WHEN CUSHING STOOD IN THE SHADOW OF NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL

WATCHING AND LISTENING to the news tonight, I am so sad and shocked by the horrific fire, that is destroying and consuming the beautiful and historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It's a place I have visited many times since I was a teenager. No time in Paris can be spent, without seeing 'The Cathedral'. With it's an amazing architecture, inside and out, the paintings, the sculpture... the history, you could sense so strongly when you walked inside. Peter Cushing visited it quite a few times too and loved it, very much. He sat and painted in water colours the spire, the arches and roof. It's truly, truly sad to see the iconic spire and parts of the first tower, now vanishing in the flames. To all our followers and friends in Paris and France... our hearts go out to you...

BACK IN THE EARLY 80'S, it wasn't unusual to sometimes meet up with some of the 500+ people back then, who were international subscribers to the PCAS Newsletters and Journals. PCAS was then a team of three people. We treated managing the society as a hobby! Often we would spend a weekend in London, Sheffield or Bristol, meeting many of those members who loved Peter Cushing, Hammer films and anything connected! We would always take gifts of some stills or a press book, for anyone we were meeting! One trip, I remember well, was a three day trip to Paris. It was a hoot! We arranged to meet outside Notre Dame Cathedral. Peter Cushing always had, and still does have, a very healthy crowd of 'fans' in France! I only knew one of the people we were meeting in that crowd, one Jacqueline Carron! We had spoken on the phone and written a few times. this was PRE internet, remember! My French was a joke, but her English, perfect! The group we were meeting all knew each other, so we were the visitors. They were the kindest, most polite people, generous with time, they didn't want us to leave! Some brought their partners and Mum's along too! We walked, talked and eventually, all as planned spent the evening at Jacqueline's home, watching anything and everything, we had managed to record or copy of Peter Cushing on video!  Jacqueline lived a short distance from the Cathedral, and the towers could be seen from her living room. The following morning, we met again for a coffee and took pics of our new 'Cushing friends' under the shadow of the Cathedral towers....it was a special time...

THE MAKING OF THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF : PART ONE

THIS IS THE FIRST PART of a series of features, focusing on THE MAKING OF THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF. This is quite a different series, compared to our usual theme of features on the work of PETER CUSHING. Each of our six parts will not just be looking at Cushing, the cast and a critque of the finished film, but we will also spend time hearing from the production crew, lighting, set design and the diector and producer.  TYBURN FILMS were quite an unusual production company. At the time studios and companies were struggling to finance and make features, Tyburn approached the problem with a different concept, which makes this series all the more interesting. Peter Cushing appeared in four productions with Tyburn over the years. Three films, THE GHOUL (1975) THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF and THE MASKS OF DEATH, also a biographical tv programme called ONE WAY TICKET TO HOLLYWOOD. Tyburn's CEO Kevin Francis, first met Peter Cushing when he was working and finding his feet, for Hammer films. Both he and Cushing became friends, as Francis was such a fan of his work and Hammer films. The friendship helped too when Francis was looking for a top name, when casting his first Tyburn productions, it was a friendship that would grow even closer during and after Cushing's last few years. 

ACTING UP!

OBVIOUSLY, film acting has never been just a simply 'act' of learning your lines and saying them with as much conviction as you can! There are various technical things to think about, like keeping in frame, leaving seconds at the beginning of takes, so the editor can get in, and keeping enegies the same in the master shot, close ups and cut aways. The script for THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF was like many scripts that director FREDDIE FRANCIS worked with for another film production company to, AMICUS FILMS. LEGEND had a script where actors were given a certain amount of freedom in interpreting the script! Peter Cushing played the role of Paul Cataflanque, a skilled forensic surgeon. Here he explains his methods of performance for camera, and preparing for a role.

