Showing posts with label rememberance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rememberance. Show all posts

Tuesday 18 June 2019

TERENCE FISHER REMEMBERED TODAY


REMEMBERING TERENCE FISHER TODAY 😊 If you enjoy any of the better Hammer films of the 1950's and 60's . . this is the point, you doff your cap 😉 There can be few directors who worked for Hammer films, who did so much to develop that Hammer-in-house style. Terence Fisher, WAS Hammer. Along with Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and the players who helped under pin the rich vision of fairy-tale come Gothic nightmare style. Even when the 'monsters' were 'shaky' the script, with more holes than a Swiss cheese... the look, pace and world beautifully styled by Fisher, just sat so well. The Curse of Frankenstein in 1957 was the first, it also lit the rocket that would spin Peter Cushing into a new and long lasting career within the fantasy genre and Christopher Lee, on scraping off the make up and anonymity as 'the monster', would soon don a cloak and a feral shocking performance as Dracula, that set him on path, for more Fisher, Cushing Hammer classics to come. The Mummy, The Gorgon, and The Hound of the Baskervilles, still stand, as maybe the best of Terence Fisher and Hammer. 



TERENCE FISHER was one of the most prominent horror directors of the second half of the 20th century. He was the first to bring gothic horror alive in full colour, and the sexual overtones and explicit horror in his films, while mild by modern standards, were unprecedented in his day. Fisher although aware of the terrifying elements of his Hammer films, would only smile when questioned about their shock factor, and answer...'I make wicked fairy tales...!' Fisher also along with Lee and Cushing, had a wicked sense of humor, hints of which can often been seen on the screen. Given their subject matter and lurid approach, Fisher's films, though commercially successful, were largely dismissed by critics during his career. It is only in recent years that Fisher has become recognised as an auteur in his own right . . .



'BACK IN MARCH 1980, I was just 19, living in Kent and scuffling back and forth to London, jobbing in very basic model and extra work, desperately earning my actors 'Equity Card'. With PCAS has my hobby, I was living in digs, that belonged to a family who were organizing a fantasy convention in London just a few weeks away. They were very kind people and good friends of Terence Fisher's, who had now retired, and was sadly, not in very good health. But he had agreed to attend the convention. While sitting in the kitchen one evening, I was star struck to hear, they were chatting with Fisher on the telephone. I had spent the last two days laughingly trying to get myself an agent in London, the shambolic details they shared with Fisher. Laughing into my coffee I shouted across the room, 'Ask him if he knows any charitable, kind and helpful agents!'. There was a pause and a howl of laughter. I asked, what was his answer? 'Oh, you'll never find one of them!' was his reply . . and he is still laughing down the phone!' 🤣🤣 Sadly, Fisher passed in June. I did get my Equity card, thanks to sponsors, actor Michael Ripper and Make up artist, Roy Ashton... who strangely enough, held a membership of the Equity Union, for many years! So, I sadly never got to meet Terence Fisher... but I did get to make him laugh 😀😊' Marcus Brooks




PETER CUSHING AND THE DIRECTORS: PART ONE OF FOUR: HERE!


Thursday 7 June 2018

REMEMBERED TODAY : SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE JUNE 7TH 2015


SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE remembered today. Three years on . . . It's still a little strange how there still isn't an official CHRISTOPHER LEE fan site or even facebook page on the net. Before his passing, there was an official site, that had slowed down, to then a week after Lee's death, was closed to any updates and carried a banner of, being remodeled soon to reopepost. We are still waiting. In the meantime, I try to share something related, if only by a Cushing. Plus we do have a Christopher Lee theme EVERY Saturday here! Posts about Christopher Lee here and at our PCAS Facebook Fan Page are always well received and supported. There are always lots of comments and text from followers and members, who still miss his presence and regularly watch the wealth of work, that we can always enjoy . . . in memory of one of the greatest!











WATCH the candid conversations with PETER CUSHING and CHRISTOPHER LEE during their very lasst meeting! MORE clips being add to this PLAY LIST TODAY, on the anniversary of CHRISTOPHER LEE'S passing . . . CLICK HERE FOR THE PLAYLIST AT THE PCAS YOUTUBE CHANNEL



COME JOIN US AT OUR PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE WITH OVER 33 THOUSAND OTHER CUSHING FANS! UPDATED DAILY! KEEPING THE MEMORY ALIVE! JUST CLICK HERE

Thursday 4 January 2018

GIFS WEDNESDAY REMEMBER MILLAND AND THE DOCTOR PAYS A VISIT TOMORROW!


