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A Heritage Of Horror
''A Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema 1946-1972'' is a 1973 book written by David Pirie analysing the British horror cinema, horror films made by the British film industry and attempting to claim them as a legitimate expression of Culture of the United Kingdom, national culture. It was the first book on British horror films, a genre which it identified as "the only staple cinematic myth which Britain can properly claim as its own". It was also the first major study of the films of Terence Fisher, who is the subject of an entire chapter. Special emphasis is placed on the films of Hammer Studios, with additional sections covering Anglo-Amalgamated's "sadean trilogy" (''Horrors of the Black Museum'', ''Circus of Horrors'' and ''Peeping Tom (1960 film), Peeping Tom''), Amicus Productions, Don Sharp, John Gilling, Vernon Sewell, British science fiction films, Michael Reeves (director), Michael Reeves, and Pirie's thoughts on the possible future of the genre. A revised editio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Pirie
David Pirie (born 1953) is a screenwriter, film producer, film critic, and novelist. As a screenwriter, he is known for his noirish original thrillers, classic adaptations and period gothic pieces. In 1998, he was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Drama Serial for his adaptation of Wilkie Collins's 1859 novel '' The Woman in White'' into " The Woman in White" (BBC, 1997). His first book, '' A Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema 1946–1972'' (1973), was the first book-length survey of the British horror film. He has written several novels, including the ''Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes'' trilogy which includes ''The Patient's Eyes'' (2002), ''The Night Calls'' (2003), and ''The Dark Water'' (2006). Screenwriting Pirie's work for TV and film includes the New York TV Festival award-winning ''Rainy Day Women'' (1984), described by Mark Lawson in ''The Guardian'' as "one of the neglected masterpieces of British TV." His three-part ''Never Come Back'' (BBC, 1990) – an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amicus Productions
Amicus Productions was a British film production company, based at Shepperton Studios, England, active between 1962 and 1977. It was founded by American producers and screenwriters Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg. Films Prior to establishing Amicus, its two producers collaborated on the successful horror film '' The City of the Dead'' (1960). Amicus's first two films were low-budget musicals for the teenage market, ''It's Trad, Dad!'' (1962) and '' Just for Fun'' (1963). Amicus is best remembered for making a series of portmanteau horror anthologies, inspired by the Ealing Studios film ''Dead of Night'' (1945). They also made some straight thriller films, often based on a gimmick. Amicus's horror and thriller films are sometimes mistaken for the output of the better-known Hammer Film Productions, due to the two companies' similar visual style and use of the same actors, including Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Unlike the period gothic Hammer films, Amicus productions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1973 Non-fiction Books
Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam. * January 17 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines. * January 20 – Richard Nixon is Second inauguration of Richard Nixon, sworn in for a second term as President of the United States. Nixon is the only person to have been sworn in twice as President (First inauguration of Richard Nixon, 1969, Second inauguration of Richard Nixon, 1973) and Vice President of the United States (First inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953, Second inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1957). * January 22 ** George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight world boxing championship. ** A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Reeves (director)
Michael Reeves (17 October 1943 – 11 February 1969) was an English film director and screenwriter. He is best remembered for the 1968 film '' Witchfinder General'' (known in the US as ''Conqueror Worm''). A few months after the film's release, Reeves died in London at the age of 25 from an accidental alcohol and barbiturate overdose. ''Witchfinder General'' and death ''Witchfinder General'' It is for his third and final movie, '' Witchfinder General'', that Reeves is best known. He was only 24 years old when he co-wrote and directed it. In 2005, '' Total Film'' magazine named ''Witchfinder General'' the 15th-greatest horror film of all time. Made on a modest budget in East Anglia and adapted from the novel by Ronald Bassett, ''Witchfinder General'' tells the story of Matthew Hopkins, the lawyer-turned-witchhunter who blackmails and murders his way across the countryside. Reeves imbues the film with a powerful sense of the impossibility of behaving morally in a society w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, extraterrestrial life, sentient artificial intelligence, cybernetics, certain forms of immortality (like mind uploading), and the singularity. Science fiction predicted several existing inventions, such as the atomic bomb, robots, and borazon, whose names entirely match their fictional predecessors. In addition, science fiction might serve as an outlet to facilitate future scientific and technological innovations. Science fiction can trace its roots to ancient mythology. It is also related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction and contains many subgenres. Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers. Science fiction, in literature, film, television, and other media, has beco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vernon Sewell
Vernon Campbell Sewell (4 July 1903 – 21 June 2001) was a British film director, writer, producer and, briefly, an actor. Sewell was born in London, England, and was educated at Marlborough College. He directed more than 30 films during his career, starting with '' Morgenrot'' (1933) and ending with '' Burke & Hare'' (1971). He worked chiefly in B-movies, some of which were, according to the BFI Screenonline, "well above the usual cut-price standards of film-making at this level." He was married to the actress Joan Carol (born Joan Roscoe Catt 1905-1986) in 1950. Vernon Sewell died on 21 June 2001 in Durban, South Africa, at age 97. Filmography (director) *1933: '' Morgenrot'' *1934: ''The Medium'' *1937: ''A Test for Love'' *1938: ''Breakers Ahead'' *1939: ''What Men Live By'' *1943: ''The Silver Fleet'' *1945: ''The World Owes Me a Living'' *1945: '' Latin-quarter'' *1945: ''Frenzy'' *1947: ''The Ghosts of Berkeley Square'' *1948: ''Uneasy Terms'' *1949: ''The Jack of Dia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Gilling
