THE ART OF JOYCE : AMAZING PRINTS OF CUSHING'S BARON AND MORE AVAILABLE NOW!

'The SUPERB artwork of Daryl Joyce'... PICK your favourite! I love this mans work and without it, so many blu ray covers and magazine pages would look a TRUE nightmare.. for all the wrong reasons. Here are ALL his covers and artwork connected with #PeterCushing, a few new ones in there..and they are available ... VERY reasonably priced.. for order NOW! The Cushing/Hammer Frankenstein's are FAB.. the' Brides of Dracula' along with the 'Island of Terror' blu ray cover are amazing.. which makes Daryl my cover artist and art of choice, without doubt! - Marcus. All these prints are A4, (210mm x 297 mm) printed on 250 GSM silk paper.

ABOVE JUST A FEW of Daryl's #PeterCushing prints, but there are more to be found at his gallery at his website and his FACEBOOK PAGE HERE!

ALL OF THE PRINTS are A4, (210mm x 297 mm) and printed on 250 GSM silk paper. If you are OVERSEAS, that's no problem. Daryl will post to wherever YOU are 😊 A Bargain and Beautiful AND ON FACEBOOK HERE! 

PLEASE COME AND JOIN US AT OUR FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE where you can find huge galleries, features, daily posts and ...Super PRIZE COMPETITIONS too. We are almost 34 thousand followers and friends strong, the society is managed as a fan club hobby and has been around since 1956! Whoever you are, wherever you are, as a fan of Peter Cushing's life and work...you will be most welcome! - Marcus

LATEX TISSUE PAPER WAX AND GORE : THE ANSWER TO THE MYSTERY BOX

BOX CLEVER ANSWER: Yesterday, I posted a photograph of an 'interesting' multi layer case-box and asked you if you could identify what it was, who was its owner ..and maybe it's contents! A larger version of the pic was also posted at the website, so you get a closer look, if needed. It was quite a puzzle for some, as the compartments of the box also contained, cotton wool balls, pencils, paint brushes.. and two knives and forks!!

ABOVE : ROY ASHTON MODELS HIS FANGS, that were used by David Peel in Hammer films, 'THE BRIDES OF DRACULA' (1960) Peter Cushing's second outing as Van Helsing!

SUGGESTIONS OF  'Something to do with model soldiers?' from Darren Park, was a good guess, as the box has a connection with Peter Cushing and this could have easily been a handy box for his painting and making of his mass collection of model soldiers and model theatres 😉 Daniel Worlsey suggested something similar in 'Is it it not Cushing’s “bit box”, wherein he keeps all the tools for gaming miniatures, paints and the left over bits and bobs of such a hobby?' Mateja Djedovic, asked if it was 'A vampire hunter tool kit box' ! 😁. It could have been, that fork looked nasty! 😉 Stephen Johnson said 'Is it Peter's private make up box, as he was allergic to the studio make up?🤔' which was a good answer and certainly on the right track! Donna Vallois Broughton thought it was a 'Fishing box' 🤔. Hmm...I too have seen plastic versions of these boxes used for that job too. One of the clues was that weird fork 😉 Colleen Crouch suggested 'It looks like a make-up kit. I'd guess Phil Leakey's. Wonder what the fork is for...🤔 The Cushing Connection would be Curse of Frankenstein, among other films.

THIS FORK LEAD QUITE A FEW to the ANSWER : Roy Ashton's Make Up Box. Roy had three. He said, 'One to beautify, one for extras and crowd and the other... for more extensive jobs, like monsters!' This box held fangs, latex vampire bite marks, noses, ears and of course two bottles of 'Kensington Gore'... blood! The Knife and Fork, Roy used '..for lunch'! Often he would find himself on location, or unable to leave work for the 'canteen or catering truck, so would bring his own lunch.. and use THAT knife and fork!

A ROY ASHTON QUIZ from the past! You can find the answers to 'NAME THE MONSTER' HERE! 

