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Also during 1951, Hammer and Exclusive signed a
four-year production and distribution contract with
Robert Lippert, an American film producer. The contract
meant that Lippert and Exclusive effectively exchanged
products for distribution on their respective sides of
the Atlantic — beginning in 1951 with The Last Page and
ending with 1955's Women Without Men (AKA Prison
Story).
Hammer Film
It was Lippert's insistence on an American
star in the Hammer films he was to distribute that led
to the prevalence of American leads in so many of the
company's 1950s productions. It was for The Last Page
that Hammer made one of its most significant
appointments when it hired film director Terence Fisher,
who went on to play a critical role in the forthcoming
horror boom of the 1950s.
Towards the end of 1951, the one-year lease on Down
Place expired, and with its increasing success Hammer
looked back towards more conventional studio-based
productions. A dispute with the Association of
Cinematograph Technicians, however, blocked this
proposal, and instead the company purchased the freehold
of Down Place. The house was renamed Bray Studios after
the nearby village of Bray and it remained Hammer's
principal base until 1966.
Hammer Film Productions
The birth of Hammer Horror (1955 to 1959)
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