CHRISTOPHER LEE : ACTORS LEARN YOUR TRADE!

#ChristopherLee Saturday! Advice for young actors.....

 

PLEASE COME JOIN US at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! With posts every day, rare images and photographs, features ad prize competitions.. all celebrating the LIFE and CAREER of Peter Cushing OBE!

REMEMBERING PETER CUSHING : MARKING THE ANNIVERSARY TODAY AUGUST 11TH 2020

TODAY marks the 26th year of Peter Cushing's passing... I wonder where you were, what you were doing when you heard the news...? The posting of this banner and text, at the  Facebook PCASUK Fan Page as our daily post, has of course prompted the annual huge response in comments, messages and shares. It is, as ever touching and clearing shows the love and affection, Peter still holds in peoples hearts and memories . .

Peter Cushing and his wife, Helen

 

Peter Cushing, at home in Whitstable where he and his wife, Helen lived from 1958, until their passing.

WHILE WE MAY still feel a tinge of sadness at the thought of it being this long, since Peter passed, take heart: he has never really left us . . and never will, so long as the many, many fans and admirers continue to revisit the much loved work and films in which he appeared . . and maybe today , mark in your own way and help celebrate his life and career 😉 Marcus Brooks

 

CAST AND CREW ARRIVE TO START THE ROLLING OF 'THE SEVEN GOLEN VAMPIRES PLUS A FACE YOU'LL REMEMBER WITH AN ANNIVERSARY!

ABOVE: PETER CUSHING and movie mogul Run Run Shaw arriving to start work on Hammer films Kung Fu Vampire film, 'Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires'. Producer and CEO of Hammer Michael Careeras can be seen 'hiding' behind Cushing, with a look of a man stressed. It was a production where they knew it was going to be a challenge. But nothing could have prepared them, for what was to come. Director, Roy Ward Baker, in the background right...full of positivity, as you can see...can't wait to begin!😁😂 Personally, I LOVE the film. Hammer HAD to change the format of the Dracula film, it was becoming stale. Many complain about John Forbes-Robertson's Dracula, his make up and 'look'! But 'Legend' was produced with a style and concept, common to supernatural and Kung Fu films in Hong Kong. You don't go all the way from the UK to Hong Kong to make a Hammer film, that looks the same as, something that could have been made cheaper and easier at Elstree studio, just outside London!  Warner Bros was providing the backing for distribution, but insisted that the film also carry a character, like Dracula, someone well known  to the West, where the film would be seen. Hammer films, go to for the Count, Christopher Lee, wasn't up for the game, but Peter Cushing as Van Helsing was. Warner hated it and buried it. A real shame. So, there you have it... a Hammer Dracula Vampire film with Kung fu. If you get the chance, go along with it, for the ride... it IS different 😏😃 

HERE'S A FACE... if you are a Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Hammer film or indeed James Bond fan... you will certainly recognise... but his name?? Dudley Frederick Peter Butler-Madden, was born in Malaysia back in 1904. Became an actor and chopped the name to Peter Madden and went on to appear in many, many films and tv shows produced in the UK. 'Frankenstein Created Woman' in 1967, 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell' in 1973 both with Peter Cushing for Hammer films.  

PETER MADDEN'S Amicus film with Peter also in the cast was 'Dr Terror's House of Horrors in 1965. He held a bigger role for Hammer in 'Kiss of the Vampire' as the innkeeper Bruno in 1963. Madden also appeared in the UK cult television series 'The Prisoner' (1967) uncredited, he plays the sinister undertaker in the opening sequence! On television he was seen in 'Danger Man', 'Z-Cars', 'The Avengers', 'The Saint' and 'The Champions', 'Out of the Unknown', 'Steptoe and Son' in the episode 'Live Now P.A.Y.E. Later' and also played Inspector Lestrade opposite Douglas Wilmer’s 'Sherlock Holmes' in the 1965 BBC series. Madden even stepped into a role in 'From Russia With Love' the James Bond entry of 63 as Mac Adams. There is hardly a UK tv series of the 60's or 70's he did not appear in. A very busy and popular actor.. we always spot him.. even of we don;t recall his name. You are remembered on your birthday Peter! Happy Birthday to you! 😊

 

YOU'LL FIND DAILY POSTS and a whole lot of photographs, features including regular prize competitions, comments, opinions and conversation contributed from over 34 thousand followers and friends at the Facebook PCASUK Fan Page , open to everyone, whoever, where you are.. COME JOIN US!

