
Acting
Barbara Shelley
Born 1932-02-13 · London, England, UK
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Barbara Shelley (born 13 February 1932) was an English film and television actress. She was at her busiest in the late 1950s (Blood of the Vampire) and 1960s when she became Hammer Horror's number one female star, with The Gorgon (1964), Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966), Rasputin, the Mad Monk (1966), and Quatermass and the Pit (1967) among her credits. Although she is known as a scream queen, in fact her most famous scream (in the aforementioned Dracula film) was dubbed by co-star Suzan Farmer. She also appeared in Village of the Damned (1960) and in the 1984 Doctor Who serial Planet of Fire. In 2010, writer and actor Mark Gatiss interviewed Shelley about her career at Hammer Films for his BBC documentary series A History of Horror. She died on 3 January 2021, at the age of 88. Description above from the Wikipedia article Barbara Shelley, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Acting credits
6.7Whilst vacationing in the Carpathian Mountain, two couples stumble across the remains of Count Dracula's castle. The Count's trusted servant kills one of the men, suspending the body over the Count's ashes so that the blood drips from the corpse and saturates the blackened remains. The ritual is completed, the Count revived and his attentions focus on the dead man's wife who is to become his partner; devoted to an existence of depravity and evil.
Dracula: Prince of Darkness
1966
7.2In a small English village everyone suddenly falls unconscious. When they awake every woman of child bearing age is pregnant. The resulting children have the same strange blond hair, eyes and a strong connection to each other.
Village of the Damned
1960
6.7A mysterious artifact unearthed below a London Underground station proves to have powerful psychic effects on the people around.
Quatermass and the Pit
1967
6.4In the early 20th century a village experienced a series of inexplicable murders. All the victims were young men who had been turned to stone. The perpetrator of these deaths was a being so repulsive that she transformed the onlooker using the power of her deadly stare. Much of the time the creature took the form of a beautiful and seductive woman, but during periods of the full moon she becomes a living horror, vicious and deadly. A professor has come to investigate the deaths, bringing with him his beautiful assistant whose knowledge of the Gorgon is more intimate than anyone would ever realise.
The Gorgon
1964
6.4A retrospective of the films of Britain's Hammer Studios, renowned for making stylish horror films in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. Included are clips from Hammer productions and interviews with actors, actresses, directors and producers who worked on these films.
Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood
1987
7.5The Dark Angel is a sensual and stylish adaptation of Uncle Silas - Sheridan le Fanu’s influential Victorian literary masterpiece. Sheltered heiress Maud Ruthyn's troubles begin when her father hires a new governess. Madame De La Rougierre (played with considerable relish by Jane Lapotaire) is a cruel, brandy-swigging schemer with an unhealthy interest in Maud's inheritance and an approach to childcare that would make Mary Poppins faint. When Maud's father dies she has no choice but to live with her wicked uncle Silas, who will inherit the family fortune if Maud should happen to die. This is not a recipe for domestic bliss and soon it seems that everyone but Maud is either bad, mad, or both.
The Dark Angel
1987
6.7Set in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during World War II, the film focuses on the brutality and horror that the allied prisoners were exposed to as the Japanese metered out subjugation and punishment to a disgraced and defeated enemy. This harrowing drama concentrates on the deviations of legal and moral definitions when two opposing cultures clash. Although fictional, this was one of the earliest films to deal realistically with life and death in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during the Second War.
The Camp on Blood Island
1958
4.9A psychiatrist treats a woman who is convinced that she turns into a killer leopard because of a family curse.
Cat Girl
1957
5.9Rasputin, a crazed and debauched monk wreaks havoc at the local inn one night, chopping off the hand of one of the drinkers. As the bitter locals plan their revenge, the evil Rasputin works his power over the beautiful women who serve at the Tsar's palace. Even the Tsarina herself is seduced by his evil ways and, as his influence begins to dominate government policy, there is only one course of action left... to destroy him before he destroys them all.
Rasputin: The Mad Monk
1966
A movie star is typecast as a ruthless gangster. His troubles begin when he gets reality confused with his job and becomes deluded into believing that he really is a mobster.
Stranglehold
1962
7.5Jules Maigret, a meticulous Parisian police detective, is a famous literary character. In this film adaptation of his stories, he's trying to solve a murder of a friend, a P.I. who was looking into an industrialist and his family.
