The Extras - Hammer’s Haunting Return & The Curse of Frankenstein 4K

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

Send us a textSteve Rogers and Mark Stanborough of Hammer Films tell us about the resurgence of physical media releases from Hammer this year, along with an update on the new ownership and the new company priorities.We then detail how The Curse of Frankenstein became a definitive 4K release, along with the Warner Archive, pairing archival rigor with fan-first features. You will hear about the restoration process, the new optional 5.1 audio, and the entertaining new extras included in the various Deluxe UK and US releases.  This is a podcast horror and specifically Hammer Horror fans don't want to miss.US Curse of Frankenstein 4K Purchase linkGet information on the DELUXE UK Edition at the Hammer Films WebsiteThe Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog Group As an Amazon Affiliate, The Extras may receive a commission for purchases through our purchase links. There is no additional cost to you, and every little bit helps us in the production of the podcast. Thanks in advance. Otaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. [e-mail]

I know there are a lot of Hammer film fans out there. And many of you may have been wondering, what is going on in 2025? There's a resurgence of releases. And the crown jewel in that is the curse of Frankenstein, just released on 4K. And that's in partnership with Warner Brothers as they were partners on the original film release. Well, you're going to find out today from two people from Hammer Films. what is behind this resurgence, what fans can expect, and of course we'll get into the details of the Curse of Frankenstein, both the deluxe release in the UK and the Warner Archive version

in the US. And be sure to stick around as you'll get a little tease about what we might be able to expect from this partnership and more from Hammer Films going forward. So if you're a fan of Hammer Films and The Curse of Frankenstein, I think you're really going to enjoy this episode. Hello and welcome to The Extras. I'm Tim Malar, your host, and today I'm joined by George Feltonstein of the Warner Archive and two very special guests from Hammer Films, Steve Rogers of Archive and Product Development and Head of Restoration, Mark Stanborough. Hey, guys.

Hello. Welcome. I know there's a lot of excitement for this 4K release of Curse of Frankenstein, But before we get into the restoration and details about the extras, there's a lot we can talk about, I think, about the new developments going on at Hammer Films. And Steve, I thought maybe you could start us there and tell us a little bit about this haunting return of Hammer.

Certainly. Well, 2023, Hammer was in a bit of trouble. It was actually in liquidation. and it was bought up by John Gore. Now, John Gore is a very nice man, I've met him personally, but he's also a lifelong fan of Hammer back to when he was a small boy. And he wanted to do right by Hammer. Anyone who loves Hammer films when there was a kid,

there's a nostalgia there and I love and everything like that. And it was felt, I think, by a lot of fans over the last couple of decades that, you know, there's some really good films, woman in black, let me in, et cetera, et cetera. But, you know, what about the 50 years worth of films before that, et cetera? And when John Gore took over the company, part of the ethos was that we respect the past as much as we look forward to building new things in the future. So there are new Hammer Productions, there will be new Hammer Productions, but they're not at the expense of the wonderful back catalogue of films that, you know, everyone loves. So the question was then, how do we respect the past? How do we do this? Right.

And there's not that many archives that have been continuously refreshed on every single flavor of home video you can think of VHS. laser disk DVD another DVD a different DVD on top of that Bluray etc etc so

it was obvious that it had to be 4K and when you do stuff like that it's not just as Mark and explain it's not just

oh we'll do a 4K restoration there's a whole process before that where you need to find the best available

elements etc etc so we knew this was a big job going in and due to historical deals made in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

There are certain films where Hammer owns all rights. There are certain films where Hammer owns no rights, and there are certain films in the middle. So for Kirsta Frankenstein, you have a situation where the distribution rights are split between Hammer-Warners. There are other films where there's like four or five companies in the mix, so it can get a bit complex.

but, you know, Kirsta Frankenstein is Kirsta Frankenstein. It's one of the big three. And it's one of those films where you can't rush it. You know, if you rush it, people will know. So as a consequence, one of the first conversations that Mark had two years ago was picking a conversation with George.

But can we do this? If so, how do we do this? And it was a good conversation in many ways, not least of which, that it was revisiting and re-invigorating a relationship between Hammer and Warner's that goes back in the 1950s. Well, let me jump in here, Steve, before we get too far into Curse of Frankenstein, what was kind of the new management comes in, and then it's like we're honing in on Curse? Yes. Well, yeah, I mean, that was, we knew that would be a big deal, and we obviously didn't want to start with a big deal.

because there's learning curves. I mean, Hammer had never, everyone, like I said, you won't get a more thrashed back catalog than Hammer on all of the home video formats. However, in all of those instances, not once did Hammer do its own release? Never done it. It had always been licensed out.

