Jimmy Sangster2 December 1927 – 19 August 2011
Seminal English horror scriptwriter and, to a lesser extent, director, highly influential in the development of modern horror. He was a driving force behind many a modern English horror classic, particularly in the sphere of Gothic horror.
Born James Henry Kinmel Sangster in Kinmel Bay, North Wales, on December 2nd, 1927, the man commonly known as Jimmy Sangster was educated at Ewell Castle School in Surrey. He got his first job in the film industry, as "production assistant", at the age of 16, after which he was drafted into the R.A.F. and sent to India. Following his service, he initially worked at Ealing Studios as a third assistant director before, in 1949, joining Exclusive Studios, which soon became Bray Film Studios, the home of Hammer Film Productions Ltd. After writing a short film – A Man on the Beach (1955) – and his first feature script – X the Unknown (1956), Sangster was handed Hammer's first Gothic horror, The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), legendarily because, more or less, no one else wanted to do it. A financial success and since-acknowledged film classic, it was followed by Sangster's script to Hammer's next Gothic classic, The Horror of Dracula (1958). A pragmatic man when it came to scriptwriting, his attitude was that one should never get frustrated about all the hands in the pot and that you should make sure you get paid. But for being a "product man", he continued to deliver scripts for a broad selection of Horror classics, minor classics, memorable films and entertaining turkey (and a few true duds after moving to the US).
After helping to give birth to the Golden Age of Hammer's Gothic films, Sangster began concentrating on (mostly B&W) psychological thrillers with one-word titles and an occasional horror or science fiction film for rival studios (for example, Blood of the Vampire and The Crawling Eye, both from 1958). The Encyclopedia of Horror Movies posits that Jimmy Sangster, just before moving to the US, helped seal the coffin of Hammer's Golden Age of Horror Films with his bloodily comic (and less than critically or commercially successful) directorial projects The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), which he co-wrote, and the Tudor Gates scripted Lust for a Vampire (1971).
In the US, Sangster worked on an occasional feature film, but was mostly busy on television. He also wrote an occasional novel, a few of which he later adapted as TV films. He retired in the late 80s, but brought out his autobiography Do You Want It Good or Tuesday? in 1997. He passed away at the age of 83 on 19 August 2011 and is survived by his son James, from his first marriage, as well as by his second wife Mary Peach, their son Mark James, and two grandchildren, Claire and Ian.
The photo above was taken from the excellent and in-depth obituary at Video Watchdog, found here.
Screenplay & story by Jimmy Sangster. According to Wikipedia: "The film was originally intended by Hammer to be a sequel to the previous year's successful The Quatermass Xperiment / The Creeping Unknown (trailer), but writer Nigel Kneale refused permission for the character of Bernard Quatermass to be used." Joseph Losey was intended to direct, but had just been blacklisted in the US by McCarthy; not only was it feared that his involvement could spoil the commercial viability of the film in the US, but the film's US star, Dean Jagger, was a rabid anti-communist, so Losey was replaced by Leslie Norman. At imdb, Rod Crawford explains the plot: "British Army radiation drills at a remote Scottish base attract a subterranean, radioactive entity of unknown nature that vanishes, leaving two severely radiation-burned soldiers... and a 'bottomless' crack in the earth. Others who meet the thing in the night suffer likewise, and with increasing severity; it seems to be able to 'absorb' radiation from any source, growing bigger and bigger. What is it?? How do you destroy a thing that 'feeds' on energy?"
Trailer:
To quote Wikipedia: "The Curse of Frankenstein began Hammer's tradition of horror film-making. [...] When it was first released, The Curse of Frankenstein outraged many reviewers. [...] Many fans regard the film to be a horror classic and one of the best Hammer Horror films ever made. [...] The Curse of Frankenstein [...] made British actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee leading horror stars of the era." We here at A Wasted Life see the film as a certified classic, no ands, ifs or buts about it. Hard to believe that Sangster only got $450 to write it (if we are to believe imdb).