NAME DROP ALERT! I did three interviews with Roy, and one quite detailed video interview while he worked. He was always very kind and I was very fortunate to meet him and his wife at home too. You wouldn't think such a charming, calm gentleman could devise and create such works of terror and horror... but he did 😊 

THE BOX IN QUESTION has many connections to Hammer films, Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, Amicus and Tyburn productions. Roy told me he only replaced the 'monster box once.. in 1960. The other one the hinges broke!!'😕 So I asked him, which films and creations was THIS box in partnership with himself responsible for?' He replied ' Well. Most of them after 1960... certainly one you would be interested in with Peter. Arthur Grimsdyke in 'Tales from the Crypt'! He then pulled things from the box, that would have been typical of the materials he used over the period of working with Peter on the character, latex, make up sticks Leichner 'Greasepaint 'G' Stick - Light Blue, Black and Greasepaint Stick - Light Grey.. and TISSUE PAPER for Grimsdyke's skin! So HERE was THE box!

QUITE A FEW OF YOU cracked it, but WELL DONE Robert Withers, who got it in 20 minutes with ' Roy Ashton’s box of tricks' 😀 Also, Deb Duncan-Faul, Ben Smothers took two guesses, but got it. No one guessed the movie, lots of suggestions, but not the title I was looking for. . .

ABOVE : ACTOR DANIEL JOHNS who was transformed by Roy Ashton into a 'living wax mannequin' with Peter Cushing in Amicus films 'ASYLUM' (1972)

MIKE GIACOLONE, was almost there with 'Jimmy Sangster's lunch box!!' Sangster was probably there for most of Roy's work in some fashion or another, having written most of the Hammer films on which he did the make up. Thanks for everyone who took part, had a go. I hope you like the photographs too! 😉 Another one soon 😉 - Marcus

 

VAMPIRE HUNTERS : HAMMER FILMS : VAN HELSING TO KRONOS WHEN IT WAS ALL CHANGE!

#HAMMERFILMS #VAMPIREHUNTERS : HAMMER were quite brave and sometimes successful, if a little too late when they moved with times . . a tweak and change with style was something they also tried with their vampires and vampire hunters. One of the best and most imaginative was '#CaptainKronos : Vampire Hunter'.. with very entertaining side kick Grost and charm and sassy attitude from #CarlineMunro, it looked like a game changer, but sadly not to be. A real loss, me thinks ☹️😕 Over at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE I am asking if everyone would rate this film and some of its qualities alongside #PeterCushing's #VanHelsing and a film like, 'The Brides of #Dracula' .. or no?? - Marcus

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY AND PADDY PUSHES THE WHEELCHAIR!

A HAPPY #STPATRICKSDAY! I was looking for any connections with Peter and Ireland... couldn't find anything really. A few tours in theatre productions and the filming of #Hammerfilms, 'Sword of Sherwood Forest' Robin Hood film in some beautiful surroundings.. And then I realised I had missed the obvious . . Paddy Smith! 😃

PADDY WAS A CLOSE friend to Peter for many years, was his driver, stand-in, and extra in quite a few films, Hammer's 'The Curse of Frankenstein' and 'Frankenstein Created Woman' , 'Captain Clegg' . . he drove the coach to Château Meinster in 'Brides of Dracula' and did some work on Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing's 'Nothing But The Night' .. sometimes known under it's 'total give away title' 'The Resurrection Syndicate' in 1973. Here is Paddy in costume, clowning around with PC during the shoot. Paddy appeared in quite a lot of TV work too, usually 'walk on-walk off' roles. BUT he always stands out! 😃 If you are celebrating today, have a grand and safe 😐 Happy St Patrick's Day 😊

A RARE AND CANDID photograph of Peter Cushing on a home visit to see his friends, Nic Gadd and his wife in Whitstable in around 1991😊 .. this was a rare thing, as in his later years PC loved nothing better than staying home, reading. During the 1950's up until his wife Helen died in 1971, he 'upstairs studio' was his den of many, many hobbies and activities . . painting, model making, stamps, postcards . . a man happy to #stayathome

MOTHERING SUNDAY AND THE CUSHING'S ON HOLIDAY AND MUM CAME TOO!

