My "Hammer Horror" Top 20 (1-5)

Number One. 

This was Hammer's first colour horror film as well as being Peter Cushing's first leading role in a motion picture and the first project that paired Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee on-screen (they had appeared in the same film before both in small roles but you know what I mean)  

The film itself is so different from the Universal film from 26 years before,

The film is more raw and nasty. Cushing's Victor Von Frankenstein is front and centre in this movie and is 100% the villain of the piece this film throws out the notion that Victor being some kind of misguided genius that over stepped and bit off more than he could chew, this Frankenstein is a proper mad scientist who will go to any lengths to achieve his ghoulish goal of reanimating the dead.

Where the original text from 1818 is vague about the actual medical possess involved in making the creation and in 1931 Universal couldn't show much except a figure wrapped up being hit by lightning but now in 1957 and with an X certificate a good portion of the film is about Frankenstein actually building his monster, Blood and fluid flowing threw lab equipment, the doctor manipulating eyeballs (what looks like real sheep's eyes), arriving in his lab with human hands wrapped up in paper like some kind of prime cuts purchased from a butcher shop.

The monster he makes is still a tragic figure and he looks very much like a reanimated corpse and it is clear this experiment did not go as Victor had planned. Christopher Lee as the creature gives us a hulking brute that does not know his own strength but also a being that is malfunctioning, confused and is like a wounded animal that needs put out of its misery.

This film was ahead of its time and they did ramp up the "gore" and the critics did not approve but regardless of the critical response this film laid the foundations for what is now viewed as the "Hammer Horror" Gothic aesthetic that the British film company will become known for.
The film was also a massive financial success being made by Hammer at Bray Studios for £65’000 (£1.3m in 2024) and made £2.9m at the box office (£55m in 2024)
With their own “Exclusive Distribution” company being dissolved, “The Curse of Frankenstein” was put out globally by Warner Brothers who successfully got it on a lot of screens in the UK and North America.

Number Two. 

The script was written by legendary English writer Nigel Kneale. Adapted from the television play "The Creature" that Kneale himself wrote in 1955, When the BBC staged the play in the mid 50's Peter Cushing was also in the cast.  

"The Abominable Snowman" was the only film to be produced for Hammer by Aubrey Baring, who was a member of the "Barings banking family". Shooting began with a ten-day second unit location shoot at La Mongie in the French Pyrenees in January 1957 but none of the principal actors were brought on location and doubles were used. Most of the filming was done in the vicinity of the summit of Pic du Midi de Bigorre, which they reached by cable car. Although a helicopter was used for some of the panoramic shots of the mountains, many of the arial shots were filmed from the cable car. Being mindful of the conditions Cinematographer Arthur Grant opted to use a Newman-Sinclair clockwork camera which would film in sub zero conditions where a conventional camera with an electric motor would have been too unreliable.

This film was shot in an anamorphic wide screen format called "Regalscope", which was amusingly renamed "Hammerscope" by the company.

Principal photography with the actors took place between 28 January and 5 March 1957 at Hammers own Bray Studio and Pinewood studios.

The director Val Guest made the tasteful decision not to show the Yeti keeping it largely off-screen, bar a few glimpses of hands and arms, leaving the rest to the audience's imagination. In the climactic scene when the character Rollason comes face to face with the Yeti, their bodies are silhouetted and only the eyes are seen close up. This approach to the creature means that the film holds up a lot more than it would if the 1957 "man in a suit" Yeti was tearing about all over the place.    

"The Abominable Snowman" was released on the 26th of August 1957,

In the U.S. it was released under the title "The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas". Reviews at the time were positive, Derek Hill of the Evening Standard found it to be

"among the best of British science-fiction thrillers".

The release of the film was somewhat overshadowed by the huge success of Hammer's

"The Curse of Frankenstein" which was released the same year, and sadly "The Abominable Snowman" was a relative financial failure.

The director Val Guest said the lackluster performance was due to the "intelligence of Kneale's script, saying, "It was too subtle and I also think it had too much to say. No one was expecting films from Hammer that said anything but this one did ... audiences didn't want that sort of thing from Hammer."

Critical views of the film in the years since its release generally consider it to be one of the lesser films in the Hammer and Nigel Kneale canon but I totally disagree and that's why I have put it in the top 20. 

It is very atmospheric and at times eerie. The scenes of the expedition members calling out to their lost colleagues across the wastelands was an influence on similar scenes in the film

"The Blair Witch Project" (1999).

Number Three

On a search for his missing friend Jonathan Harker, vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing is led to Count Dracula's castle. Upon arriving, Van Helsing finds an undead Harker in Dracula's crypt and discovers that the count's next target is Harker's ailing fiancée, Lucy Holmwood. With the help of her brother Arthur, Van Helsing struggles to protect Lucy and put an end to Count Dracula's parasitic reign of terror. 

