 --> 00:50:56,880 Bernard Robinson's genius... 1023 00:50:56,920 --> 00:51:00,920 in so many Hammer films, was to reuse elements, 1024 00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:03,560 to redress them, reposition them, 1025 00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:06,120 redesign them, but nevertheless, 1026 00:51:06,160 --> 00:51:10,120 very cost effectively use the same stuff again and again and again. 1027 00:51:10,160 --> 00:51:12,520 When you look at Hammer films... 1028 00:51:12,560 --> 00:51:15,040 in, like, a series... 1029 00:51:15,080 --> 00:51:17,720 you see it's all Bray. And... 1030 00:51:17,760 --> 00:51:22,440 you see how cleverly they keep using the same rooms. 1031 00:51:22,480 --> 00:51:24,760 The classic example of this is in Dracula. 1032 00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:26,440 There was one particular set, 1033 00:51:26,480 --> 00:51:29,360 and they used it six times just by redressing it. 1034 00:51:30,840 --> 00:51:34,520 It started as a graveyard, and they redress it as a garden. 1035 00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:38,720 They then redressed it into the hall and stairs of Castle Dracula. 1036 00:51:38,760 --> 00:51:42,360 Mr Harker. I'm glad that you've arrived safely. 1037 00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:44,640 And by shooting from a slightly different angle, 1038 00:51:44,680 --> 00:51:48,520 they manage to get an entrance lobby and the second flight of stairs. 1039 00:51:48,560 --> 00:51:50,800 And then after that, they redressed it totally, again, 1040 00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:53,280 to the library where Dracula dies at the end. 1041 00:51:54,640 --> 00:51:56,880 And then, believe it or not, that library turns up, 1042 00:51:56,920 --> 00:51:59,240 practically the same, 1043 00:51:59,280 --> 00:52:01,280 in The Revenge Of Frankenstein. 1044 00:52:01,320 --> 00:52:03,120 ..was sentenced to death on the guillotine. 1045 00:52:03,160 --> 00:52:05,000 It's impressive, actually. 1046 00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:08,040 There's a funny story of Bernard, about his thrift. 1047 00:52:08,080 --> 00:52:10,240 Sometimes, he would... he would be a bit cheeky 1048 00:52:10,280 --> 00:52:12,640 and order an extra roll of wallpaper. 1049 00:52:12,680 --> 00:52:15,760 And at the end of the production, he would take that home and use it... 1050 00:52:15,800 --> 00:52:17,680 in his own house. 1051 00:52:17,720 --> 00:52:21,520 He got busted when he made a film called The Two Faces Of Dr Jekyll. 1052 00:52:21,560 --> 00:52:24,480 He went to the premiere with his wife, and his wife was not happy, 1053 00:52:24,520 --> 00:52:28,560 and wanted to know why the new lounge wallpaper... 1054 00:52:28,600 --> 00:52:31,800 was deemed fit to be the prostitute's bedroom wallpaper 1055 00:52:31,840 --> 00:52:33,840 in The Two Faces Of Dr Jekyll. 1056 00:52:36,920 --> 00:52:39,680 A lot of the success of those early Hammer films 1057 00:52:39,720 --> 00:52:43,760 is down to the way his sets were lit by Jack Asher. 1058 00:52:47,480 --> 00:52:50,160 And it was often said that Asher painted with light. 1059 00:52:50,200 --> 00:52:52,120 And the films look gorgeous. 1060 00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:57,600 When you look at even a still from the pictures that Jack Asher shot, 1061 00:52:57,640 --> 00:53:01,240 the lighting is so subtle and so colourful. 1062 00:53:01,280 --> 00:53:03,080 He was a perfectionist. 1063 00:53:03,120 --> 00:53:06,080 The dreadful shame about it is that, eventually, 1064 00:53:06,120 --> 00:53:08,120 they felt he was too slow - 1065 00:53:08,160 --> 00:53:11,440 or, rather, he wasn't quick enough for Hammer. 1066 00:53:11,480 --> 00:53:15,320 And behind the scenes, the Hammer bean counters didn't like that. 1067 00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:18,680 Eventually, unfortunately, they brought in another chap called Arthur Grant. 1068 00:53:18,720 --> 00:53:20,480 He was a lot more commercial. 1069 00:53:20,520 --> 00:53:24,320 Still very good results, but he was faster than Jack Asher. 1070 00:53:24,360 --> 00:53:27,160 Which is a shame because the only time that Hammer ever got... 1071 00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:29,560 a BAFTA nomination for colour photography 1072 00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:32,600 was in a film called The Scarlet Blade that Asher did for Hammer, 1073 00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:35,280 which was his second-from-last film. 1074 00:53:35,320 --> 00:53:39,360 At the end of the day, time mattered and the schedules mattered. 1075 00:53:39,400 --> 00:53:42,640 Even in the face of financial constraints, 1076 00:53:42,680 --> 00:53:47,120 Tony Hinds and Michael Carreras had sculpted the perfect team, 1077 00:53:47,160 --> 00:53:50,280 which was working like a well-oiled machine. 1078 00:53:50,320 --> 00:53:54,200 Now the studio's challenge was to continue turning out films 1079 00:53:54,240 --> 00:53:56,040 that had the Hammer magic... 1080 00:53:56,080 --> 00:53:59,640 while keeping up with a global audience's shifting tastes. 1081 00:53:59,680 --> 00:54:02,400 Success was not guaranteed. 1082 00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:05,480 The right choices needed to be made, 1083 00:54:05,520 --> 00:54:10,240 or all Hammer had worked for could quickly come crashing down. 1084 00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:12,120 The notion of sequels was going to be... 1085 00:54:12,160 --> 00:54:14,680 terribly important for Hammer down the road, 1086 00:54:14,720 --> 00:54:18,400 and that was what, actually, James Carreras loved. 1087 00:54:18,440 --> 00:54:22,760 He loved a pipeline. That's what he wanted - a pipeline of product. 1088 00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:24,640 And he would just roll it out. 1089 00:54:24,680 --> 00:54:26,520 And then we can do more, and we can do more, 1090 00:54:26,560 --> 00:54:28,880 and let's saturate the world with it. 1091 00:54:28,920 --> 00:54:32,320 And, obviously, that is the law of diminishing returns. 1092 00:54:32,360 --> 00:54:35,760 It was, ultimately, very, very positive, 1093 00:54:35,800 --> 00:54:38,440 and it was ultimately the beginning of the creation of the brand. 1094 00:54:38,480 --> 00:54:42,840 But that was, perhaps, in there, a slight harbinger of doom. 1095 00:54:42,880 --> 00:54:45,240 (NOISY CLATTERING) I'm sorry, something's wrong here. 1096 00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:49,320 Not all of the Hammer team believed in James Carreras' strategy 1097 00:54:49,360 --> 00:54:52,000 of creating a succession of sequels. 1098 00:54:53,160 --> 00:54:57,520 James's own son was questioning some of his father's choices. 1099 00:54:57,560 --> 00:55:00,480 I think Michael had a difficult relationship with horror films. 1100 00:55:00,520 --> 00:55:03,600 Michael Carreras was very keen to get beyond the Gothic, 1101 00:55:03,640 --> 00:55:06,200 or when he was making a Gothic film, 1102 00:55:06,240 --> 00:55:09,880 he wanted to add other... other spices, other elements. 1103 00:55:09,920 --> 00:55:13,960 PIRIE: And he really, desperately, wanted to create. 1104 00:55:14,000 --> 00:55:17,080 He wanted to be an artist, and he never quite succeeded 1105 00:55:17,120 --> 00:55:19,320 on the level that he would have liked, I think. 1106 00:55:19,360 --> 00:55:21,480 I liked to diversify. 