The making of Hammer Films was done is several country houses of the conventional studio, like in Hollywood. While filming The Lady Craved Excitement in 1950 at Oakley Court, the studio became interested in obtaining the neighbouring Down Place as a permanent home for their studio.
Oakley Court had an historical background. It was built in 1859 by Sir Richard Hall say. In the 1950’s Exclusive fell into the good fortune of establishing important distribution rights with American companies. The partnership was important because it allowed Hammer the rights to use fading but recognizable American stars in their British productions making them more accessible to the American Audiences.
A staple of Hammer Films was the BBC radio serials. Hammer secured the rights to several of these productions and turned them into feature films. After the purchase of Quatermass Experiment and with some negotiation, the Quatermass series Quatermass Experiment began.
The film proved to be successful encouraging the studio to look for other horror properties that could be exploited since the monster theme worked very well in Quatermass. They decided upon Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, since the book was public domain and the Universal film Frankenstein (1931) was viewed by many as a horror classic. As soon as Universal heard of the remake they made Hammer aware that if they copied anything from the Universal film that wasn’t in the Mary Shelly novel, including the classic make up, they would sue.
A script was devised and a new make up designed, the Hammer version was faster paced and featured more shock element than the original. By the 1970’s Hammer had began a series of highly charged vampire stories that were steeped in eroticism and nudity, as well as a touch of lesbianism. Hoping to inject new life into their vampire films, Vampire Lovers, Countess Dracula, Lust For A Vampire, Twins Of Evil, Hammer attempted twist on the story with Vampire Circus, Captain Kronos and Vampire Hunter, hammer was to see it’s last days.
With To The Devil…A Daughter Hammer studios released their last film leaving a legacy of work that was often ridiculed in the press but highly supported by it’s English and American Audience.
Today Hammer films are regarded as a truly classic Studio and is recognised, alongside Universal Pictures, as a reigning force in the Horror and Sci-Fi genre.