CUSHING AND THE LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF SCRIPT : CHANGES

PETER CUSHING: 'I DO THE SAME THING on all film scripts. A play that's written for the theatre, it's altered sometimes but it's done in a very different way. A film script is such a technical thing, it's altered so much during the original writing that sometimes the dialogue does get a little out of hand. They've been concentrating on something else so much that in the end they can't see the wood for the trees, but when an actor sees the script for the first time he is able to see these little problems . Then there are also certain ways of making exactely the same sense but saying the line in a way that is better for the character. But one never alters the gist of what is being said because obviously if you alter that you alter the whole script. And then, a script is over written, becauseit's much better to cut out, if you are over time, than to try and add on if you are under, because it's when you add on, that begins gto show a little, unless you have given it great thought to it. So scripts are usually overwritten to about ten minutes so that you can cut ten minutes offand come down to the required hour or hour and a half, or whatever you want'.

CUSHING'S METHOD AND PREPARATION

PETER CUSHING: 'I ALWAYS DO a tremendous amount of this, it's purely my way of working, particularly in films, which is my favourite medium, But the actors get very little rehearsal time, you see, so you must do your homework. I naturally always ask the director, but the director has many things to think of, not just me or the other actors, he got technical things, lighting and so on, and what he's doing next week or next month. So whatever you can do to help is good for everyone concerned. And instinctively he knows immediately : it's marvelous and we'll add to it or no, because I always do a little sketch of the clothes I want, costume, because I think that is important. It helps with the character to know, what you are goping to wear. This again is purely my 'method', if you want to call it that. I think the more preparation you do the better. I don't like the phrase 'technique of acting' because I don;t think there is such a thing, but film making is very technical in as much as you have to remember your 'marks', remember your 'key lights' all sorts of things like that, and at the same time, you have to make it all look as though, it's all just happening, when the camera films it.

"I DO A LOT OF WORK long before I start in the production and the shooting begins. i know the whole script, because you never know what scene they are going to do some days. They might suddenly change their minds, like yesterday when we were a day and a half ahead of schedule. Well, had I not known the scene, I couldn't have done that. But you see, when I get home after  a da's shooting there's not really time. I just check through, and look at all my notes. By the time you get home it's seven or eight o'clock and by the time you've had a meal and written a couple of letters it's time to get to bed for half past five in the morning. So that's why it's important to me at any rate, to do a great deal of work before shooting starts".

WORKING WITH DIRECTOR FREDDIE FRANCIS: 

PETER CUSHING : "EVERYBODY IS DIFFERENT, though I must say, I have been exceptionally lucky, with all the directors I have worked for. Freddie has his way of doing things. What I admire apart from his tremendous knowledge of the buisness is Freddie's wonderful insight and instinct for how to treat every indivdual on the studio floor. He knows those ones to lark with, those not to lark with, he giot great kindness and yet absolutely the correct kind of authority. The behaviour of everyone, obviously in almost every industry, does stem from the top and go right the way down through. If you get someone who's not very nice at the top it does tend to inflitrate through the unit".

THE ROLE OF PAUL CATAFANQUE

PETER CUSHING : "HE IS A PATHOLOGIST, except that they weren't called pathologists in those days, they were called judicial surgeons. But there's quite a lot of humour this time, which is nice and makes a lovely balance to the mayhem that goes on. But with any role you play your personality must come across. From that you try to make something of the character, the author has written into the part. This script was written by John Elder, he was one of the directors at Hammer films. He wrote many of their early ones and for eighteen years these Hammer films have been popular and the mass of people who go to them, it's rather like those people who buy their favourite chocolates; they know when they open the box, they'll find the coconut cream and the truffles and that sort of thing, and they know when they see this kind of film, they'll get what they are kooking for. And so, they're catered for, by the scriptwriters". 

THE SCRIPT MUST BE COMPLETE AND FINISHED

PETER CUSHING : "WHEN I RECEIVE THE SCRIPT it is never a treament or second draft, it's the final script, nearly always and it is something I have to insist upon, because I know me, I know my limitations. I must have the script. It's no good saying will you do it and you'll have the script the day you arrive, I couln't accept because I know I couldn't do it. That's the only reason, I am not being troublesome, it's just because I can't workthe way I do unless I have it well ahead, to study and learn and make what alterations I want to suggest. As soon as the script arrives, I go right through it and if needed I make my suggestions which are then sent through to the director and producer, they amalgamate them, when they all get together. By the time I arrive to shoot, all the talking's finished!!" 