Trailer:
The Horror of Dracula(1958, dir. Terrence Fischer)
Trailer:
The Revenge of Frankenstein(1958, dir. Terrence Fischer)
The filming of The Revenge of Frankenstein began mere days after Fisher had put The Horror of Dracula (1958) in the can. (In fact, many of the same sets were simply touched up and reused.) Sangster pulls a quick one in his script by ever-so-slightly changing the ending of The Curse of Frankenstein – the Baron is now walked to the guillotine with but the priest and the crippled Karl (Oscar Quitak), thus allowing for an inspired escape – and the result is a film that we here at A Wasted Life find better than its predecessor. Another classic in a series of what ended up being six films, more than one of questionable quality, but not of questionable entertainment value.Trailer:
Sangster wrote the script (based on Brian Moore's novel) for the directorial debut of the great cinematographer Jack Cardiff, who later destroyed his directorial career with the unbelievably exploitive trash masterpiece, The Mutations (1973 / trailer).
According to duke1029 at imdb: "Paul Decker (Peter van Eyck) murders his wife in her Italian villa by drugging her milk and asphyxiating her by gas. He cleverly locks the bedroom from the inside and hides inside a trapdoor in the floor until after the body is discovered by servants. He uses a scuba snorkel connected to tubes on the outside to breathe during the ordeal. Decker's stepdaughter Candy suspects him immediately, especially since no suicide note was found. She also is convinced that he murdered her father years before, but her accusations fall on deaf ears. The ruthless Decker even poisons the family spaniel when the pet takes too great an interest in the mask and realizes he will ultimately have to get rid of Candy too."
Trailer:
Mysty at imdb explains the plot as thus: "A man and wife are terrorized by Mad Scientist Dr. Callistratus (Donald Wolfit) who was executed but has returned to life with a heart transplant. Along with his crippled assistant Carl, the 'anemic' Mad Scientist, believed to be a vampire, conducts blood deficiency research on the inmates of a prison hospital for the criminally insane to sustain his return to life." The Celluloid Highway does not like this film, as can be seen by this review here, but the Bad Movie Report is a lot more forgiving.
The opening staking scene & credits:
AKA The Trollenberg Terror. Sangster supplies the script to a story by Peter Kay, who wrote the original television series the film is based on. According to Wikipedia, The Crawling Eye is one of the first films that Mystery Science Theater 3000 took the piss out of when it started up. Imdb says that John Carpenter credits the film as being the inspiration for The Fog (1980 / trailer). Arbogast on Film writes insightfully (as always) about the film here.
Trailer:
This B&W fictionalized version of the tale of the famous killer is available in a cut (84 minutes) and uncut (88 minutes) version, the latter with more blood and boobs. The film has an infamous twist ending that no one who has seen the movie ever forgets. Brit Movie says: "Gruesome account of the mysteries surrounding the most infamous serial killer of them all; Jack the Ripper. Belying its obvious low budget, the film manages to effectively recreate period London in an atmospheric and suspenseful dramatization. Set in Victorian London, 1888, Scotland Yard Inspector O’Neill (Eddie Byrne) is joined on this occasion by American detective Sam Lowry (Lee Patterson) in the hunt for the man brutally murdering prostitutes in Whitechapel. Clues at the scene of the grisly murders lead them to theorize that an insane surgeon, Sir David Rogers (Ewen Solon), is the guilty party, and seeking one particular woman, Mary Clarke."
