If you couldn't be at Bray Studios' historic Hammer Horror reunion last weekend, Cinema Retro's man on the scene Adrian Smith gives you the low-down:
On August 4, over 150 fans and many Hammer stars and
personnel gathered at Bray Studios on the banks of the River Thames to
celebrate the 50th anniversary of the release of The Curse of Frankenstein. Amongst the guests were writer-director Jimmy
Sangster, director John Hough, Margaret Robinson, the widow of art director
Bernard Robinson, and actors Virginia Wetherell, Madeline Smith, Ingrid Pitt,
Janina Faye, Vera Day, Caroline Munro, Martine Beswicke, Carol Marsh, Yvonne
Monlaur, Valerie Leon, Douglas Wilmer, Damien Thomas, John Cater and Edward de
Souza. It was the first time for many of the fans in
attendance that they had been able to visit Bray, the spiritual home of Hammer
films. Between 1951 and 1966 Hammer shot around eighty films there before
relocating to MGM-Elstree Studios in Borehamwood. Amongst these are many of
those considered to be THE Hammer classics, including Dracula (US title Horror of Dracula), The Mummy,
The Curse of the Werewolf, The Quatermass Experiment, Hound of the Baskervilles and of course,
The Curse of Frankenstein.