It starred Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee who had worked together for years, though Cushing was better known at the time.Īlthough the film was derided by critics, it was a box office success making back seventy times its production costs. Shot in lurid Eastmancolor, The Curse of Frankenstein firmly established Hammer as forerunners in the gothic horror genre.

He continued to direct low budget films for studios and television until 1957, when Hammer, impressed with his work ethic, offered him The Curse of Frankenstein (1957, Terence Fisher). Fisher, who began his film career as an editor, directed his first film, A Song for Tomorrow in 1948. He already had a body of film work behind him having adapted his own novel, The Shrinking Man (1956), written scripts for The Twilight Zone (1959-2020) and Star Trek (1966-) and completed several Poe adaptations for American International Pictures. A respected science fiction and horror writer, Matheson had just completed the script for Hammer’s Fanatic(Silvio Narizzano, 1965). Hinds next contracted Richard Matheson, whom he had met when he bought the rights to his novel, I am Legendin 1957.

In an effort to tone it down, the American writer, John Hunter, who had written the script for Hammer’s Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (1960, Cyril Frankel ), was commissioned, but his efforts were deemed ‘too English’ for an American audience. Hinds pitched The Devil Rides Out to Universal Studios in 1964, but it was rejected due to its shocking contents.

But we thought the charge of blasphemy would not stick if we did the thing with due attention to scholarship.’ Conservative, Hammer had always worried about the Church’s reaction to the screening of the Black Mass. Anthony Hinds, Hammer’s co-founder, eventually agreed to read the book and optioned it alongside The Satanist (1960) and To the Devil a Daughter(1953).Īs Lee stated in his autobiography, ‘After years of urging black-magic themes on Hammer, I had a breakthrough with The Devil Rides Out. In his autobiography, Tall, Dark and Gruesome(2009), Lee describes how it took years for Hammer to agree to make The Devil Rides Out (1968, Terence Fisher), due to censorship issues. A fan of his work, Wheatley permitted Lee to take his Black Magic books to Hammer Film Productions. C hristopher Lee first met Dennis Wheatley when he gave a lecture about black magic in Harrods to promote his novel The Satanist (1960).

Dennis wheatley to the devil a daughter