Flash Gordon Movie Serial (1936)

I've always loved Flash Gordon. The 1980 movie, the original comic strip, the Defenders of the Earth cartoon, whatever. For me it's always been the epitome of wonderful retro-pulpy goodness; total nonsense and thoroughly entertaining. This is demonstrated no better than here in Universal's 13-chapter serial from 1936. This was only three years after Alex Raymond began the weekly newspaper strip so the character was as fresh and as exciting as could be.

Starring Larry "Buster" Crabbe (they don't name 'em like that anymore!) as Flash and Jean Rogers as Dale Arden, this was the first of three Flash Gordon movie serials. This was back in the days before TV of course, and so this sort of thing was shown in cinemas, one chapter per week, along with a cartoon, a newsreel and perhaps another short film before the feature presentation. When the advent of TV arrived, many serials were cut down to 90+ minutes and shown as 'movies'. This was no different with Flash Gordon which was renamed 'Space Soldiers' for the small screen.

Also starring in this classic adventure is Charles Middleton as the wicked Emperor Ming the Merciless and the stunning Priscilla Lawson as his daughter Princess Aura. Nobody seems to know what became of poor Ms. Lawson. I heard that in a later interview, Jean Rogers related that Lawson lost a leg in a car accident during the war and drifted off into obscurity, and was last heard of running a stationary shop. Something about that story just makes me sad because I think she is great here and she should have gone on to do other things instead a few uncredited roles before vanishing circa 1941.

Chapter 1: The Planet of Peril

The serial is remarkably true to the original newspaper strip, particularly the first chapter in which the plane carrying Flash and Dale is hit by a meteorite and crashlands in Dr. Zarkov's back yard. Kidnapping them, Zarkov takes off in a homemade rocket ship headed for Mongo; a planet on a collision course with Earth. After encountering some giant lizards (iguanas with bits stuck on them) the trio are captured by Ming's guards and taken to the palace where introductions are made. After being thrown into the arena for insolence, Flash fights off several ape-men before Princess Aura (who has developed quite a fancy for Flash) steps in to his aid. The chapter ends with Flash and Aura plummeting into blackness as a trapdoor is opened beneath their feet...

Chapter 2: The Tunnel of Terror

Caught by a giant net, Flash and Aura are saved from certain doom and make their way through the tunnels beneath Ming's palace. Hiding Flash in a rocket ship, Aura heads back to the palace whilst our hero changes into some Mongo attire just in time to witness a fleet of flying saucers attack the city. These are piloted by the Lion Men of whom Flash promptly shoots down two. Making pals with Prince Thun of the Lion Men, Flash is shown a secret way into the palace. Hurrying onwards, Flash hopes to save Dale from a forced marriage to Ming, but instead finds himself up against a dragon that dwells in the tunnels...

Chapter 3: Captured by Shark Men

Defeating the dragon and rescuing Dale from Ming's clutches, the heroes escape back down into the caverns beneath the palace. Thun is caught up battling some guards whilst Flash and Dale tumble through a trapdoor that drops them into an underground river. Enter the Shark Men (swimmers in silver bathing caps). Taken by submarine to the underwater palace of Kala, King of the Shark Men, Dale once more finds herself in somebodies harem and Flash is again tossed into an arena to fight for his life. This time its against a giant 'octosac'...

Chapter 4: Battling the Sea Beast

Thun and Aura arrive at Kala's palace in time to persuade Kala to stop Flash's death. Split up, Aura and Flash make for the control room where Aura blasts the pressure controls resulting in flooding and loss of oxygen for the underwater kingdom. Flash heads back to rescue his friends but a wall gives way and all are swept away in the rush of water...

Chapter 5: The Destroying Ray

Controlling a device in his laboratory, Ming raises the city of the shark men to the surface, saving his daughter (and Flash) from a watery grave. Zarkov meets Prince Barin, the true heir of Mongo who pledges his allegiance and the two of them take off in his rocket ship. Flash and his companions are soon attacked by the Vulture Men upon leaving the risen city and as Barin and Zarkov arrive on the scene, Dale and Thun are captured and taken to the floating city of the Vulture Men where Dale is once again at the pleasure of a beastly ruler and Thun is put to work in the furnaces. Flash, Zarkov, Barin and Aura approach the sky city in Barin's rocket ship only to be targeted by King Vultan's 'melting ray'...

