CRAZY AS A FOX AND PUSHED TO THE 'MAX' : ASYLUM (1972)

#GRABTHECUSHIONITSCUSHING... Here is the second of our SUNDAY posts under our new theme looking at some of the most frightening scenes from Peter Cushing films.... This week it's a clip from Amicus's Asylum (1972) SPOILERS...… In which Dr. Martin (Robert Powell) learns the truth about 'Max' (Geoffrey Bayldon)…. Always found that laugh particularly chilling…. How DOES THIS scene rate in your FAV CUSHING terror scenes???

THE CLIP ABOVE has stirred up some child-hood memories and revisited nightmares over at our PCASUK FACEBOOK FAN PAGE! Here are a small selections of comments from visitors:

W.SLEET:'The climax of 'Blind Alleys' from TALES FROM THE CRYPT was one of my most vivid childhood scares. Many of the Amicus films scared me more so than any of the Hammer films ever did - the combination of the contemporary setting (as opposed to costumed dramatics), plumby acTORs and gleeful gallows humour can be very unsettling - but, even now, this chilly little tale still makes me shudder!'

J.THORLEY: 'This was especially shocking when I was little, I expected a traditional happy ending. See also the hammer house of horror episode The Silent Scream! Really disturbing'.

J.MORROW: 'That last scene with that creepy laugh chilled me to the bone. Geoffrey Bayldon gave an unforgettable performance' 

P.DUFFUS: 'A classic..great music too...Mussorgsky..the PC story my favourite on this one with the suit..' 

D.FULCE: 'Spent a day with Geoffrey a few years back and told him I thought his laugh was on par with Dwight Frys in ' Dracula ' as most chilling ever !!'

B.MAIDMENT: ' I love this film and can watch it again and again. I cant decide
which story I like the best . Herbert Lom with his scary dolls or could it be Brit Eckland as Lucy. Peter Cushing with the suit but I know Geoffrey Bayldon out shines them all in this film Great acting.

C.CARLEY: Love Geoffrey Bayldon, he was magic as Catweazle and I loved that small role he had in Dracula

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RATE THE CLIP: #GETTHECUSHIONITSCUSHING : NIGHTMARE IN THE WAX WORKS

#GRABTHECUSHIONITSCUSHING... OK here is the first of our SUNDAY posts under our new theme looking at some of the most frightening and effect Peter Cushing Fright Scenes.... This week it's a clip Don't forget to click HD) from that iconic NIGHTMARE scene from Amicus's The House That Dripped Blood (1971)...we'll be taking a closer look at the scene and direction in our next post coming up...DOES THIS scene rate in your FAV CUSHING terror scenes??? #grabthecushingitscushing

THE 1971 AMICUS FILM, 'THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD' came at a difficult time for Peter Cushing... it couldn't have came at a worse time! The production started shooting from June 29th at a studio knew very well, Shepperton. At this time, Cushing's wife Helen was experiencing a deterioration in her health, because of this Cushing had tried to get the suits at Amicus, to release him from the contract and schedule from 'House'. While Hammer films had been sympathetic, and released him from his contract and appearance in their latest installment  of their Karnstein trilogy , 'Lust For A Vampire' . Cushing Had appeared in the  first part, 'THE VAMPIRE LOVERS'  and the last, 'TWINS OF EVIL' But, sadly Amicus dig in their heels, with Cushing having no choice but to for-fill his contractual obligations. 'House' followed, what was the resurrection of of a format that had severed Amicus very well in their 1965 film, 'Dr Terrors House of Horrors'. What took them so long to revist the portmanteau set up, with only ONE multiple story film after 'Dr Terrors' - Torture Garden (1967), with almost everything in that gap of eight years being a box office dud, one can only guess.

CUSHING SEGMENT IN 'HOUSE', centered around a WAX WORKS, in a story with the same name. Cushing played a retired stockbrooker named Phillip Grayson who along with Neville Rogers, played Joss Ackland.. becomes obsessed with the wax figure of biblical nightmare, SALOME! Yes, she who demanded the head of one, John The Baptist, on a plate . . . so you can see where this is going!

THE ACTUAL NIGHTMARE sequence in Cushing's tale, for me the the high point of the film. If you forgive the corny mishmash of music accompanying the scene, full of clanging death bells and Swanee whistles, and some quite tatty wax figures... it is really quiet effective. I know the museum is supposed to look like it had hit on hard times, but the last time I saw figures as bad as that, was as a child, in the wax museum at Weston-Super-Mare! The scene builds up the tension and in real time,  from Cushing's exit OUT of the front door, of his newly acquired property, the titular, House That Dripped Blood, and into the interior of the waxworks he has recently visited. The camera, sets about through a series of dutch tilts, slow motion and back tracking, purposely in front of Cushing, to take in all his looks of bewilderment and horror.....
 

AND WE KNOW FOLLOW CUSHING, past the figures, and to an curtained exhibit at the rear of the wax works. What makes this scene so chilling is Cushing's character's longing to reach the point of attraction...and its that fact that provides the 'grab the cushion moment'! We REALLY don't want him to get there, and reveal what is BEHIND those curtains. It's a NIGHTMARE, and is the stuff of OUR nightmares too, all accuratarely replicated in a scene that gets the the pay off it style. Yes, it's pretty tame by today's standards, but I can remember hiding behind that cushion, and being truly spooked. Spooked enough to not go into a wax works, until well into my adult years!

THERE IS ANOTHER REASON WHY this clip has earned this title of 'A NIGHTMARE IN THE WORKS'  . . .  as I have shared, even before Cushing commenced work on this film, the signs were not good, and the clouds of sadness not only loomed in Cushing's life away from the spotlight, but it also hung heavy over the story he was appearing in. As David Miller recalls in his book, 'A LIFE IN FILM: Peter Cushing', 'The most affecting part of The House That Dripped Blood' are the shots of Cushing, standing on a riverbank, lost in the grief for his lost love. It is difficult not to think that he was in some way anticipating the unendurable - Helen's death.'