Trailer:
The Man Who Could Cheat Death(1959, dir Terrence Fischer)
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The Mummy(1959, dir. Terrence Fischer)
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The Siege of Sidney Street(1960, dirs. Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman)
Jeremy Perkins at imdb says: "As armed police surround a house in the East End of London, a young lady under medical supervision nearby thinks back to the events that lead her and a group of Russian refugee political anarchists to this situation." Filmed in Dublin (standing in for London), the film is "based" on true events from 1911, the Battle of Stepney, which also inspired the shootout ending of Alfred Hitchcock's 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much (full film).Scene from the film:
AKA: The Criminal. According to imdb and Sadoul & Morris's book Dictionary of Films, Sangster did uncredited work on the screenplay. Mondo Esoterica explains the plot as thus: "Johnny Bannion (Stanley Baker) is due for release from prison tomorrow. He essentially runs this wing of the gaol and when a prisoner from a rival wing is put in his territory, it is not long before that man suffers a brutal beating at the hands of one of Bannion's fellow inmates. The Prison Governor wants Bannion out however and he heads back home to meet up with his old gang, who have another job ready to go. Things are complicated though when he falls for a rather insistent young woman named Suzanne. He goes through with the job but decides to hide the money in a field and when he is arrested later that day, his gang resort to the only method they can to get Johnny to tell where he has hidden the loot – they kidnap Suzanne..."
The whole film:
The Brides of Dracula(1960, dir. Terence Fisher)
"Transylvania, land of dark forests, dread mountains and black, unfathomed lakes. Still the home of magic and devilry as the nineteenth century draws to its close. Count Dracula, monarch of all vampires, is dead, but his disciples live on, to spread the cult and corrupt the world."
Opening Narration
Two years after the release of The Horror of Dracula, Hammer finally got around to making a sequel – this time with Dracula nowhere in sight. Instead: the blonde David Peel as the bloodsucking Baron Meinster. A lot of beautiful babes and cleavage in this well-shot film, one of the more popular of the series, though we at A Wasted Life tend to dislike it, primarily due to the stitched together narrative (Sangster wrote the first version, but supposedly everybody involved in the film and their cousins did rewrites). The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Review loves the film; they also describe the plot as follows: "Marianne Danielle, a young schoolteacher on her way to take up a position in Transylvania, is abandoned in a village by her coach driver. She ignores the warnings of the locals and accepts an offer from the Baroness Meinster to spend the night at her castle. At the castle, she meets The Baroness's handsome son whom the Baroness keeps chained up. He tells Marianne how the Baroness has usurped his rightful lands and pleads with her to free him. She does so, unaware that he is a vampire. Meinster then precedes to vampirize his mother and comes after Marianne as she journeys on to her school. Luckily for her, Dr Van Helsing is in the area, hunting down the disciples of Dracula."Opening Narration
Trailer:
Scream of Fear(1961, dir. Seth Holt)
Trailer:
The whole film:
Christopher Lee practices for his eventual regular role in the Fu Manchu films. At imdb, Classic Fan writes: "Hammer Studios once again proves that they knew no bounds when it came to film making. Here we see a tale of corruption, torture, murder and revenge and it actually works very well for a studio renowned for its horror films. Christopher Lee plays the leader of 'The Red Dragon Tong' in Hong Kong at the beginning of the 20th century, this organization used torture and murder to keep the people of the city under its rule and when they kill an English sea captain's daughter in an attempt to keep information from being brought before the authorities, the film becomes a story of revenge with scenes of torture and murder. Hammer Studios did a great job with this film and if you're a Hammer fan, this is definitely a film you'll want to see."
Trailer:
The Hellfire Club(1961, dirs. Robert S. Baker and Monty Berman)
The credits and first 3 minutes:
The plot, as according to inside pulse: "The Pirates of Blood River has cutthroats invade a Huguenot colony. Jonathan Standish (Kerwin Matthews) gets busted for having an affair with a married woman. And it turns out her elderly husband is a town leader. He doesn't appreciate a young stud pleasuring his woman. So it's off to the nearby penal colony for Standish. There's no way he'll be able to survive his time busting rocks under the hot sun while being starved and beaten. He escapes, but encounters a vicious band of French pirates in the swamp. Led by an eye patch wearing Captain LaRoche (Christopher Lee), the scurvy dogs demand a rumored treasure being hidden by the villagers. They will go to extremes to recover the fortune. While Standish wants revenge for his punishment, he doesn't wish the raping and pillaging on all the Huguenots. Will he save his community or let them feel the pain they inflicted on him?"