#‎MOTHERINGSUNDAY!‬ HAPPY MOTHERING SUNDAY to all our Mum's and Mom's in the USA! Below is Peter Cushing talking about his Mum!

ABOVE HERE IS A VERY RARE PIC of the Cushing Family, with Mum Nellie on holiday, in BOGNOR, of all places! From the left: GEORGE Cushing, Peter Father, then NELLIE Peter's Mother. Next ARTHUR Peter's Uncle, and Nellie's sister in law, WYN . An unnamed chap on the far right. At the front Peter's brother, DAVID on the left and a young smiling PETER on the right! The reverse side of this pic comes from a time when, a jobbing photographer would take your photograph at a sea-side resort, and process it on photographic paper that was also a postcard....so when you picked up your pic, you could write on the reverse side and post it off to your relatives and friends!  

 

DANCES, BANQUETS AND BALLS!: Martita Hunt as The Baron's Mother, Baroness Meinster. There is a story that when Martitia was rehearsing the scene where the Baroness laments the loss of the time when the château was once the social hub of parties, banquets and balls, she inadvertently paused and placed prominence on the word....'balls'. Everyone in attendance, broke out laughing, Fisher included...she repeated this in the take that was shot and printed in the final cut of 'Brides'....

VALUE OF AD DRACULA CINEMA POSTER EXPECTED TO BRING IN FRIGHTENING BIDS!

NEWS: Are you a COLLECTOR? Have any original stills from Hammer or Cushing films? Maybe a cinema poster or two? IF you have a mint copy of Hammer films DRACULA AD 1972 UK quad poster . . you might be sitting on a little mint! According to the press release on the London Odeon BFI IMAX FILM and MEMORABILIA AUCTION taking place on JUNE 28th this year, one of their lots is this very poster and they are expecting the hammer (!!) to go down on at least, EIGHT THOUSAND POUNDS for the lucky bidder who wins it. PCAS also actually owns an original item of this poster too. It was purchased from cinema poster and stills trader Greg Edwards back in 1980. I actually bought the poster for the collection as part of a double purchase deal... a quad of THE BRIDES of DRACULA cost £40...but the DRACULA AD one cost.... £18!!!!

FOR MANY YEARS the AD 1972 memorabilia had very little value, along with the Satanic Rites of Dracula, but times have changed. A quad featuring bot AD and the 1970 film TROG has been sold many times for anywhere from £100 to £300 UK pounds..but it's RARE you get to see the poster from then film's original release. SO...do YOU own any Cushing / Lee / Hammer posters and have you ever purchased an expensive Cushing memorabilia item??

READ the SOURCE NEW item on this : HERE!

 

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#CALLUMMCKELVIE SUNDAY! THERES NO DRACULA BUT BRIDES STILL HAS A LOT OF BITE!

COUNTINUING MY TRIPS down memory lane, I’m going back a little earlier than my l piece as week on HORROR EXPRESS (1973). As I said previously.  When I came across Horror Express, I was already well acquainted with the work of Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and the gothic horror movement of the late 50’s- 1970’s. The subject of today’s piece, The Brides of Dracula, was one of the first films I encountered on my journey into this world and the first that really made me take notice of Cushing as an actor. 

MY INTEREST IN THE GENRE went something like this; finding Quatermass and the Pit (1967) through references in Dr Who magazines and then researching its background. From there I saw Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964), chosen due to my interest in Egyptology (and the fact that it was the easiest Hammer-Mummy film to get on region 2 at the time) and the other Quatermass films. Then, I started to dip my toes into Hammers other franchises, Amicus films and the work of contemporaries like Roger Corman. I would do this by heading along to the UK HMV store and picking a random title or two, fortunately for me Halloween usually involved a sale on the horror section and two for £10. 
 

I BELIEVE IT WAS HALLOWEEN 2008 when, in the very early days of my hammer collecting, I grabbed both The Devil Rides Out (1968) and Brides of Dracula. I’d been after Devil for some time, but Brides I knew very little about and indeed only chose it to see an example of Hammer’s Dracula series. Rushing home with my two purchases, I had a habit at this age of turning any film I really wanted to see into something of an ‘event’, buying snacks and leaving it until late evening. The film I gave that honour too was The Devil Rides Out, but deciding I wanted to watch something however, I popped the disc of Brides into the player.