#CHRISTOPHERLEE SATURDAY : THE BEST TWO OF THE BUNCH AND TWO FIT TO TERRIFY !

THREE GREAT POSTS, with big responses for FRIDAY and #CHRISTOPHERLEE SATURDAY happening right now at FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE!  Here is the FIRST ABOVE: In all, Lee played Dracula ELEVEN times: seven films for Hammer Productions, once in a guest appearance in 'The Magic Christian' (1969)...once for Jesse Franco's Count Dracula (1970), uncredited in Jerry Lewis's One More Time (1970) and Édouard Molinaro's Dracula and Son (1976).... of Hammer films 'Dracula / Horror of Dracula' 'Dracula, Prince of Darkness' Dracula Has Risen From The Grave' 'Taste The Blood Of Dracula' Scars of Dracula' Dracula AD 1972' and finally, 'The Satanic Rites of Dracula' At the POST we are asking, if you can pick your TWO favourites????... AND WHAT a response!

OUR FIRST POST FOR #CHRISTOPHERLEE  SATURDAY is a request for a banner I made sometime ago, it promoted quite a few great comments from friends and followers back then, and hasn't failed today either!

FINALLY: HERE IS A DOUBLE IMAGE POST with BOTH Cushing and Lee, looking QUITE different from how we would usually see them and we are asking you to comment! To play a vampire hunter, Baron Frankenstein, Dr Who, Tarkin or Sherlock Holmes... or Count Dracula, A Bond villain, Count Dooku or the evil wizard Saruman... you certainly HAD to be... FIT .... ladies AND gentlemen, how do you rate them? 😏😁

UK PETER CUSHING APPRECIATION SOCIETY IS BACK LIVE ON BLOGGER! BIZ AS USUAL!

AFTER A WAIT OF SOME TWO WEEKS, little ol me and thousands of other regular BLOGGERS have been waiting to see WHAT the FINAL results of Blogger's revamp was going to look like...and if it would make the business of managing a blog, any more difficult, from what we have been very happy with for the last ten years!

WHILE WE WAITED, I read many features and comments on forums, from some VERT unhappy bloggers, who had spent ten years or more building a huge archive on their personal blogs. Photographs, artwork, features... it all takes time and in some cases, unless you make a 'copy' of your content... all the work and effort could be lost or untransferable to another site. It looked like for a few days like everything had changed, buttons were missing, hard to find and all kinds of worrying developments and angry bloggers, who were ready to up-camped and move elsewhere. For us, I am happy to say that right now... it looks like things have settled and the dashboard and outcomes DO look pretty much the same pre the Blogger change. It's changes that maybe most visitors wont be away of maybe, but for the Bloggers who spend MANY hours creating posts, it doe make a difference... especially if you are not that computer or tech savvy! It is one of the REAL positives of Blogger... it is easy to use. Features can be for some a little basic, but for us.. that's fine. For me, the creation is in the making of the banner and the writing.. NOT my lay out. It's one of the many things that I think has kept our PCASUK Blog popular... easy to find, read, explore and navigate! So THANK YOU Blogger for making the changes I hope, effective and simple for us simple Bloggers and not changing too much. So it's back to posting and sharing the contents of the FACEBOOK PCAS FAN PAGE   AND here's to ANOTHER TEN YEARS! - Marcus

LEGENDS PORTRAIT : THE SHERLOCK STAMP : KUNG FU FOR U WITH BITE???

POSTED AT THE FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE WITH OVER A 1,000 LIKES, is this fine full colour photograph, that I am sure you have seen many time in black and white by the late and super talented photographer, Terry O'Neil. Four legends in this pic, . . #PeterCushing, #VincentPrice, #ChristopherLee and #JohnCarradine in 'House of Long Shadows' (1983)... each left us with a stellar filmography, full of variety and cinematic history... .... I've been asking, could you select THE film that you think, in your personal opinion was the pinnacle of their movie careers though??? Suggestions please at the post on our Facebook Fan Page !

ON #SHERLOCKSUNDAY at the FAN PAGE we posted when Peter Cushing's Sherlock, got the 'stamp' of approval . . 

ON SUNDAY TOO lots of interest, when we posted this :Today we are wishing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the lovely ALICE KRIGE. Her first feature film role was in Chariots of Fire (1981) as the Gilbert and Sullivan singer Sybil Gordon.

