THE TUESDAY TOUGHY AND THE HAMMER FILM THAT GOT AWAY FROM THE DUO

MANY OF YOU MAY have had fun with us, when we posted a whole GALLERY OF FAKE BLU RAY BOXES AND COVERS connected to the many PETER CUSHING films and projects that sadly, for whatever reasons,  didn't come to fruition. THIS particular HAMMER FILM isn't included in the frustrating roll call. And one wonders, if both Cushing and Lee had been cast. how that film may have turned out. All will be revealed TOMORROW when we share the ANSWER here and at the PCASUK FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

IF YOU MISSED THE Unmade Peter Cushing films feature, written by MARK IVESON with  mocks up's and images by yours truly, HERE is a link, to catch it now: CLICK RIGHT HERE!

THE TUESDAY TOUGHY is a new weekly posts for here and the PCASUK FACEBOOK FAN PAGE. Sadly, I can't give away prizes for anyone who answers these brain teasers correctly, but you will forever be elevated in the academic corridors of  UNIVERSITY OF CUSHINDEMIA, for life! IF you feel, on cracking the teaser, you would like to share you moment of EUREKA, why not join us at the PCAS FACEBOOK PAGE, and ease the strain on others who may not have found that elusive answer. Alternatively, take comfort in the fact, that ALL the answers to the TUESDAY TOUGHY can be found in the posts and pages of this website and the FACEBOOK FAN PAGE. We'll be providing the ANSWER here tomorrow. HAVE FUN! - Marcus  

REMEMBER! 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 

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: JUST WHAT THE GOOD DOCTOR ORDERED : CITY OF THE DEAD AND SILICATE ON THE FOURTH!

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY!: To all our friends in the US have a great day today! ..Do you think silicates have cook-outs and parties today???

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY: What The Doctor Ordered! Isn't strange the effect that just a small tash can make to a face you know well? Here is Peter Cushing with the modest of mustaches, that somehow changes his whole face! That are quite few (!!) roles on the big screen where wore a mustache, and beard, a handlebar tash too! (Thank you Mark Iveson) On stage and on the small screen there were quite a few. I somehow can't quite image his signature roles like Baron Frankenstein, Sherlock or Van Helsing with a tash. This I am guessing is from around the time of him shooting the Dr Who films, where a tash was needed. Because of his dislike of and slight allergy to the glue that held on false facial hair, Cushing had to grow them from . . . scratch! The films where Peter Cushing  DID wear a tash? Thanks to Mark Iveson:The Man in the Iron Mask : A Chump at Oxford:Hamlet - although he has a tuft on his chin : Revenge of Frankenstein - end of movie : Suspect : The Dr Who films : Fear in the Night : Dr Phibes Rises Again : The Creeping Flesh - beginning & end of film : From Beyond the Grave : At the Earth's Core

#TOOCOOTUESDAY! CITY OF THE DEAD aka Horror Hotel, is a true masterpiece and the perfect example of how imagination and craftsmanship can overcome a small budget in film making! Producer Milton Subotsky was very proud of their promotion and advertising campaign and the strap lines, but many, think they used a broad brush stroke in the artwork for the cinema poster...maybe relying on the fact that both Cushing's and Lee's careers were then so closely linked with each other, that the cinema going public, aided by this artwork, may confuse one with the other? 

I MEAN, the publicity photograph above proves that it's Lee from a shot in the film, but it COULD be Peter Cushing. And I know what you're thinking..., studio publicity departments would never mislead the public with their posters, would they???

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. 

#MONSTERMONDAY: VINCENT PRICE DR BROWNING WITH GIFS AND STILLS GALLERY

#MONSTERMONDAY: 'A serial killer who drains his victims' blood is on the loose in London; the police follow him to a house owned by an eccentric scientist'.

REALLY? I HAVE LIVED SO LONG without really understanding what on earth, the film #SCREAMANDSCREAMAGAIN is really about, I don't care much, if I ever understand it. It has never effected my enjoyment of the film, which probably down to two things: the performance of Alfred Marks as Detective Supt. Bellaver and Vincent Price as the weird Dr. Browning. 

BUT TODAY it's Vincent's Dr Browning that we are shinning our spot light onto. Who OR what is this guy? Ok, he has a title, he's a Doctor who whose clinic specializes in limb and organ transplantation... can I hear alarm bells? As we witness in the film, patient limbs have a habit of parting and walking off, and not by themselves. I have read theories that Browning is also, an alien? Whatever he is, Price plays him with a 'now you see me, now you don't' wink which keeps us guessing. Price also went down on record in later years that, the character may have been hard to pin down, because he had no idea either, what Browning OR the film was really about. It's not hard to believe, when it seems the film appears to have THREE individual plots running at the same time. 

