Showing posts with label tendre dracula. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tendre dracula. Show all posts

Monday 19 March 2018

CALLUM MCKELVIE SUNDAY DOUBLE BILL : ITS A MESS! VAMPIRE GIRLS VAMPIRE GUYS AND PC TOO


OH DEAR. When I embarked upon this two-part examination of Peter Cushing’s four vampire films that didn’t feature him playing a variation of his Van Helsing character, I had no idea what I was in for. Now my first part concerned what are, essentially, two solid later day Hammers that stand up to this day. One, The Vampire Lovers, isn’t the best showcase for Peters talents, but it’s a pretty great film overall and a successful attempt by Hammer to eroticise their Vampire formula further than before. Twins of Evil, on the other hand features one of Cushing’s very best roles, as the vicious Gustav Weil. 


ABOVE: LAST WEEK'S FIRST FEATURE ON the theme of Cushing in VAMPIRE FILMS not playing one of his most popular anti-vamp roles, VAN HELSING: HERE! 


HOWEVER, WITH THOSE TWO out of the way, it was up to me to then tackle both Incense for the Damned (1970) and Tendre Dracula (1974), two films I had not seen. Now writing this piece…I wish I hadn’t.




WE'LL START WITH ABOVE,  Incense for the Damned, a 1970 British production starring Cushing as Dr Walter Goodrich. Goodirch is something of a high-up in British society, whose son has gone missing in Greece, having fallen under the influence of a mysterious girl. A group of the young man’s friends and a private detective embark on a journey to find him. On the You-Tube description for the posting of this film, my colleague Marcus opens by stating; From the 92 feature films that Peter Cushing appeared in during his long career in television, theatre and cinema, there only about five titles, whatever your person taste, that could be deemed as 'almost unwatchable'


A SENTIMENT I am afraid I must agree with. The film is truly terrible, with a sluggish and plodding narrative that makes tremendously little sense. The majority of the characters come across as childish and unlikeable, bickering constantly.  






PATRICK MACNEE, always a welcome sight, has a role and the film is elevated somewhat whenever he is on screen. Unfortunately, and this is not something I thought I’d say, the opposite must be said for Cushing. For once in his career he seems utterly bored and…well…is clearly going through the motions with very little vitality an energy resulting in a lacklustre performance. I don’t want to be too harsh, his role is very small and so its possible there’s just nothing for him to work with, for whatever reason the results are the same.





MOVING ON TO Tendre Dracula, I was mortified that Marcus had also included it in his list of the ‘five-unwatchable Cushing films’, stated in the video description mentioned above. None the less I soldiered on, sat down to watch it…and was not rewarded. A bizarre French comedy centering on an aging horror star, MacGregor, who has decided he only wants to play romantic roles. 


CUSHING THIS TIME, is the only good thing, probably enjoying playing a variation of himself but alas even he cannot save what is one of the most god awful train wrecks of a film I have ever seen. Crude, poorly acted, poorly shot and well just cringe worthy, Tendre Dracula may have Cushing giving it his all…but here it’s simply not enough. 



THERE'S A FEW INTERESTING snippets, a nice touch which clearly are supposed to reflect an actual horror star reflecting on his career through the guise of a fictional character but this is hardly a new idea. Of course the best example of this is Peter Bogdonavich’s Targets (1968), starring Boris Karloff and but if you want to see Cushing do this in a far better film I suggest Madhouse (1974). 


HERE HE PLAYS A WRITER, not an actor (that role goes to Vincent Price) but some of the sentiments shared between the two are clearly meant to be based in reality. In Tendre Dracula these moments come across as shallow and ineffective…what’s more it feels like instead of having a bit of fun but ultimately respecting Cushing, that the Director is actively taking the piss.




THE INFAMOUS and much maligned ‘spanking’ scene seems horrifically out of place and Cushing himself hardly seems pleased. I’m not really sure what I expected when I put this on, usually being a fan of the weird and oft maligned but what I got wasn’t even vaguely entertaining. Tendre Dracula deserves its reputation as a childish exercise in farce.


WELL AFTER THOSE TWO, I feel I need a stiff drink. But I leave you with a solemn warning. Whilst that old feeling that Cushing can save truly awful films is often correct, it’s not always. When he even he can’t, then you must wonder just how awful the resultant product can be. If you ever get tempted to sample these… delights, then I warn you dear reader, STAY AWAY. Down that road only madness lies. Until next time! 

HERE IS A FOOTNOTE to this review feature on TENDRE DRACULA. LATE last year, I received this email. I THINK I managed to provide a good answer, for their TV show. What do YOU think the answer would be?  


Hello Marcus Brooks
My name is Jose Puig, and I work as journalist for a cultural quiz show on the Spanish TV called ‘BOOM’. I’m writing you because we are working on a question about the Peter Cushing and I have thought that you maybe could help me confirming the information that we mention in it in order to be as precise as possible and make sure we don’t spread wrong information to our contestants and our audience. With your permission, I attach you the information we want to confirm:It would be really helpful if you could confirm us that Peter Cushing has never performed a vampire character in cinema in order to give this option as a false one for a question we are working for.


I hope you don’t mind helping us with our doubts.
Thanks in advance for your help and your time.
Best wishes,
JOSE PUIG




Sunday 16 July 2017

#GETTTHECUSHIONSUNDAY! THE 1999 RELEASE OF A CAMP CLASSIC! REALLY?


#GETTHECUSHIONSUNDAY! THE BOX SAYS... 'Recently discovered CAMP CLASSIC! UNRELEASED for 25 YEARS!' ..Yeah, there was a reason for that delay 🙂  I wonder how much those critics were paid, or how much they drank before the screening??? ..It's a classic alright 😉 Anyone else have this release? This is one of those rare times where the box and packaging is more exciting and impressive that the contents!


