LEGEND HORROR CLASSICS AND REMEMBERING CHARLES GRAY : MYCROFT : MOCATA : ROCKY HORROR!

TODAY WE REMEMBER Charles Gray, who is best remembered for his outstanding performance as the evil Mocata opposite Christopher Lee in Hammer’s The Devil Rides Out (1968) and his role as 'the narrator' in 'The Rocky Horror Show' … other memorable roles in include Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Mycroft Holmes in The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes TV Series… His Peter Cushing connection is that he co-stared with him in Amucis’s film The Beast Must Die (1974)

MORE ON THE BEAST MUST DIE HERE!

THIS WEEKS MAGAZINE FOCUS centres on a weird little UK series called. 'LEGEND HORROR CLASSICS'  Riding on the popularity of the UK Monster Mag, this too was a fold out eight panel affair. There was no huge flip side poster, instead a whole comic strip adaption of a 'Horror Classic' film. The first issue arrived in time for the release of the Dan Curtis adaption of DRACULA starring Jack Palance and Simon Ward. The whole thing sadly was stretched rather thin, with what room there was for editorial, the writing was rather limp and sparse. The comic strip art, was no way in the same league as the 'Hammer House of Horror' magazines, that were to follow, but as a 25 pence pocket money treat it gave a good deal to any youngsters, finding the likes of Hammer films, Cushing and Lee for the first time.  

EVEN THOUGH THE FOCUS was on the Curtis 1974 DRACULA release, both CUSHING and LEE are given a full page picture treatment, with PC looking rather funky in a comic art dotex version of the very familiar publicity photograph BARON from 'FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN'. Lee is represented in a still from 'DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE' ... though in neither pics, are the titles of the films given, and that sadly is the overall standard of all the magazines, in this series . .  little in the way learning or anything any fan would find new or interesting, even back in 1974!  

THE SECOND ISSUE had a 'Frankenstein' theme based primarily on the 1931 Universal film, although Victor Frankenstein was drawn to resemble Peter Cushing, in some of the Hammer series. Later the theme and comic strip  covered The 7th Voyage of Sinbad in issue 3, Blood Lust of the Zombies in issue 4, Hammer's Dracula has Risen from the Grave, under the strange title of "Dracula Must be Destroyed") in issue 5, Terror from Space was issue 6 and the story of Beowulf in issue 7. The comic stories from issue three became at times quite bizarre, and the connection with what were 'horror classics' either from cinema or TV, floated away and from issue 10, the magazine no longer carried comic strip adaption or stories.

KEVIN O'NEILL, who would also go on to work on that other 70's horror film mag, WORLD OF HORROR and the comic 2000 AD, was closely involved with the publication, providing some of the comic strips and serving as art editor, before becoming editor. Though little. if any of the comic adaptions ever came any where close to the benchmark that Hammer House of Horror would roll out, this magazine, was probably in the beginning aimed at a younger market, and in that case, one can see why, the issues lack any real maturity or muscle. For us Horror Film Fans, it was better than nothing and certainly whet our whistles, while we waited for, what was yet to come . .  

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WHO IS THAT MAN? THE TUESDAY TOUGHY

HERE IS THIS WEEK'S TUESDAY TOUGHY plus the answer the to LAST WEEK'S TOUGHY, which appeared to be a little hard on the FACEBOOK PCASUK UK FAN PAGE! Maybe this week's may be a little kinder? The ANSWER will appear here and at our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE on FRIDAY! 

BELOW IS THE ANSWER TO LAST WEEKS TUESDAY TOUGHY!

ANSWER: THE STUDIO IN THE PHOTOGRAPH was BRAY STUDIOS, THE FILM Terence Fisher was working on was THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES for Hammer Films. The TRICYCLE was the CLUE. It is the TRICYCLE that actor MILES MALLESON rides when playing BISHOP FRANKLAND in the film . .

EVERY POST YOU SEE HERE, is also posted at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE . THERE you can feel free to comment, debate and join in the chat! OVER THIRTY TWO THOUSAND followers are part of the PCASUK crowd on FACEBOOK. Come join us and be part of the OLDEST CUSHING FAN CLUB  still working to keep the memory of PETER CUSHING alive ...and for free!

A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JUDY MATHESON AND THE GRAND CINEFICCION ISSUE EIGHT IS OUT!

HERE IS A HEADS UP for all Spanish speaking followers and fans of the pretty amazing CINEFICION magazine! The latest issue is OUT NOW and available for order. As always editor Dario Lavia has put together another well PACKED issue along with the VERY nice regular middle pull out full colour feature... this issue it covers the Universal CREATURE films. There are so many great things about this issue! Just a few of the items covered are Sara Karloff, Julie Adams, Claudio Huck reviews the 'Stepford' series of films, Alfredo Paniagua Garcia's 'Kaidan Cine De Clasico Japones' four page feature is an eye-opener and look out for Carlos Diaz Maroto review of, the 2017 film, 'The Shape of the Water' plus the whole thing kicks off with a Doctor Who feature, from yours truly and the PCASUK website 😉 I always look forward to that sealed package, sent by Dario when receiving my latest issues. This week the large envelope containing the latest, also came with a neat little sketch of PC, hovering over my postal address! A NICE touch, Dario 😉 Order your copy now while stocks last : CINEFICCION ISSUE 8 : HERE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUDY! 🙂 Today marks a special day for actress, Judy Matheson! Judy appeared in the Peter Cushing 1971 film, 'Twins of Evil'... playing one of the village unfortunates, who were burnt at the stake! 

