Freddie Francis - Directorial Career

Directorial Career

Following his Academy Award win for Sons and Lovers, Francis began his career as director of feature films. His first feature as director was Two and Two Make Six in 1962. For the next 20-plus years, Francis worked continuously as a director of low-budget films, most of them in the genres of horror or psycho-thriller.

Beginning in 1963 with Paranoiac, Francis made numerous films for Hammer throughout the 1960s and 1970s. These films included thrillers like Nightmare (1964) and Hysteria (1965), as well as monster films such as The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) and Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968). On his apparent typecasting as a director of these types of films, Francis said, "Horror films have liked me more than I have liked horror films."

Also in the 1960s, Francis began an association with Amicus Productions, another studio which, like Hammer, specialized in horror pictures. Most of the films Francis made for Amicus were anthologies such as Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), Torture Garden (1968) and Tales from the Crypt. He also did two films for the short lived company Tyburn films. These were The Ghoul (1975) and Legend of the Werewolf (1975). As a director, Francis was more than competent, and his horror films possessed an undeniable visual flair. But he regretted that he was seldom able to move beyond genre material as a director.

In 1974 Francis directed the little-seen Son of Dracula, starring Harry Nilsson in the title role and Ringo Starr as Merlin the Magician, one of the great "lost films", deemed a flop at the time but becoming something of a cult favorite in later years.

Of the films Francis directed, one of his favourites was Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny, and Girly (1970). Mumsy... was a black comedy about an isolated upper class family whose relationships and behaviors came equipped with deadly consequences. The film was not very well received by mainstream critics, but has gone on to become a minor cult favourite amongst fans.

In 1985, Francis directed The Doctor and the Devils, which is based on the crimes of Burke and Hare.

Francis's last film as director was Dark Tower (1987) (no relation to the 2004 book of the same name by Stephen King). Francis thought it was a bad picture owing to poor special effects and had his name taken off it. His name was substituted with the name Ken Barnett. Francis is featured in the book Conversations with Cinematographers (2012) by David A Ellis and published by American publisher Scarecrow Press.