HOW CAN A FILM, that gives us great images like the one above, get it so wrong??? I have said here many times, it almost seems that the budget and imagination needed for the creation of the film, was diverted into the publicity. The press and lobby photographs, were printed on hi quality colour paper, the photographer who took them, knew what he was doing. 


THERE ARE SOME EXCELLENT photographs, the press kit was pretty lush-deluxe too! In 1976, I was at a meeting where a short promo reel was screened... it was made up entirely of the 'My grand father was a grave digger' scene. Cushing (MacGregor) was playing his character's grandfather, a young boy, actor Robert Edwards, played Cushing in a wonderfully atmospheric scene. Horse drawn hearse, the black feather plumes, wind howling... 'It took 40 years to bury my grandfather! For a grave digger that is tragic!....' The tragedy is the premise of Cushing playing a retired Horror film actor, holed up in a creepy castle, playing the 'I could really be a vampire' card, was a good idea. The props department even used actual press photographs of Peter from his own films, to add back story evidence of MacGregor's career on the screen.


THIS FILM PROBABLY gets more interest here at PCAS than it rightly deserves, and that is probably because, we don't know WHY Cushing signed on the line.  There have been well documented instances in the past, where Cushing, questioned details in script, The Brides of Dracula and The Mummy for example, I would think he would have almost certainly declined to be involved with a film like this in his earlier years. And, I don't think we can lay the blame at the director shooting extra scenes in PC's absence or an editor putting a spin on the footage. I have never seen a full shooting script for Tender / Tendre Dracula.. but I am pretty sure the scene of PC's dashing out some buttock slapping (!!) to cast member Miou -Miou, was down in black and white, even if it was on a yellow or pink rewrite page !


WE ASKED YOU AT OUR FACEBOOK FAN PAGE  what YOUR opinion and thoughts on the film were. Here are some of your comments from the post at the page: 

S. ALEXANDER: 'A venture that Peter would have declined to be involved with in his earlier years. Remember his initial objections and reluctance over 'The Brides of Dracula'? Obvioulsly the finished cut differed from the scripted scenes too.'

R.JOYCE: 'I to  have confess...it's the only Cushing movie I can't sit through. Beautiful box art. But it's a disjointed, pseudo erotic flick. Er, not even that erotic, actually'.
 

J.PLAYER: 'I watched it there last year...everytime I thought that I couldn't believe I was watching that crap and was ready tonight it down, something would happen that made me want to keep going to see how it would end up!'

R.SMITH: I have a fondness for films like this that are so bad they're not even funny, just jaw dropping exercises in disbelief! Similar to the Bond knock-offs of Lindsay Shonteff (you have to see these to believe their creative ineptitude) I do feel there's a real need to see TENDER DRACULA on Blu-ray someday. The version I have on VHS is pretty shabby. 

G.GRANT: I watched this on YouTube a few years ago😱It was really bad. I mean it had novelty value, because Mr Cushing was in it. But just awful

T.TUTTLE: I got 20 minutes into it and had to stop! My pain threshold wasn't high enough to make it!


OUR FULL FEATURE AND GALLERY ON TENDRE DRACULA
CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING : HERE



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

Thursday 13 October 2016

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: BEHIND SCENES ON AMICUS WEREWOLF FLICK AND THE BIG SHOCK!


#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: 1974: The very first whispers I heard about a films called 'Confessions of a Blood Drinker aka The Big Shock aka La Grande Trouille . . .was in 1975, the word was, chaos. Rumbling, Shambolic, Rubbish. Then I received a set of beautiful colour mat finish press photographs..you can see them in out feature at the website...then House of Hammer magazine ran a black and white feature, made no sense. It wasn't until 1985 that I finally saw a print, with subtitles. It made no difference. It was still everything they said it was...and more. A delux car crash in movie making. Everything that you THOUGHT Cushing stood for in his art, this one flies in the face of! It wasn't the only time Cushing made a dead duck, where the best thing to come out of the venture, were the press photographs! And here is one now . . .
#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: 1974 Director Paul Annett talks about directing the 1974 Amicus films, 'THE BEAST MUST DIE' starring Peter Cushing, Charles Gray, Anton Diffring, Calvin Lockhart, Marlene Clark and Michael Gambon. Behind the scenes stills and clips . .The story is, in essence, an intersting mix of Agatha Christie’s 'And Then There Were None' (aka, Ten Little Indians) and Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game, with elements of the werewolf mythos stirred in for good measure with .... The Werewolf Break, being the cherry on the top!

 

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: 1974 As usual some of posts here are also posted, a little earlier at our Peter Cushing Appreciation Society Facebook Fan Page , and after posting the one at the top of this thread first on facebook, about Peter Cushing's film, 'Tendre Dracula' . . I received a message from Andre Toutlinee, who suggests that, 'I can't believe that Tendre Dracula could be THAT bad a film! I mean how bad was it it for you to say that it was a car crash of a movie??' Well, Andre... How bad was it?? It was THIS bad, (see pics above) Peter looks interesting as a vampire...but the film's cinema poster??? What...were..they...thinking??? OR smoking???



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Thursday 31 October 2013

HAVE YOURSELF A VERY HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


WHAT FUN HAVE YOU GOT LINED UP FOR TONIGHT?? We'll be posting a few Halloween themed items today, but our PCASUK Halloween Celebrations, with prizes, competitions and a few extras (!) kick off this Halloween Weekend. Please join us then Here's Peter Cushing as MacGregor form 'Tendre Dracula' Have a HAPPY and SAFE Halloween!

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