Philip Martell

Philip Martell (6 October 1907 – 11 August 1993) was a British composer, arranger, musical director, orchestra leader, and most notably head of music at Hammer Studios. Early life Born in Whitechapel and brought up in the East End, Martell began to play the violin at the age of five, enrolling at the Guildhall School of Music in 1919, aged 11. After graduation he began working in the West End of London as leader and then conductor, and also became involved with the early film industry, arranging sequences of classical music to accompany silent films. But as sound came to films in the 1930s Martell returned to the theatre, and also formed his own orchestra, The Forum Orchestra, in 1936. By the early 1950s he was conducting London productions of top musicals and shows, such as Love From Judy (Saville Theatre, September 1952), After the Ball (Globe Theatre, 1954) and Free as Air (Savoy Theatre, 1957). Film career Martell received his first film credit as musical director in 1949 on Val Guest’s Murder at the Windmill and was both musical director and composer of the film score to Guest’s Miss Pilgrim’s Progress (1950). He was sponsored by Guest to join Hammer Studios in 1954. He succee