Hammer Film Productions
The Hammer films were produced in the 1930s to the early 1980s by the company Hammer Films. After more than 20 years, the legendary studios were resuscitated under new management again in 2007. The films are mostly from the horror or science - fiction genre.
Film Production
Many film classics such as Dracula films with Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing was next to one of the regulars actresses of the production company, are Hammer productions.
Hammer Films linked as the first film company, the British Gothic tradition with the bloody atrocities of the French Théâtre du Grand Guignol. This explicit representation of bloody details Hammer led the first major genre innovation since the horror films of the 1930s a in which, in contrast to the Hammer films, bloody little details were shown.
One of the earliest films of the company was in 1935 by director Denison Clift rotated version of a story about the ghost ship " Mary Celeste " under the title The Mystery of the Marie Celeste. Among the performers was Dracula actor Bela Lugosi, who played the role of Anton Lorenzen and its role thus alludes to the actual crew member Volkert Lorenzen. The film received miserable reviews.
Your reputation as a specialist in horror movies Hammer Films founded in 1957 with the colored remake of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley substance. In the search for new materials, the company noticed that for almost 15 years no classic horror film more had been made and that all previous horror movies were only available in black and white. We moved the Frankenstein story in the Victorian age, undertook the then relatively unknown Christopher Lee for the representation of Frankenstein's monster, but in which the representation of Boris Karloff in the famous Frankenstein film of 1931 was not allowed to take legal reasons ( However, with his new mask of the original book more equal than Karloff ) and concentrated in action more on the person of the " mad scientist " Frankenstein (Peter Cushing ) itself the concept of the Curse of Frankenstein ( the Curse of Frankenstein, 1957) was successful, so a year later the Revenge of Frankenstein ( the Revenge of Frankenstein, 1958) was brought to the cinemas and received five more imitators over the years.
In 1979 with the thriller Fatal Embassy of the time being the last film of the Hammer Film Productions. The financial failure of the film led to the bankruptcy of the company.
In the 2000s, several times a reactivation of Hammer Films was announced. In 2007, the Dutch producer John de Mol, took over the company and announced in September 2008 to the production of a new horror film. The film The Resident, which also Christopher Lee celebrates his comeback as a hammer actor, appeared in late 2010.
The company is often mistakenly referred to as Hammer Studios, but Hammer is just the name of the production company. The small, to 1970 Hammer own studio facility in which most of the films from the period incurred, ie Bray Studios and is located in London near the Thames Embankment, at Windsor. But is also rotated in the larger Elstree and Pinewood Studios.
Numerous Hammer Films are available on VHS and DVD. Among other things, published the label and the label Warner Anolis from 2002 to 2004, a series of best selling films for the first time on DVD. Since 2007, not yet released movies and reissues of Koch Media are brought to the market. From the soundtrack of the Hammer films a lot is also available on CD. On March 21, 2012 published the Hammer Films The Hammer Scream Board App for the iPhone.
Filmography
Soundtracks
- Music From the Hammer film. Music by James Bernard · Christopher Gunning · David Whitaker. Silva Screen Records, London 1989, Media -No. FILMCD 066