Anthony Frank Hinds (19 September 1922 – 30 September 2013Obituary: Anthony Hinds, telegraph.co.uk, 3 October 2013), also known as Tony Hinds and John Elder, was an English screenwriter and producer.
Early life The son of the founder of Hammer Film Productions, William Hinds, Anthony Hinds was born in Ruislip, Middlesex and educated at St Paul's School. He briefly joined his father's business before his war service as a pilot in the RAF during World War II.
Career In 1946 Hinds returned to Hammer and initially produced a great many modest thrillers. One of these was The Dark Road (1947), one of the quota quickies, which featured a jewellery shop called 'Hinds', a reference to his father's original business. This business had been divided in the 1920s between William and his brother Frank Hinds. Frank's part is now the F. Hinds national jewellery chain.
In the summer of 1953 Hinds was enthralled by the BBC's The Quatermass Experiment, a six-part science fiction thriller written by Nigel Kneale. Hinds was so impressed by what he saw that he suggested Hammer buy the big screen rights. They approached the BBC and snapped up the rights. After requesting the new 'X' certificate from the British Board of Film Censors, The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) was a box-office success and was the first of the three Quatermass cinema films based on the television serials.
Hinds came up with the idea of hiring country houses and shooting films in the rooms and grounds of the locations, which saved the cost of kitting out a full studio. The company acquired Down Place, renaming it Bray Studios, and was based there until 1966. Under the pseudonym John Elder he was a prolific screenwriter and from the mid-1960s he concentrated on this activity, though he produced the TV series Journey to the Unknown for LWT (1968–69) and The Lost Continent (1968) (the latter uncredited). His last screenwriting credit was 1984's The Masks of Death.
The horror script The Unquenchable Thirst of Dracula, which he wrote in the 1970s for Hammer, was never filmed. In October 2015 it was presented as a live stage reading by the Mayhem Film Festival at the Broadway Cinema in Nottingham, featuring the actor and film historian Jonathan Rigby as narrator. In October 2017 a studio production of the script was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, with narration by Michael Sheen.
Personal life and death In 1956, Hinds married Jean Knowles, and they had two daughters. He died from complications of Parkinson's disease at his home in Chadlington, Oxfordshire, on 30 September 2013.
Selected filmography
Year TitleProducerWriter (as "John Elder")Notes1948Who Killed Van Loon1949Dick Barton Strikes Back1950The Man in Black1950Someone at the Door1950Room to Let1950What the Butler Saw1950The Lady Craved Excitement1951The Rossiter Case1951To Have and to Hold1951The Dark Light1951A Case for PC 491951Black Widow1952The Last Page aka Man Bait1952Death of an Angel1952Wings of Danger aka Dead On Course1952Stolen Face1952Lady in the Fog aka Scotland Yard Inspector1952The Gambler and the Lady1953The Flanagan Boy aka Bad Blonde1953The Saint's Return aka The Saint's Girl Friday195336 Hours aka Terror Street1954The House Across the Lake aka Heat Wave1954Five Days aka Paid to Kill1955The Glass Cage aka The Glass Tomb1955The Quatermass Xperiment aka The Creeping Unknown First horror film for Hammer Film Productions1956Women Without Men aka Blonde Bait1956X the Unknown1957The Curse of Frankenstein1956Quatermass 2 aka Enemy From Space1957The Camp on Blood Island1958Dracula aka The Horror of Dracula 1958The Revenge of Frankenstein1959The Hound of the Baskervilles1959The Stranglers of Bombay1960Never Take Sweets from a Stranger1961The Curse of the Werewolf Based on The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore1962The Phantom of the Opera Based on The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux1962The Damned aka These Are The Damned1962Captain Clegg aka Night Creatures Loosely based on the character Doctor Syn created by Russell Thorndike 1963Paranoiac 1963Maniac1963Kiss of the Vampire1963The Old Dark House1964The Evil of Frankenstein First writing credit in the Frankenstein series; based on characters created by Mary Shelley1965Fanatic aka Die! Die! My Darling!1965Dracula: Prince of Darkness First writing credit in the Dracula series; based on characters created by Bram Stoker1966The Reptile1966Rasputin the Mad Monk1967The Mummy's Shroud Credits attribute screenplay to John Gilling "from an original story by John Elder." First credit in Hammer's Mummy series 1967Frankenstein Created Woman1968Dracula Has Risen from the Grave1968-1969Journey to the Unknown Television Anthology series1970Taste the Blood of Dracula1970Scars of Dracula1970Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell1975Legend of the Werewolf Uncredited remake of Hind's own The Curse of the Werewolf script from 1961; first screenplay not produced by Hammer Film Productions.1975The Ghoul1980Visitor from the Grave Episode of Hammer House of Horror; final produced screenplay1984Sherlock Holmes and The Masks of Death TV movie, screenplay credited to N.J. Crisp, "story by John Elder." Based on characters created by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle)
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