Showing posts with label black narcissus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label black narcissus. Show all posts

Thursday 2 April 2020

NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT : THE HUMAN FACTOR : #WATCHWITHCUSHING! PCASUK 2020


ANOTHER TWO PCASUK GREAT #PETERCUSHING TREATS at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE  to maybe entertain you! FIRST a 1970's Peter Cushing and #ChristopherLee film, directed by Peter Sasdy that almost got away from everyone, the strange but very interesting 'NOTHING HUT THE NIGHT' (1973), Sadly, this was the only movie produced by Charlemagne Films, which was created by Christopher Lee and Hammer film producer, Anthony Nelson Keys. UK distributors Fox and Rank made a real botched and half hearted job of promoting this film, even at one point offering some 'cash prizes' for letters from readers of the Sunday Mercury newspaper, describing their real-life experiences with terror and the supernatural! A very dated publicity device that went out of fashion in the 1950's! 



IT SADLY MADE LITTLE BOX OFFICE in the UK though did fair a little better with a different publicity campaign with title change and snazzy poster design for it's US release.'THE RESURRECTION SYNDICATE, title probably gives away more, than is helpful. BUT if you haven't seen this film before, I think you'll find much to your liking. 


THERE IS ALSO a supporting cast including Fulton Mackay (from Cushing's 'Return of the Cybernauts' : The Avengers tv episode) a young Michael Gambon ( who starred with Cushing in Amicus films, 'The Beast Must Die) and a quite a few of vivid  and interesting female characters for a change! The quite stylish Georgia Brown as the dogged newspaper reporter, who has some good scenes with Cushing a nice surprise of Diana Dors, playing one of her 'dressed down, nasty wig and tarty ol scrote roles, which she did a few of in the 70's and 80's. Kathleen Byron, who appeared as Cushing's Gustav Weil's long suffering wife, in Hammer films 'Twins of Evil' wife get just about enough to do, but she is wasted really.. What an amazing and quite beautiful actress. wasted as usual. Even as a Nun, Sister Ruth in the 1947 classic 'Black Narcissus', I thought she looked quite stunning and a fine actress that really captured the imagination. 



SO AN USUAL CAST, a plot that in it's climax leans towards  towards another Christopher Lee film, that also suffered in the beginning from a more than limp release, BUT picked up when Home Cinema VHS / Beta Calvary, came to the rescue! ENJOY and please let me know what you make of it? 


ANOTHER INTERVIEW GEM from quite a few programmes and hour length features Peter Cushing did after he retired in 1987. On June 1st that year, the UK TODAY newspaper quietly announced, Peter was hanging up his coat, for a well deserved rest. 'After making some of the world's best known horror films during  his 50 year career, Peter Cushing has decided that he will never make another film. He's just finished filming two television advertisements and he says the experience is enough to make him realise enough is enough. 'I did them because I had been offered two film parts and didn't know if I would be up for the work' he admits, ' I didn't want to let anyone down, so I thought I thought I would 'cut my teeth' on these two commercials. But having spent four days shooting, I've decided  not to do any more films These adverts will be my swan song. It's too much for me.'



BUT 1990, NOW TAKING THINGS in his stride #PeterCushing gave an interview to 'The Human Factor' a  UK #TV programme made by TVS, where he talked about his love for his wife, his belief in an afterlife, his suicide attempt, his cancer, and the key moments from his childhood and his long and successful acting career. He covers many of these themes and more in the two volumes of his autobiography, but this is the first time I'd seen him talking very openly about them. It's a revelation. Never before had Peter appeared so genuine and profound in his answers. It's an inspiring and revealing piece indeed. This too is now UP as a #WATCHWITHCUSHING! post for the viewing at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE,  where many of you have commented on the frankness of Peter's answers during the interview. There were quite a few stories and facts I had not heard before. There will be MORE posts tomorrow too! This up load along with many of the other 'Watch With Cushing' post have proved to be very popular, with many watching through out the day . . I hope you enjoy some of the posts too!? - Marcus

Wednesday 2 August 2017

GREAT GIFS! HEAD GIRL GETS THE CHOP : BYRON NEEDS MORE CREDIT AND FILM POSTER GAG THE FIRST?


#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! : A fine SHOCK to push poor old Paul Toombes over the edge in Amicus films, 'MADHOUSE'. Toombes played by #VINCENTPRICE is really pulled through the mill in this fine little shocker. Added value of also having Peter Cushing and AIP groomed Robert Quarry in the cast too. There's a very dark thread of humor that runs through this film and the slight lifting of the veil reveals the tacky and catty spats behind the tinsel and glamour of the Hollywood set. A fancy dress 'A-List' party takes place with the usual hanger-on's and ex's in attendance. Price wonderfully, sits bored and boiling in a smoke puffing, pouty sulk, while Cushing glides around, champagne in hand, dressed in a vampire costume. Worth the price of my ticket alone! And  Julie Croswaithe in the gif here? She had it coming .....in the school of horror, she was the HEAD GIRL!


#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! : If you are a regular to this site, then you'll know how much I love this story from #AMICUSFILMS, 'From Beyond The Grave'. It's a clever device I think, that both THE DOOR and the evil Sir Michael Sinclair are entwined! An axe blow to the fabric of the door, is a blow to Sinclair too! Stand by, as I once again, share glowing observations about the lighting in this story....it's a dream and cinematographer Alan Hume, was a gifted wizard! The set, lighting and dressings are the stars of this segment, not that #IanOgilvy, #LesleyAnneDown and Jack Watson don't do a fabulous job, it all works together. 'The Door' is the twin-terror treat, along with #PeterCushing's 'Poetic Justice' in the Amicus portmanteau party top table spread!


Just two weeks ago...I paid homage!!!


#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! : 'What kind of plumage is this? For birds of paradise?' You have to love a scriptwriter who gives Peter Cushing, the opportunity to say a line like that! And to say, Gustav's first meeting with his niece's doesn't go well, is an understatement! There are fans who watch #HAMMERFILMS 'Twins of Evil' for different reasons, some for THAT plumage, some for Peter Cushing and some for the several satanic set-to's, between Damian Thomas and Cushing. Me? I get a double treat, not from the two performances, as good as they are, from Collinson Twins... but from Cushing AND KATHLEEN BYRON! It may bypass most viewers attentions that this is THE Kathleen Byron, who starred as Sister Ruth in the truly amazing 1947 classic, #BLACKNARCISSUS, alongside Deborah Kerr, Flora Robson and Jean Simmons.  


Byron also ticked several boxes in the Sherlock and fantasy genre too, with two appearances with Jeremy Brett's Holmes, casting in the Lee and Cushing 'Nothing But The Night', also the spooky 'Night of the Eagle', the cult tv series 'The Avengers' and just about every supernatural drama series that the BBC put out between the late 1950's,  until her sad passing just 2009 at the age of 88. A beautiful actress of substance, who for a time after Narcissus, frustratingly got typed in neurotic roles. Thankfully, she broke that mold and went on to give us many interesting and entertaining performances. Kathleen Byron : 1921 - 2009.


#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY!: I am probably missing something obvious here... but until I saw this shot in the #AMICUS film, 'Dr Terror's House of Horrors', that clever nod to the film, where Roy Castle's character spots a cinema poster, that's promoting the feature film. . . . he was actually appearing in...I couldn't remember another film, that had pulled that trick. CAN YOU?


EVERY #MONSTERMONDAY!



IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA  
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