ONE IS REMINDED of Cushing's 'Doctors Wear Scarlet' / 'Incense For The Damned' / 'Blood Suckers' movie from 1970. Here the budget pot ran dry during the production,causing filming to halt in the spring of 1969, resuming some months on.New plot strands had to written, as actors had moved on and the results were a mess! 

I HAVE EVEN READ a theory where, in order to proceed with the film, and  get a theatrical release, footage from a completely unrelated film, was glued onto the existing scenes . .  how-else could you account for such a jumbled non coherent story? BUT this isn't the case here, SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN was adapted from the novel by Peter Saxon, The Disoriented Man. Peter Saxon being a 'house pseudonym' used by various authors in the 1960s and 1970s. .  So, I guess there isn't one man to blame then? 

EVEN SO, the great Fritz Lang is reported to have had an appreciation of the film, it's a pity he isn't still around to enlighten us about the plot! But hey, Plot? Smot! Who needs it when you have Vincent Price firing on all cylinders? Dr Browning is a fascinating creation, and the reason why we have installed him in our #MonsterMonday archive. Price created, by accident maybe, another villain armed with a scalpel, out to do harm and to be feared. He is a bounder and a sly one at that. He's quick, but not quick enough to escape Christopher Lee's 'Fremont ' entering from the shadows and seeing him off in such an acidic fashion. Does DR BROWNING make YOUR MONSTER list?

If our #MONSTERMONDAY feature has whetted your appetite, and you didn't enter our PCAS COMPETITION LAST YEAR  (ABOVE) and don't own a copy  of  'SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN. HAVE NO FEAR! Twilight Time who generously sponsored our PCAS competiton have a terrific BLU RAY release, complete with EXTRAS! Just click and ORDER RIGHT HERE! 

If you LIKE what you find posted here . . Please visit us at our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE and help 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.

#GETTHECUSHIONSUNDAY! PRICE AND CUSHING CHAT AND TOP SECRET!

#GETTHECUSHION: A behind the scenes snap of Peter Cushing and the producers of the film, 'TOP SECRET' (1984) ... and the pose subject matter? I have no idea...! It's film you either love or hate, but most seem to remember Cushing's  'Giant Eye' skit, more than the impressive skills he displayed in making the 'reverse action' and dialogue seamless and convincing!

#GETTHECUSHION! A requested repost for Samantha Eyddes, of Peter Cushing and Vincent Price recording, 'Aliens in the Mind', a radio serial recorded and broadcast by the BBC. Samantha brought up the question, as to why Cushing and Price never got to appear in more work together...? It's a tough one to answer, and probably lies somewhere with, 'Not enough opportunities' and 'Some of films of that particular genre, had small budgets, that wouldn't stretch to hiring both!'. along with, 'We could never find a window of time where they were both free!'... 


HMM, I AM NOT SURE. One would have thought with the amount of time Price spent every year during the late 1960's and 70's in the UK, there should have been something where the two could have worked together. I always thought the lost opportunity in casting Cushing as one of Lionheart's critics, was one of many. To slip Cushing in as the 'Ship Captain' in the second Phibes film, was a tease and more than a bit mean. Cushing's fee per day was around £750 to £1,200 a day, at this time. At those prices, I wonder why he wasn't used more in Phibes, and appear in Theatre of Blood, Cry of the Banshee, and The Oblong Box?


TO BE FAIR, Cushing was pretty busy in 1971 through to 72... he appeared in over a dozen feature films. So maybe it was about timing? Then, thank havens they had time for 'Madhouse', 'Price of Fear', 'Aliens of the Mind' and 'House of the Long Shadows'...!

IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll  love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.  Please Us Help 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. 

GIFS: EPIC CINEMA ON A BUDGET WITH A FINGER THIEF AND A THREE WEEK SHOOT!

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY: THE 1960 FILM. 'SUSPECT' aka  'The Risk' was a tight little thriller, directed by Roy Boulting and John Boulting, with an excellent cast of Tony Britton, Virginia Maskell, Ian Bannen, Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasence. What started as a bet between the two brothers, to see if they could make a film, from page to screen in three weeks, when it was discovered the film they had recently completed had wrapped almost a month ahead of schedule. They grabed a property novel entitled,  A Sort of Traitors by Nigel Balchin, and the result was,  'Suspect' retitled in the US as 'The Risk'. Jeff Plumber got in touch to request one of this week's GIFS, as he has never got the chance to see the film, maybe a tinny GIF would be a great teaser. And in the GIF we have posted featuring Tony Britton as Doctor Robert Marriott and Peter Cushing as the tense, Professor Sewell, does the job, I think? Great choice Jeff. Thank you!