Hammer asked screenwriter Jimmy Sangster for an adaptation of Stoker's novel that was streamlined to fit it into less than ninety minutes of screen time and be able to be shot on a low budget within their Bray Studios and its grounds… Easy!
Sangster's over haul of the original tale includes doing away with the real estate transaction story changing Jonathan Harker’s story to him traveling to Dracula's castle to attempt to destroy Dracula he made Arthur Holmwood into Mina's husband and Lucy into Harker's fiancée and Arthur's sister. He also ditched the characters of Renfield and Quincey Morris
Completely along with the voyage of the Demeter subplot replacing the sea voyage with a short hearse ride because all of the action takes place in Central Europe.

According to producer Anthony Hinds when it came to casting Dracula,
"it never occurred to any of us to use anyone else but Christopher Lee".
For his role as Dracula, Lee apparently earned £750 (£14k in 2024)
Speaking about his take on the character, Lee recalled that he,
"tried to make the character all that he was in the book; heroic, romantic, erotic, fascinating, and dynamic."
Shooting began at Bray Studios on the 11th November 1957.

Principal photography came to an end on Christmas Eve 1957.

Special effects work continued, with the film finally wrapping on the 3rd of January 1958.
“Dracula” premiered on the 7th of May 1958.
Hammer made the film for £81.5k (£1.5m in 2024)

and they received £1’245’500 (£24m in 2024) back from their distributors.
I'm sure that kept the lights on at Bray Studios!

Number Four

Directed by the great Terence Fisher and written by Jimmy Sangster, this was the studio's second instalment in their long-running Frankenstein series of films.
The story goes James Carreras had pre-sold the film in America to Colombia off the back of a mock-up poster he showed Colombia, when Carreras returned he approached Sangster about the project asking him to write the sequel. Sangster responded,

"I killed Baron Frankenstein in the first film."

Carreras replied by saying Sangster had six weeks to write the film before shooting began and
"you'll think of something".
The film was shot at Bray Studios and production commenced on January 6, 1958,
three days after filming wrapped on Dracula (1958), a film which also starred Peter Cushing and was also directed by Terence Fisher.

This film is a direct continuation of the previous instalment (Jimmy Sangster did it!) Obviously Cushing is wonderful in this, Actor Michael Gwynn puts in a great performance as “the monster” in this doing a lot with his physicality and faces more than relying on heavy makeup effects, Francis Matthews plays Doctor Hans Kleve a young doctor who sees through Frankenstein's new identity and wants to become his assistant, Matthews is good in the role and has chemistry with Cushing but he does have a touch of the Carrie Grant about his line delivery. This is also the first “Hammer Horror” film that features actor Michael Ripper who goes on to be a regular cast member in Hammer’s output moving forward.
Even though the film still displays what would have been viewed as “gore” in the 1950’s the critics were positive,

Variety called the film "a high-grade horror film" with "rich" production values and a script that was "well-plotted, peopled with interesting characters, aided by good performances."
It was also described as "a horror picture turned out with creative skill and imagination. The most notable contribution the Hammers have made to the genre is their stunning use of colour for frightening effects". Hammer Films "have demolished once and for all the theory that horror films should always be in black-and-white". and "a first-rate picture of its kind."

Colombia exhibited this film on a double bill with the British horror film “Night of the Demon” (1957) made by Sabre Films and it did really well.

Number Five 

Peter Cushing plays Sherlock Holmes, André Morell plays Doctor Watson and Christopher Lee is Sir Henry Baskerville.

Cushing was an aficionado of Sherlock Holmes and brought his knowledge and fandom to the project. He re-read the Holmes canon in preparation for the role made detailed notes in his script and sought to portray Holmes as close to the literary character as possible.
Cushing worked with production designers to make sure the 221b Baker Street set featured details such as Holmes's correspondence being affixed to the mantelpiece with a jackknife. However, when producer Anthony Hinds suggested not featuring the famous deerstalker hat due to it not being accurate to the books. Cushing objected, saying Holmes' expected headgear and pipes would be expected by the audience. Cushing scrutinised and gave notes on most aspects of the production and to screenwriter Peter Bryan's script, often altering words or phrases to be more “Holmesian”.

Christopher Lee later said he was awestruck by Cushing's ability to incorporate so many different props and actions into his performance simultaneously, whether reading, smoking a pipe, drinking whiskey, filing through papers or other things while portraying Holmes.
He is indeed really good with prop “business” in this.
Morell was particularly keen that his portrayal of Watson should be closer to the original character depicted in Conan Doyle's stories who was an intelligent physically capable medical doctor and not a bumbling older gent established by Nigel Bruce's interpretation of the role in the films with Basil Rathbone.