Leicester,
13th - 14th July 2012
By
Adrian Smith
An
impressive array of stars and an eclectic lineup of Hammer films at the Phoenix
Square cinema in Leicester marked the launch of a brand new innovative
collaboration between Hammer and the De Montfort University. Their Cinema and
Television History (CATH) Research Centre have become custodians of the Hammer
script archive, meaning they will curate and catalogue the collection and make
them available for research purposes. They have also received a collection of
Jimmy Sangster items donated by his widow Mary Peach, including written
materials and photographs covering not only his time with Hammer but as a
successful independent writer and director.
In
order to celebrate this new relationship the university hosted a two day Hammer
festival attended by fans and academics keen to explore the history and
fascinating output of this uniquely British film company. Hammer were in
production for fifty years and are now making an impressive comeback with films
such as Let Me In (2010) and The Woman in Black (2012). Of
particular interest was the section devoted to the early days of Hammer hosted
by official studio archivist Robert J. E. Simpson. Renée Glynne, now
impressively spry at 86, was interviewed onstage about her work as a script
supervisor. She joined Hammer in 1948 and worked on many important early
productions including The Quatermass Xperiment (1955). She spoke about
her great friendship with American actor Dane Clark and parties with Eva Bartok
during the making of Spaceways (1953) in the manor house at Bray
Studios. Accompanying this was a rare screening of crime thriller River
Patrol (1948), a delightfully quaint police procedural about the problems
with silk nylon smuggling in ration-era London. For those who thought Hammer
started with fangs and Kensington Gore, this helped to put the studio’s
development into a wider context.
Vera
Day was also interviewed on her roles in Quatermass II (1957) and the
comedy short A Clean Sweep (1958), both of which she also introduced.
She recalled that in those days all the filmmakers and producers were after the
girls, but luckily she had an aggressively protective boyfriend. She had fond
memories of the much maligned Brian Donlevy, whose performance as Professor
Quatermass is often dismissed as bullish and inappropriate. According to Day he
had a very dry sense of humour and was fun to work with.