JUDY HAS HAD QUITE a full career over the years appearing in Crucible of Terror and also Hammer films, Lust for a Vampire too. Her television career has spend across tv favorites such as ITV's Coronation Street, the BBC sci series Blake's 7, Z Cars ( lead female role, twice), The Professionals, The Adventurer, The Sweeney, Harriet's Back in Town, Citizen Smith, Dead of Night,and for several months she starred in Crossroads, playing Sandy's girlfriend and Hugh Mortimer's secretary, Vicky Lambert! She played the poet Shelley's lover, Jane Williams, opposite Robert Powell in the BBC's film of the life of Shelley directed by Alan Bridges.

HER THEATRICAL WORK includes starring opposite Richard O'Sullivan in a British tour of the comedy Boeing-Boeing with Yootha Joyce & Sally Thomsett, Ray Cooney's Chase Me Comrade, Stage Struck by Simon Gray, Hugh & Margaret Williams’ The Flip Side, Funny Peculiar by Mike Scott and Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce. Currently she does occasional voice-over and narration work, and sometimes attends film conventions and Hammer Film events, as a guest. I have had the opportunity, as have many, to quickly chat with Judy here on facebook several times, and I can honestly say she is always very friendly and happy to chat! A lovely lady 🙂 Please help us celebrate Judy's birthday today and wish her a VERY Happy Birthday 🙂 We hope you are enjoying your day, Judy?

 

THE PETER CUSHING HAND PAINTED SILK SCARF FOR OLIVIERS 1948 HAMLET PREMIER

THE PETER CUSHING HAND PAINTED SILK SCARF . .designed by Peter for the movie premier of Olivier's Hamlet in 1948. As we all know, Peter impressively played Osric in the film, but showed an extra talent, as a designer and artist! So impressive was the scarf design, that BLOND Bros of London, renowned makers of ladies and gentlemen's scarves, placed orders and sold it in twelve different colours! Even the Queen had her own, Peter Cushing designed scarf!

CALLUM MCKELVIE : THE THREE ROLES THAT MADE THE CAREER : RARE GALLERIES

THE THREE ROLES THAT CREATED the career of Peter Cushing! A NEW series of features from CALLUM MCKELVIE starting very soon! The RARE photograph of Peter in this promo banner marks probably one of Cushing's best known roles. Over at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE we asked, which THREE roles would you personally list as being Cushing's TOP THREE? Lots of interesting answers and many suggesting the THREE we have chosen  to focus on, in this new  weekly feature! Feel free  to visit the PCASUK page and join in!

STAR WARS WITH MAGIC CARPETS ALONG WITH CHRISTOPHER LEE, EMMA SAMMS AND PC!

PETER CUSHING as the brief but interesting WAZIR AL WAZARA in ARABIAN ADVENTURE in 1979. Often see as another AMICUS film, the film was in fact produced in April 1978 EMI Films announced they would make the film as part of a series of films they wanted to produce with the newly formed Orion Pictures. Granted both the partnership of the Amicus Kevin Francis and John Dark were on board, and both Christopher Lee and Cushing were starring and almost, guest starring, but Amicus it aint. The budget was much more than what Dark and Connor ever had to tackle their Land that Time Forgot, At The Earth's Core or Warlords of Atlantis, but it wasn't as successful. The promo strap line of 'Star Wars with Magic Carpets!' promised much, but fell well short of anything close to the new benchmark of children and family entertainment on the big screen. 

OUR PCASUK FEATURE AND GALLERY ON ARABIAN ADVENTURE HERE!

WHEN CUSHING does finally arrive, his appearance as the cell trapped Wuzara, it is a bit of shock. Sporting what looks like 15 years over growth on the handle-bar moustache he wore as Dr Naramrov in Hammer films, The Gorgon, his character is dusty, grubby and broken. Cushing gave the role, however short, his full attention and commitment and the facial hair he grew and wore, for the role of  Commissioner Potts in the truly weird and way off, A Touch Of The Sun with Oliver Reed, remained. Work on TOUCH on location in Zamiba had only wrapped two weeks, so what little of Cushing's face we could see was, certainly sun kissed for the Arabian climate!

THE REASON WHY this film is being included in our usual COMIC TURNS and MAGAZINE themed WEDNESDAY, is because the press office for the movie managed to pull two quite interesting stunts in the drive for publicity. ONE was the fabulous FULL COLOUR photo that graced the cover of an EARLY issue of blood splat and gore effects screamarama, that is now FANGORIA magazine. Granted this was only issue three, and the magazine would soon being making off in a completely different direction, but brownie points to the press office. SECOND was the wave of alternative cinema and press design posters that were drawn up and produced on the release of the film. One poster carried a selection of COMIC STRIP panels on a full colour cinema quad poster. Rarely does this kind of artwork feature on a cinema poster, but the well intended move to capture the attention of the target audience kiddies, was still much more impressed and still dizzy from the hi tech visuals, of 'A GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY'. Magic carpets were for this crowd, were seen as thread bare and dated. It would be a long time far far in the distance, before those impressive visuals would stop tinting any fantasy adventure on the big screen. . .

