Fathers of Hammer Horror – Cushing, Price, and Lee Share the Screen
Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and Christopher Lee terrified audiences with their roles in classic horror movies – especially when they worked together.
The trio of actors worked with each other on and off over the decades, and they were close friends till their deaths. I imagine they’re out there somewhere in the either playing chess or laughing while talking in stupid voices. Maybe eating something Vincent whipped up.
Cushing and Lee would have marked their birthdays this week. To celebrate two of horror’s founding actors (and their close friend), here are some of the movies (Cushing and Lee were in a whopping 24 movies together) they starred in together.
Movies Starring Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
Cushing is Frankenstein, and Lee is the Creature in Hammer’s loose adaptation of Mary Shelley’s tale. Frankenstein tells his life story to a priest as he awaits execution for murdering his maid. He recounts his childhood and how he got started on re-animating the dead, followed by the tale of the Creature we all know – with some Hammer-style upgrades.
This was Hammer’s first color feature, and it spawned several sequels, but none quite as fun as the original.
The Horror of Dracula (1958)
The movie uses Stoker’s infamous vampire story as its backbone. Kind of. Harker is a vampire hunter, Mina is married to Arthur Holmwood, and Lucy is his sister. What you’re here for are the performances of Cushing as Van Helsing and Lee as Dracula – and Terence Fisher’s direction. All are fantastic. This is the first in a number of sequels with the two actors reprising their roles. This is the one you want to watch, though.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)
Cushing takes the lead here as Sherlock Holmes and Lee as Sir Henry Baskerville. It plays the adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s book fairly straight and is one of Hammer’s highest-rated films. If you want a more serious, less campy movie, this is the one for you.
Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965)
This anthology centers on six men on a train out of London. The mysterious Doctor Schreck (Cushing being creepy) shows the others their fate using a deck of tarot cards. Lee’s story is called Disembodied Hand – and the special effects are something else.
Movies Starring Vincent Price & Christopher Lee
The Oblong Box (1969)
Is it the best work the two have done? No. But they’re doing it together.
Julian (Vincent Price) hides his horrendously disfigured brother, Sir Edward Markham, in a tower where he is kept in chains. Anxious for freedom, Edward fakes his death with the aid of an immoral attorney, Trench, and a pill that puts him into a catatonic state. But the escape plan takes a treacherous turn when Julian unwittingly buries his brother alive — and he’s later unearthed by grave robbers under the employ of malevolent Dr. Neuhardt (Christopher Lee).
Madhouse (1974)
Based on the 1969 novel Devilday by Angus Hall, this bombastic tale of horror focuses on a disgraced horror actor trying to revive his career. Paul Toombes (Vincent Price) and his screenwriter Herbert Flay (Peter Cushing) work on bringing Toombes’ most famous character to television. Then people start dying in familiar ways.
This one is bonkers and silly. Vincent Price essentially plays himself and camps it up in the ways only he can.
Movies Starring Price, Lee, & Cushing
Scream and Scream Again (1970)
Vincent Price is a mad scientist, and Christopher Lee is the investigator trying to catch him in this oddly structured movie. It takes some major cues from Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Frankenstein. All three actors are in Scream and Scream Again, but only Lee and Price share a scene.
House of Long Shadows (1983)
In House of Long Shadows, an American writer moves into a dilapidated Welsh manor. He soon meets the rest of its residents as they host a reunion of sorts. This is more a celebration of the iconic actors than it is a functional movie – but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth watching this campy romp. It also stars the legendary John Carradine.
