Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror

I grew up watching the Hammer horror films on TV in the late 1970s. Even though some of them were severely edited (for violence and time) they still scared me silly and I was impressed by the acting and lush settings. In 1994 (a few years before Peter Cushing's death) they got together him and Christopher Lee to narrate a documentary on Hammer films. They also had tons of interview footage of Hammer directors, producers, editors, composers, executives etc etc talking about productions. Also many actors of the various Hammer movies talked about their roles and the productions themselves. Raquel Welch and Martine Beswick give very amusing commentaries and Veronica Carlson talks about a disgusting rape scene she was forced to act in for "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed". It was (thankfully) cut from the final print but the footage is here.

If you're a horror fan (like me) this is a just engrossing insight into how some of the best horror films of the 1950s-1970s were made. This isn't a whitewash job either. The actors and executives do complain about issues and problems they had with scripts and productions. Just fascinating from beginning to end. My only complaint--the footage from Hammer films is in pretty poor shape. Couldn't they have gotten some better prints?

Another feature-length history of the infamous British film studio that, as the narration proudly says here, changed the face of cinema – and, more precisely, the vivid depiction of screen violence – forever. However, being a longer piece than usual, it takes care to deal with its 1930 origins (including 1935's THE MYSTERY OF THE MARY CELESTE aka PHANTOM SHIP starring legendary horror icon Bela Lugosi), its 1940s radio successes-to-screen adaptations and its 1950s "quota-quickie" run headed by Hollywood second leads like Paul Henried. Furthermore, it also delves into the studio's efforts in other genres like swashbucklers and thrillers but, somewhat disappointingly, not in enough detail to do them proper justice. Therefore – and the title is clear indication enough – the bulk of the feature is dedicated to their phenomenally successful cycle of Gothic horrors, Sci-Fi and Prehistoric adventures.

The roster of interviewees is pretty impressive and quite definitive: apart from Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (who also act as narrators) we have Hammer stars like Martine Beswick, Veronica Carlson, Hazel Court, Andrew Keir, Francis Matthews, Ferdy Mayne, Caroline Munro, Christopher Neame, Ingrid Pitt, Yutte Stensgaard and Raquel Welch in a combination of archive and newly-shot footage; as for the creative Hammer staff there are Roy Ward Baker, James Bernard, Michael Carreras, Freddie Francis, Val Guest, Ray Harryhausen, Anthony Hinds and Jimmy Sangster as well as Hollywood fanboy Joe Dante. Apart from marking the historic final step in the working relationship of Cushing and Lee, the documentary inadvertently also served as an epitaph for the former and Michael Carreras who would both die soon after it premiered on TV! Apparently, according to its maker Ted Newsom, a longer "Director's Cut" will be unveiled in the near future, a full 20-plus years after it was originally shot

This is a rather nice 100 minutes lasting outline of the history of Hammer Film Productions ans simply a must-see for every Hammer movie lover.

I did not only wanted to see this documentary because of its subject and I'm a big fan of the Hammer studios movies but also because this was the last project Peter Cushing worked on. He died in the same year as the release of this documentary. He also sounded really old and just not 100% healthy during his narrations. The other part of he narration is being handled by his old buddy Christoper Lee. Together they starred in dozens of Hammer movies. It also feels right that this was Peter Cushing's last project, since he spend most of his career playing in Hammer movies and is also a reason why he is still so well known and loved, due to all the fine and iconic roles he has played in Hammer productions.

A lot of persons appearing in this documentary has died ever since so obvious the documentary is better than it could had been as it was made at this current day and time, although this movie also uses a lot of archived interviews. The documentary got made at the right time, after the Hammer reign had already ended.

It lets actors, directors, studio executives and everything in between speak about their own personal experiences and the history of the Hammer film studios, from the '30's to their peak at the '50's, '60's and '70's and the end later less successful years. It of course mostly focus on the horror productions, for which the Hammer studios are so well known. The movies had a very unique and distinctive style, which gave them a very large cult following, which was the reason why the Hammer movies were so successful at their time. They putted new life into the declining horror genre in the '50's.

The documentaries provides some unique behind the scenes footage and stories. It's also filled with footage from the actual movies and interviews with all those involved. It isn't just only about their successes but also about the bad choices they made and they also don't pretend like they were making "Citizen Kane" sort of movies at time and their movies were all perfect in every way thinkable.

The documentary is mostly insightful into the history of the Hammer studios and explains why they did things their way. It's perhaps not as insightful on the actually movies and some of its stars and directors, so just don't expect to learn a whole lot of new things about some of the Hammer classics.

Also the actual style of the documentary itself just isn't anything special. It's formulaic but pleasantly fast paced. It doesn't let one person needlessly say more than the other and the documentary features a wide variety of interviewees, which makes this a pleasant and always nice paced and told insightful documentary.

An essential movie for the Hammer lovers.

8/10

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Documentary, narrated by Lee and Cushing charting the huge success of Hammer at Bray studios. It covers the categories of films eg Frankenstein, Dracula and others rather than opt for a straight chronological journey and as well as many great clips to jog memories there are some fascinating insights from directors and producers.

A touch stilted / unimaginative in its presentation, but worth seeing if you're interest in film history or just loved the Hammer films.

I found this documentary to be very interesting. Although most of the clips from the Hammer films were in the format of theatrical trailers (due to actual film clips being too expensive), I found that there was enough of a mix of interviews and clips to keep most people happy. The narration was good (as you would expect from Peter Cushing & Christopher Lee) but was also tinged with sadness, as when it was shown in the UK (on consecutive Saturday evenings) Peter Cushing died before the second part was shown. It can truly be seen as his swansong for Hammer, for whom he made so many classic films.