IT'S ENOUGH TO PUT you off chest freezers for life! What a wicked way to go though? Here is MICHAEL TODD, matinee idol of the 40's and 50's. appearing in AMICUS FILM 'ASYLUM' (1972) As ever, Milton Subotsky, pulled together a fine cast, with then likes of Peter Cushing, Barry Morse, Sylvia Syms, Charlotte Rampling, Patrick Magee, Herbert Lom, James Villiers, Geoffrey Bayldon and Britt Ekland. All fine actors with long careers and experience behind them . . part of the secret that made the Hammer films and Amicus movies so entertaining were the actors, who knew their trade, not only gave value in the billing, to get bottoms on seats, but were very good at their jobs! Amicus may have low budgets, and were often seen as a bit low brow . . .but how often did a mainstream entertainment film carry a cast like this one??


POOR OL ROBERT HELLER, his plan appeared to be going like clock-work in Hammer films 'FEAR IN THE NIGHT' (1972), the last thing he expected under that sheep was MOLLY! Me too. I have mentioned this before, but I must be one of the few, certainly in my group of friends, who watches a movie, I mean WATCHES the movie. I get so pulled in by the story, I am not distracted by trying to work out, what happens next. So, this film was very enjoyable for me! When we met and interviewed RALPH BATES and JUDY GEESON back in the early 1980's, the memory of making this film and working with Peter, was still very fresh in the minds. They LOVED it. But, I don't think Joany, did though.....! Pity.  


PROBABLY THE ONE FILM we get request for GIFS from, than any other from Peter Cushing's long career! This chase taken from Hammer films, 'DRACULA' (Horror of Dracula) is one of Hammer's most iconic scenes, it never git better. Fisher repeated a chase through the castle (below) in Hammer's next Van Helsing film, good as it was, it didn't reach the drama that this one created. Peter Cushing was a very athletic man and actor . . .he swam in the sea ever morning, at his beach-side home in Whistable!! Christopher Lee, not so much. In fact, I have spent some time while posting these gifs, thinking of I have ever seen Christopher RUN in any other films? I can't think of any. Cushing was graceful, Lee despite highly skilled at mime which he studied was, by his own admission quite a clumsy man! But, with the help of some technical twiddling, dubbing OUT Dracula footsteps, during this chase, he whips along like a hunted gazelle! 


PETER CUSHING AS VAN HELSING chases Baron Meinster, though the chateau in Hammer films, 'THE BRIDES OF DRACULA' (1960). Again, like the 1958 DRACULA, this scene was shot at Hammer's home studio at Bray. A small studio, with not very big stages at this time. But, if you look carefully, you can spot many props and furniture, that Van Helsing would have past, during his early chase scene with DRACULA in 1958!


WE CAN'T LET TODAY go by with remembering this chap! The much loved and  very talented actor Ray Milland, whose screen career lasted from the 30's all the way into the 80's… and covered multiple genres with his most notable films being The Lost Weekend (1945) (for which he won an Oscar) , Dial M For Murder (1954) and the horror classic's The Premature Burial (1962) X The Man with the X-ray eyes (1963) both for Roger Corman. He starred with Peter Cushing in The Uncanny (1977) and The Masks Of Death (1985) ….. Do you have a favorite Milland film?


LARGE PHOTOGRAPH SCAN: Here's a wonderful behind the scenes shot from Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 AD, one of many . . . . plus a few unseen pics from the film... I'll be sharing here tomorrow, for #Throwbackthursday. In the film, this scene really does look like an exterior location. Lighting camera men really knew there jobs back then, and the crews worked hard to archive great results like this one. LOOK carefully and you can spot one, way up in the lighting gantry, just over RAY BROOKS, who is standing on the set demolished building . . MORE TOMORROW! SEE BELOW!



THE FIRST of a TWO PART GALLERY featuring behind the scene rare images and photographs from BOTH Peter Cushing DOCTOR WHO DALEK movies from the 60s! PART ONE ARRIVES HERE TOMRROW #THROWBACKTHURSDAY!



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  

Saturday 21 October 2017

REMEMBERING CARRIE FISHER TODAY


#REMEMBERING Carrie Fisher . . . it's a year today since Carrie Fisher last birthday... these are the visuals I used on her birthday banner last year. It's still very sad. No one could ever have guessed, that something so tragic would happen just a few weeks later... We Remember Carie Fisher today, on what would have been her 61st Birthday . . . .Many of you are sharing your thoughts and memories over at  our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE POST ... Please come and join us . . .





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  . . 

Friday 12 May 2017

WE REMEMBER THORLEY WALTERS : BORN TODAY 1913 ON SET GIF AT BRAY!