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY: Here are two guys that back at the time when this film was made in 1965, were at the top of their profession. Bernard Cribben's on the left here played Major Holly's (Peter Cushing) valet, in something a little different from Hammer called, 'SHE'. At this time Cribbin's was hardly ever off the small screen in the UK. Starring in several of his own light entertainment shows, having hit novelty songs in the UK hit parade and guesting and appearing in all sorts of homegrown flicks and tv shows. He also starred with Cushing in 'Daleks Invasion earth, 2150 AD' which they made the following year. Cribbin's was a keen scuba-diver, and while on location in Israel, taught Cushing to fish and do the flipper thing! Despite a badly timed faux -par with the BBC at the beginning of the 60's, that affected his working relationship with the 'bods-in -suits' at the Beeb, Cushing was very busy, on both the tv, radio and the big screen. The first four years of the new decade brought some interesting roles.

OUR FEATURE AND GALLERY ON 'SHE' CAN BE FOUND : HERE!

CUSHING AND CRIBBIN'S, along with co-star Christopher Lee, probably though 'SHE' was going to be a few weeks in the sun and some excellent time to paint, swim, eat and see the sights. It was anything but... with Cribbin's being injured in his BUTT, and most of the crew and cast going down with 'unpredictable bowel' events.  'SHE' was produced by Hammer films in an attempt at producing something... EPIC! Producer Michael Carreras wasn't that keen on the spooky flicks, that made Hammer films famous, and he was desperate the make something that was family entertainment, with epic style. The problem was, Hammer never had EPIC money....! Still what we do get isn't far off the mark, and it's title star, Ursula Andress is not too shoddy either, filling the screen, in more ways than one, with her super-star charisma.  Many thanks to Danni Marx for this GIF request!

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY: IF THERE IS ANTHING that the fairy-tales of our childhood tells us, it's... DON'T TAKE ANYTHING OR STEAL FROM THE BAD GUYS...don't eat that apple, don't take that drugged candy from the lady in the made of candy...and don't even try thinking about stealing that hen, that eggs those very expensive eggs! Peter Cushing's Prof Emmanuel Hildern, could add, 'never cut and take the finger from a eight foot tall fossilized skeleton!' Of course, if he had taken a look over his shoulder at his family, and their struggle with madness, the ruthless torment from his brother, Christopher Lee...he would have had a hunch, this wasn't going to work out well for him. 

'THE CREEPING FLESH' is a excellent film on all counts, wonderfully directed by Freddie Francis, who for a short spell only, woke up from his boredom with directing horror films,  this one tick all the boxes, but because of the timing of it's production, missed it's boat and glory, when the horror market in the UK had all but bled-out. Cushing is great at roles like Van Helsing and co where he gets to fight the evil, by means of quick thinking, Errol Flynn theatrics and strength, but he makes a superb foil for the fall too. Hildern does everything he shouldn't, and the final 20 mins of the film, sees him hunted by the films, bogey-man. If you have not caught this one yet, it was recently re-released in the US on Blu Ray. Look it up! GIF requested by Debbie Finson, who also asks, 'Can you explain what the ending means of The Creeping Flesh, please?' Debbie, I would love to, but..despite watching this several times, there's lots of clues, but the answer, I can't quite put my FINGER on it ....

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 reach our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th 2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!

CHRISTOPHER LEE ON PLAYING MONSTERS AND THE FRIGHTENING SALARY!

#HAMMERFILMSSATURDAY: ANYONE who knows anything about Christopher Lee will already familiar with this story of how Dracula SAVED Universal Studio's from losing their shirt and just about everything else in the lot! I think Lee's £750 salary was only £200 MORE than the fee he was paid for 'The Curse of Frankenstein'!

PETER CUSHING AT HIS SURPRISE 80TH BIRTHDAY PARTY! 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 reach our 30K following total for Peter Cushing BIRTHDAY on MAY 26th 2017 AND Help Keep The Memory Alive!

 

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#THROWBACKTHURSDAY : AMICUS LOOSES THEIR HEADS AND AN ACTORS LIFE FOR ME

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: For this post we go back to a time when, unlike today, special effects and the make up department where often the poorer cousins of all the other departments, at the studio. And during the budget allocation, they were often allocated the smallest amount of the budget, and more often then not, the least amount of time to prepare and deliver on the studio floor.....

LITTLE WONDER THEN, that come the climax of many a Horror film, when it comes to the big payoff, the 'reveal'...it was a bit of a anti-climax. Films walked a very shaky line between getting the desired effect, and a reveal that brought the house down, with embarrassing laughter. The case in point here... Cushing's reaction is wonderful! What could it be to make his character recoil with horror like that??? 

THE ANSWER, a very weird look-a-likey of actor, one Joss Akland! Maybe Milton wanted a AA certificate??? It wasn't a mistake, because two mins later, the film delivers a 'chopped off' noggin, that looks equally, if not worse than this one... maybe we can't blame the make up and props people, did they have the budget, the time, the right model artist?? Who knows..... how ironic this scene takes place in a museum full of badly made wax figures of murders and criminals... this dummy head, really is a crime!!!

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