FOR DAVID RINTOUL 'The Legend of the Werewolf' was something quite different, it was his first film role. Although by this point he had played many theatrical roles, working in film was very much learning while working . . .

DAVID RINTOUL : "FILM IS TOTALLY different! The first couple of weeks I was just trying to sus it all out! I was a bit lost, I think. I'm beginning to get more confident now. The technique is quite different. Hopefully with time you get the technical side of it, so it becomes an instinctive thing and all your concentraition goes on the acting. What I've found so far, is especially at the beginning of the film, was that, I had to concentrate on the tech things and tended to forget about the acting! But it's a question of experience, I guess. The first couple of days I seemed to have a problem hitting my marks, where to stop when walking, not to lean. I missed my walking marks because I was trying to do it without looking down!" 

"YOU SEE WHEN  a director says, could you move a little bit to the left, often he's talking about an inch or so. Whereas in the theatre when they say move a bit more to the left they mean FOUR FOOT! Even doing telly there's not the same precision of moves, as there is in film. Here lighting is so important. With telly, you do look for the lamps and that sort of thing, but it's not so central".

"WORKING WITH ALL the werewolf make up, is alright. I have found it helps me. Different actors work differently. I like working off , without the costume or make up, so there's that boost for me when I go into make up. For example, in the theatre I don't like trying on bits of costume, until a day or two before we open the show, though some directors want you to rehearse in costume quite early. I always leave itthe end, because it gives you that extra boost, that extra charge."

"THE ROLE OF Etoile is pretty much an instintive type of part. Some parts you have to think about a lot, and others you say, yes, that' what the role is about. I talked with director Freddie a bit about the script, but it isn't all sacred and you can change it as you go along. I  am lucky I haven't had to really change very much, because . . . he doesn't say that much! I've made it a bit more colloquial. It came across, in the reading, as not stilted, but a bit formal. So I changed little things, like 'you will' to 'you'll'. But you have to be mindfull that Freddie doesn't want it too colloquial, because it has to have a nineteenth century feel. It's a delicate balance bewteen the two. Etoile is described as a country lad. I'm not doing a country accent or anything like that, just making it a bit less formal...."  

"WHEN CASTING STARTED for this film, I was busy auditioning for a theatrical play, I had already done two or three auditions for it, and was just about to go to the last one, when my agent rang and and said, go out to Pinewood studios tomorrow! So I did, nit really knowing much about it at all. I saw Freddie the director, talked for five minutes or so, met Kevin Francis the producer, talked to him for a couple of minutes and then went back to my flat in London not really knowing or having much idea of how I got on. The phone rang a couple of hours later and the agent said, you've got the part, That was that! We started about four weeks later. Though I was here at the studio, about a week before we started shooting, just to try out the Werewolf make up, and that turned out fine. A couple of minor adjustments when we began shooting, and that was that. As I remember there was just one make up test where they actually filmed it."

COMING SOON : PART TWO : JACK SHAMPAN ON SET DESIGN : THE BUDGET AND DIRECTOR FREDDIE FRANCIS INTERVIEW ON LEGEND!

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#PETERCUSHING MOMENT OF TERROR MONDAY! LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF : HUNT IN THE SEWERS OF PARIS!

#MOMENTOFTERRORMONDAY! Carrying on....from the werewolf themed  films featured in yesterday's Weekend Double Feature here at the website, I've pulled the final moments from 'Legend of the Werewolf' (1975) for this weeks, #CUSHINGMOMENTOFTERROR MONDAY!. As most of us here know, it's one half of a pair of films, that #PeterCushing made with Tyburn films in the mid 1970's... a nice little thriller / horror film made in the style of films that were made twenty years or so, BEFORE this one. At the time this film was made, the film industry in the UK was in pieces, despite CEO Kevin Francis making a few features with his company Tyburn, plans to produce other movies, were shelved and the two Tyburn terrors, both starring #PeterCushing, still awaiting a legit dvd or blu ray release, becoming maybe two of the 'most wanted' on most PC's fans film wish list.

