My Collection of Amicus Films
Just look for the Subotsky-Rosenberg label!
Often regarded as Hammer's poor relation, the little production company known as Amicus established a distinctive identity all its own and was brought into being through the collaboration of two managing partners whose tempestuous relationship gave lie to the amiable company name.
Milton Subotsky, an engineering major, and Max J. Rosenberg, a lawyer, were two New York-based, would-be producers with polar opposite personalities who partnered on a few films Stateside under the Vanguard label before shifting the operation to England as Amicus. Starting with a slate that included a couple of hard-hitting dramas, four rock musicals, a family film and only one actual horror movie, the duo decided to capitalize on the appetite for fright films that Hammer had recently awakened.
It is a bit ironic that Amicus would perpetually be in Hammer's shadow since they had actually kick-started the Hammer juggernaut when Subotsky wrote a screenplay adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" which Rosenberg then sold to Hammer through a middle-man. Although Subotsky's treatment was supposedly scrupulously faithful to the source material, Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster significantly re-shaped the script into the film that would put Hammer on the map: "The Curse of Frankenstein".
While Amicus and Hammer films often get confused with one another due to the use of similar casts and crews, there are three trademarks to most of Amicus' horror output: setting, structure and theme. Amicus horror almost always has a contemporary setting, usually is structured as an anthology and often features a theme of bleak moral relativism. Hammer films, by contrast, generally have Victorian/Edwardian settings, stand-alone narrative structure and themes of black-and-white Manichean morality. While yielding a distinct aesthetic difference, it should be noted that such choices were largely made for budgetary reasons as modern dress and shorter shooting schedules for costly cast members were cheaper.
Despite a few forays into other genres such as sci-fi, drama and adventure, horror was the name of the game with only the Dr. Who and Burroughs films making a splash outside the company's usual fare. In the end, a third managing partner named John Dark who was brought on board by Rosenberg began exerting his own influence which brought the volatile relationship between Milton and Max to the boiling point resulting in a dissolution of the partnership. All three men went on to produce their own projects individually.
However, Rosenberg kept the company's copyright alive and, 30 years later, two new movies have been made under the Amicus label by his successor paralleling Hammer's similar resurrection.
As Amicus films are defined as much by the men who made them as they are by their content, the list below includes all the movies I own that bear their fingerprints. Entries 1-5 are Proto-Amicus films from the American Vanguard years, entries 6-32 are Classic Amicus films from the British period, entries 33-38 are Post-Amicus projects by Dark, Subotsky and Rosenberg, respectively, and entries 39-40 are the Neo-Amicus releases.
Often regarded as Hammer's poor relation, the little production company known as Amicus established a distinctive identity all its own and was brought into being through the collaboration of two managing partners whose tempestuous relationship gave lie to the amiable company name.
Milton Subotsky, an engineering major, and Max J. Rosenberg, a lawyer, were two New York-based, would-be producers with polar opposite personalities who partnered on a few films Stateside under the Vanguard label before shifting the operation to England as Amicus. Starting with a slate that included a couple of hard-hitting dramas, four rock musicals, a family film and only one actual horror movie, the duo decided to capitalize on the appetite for fright films that Hammer had recently awakened.
It is a bit ironic that Amicus would perpetually be in Hammer's shadow since they had actually kick-started the Hammer juggernaut when Subotsky wrote a screenplay adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" which Rosenberg then sold to Hammer through a middle-man. Although Subotsky's treatment was supposedly scrupulously faithful to the source material, Hammer scribe Jimmy Sangster significantly re-shaped the script into the film that would put Hammer on the map: "The Curse of Frankenstein".
While Amicus and Hammer films often get confused with one another due to the use of similar casts and crews, there are three trademarks to most of Amicus' horror output: setting, structure and theme. Amicus horror almost always has a contemporary setting, usually is structured as an anthology and often features a theme of bleak moral relativism. Hammer films, by contrast, generally have Victorian/Edwardian settings, stand-alone narrative structure and themes of black-and-white Manichean morality. While yielding a distinct aesthetic difference, it should be noted that such choices were largely made for budgetary reasons as modern dress and shorter shooting schedules for costly cast members were cheaper.
Despite a few forays into other genres such as sci-fi, drama and adventure, horror was the name of the game with only the Dr. Who and Burroughs films making a splash outside the company's usual fare. In the end, a third managing partner named John Dark who was brought on board by Rosenberg began exerting his own influence which brought the volatile relationship between Milton and Max to the boiling point resulting in a dissolution of the partnership. All three men went on to produce their own projects individually.
However, Rosenberg kept the company's copyright alive and, 30 years later, two new movies have been made under the Amicus label by his successor paralleling Hammer's similar resurrection.
As Amicus films are defined as much by the men who made them as they are by their content, the list below includes all the movies I own that bear their fingerprints. Entries 1-5 are Proto-Amicus films from the American Vanguard years, entries 6-32 are Classic Amicus films from the British period, entries 33-38 are Post-Amicus projects by Dark, Subotsky and Rosenberg, respectively, and entries 39-40 are the Neo-Amicus releases.
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