Maigret
1988
5.8A man and wife are terrorized by Mad Scientist Dr. Callistratus who was executed but has returned to life with a heart transplant. Along with his crippled assistant Carl, the 'anemic' Mad Scientist, believed to be a vampire, conducts blood deficiency research on the inmates of a prison hospital for the criminally insane to sustain his return to life.
Blood of the Vampire
1958
A columnist throws a dinner party. One of the guests is his mistress, who is his research assistant. He tells his wife he had been having an affair and she is devastated, but they both agree that the party should go ahead.
A Marriage
1972
6.0This adventure follows the story of a young navy man, his wife and their baby son, Bobby, also known as Bobbikins. To his surprise, Dad discovers his son talks, not baby-talk or gibberish but has adult conversations with his father only. Bobbikins learns stock market tips and passes them to his Dad. After making a killing on the stock market, problems really begin. The dad is presumed mad, the government is after him, and the breakdown of relations between the young couple ensues. But there is hope.
Bobbikins
1959
6.7Tabitha, once the placid, gentle and devoted pet, adopts all the characteristics of a ferocious, wild animal following the murder of her mistress. The three guilty people are all trapped by the cat's power and each will come to untimely deaths of horrific proportions without anyone being able to solve the mystery that surrounds their brutal death.
The Shadow of the Cat
1961
5.9On seaside holiday, Nero, Poppea, Seneca and their friends and family prepare a great show where Nero will star. When his mother Agrippina arrives with her German praetorians and decides Nero has to conquer Britain, she's asking for trouble. Many attempts of murder and poisoning will happen on the eve of his great show.
Nero's Mistress
1956
4.9Likeable country postman Harold Petts gets transferred from his village to London, where on his arrival he unwittingly foils a mail train robbery. Innocent in the ways of the big city, he is thought to be a member of another gang by both the train robbers and the police, who all suspect him of trying to rob the post office where he works.
Postman's Knock
1962
6.5A young woman commits suicide. Her sister is not ready to let the death go without someone answering a few questions. Namely, was it really suicide, and where is the large amount of money her sister withdrew from the bank the day before her death.
Death Trap
1962
9.0Based on the true story of a British secret agent, shot down over Malaya near to a Allied POW forced labour camp. There she is hidden, disguised as a youthful prisoner, until her escape can be effected. The costs of keeping her identity secret fall on all the POW's as the Japanese embark on a policy of ruthless terror to extract her and the focus shifts to the conflicts of the group' s collective concerns against the necessities of personal survival.
The Secret of Blood Island
1964
8.6The Royal Shakespeare Company act (and sing and dance!) Shakespeare's play about two sets of identical twins, separated at birth and brought together by circumstance.
The Comedy of Errors
1978
8.0Documentary that chronicles the making of the third film in Hammer's Dracula series.
Back to Black: The Making of Dracula Prince of Darkness
2012
10.0In post-war Italy, some pilots of the Air Force, despite the difficulties in which they are forced to operate, manage to form an acrobatic squadron. From the dedication of these men will be born the "Frecce Tricolori", the Italian Air Force's acrobatic squadron.
Four of the Thundering Jet
1955
4.9Paul Gregory (William Sylvester) is an accomplished composer despite his blindness, and his beautiful wife Anne (Barbara Shelley) seems to be the perfect supporting wife. But unknown to Paul, she is having a passionate affair with Ricky (Alexander Davion), a struggling artist. Keen to support her artist lover and give them more time to make love, she persuades Paul to commission Ricky to paint her portrait. But Paul senses their affection for each other, and threatens to cut Anne off without a penny. Desperate to keep both her lover and Paul s money, Anne plots the perfect murder and asks Ricky to carry it out...
Blind Corner
1964
7.0This fascinating documentary tells the story of the talented people behind and in front of the cameras at the Hammer Film Studios. Their prodigious output made household names of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, arguably the greatest fright duo since Lugosi and Karloff. Filled with shocking clips, terrifying trailers, and fascinating interviews with cast and crew culled from twenty years of the FANEX Film Convention archives, this film is a horror fan's delight!
Fanex Files: Hammer Films
2008