So we decided that we would do these in-house, and we further decided that a Hammer release of a Hammer film would be definitive because it had to be because the expectation would be there from the fans and so we decided

to start with because we've only been doing this it feels like forever but we've only been doing this for a year in terms of releasing I mean Mark has been working on restoration to these things

for significant amount longer than that but in terms of our home video releases that started at the beginning of the year with Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter that was chosen

and for many reasons, not least of which when we first started doing it, it was its 50th anniversary, and the stars are still alive. But the deal is that Hammer releases of Hammer films should be definitive. Yeah. And that starts with the restoration. And the restoration starts with the best available materials, which sounds simple, but in actuality can result in a global search. yeah yeah um part of i'm sure mark can uh can confirm this that sometimes it's a hard job we

we have to deal with public archives company archives private archives sometimes if they've got the best material i was i was just going to say sorry steo the thing is to get through to the right people is is you know one of the um one of the biggest problems if you're not talking to the right person then you know you're never going to get anywhere yeah Which is why the relationship building that we've done at Hammer over the last two years with warners and others is crucial to what we've been doing this year and what we plan to do going forward. I don't want to jump straight into Curse of Frankenstein because there's a little bit more to tell before that. But it is the poster child for how good these conversations can be to the benefit of everyone. Because, you know, all of a sudden the entire US and UK have access to a classic of the genre in the best that it's ever looked.

Where did it all begin? The most complex thing known to man. Man himself. It's no longer sufficient to bring the dead back to life. We must create one of the beginning. What you're saying is nonsense. A revolt against nature. We hold in the palms of our hands such secrets

that have never been dreamed of. Won't you understand you're in real day? understand you're in real danger. What victory is doing is dangerous to everyone in the house. Then what are you trying to tell me, Paul? The victor's wicked, insane? This can never end it anything but evil. It's what I've done that counts. I've created a being. Stop what you're doing before it's too late. Give it, don't be off the...

I'll be off. I kill you. No! Don't you see you've created a monster. That doesn't matter. I'm creating a being that will live and breathe. that will live and breathe. I'll give you life again.

Before we dive into the nuts and bolts of this, I did want to, for the fans here, talk a little bit about Kirstle Frankenstein, released 1950, what, 6. And just the film itself, what it meant for Hammer and the relationship with Warner Brothers and the industry overall. Well, Cursor Frankenstein was a game changer. I know it's an overused term, but it's true.

I think I'm right in saying before Cursor Frankenstein, the horror film, it has sort of gone juvenile. The whole Universal Monsters thing of the 30s were in the UK at least, you know, you'd have Bella Ligal, see, censored, et cetera, oh, a horrible thing. had gone to, was it, Abbott and Costello meet the Wolfman? Yeah. That is generally acknowledged to be sort of like the low point. That is where a horror film had got to. Right.

And probably that's where it would have stayed because in the 50s, horror was not a dominant genre. In the US, there was, and in the UK by default, because it would have picked up the films. There was film noir. There was westerns. And sci-fi was on the rise, it was a bit juvenile, but it was sort of moving towards a thing from another world, et cetera, et cetera.

And along came Hammer. And in 1955, they did a film called the Quatermass Experiment, which was based on a BBC series from a couple of years before. And the reason that was a game changer for Hammer, in its small way, wasn't as big as because of Frankenstein was because it treated science fiction and horror themes in an adult way and it was a runaway success in the UK no one could really understand why and when they asked the distributors or sorry the exhibitors the cinema owners why these cinemas were packing out they were told categorically it's the horror so of course hammer being no sloucher

at thinking wow this is brilliant the way to print money here they try to to fast track a second quater mass and then they realized they needed to do something else offered to them according to law and history it's the asylum partner Elliot Heimann who was seven arts

at the time. He was approached with Frankenstein script he didn't know what to do with it but he knew some people who would so that got passed on to Hammer looked at it said this is no good we can do a better one of this ourselves I mean I'm speeding things up for

Yeah, we'll do it than that. But it ended up with them saying, right, we'll do our own. Frankenstein film. They had to be very, very careful because universal lawyers were poised in the wings, waiting for, you know, the first sign of a square-headed makeup or neckles. So they had to be the same but different. And then at a certain point, because all of the paperwork says, oh, yeah, this is going to be a black and white cheapy.

