One of our more unusual items in the collection that I recently came across is a Hammer Horror film script, The Evil of Frankenstein (1963).  The copy we have belonged to Katy Wild (b.1941) who played a ‘deaf and dumb beggar’ girl, which is presumably why it came to us, perhaps donated by her many years ago.  The film starred Hammer favourite, Peter Cushing.  Here is a page from the script where the beggar girl comes into the story.  I suppose one of the themes of the story would be how the girl and the ‘monster’ are both outcasts from society, and are linked together.  It was written by ‘John Elder’  which was the pen-name of Anthony Hinds, son of the Hammer Films founder William Hinds.  The back cover of the script has seven photos from the production enclosed.

There are interesting questions raised by this script, for example, the portrayal of Deaf People in the media, whether there were hearing actors in the roles of Deaf people, and to what extent things may have changed in the past century since we have had cinema and television.  The script will be of interest to anyone studying film.  We should all as consumers of media and entertainment, think critically about how media such as film and TV depict deafness.

John Elder, The Evil of Frankenstein, 1963

John S. Schuchman, Hollywood Speaks: Deafness and the entertainment industry (1988) RNID UTB TJY

Katherine A. Foss, Constructing Hearing Loss or “Deaf Gain?” Voice, Agency, and Identity in Television’s Representations of d/Deafness
Critical Studies in Media Communication Volume 31, Issue 5, 2014

Hamilton, Allyson P, A pedagogical content analysis of deaf culture in feature films Ed.d. dissertation, 2013