 CATCH UP WITH THIS REVIEW AND GALLERY FROM 

THE PCAS ARCHIVES : HERE!

REMEMBER! IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA

A HOWLING DOUBLE BILL WEEKEND : CALLUM MCKELVIE ON SUNDAY CLIPS GIFS STILLS AND WHOLE MOVIE!

OUR FINAL Cushing-double feature this week is intended to go against the grain somewhat. The Curse of Frankenstein and The Revenge of Frankenstein were thematically, visually and stylistically linked being the first two entries in a series. The Skull and The Creeping Flesh on the other hand, despite being years apart shared the same director and had very similar thematic interests. Today’s final double bill features two films that both belong to the same sub-genre but apart from that are stylistically and thematically different. It is those differences I want to discuss and those differences that I feel make The Beast Must Die (1974) and Legend of the Werewolf (1975) the perfect ‘werewolf’ double feature.

DESPITE BEING THE ONLY TWO Werewolf movies Cushing made (well unless you count the segment in 1964’s Dr Terrors House of Horrors that he’s not in) there’s very little to connect these two films. The Beast Must Die is in reality more of an action thriller, attempting to ride the ‘Blaxploitation’ wave that was occurring at the time. Thus the film is accompanied by a ‘funky’ soundtrack and numerous action set-pieces.

TELLING THE STORY of Calvin Lockhart’s obsessive hunter Tom Newcliffe, the plot follows his gathering of five individuals at his home. Early on he reveals that he believes one of the gathered number to be a werewolf and he is determined to hunt the creature down. The film is the same manner as a contemporary thriller but mixed with an Agatha Christie like sensibility. Legend of the Werewolf on the other hand (along with the excellent The Ghoul) is one of a number of Tyburn films that were deliberate throwbacks to the early years of Hammer . A period piece, the film reverts to the traditional ‘werewolf as tragic figure’ mould and has a number of similarities to 1961’s The Curse of the Werewolf.

SO IF INDEED, other than both featuring a werewolf and Peter Cushing, there is very little to connect these two films, why would I suggest watching them as a double bill? Well put simply that is the reason. Two films from the dying days of the British horror boom, they demonstrate remarkably different approaches to the crisis. Both use the Werewolf myth (why that monster in particular I have no idea) but it is the difference in treatment of this well-known monster that makes these two films interesting.

THE BEAST MUST DIE looks across the pond to the American thrillers being produced at the time and thus chooses to rely less on the horrific and more on action. I did a larger piece on The Beast Must Die sometime back and it’s a film which though certainly entertaining, few would call outright successful. However when watched back-to-back with Legend of the Werewolf, I actually found myself gaining much greater appreciation for Beast. Now I want to point out that I adore Legend but when viewed in the context of the time it was made, it appears a very odd move to do something that relies as much on old tropes and conventions as this film does. 



IN THE FACE OF MUCH DARKER and more visceral horror’s along the lines of The Exorcist, Night of the Living Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre it seems a bizarre move to emulate the early years of Hammer, a studio who by this point was on its last legs. Watched devoid of any of this context, Legend is a rip roaring gothic melodrama in the style of old. Watched within this context it’s a fitting tribute to the main figures within Hammer but can only really be viewed as something of poorly judged exercise in nostalgia, looking back to the past, when the present was taking the genre in new and exciting directions.

THE BEAST MUST DIE on the other hand is a similar misfire, but all the more enjoyable for the brave attempts to try and escape the rut that most of its British Horror contemporaries had entered. Unfortunately poor production values and a script that stretches its thing plot far beyond its means, doom what could have been a powerful early 70’s thriller. As it is Beast stands as a fascinating artefact of the bizarre ways that the giants of British Horror cinema were attempting to cope with the ‘new wave’.

 

 

I REALISE THAT throughout this piece I’ve sounded incredibly negative towards these two films, truth be told both are incredibly enjoyable. Which is the best? Well without doubt Legend but Beast has its moments too. Before starting this double bill I suggest watching the third instalment of Mark Gatiss’s excellent A History of Horror which contextualises the environment in which these two films were made and shows what they had to compete with. As it is, Cushing’s two entries into the werewolf sub-genre make an excellent pairing, demonstrating two different approaches to dwindling box office returns on British Horror films. 