1107 00:55:21,520 --> 00:55:23,280 If I couldn't diversify the company, 1108 00:55:23,320 --> 00:55:26,200 I certainly liked to diversify my own... 1109 00:55:26,240 --> 00:55:28,400 participations where possible. 1110 00:55:28,440 --> 00:55:30,440 But James wasn't interested in that at all. 1111 00:55:30,480 --> 00:55:35,840 Sadly, some of the other streams that I tried to instil... 1112 00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:39,160 into the company's product line just didn't work. 1113 00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:42,360 And some of those were just dreadful. 1114 00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:44,480 Oh, Lord, they hurt. 1115 00:55:44,520 --> 00:55:46,440 They hurt to watch. 1116 00:55:46,480 --> 00:55:48,480 (EXAGGERATED SCREAMING) 1117 00:56:08,880 --> 00:56:12,280 Oh, can't you leave me alone?! I'm doing the best I can! 1118 00:56:12,320 --> 00:56:15,080 Then I went off and did my thing for a couple of years - 1119 00:56:15,120 --> 00:56:17,120 made a...I did a musical. 1120 00:56:17,160 --> 00:56:19,240 ALL: (SINGING) ..crazy world we're living in. 1121 00:56:19,280 --> 00:56:22,080 Things I would never have been able to do at Hammer. 1122 00:56:22,120 --> 00:56:25,320 ALL: (SINGING) ..we're living... 1123 00:56:25,360 --> 00:56:27,640 And that would be... 1124 00:56:27,680 --> 00:56:32,040 Things were beginning to go a little bit pear-shaped for the company. 1125 00:56:32,080 --> 00:56:35,240 Bray was shut down for a short time in the early '60s, 1126 00:56:35,280 --> 00:56:37,400 and people had to go off and get other jobs. 1127 00:56:37,440 --> 00:56:41,920 And then, of course, Hammer actually moves out of Bray Studios... 1128 00:56:41,960 --> 00:56:45,520 in September 1966, I think it was. 1129 00:56:45,560 --> 00:56:48,960 A very particular feature of that Bray flavour... 1130 00:56:49,760 --> 00:56:51,440 ..is lost at that moment. 1131 00:56:51,480 --> 00:56:55,560 Once they left Bray, you're making films like any other company does 1132 00:56:55,600 --> 00:56:57,720 at Pinewood, Elstree or anywhere else. 1133 00:56:57,760 --> 00:57:01,000 The last film at Bray was The Mummy's Shroud in 1966, 1134 00:57:01,040 --> 00:57:03,960 and the films they made afterwards at Elstree... 1135 00:57:04,000 --> 00:57:06,320 don't look a patch on the Bray films. 1136 00:57:06,360 --> 00:57:08,960 The reason they had to move to Elstree was a lot of their films 1137 00:57:09,000 --> 00:57:12,520 were being released by the ABC Cinema company. 1138 00:57:12,560 --> 00:57:14,840 And ABC owned and ran Elstree, 1139 00:57:14,880 --> 00:57:17,320 and they were saying, 'If we're gonna release your films, 1140 00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:19,480 you've got to make the films at our studio.' 1141 00:57:19,520 --> 00:57:22,840 They were starting to make exterior sets on interior stages, 1142 00:57:22,880 --> 00:57:25,480 with a painted backlot outside Castle Dracula, 1143 00:57:25,520 --> 00:57:27,400 which just looked fake and looks awful, 1144 00:57:27,440 --> 00:57:29,160 and they started to look cheap. 1145 00:57:29,200 --> 00:57:31,880 External forces began to affect Hammer. 1146 00:57:31,920 --> 00:57:33,760 With its move from Bray, 1147 00:57:33,800 --> 00:57:37,440 the iconic production company had lost its spiritual home. 1148 00:57:37,480 --> 00:57:42,080 The things that imbued Hammer with its magic were starting to erode. 1149 00:57:42,120 --> 00:57:44,640 Its previously confident steps... 1150 00:57:44,680 --> 00:57:47,880 were now beginning to become stumbles in the dark - 1151 00:57:47,920 --> 00:57:50,040 stumbles that only worsened 1152 00:57:50,080 --> 00:57:53,480 as key crew members began to move on as well. 1153 00:57:53,520 --> 00:57:56,800 The team that's headed into the depths of the 1960s 1154 00:57:56,840 --> 00:57:58,560 was a little bit different. 1155 00:57:58,600 --> 00:58:02,120 And the moment some of them are moving on to doing other things, 1156 00:58:02,160 --> 00:58:04,640 and it starts being diluted, 1157 00:58:04,680 --> 00:58:06,960 it's easy to lose your identity at that point. 1158 00:58:07,000 --> 00:58:09,960 It had such a strong identity, and... 1159 00:58:11,160 --> 00:58:13,160 ..I don't know where it kind of went. 1160 00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:15,560 WOMAN: My father had broken his leg just after... 1161 00:58:15,600 --> 00:58:19,000 Frankenstein Created Woman, I think it was, and it became difficult, 1162 00:58:19,040 --> 00:58:22,240 for insurance purposes, to be on the set. 1163 00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:24,240 And he was getting older. 1164 00:58:24,280 --> 00:58:27,480 When Phil Leakey was asked to work for Hammer, 1165 00:58:27,520 --> 00:58:29,360 they put him on a retainer, 1166 00:58:29,400 --> 00:58:32,440 which I think was pretty much unheard of at that time. 1167 00:58:32,480 --> 00:58:34,280 And then he discovered, one day, 1168 00:58:34,320 --> 00:58:36,720 that they'd taken it away, and he didn't have it any more. 1169 00:58:36,760 --> 00:58:39,560 And so he decided that he was gonna part company. 1170 00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:47,840 But Phil Leakey and Terence Fisher 1171 00:58:47,880 --> 00:58:50,440 were not the only ones to depart from Hammer. 1172 00:58:50,480 --> 00:58:52,520 Over the next few years, 1173 00:58:52,560 --> 00:58:55,800 many more of the key members of the team also moved on. 1174 00:58:55,840 --> 00:58:59,640 Each exit dealt a damaging blow to the company, 1175 00:58:59,680 --> 00:59:03,840 but no departure shook the foundations of the house Hammer built 1176 00:59:03,880 --> 00:59:06,480 as much as the one that was still to come. 1177 00:59:06,520 --> 00:59:10,080 VOICEOVER: Prepare yourself for the greatest shock of all. 1178 00:59:10,120 --> 00:59:13,480 The loss of Tony Hinds was a blow to Hammer. 1179 00:59:13,520 --> 00:59:16,280 The reason he left Hammer was because of two events. 1180 00:59:16,320 --> 00:59:18,440 In 1968, 1181 00:59:18,480 --> 00:59:20,640 Hammer has collaborated on... 1182 00:59:20,680 --> 00:59:23,000 a TV series called Journey To The Unknown. 1183 00:59:23,040 --> 00:59:26,760 ABC decided they wanted to have a named producer above him, 1184 00:59:26,800 --> 00:59:30,360 which was Joan Harrison, who was Alfred Hitchcock's assistant. 1185 00:59:30,400 --> 00:59:34,160 And Tony Hinds nose was put out of joint quite a lot, 1186 00:59:34,200 --> 00:59:36,320 because he found himself, effectively, 1187 00:59:36,360 --> 00:59:39,400 working almost as her assistant. 1188 00:59:39,440 --> 00:59:42,280 And she took all control from him. 1189 00:59:42,320 --> 00:59:47,080 Now he had to make every decision with her, and she had to agree. 1190 00:59:47,120 --> 00:59:50,200 And he found that very frustrating, and it disenchanted him. 1191 00:59:50,240 --> 00:59:53,240 A year after that, in 1969, 1192 00:59:53,280 --> 00:59:55,920 he writes the script for Taste The Blood Of Dracula. 1193 00:59:55,960 --> 00:59:59,800 The son of Freddie Francis had submitted a script to Hammer 1194 00:59:59,840 --> 01:00:02,360 called Dracula's Feast Of Blood. 1195 01:00:02,400 --> 01:00:05,000 Now, there was some talk... 1196 01:00:05,040 --> 01:00:07,160 that Hinds had lifted two scenes 1197 01:00:07,200 --> 01:00:09,200 from someone else's script and put it in. 1198 01:00:09,240 --> 01:00:12,680 If that ever happened, I can only suppose he assumed... 1199 01:00:12,720 --> 01:00:16,080 that the script was fair game, that they owned it. 1200 01:00:16,120 --> 01:00:19,240 Tony Hinds was obviously quite upset, and he'd had enough. 