Chapter 6: Flaming Torture

Surviving the fall, Flash and his friends are captured by King Vultan and put to work in the furnaces alongside Thun (except Zarkov, of course, who finds himself at work in a new laboratory). Flash organises a rebellion which fails and soon he is chained up at the mercy of Vultan's torturers...

Chapter 7: Shattering Doom

Aura rushes in with a ray gun and forces Vultan to stop torturing Flash. After being revived by Zarkov, our hero soon finds himself back at work in the furnaces, only this time with an electical wire around his ankle that will kill him if he tries any more tricks. Ming and his entourage arrive and argue with Vultan who seems to be double-crossing his emperor. Zarkov connects Flash's wire to his shovel which the youth promptly hurls into the furnace creating a massive explosion...


Chapter 8: Tournament of Death

Flash makes a run for it during all the confusion and makes his way to the throne room. Ming orders his execution, but the gravity rays holding up the city fail due to the explosion and everybody starts to slide about. Zarkov promises to fix the problem if Vulatn and Ming let his friends go free. Vultan agrees and so Zarkov complies. But upon rectifying the city's gravity problem, Ming orders a tournament of death in which Flash must enter. First he fights a masked swordsman (who turns out to be Barin) and then a 'mighty beast of Mongo'...

Chapter 9: Fighting the Fire Dragon

Flash is saved from a grisly end at the hands of the beast man by Aura who hands him a spear which he promptly jabs into the creature's weak spot. Reluctantly agreeing to honor his word, Ming lets Flash and his companions live. But dastardly plans are afoot. Aura drugs Flash and has him taken through the tunnel of terror, intending to revive him in the Temple of Tao where they can live happily ever after. But Ming's High-Priest, for reasons of his own, rings the gong that awakens the fire dragon...

Chapter 10: The Unseen Peril

Zarkov arrives just in time to destroy the fire dragon with a grenade and Flash is carried back up to the palace to be revived. Only, the effects of the drug mean that he has lost his memory. Aura convinces Flash that he is in love with her and Barin is his enemy. A fight ensues and Flash is knocked unconscious and taken down to Zarkov's lab where the professor tries to reverse the effects of the drug. Ming sends his guards down to execute Flash, but fail to do so as our hero mysteriously turns invisible before the order to fire is given...

Chapter 11: In the Claws of the Tigron

The guards, terrified by Flash's vanishing act, quickly flee, leaving Zarkoz to explain that he had targeted Flash with a newly discovered invisible ray. One it is established that the effect is not permanent, Flash takes a second dose of the ray and heads off to Ming's throne room to cause havoc and then down to the dungeons to rescue Vultan. Meanwhile, Barin takes Dale down into the catacombs. Unfortunately, this has been overheard by Aura who has the terrifying 'tigron' released (a pretty normal looking tiger)...

Chapter 12: Trapped in the Turret

Flash arrives on the scene and defeats the tigron single-handed. Barin talks some sense into Aura who seems to come around to the idea of helping the Earthlings and the group head off to confront Ming once and for all. Once it is agreed that Flash and his companions can go in peace, they head off to rendezvous with Barin at the lake of rocks. The Prince's ship arrives but begins firing upon them, causing the group to scurry into a rocky cavern for shelter but are consumed by a fiery explosion...

Chapter 13: Rocketing to Earth

Narrowly escaping the explosion via a trapdoor that leads down into the catacombs, Flash and co. head onwards, encountering Barin who had been captured previously. They make for the lab and try to barricade themselves in, but soon the palace is under attack by Thun and the Lion Men in their space gyros. Ming brings Flash and his friends to the throne room to witness the destruction of the Lion Men. Only Ming's forces lose. The Lion Men storm the palace and in the ensuing scuffle, Ming sneaks out and heads for the sacred temple of the great god Tao, where he is consumed by smoke and presumably meets his maker. Victorious, Flash, Dale and Zarkov head for home on a rocket ship, but discover a time bomb on board, placed there by Ming's high priest. Flash tosses the bomb out of the rocket ship and our heroes continue onwards towards Earth.