TODAY, we remember the great character actor, Thorley Walters on what would have been his birthday. Known for often playing eccentric characters in a variety of different films, many of which he made for Hammer. Over the years he became part of the Hammer film repertory company, a dozen or so actors, who were cast as not only support characters, but would turn up as barmen, coach drivers, butlers, doctors and... 'victims' Among Walters titles for Hammer were, 'The Phantom of the Opera' (1962), 'Dracula, Prince of Darkness' (1966), with Christopher Lee, 'Frankenstein Created Woman' (1967), 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed' (1969) with Peter Cushing and his last Hammer appearance, 'Vampire Circus' (1972). He also played Dr Watson to Christopher Lee's Holmes in 'Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace' (1962) and co starred with Peter Cushing in a non hammer film 'Suspect' (1960) 



Thorley Walters as Special Agent Princein Suspect / The Risk starring Peter Cushing Hammer films 1960



'FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED'  was Walters last role with Peter Cushing, though not sharing any scenes together, he did play with scenes with Geoffrey Bayldon, who sadly passed away yesterday. Walters and Bayldon were very skilled actors, who could take the simplest of dialogue and scenes, and make them very much their own...and yet, without being selfish to others sharing the scenes. 



As LUDWIG in 'Dracula, Prince of Darkness', Hammer films (1966)

BOTH Bayldon and Walters also appeared as many government officials, civil servants and poker faced clerks. For a time they had almost a monopoly on from men from the department of.... in pin-striped suits, bowler hats with chilly jobs-worth attitudes to match! Both Walters and Bayldon were an extremely skilled breed of actor, we now so rarely get to see and enjoy... which makes the work they have left for us, all the more important, and for that, we thank them and remember one of them today . . .



Walters, Peter Cushing and director Terence Fisher share a joke on the set
of Hammer films, 'Frankenstein Created Woman'  (1967)




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 reach our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th 2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!

Wednesday 8 February 2017

PATRICK MACNEE REMEMBERED


THIS WEEK AT our facebook fan page, we rememberd the wonderful actor Patrick Macnee who was born on this day in 1922. He was best known for his role as the secret agent John Steed in the British television series The Avengers and The New Avengers.



PATRICK MACNEE and Peter Cushing had the opportunity to work together several times. In 1968 Patrick was very much established in a superb tv programme made in the UK called The Avengers...Peter worked with both Patrick and Diana Rigg on this programme. Later in 1970, they worked together again, Macnee and Cushing both 'landed' in a film called 'Incense For The Damned' aka 'Bloodsuckers' It received a limited release at the time, but seems to have found something of a 'cult-status' in the land of '100 Horror Poor and Weird Films' dvd compilations!! In 1978, the Avengers tv series was rebooted and relaunched and it's first episode, not only brought us Macnee and Cushing ....but also two new side -kicks for Macnee...Gareth Hunt as 'Tough man' Gambit and Joanna Lumley as Purdey.....who not only supplied buckets of sex appeal to the tea time Sunday evening program, but high kicks and a hair style that anyone who considered themselves a bit of a catch, were proudly modeling within days of the first program being broadcast! Lumley had played Cushing grand-daughter Jessica Van Helsing in Hammer films 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula' (1973)


MACNEE also shared a close friendship with Christopher Lee, since the pair attended school together (at Summerfields Preparatory School in Oxford) and also performed together several times, including playing Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in two TV movies in the early 1990s, Incident at Victoria Falls and Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady. Patrick Macnee died peacefully at his home, in Rancho Mirage, California on 25th June 2015. He was 93.


Monday 14 March 2016

I REMEMBER WE WENT TO NEW YORK! CUSHING AND LEE : ONE LAST TIME : RARE CANDID FOOTAGE


The year 2016 marks the 60th anniversary of PCAS, please help us celebrate Peter Cushing life and career, by sharing our post on any of our sites.

Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee: The Last Meeting Clip 1

The first in a series of clips of the last time Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee met, posted here and shared in features and articles on our various internet platforms. The occasion was the recording of a voice over at a small recording studio in Canterbury, Kent, UK for a documentary about Hammer films, called Flesh and Blood, that was later screened in two parts on the BBC. Part two was broadcast just two days after Peter Cushing's death on  Thursday August 11, 1994. We post the clips under the title of 'ONE LAST TIME' ...in part a nod to the cameos that both Cushing and Lee played in a film entitled 'One More Time' as a favour to Hammer fan and friend, Sammy Davis jr. The unedited footage runs at approx one hour. Over the next two years, we will edit clips and share them. We are sensitive to anything within the footage that compromises confidentiality. The footage was shot with both Cushing and Lee's consent. Enjoy this last and rare moment, feel free to leave a comment or click a like, if you feel happy to and please come see us at any of our links below. You will be most welcome!


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Website: petercushingblog.blogspot.co.uk

Sunday 21 September 2014

REMEMBERING: NIGEL STOCK


Remembering Today: NIGEL STOCK a superb Watson in the BBC 'Sherlock Holmes' television series of the 60's, with Peter Cushing as Holmes. Sadly, Stock left us in 1986, aged 66....Today would have been his birthday...


BBC 'THE SIGN OF FOUR' starring Peter Cushing and Nigel Stock
review with gallery HERE
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