1201 01:00:19,280 --> 01:00:22,200 And so he took retirement at the... 1202 01:00:22,240 --> 01:00:24,760 enviably early age of 48. 1203 01:00:24,800 --> 01:00:26,680 Creatively, that was a blow. 1204 01:00:26,720 --> 01:00:29,920 I think he left at just the point when... 1205 01:00:29,960 --> 01:00:32,720 things were becoming more permissive. 1206 01:00:34,768 --> 01:00:37,000 As Tony Hinds departed Hammer, 1207 01:00:37,040 --> 01:00:41,040 the wider world was changing, particularly in the film industry. 1208 01:00:41,080 --> 01:00:45,600 The British film censors relaxed their outlook on the horror genre, 1209 01:00:45,640 --> 01:00:47,560 drastically reducing the power 1210 01:00:47,600 --> 01:00:50,520 of Hammer's shock and titillation armoury. 1211 01:00:50,560 --> 01:00:52,760 If Hammer wanted to keep the proud badge 1212 01:00:52,800 --> 01:00:54,840 of an X certificate on their films, 1213 01:00:54,880 --> 01:00:58,120 they would need to step up the levels of violence, 1214 01:00:58,160 --> 01:01:00,600 gore and sex on screen. 1215 01:01:00,640 --> 01:01:04,760 But doing so could threaten to disrupt Hammer's magic formula. 1216 01:01:04,800 --> 01:01:06,840 Hammer had an elegance, 1217 01:01:06,880 --> 01:01:10,560 and no matter what kind of bloodletting went on, 1218 01:01:10,600 --> 01:01:13,440 there was always backed up by an elegance... 1219 01:01:13,480 --> 01:01:18,120 until they started ripping off all the clothes and showing everything. 1220 01:01:18,160 --> 01:01:20,160 The mystery had gone. 1221 01:01:20,200 --> 01:01:23,640 Their films had always been teasingly erotic 1222 01:01:23,680 --> 01:01:25,680 as far as the Censor would allow. 1223 01:01:25,720 --> 01:01:28,360 But now that censorship barriers were collapsing, 1224 01:01:28,400 --> 01:01:30,520 the eroticism was stepped up. 1225 01:01:30,560 --> 01:01:32,960 GORE: You could put a lot more nudity on screen. 1226 01:01:33,000 --> 01:01:35,680 A lot of the things that Hammer were brilliant at suggesting, 1227 01:01:35,720 --> 01:01:40,280 and not having to say, almost like existing within their own code, 1228 01:01:40,320 --> 01:01:42,280 suddenly became permissible in everything. 1229 01:01:42,320 --> 01:01:45,240 And I think they started pursuing that level of filmmaking, 1230 01:01:45,280 --> 01:01:47,560 and, probably, they shouldn't have done that. 1231 01:01:47,600 --> 01:01:49,880 According to Tony Hinds, Jimmy Carreras said to him, 1232 01:01:49,920 --> 01:01:52,800 'It's incredible, Tony, you can do anything now.' 1233 01:01:52,840 --> 01:01:55,360 Tony Hinds said, 'I'm not sure that doing anything 1234 01:01:55,400 --> 01:01:57,560 is what it's all about.' 1235 01:01:57,600 --> 01:02:03,120 Their push to more nudity, I think, was the demise of Hammer. 1236 01:02:03,160 --> 01:02:05,480 They wanted to keep and X certificate on the film, 1237 01:02:05,520 --> 01:02:09,120 so they had to boost up a bit more of the gore... 1238 01:02:09,160 --> 01:02:11,320 and a bit more of the sex and violence generally, 1239 01:02:11,360 --> 01:02:13,520 to make it to get that certificate. 1240 01:02:13,560 --> 01:02:18,120 They're losing their identity more in a quest to remain relevant 1241 01:02:18,160 --> 01:02:21,040 than in the quest to remain shocking, I think. 1242 01:02:22,200 --> 01:02:24,480 The real monster that emerges 1243 01:02:24,520 --> 01:02:28,160 is the sexploitation nature that the films turn to. 1244 01:02:28,200 --> 01:02:30,680 All these films, the more nudity in it, 1245 01:02:30,720 --> 01:02:33,160 and more sex in general, I think - 1246 01:02:33,200 --> 01:02:36,000 they threw it in whether the story needed it or not. 1247 01:02:36,040 --> 01:02:38,840 I mean, no, sorry. No. 1248 01:02:38,880 --> 01:02:41,280 Those lesbian vampire films. 1249 01:02:41,320 --> 01:02:43,400 Lust For A Vampire, Vampire Lovers. 1250 01:02:46,200 --> 01:02:48,200 It was Jimmy Carreras who... 1251 01:02:49,040 --> 01:02:51,600 ..was keen to jump on that. 1252 01:02:51,640 --> 01:02:55,280 But at the same time, they were bringing in independent producers. 1253 01:02:55,320 --> 01:02:57,760 And those were, in fact, made by Harry Fine 1254 01:02:57,800 --> 01:03:00,360 and Michael Style of Fantail Films. 1255 01:03:00,400 --> 01:03:02,000 Just abominable. 1256 01:03:02,040 --> 01:03:05,040 VOICEOVER: Welcome to the finishing school... 1257 01:03:05,080 --> 01:03:08,720 where they really do finish you. (SCREAMS) 1258 01:03:08,760 --> 01:03:11,440 I was on set when Michael Styles was walking around 1259 01:03:11,480 --> 01:03:14,600 with these short stockings, and he's walking around pulling them. 1260 01:03:14,640 --> 01:03:17,520 The next minute, the Assistant Director had them. 1261 01:03:17,560 --> 01:03:19,760 And I said, 'What's going on?' And he says, 'Oh. 1262 01:03:19,800 --> 01:03:22,440 He wants one of the girls to be pulling these on, 1263 01:03:22,480 --> 01:03:25,200 but she's got to be topless in one of the bedrooms.' 1264 01:03:26,400 --> 01:03:29,760 I'm gonna mention one monster - Michael Style... 1265 01:03:29,800 --> 01:03:32,640 imported from who knows where. 1266 01:03:33,480 --> 01:03:36,160 With his sausage on set. 1267 01:03:37,000 --> 01:03:39,440 His portfolio of pornography. 1268 01:03:40,640 --> 01:03:42,880 His whispering in my ear... 1269 01:03:44,280 --> 01:03:47,720 ..all sorts of uh...obscenities. 1270 01:03:48,680 --> 01:03:51,160 His unkindness. 1271 01:03:51,200 --> 01:03:53,400 And so he disgusts me. 1272 01:03:56,560 --> 01:04:00,880 Michael Style, in particular... had a very different approach 1273 01:04:00,920 --> 01:04:04,160 to the rather gentlemanly Hammer approach of old. 1274 01:04:04,200 --> 01:04:06,480 I'm dying in the bed, 1275 01:04:06,520 --> 01:04:09,880 because the lesbian vampire has bitten me. 1276 01:04:09,920 --> 01:04:13,800 And Michael Styles comes up to me and he whispers in my ear, 1277 01:04:13,840 --> 01:04:15,840 'You better hot this up, 1278 01:04:15,880 --> 01:04:19,320 because everybody will be falling asleep in the aisles.' 1279 01:04:19,360 --> 01:04:21,560 And Roy Ward Baker got hold of him 1280 01:04:21,600 --> 01:04:24,440 and pulled him off the set, quite literally. 1281 01:04:24,480 --> 01:04:27,600 I mean, he was vicious to me, and I didn't know what he meant. 1282 01:04:27,640 --> 01:04:31,920 But what it actually meant was I was meant to writhe about in the bed, 1283 01:04:31,960 --> 01:04:34,480 have orgasm after orgasm. 1284 01:04:34,520 --> 01:04:37,760 Of course, I didn't know what that was. I was so, so innocent. 1285 01:04:37,800 --> 01:04:40,480 Nobody can believe it. Roy Wood Baker came up to me. 1286 01:04:40,520 --> 01:04:42,720 And he said, 'Maddy, forget all that. 1287 01:04:42,760 --> 01:04:46,280 Just pretend you're having a nightmare.' And that's what I did. 1288 01:04:47,280 --> 01:04:49,280 (SCREAMS) 1289 01:04:50,440 --> 01:04:52,080 So that's Vampire Lovers. MAN: Yes. 1290 01:04:52,120 --> 01:04:54,640 Which I think was a smashing little film, actually. 1291 01:04:54,680 --> 01:04:56,720 We could have done without the bare... 1292 01:04:56,760 --> 01:04:59,680 I th... In my personal view, I think everybody would have 1293 01:04:59,720 --> 01:05:02,640 been quite happy without that, but there we are. 1294 01:05:02,680 --> 01:05:05,520 Hammer didn't really entertain these guys for very long. 1295 01:05:05,560 --> 01:05:09,760 But nevertheless, it's a... that sort of reputation stuck. 