Some of her best known roles are the dual role of Eva Galli/Alma Mobley in Ghost Story (1981) ,Mary Brady in Stephen Kings Sleepwalkers (1992) and the Borg Queen in the Star Trek franchise, beginning with the film Star Trek: First Contact and then reprising the role in the Star Trek Voyager finale 'Endgame'.

She co-starred with Peter Cushing in A Tale of Two Cities (1980) as Lucie Manette..... 

ON MONDAY we posted this and marked this BIRTHDAY! Join us today in wishing DAVID CHIANG a VERY Happy Birthday! David Chiang Da-wei was born on the 29th June 1947 in Shanghai, (Republic of China) Chiang is a very famous actor and director, producer in Hong Kong. Chiang was very much a martial arts superstar in the 1970s, working under the Shaw Brothers Studio. He has appeared in over 130 films and over 30 television series.

IN 1974, Chiang starred along side Peter Cushing in Hammer films first of two co-partner feature films with Hong Kong based studio, Shaw Brothers. 'The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires' Peter for the last time resurrected his character of Van Helsing, and together with Chiang, Julie Ege and Robin Stewart, took on an oriental Dracula played by actor John Forbes Robertson and a hoard of Kung Fu zombie vampires!

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NEWS : BRITAIN'S FIRST FRANKENSTEIN MUSEUM READY FOR CREATION!

IT WAS THE ROLE THAT nailed #PeterCushing to the movie map and made both him and Christopher Lee into household names, with a mini budget movie produced by an even smaller UK film company called, #Hammerfilms. Jimmy Sangster wrote a scaled down script of the classic novel by Mary Shelley, #Britishfilm director, Terence Fisher called the shots, and 'The Curse of Frankenstein' not only hit huge box office success, it also changed the style of horror films and rebooted the Frankenstein film. Peter Cushing would go on to appear in a further FIVE Frankenstein films for Hammer.  'The Curse of Frankenstein' also presented Christopher Lee as an often child-like but savage 'monster-creation', his appearance compared to that of the traditional Universal #BorisKarloff Jack Pearce make up artist style, was quite a different. Hammer films continued their #Frankenstein series, but again in a different style to the Universal horror films, in a clever turn, they created a focus on adventures of  The Baron himself, instead of the '#TheMonster'. It was a brilliant and box office friendly plan, as not only did the audience get a different creation for every new story and title, but also Cushing's amazing Baron for the price of one ticket!

FOR DECADES the character of Baron Frankenstein has fascinated audiences with new theatre, television and cinema productions being produced every year. And it is maybe this and the fact that that the company behind the Frankenstein Museum , #Bath Attractions . . is based in the very city where #MaryShelley wrote the iconic 'Frankenstein' novel in 1818! READ ON . . .  

PLANS ARE BEING DRAWN UP for ‘Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein’ to celebrate the author’s “extraordinary life and her most lauded work” - much of which was penned in the Somerset city. #Bath Attractions Ltd are planning to convert Grade II-listed offices in Gay Street - a few doors up from the Jane Austen Centre - and hope it could open later this year. The  planning application says: “Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein is a new multi-sensory, fully immersive family-friendly visitor attraction proposed for the City of Bath, and the UK’s first attraction dedicated to #MaryShelley and her novel, Frankenstein, one of the world’s most famous, iconic and lauded creations.

“Exploring her complicated and tragic personal life, literary career and the novel’s continuing relevance today in regards to popular culture, politics and science, the attraction aims to deliver a sophisticated, entertaining and visceral experience like no other, and one which we hope the city of Bath can be proud of.”

THE AUTHOR'S LINKS to Bath are commemorated on a plaque at the site of 5 Abbey Church Yard, where she took lodgings arriving in the city in September 1816, then named Mary Wollstenecraft Godwin. It was there that she wrote much of #Frankenstein , which was published anonymously in 1818 and is now regarded as the world’s first #sciencefiction novel.

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3D CUSHING PRICE AND LEE? YOU CHOOSE! REMEMBERING CAROL MARSH

OVER AT THE FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE,  we are asking everyone to choose ONE film from the careers of  Peter Cushing Vincent Price  and Christopher Lee that they would choose to be REPROCESSED for a release in 3D! There have been many, interesting answers. DO feel free to join in!