John Norman's Gor Books

Whilst poking around in a second hand bookshop the other day, I stumbled across a shrink-wrapped collection of the first four Gor books by John Norman. I've heard a lot about these books but have never read them until now. They have something of a saucy reputation and are often spoken of in connection with cults that involve BDSM. Naturally, I was intrigued...

I've read a couple of the John Carter of Mars stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Gor books really take their cue from there. Beginning in 1967, Chicago-born philosophy professor John Norman has written them steadily ever since and now the series numbers around 28 volumes. The books chronicle the adventures of history professor Tarl Cabot on the exotic 'counter-world' of Gor, a world ruled by the mysterious 'Priest-Kings' who regulate the advancement of technology and keep the human population in a state of barbarity. Gor is a world of rigid caste systems where Social Darwinism is brutally apparent and women exist merely as slaves and sex trophies. Not exactly the books to introduce to any staunch feminist girlfriends fellas!

Tarnsman of Gor's (1967) general plot is remarkably similar to Burroughs' Princess of Mars. During a ramble in the hills, Tarl Cabot is whisked away to an alien planet with no explanation given other than a cryptic letter from his father (who he never knew). Here, Cabot meets his long-absent father (who has been living on Gor for many years) and begins his training as a rider of the 'Tarns' - giant hawk-like birds. Cabot is given the mission of stealing the home stone of the rival city of Ar and falls in with Talena, the beautiful (and very bitchy) Princess of Ar.

Outlaw of Gor (1967) sees Tarl Cabot return to Gor after spending seven years back on Earth. Dismayed to find his home city of Ko-ro-ba razed to the ground and all of his former friends scattered across Gor, Cabot sets out for the Sadar Mountains where the Priest-Kings dwell but soon gets involved with Lara, the Tatrix of the city of Tharna and a conspiracy to usurp her throne.

Priest-Kings of Gor (1968) sees Tarl Cabot continue his quest into the Sadar Mountains. Here he enters the nest of the insectoid Priest-Kings who keep many humans as slaves. Treated with respect by his hosts, Tarl gets caught up in a civil war between two factions; that of Sarm and Misk - two rivals who want different things for the future of the nest.

Nomads of Gor (1969) follows Tarl Cabot in his search for the ferocious Wagon People who hold the last egg of the Priest-Kings and with it their last hope for survival. Infiltrating their violent culture, Cabot meets a prisoner called Elizabeth who is a fellow abductee from Earth.

The books are little more than pulpy fun but Norman does sometimes go off on a tangent in his descriptions of Gorean culture, and being a philosophy professor, he's pretty good at the old 'world building'. The books are also outrageously sexist (more so than normal in this genre) in that Norman's views on the role of women in society are less than appealing in this day and age. Tarl Cabot is an Earthman who encounters a world where a woman's role is completely subservient to that of a man. Rather than pronounce his disgust of such a society (as the reader might expect), Cabot in fact rather embraces it and likens the marriage traditions of his home planet to the rather more brutal ones of Gor (carrying a bride across the threshold = dragging a woman home against her will, wedding bands = slave manacles etc).

Everybody goes on about the BDSM connections when talking about these books, but honestly, I was surprised at the tameness of these four. I understand that Norman really played up the sex element in later books, but any kinky business in these ones is pretty low-key. But I suppose that the whole 'sex-cult' thing should be addressed. Now, knowing nothing about such things (ahem!) I had to do a little digging. Here's what Wikipedia has to say;

"As applied to non-fictional individuals, the word Gorean means an adherent of the philosophies espoused in Norman's writings, especially someone who lives a lifestyle based on this philosophy. While the most conspicuous Gorean departure from mainstream modern norms is that Goreans allow and indeed promote sexual master-slave relationships, many who take the Gorean worldview seriously would insist that being Gorean is not necessarily about either sex or slavery, but about the general Gorean philosophy (so that one would not have to participate in a master-slave lifestyle or relationship in order to be Gorean). Some of this philosophy is concerned with "natural order" and the relations between men and women, which may or may not take the form of a master-and-slave dynamic. Where there is a master-slave relationship, the level at which adherents follow the books varies."

