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?

After Universal, Hammer films drew a big audience. This documentary takes us inside this institution. They took, for example, Frankenstein and Dracula and did sequels till the vampires came home. Still, their quality was fine and interviews with the principle players were quite nice. I am in the process of finding a few of the films that I've not seen.

Hammer Films was the most successful independent production company in the history of the British film industry. Starting in the 1950's, they produced a memorable series of low budget science fiction and gothic horror films. These films were marked by high production values, solid technical work, strong acting, and intelligent writing and directing.

Their breakthrough came in 1957 with the release of THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. This low budget film became one of the most profitable films in the history of British cinema, as well as the most influential genre film to be released since the end of the Second World War. Today, numerous film makers acknowledge Hammer Films as an influence on their work. They include, George Lucas, Stephen Spielberg, Martin Scorcese, Joe Dante, John Landis, and John Carpenter, to name only a few.

Ted Newsom, the writer and director of FLESH AND BLOOD, originally made it in 1994, when it was shown on British television. The Anchor Bay Video Edition is Copyright 1997. Ted Newsom has succeeded in capturing a moment in time when a number of the people who made these films were still with us. Now, a few short years later this is no longer the case.

This was the last project that Peter Cushing completed before his death in 1994. He is heard in the off camera narration and seen only in film clips. Cushing's old friend Christopher Lee joins him in the off camera narration and in an on camera interview, as well as in film clips. The other interviews are candid and informative. Most of these people remember working for Hammer with real affection.

The one drawback in this documentary is that the film clips are taken from trailers. This avoided paying fees to distributors, but limits the choice and quality of the footage. On the other hand, FLESH AND BLOOD is well organized and researched. It presents a view of a memorable era in British film production with clarity and insight. For anyone who is already a Hammer fan, this is a must. For anyone who is just getting acquainted with their films, this will serve as an excellent introduction.

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.

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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