TODAY ALSO MARKS THE birthday of actress CAROL MARSH. who had quite a complicated career, that started with the highly respected movie, 'Brighton Rock' in 1948 with a young Richard Attenburough . . which landed her in her one and only role with #PeterCushing, in 'DRACULA' / 'HORROR OF DRACULA' as LUCY in 1958. Various roles in drama and comedy flicks followed, including the role of ALICE in another much loved version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND in 1949. It's for Hammer's first DRACULA though that she is most remembered...but her career was hardly a quiet one.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROL 

CAROL MARSH is one of many actresses, who worked with Peter Cushing that PCASUK has covered in its 'Cushing Femme Fatales' series of features. 'The Girl Who Fell Down The Rabbit Hole : The LIFE and CAREER of CAROL MARSH'  has rare clips, gallery images and rare photographs. It can be found HERE!

 

CHRISTOPHER LEE'S GOT MILK AND YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN WARNER BROTHERS HORROR OF DRACULA BLU RAY!

#THROWBACK THURSDAY! NO BLOOD, BUT GOT MILK! Lee drinks MILK, on the set of the 1974 Bond epic, 'The Man With The Golden Gun'. Like with several of Hammer films productions, the UK Milk Marketing Board filmed an on set visit during production, to grab several of the film's stars and crew, gulping and gagging down gallons of full cream pasteurised moo moo cream. It all made for some free publicity for the movie and some much needed free health promotion for the UK dairy farmers. 

I NOTICE THAT NEITHER Lee or Cushing, who did one for Legend of the Seevn Golden Vampires, From Beyond the Grave, Dr Who and the Daleks...are rarely actually SEEN swallowing it, though. They hold it to their chops, but there it seems to end! The UK Milk Marketing Board ran these promos in UK cinemas for many years. It was a neat way to get a peep at some of your fav actors and actresses on set, and a few mins away from cheap and tacky ad's for restaurants, hairdressers and mega bucks ads for killer cigarettes and 'mothers ruin' gin! Happy days 😉

 

MISS IT AND MISS OUT! NEXT WEEK!

 

#HAMMERFILMSSATURDAY : THE MUMMY FRONT OF HOUSE

#HAMMERSATURDAY THIS is one of my all time favorite Peter Cushing films. It has it all. Drama, horror, a love story and action! And this is also one of my fav front of house stills. Beautiful colour and action that leaps off the pic! DO YOU have a fav Cushing pic, photo still? Or is there one you have never seen here, that you would like me to post or 'dig up' for you? Let me know!

THE IMAGE that first appeared on some propose artwork for a campaign poster for THE MUMMY.... Cushing saw the light shining through the body of Kharis and asked, 'Is that in our script?' When he was told no, he invented the bit of biz where he shoves a harpoon through the chest of the Mummy Kharis... 'If it's on the poster, our public will expect to see it!' said Cushing

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#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: BAG YOURSELF A HAMMER FRANKENSTEIN BLU RAY

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY! OUR SECOND COMPETITION THIS WEEK! We have FOUR COPIES of #THEEVILOFFRANKENSTEIN on bluray to giveaway! To be in with a chance of winning, watch the very short video clip and send your answers by email to petercushingappreciationsociety@gmail.com. GOOD LUCK!

TOMORROW IS SATURDAY!

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#TBT WIN TWILIGHT TIME HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES LIMITED BLU RAY THIS SUNDAY

#TBT THE CLASSIC PETER CUSHING SHERLOCK HOLMES HAMMER FILM

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous story gets the gorgeously gothic Hammer treatment in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), starring Peter Cushing as a wry and brilliant Sherlock Holmes, André Morell as an unusually sensible Dr. Watson, and Christopher Lee as Sir Henry Baskerville, seemingly threatened by a ghastly family curse. Horror stalwart Terence Fisher directs, and James Bernard provides the atmospheric music.

Starring: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Andre Morell, Marla Landi, David Oxley, Miles Malleson, John LeMesurier. Directed By: Terence Fisher Written By: Peter Bryan Score By: James Bernard

Special Features: Isolated Music & Effects Track / Audio Commentary with Film Historians David Del Valle and Steven Peros / Audio Commentary with Film Historians Paul Scrabo, Lee Pfeiffer, and Hank Reineke / Actor's Notebook: Christopher Lee / Hound Mask Creator Margaret Robinson on The Hound of the Baskervilles / Christopher Lee Reads Excerpts from The Hound of the Baskervilles / Original Theatrical Trailer

Video: 1080p High Definition / 1.66:1 / Color Audio: English 1.0 DTS-HD MA Subtitles: English SDH Runtime: 86 Minutes Region Code: Region Free (A/B/C) Limited Edition of 3,000 Units 

 

This release is available NOW to order and PURCHASE JUST CLICK HERE 

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