It'd get knocked out in four weeks. And another B-movie. At some point, they decided, and I don't know why, but it was a genius move, that they would do it in color. And I believe I'm right in saying that it was the first colour horror film, and it was a combination of the color and the shock of seeing blood, I suppose, in color, and the fact that they employed actors who took their roles very, very seriously, regardless of, you know, Frankenstein, is not kitchen sink drama, you know, you're not going to get that on TV. So it's a, it's a fantastical and ridiculous in some ways plot. But nevertheless, these people took it very, very seriously. And it was the combination of Pete Cushing and Christopher Lee, their conviction in their

roles and the novelty of blood in color, I suppose, that got, that just, he was, That's why it was a game-changer. All of a sudden, it was, wow, this is horror? Is it horror? Is it drama? Damn, these actors are good. And it was, you know, because people would sort of, you've seen the posters of the day, they are quite lurid.

They are bait to get teenagers into the cinemas. And so it was the poster and the trailer and everything and the monster makeup that got people in there. But when they were in the cinema, it was the performances and it was the direction. and the camera work that just grabbed them. It was a sort of a confluence of several things, but it was the confluence that got it. And that made a lot of money for a lot of people worldwide.

Yeah, and it was a hit right off, right? It was in the UK, and then George Warner Brothers was a part of that. So the studio was very much behind it. And yes, the film actually opened at the Warner Theater in Leicester Square in London. because we still had ownership of movie theaters internationally in the 50s. I think your recent re-premer of the Restoration was in the same theater that has a new name. Am I right?

It was, yeah, correct. That's so cool. But how did Warner Brothers get involved in this to begin with? It was a distribution acquisition, which the studio really wasn't doing very much. of. But, you know, all indications are from what I can garner in the files that people were very excited to embrace this. And the timing couldn't have been better because I don't know if this was happening in the UK at that time, but at that time in the U.S., the classic universal horror films had all begun airing on television, and they were beloved by new audiences, but they also

were obviously older films. So this new approach was embraced really around the world, and I just am so grateful that we've been able to come together. so that we can bring this new restoration that these gentlemen have toiled on so incredibly definitively for audiences to use in their 4K players or their Blu-ray players, whatever their format is, I think what you folks have done that we're so happy to have collaborated with you on is a definitive presentation of, I think this is kind of the great gem of what began, what, 15 years, even more maybe of consistent horror films?

Absolutely. This was the one that started Hammer on the roads. I mean, before that, they were known in the US, but the deals that they made, the co-production deals were very much done with not majors, shall we say. people like Robert Lippet, et cetera, who's a bit of a bye-by-night American producer. But what those deals did, however low rent they could be, is that they did give Hammer as a company a foothold in America from the early 50s, which no other British film company did.

So by playing this game and basically creating a run of transatlantic crime thrillers, it did actually position them, although they didn't know it at the time, for these later deals going on over, like George said, 15 years. I mean, if you look at the companies that Hammer made cool productions with from Curse of Frankenstein onwards, pretty much everyone. So you're looking, Warner's, Universal, Paramount, Columbia. 20th Century Fox and United Artists. Everybody.

Yeah. Everybody. And Peter Cushing becomes not just a star in the UK, which he was from the television. right but now he's he becomes a huge international star as he deserved to be yeah and yeah he never got an award he got tv awards for the work he did in the 50s but if you if you if you watch his performance in curse of frankenstein now it is i was asked a couple of weeks ago what is the thing that surprised you most about curse of frankenstein and mark's the same as me we've seen this film

so many times over the last year but but not from a viewing perspective so we're looking at clips We're looking for errors. We're looking for whatever. And actually sitting there and watching it, he's just thinking, that's that amazing performance. And if it was, I'm pretty certain, if it wasn't a horror film, he would have been up for all of the awards going,

after the Oscars, whatever. But because it was, it was still, you know, oh, it's a horror film. But the performance is superb. Really is superb. And even Christopher Lee, who had complained, he had no dialogue. And doesn't,

I think it's about 40 minutes. it's in before you actually you actually get to see him the performance of the creature there's so much thought behind that you know he's not he's not a big lumbering guy wandering around with his arms like this is somebody who's put absolute thought into every move he makes does the armwork properly you know how would i how if i was made of bits how would my body coordinate the answer is it wouldn't and so he does this ungainly uncoordinated thing super before Yeah. And I think that the whole kind of concern or restrictions of, hey, universal, we can't touch and we can't, we need to be different. That's really the power behind the differences in the script and the performances. And it really makes it its own. And those restrictions, I think really helped make sure that. Well, I think you've nailed it there. I mean, it's the creativity of restrictions, isn't it? You can't do something. You find another better, hopefully. way of doing it and it is it is a most surprising film it's been back in the cinemas in the

UK i think we've done 150 screens or something like that um and it got what was it mark the guardian newspaper gave it four and a half stars out of five i think the times get four out of five or something like that and this is a this is a what is it 70 year old film you know not not bad going it took 70 years it's got his do now. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But this started the trend then. I mean, obviously they did Drackel after that. And I mean, and everything rolled on from that. So, so Mark, you get the call the crown jewel, curse of Frankenstein. We want to do a 4K. Well, what happened from there? You pick up the phone. You call George. Take us back. Tell us a little bit of that story.

