Hammer Glamour: Classic Images From the Archive of Hammer Films

As a major Hammer Studios fan I regret having to be the skunk at this little garden party. I believe, however, two points need to be made about this publication for those who are discriminating book collectors.

First, the cover on this (as well as on "The Hammer Story," which is also by Titan) is not cloth-covered hardbound. It is, instead, shiny paper-covered hardbound. Do you remember the type of covers on Dr. Seuss books? Think also of the books that they have in the discount bins at book retailers, the ones which look really cheaply produced. That's what you have here. I was appalled when I saw that they cut this corner. These covers do not hold up over the years. They get all dinged and scuffed up and look like junk in no time. I would have gladly spent another ten bucks, or more, for a quality production. Hammer fans are obviously going to be aesthetically oriented people, and this is low-brow book production.

Second, the photos of the female Hammer stars were disappointing. What you get here is one or two small shots of the star from the movie itself (if any), and then you get a full-page "publicity shot" of the actress which is not even remotely in the gothic context of the film. (She may be wearing a costume from the production, but the vast majority of the shots are entirely stripped of any connection to the film. She might as well be selling dishwashing detergent.) By way of contrast, on the back cover of the dustjacket you have a beautiful and seemingly hypnotized damsel walking amongst headstones in a cemetary while her nightgown is blown slightly open by the winds of menace. The lighting immediately brings to mind scary, and sexy scenarios. It is a haunting, weird, sensual photo which captures the trademark Hammer ambience. Well, you don't get much of that inside the book. Most of these photos are clinical promo shots which, if anything, are the antithesis to the Hammer vibe.

Yes, there is good information ("data") in the book, but I could have obtained that elsewhere. I wanted awesome shots which conveyed the characteristic Hammer beauty which we see and love in their films.

And, I wanted that ambience presented in a well-bound book which surely would have been destined to be a collectible. This book will disappoint the discriminating book-lover and many Hammer afficiandos.

Hammer Films has a cult reputation throughout the world for their classic series of gothic horror and adventure films produced during the company's heyday from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. When one thinks of the performers who starred in Hammer's productions, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee immediately come to mind. However, one of Hammer's biggest attractions were the number of beautiful women who shared the screen with the likes of Cushing & Lee. Hammer Glamour is a celebration of fifty of the most popular of the British studio's actresses. All of the Hammer fan's favorites are here--Ingrid Pitt, Veronica Carlson, Caroline Munro, Raquel Welch--and a number of women not so well known, but still memorable. Each actress who is featured in the book recieves a full-page photo and a short biography. The photos are fantastic. As someone who has read just about every book and magazine about Hammer, I can say that most of the photos were ones that I had never seen. The book's quality and design are top notch. Most of the photos are in color. The book's text is written by Hammer expert Marcus Hearn. Titan Books is the publisher--the same company that came out recently with The Hammer Story, another great volume. If you are a Hammer Films fan, and you have always had a crush on the many spectacular women who graced their films, this book is a must-have. (NOTE: There are a couple of photos that do show a nipple or two, but they are very few.)

An incredibly beautiful book filled with gorgeous never before seen photos. Unfortunately some of the text is a tad condescending. It seems as if nobody can discuss Hammer without dissing their movies. I'm so tired of reading about how terrible Lust for a Vampire is. And why is there no mention at all of Dana Gillespie? But these a minor complaints. There is much to enjoy in this book.

Another great book on the history of Hammer Films, this time focused on the women that appeared in their films. Wonderfully produced, it features most of the Hammer beauties, many in full page photos. My only problem with the book is that it is a bit limited. Most of the women get only a page or two, with a few of the bigger names getting 3-4 pages. I love photo books like this, and only wish there were more photos. It is a super collection, and like the recently published book - Hammer Films - A Life in Pictures: The Visual Story of Hammer Films, this book is a must buy. I only hope to see more books like this in the future. Like most books published by Titan, this is a quality production.

What do you think of when you think of Hammer Horror films? Here is at any rate what comes to my semi-educated mind:

Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, scary laboratories, spooky castles, crosses, relics, "German" peasants who speak Cockney, great period clothing, terrible period sets, horrible murders, gallons of Technicolor blood...and hot women in nightdress showing lots of cleavage. It is to this last category that HAMMER GLAMOUR is addressed. Because let's face it, friends and neighbors, at least half the reason to watch a Hammer horror film, then as now, is to scope out the astonishly deep talent-pool of European hotties whose necks were coveted by The Count and whose bodies were coveted by The Audience. To that end, Marcus Hearn has compiled a large coffee-table book packed to the rafters with glamour photographs of Hammer's equivalent of "Bond girls", each featuring a small and rather frank biography of the lady in question, including, of course, what Hammer films they appeared in. He has also thrown in various moviemaking trivia, often amusing and occasionally touching, which may be of interest to those who are afficianados of this "golden age of classic horror."

