July 20, 200421 yr I started getting into the Hammer horror/fantasy films about a year ago. At this point, I've probably seen about 3/4 of them, and have a big old pile of dvds (I can get pretty obsessive when it comes to my enthusiasms). What Hammer managed to do is quite impressive. Taking advantage of a slump in the British film industry, they hired some of the most talented and resourceful artists in the business, using b-level (and even c-level) budgets to make films that could pass for a-list. Not only great actors like Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Andre Morell, Freddie Jones, etc; but also visionary directors (Terence Fisher, Roy Ward Baker, Freddie Francis), composers, and, last but not least, set designers (who created what Baker called the "Hammer Glamour"). So far, my favorites are Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (who can resist a title like that?), The Devil Rides Out, Dracula Has Risen From the Grave, and the two movies that Brian Clemens (the Avengers mastermind) wrote. So, anyone else here a Hammer fan?
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