Trailer:
The plot, according to The Video Vacuum: "Hammer Studios [...] also produced forgettable Psycho rip-offs, too. This one is all about a newly single American painter played by Kerwin Matthews, who goes to a small village in France for a little painting action. He stays at an inn ran by a hottie MILF who seduces him and eventually convinces him to help her spring her husband from the looney bin. Of course she neglects to tell Kerwin that her hubby likes to wear a welding mask and blowtorch people to death (think a low-rent version of The Exterminator)."
Sounds promising to me.
Trailer:
Yet another "They're trying to drive me mad" thriller – but not under gaslight – from the great director who brought us Trog (1970 / trailer). DVD Drive-In says: "Nothing is quite what it seems in this riveting, complex tale of greed, dementia and deceit. Rescued from a suicide attempt by a man claiming to be her long-dead brother, a young heiress (Janette Scott) finds a new reason to live. But her relatives have doubts; they think 'Tony' (Alexander Davion) is an impostor who's trying to get his hands on the family fortune. Everyone has their own secret reasons to suspect Tony, as well as their own designs on his vast inheritance -- especially brother Simon (Oliver Reed), a magnetic but devastatingly cruel wretch who'll stop at nothing to thwart the supposed pretender. In this flavorful feast of a thriller, 'the horror-mystery elements are brewed to a fine discriminating savor.'" A beautifully shot B&W thriller.
Credits and the first eight minutes:
Das Verrätertor / Traitor's Gate(1964, dir. Freddie Francis)
German Trailer:
Hammer's second pirate film, a smidgen less land-locked than the first one, and once again starring Christopher Lee. At imdb, dinky-4 of Minneapolis says: "A pirate ship, fighting in 1588 on the side of the Spanish Armada, suffers damage and must put into a village on the British coast for repairs. The village is small and isolated and the Spanish convince the villagers that the English fleet has been defeated and that they, the Spanish, are now their masters. This results in the villagers' sullen cooperation, but rumors and unrest begin to spread and soon the Spanish pirates find themselves facing a revolt."
Trailer:
Nightmare(1964, dir. Freddie Francis)
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The Nanny(1965, dir. Seth Holt)
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Hysteria(1965, dir. Freddie Francis)
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Dracula: Prince of Darkness(1966, dir. Terrence Fischer)
Trailer:
The first Bulldog Drummond film since Calling Bulldog Drummond (1951), Deadlier Than the Male updates Drummond into a James Bond figure in the "coolly pulsating, pop-art world of the Swinging Sixties." The (now) Korean War vet and insurance investigator is after a pair of sexy assassins (Elke Sommer and Sylva Koscina) who truly enjoy their work. The film was followed the next year with Some Girls Do (1968 / trailer), also directed by Thomas.
Trailer:
Opening credits with the theme song by The Walker Brothers:
Based on the play by Bill MacIlwraith, it was Bette Davis's second and final foray at Hammer. At imdb, Claudio Carvalho explains the plot: "On the celebration of the anniversary of Mrs. Taggart, her three dominated sons come to her house for the party. Terry, Henry and Tom Taggart work in construction, in a business that belonged to their father and is presently managed by their manipulative mother. Tom brings his pregnant fiancée Shirley Blair to tell his mother that they will marry each other; Terry brings his wife Karen Taggart and they secretly intend to emigrate to Canada; and Henry is gay and loves to wear women's underwear. During the night, the mean Mrs. Taggart uses the most despicable means and tricks to get rid of Shirley and Terry and keep her sons close to her." The BFI is of the opinion that the film has aged like fine wine: "Greeted as something of a misfire upon its original release, Hammer's The Anniversary has ripened in the vaults into a volatile cocktail of high style, overwrought melodrama and obsidian comedy."
