Terence Fisher: Master of Gothic Cinema

by Tony Dalton

Overview

From The Curse of Frankenstein to The Horror of Dracula, The Phantom of the Opera to The Mummy, and The Curse of the Werewolf to The Devil Rides Out, Terence Fisher was Hammer's acclaimed Gothic specialist, and is celebrated across the globe for directing many of the greatest horror movies of all time.

Fisher began his career in 1933 as 'the oldest clapper boy in the business,' aged 29, and went on to become an editor on a variety of classic British features. In 1948 he directed his first picture for Rank and then found that he was more comfortable directing for independent companies, where he worked on films in a variety of genres. During this period Terry honed his skills so that when Hammer offered him his first job as director, The Last Page (1952), he had already established a style and a reputation. However, it wasn't until Hammer allowed him the chance to direct The Curse of Frankenstein in 1957, that he discovered his true forte in horror and with it – and a host of other classic films that followed – Fisher indelibly stamped his unique talents on the horror film genre that continues, in large part because of Terry's Hammer classics, to be so influential and popular today.

TERENCE FISHER: Master of Gothic Cinema is the result of five years of research and writing by renowned author Tony Dalton, a long-time friend of Terence Fisher and his family. This fully authorised biography includes an introduction written by Fisher's daughter Micky Harding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781913051099
Publisher:	FAB Press
Publication date:	09/15/2021
Pages:	504
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.60(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Tony Dalton worked in the film and television industry from 1969 to 2015. He started at the British Film Institute and then was film programmer at The Everyman Cinema in Hampstead, London. In 1977 he became the publicity officer for Leslie Halliwell at Granada Television following which he went into film research working on documentaries and feature film projects for Granada. In 1992 he became a freelance film researcher working for various independents production companies and the BBC. He has worked for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) during which he worked on various film tributes. In 2002 he published AN ANIMATED LIFE about friend and special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen, after which he published four more books about Harryhausen - THE ART OF RAY HARRYHAUSEN (2005), A CENTURY OF MODEL ANIMATION (2008), RAY HARRYHAUSEN - A LIFE IN PICTURES (2010) and RAY HARRYHAUSEN'S FANTASY SCRAPBOOK (2011). In 2013 he wrote FREDDIE FRANCIS - THE STRAIGHT STORY FROM MOBY DICK TO GLORY about cinematographer and director Freddie Francis. His latest book is about friend and director Terence Fisher called TERENCE FISHER MASTER OF GOTHIC CINEMA (2021).

Read an Excerpt

Terence Fisher is best known for his classic Gothic horror films, which he began making (he claimed by accident) in the late-1950s. But before he directed those now cult pictures, he had a very long and distinguished career in film, briefly as a clapper boy, graduating to assistant editor and then editor. He gained a reputation for swift and sympathetic editing, before becoming highly regarded in the industry as a skilled director of inexpensive productions. In the process, he was exposed to a wide variety of genres, from thrillers, mysteries, comedy, and fantasy, to romance and action. He steadily honed his skills working on those early films, so that when Hammer offered him The Curse of Frankenstein, he was primed to indelibly stamp his unique talents on a genre that had been popular with audiences since the 1920s and continues, in no small part because of Terry and Hammer, to be so today.
I was fortunate to have known Terry and his wife Morag, so this book is written from my personal point of view, but also includes, where possible, quotes from Terry himself. I felt that it was important to let Terry 'speak' where interviews were available, and so the arguments and views generally reflect Terry's opinion and, hopefully, his passion for the art that he so loved.
The seventeen chapters that make up this book basically reflect four periods of his life: the early years, before going into film production; his editing years; his early career as a director of film and television; and his horror years. I know Terry would have been pleased that I have balanced the horror subjects with his earlier films, both as an editor and a director.
In the construction of this biography it would have been usual to cover his life in chronological order and, indeed, up to 1957 this is the case. However, after that I have divided his horror films into chapters by subject matter, so that the Frankenstein and vampire films have their own chapters, as do the adventure films, science fiction, and miscellaneous monster movies. Both Micky and myself wanted to take a fresh approach to tackling her father's horror films, and placing them into categories seemed the best way to discuss his Gothic work, which has already been written about extensively. This hopefully allows us to trace a progression of how the film subjects changed in association with the trends of the day.

Table of Contents

Foreword Micky Harding 11

Introduction Tony Dalton 13

1 The Family and Early Life 17

2 To Sea and Peter Jones 25

3 The Oldest Clapperboy in the Business 37

4 A Near Miss 53

5 A New Direction 69

6 Hammer Films - First Contact 89

7 Awaiting Destiny 113

8 Adventures in Television 133

9 The Genesis of British Gothic Cinema - The Curse of Frankenstein 145

10 Dracula and His Disciples 185

11 Frankenstein, Creator of Man - The Saga Continues 229

12 Those Hours of Darkness When the Powers of Evil Are Exalted 273

13 The Realm of Science Fiction 321

14 A Host of Other Horrors 335

15 The Eyes Have It 377

16 What Perhaps Could Have Been 435

17 The End 449

Terence Fisher Filmography 477

Bibliography 491

Index 493