As those of you who pay attention to the videos I put up as part of Sunday Screen will no doubt be aware, it’s Hammer month this month. Usually I let Sunday Screen go by without comment, content in the knowledge that you’ll all realise that it’s just another film that I happen to love, but this month’s selection is themed, and it’s given me the opportunity to do a few drawings that I’ll be sharing with you over the next couple of weeks.

For those of you not familiar with the work of Hammer Studios, I would entreat you to make an exploration of their back catalogue. It’s a grand body of work, and while it is by no means all great, the best Hammer films happily stand alongside the best that cinema has to offer. I’ve been recently refilled with enthusiasm for Hammer films after getting the Ultimate Hammer Collection, a DVD boxed set of 21 of their films that I’ve been tearing through with relish. Full of wit and style, and a parade of fantastic British character actors, they display a peculiar sensibility that is hard to resist. Films such as The Devil Rides Out, Plague of the Zombies, The Witches and the famous procession of Dracula and Frankenstein movies are not only good films in their own right, but are also valuable records of society as it moved through the fifties and sixties. Again, see some, there’s a lot to like.

The other thing that has fired my enthusiasm is David Cairns’ recent run-through of the Frankenstein films that Terrence Fisher made for Hammer. You’ll find me in the comments section, making trouble. I’d advise you to join me there.

Anyway, here’s the first image of the bunch, it’s Julian Glover at the end of Quatermass and the Pit, as crispy as all get out. More tomorrow.

It’s The Goat of Mendes from The Devil Rides Out.

It’s a slightly off looking Peter Cushing from Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell.

That would be a zombie from Plague of the Zombies.

It’s Ralph Bates in Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde.

It’s David Prowse in Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell.

One of the Seven Golden Vampires.

It’s Christopher Lee as The Mummy.

It’s John Cater as Grost in Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter.

It’s Richard Wordsworth as Victor Carroon in 1955′s The Quatermass Xperiment. This is the generally considered to be the beginning of Hammer Studios as they came to be known, though they had been on the go for years prior to this. It’s the emphasis on the horrific elements of the story, and the fine turns by a host of British character actors, including Thora Hird, that really marks this out as belonging to Hammer’s traditional territory.  The film is an adaptation of Nigel Kneale’s BBC series, though the movie’s title emphasizes the X rating that it had earned.  the only duff note is the recasting of the lead, with Brian Donlevy as a gruff American Quatermass. Over in America, the film was retitled The Creeping Unknown for no particular reason.

The story was recently remade for a second time, by the BBC again, and while it was an admirable attempt to stage it (with a rather fine cast, including David Tennant, Jason Flemyng, Mark Gatiss and the wonderful Indira Varma) the Hammer version remains the best version that currently exists.  How much this depends on the fact that the original series is mostly lost is arguable.