Terence Fisher Biography
Terence Fisher (1904 - 1980) was a British director, known for his gothic horror films mainly made for the British film production company Hammer Film Productions. Born in London on 23 February 1904, he served in the Merchant Navy before entering the film industry in 1933. From 1936 to 1947 he worked as an editor for various production companies. His first three films as director were short dramas produced at Highbury Studio. After this experience, Fisher moved to Gainsborough where he directed four feature films. These reveal him to be a talented filmmaker well versed in a wide range of subjects. When Gainsborough closed in the early 1950s, Fisher became a prolific specialist in low-budget supporting film, and none of the 19 films he directed were strikingly original. Eleven of these were made for Hammer, an emerging independent production company with which Fisher's future career would become inextricably linked. When Hammer decided, in the mid-1950s, to transform itself into a horror factory, Fisher became its chief director. He was part of the team that produced all of Hammer's horror "classics", including The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958), The Mummy (1959), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) and The Curse of the Werewolf. (1961) - and his measured, stately style was a key aspect of the Hammer formula. Given the low budgets involved and dizzying production schedules, the quality of these films was inevitably uneven, but some of them, and particularly Dracula, were notable achievements, although they were not generally well-received by critics when they first appeared. After the box office failure of The Phantom of the Opera (1962), Fisher worked less often for Hammer, although his later Hammer films arguably constitute his best work, reflecting both a technical maturity and a willingness to innovate. Films such as Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) and The Devil Rides Out (1968) display an uncertain and questioning attitude towards social authority and morality.
