OVER AT THEFACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE, we are asking everyone to choose ONE film from the careers of Peter CushingVincent 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
#CHRISTOPHERLEE SATURDAY! BY THE BEGINNING of 1969, Peter Cushing no longer owned a London home, when he he was working and filming at a studio close to London, Pinewood, Shepperton or Elstree, but far from the home where he and his wife, Helen lived in Whitstable in Kent, he would stay at Brown's Hotel in Mayfair, in the city centre. . . 'My favourite hotel in London!' . .and this accommodation would be included in his fee for appearing in the film. For the contract of the Amicus film, I MONSTER, he did not want to be away from Helen in the evenings so he travelled on the 'milk-train' from Whitstable at 6am and returned back to his home at 10pm at night. It was a busy time . . .
I MONSTER, was based on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, was filmed from October 10th 1970, directed by 22 year old director Stephen Weeks. Christopher Lee starred in the dual role. But Amicus films angle on the story, was quite different for those that had been released in the past. Some believe producer Milton Subotsky, was ducking copyright restrictions, as MGM owned the rights to the title of the the story . . and so, the lead characters names, Jekyll and Hyde. And so, in I Monster, the good doctor and his alter ego, Mr Hyde carried different names, Doctor Marlowe and Mr Blake. Others believe, Subotsky had heard that his competition Hammer films, were in the process of shooting their own production of the tale. Though I guessing if this was true, he had no idea of the secret spin that it's director Roy Ward Baker and the producers, also had in the wings, to give their release a new and refreshing angle and adapted title! Although Subotsky changed the names of the doctor and his frightening flip identity, most of Stevenson's other characters remained the same, as in the novel. Back in 1983, when PCASUK carried out a video interview with Milton at his home, he was asked why he changed the main characters names, his answer was, 'I thought it would be fun to try!'
SUBOTSKY ALSO WAS DETERMINED to make in film in 3D. Again, when he became an honorary member of PCASUK in 1983, and gave us access and several interviews, the subject matter of how he always wanted to make a 3D film, often came up. He thought a 3D version of Alice in Wonderland in a feature film would make an amazing release... and a feature about the London, Lord Mayor Show, would also be ideal! Sadly, he never got the chance, nor did we or he ever bring up the subject matter of the failed and impossible attempt to shot 'I Monster' in 3D too! Subotsky, before he entered the world of making successful fantasy movies, spent time producing a series of shorts, based on the 'School Boy Scientist' market. Subotsky LOVED science and had been aware a simple and cost effective way of a shooting film in 3D since he too, was a school boy. The process required constant lateral movement within the frame, making conventional film shooting methods and rules of thumb impossible.
AFTER A WHILE, the process was abandoned by director Stephen Weeks, and the fact that many of the sets had been built, the opposite way to what was needed, to achieve the pans and movements in the correct directions, made movement and continuity impossible or jarring too. The finished release still contains several interminable tracking shots clumsily cut together with static close ups. Despite the technical problems, Christopher Lee gives an excellent central performance.
CUSHING LOVED THE PERIOD FURNISHINGS, and wore some of his own Edwardian styled clothes for the film, which were specially tailored for him by theatrical costumiers Montague Burton's- and as a result seems completely at home in this era. His is even able to reprise the 'eye up to the magnifying glass trick as he compares the identical signatures of Marlowe and Blake.
DESPITE WHAT SOME SEE as tedious pacing, and the occasional wandering camera the film does have several startling scenes and quite unique turns from both Lee and Cushing. A nightmare sequence features a distorted, faceless Doctor Marlowe; there is a spectacular chase through the massive turbines of an Edwardian water works! Also the monstrously ugly Blake's pathetic encounter with a small child in a park. Make up artist, Harry Frampton creates an amazingly Blake / Hyde whose appearance with every arrival becomes more frightening and a true monster, in every way!
CATCH UP with our I MONSTER RARE IMAGE GALLERY PART ONE : HERE!
IS I MONSTER ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE CUSHING FILMS OR MAYBE YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN IT? COME SHARE YOUR OPINION AND THOUGHTS ON ONE THE LESSER TALKED ABOUT AMICUS FILMS AT THE FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! COME AND JOIN A FOLLOWING OF OVER 33 THOUSAND FANS OF THE PAGE! JUST CLICK : HERE!!
. . .MARSH was only twenty one when she made the film, but she privately expressed later that she had an emotional age of about ten at the time . . .