Well, it went back a few more years pre pre the new hammer. I started talking to George about doing 4K because I thought, well, I know that Warner Brothers had done a Blu-ray version back in 2020 and that was great and that looked great. But, you know, from a hammer perspective, I thought, well, we could be doing, we could do the first 4K

and what a great film to do, the first colour hammer horror film, you know, the one that really set the scene. And fortunately, was very much behind it and after quite a few years of dialogue, we finally got to actually put it into action. So George kindly allowed us to use the 4K scans of the Protection Masters that was used for the previous Blu-ray restoration.

But we also took a look at the original negative. I mean, we knew the NEG wasn't going to be in as in very good condition because you've only got to look at some of the older releases to see that the, you know, the colours have faded out and that was, you know, that was known. But we thought we'd take a look. And we actually did use, we used the main title from the original NEG in the end because of the, it's only white text on a smoke.

in red background, there was no sort of color to really go. So, you know, and it was marginally sharper than the recombined pro-master separations. So, yeah, so we looked at everything. We did try, we did try and replace the color layer in the negative to see if we could still use it. But it was just too far gone in the yellow layer. So you just couldn't, there was no grade in it to get it. to look anything like it should, whereas the combined separations look great,

and that's what we went with. The only problem with those is that not only do you have the negative dirt from the actual original negative, but then you have the three-coloured dirt that's printed back into it, so you've got the red, green and blue dirt. So it kind of, you know, it triples your, or quadruples your work in terms of restoration. But I think the results are, you know, are worth it.

From the time that you actively kind of started it, not from when you were just talking, but when you're like, this is a go, let's get the master from Warner Brothers. How long then to, you know, to finish that process? Well, it was probably from around about August time last year, and we finished around the end of July. So it was nearly a year working on it. And if it's okay, I'm going to just give some thanks to the people who did the work, if that's okay. Sure.

So you've got Anthony Badger, who was the head of restoration. He's great. Look to all of the actually recombined some of the shots that he felt was slightly out. So he really did, you know, really went to town. Simon Edwards and Mandy Whitby they were the restoration artists and I always think restoration is almost to thank this task really

because they can take out thousands and thousands of pieces of dirt and damage and then someone will spot one piece of dirt and that's kind of it just you know to me it's such a shame because they do such a great job and then the colourist

Ray King who did a lovely job on the on getting the car looking just right. He spent a lot of time. And, I mean, we had a very good reference guide from the Warner's 2K version. But he did an absolutely brilliant job. And then obviously grading it in HDR,

you get all those nice rich blacks and deep colors. It's really great. And Dolby Vision And Dolby Vision, yes Yeah, I mean I did want to be sure We did talk about the score And some of the restoration of the audio

Of this as well Tell us about that Well, the actual restoration Of the monotrax Was done by Warner Brothers For their release But we thought You know, how can you

try and do something different. So we decided to make a 5.1 track. And this involved using AI to take out the dialogue stem from the mixed monotrack and then using the music and effects track for the surrounds. I mean, it is obviously limited in a certain way and you'll get people who don't like it and that's fine. We always supply the mono track on the discs if anyone wants to watch it as it was intended, but the 5-1 sounds, sounds pretty good, you know, considering where it's come from

and what we've had to do, yeah, it gives it some nice depth and width and everything, you know, so I think it's definitely worth doing. And it's important to note that the original monotrack is the default. So the consumer has to actually look for and choose the 5-1. Yeah. And I should also mention that Hammer is offering in the UK this Uber deluxe box set with so many pieces of memorabilia and a whole extra disc that is not part of their general release nor part of our release. But the discs, not counting the deluxe version, the discs are exactly the same. the UK version, the U.S. version, and we wanted there to be complete parity so that

everybody could get as much as they wanted. And I think the results are really not only attribute to everything Hammer has done, but also it's a gift to the loyal, rabid Hammer fans who have never, ever, they've never gone away. They've only grown in size, in my opinion, the popularity of the works of Hammer in the genre especially are, you know, they're a major part of cinema history. And it's wonderful to see this kind of care and attention put to such an important film that's very important to a lot of cinephiles out there. And that's great news. George, I thought we should also maybe mention the the different formats that are offered of viewing the film.

