Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood!

It's odd to consider that out of all the films by Hammer which have found their way onto DVD with all of the "Making Of" featurettes and Behind The Scenes films, nobody has bothered to re-release this nearly definitive British television hour long special dedicated to the 40th anniversary of Hammer From from 1987. It is absolutely essential viewing for any horror fan weaned on Britain's finest independent film studios, featuring priceless interview segments with not only a grandfatherly Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee -- Hamming it up inside of a ring of lit candles -- but many of Hammer's own best & brightest stars from behind the camera: Jimmy Sangster, Anthony Hinds, producer Aida Young, Michael Carreras, composer James Bernard. Even Martin Scorcese gets a word or two in edgewise praising Hammer for many a misspent afternoon as a youth. My own favorite segment is an outtake from a film showing an early Hammer production in progress with good old James Needs editing film right there on his Moviola machine. Nobody else did it quite like Hammer, they had many imitators and influenced many others, and this glimpse at their history will delight any fan.

Search for it on YouTube, someone's bound to have uploaded it from a bootleg tape, a copy of which I managed to acquire without even realizing it.