Trailer:
The Spy Killer(1969, dir. Roy Ward Baker)
Sangster supplies the script, based on his novel Private I, for a TV movie that did well enough to earn a follow-up TV movie the next year, Foreign Exchange, also helmed by Sangster and Baker and with the same stars (and likewise based on a Sangster novel). Ted Watson at imdb says: "John Smith (Horton) is trying to make a living as a London private investigator and have a happy relationship with his girlfriend, a high fashion model (Jill St. John), who knows nothing about his previous employment. When Smith's ex-boss Max (Sebastian Cabot) has a sticky problem, he manipulates Smith into getting involved against his (Smith's) better judgment. Settle in to your chair and be prepared to pay close attention, because if you don't, you could be lost at any one of several plot twists [...]."Slightly less than the first 5 minutes of the film:
The Horror of Frankenstein(1970, dir. Jimmy Sangster)
Trailer:Supposedly, the film was originally planned to be Michael Reeves's follow up project to Witchfinder General (1968). British Horror Films is of the opinion "To give a synopsis of the plot would ruin the film for anyone who hasn't seen it." But they also say that the film, "a rarely-seen addition to Hammer's Hitchcock-alike thriller series, [...] is pretty average fare. [...] It has all the hallmarks of Hammer's Paranoiac, Hysteria, Maniac, etc, but is lacking something. Well, quite a lot of things, actually. Logic, plot, shocks, surprises... pretty much any of the ingredients that make a thriller worth watching, really." The scene below does give the impression that the film might be, well, a bit turgid.
Theme to Crescendo:
A TV movie directed by John Llewellyn Moxey, who made his feature film directorial debut in 1960 with finally atmospheric public domain horror film City of the Dead / Horror Hotel (full film), only to disappear into television directing. A Taste of Evil is yet another "They're trying to drive me mad" thriller; far from the best film Barbara Stanwyck appeared in, but also far from the worst. On the audio commentary for the Anchor Bay DVD of The Horror of Frankenstein, Sangster admits that the film is basically Taste of Fear aka Scream of Fear (1961) rewritten into a US setting. Plot: A gal returning home from a rape-induced stay in a mental institution realizes that someone is trying to drive her crazy.
The full film:
Lust for a Vampire(1971, dir. Jimmy Sangster)
Trailer:
Fear in the Night(1972, dir. Jimmy Sangster)
Trailer:
Full film:
Sangster's singular contribution to the psycho biddy genre, one that Final Girl, going by her review here, finds rather boring. One of two films Harringston made with the great over-actress Shelley Winters, the other being the fab flick What's the Matter with Helen? (1971 / trailer). At imdb, Mark explains the plot as thus: "This is a retelling of the old tale of Hansel and Gretel, but set in England in the 1920s. To the children and staff at the orphanage, Auntie Roo is a kindly American widow who gives them a lavish Christmas party each year in her mansion, Forrest Grange. In reality, she is a severely disturbed woman, who keeps the mummified remains of her little daughter in a nursery in the attic. One Christmas, her eye falls upon a little girl who reminds her of her daughter and she imprisons her in her attic. Nobody believes her brother, Christopher, when he tells them what has happened, so he goes to rescue her."
Trailer:
ABC movie of the week. Yet another version of The Most Dangerous Game (1932 / full film), this time around starring Ben Gazzara and Sheree North (seen here from her younger days). (Personally, here at A Wasted Life, we prefer the 1961 version, Bloodlust!) In this version, two couples (Ben & Sheree and Kip Niven and Laurette Spang) on a camping trip have two man-eating tigers sent after them by a crazed animal trainer (Richard Basehart). Broadcast on December 8, 1973, this was the TV-movie directorial debut of former Ben Casey star Vince Edwards. The German-language website Tierhorror.de ("Animal Horror") says (roughly): "Director Edwards manages to produce an exciting film on a low budget and with simple means. The story is really simple, but is believably presented by convincing and quite well-known actors. It is always interesting to see what the intended victims think up next, and it is easy to put yourself in their shoes. The film is unjustifiably unknown, and virtually impossible to find."German-born Gordon Hessler, who hasn't made a film since 1991, has some fun films to his name: his debut film The Woman Who Wouldn't Die (1965 / full film), The Oblong Box (1969 / full film), Cry of the Banshee (1970 / trailer), Scream and Scream Again (1970 / trailer), Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971 / trailer) and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973 / trailer), but beginning with Scream, Pretty Peggy, which aired November 24, 1973, he pretty much specialized in films for the small screen. The Terror Trap, one of the few sources we found that liked the film, says: "Feisty little Psycho variation makes for fun TV terror. College student Peggy takes a part time housecleaning job at the eccentric Elliot house, home to sculptor Jeffrey and his elderly mother. Before long, Peggy spots a mysterious woman lurking about the estate at night and decides to investigate. But will Peggy live to discover the Elliots' dark secret hidden above the locked family garage? [...] Pretty Peggy is a simplistic, enjoyable telehorror with coy slasher overtones. Both Allen and Bessell [...] deliver solid performances while screen legend Davis is in fine form as the boozy Mrs. Elliot. With a memorable shock ending, this rare effort is worth seeking out.