1296 01:05:09,800 --> 01:05:12,920 While some within Hammer were looking to exploit women, 1297 01:05:12,960 --> 01:05:16,760 others wanted to give female actors more significant roles 1298 01:05:16,800 --> 01:05:19,160 that they could really get their teeth into. 1299 01:05:19,200 --> 01:05:21,840 I think that when they chased the certificate 1300 01:05:21,880 --> 01:05:25,680 and moved from blood to sex, 1301 01:05:25,720 --> 01:05:29,520 one of the things they did that was really interesting is they gave women a much bigger part. 1302 01:05:29,560 --> 01:05:32,040 BURTON: The female parts all very striking, you know? 1303 01:05:32,080 --> 01:05:35,200 It's quite an amazing repertoire. 1304 01:05:35,240 --> 01:05:37,280 They allowed women to be villains, 1305 01:05:37,320 --> 01:05:40,080 and not just because they're controlled by Dracula, 1306 01:05:40,120 --> 01:05:42,280 but they have their own agency. 1307 01:05:42,320 --> 01:05:46,160 It gave rise to characters like Ingrid Pitt's characters, 1308 01:05:46,200 --> 01:05:48,720 you know, villains who are in control. 1309 01:05:48,760 --> 01:05:51,000 And that's not something you see very much, 1310 01:05:51,040 --> 01:05:54,320 those femme fatales, in the history of cinema. 1311 01:05:54,360 --> 01:05:56,800 You have Barbara Shelley, Caroline Monro. 1312 01:05:58,560 --> 01:06:02,440 I was a very shy girl. I suffered a lot with um... 1313 01:06:03,440 --> 01:06:06,200 Well, I suppose, not... Would you call it anxiety now? 1314 01:06:06,240 --> 01:06:10,200 But not very much confidence. 1315 01:06:10,240 --> 01:06:12,240 Martine Beswick, Ingrid Pitt. 1316 01:06:12,280 --> 01:06:14,440 My favourite was Ingrid Pitt. 1317 01:06:14,480 --> 01:06:16,880 Of course, she was lovely on The Vampire Lovers. 1318 01:06:16,920 --> 01:06:20,200 I gave her a piggy back at one time to get her up to the set. 1319 01:06:20,240 --> 01:06:22,040 And that was lovely. (SCOFFS) 1320 01:06:22,080 --> 01:06:24,040 They were like, 'Well, if we need more nudity, 1321 01:06:24,080 --> 01:06:27,000 at least let's give those actresses something to do.' 1322 01:06:27,040 --> 01:06:30,560 And that was entirely motivated by the fact they were trying to shock. 1323 01:06:31,440 --> 01:06:33,400 I did three films with Hammer. 1324 01:06:33,440 --> 01:06:36,120 First one was One Million Years BC. 1325 01:06:36,160 --> 01:06:38,640 You know, that was impressive. 1326 01:06:38,680 --> 01:06:42,120 I definitely remember in Burbank going to the theatre, 1327 01:06:42,160 --> 01:06:44,720 you know, to see One Million Years BC. 1328 01:06:44,760 --> 01:06:47,280 There was a big line around the block. (CHUCKLES) 1329 01:06:47,320 --> 01:06:50,440 We went down the line - you see all the kids talking about the dinosaurs 1330 01:06:50,480 --> 01:06:53,080 and all the teenagers talking about her. You know? 1331 01:06:53,120 --> 01:06:55,880 The conversation would go up and down 1332 01:06:55,920 --> 01:06:59,120 compared to what the age group of the person in line was. 1333 01:06:59,960 --> 01:07:04,520 And the second was the brilliant film... 1334 01:07:06,080 --> 01:07:08,880 Why did you come? I can only believe... 1335 01:07:08,920 --> 01:07:12,600 the Fates brought me here. And they brought you to me. 1336 01:07:12,640 --> 01:07:14,800 (CHUCKLES) One of the greats. 1337 01:07:14,840 --> 01:07:17,880 And the third was Dr Jekyll And Sister Hyde. 1338 01:07:17,920 --> 01:07:20,200 Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde is, 1339 01:07:20,240 --> 01:07:23,440 in large part, perhaps, because it was scripted by Brian Clemens, 1340 01:07:23,480 --> 01:07:27,320 Dr Jekyll And Sister Hyde is an enormously witty film. 1341 01:07:27,360 --> 01:07:31,760 I think the responsibility for expressing bolder genre ideas 1342 01:07:31,800 --> 01:07:34,440 and bolder carnality in the Hammer movies 1343 01:07:34,480 --> 01:07:37,560 can almost entirely be... 1344 01:07:37,600 --> 01:07:39,840 put at the door of Brian Clemens. 1345 01:07:44,840 --> 01:07:48,840 Brian Clemens was a visionary. He was cheeky. He was saucy. 1346 01:07:48,880 --> 01:07:51,840 And he said, 'Well, in my script, Dr Jekyll And Sister Hyde, 1347 01:07:51,880 --> 01:07:54,080 Yeah, I'll give you some exploitation, 1348 01:07:54,120 --> 01:07:57,400 but damn, is it gonna have meaning. Damn, is it gonna be cool. 1349 01:07:57,440 --> 01:08:00,440 It's gonna be as cool as goddamn Emma Peel.' 1350 01:08:00,480 --> 01:08:02,480 He happened to be, I think, 1351 01:08:02,520 --> 01:08:04,960 in the restaurant in the studios. 1352 01:08:05,000 --> 01:08:06,960 Jimmy Carreras was at the next table. 1353 01:08:07,000 --> 01:08:09,360 Brian suddenly writes down on a scrap of paper 1354 01:08:09,400 --> 01:08:11,480 at the table... Dr Jekyll And Sister Hyde. 1355 01:08:11,520 --> 01:08:14,920 Jimmy said, 'Come see me in my office tomorrow.' 1356 01:08:14,960 --> 01:08:16,880 By the time Brian gets back to his office, 1357 01:08:16,920 --> 01:08:18,880 they've already commissioned a poster. 1358 01:08:18,920 --> 01:08:22,640 He hadn't put one word on paper at that point. 1359 01:08:22,680 --> 01:08:24,560 One of the classic stories about Hammer, 1360 01:08:24,600 --> 01:08:28,040 you know, is Jimmy Carreras' fondness for commissioning posters. 1361 01:08:28,080 --> 01:08:30,320 He would go over to New York. He would meet... 1362 01:08:30,360 --> 01:08:32,720 all the bosses of all the majors - 1363 01:08:32,760 --> 01:08:35,560 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Warner. 1364 01:08:35,600 --> 01:08:38,240 And he would ask them for ideas, 1365 01:08:38,280 --> 01:08:40,680 and they would feed him with ideas. 1366 01:08:40,720 --> 01:08:43,160 He would then come back to England with those ideas, 1367 01:08:43,200 --> 01:08:46,640 and he would cherry-pick which ones he thought were good. 1368 01:08:46,680 --> 01:08:50,800 And then he would get his poster artist to make a teaser poster. 1369 01:08:50,840 --> 01:08:53,960 And took it to America and said, 'That's our next movie.' 1370 01:08:54,000 --> 01:08:56,560 And everybody fell over themselves to... 1371 01:08:56,600 --> 01:08:58,360 put money into it. 1372 01:08:58,400 --> 01:09:00,680 I said, 'You wanna see a script or know who's in it? 1373 01:09:00,720 --> 01:09:02,840 'Don't bother about that. This is a Hammer film. 1374 01:09:02,880 --> 01:09:04,680 And we know it will be alright.' 1375 01:09:04,720 --> 01:09:06,480 And he came back to me and said, 1376 01:09:06,520 --> 01:09:10,040 'That's our next movie. You've gotta go away and write it now.' 1377 01:09:10,080 --> 01:09:13,160 I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'We start shooting in six weeks.' 1378 01:09:13,200 --> 01:09:15,200 And that's really how they operated. 1379 01:09:15,240 --> 01:09:18,480 He would sell an idea based on a teaser poster 1380 01:09:18,520 --> 01:09:20,480 before a word of script had been written. 1381 01:09:20,520 --> 01:09:22,640 There's a wonderful treasure trove of... 1382 01:09:23,480 --> 01:09:26,920 ..wildly lurid posters... 1383 01:09:26,960 --> 01:09:30,080 for films that very often turned out to be... 1384 01:09:30,120 --> 01:09:32,600 much more sedate than those initial posters. 1385 01:09:32,640 --> 01:09:35,880 But Dr Jekyll And Sister Hyde is an example of a movie 1386 01:09:35,920 --> 01:09:39,440 examining gender within genre. 1387 01:09:39,480 --> 01:09:42,600 VOICEOVER: Dr Jekyll, Sister Hyde. 1388 01:09:42,640 --> 01:09:44,760 Man or woman. 1389 01:09:45,640 --> 01:09:47,240 Or both? 1390 01:09:47,280 --> 01:09:50,640 When I read the script, I thought, 'This could be really interesting.' 1391 01:09:50,680 --> 01:09:54,400 I am one who believes that all of us have male and female in us. 1392 01:09:55,360 --> 01:09:59,040 And I would like to have explored it more, actually. 