These books were written at the height of the feminist movement, and John Norman apparently disagreed with such ideas, believing that women are naturally submissive (not inferior, mind). 'Goreans' just seem to adhere to this world view, regardless of sexual fun and games.

Also worth mentioning, are the two awful films based on Tarnsman and Outlaw of Gor. Produced by the infamous Cannon Productions (responsible for such classics as 1987's Masters of the Universe and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace) and starring Oliver Reed and Jack Palance, the films bear little relation to the books other than a few names and ideas. I haven't seen either, but if I ever get the chance, I shall certainly be reviewing them on this blog.

Gor (1987) and Outlaw of Gor (1989)

Movie Review: Batman (1966)

This film is often overlooked and remains in the shadow of the various Burton/Schumacher/Nolan movies that came after it. Of course, it's a spin-off from the lovably daft TV series, but it was released in cinemas after all and, other than the two Batman movie serials from the 1940's, it is really the first Batman movie.

Released between seasons 1 and 2 of the series, the movie was devised to sell the series to international audiences. Before the big-budget Batman movies of the 80s and 90s, the Batman TV series, was the general public's only concept of the Caped Crusader, with its iconic and endlessly hummable theme tune, its 'Biff! Bang! Pow!' effects and its intentional silliness. Written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. the film is very much in the same vein of the series (of which he wrote many episodes).

The plot sees four major Batman villains team up and form a ludicrously devious plan to hold the world to ransom. Joining us from the series, there's The Joker (Cesar Romero), The Penguin (Burgess Meredith) and the Riddler (Frank Gorshin). Catwoman here is played by Lee Meriwether as the regular Catwoman from the series (Julie Newmar) had other engagements when the movie went into production. The 'Unholy Quartet' kidnap Commodore Schmiddlapp aboard his boat and steal an experimental 'dehydrator' device that can suck the moisture out of whoever it is targeted at. With this they hope to hold the members of the United World to ransom.

Once Batman and Robin try to crack the villainous plot, the foursome devise a plan to trap the Dynamic Duo by kidnapping Bruce Wayne and use him as bait. The lure for the trap is Catwoman (disguised as Russian journalist, Kitka) who Wayne has the hots for. Escaping the dastardly net, Wayne makes for the Batcave and returns with Robin to rumble the villain's hideout. The Penguin then infiltrates the Batcave disguised as Schmiddlapp and armed with dehydrated henchmen who he re hydrates to do battle with the Dynamic Duo.

The Penguin escapes and rejoins his fellow comrades in crime at the United World headquarters where they dehydrate and make off with the members of the security council. Batman and Robin, hot on their tail, bombard the Penguin's submarine with bombs from the Batboat, forcing it to surface where the climatic fight takes place.

There's not a whole lot to be said about the quality of the movie as it's little more than a feature length episode of the TV series. Now you either like the series or you don't, but the film was pulled off quite well. Some extra money was clearly well spent with an enlarged set for the Batcave and the introduction of some new toys like the Batboat and the Batcopter.

Sex, Satanism and the Fall of Hammer Horror

As something of a follow up to my post on the rise of Hammer Horror, I thought I'd explore the history of the studio in the late sixties and early seventies, when the horror film had changed drastically and Hammer's lucrative Dracula, Frankenstein and Mummy series were fast becoming old hat.