For Peter Cushing, it would be a true and lasting nightmare . . . 



OUR FULL FEATURE AND GALLERY ON 'The House That Dripped Blood' in PART THREE of our AMICUS SERIES can be found at our website : RIGHT HERE
 

 

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REMEMBERING : MICHAEL HORDERN : FISHING AND MAKING THE BEST CATCH

REMEMBERING : Actor Michael Hordern Born Today.... here is an actor as prolific as Cushing,who from the beginning cast his net wide and played quite an eclectic and diverse collection of roles. Both he and Peter Cushing had established theatre careers before appearing in film and on tv. Hordern, sticks in most fantasy films fan minds for his portrayal as the pompous theatre crictic George Maxwell in Vincent Price's Theatre of Blood and the M.R James BBC Ghost story, Whistle and I'll Come to from 1968. He also chimes a sweet memory for me as the narrator of the BBC Paddington Bear stories. Hordern appeared with Cushing in the 1956 film , Alexander the Great as Demosthenes. Hordern like Cushing played many Shakespearean roles, and his worn and conservative looks made him the go-to-guy for civil servants in Brit 1950's movies and the character of Jacob Marley in several productions of 'A Christmas Carol'.

A quality actor, whose autobiography 'A World Elsewhere' is worth looking up. Among the stories of his obsession with fly-fishing, there are some very interesting insights to this most gentle of men.

  

 

ALEXANDER THE GREAT: It had the cast, the budget . . it also had Cushing! So, what went wrong. Feature later this week!

 

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#MONSTERMONDAY: THE CHEMICAL BROTHER: TERROR IN A TOP HAT

 

#MONSTERMONDAY : Here's a particularly nasty fellow. Not even slipping under the pseudonym of Mr Blake, can HIDE this particular monster . . . Christopher Lee as Mr Blake in 'I, Monster' Amicus films 1971.

PETER CUSHING IN A ON SET PHOTOGRAPH FROM 'I, MONSTER' 

 

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#SHERLOCKSUNDAY: NAME THOSE FILMS

#SHERLOCKSUNDAY: Over at our FACEBOOK FAN PAGE we have set everyone this cunning little teaser! COULD YOU NAME THEM????

#GETTHECUSHIONITSCUSHING

#ONSETSATURDAY : GETTING 'THE POINT' OVER AT HAMMER FILMS

#ONSETSATURDAY : Here's a dip behind the scenes on Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968) Christopher Lee staked, as Hammer films bend the ol vampire rules of yore, while director Freddie Francis has a chat with his stars Veronica Carlson and Barry Andrews... who IS that looking on in the background??

#getthecushionitscushing

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#GETTHECUSHIONITSCUSHING : TCM MONSTER PACKED MONTH FOR HALLOWEEN

#GETTHECUSHIONITSCUSHING!

BE SURE TO CLEAR SOME SPACE ON YOUR DVR as October approaches. Turner Classic Movies has gathered at least 121 titles for this year’s month-long Halloween festival of fear! There are FOUR Cushing / Hammer Frankenstein's in the mix, Curse, Revenge, Created. Plus some other Cushing and Lee titles make the list: Sunday, October 16 The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958). Sunday, October 23 Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1970) Monday, October 10 A Tale of Two Cities (1958) Nothing But the Night (1972) Scream and Scream Again (1970) Monday, October 17 She (1965) Horror Express (1972) The House That Dripped Blood (1970) The Creeping Flesh (1972) Monday, October 24 The Gorgon (1964) Horror of Dracula (1958) Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1965) Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) Monday, October 31 The Mummy (1959) The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) There are also many other classic horror and fantasy films in tyhe mix. Be sure to check out the TCM WEBSITE for comprehensive listings. I will be giving a heads up here on all Cushing films leading up to and on the day they are being transmitted!

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#ONSETSATURDAY: WIRES, HOOKS AND EYES LOOKING FOR BEHIND THE SCENES TRIVIA

#ONSETSATURDAY: Yvonne Monlaur is a shot from Peter Cushing's 'The Brides of Dracula' Poor ol Monlaur's damsel in distress Marianne Danielle, had all sorts of danger to avoid in the vampire's lair, Chateau Meinster... horrible house-keepers, mad Mother's, sinister son's..and CABLES!

  

#ONSETSATURDAY: The first of our on set posts today, on just how Christopher Lee got into that superb looking 'Mummy Costume' in Hammer films, 'THE MUMMY' co starring Peter Cushing back in 1959. . . 

#ONTHESETSATURDAY: Broadcast as part of the traditional SUNDAY NIGHT DRAMA on BBC television on March 6th 1955, Peter Cushing in his memoirs, remembered 'The Moment of Truth' co written by Nigel Kneale, Peter Ustinov as a particularly 'dry old stick'. It was according to Cushing a depressing affair, that not even the talents of director, Rudolph Cartier could lift out of the dull-drums. It was hoped that Cartier and Cushing would rework the magic they had made to great public and critical success just three months previous with their nightmare production of Orwell's '1984'. Alas, it was not to be. Pictured here during rehearsals at the BBC, Cushing as The Prime Minister, Walter Rilla as The Victor and Jeannette Sterke as The Marshall's daughter. The satire-comedy tells the story of a republic which is about to fall, while facing the threat of invading army with crippling government structure. Ustinov wrote the play inspired by French hero Marshal Petain and his political collusion with the Nazi’s and the events resulting in creation of Vichy France. This two hour play started life as a theatre play which premiered at the Adelphi Theatre in 1951.

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