REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY : PETER CUSHING : THE POEM, THE PIANO, THE BATTLE HYMN AND THE DANCE REMIX

 

Remembrance Sunday : REQUESTED: BEFORE Peter put on his base-ball cap and bling, his recording of the Peter Kayne war poem, 'No White Peaks' existed as a solum recording, accompanied by appropriate piano . . The Rap version, as we posted in our previous post today, never quite sat comfortably with Kayne, and as for Peter Cushing he was happy to assist, even though the recording of his vocals had been made at his home in Whitstable months before. ABOVE, This is the original recording and maybe more fitting ..

NO WHITE PEAKS by Peter Kayne

No white peaks on mountains high
For there is no snow left in the sky
No children going out to play
Upon a sunny summer’s day
No lovers to kiss or caress in the park
And when the sun’s bright, it still seems dark
The will-‘o-the-wisp of a spider’s web
The soldiers too busy to bury their dead
The pall of smoke where a house used to stand
A mother and child lie hand in hand
And in the air where birds once flew
There’s the screeching sounds of something new
Shells explode with the thunder of war
And somebody dies or maybe more
For they seem to lose count and they’re not really sure
Of how many people have died in that war
Oh there must be a reason why men fight
For both sides think that they’re right
The dead can’t speak but of this I’m sure
If they could they’d say “No more.
No more killing. No more hate.
No more war before it’s too late.”
Too late for those who’ve died in vain
And those with bodies racked in pain
Too late for those who’ve gone through Hell
With their limbs torn loose from the blast of a shell
Are we so blind we cannot see
That this will be our destiny?
No white peaks on mountains high
For there is no snow left in the sky.
—Peter Kayne

ABOVE: AFTER THE RELEASE of #PeterCushing's reading of Peter Kayne's poem 'No White Peaks' as a charity record, the recording embraced re-mixing of the vocal into #DanceMix! At 78 years of age on 11 November 1991, Peter Cushing released the recording, made a promo video and appeared live on the UK tv show, #RichardandJudy' in an interview to help give the release a push! It's true Peter never considered himself a singer . . hence the 'only speaking the lyrics in the song in my performance on the #MorecambeandWise Show'!' ..and thought 'Rapping' was 'Something you got round a parcel'. Here is the entire interview! Owing to traffic problems, Peter arrived late, but the live show waited moving items, until he arrived. In this interview we also get to see some clips from the very rarely seen promo video. Peter does well and uses his still considerable charm on co-presenter Judy Finnegan.

ABOVE: AS RECENT AS 2012, another remix of Peter Cushing's reading landed on YOUTUBE, this time with a emotive 'Battle Hymn of Republic' playing! One thing for sure, come Remembrance Day or Veterans Day you usually see one of these three versions appearing somewhere. It's great that Cushing's reading still gets interesting and exposure. . .

REMEMBERING VAL GUEST TODAY BORN DECEMBER 1911

HONORING the director Val Guest on today (what would have been his 101st birthday) is a pretty tough thing to do. After all, this is the man who gave us Hammer Horror, without the smash success of The Quatermass Xperiment and its sequels and follows up, we wouldn’t have had The Curse of Frankenstein and the gothic boom that followed. It’s a well-known fact that Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale had his differences with Guest in terms of his interpretations of the story, but the film itself is a masterpiece of British Sci-Fi Horror and perfectly captures a bleak post-war world. During my time at university I wrote a dissertation covering the post-war themes within the Quatermass television series and films and spent a great deal of time defending Guests adaptation. His Quatermass’s strength lies in its difference to the TV version, non-more explicit than it it’s titular hero…or in Guest’s eyes Villain. In his vision, Quatermass becomes an inhuman monster, representing the dangers of science. The world he inhabits is shown to the audience in an almost ‘documentary’ style, infusing it with a gritty realism. The next-two sci-fi horror films Guest did for Hammer, Quatermass II and The Abominable Snowman, were also adapted from Kneale screenplays and have a disturbing realism to them.

QUATERMASS II is, at least in my humble opinion, a massive improvement on its television predecessor, exorcising a somewhat frivolous space-journey at its climax that only served to undo all the tension built up to this point. With a somewhat softer Donlevy and several shocking and disturbing moments (‘they blocked the pipe with human pulp!’) it’s another classic. One of his best and easily my favourite of his science fiction films is his memorable collaboration with Peter Cushing, The Abominable Snowman. Adapted from Nigel Kneale’s The Creature, it’s a mesmerising exercise in a slow building sense of claustrophobic tension. All the more admirable considering the films set in vast snowy plains. Guest gets the best out of his performers and by keeping the Yeti mostly off screen, they become a genuinely frightening presence.

PETER CUSHING'S CO-STAR, EDWARD JUDD FROM ''ISLAND OF TERROR'' STARS IN 'THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE' GREAT GALLERY AND REVIEW:  HERE!

IT SEEMS unfair to just discuss these films though when Guest had a rich and varied career within the British film industry. Of course his most famous film is probably, 'The Day the Earth Caught Fire', another science-fiction film that adopts the same documentary eye as his previous works and tells the story of what happens when the earth begins to overheat. He was one of the directors on the masterpiece of mess that is the 1967 version of 'Casino Royale', and this was by no means his first stab at comedy either, having director both Up the Creek and Further up the Creek. Two of his best however were once again for Hammer, both war pictures and films that manage to be almost the opposite of each other. 