1393 01:09:59,080 --> 01:10:03,080 But at that point, they were so busy trying to get me to be... 1394 01:10:03,960 --> 01:10:07,480 ..um...full nudity, which was not in the script. 1395 01:10:07,520 --> 01:10:10,200 I was quite happy to show my breasts, 1396 01:10:10,240 --> 01:10:14,040 because the point is that if he turns into her, 1397 01:10:14,080 --> 01:10:16,800 she's gonna have to figure out... 1398 01:10:16,840 --> 01:10:19,480 what is the power? 1399 01:10:21,240 --> 01:10:23,680 And that was very interesting to do. 1400 01:10:23,720 --> 01:10:25,840 That was really interesting to do. 1401 01:10:27,360 --> 01:10:31,240 And I wish we had gone deeper into it and kind of done... 1402 01:10:31,280 --> 01:10:34,560 because we would have... should have had more confusion... 1403 01:10:34,600 --> 01:10:36,520 from both sides. 1404 01:10:37,320 --> 01:10:40,840 It is I who exists, Dr Jekyll. Not you. 1405 01:10:42,120 --> 01:10:44,480 LOGAN: Brian Clemens was able to bring a sort of... 1406 01:10:44,520 --> 01:10:47,440 different kind of sexuality to that. 1407 01:10:47,480 --> 01:10:50,800 And Martine Beswick was so commanding and so powerful, 1408 01:10:50,840 --> 01:10:53,120 that even though she is exposed, 1409 01:10:53,160 --> 01:10:57,360 it is fitting for the script as the character learns about 1410 01:10:57,400 --> 01:11:00,440 what her new identity, her new gender identity is. 1411 01:11:00,480 --> 01:11:03,160 Clemens was on the cusp of taking Hammer 1412 01:11:03,200 --> 01:11:05,760 in a bold and exciting new direction, 1413 01:11:05,800 --> 01:11:10,720 but the company was about to be dealt yet another devastating blow. 1414 01:11:10,760 --> 01:11:14,600 In 1969, the American studios begin to withdraw, 1415 01:11:14,640 --> 01:11:18,000 because they're suffering bruising losses at home, 1416 01:11:18,040 --> 01:11:20,120 and it's no longer financially viable... 1417 01:11:20,160 --> 01:11:23,240 to be quite so heavily invested in the British film industry. 1418 01:11:23,280 --> 01:11:26,520 James Carreras runs to his friends at the Variety Club, 1419 01:11:26,560 --> 01:11:29,400 principally Bernard Delfonte at EMI, 1420 01:11:29,440 --> 01:11:33,160 and he agrees to finance Hammer's films in the '70s. 1421 01:11:33,200 --> 01:11:35,440 But now the budgets are tiny. 1422 01:11:35,480 --> 01:11:37,920 The budgets are £100,000 for a film. 1423 01:11:37,960 --> 01:11:40,760 To put it in context, 12 years before, 1424 01:11:40,800 --> 01:11:43,040 The Curse Of Frankenstein was £80,000. 1425 01:11:43,080 --> 01:11:45,560 In 1957, Dracula was £90,000. 1426 01:11:45,600 --> 01:11:49,320 12 years on, with inflation, they've now gotta make a film for £100,000. 1427 01:11:49,360 --> 01:11:51,640 And the budget doesn't stretch as far at Elstree, 1428 01:11:51,680 --> 01:11:53,520 where they were making these films now, 1429 01:11:53,560 --> 01:11:56,240 than they did it at Bray Studios. 1430 01:11:56,280 --> 01:11:58,200 In autumn 1970, 1431 01:11:58,240 --> 01:12:02,080 James Carreras invited his son Michael back into the company 1432 01:12:02,120 --> 01:12:04,440 in his old role as executive producer. 1433 01:12:04,480 --> 01:12:06,640 Michael doesn't want to do that again. 1434 01:12:06,680 --> 01:12:08,680 He's done it, so he says no. 1435 01:12:08,720 --> 01:12:11,840 And this causes another major rift between father and son. 1436 01:12:11,880 --> 01:12:14,720 Of course, Jimmy Carreras was well aware of the straits 1437 01:12:14,760 --> 01:12:17,920 Hammer was heading into by 1970. 1438 01:12:17,960 --> 01:12:21,160 I mean, he was there doing the deals, and by 1970, 1439 01:12:21,200 --> 01:12:24,400 they tended to be non-existent deals with American studios. 1440 01:12:24,440 --> 01:12:27,240 And now James actually says, 1441 01:12:27,280 --> 01:12:29,680 'Why don't you come back? But you can be managing director.' 1442 01:12:29,720 --> 01:12:33,120 And Michael starts on 4th January 1971 1443 01:12:33,160 --> 01:12:34,960 as the Managing Director of Hammer. 1444 01:12:35,000 --> 01:12:38,600 As soon as Michael Carreras takes over, things look up. 1445 01:12:38,640 --> 01:12:43,480 They decide to completely abandon... the sexier films they'd been making, 1446 01:12:43,520 --> 01:12:45,600 with Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell. 1447 01:12:45,640 --> 01:12:48,640 They bring Terence Fisher back to make his last film. 1448 01:12:48,680 --> 01:12:50,920 Peter Cushing's last go as the Baron. 1449 01:12:50,960 --> 01:12:54,920 It's a kind of callback to the older Hammer Gothic mode. 1450 01:12:54,960 --> 01:12:58,040 And then they started trying to mix the Gothic horror 1451 01:12:58,080 --> 01:13:01,360 with the Satanic panic elements. 1452 01:13:01,400 --> 01:13:04,440 Hammer had to hustle to try to stay relevant, 1453 01:13:04,480 --> 01:13:08,400 and they become kind of 'throw it at the wall' kind of movies. 1454 01:13:08,440 --> 01:13:11,840 One that stands out to me is Dracula AD 1972. 1455 01:13:11,880 --> 01:13:15,440 I'm one of those many people who have a lot of patience for that one. 1456 01:13:15,480 --> 01:13:18,480 It's something that I've just always been interested about, 1457 01:13:18,520 --> 01:13:21,480 cos there was something very transitional about it. 1458 01:13:23,960 --> 01:13:26,840 But you can tell that they're starting to lose their way 1459 01:13:26,880 --> 01:13:28,880 and moving into something that... 1460 01:13:28,920 --> 01:13:32,120 is quite different from what they used to be really good at. 1461 01:13:32,160 --> 01:13:34,800 They're no longer based on classic stories. 1462 01:13:34,840 --> 01:13:37,600 Once they didn't know where they were going any more, 1463 01:13:37,640 --> 01:13:41,400 the spirit of adventure that had marked the early '60s 1464 01:13:41,440 --> 01:13:43,640 was nowhere to be found, 1465 01:13:43,680 --> 01:13:46,800 because a lot of the personnel were nowhere to be found. 1466 01:13:48,845 --> 01:13:52,360 The celebrated creatives that had crafted Hammer's success 1467 01:13:52,400 --> 01:13:55,520 through the 1950s and early 1960s 1468 01:13:55,560 --> 01:13:57,480 had all but disappeared. 1469 01:13:57,520 --> 01:14:02,040 Only Michael Carreras and his father, James, remained...for now. 1470 01:14:02,080 --> 01:14:06,280 James was on, I think, a sea cruise or a vacation, 1471 01:14:06,320 --> 01:14:09,680 and Michael learnt his father was trying to sell the family company. 1472 01:14:09,720 --> 01:14:12,400 APPLETON: James Carreras was in discussion with this company 1473 01:14:12,440 --> 01:14:15,680 called Studio Film Labs for a while about a merger. 1474 01:14:15,720 --> 01:14:19,560 At the same time, James was talking to Tony Tenser from Tigon Films 1475 01:14:19,600 --> 01:14:23,040 about Tony potentially taking over Hammer 1476 01:14:23,080 --> 01:14:25,720 and engulfing it into Tigon. 1477 01:14:25,760 --> 01:14:28,760 Michael knew about the first discussion, 1478 01:14:28,800 --> 01:14:30,920 but he didn't know about the discussion with Tony. 1479 01:14:30,960 --> 01:14:34,920 Michael, obviously, was very annoyed that this decision 1480 01:14:34,960 --> 01:14:37,400 was taken out of his hands, especially at the point... 1481 01:14:37,440 --> 01:14:40,560 that he was the Managing Director, and he wasn't even consulted. 1482 01:14:40,600 --> 01:14:43,200 So he launched his own bid to buy the company. 1483 01:14:43,240 --> 01:14:47,280 They went to the PFS, which is the Pensions Funds Subsidiary, 1484 01:14:47,320 --> 01:14:50,480 and asked for a £400,000 loan, 1485 01:14:50,520 --> 01:14:52,520 which they granted, 1486 01:14:52,560 --> 01:14:57,240 on top of £200,000 extra to make two films... 