THE FIRST FILM: LONG BEFORE actress CAROL MARSH became known for her famous role in Hammer films, 'DRACULA' in 1958.Marsh started as an English film actress, and known for winning the astounding role of Rose, in the 1947 British block buster 'BRIGHTON ROCK', which also starred actor, Ricard Attenborough. MARSH won the role of gullible 'Rose', after thousands auditioned for the role. MARSH was only twenty one when she made the film, but she privately expressed later that she had an emotional age of about ten at the time, and was 'preyed upon' during
the filming: She once shared, ‘People were very, very cruel. Why didn’t they just leave
me alone?....I’ve never seen the film and I couldn’t bear to….All I’ve
seen are when I’ve been sitting at home and clips come on the TV. I was
riveted by one shot of me running down the Pier and saying ‘Pinkie!’ I
thought, My God what a sweet little girl. So naturally sweet. . . . . .’
THESE ON SETphotographs were taken for publicity. MAYBE one or two would have been intended for NEWSPAPERS or FILM MAGAZINE features? It never happened. These were never used. NOW showing both MARSH and ATTENBOROUGH OUT of character and taking advice from DIRECTOR JOHN BOULTON and enjoying the beach and the sea. TRUTHFULLY, DESPITE MARSH"s relaxed and committed appearance . . she much later shared that she felt angry, frightened and worried. A position as an actress and a single woman, she would never quite understand or change . . .
CAROL was only 20 when she read for the part with the producer John
Boulting and the star of the film, Richard Attenborough. As the
impressionable young woman who falls for and marries the vicious
small-time gangster Pinkie Brown (played by Attenborough), Carol Marsh
turned in a performance of powerful pathos. The close of Graham Greene's novel, in which Rose returns home looking
forward to listening to Pinkie's recorded "love letter", has been called
one of the great harrowing finales of 20th-century English literature. As we can see in the VIDEO CLIP ABOVE, before ATTENBOROUGH's Pinkie is killed falling from the pier, he records a message for
the doting, oblivious MARSH's Rose in a "make-your-own-record" booth: "You
wanted a recording of my voice, well here it is. What you want me to say
is, 'I love you'. Well, I don't. I hate you, you little slut... But actually, the film differs from Green's book in that, when Rose plays the record,
the needle "sticks" – and she hears only "I love you", repeated over and
over again.
CAROL MARSH was born Norma Lilian Simpson on May 10 1926 in Southgate, North London, the daughter of an architect and surveyor. She was
educated at a convent school in Hammersmith, where she often performed in
school plays. Her first desire was to sing, and she won a £7-a-year
scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied speech and
drama, with singing as a second subject.
LATER MARSH went on to the Rank Charm School before joining Rank's repertory company at Worthing, where her performances in As You Like It and White Heather won high praise.
AFTER BRIGHTON ROCK, . . for which she changed her name to Carol Marsh . . she dyed her hair platinum for the title role in Alice in Wonderland (1949) (ABOVE) . In the same year she was in three comedies: Marry Me, Helter Skelter, and The Romantic Age, (BELOW) in which she appeared with Mai Zetterling and Petula Clark.
MARSH WAS THE FRAGILE, delicate yet ghoulishly determined Lucy,
Christopher Lee's ill-fated victim, in the 1958 Hammer production of'Dracula', (ABOVE) the first colour version of Bram Stoker's classic. In the 1951 film of'Scrooge',
with Alistair Sim in the title role, Carol Marsh played the old
skinflint's sister Fan, who dies giving birth to his nephew, Fred.
CINEMA POSTER: IN A SERIES OF MOVIES IN 1952, CAROL APPEARS
IN PRIVATE INFORMATION
CAROL CAREER continued into the 1960s with films such as Man Accused and parts in television dramas, among them 'THE ADVENTURES OF SIR LANCELOT' (ABOVE) and Dixon of Dock Green. In the 1970s she appeared in the record-breaking West End play THE MOUSETRAP (BELOW). . . playing MOLLIE RALSTON, again character with a young minded role . .
MARSH HAD MADE HER television debut in 1950 in The Lady's Not For Burning, starring Richard Burton and Alec Clunes. She was Miranda in a children's version of The Tempest, and Alexandra in Little Foxes (both 1951). She featured in the 1959 Trollope serial The Eustace Diamonds, playing Augusta Fawn, and was Mrs Blacklow in the Arnold Bennett serial Lord Raingo of 1966. . . .all productions were again, as ever, she could play a role that she could understand, STILL being a person, she felt, had a YOUNG emotional age and now, experience. Sadly now, many of those productions, hold little or NO photographs, archive footage or publicity written material.