The huge success of Rosemary's Baby in 1968 symbolised a big shift in the themes and style of horror films at the time. The gothic period movies that Hammer had become so famous for earlier in the decade were rapidly being overtaken by films with more contemporary settings and it appeared that vampires and mummies were out and satanic cults and devil worship were in. Film plots involving black magic and satanism were nothing new for Hammer with Plague of the Zombies (1966) and The Witches (1966) both dealing with occult themes. But the Man Downstairs began to play an increasingly more prominent role in Hammer's films and the same year Rosemary's Baby was released, Hammer adapted The Devil Rides Out, a novel by Dennis Wheatley, a writer of several occult thrillers. Demons of the Mind followed in 1972 and even the infamous Count got involved with occult practices in The Satanic Rites of Dracula (also starring a young Joanna Lumley). In 1976 Hammer adapted another Dennis Wheatley novel; To the Devil a Daughter which would be Hammer's last film.

It was not just the content of Hammer's films that were changing. Once famous for gloriously gothic castles and graveyards, Hammer increasingly began to trade in their period costumes for contemporary clothes in films like The Devil Rides Out (1968), Dracula: AD 1972, (1972), The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976)

The lapse in censor ship laws in the late 1960’s also resulted in an increase in the sexual content of Hammer’s films. In 1970 Hammer released The Vampire Lovers a loose adaptation of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s novel Carmilla concerning the seduction of a young girl by a female vampire. It featured Polish actress Ingrid Pitt and spawned two loose sequels Lust for a Vampire (1971) and Twins of Evil (1971). These films have since been labelled ‘The Karnstein Trilogy’ and for the time featured strong lesbian undertones. 1971's Countess Dracula (also starring Pitt) was loosely based on the story of Erzebet Bathory, a 16th Century countess who was rumoured to bathe in the blood of virgins to retain her youthful complexion. Naturally, Hammer's version pulled no punches with the blood and nudity as was now the standard for most of its productions.

By 1974, Hammer Film Productions was in its death throes. Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter may be regarded as a cult classic today, but was a failed attempt at reinventing the vampire movie as a western back in 1974. In another desperate attempt to reach a new audience, Hammer joined forces with Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers and together they made The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1974), a bizarre mix of gothic horror and martial arts. It wasn’t a hit however and Hammer only made one more horror film (To the Devil a Daughter) before closing down for good. The horror film had simply moved on.

But Hammer's Legacy, however, lives on...

Here is a list of Hammer's Horror films which is as comprehensive as I can make it. If you notice any errors, let me know!

1957: The Curse of Frankenstein
1958: Dracula
1958: The Revenge of Frankenstein
1959: The Hound of the Baskervilles
1959: The Man Who Could Cheat Death
1959: The Mummy
1960: The Brides of Dracula
1960: The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll
1961: Taste of Fear
1961: The Curse of the Werewolf
1962: Shadow of the Cat ?
1962: The Phantom of the Opera
1963: Maniac
1964: Nightmare
1964: Paranoiac
1964: The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb
1964: The Evil of Frankenstein
1964: The Gorgon
1963: The Kiss of the Vampire
1965: Fanatic
1965: Hysteria
1965: The Nanny
1966: Dracula: Prince of Darkness
1966: Rasputin, the Mad Monk
1966: The Plague of the Zombies
1966: The Reptile
1966: The Witches
1967: Frankenstein Created Woman
1967: Quatermass and the Pit
1967: The Mummy’s Shroud
1968: Dracula Has Risen from the Grave
1968: The Devil Rides Out
1969: Crescendo
1969: Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed
1970: Taste the Blood of Dracula
1970: The Horror of Frankenstein
1970: Scars of Dracula
1970: The Vampire Lovers
1971: Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb
1971: Countess Dracula
1971: Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde
1971: Hands of the Ripper
1971: Lust for a Vampire
1971: Twins of Evil
1972: Demons of the Mind
1972: Dracula AD 1972
1972: Fear in the Night
1972: Vampire Circus
1974: Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter
1974: Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell
1974: The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires
1974: The Satanic Rites of Dracula
1976: To the Devil a Daughter

Blood and Stitches: The Rise of Hammer Horror

For me, the name 'Hammer' has always been synonymous with horror. As a kid, my father always spoke fondly of the 'Hammer Horror films' of yesteryear. I didn't really know what he meant at the time, but I knew that I must be missing out on something. If there was ever one on TV, I was never allowed to stay up and watch it, and so I would lie awake in bed, wondering exactly what a 'Hammer Horror film' consisted of. My imagination ran rampant with images of vampires, witches and all sorts of spooky goings on. It would be many years before I got a chance to watch one and I can honestly say that I was not disappointed one bit!