A FACE YOU WILL SURELY KNOW! Ever wondered whatever happened to ACTOR MILTON REID. FIND OUT : RIGHT HERE!

FIND MORE and DAILY with LOTS of opportunity to comment and share your opinions and thoughts at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE!

TERENCE FISHER TAKES A SPIN ; TUESDAY TOUGHY : JANET HARGREAVES DIES 81

THIS WEEKS TUESDAY TOUGHY! This weeks TOUGHY features a rare and quite splendid photograph of director, Terrence Fisher. The answer to last week's TOUGHY is below! Have fun, I will give you the answer to this one, right here next week. THIS POST also appears at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE today too, where no doubt, many will be debating the two questions. IF YOU would also like to join in the fun, simple click HERE  and click LIKE there and maybe, YOU will come up with the answer!

BELOW THE ANSWER TO LAST WEEKS TUESDAY TOUGHY!

IT'S VERY SAD TO HEAR of the passing of an actress, who made her name on the small screen, playing a very popular and sinister villain, in the TV soap series, Crossroads. In the 1970's along with actress Sue Lloyd, the character – whom Hargreaves once described as a “Technicolor villain” – was labelled “unhinged” and “deranged”, and kept millions nightly glued to the screen. From 1971 until her explosive final storyline nine years later, Rosemary became increasingly bitter – and unstable – while seeking to hold on to those closest to her. Her final episodes pulled in millions of viewers.

DURING THIS TIME, Janet Hargreaves also played a small role with Peter Cushing in the last of Hammer's Frankenstein saga, 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell', playing 'on-the-edge' Challer, one of the many hand picked excellent character actors, who chillingly twitched and stared, as the unfortunate inmates of the Baron's hospital ward. Janet also played the role of 'Mother' in the Sylvester McCoy Doctor Who story, 'The Greatest Show in the Galaxy' in the late 1980's. Janet didn't get many roles on the big screen, but her face was known to many UK TV viewers. 

WHEN WATCHING 'Monster from Hell' with my Grandmother for the first time back in the late 1980's, she let out a shrill note of surprise, when the inmates shuffled on screen. 'Goodness, that's Rosemary Hunter, from Crossroads!!' My Gran was a big fan of the soap. Janet Elizabeth Hargreaves, actor, born 31st May 1937; died 4th August 2018, remembered today 

 

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UNDEAD CASH 1984 AND THE DEVIL HOUND! REMEMBERING ACTOR ANDRE MORELL : BORN TODAY 1909!

TODAY WE REMEMBER ACTOR ANDRE MORELL, born on this day in 1909. A celebrated actor whose career had more than a few teamings with Peter Cushing and the fantasy genre.In 1938, Morell joined the Old Vic theatre company, and appeared in several of their high-profile productions both at their home theatre and on tour throughout Britain and across the rest of the world, appearing with both Alec Guinness and John Gielgud.' He kick-started his association with 'creepy cinema' with Cushing as Sherlock Holmes, and playing Arthur Conan Doyle's character Doctor John H. Watson, in Hammer Film Productions' version of The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959). In 1960. He played Captain Edward Manningham in 'Cone of Silence' in 1960 also starring Cushing, Michael Craig and Bernard Lee. His wonderful portrayal as the 'bounder' Colonel Gore-Hepburn in Hammer's 'Cash on Demand' in 1961 makes very entertaining viewing, as he piles the pressure on Cushing's tormented bank manger, Harry Fordyce and 65 as Haumeid in Hammer's 'She'..with rather odd dubbing.

THERE WERE OTHER VERY GOOD HORRORS and thrillers too, Hammer's 'Plague of the Zombies' in 66 and the rather limp 'THE MUMMY'S SHROUD' again for Hammer in 1967, along with Michael Ripper's Longbarrow, one of the few times where supporting actors are more interesting then the central 'monster'. But, his stand out performance with Cushing, for me has to be in the BBC live televised production of George Orwell's '1984', as the chillingly good O'Brien. It's interesting that Morell played a very good Prof Quatermass in the BBC Quatermass tv series (1958-59) but when offered the role of the Prof in Hammer's 'Quatermass and the Pit' in 1967, turned it down.

OUR FULL FEATURE REVIEW WITH GALLERY of 'CASH ON DEMAND' starring Peter Cushing and Andre Morell : HERE!

ABOVE: ANDRE MORELL IN PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES'

MORELL ALWAYS LOOKED very at home in Hammer's early horrors, but inside personally felt a little more than embarrassed by the subject matter of some of the films, and often forbid his family to actually see them at the local cinema. By all accounts, a rather private man, but very generous on screen and made an outstanding contribution to some of Hammer and Cushing's best work.

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