With Universal’s golden age of horror coming to an end, Britain’s Hammer Studios resurrected the classic monster characters in full, bloody color. Following the success of the 1957 film The Curse of Frankenstein, the studio put director Terence Fisher at the helm of the studio’s sophomore entry, Dracula, in 1958.

Hammer cast Christopher Lee as the Count, a role that the iconic actor reprised nine more times in the next 15 years. Lee has the distinction of playing Dracula the most on theater screens, most often opposite Peter Cushing.