Hammer Horror films consist of every kid's hokey Halloween dreams. Creepy old houses, vampires in black capes with blood dripping down their chins, demonic cults, voluptuous vamp women and monsters stitched together by mad scientists. I can't remember a time when I wasn't intrigued by these films and so I give to you a short history on the rise of this incredibly creative studio and the fantastically gruesome films they produced.



Hammer was a British film company best known for producing gothic horror films from the late 1950’s to the mid 1970’s. Hammer’s horror films were popular and controversial for their time due to their use of gore and nudity, both of which were brought to the screen in vivid colour, and are famous for reinventing classic horror characters such as Frankenstein, Dracula and the Mummy which had been defined by Universal Studios decades before. Actors Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing appeared in many Hammer Horror films, often together.

Hammer Film Productions Ltd was founded in 1934 by theatre chain owner and comedian William Hinds, who named the company after his own stage name Will Hammer. Whilst producing Hammer’s earliest films, Hinds met Spanish-born producer Enrique Carreras and together they formed a distribution company called Exclusive Films. But in 1937, after making only six films, Hammer Film Productions went into bankruptcy. Exclusive Films however, continued to distribute films made by other production companies until after the war when James Carreras (son of Enrique) resurrected Hammer Film Productions and was soon joined by Anthony Hinds (son of William).

To ensure a pre-sold audience, Hammer Film Productions was keen on making films based on popular British TV and radio serials such as the adventures of detective Dick Barton (Dick Barton Strikes Back – 1949 and Dick Barton at Bay – 1950). But James Carreras set his sights on a much larger prize and in 1951 he made a deal with Robert L. Lippert Productions, a Hollywood company interested in co-financing Hammer’s productions and distributing them across the Atlantic. It was at this point that Hammer adopted a policy of including at least one American actor in each of its films. This was due to fears that American audiences would shy away from the inherent ‘Britishness’ of Hammer’s productions.

With the success of 1955’s The Quatermass Xperiment (released as The Creeping Unknown in the US), an adaptation of a popular BBC television serial, the subject of Hammer’s films increasingly delved into the realm of science fiction. X the Unknown (1956) and The Abominable Snowman (1957) quickly followed and the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) grew increasingly worried about the gruesomely graphic content of Hammer productions. But one film would put Hammer Film Productions on the map as the new face of horror in both British and American cinemas.

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) was a daring but clever choice for the fledgling British production company. Universal Studios had reinvented Mary Shelly’s man-made monster for the screen in 1931 and he had provided a very lucrative franchise for them indeed, appearing in seven subsequent sequels. And Universal were hardly willing to hand over the reigns to Hammer, in fact Hammer was threatened with legal action if their monster in any way resembled the flat-headed, bolt-necked Universal version. This resulted in a unique new monster designed by Phil Leakey and played by Christopher Lee, but the real monster of the story was Baron Victor Frankenstein, played with cold-hearted intensity by Peter Cushing.

The pairing of these two actors marked the beginning of a tradition in Hammer films. Lee and Cushing would often play out the opposing forces of good and evil and their names became synonymous with that of Hammer Horror.

The Curse of Frankenstein was distributed in the US by Warner Brothers (their first association with Hammer). It was instantly popular and Hollywood companies were soon queuing up to distribute Hammer’s future projects. The film marked a turning point for Hammer and it was clear that its new brand of gothic horror presented in lurid colour appealed to audiences and the studio soon turned its sights to another classic novel of the macabre.

Dracula (or Horror of Dracula as it was known in the US) was released in 1958 and cemented Hammer’s place in cinema as the master of the modern horror film. Christopher Lee was the new definition of the sinister count and Peter Cushing introduced the world to a much more energetic Van Helsing; a single-minded man hell bent on ridding the world of evil.



