Well, here I was the other day, sitting on a sofa, staring into space and reminiscing about Hammer movies… as one does. About the Dracula flicks, and the Frankenstein series, the Dennis Wheatley adaptations. And all of a sudden I was wondering just how many different film series Hammer has actually been involved in. The longer I thought about it, the longer the list became until I finally picked up my trusted copy of Tom Johnson’s and Deborah DelVecchio’s HAMMER FILMS – AN EXHAUSTIVE FILMOGRAPHY and went through the list of their films one by one and started jotting down which of these belonged to a series.
This may sound obvious, but for me to constitute a Hammer series, Hammer would have needed to at least have shot two movies on that subject. The reason why I highlight this is because I excluded all one-shots the company filmed that were based on an otherwise popular subject such as e.g. the Sherlock Holmes movie The Hound of the Baskervilles or The Phantom of the Opera.
Some of the suggested inclusions for what constitutes a Hammer series are debatable. So please: Debate!
Without further ado, please find my list of Hammer movie series.
Dick Barton
Dick Barton, Special Agent (1947)
Dick Barton at Bay (1948)
Dick Barton Strikes Back (1948)
P.C. 49
The Adventures of PC 49 (1948)
A Case for P.C. 49 (1951)
Jack the Ripper
Room to Let (1949)
Hands of the Ripper (1971)
Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)
The Lyons
Life with the Lyons (1953)
The Lyons in Paris (1954)
Robin Hood
Men of Sherwood Forest (1954)
Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960)
A Challenge for Robin Hood (1967)
Wolfshead: The Legend of Robin Hood (1969)
Quatermass
The Quatermass Xperiment (1954)
Quatermass 2 (1956)
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
Blood Island/World War II
The Camp on Blood Island (1957)
The Secret of Blood Island (1964)
On top of those two Blood Island movies, Hammer also shot the following WW2 dramas:
The Steel Bayonet (1956)
Ten Seconds to Hell (1958)
Yesterday’s Enemy (1959)
Frankenstein
The Curse of Frankenstein (1956)
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
The Evil of Frankenstein (1963)
Frankenstein Created Woman (1966)
Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
Horror of Frankenstein (1970)
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1972)
Psychothrillers
This is the series I fought over most about as to whether I should even include it as there are no common threads as such among them other than that they were all written by Jimmy Sangster, however, the Psychothrillers are often discussed as a separate chapter in Hammer’s history.
The Snorkel (1957)
Taste of Fear (1960)
Maniac (1962)
Paranoiac (1962)
Nightmare (1962)
Hysteria (1964)
Fanatic (1964)
The Nanny (1965)
Crescendo (1969)
Fear in the Night (1971)
Up the Creek
Up the Creek (1957)
Further Up the Creek (1958)
Dracula
(Horror of) Dracula (1957)
Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1965)
Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (1968)
Taste the Blood of Dracula (1969)
Scars of Dracula (1970)
Dracula A.D. 1972 (1971)
The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1972)
The films above are of course all the traditional Dracula movies featuring Christopher Lee. Dracula, however, also receives a mention or even appeared (though played by a different actor) in the following two movies:
The Brides of Dracula (1960)
The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires (1973)
And should I wish to widen the field even further into general Hammer Vampire movies I should also include:
Kiss of the Vampire (1962)
Vampire Circus (1971)
Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter (1972)
Mummy
The Mummy (1959)
The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964)
The Mummy’s Shroud (1966)
Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971)
Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
The Ugly Duckling (1959)
The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (1959)
Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)
Pirates
Not too sure whether it actually makes sense to highlight the Pirate movies as a separate series as they do not have an otherwise recurring central theme or character:
The Pirates of Blood River (1961)
Captain Clegg (1961)
Devil-Ship Pirates (1963)
She
She (1964)
The Vengeance of She (1967)
Cavemen and Dinosaurs
One Million Years B.C. (1965)
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1968)
Creatures the World Forgot (1970)
Dennis Wheatley
The Devil Rides Out (1967)
The Lost Continent (1967)
To the Devil…. A Daughter (1975)
Karnstein
The Vampire Lovers (1970)
Lust for a Vampire (1970)
Twins of Evil (1971)
The name Karnstein (or a subtle variation of it) is also mentioned in:
Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter (1972)
On the Buses
On the Buses (1971)
Mutiny on the Buses (1972)
Holiday on the Buses (1972)
So, there we are. A little list of all the different series Hammer has been involved in. Have I forgotten something? What are your thoughts about it? And most of all: What to do next with it?
I am contemplating approaching those series bit by bit at some stage. In actual fact that could make a nice subject for a Blogathon with different bloggers approaching different series all at the same time. If any of you bloggers reading this is interested in taking part in such a project, then please let me know.
3 months ago
5 comments:
Make up your mind - was it Quatermass or Quatermann? :p
I guess the themed series are the least like a proper series, eg pirates etc. I don't think the Jack the Ripper films were self-consciously related on Hammer's part, so I would exclude them. I would think that to be a proper series, there'd have to be some self-conscious linking in the film-makers' minds. I think the Ripper connection was just coincidental. Oh, the Jekyll series as well, I think.
Haha, Quatermass of course. Thanks for notifying me about the typo. LOL
This is so cool. I had known that they had quite a few film series, but this is the first time I've seen them put together like this. I'm going to print out that page so I can keep up with that. Thanks for sharing that.
In your robin hood section ,you havent listed WOLFSHEAD : THE LEGEND OF ROBIN HOOD (1969).
Right you are, Anonymous! My mistake. I have now added the film to the list.
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