But this book is mainly about the flesh, and there is a lot of it, including the occasional nude. No less than fifty women are included in the main pictoral, with a few others tucked into an "also starring" appendix at the end. Aside from the obvious blazing hotness of some, it is of sociological/anthropological/some-type-of-ogical interest to see how the definition of "beautiful" changed during the period when Hammer was in operation (late 1950s - mid-1970s): some of the girls are built like Twiggy, and others like Marilyn Monroe. And while most of them never achieved anything close to stardom, the presence of Ursula Andress, Raquel Welch, Stefanie Powers, Nastassja Kinski and Hazel Court prove that appearing half-naked in films with names like "DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE" and "FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED!" wasn't necessarily a career-killer.

The book is standard coffee-table in that it is large, heavy, slightly unweildy and light on text. The quality of the photos is good - in some cases too good to be flattering - some of the girls are lethally good-looking and the anecdotes about their experiences on set are often quite funny. This is obviously a speciality item, but in my experience sex appeal is a thing without borders, and if you can't appreciate the female form, well, then, there's something seriously wrong with you. In any case, if you're a fan of Hammer Horror, and the busty babes who made it what it was, this probably qualifies as a must-have.

As one who greatly enjoyed Hammer's films growing up, I greatly enjoyed this book as well as Marcus Hearn's other book on Hammer films. I've met several of the women featured in this book: Caroline Munro, Madeline Smith, Martine Beswicke, the late, wonderful Hazel Court and my favorite, Ingrid Pitt. It was so nice reading about them here as well as so many others. I particularly liked learning more about the beautiful, classy Barbara Shelley, whose beautiful picture adrorns the back cover of this book. The one sad aspect of this book is how many actresses featured so prominently in this book came to unhappy ends. While some like Racquel Welch, Ursulla Andress and Stefanie Powers had thriving careers, most featured in this book did not. Speaking of Stefanie Powers, there is a topless photograph of her in this book. I met her a couple months ago at Chiller Theatre in New Jersey and felt a bit embarassed about asking this very classy, still very attractive, woman to sign the page she appears on. However she had no problem with the photo and even commented something to the effect that her top looked pretty good in the photo. If you loved the beautiful women of Hammer films, you will absolutely love this book.

"Hammer Glamour" delivers what the title suggests and it is a delight for fans of Hammer movies. The book is a lovely presentation of photos and detailed background stories of 50 of Hammer films most glamorous stars. There are also brief thumbnail sketches of 25 more "also starring" actresses in supporting roles. Just as in the movies themselves there is almost no nudity in the book until the stars of the very later couple of films (Lust For Dracula etc.). The photos do a wonderful job of showing the actresses in their suggestive costumes and also some lovely publicity stills. The stories about the casting and making of the films and biographies of the featured actresses is informative and done in an entertaining manner. Some unintentional humor comes in when the author reveals his prudish side by being shocked and put off by some of the sexual symbolism in certain scenes of the films. The revealing costumes and sexual innuendo were a major factor in selling tickets to these movies. Many of the stars were cast after and because of their appearing in Playboy. The author reviles a scene in "Scars of Dracula" when a bat scratches Jenny Hanley's cleavage trying to remove her cross and the camera lingers on her blood streaked bodice. The reader can only smile at this uptight display of a pre '70s morality that was being abandoned even by the conservative censors of the time. The stories of the actresses being told that it was OK to drop the top of their dress tops as this shot was only for the "Japanese version" of the film are priceless. Of course there was no such thing as a Japanese version of the production. Beautiful pictures, a look inside Hammer Studios, wonderful stories about and interview quotes with your favorite scream queens and princesses make for a wonderful coffee table book for Hammer fans.

Hammer Films took many of the Universal Horror/monster/creature films of the 1930s and updated reproduced them with more story line, in color, with a bit more gore, a "stable" of well known stars as the central characters, and a bit of a somewhat sexual overture too! That means the "Hammer Girls" that are featured so prominently in this book. They ARE the reason the book was published. You won't be disappointed in this book. Unless you were seeking a critical evaluation of the stories and acting, and so on...Nope. You get images of many of the gals as cheesecake/pin up/and such images. Careful, there is a flash or two of naked flesh, but not any R or X rating stuff !

I purchased this book because i grew up watching Hammer Horror movies in the 70's.
I am now in my 40's and have purchased many of the movies now on dvd for my collection.
So when i saw this book reviewed on Aint It Cool News website, i knew i had to have this book.
There are so many great pictures and mini biographies of each and every actress that has starred in every Hammer film from the 50's to the 70's.
Go Get this NOW if you love Hammer films!!!

This book by Marcus Hearn is one of the best books I have read about Hammer Film Productions movies. The background information about the lovely women who were chosen for the roles and their future lives is very well done. Nice job Marcus.