Terence Fisher
Director
1904 - 1980
Without doubt the single most influential and talented of Hammer's directors, Fisher was responsible for a slew of the studio's finest gothic horrors, beginning with the Frankenstein-inspired 'Four-Sided Triangle' in 1953 and ending with 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell' in 1974. Though he had made some memorable films prior to his arrival at Hammer -- the impressive mystery 'So Long at the Fair' (1950) starring Dirk Bogarde and Jean Simmons, for example -- it was with the pioneering 'The Curse of Frankenstein' (1957), whose copious amounts of spilled blood (in full technicolour, no less) and abundance of shock moments were unprecedented in their time, that Fisher's career as a horror director was firmly launched.
Fisher was, In his own words, a maker of 'fairy tales for adults', and his best films are notable for their fantastic, fairy-tale-like qualities. One thinks of the hauntingly magical appearance of Count Dracula amid swirling autumn leaves in 'Horror of Dracula' (1958); the Egyptian dream-sequences and vivid hues of 'The Mummy' (1959); the once-upon-a-time quality of the opening scenes of 'The Curse of the Werewolf' (1960), that might easily have been lifted straight from a child's storybook; or the mesmerizing and enchantingly surreal fantasy-world of 'The Gorgon' (1964).
Critics (most recently the American Paul Leggett) have noted the strong Christian-mythological framework that underpins the world of his films, in which the godly overcome the forces of evil -- God triumphs over Satan -- through the dual weapon of both faith in the power of traditional Christian symbols (supremely, the cross) and reason. The characters of Van Helsing (Peter Cushing in 'Horror of Dracula', 1958, and 'The Brides of Dracula', 1960) or Father Sandor (Andrew Keir in 'Dracula, Prince of Darkness', 1965) embody Fisher's uniquely Christian approach.
Ultimately, Fisher was a gifted auteur, and a studio system that required pandering to the masses did not always suit his personal ambitions as a filmmaker. After several box-office successes for Hammer in the late '50s and early '60s, Fisher's deeply personal and tragically romantic 1962 version of 'The Phantom of the Opera' was a commercial flop, for which reason Hammer didn't hire him again until 1964's 'The Gorgon'.
The succession of films he made for Hammer in the mid- to late-sixties were both popular in the theatres and, if not always acknowledged by critics at the time, of genuine artistic merit. 'Dracula, Prince of Darkness' (1965), for example, contains some of his finest work: The pseudo-Eucharistic ritual that brings the nefarious Count back to life; and the violent (not to mention controversial and oft-discussed) staking of vampiress Barbara Shelley. He also made a few enjoyable, if relatively unsophisticated science-fiction films for studios other than Hammer, including 'Island of Terror' (1966) and 'Night of the Big Heat' (1967). The close of the decade saw two of his greatest achievements: 'The Devil Rides Out' (1968), a chillingly executed and brilliantly crafted occult thriller adapted from the book by Dennis Wheatley (and featuring one of Christopher Lee's finest performances, in a fairly atypical role as hero the Duc de Richleau); and the almost Hitchcockian, but also uniquely Fisherian 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed' (1969), a film full of pathos and irony, and again expertly crafted.
It was several years before the ageing Fisher made his final film, 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell' (1974), a dark variation on an old theme, in which the Baron -- Hammer's most consistently successful ongoing character -- finally completes his descent into madness. It seems only recently that the work has been recognized by (some) critics as a minor masterpiece.
Fisher died in 1980 at the age of 76. It was only some years after his death that critics acknowledged him as more than simply a routine maker of 'B' movies, and began to see him as an auteur in his own right. It was Wheeler Winston Dixon's biography and appraisal of Fisher, 'The Charm of Evil' (1991) that set the seal on his reputation as a truly great director.
HAMMER FILMOGRAPHY: Four-Sided Triangle (1953); The Curse of Frankenstein (1957); Horror of Dracula (1958); The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958); The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959); The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959); The Mummy (1959); Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960);The Stranglers of Bombay (1960); The Brides of Dracula (1960); The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (1960); The Curse of the Werewolf (1960); The Phantom of the Opera (1962); The Gorgon (1964); Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1965); Frankenstein Created Woman (1967); The Devil Rides Out (1968); Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969); Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974).
