From The Blood Is the Life, published 2024

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By 1968, Hammer Films had become a respectable company. It was still known (and sometimes derided) for cranking out mid-budget horror fare, but its financial success could not be ignored. Even Queen Elizabeth took notice.

Her Majesty was not a fan of boundary-pushing Gothic adventures (that we know of), but Hammer became the first movie studio to receive The Queen’s Award for Industry, thanks to the millions in overseas earnings it brought into the British economy. The award was presented on the set of Dracula Has Risen from the Grave by the Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, who likely never imagined his job would include watching Christopher Lee being impaled on a cross, screaming while bright red “blood” oozed from his chest and eyes. According to Lee’s autobiography, the Lord Lieutenant deadpanned to his wife, “Do you know, my dear, that man’s a member of my club!”