Both Hammer and Warner Archive have a 4K set, and then it's also available for people in Blu-ray with all the special features and three aspect ratios, so no one can walk away and say, but it should look like this. Well, that was part of our thinking back in 2020 when we did the Blu-ray. there was so much controversy about the aspect ratio that we decided to offer all three, and now the same thing is happening in 4K. So unless someone wants to see it in VistaVision, which, of course, it wasn't filmed in, just joking.

You know, everything is, I think all the bases are covered here, and it's important to recognize, and I deal with this very often. Hammer fans are passionate worldwide. And you have generations of film aficionados and just general audiences that love Hammer Horror. And this is a celebration to start with the film that gave birth to a whole raft of films for many, many years thereafter.

It's been a wonderful partnership, and we're so grateful to have had this collaboration. and I'm delighted that we're all talking on the extras together about it. Yeah, I do appreciate that as well. And I did want to go back to you, Steve, was kind of putting together this deluxe Uber collection falling under kind of your umbrella. And how did you, and the rest of the team there, go about while Mark and his team are restoring all the elements, get that marketing and packaging and these extras all together?

First of all, it was sort of shock and horror about how big a job we'd need to do to make this. I mean, for the other ones that we've done, we've done two different tiers of special edition. But that doesn't matter because this is cursed Frankenstein. So whatever we've done before, this has to be better, has to be first among equals. So the first step was, okay, what has been created before? and in terms of discontent Hammer previously released it on Blu-ray about 13 years ago I think

and there was a very good half-hour featurette on the making of the film and a couple of other things and when George released the Warner Archive version in 2020 I think there's four very good featureettes on there about the music etc done by comedy

and team NASA, and they were brilliant. So we knew, for a start of, we had to have those. There would be no reason to leave them out. Right. And they did a very, very good job grounding context for the film itself. And there was no point of reinventing the wheel because they were pretty good. I mean, I could have said, let's do another making of, but there would have been no point. So we thought, okay, then we have these.

These are the base blocks of what we have. What else can we do? What other aspects of the film can we touch? An obvious one was Peter Cushing. What we decided was to do justice to the man. Everyone knows the actor, everyone knows the performances. Everyone loves Peter Cushing, but they don't really know the man. So we took the lovely Madeleine Smith to Whitstable, which is where Peter Cushing, lived.

for the last however many decades of his life. We took it to some of his haunts, just discussed the man, what he was like, how he was a family man, etc, etc. And through, because of course,

Madeline worked with him on two films, maybe more, I think, on two hammers at least, but she only knew the actor. So as Madeline learns about Cushing the man, we learn as well.

It's a very lovely warm. I love that piece. It's terrific. Isn't it good? It's not your traditional no, let's sit everybody down and cut up their interview into 30 different bites and put it together like a puzzle. It's literally through her eyes, hearing these stories of a human peaceful. This is brilliant. I did not know this. Like her joy and enthusiasm is infectious

in that. This is it. And what we like to do, not just for Kirsta Frankenstein, but for the rest of our releases as well, is that we like to do the just the fact stuff. Everyone loves of those anyway. In this way, and there's always a place for them, but we like to mix it up a bit with more human things as well. So one of the other pieces on the set is about Molly Arbuthnot. Now, casual Hammer fans won't know who she is or what her contribution is. But try and imagine Curse of Frankenstein or Dracula or any of the other gothics

with bad costuming, it would just, it just wouldn't work, you know. So we decided the time was right to shine a spotlight on Molly again. So not only did that give us an opportunity to cover her story, but it also gave us an opportunity to work with lovely Malvin Hayes, who of course was young Victor Frankenstein, 90 years young, more energy than I have, I promise you. He was the star of the restoration premiere that we did the other day. I can't say too much about him. I give Melvin an opportunity to contribute

because he is probably, probably is actually the only one still alive and kicking, who can speak to being costumed for this film by Mali Arbuth, not at Bray, so there's all of this confluence there. And again, that's another nice, warm and human piece while still giving facts. So we knew we wanted to touch those two

and then sort of like, okay, then what else can we do? Do we cover Christopher Lee? Well, we did a bit in the booklet, but we knew that if we ever get to Dracula, that would be heavily le-centric. So we left that one along. Same with Tennis Fischer. He changed the game with Cursor Frankenstein,

but that was just the first step to Dracula. So those two were in the frame for a different film. So we thought, okay, who else has left? Jimmy Sangster. Now, Jimmy Sangster is a bit of a character. Started behind the camera as a clap, boy, I think, and then became an assistant director, and then he gravitated towards script writing. And if you believe his story, he sort of backed into it because he was the