I THINK, IN MANY WAYS Brides of Dracula, is the perfect film in which to fall in love with both Hammer and Cushing. Whilst the script, can at times be a little messy, it is the atmosphere and performances that set this film apart. Visually the film is somewhat different to 1958’s Dracula, the slightly rougher aspects of that film are completely gone, primarily anything shot on location.

IN DRACULA , this was beneficial atmospherically as for the most part that film functions as a thriller in the guise of a horror movie. Think about it, a man hunts down an evil villain and dies in the process, a relative and the man’s accomplice in his mysterious work then embark on a cat and mouse chase with the villain. Of course I am being a little ignorant in this description of the gothic atmosphere and various staking’s etc., etc.

HOWEVER PURELY in terms of its various script beats, Dracula follows a classical thriller mould. Brides on the other hand is a fairy-tale, a dark fable of a girl who enters a strange country and rescues a prince (well Baron) only for him to turn out to be cursed. It is up to a brave hero (Van Helsing) to save the day. Perhaps reacting to this, Terrance Fisher opts to shoot Brides as mostly stage bound with very little obvious location footage. The set design is far more extravagant and what results is an utterly beautiful self-contained gothic world. The blacks and browns used in a lot of the sets in Dracula, are replaced with vibrant purples and reds. As a young horror fan, I fell in love with this gothic fairy-tale landscape.

A HUGE COMPONENT of this is David Peels performance as Baron Meintser, a character who somewhat divides the fans. Honestly, whilst I adore Christopher Lee as Dracula, I think it’s very unfair to compare that performance to this one. What is being exercised in the two movies are two very different portrayals of the ‘Dracula’ type character. 

WHILST CHRISTOPHER LEE gets his brief ‘refined gentleman’ moment in the opening scene of the earlier film, his Dracula is an animalistic, vicious character. The sexuality comes from that, with Lee's Dracula presented as a highly sexualised creature, not in a romantic way but a lustful and primal one. Peel on the other hand, feels as if the Hammer team were going for an entirely different approach, presenting him as a suave and debonair figure. For the most part he spends his time talking and being legitimately charming, as opposed to Lees snarling and hissing. This works within the films ‘fairy-tale mould’, after all the wonderful opening sequence in which the character of Marianne ‘frees’ him, wouldn’t work as well unless the character was a romantic one.

IN MANY WAYS, Peel's performance pre-empts the take that Frank Langella would have on the character many years later. And then of course there’s Cushing himself, giving what is perhaps his best performance as Van Helsing. I remember being utterly captivated by the determination in his performance, most notably the celebrated scene where he is forced to use a branding Iron on his neck to save himself from the curse of Vampirism.

THE SHEER FEAR mixed with determination presented here gives Van Helsing a warmer presence than he had in the earlier film (Teddy-bear coat scenes aside) and his bond with Marianne does hint at a romance between the two. It’s the performance that made me fall in love with the man and I quickly hunted down several of the Frankenstein entries to see more.

RETURNING TO MY little story of how I discovered Brides, whilst I did enjoy The Devil Rides Out, the film that really stole my heart that Halloween was Brides of Dracula. For me, it’s the only film to watch that time of year and I’m always ready to immerse myself in its rich gothic atmosphere again and again. Whilst I of course adore Dracula, in many ways Brides is a superior film and for me is Fishers masterpiece. If you ever want to indoctrinate anyone in the ways of Hammer, this is the one to go for- after all it worked for me!

AND WHAT ABOUT YOURSELVES dear readers? What were the films that really made you fall in love with Cushing? If you have any comments, suggestions or feedback about this or ANY of my features here at PCAS you can contact me HERE at spookycallum58@gmail.com

PART ONE OF OUR Femme Fatale Feature on YVONNE MONLAUR 

star of BRIDES OF DRACULA can be found HERE!