Hammer at its best......a great British institution of the 50s/60s
Dracula review
By
roncoach from suffolk
- 25
- 25
24th October 2011
I cannot imagine British Cinema in the 50s and 60s without Ealing Comedies, 'Carry On' films and......Hammer Horror.
This early Hammer sets a yardstick for the studio which is never quite reached again, though it has many very good three and a half star films in its catalogue.
This first pairing of Lee/Cushing ( exactly the right pairing) makes this much-filmed Bram Stoker novel ( and indeed all vampire films of all eras and types, some recent ones pretty dire) my particular favourite of the story.
A host of sequels followed, with Lee/Cushing reprising their roles for Hammer but , except for singling out 'Dracula,Prince Of Darkness', I don't think any of them reached the heights of this original.
Hammer went on to make many types of horror, but are still remembered fondly for the Dracula series. And quite rightly.
These British Dracula films, and indeed all of Hammer's Horror films, make the American's attempts at Universal with Bela Lugosi look pretty poor stuff. Not very often we beat Hollywood -------but Hammer and Ealing certainly put Britain at the top of the heap in the 1950s/60s. We have to go back a long way , to Gainsborough Pictures and its contemporaries to match the best of British.
It's pretty silly now I suppose to imagine that this film had an 'X' certificate in 1958.....but it scared a young me LOL.
I really like this film, and all Hammer's work ( until it sadly degenerated like 'Carry On's' did by the mid-70s). So go back and remember those great sets of dark castles in Transylvania and wonder what Christopher Lee was really doing behind that famous spread cloak .
Fangs for the memories :))))