only one in the room who was there who was willing to do it. Nevertheless, it's his script that the film is based on. And we wanted to celebrate that by getting, I think it's five contributors, but they're all writers and they all knew Jimmy towards the end of his life, but he would do convention appearances and stuff like that and they knew him so they could speak to the man as well as the work and it's not comprehensive by any means because the guy was actively writing for like seven decades or something like that but it's a very good primer on the man his attitude to his work which was very self-deprecatory and just what he brought to this film and to hammer in general and that so that was those were the three key ones those

of the touch zones that we knew we had to do and we knew that fans would love learning more because one of the things that has become apparent from all of the lovely feedback we've been getting from our other releases is the more context the better you know the days of sort of popping a film on a disc and saying there's a trailer there that's a special feature that's your lot um those days are sort of gone now especially in the UK the audience is more towards like the box set the marked as flashed now, which is the size of a hagsbrick. This is where the market is in the UK. And we wanted to celebrate that and just make this as good as we can. So I'm referring to my list now because there's so much. We need to talk about the audio commentaries as well.

We do. We do, which is why absolutely. I mean, obviously, we've all seen the film multiple times. So when you watch it with the audio and commentary, then it's another experience. And I like the fact that you put one audio commentary with one aspect ratio, another audio commentary, I think with a different aspect ratio. So it's two different experiences. One's very academic and one's a little bit more to the image, so to speak. It's a deliberate policy whenever we do a release. if there's more than one version of the film

and sometimes there are, sometimes it's just retitling, sometimes we've just done one recently, which is a completely different edit, I think it's about, what does it mark about seven minutes difference or something between the UK, US and it allows

us to have different voices talking about the same things from different aspects. Some people might look at the Frankenstein thing I say four audio commentaries, are you mad? What are you doing?

But two of those are very good ones done previously, one done for the Warner release, one done for the hammer release. And we knew we wanted to do some new ones anyway. It just made sense to have one for each aspect ratio. So the new ones that we did, we did one with Kim Newman, Stephen Jones and Barry Fawshire,

and that is they are, they know their horror. They really do. And they can do water and all facts and they're brilliant and it's a very good fun I felt like I was in a college like a course

it was fantastic it's very much I mean it's the sort of thing that Hammer fans have a certain type love I mean you can see some of the books

possibly behind them on the wall the size of telephone directories when telephone directories used to exist and they're all about different aspects of Hammer and it is probably, with the exception of Disney, I imagine, probably the most analysed and over-analyzed series of films in the world.

But nevertheless, people love this sort of stuff and they love facts and you'll never lack the facts when you've got Kim Newman, Stephen Jones, Barry Forgey on a commentary. So we did that one and then we thought, right, how can we balance this out? And earlier in the year, I did a commentary on the American version of a film called Shatter,

which is a mid-70s U.S. Hong Kong action thriller with Stuart Whitman. And on that, we had a commentary on the American version of the film by a guy called Toby Rowan, who is a cult film expert, loves his westerns, loves his crying films,

loves 50s stuff. And Heidi Honeycutt, who is a force to be reckoned with, And they did a very fun, lovely, boisterous, chatty commentary. And I knew that when we did the more academic one for Frankenstein, I wanted something like that to balance it out. And then I thought, well, I've already got something like that. I've got them.

So I said, guys, would you like to do a commentary for Coos of Frankenstein? And they went, are you joking? And I went, no. And they went, okay. But it's, I suppose. there's a different commentary for whatever mood you're in at the time you fancy a laugh and a fun commentary and just some light there are there are facts in there but there's there's an energy there you've got two americans talking there's an energy there you know yeah you know if you

fancy that you can do that if you fancy something more fact laden you can listen to kim it's there's so much stuff on on this set i defy anyone to be bored with it right I've probably made a jinx for myself now. But it's very much a deliberate policy to include different tones of voice on this thing coming at different angles. And also, not for these things. I mean, these things were British films.

They were made in Britain. But as George mentioned earlier, they loved globally. So why wouldn't we have, you know, colonial voices in there? Why wouldn't we have Australian voices in there? these voices, German voices. So that's a work in progress. There will be more of those.

Because I love it. I love hearing different people's views. I mean, I've learned so much on some of these commentaries just by something which I thought I knew and somebody coming in it from a different angle. It's like, well, damn, I didn't know that. I didn't think about it that way. And it's brilliant.

It's eye-opening. I can't deal with it. It's just marvelous. Yeah. Well, the name of this podcast is the extras because I worked with George at Warner Brothers for nearly 14 years working on the bonus materials. And then whenever there's a chance to talk about a film that has a release with this

kind of appeal so that you know that there's an appetite, even with all the books that have already been written, all the releases previously, there's more to know. There's more to hear or the ability to kind of aggregate it as well into this release with the previous one archive extras and your own extras from the Blu-rays. It's fantastic because some collectors would love for this to be the definitive, the Blu-ray. That's it. Why do I have to buy another 4K or whatever? Absolutely.

