As it was, Fear of Frankenstein disappeared from the production schedule without acknowledgement. While he made other films for Hammer, such as Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960), Cash on Demand (1961) and Captain Clegg (1962), reprising the Baron was low on his list of priorities. When Brides of Dracula (1960) was released, Peter Cushing had a change of heart regarding his career path and decided to step away from horror films for a time, revealing a fear of being typecast. All of that is to say, Hammer was ready to propel their burgeoning franchise into the stratosphere of cross platform horror entertainment. On top of that, James Carreras, Anthony Hinds and Jimmy Sangster had put together the pilot for Tales of Frankenstein. Months before the release of The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), the follow up to Curse, a third film was announced, at that time called Fear of Frankenstein. At the same time, Hammer began a successful relationship with Universal, despite their misgivings regarding Curse, with the release of Dracula (1958).
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Shortly thereafter, Hammer signed a long term deal with Columbia, amongst the projects of which were a Frankenstein sequel and an anthology TV series based on the property. Still, Hammer founder James Carreras was unsatisfied with how Warner Brothers had handled their side of the partnership with Curse and its release, opening the door to new studio accords. Despite the risk of failure in the face of corporate lawsuits and the audience’s potential unwillingness to accept an audacious new interpretation of a story so deeply embedded in the pop culture consciousness, they managed to craft a hugely successful film that not only solidified Peter Cushing as the definitive Baron Victor Frankenstein but that catapulted Hammer to the forefront of mainstream genre filmmaking. The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) marked a historic turning point for Hammer Studios.
It’s time to highlight the power, impact and influence of Hammer Studios and ignite new conversation surrounding some forgotten classics. Over the course of this column, I will focus on these releases, gauging the films in context of the Hammer Studio story as well as analyzing the merits of the release. In late 2018, Shout Factory’s Scream Factory line began to focus on bringing Hammer’s titles to disc in the US, finally making many of the studio’s underseen gems available in packages that offered great visuals as well as insightful accompanying features. Spanning a library housing over 300 films, Hammer Studios is a key part of horror history that until recently has been far too difficult to track down. On top of ushering the famous monsters of Universal’s horror heyday back into the public eye, resurrecting the likes of Frankenstein, Dracula and the Mummy in vivid color, the studio invited performers like Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Ingrid Pitt and so many more to step into the genre limelight. While Hammer Studios has been in business since 1934, it was between 19 that it towered as one of the premier sources of edgy, gothic horror.
This month we dissect The Evil of Frankenstein (1964).
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