1487 01:14:57,280 --> 01:14:59,160 to set them going. 1488 01:14:59,200 --> 01:15:02,960 So he was able to hustle enough money to make a counteroffer... 1489 01:15:04,160 --> 01:15:06,560 ..waited for the boat to dock. 1490 01:15:07,600 --> 01:15:11,680 His father walked off the boat, and he handed him the contract. 1491 01:15:11,720 --> 01:15:13,720 So it was a fait accompli... 1492 01:15:13,760 --> 01:15:16,400 with no communication between them. 1493 01:15:16,440 --> 01:15:20,440 It's almost like the cold war had just calcified 1494 01:15:20,480 --> 01:15:22,400 everything in that relationship. 1495 01:15:22,440 --> 01:15:26,840 James took the bid. And Michael became the Director. 1496 01:15:27,880 --> 01:15:32,680 The irony is Michael Carreras thinks he's buying a solvent company. 1497 01:15:32,720 --> 01:15:35,760 He thinks he's buying Hammer Films backed by EMI, 1498 01:15:35,800 --> 01:15:38,400 you know, so the bank account's gonna be full. 1499 01:15:39,320 --> 01:15:43,320 And he finds out that that bank account went with James Carreras. 1500 01:15:45,960 --> 01:15:49,080 When Michael took over the company in 1972, 1501 01:15:49,120 --> 01:15:51,640 the one thing that happened straight away was all the... 1502 01:15:51,680 --> 01:15:54,280 the American studios pulled their financing. 1503 01:15:54,320 --> 01:15:57,680 This is potentially due to... 1504 01:15:57,720 --> 01:16:00,880 James's advice. 1505 01:16:02,560 --> 01:16:05,680 Or, I mean, I think it's also to do with the fact 1506 01:16:05,720 --> 01:16:07,640 they were really good friends with James, 1507 01:16:07,680 --> 01:16:09,880 and they just didn't really have a... 1508 01:16:09,920 --> 01:16:12,360 relationship with Michael in the same way. 1509 01:16:12,400 --> 01:16:15,240 RIGBY: I have the impression that Michael had no idea... 1510 01:16:15,280 --> 01:16:18,440 just how...of the paucity of Hammer's resources at that point, 1511 01:16:18,480 --> 01:16:20,880 whereas his father was well aware, 1512 01:16:20,920 --> 01:16:24,600 and nevertheless, still handed the company over to him. 1513 01:16:25,600 --> 01:16:28,560 I need some money, Father. You can't have any. 1514 01:16:28,600 --> 01:16:31,520 I think James had a real disdain for his son. 1515 01:16:31,560 --> 01:16:35,480 I think he was ferocious, and tough, in a way he didn't need to be. 1516 01:16:35,520 --> 01:16:37,360 He basically... 1517 01:16:37,400 --> 01:16:39,640 left him on a sinking ship. 1518 01:16:39,680 --> 01:16:42,560 Seemingly deceived by his own father, 1519 01:16:42,600 --> 01:16:46,320 Michael was determined to keep the family business alive. 1520 01:16:46,360 --> 01:16:48,800 Following his deal to take over Hammer, 1521 01:16:48,840 --> 01:16:52,080 he put the business ahead of any personal vendettas, 1522 01:16:52,120 --> 01:16:54,520 hoping to recapture the Hammer magic. 1523 01:16:54,560 --> 01:16:57,840 He immediately went into production on a vampire film, 1524 01:16:57,880 --> 01:17:02,280 a feature that had been commissioned by the very man he felt betrayed him. 1525 01:17:02,320 --> 01:17:06,480 Captain Kronos is a really interesting watershed moment, 1526 01:17:06,520 --> 01:17:09,040 I think, in Hammer, and what could have been 1527 01:17:09,080 --> 01:17:10,800 and what might have been, 1528 01:17:10,840 --> 01:17:14,400 because Brian Clemens wrote and directed a very sort of... 1529 01:17:14,440 --> 01:17:17,800 quirky, cheeky, interesting... 1530 01:17:17,840 --> 01:17:21,680 vampire movie unlike any vampire movie that had ever been made. 1531 01:17:21,720 --> 01:17:24,920 Brian was very much in charge of that because it was his baby. 1532 01:17:24,960 --> 01:17:26,960 He'd written it. He was gonna direct it. 1533 01:17:27,000 --> 01:17:28,960 To be honest, he was thrilled to bits. 1534 01:17:29,000 --> 01:17:31,680 I mean, he desperately always wanted to direct. 1535 01:17:31,720 --> 01:17:33,560 LOGAN: It was a little folk horror. 1536 01:17:33,600 --> 01:17:37,440 It was a little, like, 'I don't get what's going on in this, exactly.' 1537 01:17:37,480 --> 01:17:41,160 It had sword fights. It was genre blending... 1538 01:17:41,200 --> 01:17:43,000 in a way that's very popular now. 1539 01:17:43,040 --> 01:17:45,960 So it was a really exciting piece of work. 1540 01:17:46,000 --> 01:17:48,200 I enjoyed that film very much, 1541 01:17:48,240 --> 01:17:50,280 partly because it was all shot outside. 1542 01:17:50,320 --> 01:17:53,880 And my passion is to be outside. Got to be outside. 1543 01:17:53,920 --> 01:17:57,400 And it was great, because I'd turn up in the morning, 1544 01:17:57,440 --> 01:17:59,360 and I remember the hairdresser saying, 1545 01:17:59,400 --> 01:18:02,200 'You haven't washed your hair, have you?' 'No, you told me not to.' 1546 01:18:02,240 --> 01:18:05,560 'Don't wash it for a week. We need it kind of yucky.' 1547 01:18:05,600 --> 01:18:09,040 I said, 'OK, alright, then. I won't. Great.' 1548 01:18:09,080 --> 01:18:11,640 And Michael Carreras should have been smart enough 1549 01:18:11,680 --> 01:18:15,880 to realise that was an exciting way to keep building his brand, 1550 01:18:15,920 --> 01:18:18,640 to keep the Hammer brand going. 1551 01:18:18,680 --> 01:18:21,920 Maybe he felt threatened. Maybe it just wasn't his sensibility. 1552 01:18:21,960 --> 01:18:25,880 It was a bit too esoteric. It was basically ahead of its time, really. 1553 01:18:25,920 --> 01:18:29,320 He was very sniffy about Brian Clemens, you know, in terms of... 1554 01:18:29,360 --> 01:18:32,760 'He's not quite understanding our style or what we do here,' 1555 01:18:32,800 --> 01:18:35,200 you know, as if he's his father, 1556 01:18:35,240 --> 01:18:37,360 you know, putting his old school tie up. 1557 01:18:37,400 --> 01:18:40,160 And I'm like, 'Michael, no. Don't do this.' 1558 01:18:40,200 --> 01:18:43,400 There was a great opportunity there... 1559 01:18:43,440 --> 01:18:46,920 for Brian Clemens to become the new Jimmy Sangster, 1560 01:18:46,960 --> 01:18:49,640 the new Terence Fisher, the new... 1561 01:18:49,680 --> 01:18:52,560 idea man behind Hammer. 1562 01:18:52,600 --> 01:18:55,200 Michael Carreras should have gotten so behind that movie 1563 01:18:55,240 --> 01:18:59,240 and said, 'Look what Hammer can do now. This is different. 1564 01:18:59,280 --> 01:19:01,160 Here's the man who made it, Brian Clemens. 1565 01:19:01,200 --> 01:19:03,400 He's an artist.' But he didn't do that. 1566 01:19:03,440 --> 01:19:06,200 It just sort of...crept out. 1567 01:19:06,240 --> 01:19:08,000 And it wasn't given a proper release. 1568 01:19:08,040 --> 01:19:11,240 It came out, apparently, about a year or so later. 1569 01:19:11,280 --> 01:19:14,400 Brian's directorial debut, in essence, 1570 01:19:14,440 --> 01:19:18,360 was sort of...shoved at the back of a cupboard, basically. 1571 01:19:18,400 --> 01:19:20,280 How stultifying that must have been, 1572 01:19:20,320 --> 01:19:22,520 how debilitating it must have been to an artist. 1573 01:19:22,560 --> 01:19:26,000 If I could go back into Hammer history and arrange a meeting, 1574 01:19:26,040 --> 01:19:28,440 I would sit down Michael Carreras... 1575 01:19:28,480 --> 01:19:31,560 and Brian Clemens and say, 'Boys, work it out.' 1576 01:19:32,800 --> 01:19:36,800 Company politics, and the absence of any new creative vision, 1577 01:19:36,840 --> 01:19:38,880 were beginning to suffocate Hammer. 1578 01:19:38,920 --> 01:19:41,640 Meanwhile, other filmmakers around the world 1579 01:19:41,680 --> 01:19:44,680 were breathing new life into the horror genre. 