In the following years, most of Hammer's output was horror films as the studio entered its golden age. As well as producing sequels to its popular Frankenstein and Dracula adaptations, several other Universal monster money-spinners also got the Hammer makeover in The Mummy (1959), Curse of the Werewolf (1961) and The Phantom of the Opera (1962). The Invisible Man was also planned but never made it into production. Cushing and Lee were reunited again in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959); an excellent version of Sherlock Holmes' most famous case and an interesting take on R. L. Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde turned up in 1960's The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll.

But Hammer was also keen on producing stories that were not based on previous films or classic literature such as The Kiss of the Vampire (1963) and The Gorgon (1964) whilst 1966 saw The Plague of the Zombies, The Reptile and The Witches (nothing to do with Roald Dahl) among others.

The success of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho in 1960 started a trend in black and white thrillers and Hammer was quick to answer. In 1961 Taste of Fear (Scream of Fear in the US) was released, a tale of murder and insanity. This film was the first in a series of Hammer productions which have since been labelled ‘Mini-Hitchcocks’ due to their reliance on psychological terror rather than gothic horror. As with Psycho, the films were mostly shot in black and white, a surprising change of tune for the studio that started the trend of vibrant colour horror films. Titles like Maniac (1963), Paranoiac (1964) and Fanatic (1965) reveal Hammer’s attempt to cash in on the success of Hitchcock’s masterpiece by branching out into the realm of the psychological suspense thriller.

But, of course, Hammer was not without its rivals both at home and abroad, and with the company enjoying huge success in Britain and the US, other companies soon jumped on the bandwaggon, creating something of a British horror boom in the 1960's.

Amicus Productions based at Shepperton Studios started out with black and white chiller City of the Dead (known as Horror Hotel in America) in 1960 and quickly moved on to producing ‘Horror Anthologies’ for which the studio became famous. These anthologies were filmed in colour and could easily be mistaken for Hammer productions, not least because several of them starred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. The visual style and the gothic themes of films such as Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1964), Torture Garden (1967) and The House the Dripped Blood (1970) made Amicus Productions a worthy rival to Hammer.

Tigon British Film Productions was founded in 1966 and like Amicus, began turning out cheap horror flicks. Notable ones include Witchfinder General (1968) The Beast in the Cellar (1970) and Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971).

Hollywood was not one to let the Brits have all the fun and in 1960 exploitation king Roger Corman directed House of Usher for American International Pictures (AIP). This began a series of gothic horror films starring Vincent Price and helmed by Roger Corman which defined AIP as another rival for Hammer’s title as Master of Horror. Whereas Hammer Horror films had a distinctive British feel to them, AIP drew their inspiration from those masters of American gothic; Edgar Allen Poe and H. P. Lovecraft. This series of Corman/Price horrors has come to be called ‘The Poe Cycle’.

As the 1970's approached, Hammer was forced to change its style and the studio began to lose its touch somewhat. But I'll save that story for another time and instead leave you with a few lists, namely the films that comprise Hammer's most popular series. In the future, I shall post a comprehensive list of every Hammer Horror film made, but until next time, tread carefully and beware the full moon...

THE FRANKENSTEIN SERIES

1957: Curse of Frankenstein

1958: The Revenge of Frankenstein

1964: The Evil of Frankenstein

1967: Frankenstein Created Woman

1969: Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed

1970: The Horror of Frankenstein

1974: Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell

THE DRACULA SERIES

1958: Dracula

1960: The Brides of Dracula

1966: Dracula: Prince of Darkness

1968: Dracula Has Risen from the Grave

1970: Taste the Blood of Dracula

1970: Scars of Dracula

1972: Dracula AD 1972

1974: The Satanic Rites of Dracula

1974: The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires

THE MUMMY SERIES

1959: The Mummy

1964: The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb

1967: The Mummy’s Shroud

1971: Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb

MINI-HITCHCOCKS

1961: Taste of Fear

1963: Maniac

1964: Nightmare

1964: Paranoiac

1965: Fanatic

1965: Hysteria

1965: The Nanny

1969: Crescendo

1972: Fear in the Night