Whereas there are many of us who are like, you can't believe how great it looks in 4K. Of course you want to get this. And then on top of that, not only you're getting the better image and sound quality and all that, but they're giving you even more, you know. And so it makes it so worthwhile to pick these up because I'm watching this and seeing that 4K and hearing it. And I mean, I just watched it, you know, George, when we talked about the previous Blue Ray release. And I'm like, this looks amazing. It looks fantastic.

I love the restoration, the sound improvements as well. It's fantastic. That's just my little piece here. And the extras that I have watched and listened to, because I haven't gone through them all, it's going to take a little while, get to enjoy it, do it slowly, so to speak, have been fantastic. I love it. There's one extra on there that it was a real huge piece of nostalgia for me, and that is the 8mm cut down version. A lot of people wouldn't be able to relate to this now, but there was a time where you couldn't buy a movie before there was home video.

And what was offered were usually, if at all, a three to 10 minute or sometimes 20 minute abridgment of a feature. And there was a company that was around for a couple of years in the late 60s called Ameriom. And they licensed several feature films, which they cut down. And you were supposed to synchronize it with a record so you could have the sound. What nobody paid attention to at the time, and I had one of these things when I was a kid, and I couldn't figure out why it didn't work, was 8mm silent movie projectors ran at 18 frames per second.

And the films were not adapted in any way to keep sync, because the films were 24 frames a second. So there was no actual way you'd be with your phonograph and keep having to move the needle, you know. And I think it was a charming, brilliant idea to add that because it's a piece of Kursa Frankenstein's history that the people who loved it could approximate a viewing in the theater in their own home theater with their record player and their 8mm silent projector.

I just thought that was a brilliant addition that you folks came up with. Well, we did that for you, George, you see? Yeah. But the thing is, What we had originally was just the moot version. And I was talking to some of my contacts, bemoaning the fact that we didn't have the soundtrack for this.

One of the guys, Matt Harrison, said, I've got it. It's in my garage. Would you like me to see it? Because these things were a flexi disc. I mean, the odds on a flexi disc in a garage from 1965 or whenever this thing was released, still being playable. But he found it, and it was.

And that's the version that's on there. And syncing it up was painful. So this just goes exactly back to what George was saying. It's good you mentioned that because that demonstrates the range of special features in there because you have something made as a cheap and cheerful thing from 1965, balanced out with, I don't know whether you've seen it yet, Tim, but the recreating the creature special feature. What we did with that, because the other key thing, obviously,

the curse of Frankenstein is the creature maker. And there's a makeup effects artist, Oscar-winning makeup effects artist called Dave Ensey. And the reason he's in the business was because he saw Kursa Frankenstein as a kid, loved it, and thought, I can do that. So we asked Dave if he'd like to recreate the makeup in his own way as a special feature for the new thing. So he did that. So if you haven't seen it, I'm not going to spoil it, you'll enjoy it. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm looking forward to it.

It's just a wealth of content. And like I said, I was watching the different versions with the different audio commentators as well. Now, you know, I take so much time to go through it all. But it's a pleasure. You know, it's a pleasure to do so. Well, one thing that people who are listening to the audio podcast couldn't do was see the packaging that you held up there, Mark. So it's fantastic for the Deluxe edition and so beautiful for the Warner Archive Edition as well.

But Steve, maybe you can tell us a little bit about the thought and you hired an artist and all these things that you did for that. Absolutely. One of the things that we've done for our own releases, which we initially do is limited collectors' editions, little box sets, of which Curta Frankenstein is one, is that we include quite a chunky booklet can range between 120, 180 pages

of new articles, more contacts, et cetera, et cetera, alongside newly designed pieces of artwork. We've used a variety of artists and the general instruction is, we want something old but new, we want something which echoes the style of the time but with its own modern twist. So with Kirsta Frankenstein, we talked to a superb artist called Greg Staples, who I know from my youth because he used to work on a comic that I bought, and now he's a superb fine artist, who happens to love Hammer.

And we've been looking for a project to work on together for nearly a year now, I think. And at a certain point, I said to him, because of Frankenstein, and he went, yes. and I said, do we need to discuss it any further? And he said, no. And what you see is a super, I mean, you look at it and you have to think, is that new? Is it original? The penmanship and the painting is exquisite. And we knew when we were, we commissioned it that we want something that would not only be able to be cropped to be a Blu-ray or a U-HD cover,

but would also serve in a wider format as film poster. And he nailed it, and it's beautiful. And not only is it on, people can see it outside cinemas where the posters are, they can see it on our box set, and they can see it on George's releases as well, because it's just too good a design not to use. What do you think, George? Well, usually when we do things from the Warner Archive Collection, we like to use original key art. And the U.S. key art for this film was not particularly attractive.