The first ten minutes:
Good Against Evil(1977, dir. Paul Wendkos)
"Every time I get close to a man, he dies."
Jessica Gordon (Elyssa Davalos)
The full film:
One of the few joint films of Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross, one of Hollywood's longest-lasting couples, made back in the day when they were both delectable dishes. (The photo here is of Ross in the final scene of the original version of The Stepford Wives [1975 / trailer]. The photo of Sam is simply from his youthful prime.) In an interview a few years after the film came out, Sam Elliott commented, "I wouldn't rush out to see it. It's about fifteen years behind its time." Still, Final Girl gives the film "6 and a half out of 10 beef jerky fingers!" At imdb, John Coyne offers a plot breakdown: "Six beautiful people arrive for a weekend in the country. 
Six guests of the unseen host who lies wasting away upstairs... Five heirs to a mysterious Legacy watch the body of the sixth float to the side of the pool... Four claim the unspeakable power of the Legacy, while a red stain spreads across the ceiling... Three realize that the Legacy has come to claim THEM, while outside dogs dine on what was once a man... And then there are two." Co-starring none other than Roger Daltry, the star of Vampirella (1996), who, fittingly, chokes to death on ham.Trailer:
Ebony, Ivory and Jade(1979, dir. John Llewellyn Moxey)
Much more entertaining is the 1976 Filipino-shot exploitation flick Ebony, Ivory and Jade, aka She-Devils in Chains, which is seen by some as a minor Blaxpliotation classic. Sangster had nothing to do with that film, of course, which was directed by Cirio Santiago.
Trailer, credits, who knows – the 70s Live!:
Trailer to the non-Sangster Ebony, Ivory and Jade:
The Billion Dollar Threat(1979, dir. Barry Shear)
Once Upon a Spy(1980, dir. Ivan Nagy)
5-minute outtake w/great Bond-like music:
Generally considered one of John Huston's worst films by people that haven't yet seen Annie (1982 / trailer). The plot according to Wikipedia: "Psychiatrist Dr. Peter Ross (Paul Michael Glaser) M.D., is using radical techniques on his patients to cure them of their various phobias. He becomes terrified when someone starts murdering the subjects one at a time."
Opening credits, with commentary:
Perhaps the deep point of Jimmy Sangster's career: An unfunny Disney comedy. Nuff said.
Trailer:
No Place to Hide(1981, dir. John Llewellyn Moxey)
First ten minutes:
Though it is hard to conceive that Sangster could sink lower than The Devil and Max Devlin, he did just that with this film, for which he supplied the "teleplay". It is the TV movie debut no one less than Mr T – who is actually pretty cool as the bearded lady ("I am woman – I like me.") in Freaked (1993 / trailer). Imdb says the plot is as follows: "Mr. T [... plays] a tough and scowling, but softhearted, nightclub bouncer who finds himself involved with a bunch of kids after being conned into taking over a youth center."
Mr T "rapping" The Toughest Man in the World:
Flashback - Mörderische Ferien(2000, dir. Michael Karen)
Trailer:
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