1580 01:19:44,720 --> 01:19:47,160 Problems for Hammer... 1581 01:19:47,200 --> 01:19:49,240 probably started with The Exorcist. 1582 01:19:50,160 --> 01:19:52,160 (SCREAMING, CLATTERING) 1583 01:19:56,280 --> 01:20:00,360 Suddenly no-one's interested in what's going on in Transylvanian castles. 1584 01:20:00,400 --> 01:20:02,520 People want to see what's going on next door, 1585 01:20:02,560 --> 01:20:04,480 down the street, inside your house. 1586 01:20:04,520 --> 01:20:06,440 That's where horror moved, 1587 01:20:06,480 --> 01:20:10,200 and that's where horror still is to this day, whether it's The Exorcist, 1588 01:20:10,240 --> 01:20:14,720 or another big hit that they're trying to emulate, it's too late. 1589 01:20:14,760 --> 01:20:17,600 Michael, even as much as he was being creative 1590 01:20:17,640 --> 01:20:20,320 and trying to diversify the Hammer output, 1591 01:20:20,360 --> 01:20:22,320 I'm not sure even he knew 1592 01:20:22,360 --> 01:20:24,600 the direction it was going to go in in the '70s. 1593 01:20:24,640 --> 01:20:27,920 I think what we were seeing then in the '70s 1594 01:20:27,960 --> 01:20:30,640 was the decline of the British film industry. 1595 01:20:30,680 --> 01:20:32,920 Within a few years, 1596 01:20:32,960 --> 01:20:34,800 British commercial filmmaking, 1597 01:20:34,840 --> 01:20:37,720 at the end of the 20th century, would be more or less wiped out. 1598 01:20:37,760 --> 01:20:41,000 It's always the challenge with art... 1599 01:20:41,040 --> 01:20:43,840 to make money, to stay solvent. 1600 01:20:43,880 --> 01:20:47,680 And Hammer, like every other British studio, 1601 01:20:47,720 --> 01:20:49,520 was at the mercy of the marketplace. 1602 01:20:49,560 --> 01:20:52,440 To Michael Carreras's credit, he kept the thing going... 1603 01:20:52,480 --> 01:20:57,720 when, obviously, they were not on the same track as the audience. 1604 01:20:57,760 --> 01:20:59,760 And so... 1605 01:20:59,800 --> 01:21:02,400 even the movies that were supposed to be good, like... 1606 01:21:03,640 --> 01:21:06,040 ..which on paper, looks like it would be a pretty good movie. 1607 01:21:06,080 --> 01:21:10,360 It was trying so desperately to be The Exorcist... 1608 01:21:10,400 --> 01:21:12,520 that it lost its own individuality. 1609 01:21:12,560 --> 01:21:14,960 And not only don't they work, they don't make any money. 1610 01:21:15,000 --> 01:21:17,400 It's like any studio, whether Disney or any of them, 1611 01:21:17,440 --> 01:21:19,800 they try to move with the times. 1612 01:21:19,840 --> 01:21:22,040 It's easier said than done. 1613 01:21:22,080 --> 01:21:25,440 Despite this significant downturn in creative output 1614 01:21:25,480 --> 01:21:27,840 during the mid-1970s, 1615 01:21:27,880 --> 01:21:30,800 which led to disappointing financial outcomes, 1616 01:21:30,840 --> 01:21:34,400 Hammer's legacy has remarkably endured. 1617 01:21:34,440 --> 01:21:38,560 The magic forged over the prior two decades managed to persist. 1618 01:21:38,600 --> 01:21:41,480 Lesser studios would have faltered sooner, 1619 01:21:41,520 --> 01:21:45,360 and lesser leaders might have let the company fade away. 1620 01:21:45,400 --> 01:21:49,920 But Michael Carreras' unwavering never-say-die attitude... 1621 01:21:49,960 --> 01:21:52,440 kept the Hammer flames burning. 1622 01:21:52,480 --> 01:21:56,720 Michael Carreras's tenacity during the '70s in keeping Hammer alive, 1623 01:21:56,760 --> 01:21:59,120 I think, is key to the fact that it's still alive now. 1624 01:21:59,160 --> 01:22:01,280 And he made movies, which is, let me tell you, 1625 01:22:01,320 --> 01:22:04,960 it's no mean feat to get movies made and released - it's a big deal. 1626 01:22:05,000 --> 01:22:09,560 The fact the last Hammer film was a remake of a Hitchcock picture... 1627 01:22:09,600 --> 01:22:11,160 VOICEOVER: Now you see her... 1628 01:22:11,200 --> 01:22:13,680 (TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS) 1629 01:22:13,720 --> 01:22:15,200 ..now you don't. 1630 01:22:15,240 --> 01:22:17,280 Never a good idea, by the way. 1631 01:22:17,320 --> 01:22:20,360 And it's not such a bad movie, but nobody wanted to see it. 1632 01:22:20,400 --> 01:22:22,960 And it doesn't have anything Hammer-esque about it. 1633 01:22:24,600 --> 01:22:28,440 APPLETON: And Michael really thought that Hammer would come back to life. 1634 01:22:28,480 --> 01:22:30,480 I'll give you life again. 1635 01:22:31,840 --> 01:22:34,200 He literally thought that he would be able 1636 01:22:34,240 --> 01:22:36,240 to save Hammer right up to the very end. 1637 01:22:36,280 --> 01:22:39,320 That's what I admired most about Michael Carreras, 1638 01:22:39,360 --> 01:22:44,640 that with everything falling apart, without the support of his father, 1639 01:22:44,680 --> 01:22:46,680 he hustled like crazy. 1640 01:22:46,720 --> 01:22:48,440 He won't give up. 1641 01:22:48,480 --> 01:22:50,200 Can't you see? 1642 01:22:50,240 --> 01:22:52,880 Michael didn't want to give up because apart from anything else, 1643 01:22:52,920 --> 01:22:54,640 it was his family business. 1644 01:22:54,680 --> 01:22:57,800 And I think nobody wants to admit defeat, ultimately. 1645 01:22:57,840 --> 01:23:01,160 Maybe he wanted to prove something to his dad, 1646 01:23:01,200 --> 01:23:03,200 who never really believed in him, particularly. 1647 01:23:03,240 --> 01:23:06,480 In the '70s, Hammer is surviving on British finance. 1648 01:23:07,360 --> 01:23:09,160 Almost exclusively. 1649 01:23:09,200 --> 01:23:11,320 My name is Mitch Wicking. 1650 01:23:11,360 --> 01:23:13,880 And I'm the son of Christopher Wicking. 1651 01:23:13,920 --> 01:23:18,320 I wrote screenplays for Hammer in the mid-'70s. 1652 01:23:21,640 --> 01:23:25,400 So it seems to be, from Dad's diaries, a long catalogue of... 1653 01:23:26,360 --> 01:23:29,440 ..Michael spending money to raise money. 1654 01:23:29,480 --> 01:23:32,200 There was tales of waiting for... 1655 01:23:32,240 --> 01:23:36,360 the fat man, as he calls him. I think it's Michael Klinger. 1656 01:23:36,400 --> 01:23:39,560 It was a German who was ready to fund projects, 1657 01:23:39,600 --> 01:23:42,440 but they wait and wait, and there'd be a telex. 1658 01:23:42,480 --> 01:23:44,280 'He's on his way. He's on the plane. 1659 01:23:44,320 --> 01:23:46,200 He'll be coming with a suitcase of money,' 1660 01:23:46,240 --> 01:23:48,800 as Dad puts it in the diary. 1661 01:23:48,840 --> 01:23:51,600 And then right at the last minute - it's always the last second... 1662 01:23:51,640 --> 01:23:54,160 (EXHALES) ..doesn't turn up. 1663 01:23:54,200 --> 01:23:56,720 So he ploughed a lot of money, including some of his own, 1664 01:23:56,760 --> 01:23:59,160 into building up a number of... 1665 01:23:59,200 --> 01:24:03,720 big budget films, such as Nessie, Vampirella, Vlad The Impaler, 1666 01:24:03,760 --> 01:24:06,000 which, of course, didn't see the light of day, 1667 01:24:06,040 --> 01:24:07,840 and all that money was lost. 1668 01:24:07,880 --> 01:24:09,800 Apart from Nessie and Vampirella, 1669 01:24:09,840 --> 01:24:14,600 there were three or four, five, six, seven different smaller movie ideas. 1670 01:24:14,640 --> 01:24:16,920 And there was the big one. 1671 01:24:16,960 --> 01:24:19,440 They approached Stan Lee at Marvel Comics 1672 01:24:19,480 --> 01:24:21,680 with the idea of doing a franchise. 1673 01:24:21,720 --> 01:24:25,400 You've got Iron Man in there, and Doctor Strange, 1674 01:24:25,440 --> 01:24:27,440 and quite a few others. 1675 01:24:27,480 --> 01:24:29,760 Stan's reply is, 'Oh, yeah. Great. 