So when we released our Blu-ray in 2020, we found an international poster. I think it may have been Belgian. But the artwork that you folks created is so gorgeous because it has that authentic feel of the film, of the period, and yet it's fresh and new. And that's very, very difficult to do. I've seen other attempts at creating new packaging where it tries to make a film that's of that vintage look new, which is not what the fans want. And it really is across purposes. New packaging is gorgeous. And everybody around here who's seen it has just been knocked out by it. So kudos to the artist and to all of you for making it possible.

That's really great to hear. Thanks, George. Yeah, yeah. I think it's fantastic. I love it. You've got Christopher Lee with his arms extended in that pose. It's a fantastic artwork. But what a terrific release.

It's so wonderful to hear about the fact that Hammer and Warner brothers are working together on these. And I know you have more films that historically have been worked on. So we can hope maybe that in the future, if this release is successful, that more could happen in the future, George? Now that we have reinvigorated the partnership, I'm looking for every opportunity to join forces with these wonderful folks and keep the Warner Hammer relationship alive and thriving. That's fantastic. And meanwhile, I know you've announced a few other titles that Hammer is. is going to be releasing as well. So you're very busy over there at Hammerett,

just reinvigrating the company with all of these releases. I think one was Men of Sherwood Forest. Is that your next one? That should be due out in about two weeks. Yes. I mean, the whole thing is a rolling program. Right. And what we've done this year

and what we'd be doing going forward is a mixture of Stone Cold Classics, Frankenstein, Quitoast, et cetera, with rarities because they're sort of historically they've been ignored and loved but they are part of this is we've just come out of our 90th anniversary you know there's a lot of films in there yeah i think there's close to 200 different productions of which only maybe 20% perhaps were horror Oh, horror-centric. So it's, and it's really nice to shine a spotlight on these films.

And some people might look at them and say, what, that's a hammer? And it's like, well, yeah, it is. And it's in the beginning, back in January, which seems like a million years ago now, we started with Kronos and people went, yay, horror's brilliant. And then the next one was four-sided triangle, which, if anything, is sort of like a science noir type thing. And we confused people, I think, but by the time we got to about, the fifth release, the second Quatermass film, fans were really on board with it.

They understood what we were doing. They understood the package that we were creating with all of the context and special features, et cetera. And that buoyed us up, and we knew, because at that point, we were working on Kursa Frankenstein. It's like, okay, this one's for the fans. Yeah. And it's been so successful, this mixture of rarities

and classics and you know that's what we're going to be doing going forward and i'm sure there's lots of opportunities with our good friends at warners here because as well as three films on which we shared distribution rights um there's a handful more from the late 60s early 70s where warners have distribution rights but they were made by hammers so there's lots of potential going forward for other things, which I'm sure the fans will love, as well as well and as will Mark as well, because we're friends. Mark, you're going to be busy. Steve, you're going to be busy. This year, it sounds like you've been very, very busy with all of these releases. What a, what a year for Hammer. It's so great to see this resurgence of physical media for the collectors

and the fans of these great films. And if you're a fan of, I think, what are you going to say? This is a must-have. I mean, Gers. It's a must-have. So hopefully everybody is getting their copy, or if they haven't yet, if they're waiting until the holidays, well, here we are just in time for the holidays as well. This is a huge thumbs-up release, and what a wonderful, wonderful collaboration between Warner Brothers and Hammer Films. And thank you for all coming on. sharing the story with the fans. Thank you, Tim, and Mark and Steve.

It's really an honor to be on the extras with you to celebrate this wonderful joint effort. We're very, very pleased to work with you and look forward to the future. Thanks. We're both loving what we're doing, and things can only get better. It's brilliant. Thank you. Well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation. had with Steve Rogers and Mark Stanborough of Hammer Films. What a terrific story about this

resurrection of the Hammer Films in their physical media releases. 2025 has been a fantastic year for Hammer Films, as well as Warner Archive, of course, for those of you who listen to the extras on a regular basis. So it's great to see this partnership. If you'd like to order a copy of Curse of Frankenstein on 4K, I will have order links in the podcast show notes, so look for that there. If you'd like more information, we'll also have some links to their website and to our Facebook page where more will be provided. As always, if you're enjoying the podcast, we hope that you will subscribe or follow the show that helps us and all of our guests who come on the show. Of course, we always appreciate all of our listeners and thank you for being so loyal to us this year and in previous years.

Until next time, you've been listening to Tim Millard. Stay slightly obsessed about horror. You know, Thank you.