WHEN SIRE OF ACTING DYNASTY APPEARED WITH FANTASY ICON REMEMBERED

MICHAEL REDGRAVE was of the generation of English actors that gave the world the legendary John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, #Britain three fabled "Theatrical Knights" back in the days when a knighthood for thespian was far more rare than it is today. . . Sir Michael Redgrave. A superb actor, Redgrave himself was a charter member of the post-Great War English acting pantheon and was the sire of an acting dynasty. According to his daughter, Vanessa, and son Corin, Sir Michael's favourite film roles were in The Browning Version (1951), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) The Dam Busters (1955) The Lady Vanishes (1938) #1984 (1956) Dead of Night (1945) and The Magic Box (1951) and many more gems . .

PETER CUSHING  appeared in a 1955 stage production of The Browning Version as Andrew Crocker-Harris in London, recorded and transmitted by BBC TV. He co started with #PeterCushing in Time Without Pity, Cushing's role as barrister, Jeremy Clayton is neat role. Cushing plays it with an impatient sharpness , that makes you feel all the more sorry for Redgrave's 'David Graham'. Just a support role, but in that added to Cushing's already sizeable characters he had played in theatre, radio and massiviely on television. Redgrave's opinion about working in film, when he had made such a career of the theatre, was pretty much like Peter Cushing also felt . .'I didn't think I'd be any good in films... I couldn't imagine myself on the screen. Besides, there were such exciting things to do in the theatre, so much to learn!'. Michael Redgrave passed away on this day in 1985 only one day after his 77th birthday.

If you are not familiar with Time Without Pity, a little later we have posted and shared a clip over at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE, which features a scene with both Redgrave and Peter from the film. IF you have seen the film, love to know, what do you think of it?

RARELY SEEN SHERLOCK HOLMES PHOTOGRAPHS : PC SIGNED STILL COMMANDS GOOD PRICES

HERE ARE THREE rarely seen publicity photographs taken during the making of the BBC television series 'Sherlock Holmes' with #PeterCushing in 1968 during the making of 'A Study In Scarlet'. As you will probably know, most of the episodes were destroyed by the BBC during the great BBC Spring Clean, where hundreds of hours of material were wiped and tapes reused or skipped off to the skip! All that remains of Cushing's episodes, were compiled onto first a VHS then a DVD collection, and are now available to give us a taster of what was a very popular television series, no largely lost . .

SIGNED PETER CUSHING black and white photograph! Caught this on the net yesterday. It's great to see that Peter's autographed pics, can still command a good price and still have value. £365.00 is the asking price for this one Are you the proud owner of a signed Peter Cushing photograph, personalized or just signed?

THE BEST OF THE BEST AND A WEBSITE SHUFFLE!

WHICH PETER CUSHING Blu Ray release has presented the BEST items in it's EXTRAS and BONUS features and what were those personal stand out items for you?

OVER AT THE FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE followers are weighing up the best and most disappointing of DVD and BLU RAY EXTRA features of the last ten years of Peter Cushing releases. For many, that added attraction of also having interviews, short documentaries or galleries can sometimes be the make or break factor in IF they would purchase the release, often when perhaps they already own a copy of a film. These days it's not always given that a blu ray will contain any extras features. Some of the best remastered blu rays, seem to have maybe blown their budgets in making the remaster possible, that little if any lolly is left for a short documentary or interview. The finding of material and making of documentaries can be a costly buisiness. As the 'vaults' seem to have been well and truly emptied of free material, the making and presenting of new resources is sometimes well out of the reach of some distributors, it's always a very welcomed plus, to find new unseen features and  faces on documentaries and bonuses. The ground is getting thin though. The kick off period of crammed extra menu's for Hammer, Amicus and Cushing films, maybe now over. However, we have been treated to some excellent goodies in the past . . .  

R.WARREN: 'UK Blu-ray release of Dr Who and the Daleks has some lovely, behind the scenes, black and white footage, showing a small clip of Cushing and Roy Castle joking around on set, sadly it has no sound but still lovely.'