1676 01:24:29,800 --> 01:24:32,640 Lovely. Let's take the next step.' 1677 01:24:32,680 --> 01:24:36,440 And then there's some reason why they couldn't do it. 1678 01:24:36,480 --> 01:24:38,360 So you can imagine... 1679 01:24:38,400 --> 01:24:41,600 what kudos that would have been if that had have come off. 1680 01:24:41,640 --> 01:24:43,920 Michael can't carry on any longer, 1681 01:24:43,960 --> 01:24:46,320 and the Official Receiver takes charge. 1682 01:24:46,360 --> 01:24:50,240 So the fact that Hammer goes under definitively in 1979... 1683 01:24:50,280 --> 01:24:54,480 for a time, is not entirely surprising, because... 1684 01:24:54,520 --> 01:24:57,840 most other sectors of the British film industry are doing so as well. 1685 01:24:57,880 --> 01:25:00,680 He kept the company alive and enabled all this stuff, 1686 01:25:00,720 --> 01:25:03,240 decades later, merely by... 1687 01:25:03,280 --> 01:25:05,720 by that dog-with-a-bone quality that he had. 1688 01:25:05,760 --> 01:25:09,320 And it was a dog-with-a-bone quality that was largely based on, 1689 01:25:09,360 --> 01:25:11,400 you know, a sentimental reaction to the fact 1690 01:25:11,440 --> 01:25:15,280 that his whole life had been Hammer, and he didn't want to see it die. 1691 01:25:15,320 --> 01:25:20,120 When you make something that's so specific and so idiosyncratic, 1692 01:25:20,160 --> 01:25:22,120 it's not gonna work for 40 years. 1693 01:25:22,160 --> 01:25:25,440 I suppose I wasn't in tune. I have to take the blame for this. 1694 01:25:25,480 --> 01:25:28,680 I was in charge. We should have had new thinking. 1695 01:25:28,720 --> 01:25:30,680 We should have had completely new writers. 1696 01:25:30,720 --> 01:25:33,640 We should have had new directors. We should have had all sorts of things. 1697 01:25:33,680 --> 01:25:38,200 Michael Carreras passed away in 1994 from cancer, 1698 01:25:38,240 --> 01:25:41,200 just four years after the death of his father. 1699 01:25:41,240 --> 01:25:45,840 All of the men who'd steered Hammer through its golden years were gone. 1700 01:25:45,880 --> 01:25:49,240 For many, it marked the final curtain for a company 1701 01:25:49,280 --> 01:25:53,760 that had brought so much fear, wonder and excitement to the screen. 1702 01:26:12,640 --> 01:26:15,240 As we look back, decades after his death, 1703 01:26:15,280 --> 01:26:19,080 Michael Carreras stands tall against the Hammer backdrop. 1704 01:26:19,120 --> 01:26:23,720 A man whose fingerprints were across nearly all of the Hammer films, 1705 01:26:23,760 --> 01:26:26,040 having worked in so many departments 1706 01:26:26,080 --> 01:26:29,240 and taking on so many different responsibilities. 1707 01:26:29,280 --> 01:26:32,280 In a world of heroes, legends and monsters, 1708 01:26:32,320 --> 01:26:35,840 Michael Carreras was a very human being. 1709 01:26:35,880 --> 01:26:38,840 At the end of this chapter of the Hammer story, 1710 01:26:38,880 --> 01:26:42,680 one man's struggle kept the Hammer name alive. 1711 01:26:42,720 --> 01:26:45,720 Michael Carreras succeeded. 1712 01:26:45,760 --> 01:26:47,880 The fact that Michael Carreras was able 1713 01:26:47,920 --> 01:26:49,880 to keep the company through that period... 1714 01:26:49,920 --> 01:26:53,440 I'm sure is why we're able to still talk about it today. 1715 01:26:53,480 --> 01:26:57,120 In the years since Hammer's near-death experience 1716 01:26:57,160 --> 01:26:59,160 at the end of the 1970s, 1717 01:26:59,200 --> 01:27:02,200 it has been kept alive in various iterations, 1718 01:27:02,240 --> 01:27:04,640 producing films and television series... 1719 01:27:04,680 --> 01:27:06,520 from the Hammer House Of Horror 1720 01:27:06,560 --> 01:27:09,720 to blockbuster films like The Woman In Black. 1721 01:27:11,120 --> 01:27:15,760 Despite all of the trials and tribulations the company has faced, 1722 01:27:15,800 --> 01:27:20,080 Hammer has risen to legendary status in the world of film. 1723 01:27:21,360 --> 01:27:25,240 Those films were made by people who cared. They loved them. 1724 01:27:25,280 --> 01:27:27,560 They made them with great care and attention. 1725 01:27:27,600 --> 01:27:29,320 Those films will last forever. 1726 01:27:29,360 --> 01:27:31,240 I get asked time and time again, 1727 01:27:31,280 --> 01:27:34,160 in letters and interviews and things, 1728 01:27:34,200 --> 01:27:37,160 'When is Hammer gonna return or will Hammer return?' 1729 01:27:37,200 --> 01:27:39,960 and certainly the answer doesn't lie with me. 1730 01:27:40,000 --> 01:27:42,760 But I would be very happy to see it return. 1731 01:27:42,800 --> 01:27:44,520 Definitely. 1732 01:27:44,560 --> 01:27:47,840 It is the desperate irony that Hammer, as a company, 1733 01:27:47,880 --> 01:27:52,320 now reflects its most famous character, Count Dracula. 1734 01:27:52,360 --> 01:27:57,400 You can never kill it. It just has a way of reviving again and again. 1735 01:27:57,440 --> 01:28:00,800 And, boy, have we seen some convincing deaths in the films. 1736 01:28:00,840 --> 01:28:02,800 And yet, somehow, 1737 01:28:02,840 --> 01:28:04,760 it always comes back. 1738 01:28:04,800 --> 01:28:06,960 (DRAMATIC MUSIC) 1739 01:28:09,680 --> 01:28:13,360 Life after death. Indestructible. 1740 01:28:13,400 --> 01:28:15,560 (MUSIC SWELLS) 1741 01:28:29,680 --> 01:28:31,560 MAN: Cameras rolling. WOMAN: All good. 1742 01:28:31,600 --> 01:28:34,800 Yeah.Hammer, Hammer. (LAUGHTER) 1743 01:28:34,840 --> 01:28:37,440 So we'll do... We'll do an easy one to start with.(LAUGHS) 1744 01:28:37,480 --> 01:28:41,440 Just try.We'll start and work it out.We'll see how easy it is. 1745 01:28:41,480 --> 01:28:43,840 And all we ever did was dissect bunnies. 1746 01:28:46,480 --> 01:28:49,000 A little higher.Happy there? A bit higher. 1747 01:28:49,040 --> 01:28:52,360 Cool. Mark it. Yeah. Joe Dante, take 1. 1748 01:28:52,400 --> 01:28:54,480 It says John Carpenter. 1749 01:28:54,520 --> 01:28:57,320 (LAUGHS) You can pretend. 1750 01:28:57,360 --> 01:28:59,200 You know, it's like Howard The Duck. 1751 01:29:00,000 --> 01:29:03,640 Didn't anyone see that little duck suit, you know? 1752 01:29:03,680 --> 01:29:05,680 What a great question. 1753 01:29:05,720 --> 01:29:10,040 I'd like it noted that was two great questions.Yeah. Within one. 1754 01:29:10,080 --> 01:29:12,720 In forty-five minutes, that makes two great questions.Yeah. 1755 01:29:12,760 --> 01:29:17,000 It's like an Old Spice commercial. You know, it really changes. 1756 01:29:17,040 --> 01:29:21,720 So, yes, my mum gave me this pamphlet with penguins in it. 1757 01:29:21,760 --> 01:29:25,360 (LAUGHTER)Oh, no, stop it! I'm gonna have to get up. 1758 01:29:25,400 --> 01:29:28,320 (LAUGHTER) 1759 01:29:29,280 --> 01:29:31,280 WOMAN: It's got worse! 1760 01:29:32,080 --> 01:29:33,920 It's like The Godfather. 1761 01:29:33,960 --> 01:29:36,280 Just when you're out, they drag you back in. 1762 01:29:36,320 --> 01:29:39,720 So you and Edna read the book. Read the pamphlet.Pamphlet. 1763 01:29:39,760 --> 01:29:42,880 Well, week after week, she'd always come over on a Sunday morning. 1764 01:29:42,920 --> 01:29:46,680 She lived at the bottom of my garden, as did Nigel and Jeremy. 1765 01:29:46,720 --> 01:29:49,240 Just stop it! (GIGGLES) 1766 01:29:49,280 --> 01:29:52,240 You had somebody living in your garden? (LAUGHS) 1767 01:29:52,280 --> 01:29:54,280 But I did! 1768 01:29:55,360 --> 01:29:57,400 (LAUGHS) 1769 01:29:57,440 --> 01:30:01,120 Right. Can we cut? Cos I can't chat to her any more. 1770 01:30:03,520 --> 01:30:07,360 Subtitles by Sky Access Services www.skyaccessibility.sky