Jimmy Sangster

Who was Jimmy Sangster?

James Henry Kinmel Sangster was a Welsh screenwriter and director, known for his work for horror film producers Hammer Film Productions, including scripts for The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula.

Sangster originally worked as a production assistant at the studio, as well as assistant director, second unit director and production manager. After Hammer Films Productions' success with The Quatermass Xperiment, Sangster was approached to write The Curse of Frankenstein, to which he said, "I'm not a writer. I'm a production manager." According to Sangster, Hammer Films' response was, "Well, you come up with a couple of ideas and if we like it, we'll pay you. If we don't like it, we won't pay you. You're being paid as a production manager, so you can't complain." He later turned to direction with The Horror of Frankenstein and Lust for a Vampire for the studio, but with far less success. His third film as director was 1972's Fear in the Night, which resurrected the psychological woman-in-peril thriller Sangster had begun with his script for Taste of Fear in 1961. All three of these films featured actor Ralph Bates, one of Hammer's best-known actors of the latter period of the company.