PETER SELLLERS WITH CUSHING'S 'SHE' CO STAR, URSULA ANDRESS, IN VAL GUEST'S 'CASINO ROYALE' (1967) Peter Sellers Facebook Scrapbook page: HERE

BARBARA SHELLEY IN VAL GUEST'S 'THE CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND' (1958)

'THE CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND' is a brutal tale of the horrors of a Japanese prisoner of war camp that caused quite a stir on its release in 1958. The following year came Yesterday’s Enemy, a film which Val Guest often said he was most proud. Based on a BBC teleplay it’s still a criminally unknown film, which is a shame as it’s a masterpiece. Featuring stunning performances from Stanley Baker, Guy Rolfe, Leo Mckern and Gordon Jackson, the film features no incidental music for the entirety of its run time. A relentlessly depressing film, it shows the horrors of war as they are and doesn’t shy away from condemning both the British and their enemies. In my opinion it’s Guest’s best and film that, if you have yet to see it, deserves your attention

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  . 

'RARE LESSER SEEN PETER CUSHING SEASON': SOME MAY LIVE (1967)

SPOILERS: Here's a little PCAS exclusive, to start our 'Lesser Seen Peter Cushing Season'. 'SOME MAY LIVE' isn't a film you will see mentioned in many books on Cushing, if it is it will be a short synopsis, cast and distributor. It's a title that has out foxed most researchers, and has sadly been largely forgotten since it's short release by UK distributors Butchers in August 1967. Unlike many Vietnam War dramas, 'Some May Live' was produced while the War was still very much rolling on.

PRODUCED AT A TIME when GB was starting to feel the economic pinch and studios were looking for cheaper pot-boilers to bring in much needed work and finance, Foundation Pictures Krasne Entertainments, were looking for a film that could package Hollywood actors for the US market and secure a name for the home shores too, they offered Peter Cushing the leading role of John Meredith, shortly after he had wrapped work on Hammer films , 'Frankenstein Created Woman' at Bray studios and 'Night of the Big Heat' both with director Terence Fisher. Here Cushing is directed by Vernon Sewell, who in a just few weeks after completing this film, would go on to direct Cushing in 'Tigon films 'The Blood Beast Terror'.

'SOME MAY LIVE' tells the story of Kate Meredith, a decoder for American intelligence, who is compelled by her foreign correspondent husband, to give him classified information, which is then passed on to the Viet Cong. She is plagued with guilt, especially after her activities lead to an attempted assassination of a U. S. senator. In addition, she becomes disillusioned by her marriage and has an affair with the assistant to a high level army intelligence official. She becomes persuaded to relay false information to her husband even though she knows that it will likely result in his execution by the Communists. 

IT'S A GOOD WATCH, an entertaining film, with Hollywood actors Joseph Cotten and Martha Hyer adding name value, weight and drama, Cushing gets to flex some character muscles we don't see that often, which makes some scenes worth the watch in itself . .. MORE titles to come and another 'Lesser Seen' Peter Cushing film, next Wednesday...HERE! MANY thanks to film collector and archivist JEAN LAYETTE for helping us bring this little gem to your attention..You'll be hearing much about Jean in the coming weeks! MERCI JEAN!

ABOVE: One of the RARE airings of #SOMEMAYLIVE 

on television in 1993

TRIVIA: What is the connection between THS FILM and the BBC tv series, 'MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS'? 

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

WOMEN IN WAR AND CONE OF SILENCE : CUSHING IN UNIFORM

Cushing In Uniform: Peter Cushing in uniform from Women In War (1940) as Captain Evans and Cone Of Silence (1960) as Captain Clive Judd.

'WOMEN IN WAR' was released in June 1940, and stands as one of Peter Cushing's lesser known films. Made in line with four other films in 1940, 'Laddie',  'A Chump At Oxford', 'Vigil in the Night' and the short, 'The Hidden Master'. In these films, Cushing did at least receive a screen credit, in 'Women At War'... he did not. An uncredited role with fleeting screen time, playing the character Captain Hughes, he gets a couple of lines, but also in his limited screen time, flags up what could be the first of his 'Cushinisums' : 'a visual jesture, often repeated in performances through out his career. i.e '...the pointing of his index finger', appears in several films and tv performances from the 1958 DRACULA  to FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL in 1971.

Cushing pauses to wipe his brow and back of his neck with a handy handkerchief! What could be the first appearance of a Cushingnism!

'Women in War' tells the story of a "good-time girl", raised by her somewhat lax divorced father, finds herself involved in an accidental death, and the only way she's able to get out of it is to volunteer--albeit reluctantly--to be a nurse in the war effort. She travels to England and is assigned to a hospital under a very strict matron. What the girl doesn't know is that the matron is the mother she has never seen. The film is at this time unavailable as a home release.

An interesting aside... PATRIC KNOWLES who appeared with Peter Cushing in WOMEN IN WAR in 1940, is also known for playing protagonists in a number of horror films, including The Wolf Man (1941) and Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943).

'CONE OF SILENCE / TROUBLE IN THE SKY' released in 1960 stars Peter Cushing as Captain Clive Judd. The film was inspired by true events surrounding the De Havilland Comet in the early 1950s.

The film tells the story of a seasoned pilot who is condemned for an error which causes a crash. The pilot later dies in a crash with similar circumstances and an examiner looks for scientific reasons for the crashes.

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