John Gilling (29 May 1912 – 22 November 1984) was an English film director and screenwriter, born in London. He was known for his horror film, horror movies, especially those he made for Hammer Films, for whom he directed ''The Shadow of the Cat'' (1961), ''The Plague of the Zombies'' (1966), ''The Reptile'' (1966) and ''The Mummy's Shroud'' (1967), among others. Biography Gilling left a job in England with an oil company at the age of 17 and spent a period in Hollywood, working in the film industry some of the time, before returning to England in 1933.Steve Chibnall & Brian McFarlane, ''The British 'B' Film'', Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2009, pp. 133–35. He entered the British film industry immediately as an editor and assistant director, starting with ''Father O'Flynn''. He served in the Royal Navy in the Second World War. After the war, Gilling wrote the script for ''Black Memory'' (1947), and made his directing debut with ''Escape from Broadmoor'' (1948). Gilling also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Sharp
Donald Herman Sharp (19 April 192114 December 2011) was an Australian film director. His best known films were made for Hammer Film Productions, Hammer in the 1960s, and included ''The Kiss of the Vampire'' (1963) and ''Rasputin, the Mad Monk'' (1966). In 1965 he directed ''The Face of Fu Manchu'', based on the character created by Sax Rohmer, and starring Christopher Lee. Sharp also directed the sequel ''The Brides of Fu Manchu'' (1966). In the 1980s he was also responsible for several hugely popular miniseries adapted from the novels of Barbara Taylor Bradford. Early career Early life Sharp was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1921, according to official military records and his own claims, even though reference sources cite 1922 as his year of birth. He was the second of four children. He attended St Virgil's College and began appearing regularly in theatre productions at the Playhouse Theatre in Hobart, where he trained under a young Stanley Burbury. He later said this was pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peeping Tom (1960 Film)
''Peeping Tom'' is a 1960 British psychological horror-thriller film directed by Michael Powell, written by Leo Marks, and starring Carl Boehm, Anna Massey, and Moira Shearer. The film revolves around a serial killer who murders women while using a portable film camera to record their dying expressions of terror. Its title derives from the expression "peeping Tom", which describes a voyeur. The film's controversial subject matter and its extremely harsh reception by critics had a severely negative impact on Powell's career as a director in the United Kingdom. However, it attracted a cult following, and in later years, it has been re-evaluated and is now widely considered a masterpiece, and a progenitor of the contemporary slasher film. The British Film Institute named it the 78th greatest British film of all time, and in 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for '' Time Out'' magazine saw it ranked the 27th best British film ever. The music score ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Horror Cinema
British horror cinema is a sub-category of horror films made by British studios. Horror films began in Britain with silent films in the early 20th century. Some of the most successful British horror films were made by Hammer Film Productions around the 1960s. A distinguishing feature of British horror cinema from its foundations in the 1910s until the end of Hammer's prolific output in the genre in the 1970s was storylines based on, or referring to, the gothic literature of the 19th century. History Silent era British silent horror drew its influence from gothic literature of the nineteenth century. Influential works during the nineteenth century include ''e.g.'', Mary Shelley’s ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), and the gothic horror novel, ''Dracula'' (1897), written by Bram Stoker. The rise of British silent horror cinema coincided with World War I. The War and the associated prevalence of violence, maiming and death had a profound impact on films prod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Circus Of Horrors
''Circus of Horrors'' is a 1960 British horror film directed by Sidney Hayers, and starring Anton Diffring, Yvonne Monlaur, Erika Remberg, Kenneth Griffith, Jane Hylton, Conrad Phillips, Yvonne Romain, and Donald Pleasence. Set in 1947, it follows a deranged plastic surgeon who changes his identity after botching an operation, and later comes to gain control of a circus that he uses as a front for his surgical exploits. The original screenplay was written by American screenwriter George Baxt. It was released in the United States by American International Pictures as a double feature with ''The Angry Red Planet''. Plot In 1947 England, plastic surgeon Dr. Rossiter is wanted by police after performing a botched operation on socialite Evelyn Morley. However, believing himself to have brilliant abilities as a surgeon, he and his assistants, Martin and Angela, evade capture and escape to France. To avoid capture, Rossiter changes his name to Dr. Schüler. Schüler sees a girl scarre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horrors Of The Black Museum
''Horrors of the Black Museum'' (1959) is a British-American horror film starring Michael Gough and directed by Arthur Crabtree. It was the first film in what film critic David Pirie dubbed Anglo-Amalgamated's "Sadian trilogy" (the other two being ''Circus of Horrors'' and ''Peeping Tom''), with an emphasis on sadism, cruelty and violence (with sexual undertones), in contrast to the supernatural horror of the Hammer films of the same era. Plot A package is delivered to Gail, a young blonde woman with a roommate named Peggy. Gail opens the package to find a pair of binoculars, but when she uses them to look out a window, she screams and collapses, dying. The binoculars are revealed to have two spikes emerging out of the eyepiece. Peggy is being interviewed by Superintendent Graham and Inspector Lodge when journalist and crime writer Edmond Bancroft enters the room. He wishes to see the binoculars for himself, and Graham remarks on their similarity to binoculars in Scotland Yard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
