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 It's Hammer time as the American Cinematheque celebrates The Golden Age of British Horror, 1955-1975.
For two decades, Hammer Film Productions, along with other British
purveyors of terror, such as Anglo-Amalgamated, Amicus, Independent
Artists and Tigon, unleashed a steady string of scary B-movies, often
drawing from the same gothic literary sources that Universal had
success with in the 1930s.
The three-week series opens with a pair of films directed by Terence
Fisher and starring genre stalwart Peter Cushing. "The Revenge of
Frankenstein" (1958) and "Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed" (1969) both
feature Cushing as the infamous doctor whose ghoulish experiments lead
to horrific results.
 The
other iconic actor associated with British horror is Christopher Lee.
Long before he was Saruman in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy or Count
Dooku in the most recent "Star Wars" films, the towering Lee was best
known as Dracula. After playing the monster in "The Curse of
Frankenstein" in 1957, Lee stepped into the signature bloodsucking role
- previously made famous by Bela Lugosi - the following year. "Horror
of Dracula," released as simply "Dracula" in Britain and directed by
Fisher, made full use of Lee's menacing 6-foot-5 frame, introducing us
to a sexier, more physical version of the toothsome Transylvanian.
 Cushing
costars as the intrepid Dr. Van Helsing, matching Lee's bravado in one
of the many films in which the duo would square off. Tame by today's
standards, the film was gorier than audiences were accustomed to at the
time and helped establish Hammer's imprimatur as genre master. Lee also
stars in "Taste the Blood of Dracula" (1970).
This story in full appears in the LOS ANGELES TIMES
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