Hammer glamour girl recalls the horror!

When ailing Hammer Films needed a boost 50 years ago, budding actress Madeline Smith discovered nudity was a must

- Madeline Smith

Half a century ago, I took my first foray into Hammer Films.

My acting career was in its infancy when I went to meet formidable casting director Aida Young. I was up for the tiny part of Dolly, the waif prostitute in their latest horror offering, Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970). She considered me to be sufficiently vulnerable, and a couple of days later I was riding on actor Geoffrey Keen’s back.

I wore a Victorian-style white lace boiler suit, and I weighed scarcely more than seven stone. He was on his haunches on the floor, with me atop his rump. According to fellow actor John Carson, also in the brothel, Geoffrey complained bitterly about my dead weight.

A naked female danced sinuously between us while her pet Python wrapped itself lovingly between her thighs. Tinny music played from a loudspeaker somewhere offset.

It was all quite a long way from Hammer’s origins in 1934, when it was set up by William Hinds, a comedian and businessman. Unromantically named after his home in Hammersmith, Hammer Films produced classics such as The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959), all starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

By the time I turned up on set, in 1969, I was so shy – a 20-year-old virgin, fairly fresh from convent school – that I spoke to nobody. What a waste! Hammer was known for employing the best character actors in the business. It would have been a delight to chat away to them.