FROM 1966 until 1979, Carol was busier on radio, and was a member of the BBC Drama Rep . Even though she had always encouraged photographs, interviews and making herself seen before this time, now in life, Carol Marsh shunned all interviews and publicity. So it was surprising, when she was reached her
sixties, the journalist Nigel Richardson traced and interviewed her for
his travel book Breakfast in Brighton (1996)
"People kept telling me, 'When the next film comes out you'll be a star forever!'," she told Richardson. "But it never happened." By then she was living a reclusive life in Bloomsbury, "....with no one to
please and no one to hurt me". When Richardson praised her luminous
performance in Brighton Rock, she replied that the thought of how
good she might have been, "crucified" her: "I've never seen the film and
I couldn't bear to."
NOTE: It seems that after her first film, 'BRIGHTON ROCK' Carol lived and worked in a shadow of disappointment. Some how her experience, after working on that film, made her feel she had missed the opportunity of better work, that she could have been a star! She thought that as a person, her lack of maturity, and how she HAD to PLAY roles, had crushed her chance. She thought no potential would now come her way, after making BRIGHTON ROCK. So for the majority of her career, and certainly in the later years, she thought anyone wanting to interview her, was mistaken, that she didn't possess what the public and fans, thought she had. When Marsh appeared as Lucy in Hammer films, DRACULA, to her it was just another role, but one she felt she COULD play. LUCY was young, innocent, simple minded. EXACTLY how CAROL saw herself. From around 1966, when Hammer produced their second Christopher Lee DRACULA film, with DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS, a keen interest started in the FIRST DRACULA from 1958, and her role became part of the pattern of publicity. MARSH never understood the impression and influence she had achieved. For many fans, her performance in the role of Lucy, was one of the great highlights of the film, and MARSH was highly respected for that. An opinion she never understood or believed.
FOOTNOTE: IN THE EARLY 1990's, I attended a convention, purely out of fun. I was now working in the industry myself, no longer managing PCAS, but going along to introduce my children to the fun, films and performers, that had entertained me at their age. They too had a few copies of the Hammer films and enjoyed them very much. This event was open for the day, in London with several actors, actresses and connections with Hammer films and fantasy tv shows. It was for us, a few hours, while waiting to attend a theatre production, that a few of my friends were starring in. After an hour my sons and daughter went off and looked up some magazines, they hoped connected with STAR WARS, I took a break and went to make a telephone call, in the reception area. Sat by a phone shelf, was a woman who told me, the phone was free. She had just used it and was now waiting for a taxi to arrive, that she had called. I asked her, had she been enjoying the convention, did she arrive early that morning, to meet some of the big names. She told me she had only been there half an hour, and was now leaving, that it wasn't right for her...! It was only then, when I made eye contact with her, and saw her NAME BADGE, I released she wasn't a fan or a visitor at all, she was one of the GUESTS! It was CAROL MARSH. I could sense her annoyance, she was ready to leave.'I haven't really made anything that would interest anyone here. I thought it was a ridiculous idea, to come along' Before, I could say anything, she looked past me, smiled and nodded with relief. 'Lovely, it's my taxi! I timed it right. Timing has never been my gift. It was bad enough with BRIGHTON, but when I fell down the hole as ALICE, I REALLY did fall. My chance in my career was over. Mr Fisher was gentleman, not that anyone would know or remember THAT role here!' She picked her handbag off the floor, took out her purse for her taxi fair. 'Well, I hope you have a nice time here...'At that point my two sons and daughter, joined me. My son showing me a FAMOUS FILMS issue two magazine, that he had just bought for ten pounds, which featured an entire photo script of every shot from the 1958, DRACULA...starring, CAROL MARSH. 'Dad, look Hammer's DRACULA 1958!, he cheered. 'Yes..' said CAROL, 'Peter Cushing was lovely! He loved children. Oh, my isn't taxi driving off is it??'' My son was still flicking through the photo pages, 'This is great, Dad. Look photos of LUCY the vampire girl! Was she a girl? She seemed really young! How old was that actress?'. I turned around towards CAROL and the front door, she didn't turn to us . . . . four steps and she was gone.
Marcus Brooks.
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