The Hammer Horror production teams got it just right. The rich use of colour, the sense of isolation and the titillation combined with Gothic horror. Today many people think of Hammer as being 'cheesy' and naive, but it is interesting to note that, upon the release of their first Dracula picture, the film was universally declared by mainstream critics to be abhorant, due to the deep sexual nature of the film and Christopher Lees performance. It should also be noted that Mr Lee's performance as Dracula is held to be the finest interpretation of the character committed to the screen, beating, even, Gary Oldman's whirlwind performance.
To put it in context, his/Hammer's first version of Dracula was seen to be as shocking as The Dawn of The Dead, The Evil Dead and The Exorcist as well as the so called 'video nasties' of the Eighties. (Of which, by the way, in case you didn't know, even that great film, The Elephant Man, was considered to be such - just who the hell do these censorial dictators are, trouncing all over popular culture?? Pathetic! Anyway, sorry for that little rant....) In fact, so powerful was Lee's and Hammer's production, that, even today, almost no film set around that genre can escape their ghosts.
Hammer were makers of some outstanding and original films and , to be honest, without them the history of British cinema would be a vastly inferior and emptier place; in my view, and the view of a few others, their productions rate just as, if not more, important as the Ealing studio pictures and an artistic second only to the Powell and Pressburger films.
But, it is true that Hammer worked on the cheap at times and became exploitative nearing the end of their time. But, for the most, they knew what they were doing, and that includes all the many beautiful ladies chosen to appear in their films - all carefully selected - most of whom who were to fit the idea of the beautiful 'English Rose'.