F.SAINSBURY: 'Mine has to be The Curse of Frankenstein bonus extras are superb especially and documentary called Life with Sir which is about Peter Cushing's secretary she takes about the death of Peter's wife and how he coped with his wife's death and working with Peter she talks about Peter's death its truly emotional.'

I GULYAS: 'Well I don't have the Bluray of house that dripped blood, but the DVD has a nice discussion of amicus and making of.'

AND IN CHATTING  about EXTRAS on dvd and blu rays... here is a heads up to a re-shuffle and layout to come this week at our website! For those of you who enjoyed or missed the huge selection of Peter Cushing reviews and features by Callum McKelvie here and at the website, we are making the library and galleries easier to find, by providing a great menu of all of Callum's features, including the rare stills and extras! Meanwhile, Here are links to TWO features that Callum wrote on the contentious issue of Cushing and Dr Who. HERE and HERE!  The 'Who' films on both DVD and Blu Ray, contained one of the best examples of EXTRA features on a release and still for some, takes some beating!

NEWS: SCREAM FACTORY SET TO RELEASE HAMMER FILM CLASSIC FOR USA!

NEWS: Scream Factory have announced they are putting out Hammer's 'Frankenstein Created Woman' on blu-ray! SCREAM say in their press release that 'It’s the year of Hammer Films for us as you can already tell and we have yet another one planned for the Summer. FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN (starring legendary star Peter Cushing) is being prepped in Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release!'

HERE ARE THE EARLY DETAILS we have at present time, there are no details to IF this will be a REMASTERED release.

• National street date for U.S. only (Region A) is June 11th.
• Release will come with a slipcover (guaranteed for three months after its original release date).
• The newly-commissioned artwork pictured comes to us from Mark Maddox (Dracula: Prince of Darkness). This art will be front-facing and the reverse side of the wrap will the original theatrical poster design.
• Extras and specs are still in progress and will be announced later in May.

#petercushing #hammehorror #frankenstein #screamfactory #susandenberg #terencefisher

NEWS: THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD : SOUNDTRACK VINYL LP LIMITED RELEASE

NEWS: JUST LAST WEEK, 'Kritzerland' exclusively released something that would look and SOUND very nice in anyone's Amicus Films collection, the soundtrack vinyl LP to the 1971 portmanteau thriller / horror, THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD . . and very nice it sounds too! I have never been a fan of most of the Amicus scores, but composer Michael Dress certainly offers more than what was often quite abstract and contemporary and personally the 'tunes' of Elisabeth Lutyens or the swings of Douglas Gamley in Amicus' The Beast Must Die', didn't do much for me.

HOWEVER, the score of THTDB has some gems. Not a lot is known about composer Michael Dress, but his very short filmography does include some very interesting films and scores, including Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx, which starred a very young Gene Wilder, and an interesting sci-fi film, The Mind of Mr. Soames, as well as A Touch of Love, starring Sandy Dennis.

FEATURE AND GALLERY ON CUSHING AND 'THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD' HERE!

DRESS CREATED a wonderfully atmospheric score – some of it lives in the world of Humphrey Searle’s The Haunting, but Dress’s music is his own and it really gives the stories in the film an interesting texture and feel. There’s a lot of percussion and weird effects, organ, a solo female voice floating in the air, harpsichord, vibes, strings – it’s all very hallucinogenic and off-kilter and really wonderful. This is the premiere release of The House that Dripped Blood. The transfers were made from the 35mm magnetic music-only mixing elements and the mono sound is crisp and clear and really excellent. You can find more details about this release later today at the PCAS website and a source were you can sample a few tracks. It's wonderful news that even though this is a very limited release, for those who appreciate and collect such rare items, this is now available to add to your collection Is there a AMICUS score you would love on CD???

MORE ON PETER CUSHING and AMICUS FILMS, THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD HERE! 

 

TO PLACE YOUR ORDER for THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD soundtrack CD and to sample some TRACKS just CLICK HERE!