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by E.C.McMullen Jr. |
KISS OF THE VAMPIRE Released Sept. 11, 1963
Every Horror movie fan has seen it, this endless romanticism of the 1960s Hammer Studios. Why? Hammer pushed the violence and gore factor. The studio didn't want their monsters romantic and tragic, but wild and predatory.
Year after year the studio also pushed the edge of how much flesh they would show, and this was all for the good as well. After all, what did vicious monsters, disguised as human and preying on real humans, care for mortal laws let alone human social mores of the day?
The Hammer stable of Actors, like Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, could deliver and the studio had top notch writers and directors as well.
But success means value, which means higher demand and bigger paychecks.
So Hammer had other ideas like not relying on their most popular star, Christopher Lee, to keep playing the vampire. Or indeed, make him too important and watch him go to the highest bidder. The same went for their most profitable writers like Jimmy Sangster.
Anthony Hinds, son of Hammer Films co-founder, William Hinds, was no nepo slob, but a tour de force of brilliant creativity in writing and direction. He was also canny in figuring out ways to squeeze every cent out of a budget in England's 1960s economy and tax laws.
To do that he often took Producer credit. When he wrote a script, he wrote under his pseudonym "John Elder".
Junior going cheap meant Hammer went cheap.
How cheap?
The whole plot of KISS OF THE VAMPIRE revolves around Giant Devil Bats from Hell. So they sent a couple of employees to their local Woolworths to buy a bunch of toy rubber bats. Yeah, because nobody will notice common cheap toys sold in the corner drug store, blown up to the scale of a 50 Foot Wide Screen!
You can only push that so far, but for Anthony, "Cheap" became his habit and motto. Trying to maintain quality and convincing special effects from 5 cent rubber bats at the local drug store, you're deluding yourself and your strategy is long past its due date.
Except nobody told Anthony that so he stuck with it.
Because, after all, what Doff Yer Cap British employee is going to tell his betters, the son of the studio head, that his ideas are heading off a cliff?
When the Producer and Chief's son is spouting gibberish like,
"I say, you lot, let's slash the budget with every picture, hire a cheaper actors and directors, and create higher box office, thanks to my brilliant Producing and writing."
What else are you going to say before updating your resume but,
"Smashing idea, sir! These are only our bread and butter, lifeblood audience anyway: Psh! Horror fans!"
RIght there's a lesson here for today's burgeoning boutique studios. Antony was no dummy, he just got stuck in thinking that a temporary, case by case strategy, was a solution for everything.
What happened when KISS OF THE VAMPIRE was prepped to hit the road in foreign markets?
When Universal Pictures, Hammer's American distributor, saw the Roger Corman result, they refused to touch it unless Hammer acquiesed to their demand for the movie as a double feature: Hammer had to offer their American distributor two movies for the price of one.
What Anthony and the suddenly stumbling studio got was a lesson in economics and underestimating the audience with 1963's KISS OF THE VAMPIRE.
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Copyright 2024 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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