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Date Posted: 03:37:40 08/28/11 Sun
Author: Rick
Subject: Universal Horror vs. Hammer Horror

This poll is more like your view of both studios and how their series of films did over the years. That is production values, actors, storylines, sequels, locales and so on. Universal did good for the early days of sound films and back then, things were more primitive, as the industry slowly grew into being. The first horror cycle (1931-36) in my opinion was their best one. It was very effective and worked well. The second wave (1939-46) was more sanitized and with new management. Lugosi, Karloff and Rains were no longer there as regulars. Rathbone and Chaney Jr. became staples in the films.

Hammer made many films and started in 1935, went bankrupt and came back in the 40's. By the 50's, they had a solid position in the European film industry and with a little help from Universal, they adopted series such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and created many others in the process. They also had suspense, noir, adventure, creature and erotic genres. Rival studios would pattern some of their films after Hammer's to compete with them.

Another advantage was most all of Hammer's were shot in Technicolor and that would give more life to the films. In the 30's, Universal was in the midst of the Great Depression and had to scale things down much of the time. Color filming was only allowed for musicals and epics back then and was too costly to use on a routine basis. These comparisons and differences are interesting, when you consider a 25-30 year span between the Universal and Hammer reign of films.



Comments are welcome.


Rick

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Replies:

[> Re: Universal Horror vs. Hammer Horror -- Officer Torch, 20:06:28 08/28/11 Sun [1]

Rick...Think you hit the nail squarely on the head, and very nice to see Hammer new page coming to site...should be interesting. I know some about Universal.. from books, films, the web, your site of course and forum, but little of Hammer other than what I caught from some of their films, and a good write up on Wikipedia plus a couple other sites.

Seems Hammer, from UK, though they started earlier, got into horror mid to late Fifties, and borrowed much from earlier Universal Horror. Uni had to watch costs as you say, The Great Depression was on. Later, Hammer had big advantage without this and times were quieter (aside from Cold War). Hammer also used color and had more modern technology available to them, also flashier "stuff" compared to the Thirties era when some of Universal's really best horror films were made, especially Lugosi/Karloff works, to me anyway.

My opinion, I enjoy some of Hammer's material, but still favor Universal Horror big time, especially the earlier group. Gotta say though, I enjoy Hammer's scifi/horror: Five Million Years to Earth (aka Quatermass and the Pit) from 1967. It's dated but in my top 20 for scifi/horror movies.

Interestingly, Hammer did some scifi in early Fifties, had a TV show in UK, Quatermass, then some related movies during early Fifties (moreso B class)..but a decade later, the good one..that Five Million Years to Earth (USA title). Seems during those couple decades, they made quite a few horror films, often updated versions of earlier Universal Horror. I gather Hammer ceased in mid Eighties.

Will be interesting learning/chatting more about this outfit. Some of their movies were good, and had fine actors.


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[> Re: Universal Horror vs. Hammer Horror -- Tim, 22:28:38 09/02/11 Fri [1]

One early Hammer film of interest to Universal horror fans might be The Mystery of the Marie Celeste (1935, re-titled The Phantom Ship for American release) because its star was Bela Lugosi.

Hammer dabbled in science fiction with Four Sided Triangle and Spaceways, both from 1953. I haven't seen either of them.

Hammer really began to hit their stride in the sci-fi genre with The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) (The Creeping Unknown in the US) and X the Unknown (1956).

X the Unknown does not include the Professor Quatermass character, but is very similar in theme. The best in this vein is, as Officer Torch notes, Five Million Years to Earth (1967), originally called Quatermass and The Pit over in England.

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) was the big one that began Hammer as most fans know it, with updated color versions of the Universal classics.

Horror of Dracula (1958) (the US title, it was called Dracula when originally released in the UK) was another box office success for Hammer on both sides of the Atlantic. Over time Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee would become Hammer’s version of Karloff and Lugosi!

The Universal films of the studio's first horror wave remain my favorites over just about everything else. They are timeless tales brimming with Gothic atmosphere. But I am still a big fan of Hammer Films, which featured many fine actors in outstanding Technicolor productions.


Tim


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