REMEMBER! IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA

CALLUM MCKELVIE: GOES RUMMAGING ON PLANET AARU FOR CUSHING WHO GOODIES!

SO FIRST THING FIRST- I’ve been away a little while, but now I’m back! So as before every Sunday I’ll be stealing the lime light to ramble a little about a differing aspect of Cushing and his work. It seemed best to return with a bang and following on from my two-part review of the ‘Dr. Who’ movies, we’re presenting another two-part piece on the films, though this time it’ll be more along the lines of a ‘behind the scenes feature’. Primarily there’s two reasons for this. A) I am of course a massive Doctor Who fan. B) There’s a lot of neat images and footage we have yet to share.

ONE OF THE MAIN REASON FOR this article was to showcase some footage available on the BBC DVD of the Jon Pertwee story Death to the Daleks. (see above) Recently discovered at the time of that stories release, the footage is a rare behind the scenes look at the making of the 1965 film. The BBC’s presentation of the footage is admirable as they’ve gone to the trouble of interviewing some of the original crew along with Hammer Historian Marcus Hearne, for what is an admittedly small amount of film. 

THE FOOTAGE has some interesting Cushing moments, showcasing him exploiting the slapstick comic potential of his character as he jumps around wildly in a doorway when their escaping the Dalek trap. The real delight however is a tiny moment in which Cushing and fellow star Roy Castle are seen partaking in a small song and dance number of what we can presume is some kind of Broadway theme. Unfortunately as the footage has no sound we’ll never know what this sounded like! Though I’m sure someone with excellent lip-reading skills could tell us the name of the song.

ONE OF THE MORE INTERESTING facts in terms of the films promotion centres around its sets. Designed by Scott Slimon (who worked on many contemporary horror pictures including Scream and Scream Again and The Skull amongst others) they are easily one of the most striking aspects of the production. Indeed so striking were they deemed by Milton Subotsky that not only did sections of them appear alongside the Daleks at the Cannes Film festival in the 1965, but they then went on a country-wide tour across the UK promoting the film. 

SEVERAL OF THE DALEKS from the film would be loaned out the BBC and appear as ‘Dalek guards’ in The Chase, which due to the shows tight turn-around would actually be broadcast before the film’s release. Their noticeable by the fact they are missing their large bases.

OF COURSE THE FILM was released during the height of so-called ‘Dalekmania’ within Britain, when the titular killer pepper-pots from the planet Skaro were taking over the toy stores. Indeed it’s often easy to forget that during this period it wasn’t really the ‘Doctor’ that was the draw of ‘Doctor Who’. The year the film was released the Daleks appeared in a massive 19 television episodes and that’s excluding cameo appearances, indeed one of the episodes didn’t even feature the Doctor (Mission to the Unknown). 

BY THE TIME the film hit cinema screens then a slew of Dalek related merchandise was available for the avid collector. Some was explicitly related to the Cushing film (The ‘Paint and Draw the Film of Dr. Who and the Daleks’ book) whereas a majority was simply ‘Dalek’ merchandise (Dalek soap, Inflatable Daleks). Most famous….or perhaps that should be infamous was the ‘Dalek Playsuit’. A red plastic dome would fit upon the head of the wearer, with a plastic sucker and gun arm, whilst there body would be draped in a plastic sheet, designed to look like a Dalek.

MORE EXPLICITLY movie related merchandise including a Dell comic adaptation, that like all Dell comic adaptations of the time told the story of the film with some rather unimpressive artwork. Meanwhile child star Roberta Tovey released the album ‘Who’s Who’ with a B-side featuring Jack Dorsey’s Dance of the Daleks. Listen to it at your peril…

PLEASE JOIN ME HERE AGAIN, next week! Where I’ll be discussing tid-bits concerning the second Dalek movie…DALEK INVASION EARTH 2150 AD!.

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA  . .