YOUR UNDERRATED FILMS OF PETER CUSHING!

OVER AT THE FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE today, we've asked a simple question, and have received a skip load of answers, some quite surprising! You may want to add your opinion too? Below are just a few of the many suggestions you have suggested, in some of our past features and galleries . . 

OUR 'CASH ON DEMAND FEATURE and gallery : HERE!

ON THE SET during the making of 'CASH ON DEMAND' gallery : HERE! 

 ONE OF OUR features on the DR WHO films of Peter Cushing : HERE!

AND ALSO HERE!

OUR FEATURE AND GALLERY on DR PHIBES RISES AGAIN!

OUR FEATURE AND GALLERY ON  Peter Cushing and Hammer films 'SHE' : HERE!

BEHIND THE SCENES of Amicus Productions : 'I MONSTER' Gallery Part Two: HERE!

CUSHING'S 'NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT' and 'ISLAND OF TERROR' Feature and Gallery : HERE!

WHAT A WAY TO GO ! SPIDERS IN A MYSTERY RARE PHOTOGRAPH

WHAT A HORRIBLE way to go! Here is Peter Cushing breathing his last gasps, in a film I am pretty sure you all know 😉 This is a RARE photograph, I have never shared before. QUESTION: There was only ONE #vincentprice film in which Peter also appeared, but didn't die! If you know THAT title, you'll know which film takes the theme on SUNDAY when CALLUM MCKELVIE joins us again, for the first in another series of great features with RARE stills galleries! Crack my QUESTION you have the film for Callum's first FEATURE 😉 - Marcus

WANT TO SEE MORE? Come join us at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE! UPDATED EVERY DAY! 

THE SUNDAY DOUBLE BILL: CALLUM MCKELVIE TAKES TWO!

THE 'DOUBLE BILL' is something of a tradition within the film industry. Simply put it meant- ‘two for the price of one’. Originally used pre-cinema in Opera houses, it came into prominence in the 1930’s after the Great Depression. With the film industry suffering heavy losses, a number of cinemas chose to offer the two-for-one scheme, as a hope of luring punters back into the seats. 

SUFFICE TO SAY it worked and since then double bills were something of staple. However by the end of the 20th century, as the number of low-budget films being given theatrical releases lessened they began to go out of fashion and are now exceedingly rare. None the less the appeal to ciniphiles is still there and they can often be found at festivals, usually featuring two themed or related films.

THE 'THEMED DOUBLE BILL' is the subject of today’s piece (and of two following pieces), namely what is the perfect Cushing double bill? I’ll be discussing three trios of films that in my mind complement each other. They can be directly related, as are today’s or can simply be of thematic interest. However, they must of course both star Peter Cushing in some capacity. 

STATING WITH a somewhat obvious one, today I’ll be discussing 1957’s The Curse of Frankenstein and 1958’s The Revenge of Frankenstein, but more specifically, how they complement each other. Curse and Revenge are the first two instalments in Hammer’s Frankenstein series, one of course being the granddaddy of Hammer’s gothic output. Whilst the first is a truncated retelling of the Frankenstein story, putting emphasis on the Baron as more of a villain, the sequel brings events full circle. Together, they show the rise and fall of Baron Frankenstein with his eventual fate as his own creation.

TO BEGIN WITH, this probably makes the most obvious pairing simply as Revenge picks up exactly where Curse left off, meaning that watched back to back it feels like one consistent epic.  Furthermore, unlike some of the later incarnations of the character (for example the more softer version seen in The Evil of Frankenstein or vicious incarnation that features in Frankenstein Must be Destroyed) these are clearly supposed to be the same man.

MUCH OF THE SETS are recycled and  virtually identical and Hammer even got the same actor (Alex Gallier) who played the priest in Curse to reprise his role at the start of this film. This means that unlike other Hammer sequels, Revenge often feels like a natural progression of Curse. Terrance Fisher returns and the only notable admission is James Bernard, who is replaced by Leonard Salzedo. I for one adore Salzedo’s score and it’s certainly up there with my favourite Hammer soundtrack, fitting the atmosphere of Revenge perfectly. The final end credits fanfare is chillingly powerful.

WHAT REALLY MAKES these two films complement each other however, is the rich thematic nature in which one story reflects the other. I discussed briefly some of the varying levels in Revenge’s script during my tribute to Jimmy Sangster. However when watched back to back these two films have elements which show a great intelligence in Sangster’s work. The progression to brain transplants comes across as incredibly natural and the bravery in having the revenge as not a physical one (a slice and dice would have been so easy) but more of a philosophical one (he has to prove himself right), shows an incredible understanding of the character. With the Baron somewhat younger in the first film, he is the pupil to Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart) who through the course of the film becomes the more dominant figure. 


IN REVENGE that Baron seems to have aged tremendously due to his near death experience and this time it is he who has the pupil, in Francis Matthews’s Hanz. Throughout the course of this film we see Hanz grow and learn, until at the finale it is he who must perform the brain transplant upon the Baron. 

THE FACT THAT this then results in the only successful operation, the final shot being Hanz looking on proudly at the new Baron, presents a wonderful circularity to these films. We see the Baron first develop his concept of creating life and then further this into brain transplants. We see his two failed experiments but we also see him grow and develop as a character, from pupil to teacher.

OF COURSE MUCH of this is down to Cushing, who in the space of a year manages two performances of the same character but in entirely different mind-sets. Thanks to him, we believe that this is the same man and that he really has been through a horrific experience, which has just made him more determined to continue. Indeed the most horrifying thing in Revenge is Cushing’s uttering of the line ‘they will never be rid of me’. The determination is so powerful as to be utterly chilling.

WELL THAT'S IT for this weeks double bill, but join me again next Sunday as I’ll be discussing another perfect pair…
 

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 

CALLUM MCKELVIE: GOES RUMMAGING ON PLANET AARU FOR CUSHING WHO GOODIES!

SO FIRST THING FIRST- I’ve been away a little while, but now I’m back! So as before every Sunday I’ll be stealing the lime light to ramble a little about a differing aspect of Cushing and his work. It seemed best to return with a bang and following on from my two-part review of the ‘Dr. Who’ movies, we’re presenting another two-part piece on the films, though this time it’ll be more along the lines of a ‘behind the scenes feature’. Primarily there’s two reasons for this. A) I am of course a massive Doctor Who fan. B) There’s a lot of neat images and footage we have yet to share.

ONE OF THE MAIN REASON FOR this article was to showcase some footage available on the BBC DVD of the Jon Pertwee story Death to the Daleks. (see above) Recently discovered at the time of that stories release, the footage is a rare behind the scenes look at the making of the 1965 film. The BBC’s presentation of the footage is admirable as they’ve gone to the trouble of interviewing some of the original crew along with Hammer Historian Marcus Hearne, for what is an admittedly small amount of film. 

THE FOOTAGE has some interesting Cushing moments, showcasing him exploiting the slapstick comic potential of his character as he jumps around wildly in a doorway when their escaping the Dalek trap. The real delight however is a tiny moment in which Cushing and fellow star Roy Castle are seen partaking in a small song and dance number of what we can presume is some kind of Broadway theme. Unfortunately as the footage has no sound we’ll never know what this sounded like! Though I’m sure someone with excellent lip-reading skills could tell us the name of the song.

ONE OF THE MORE INTERESTING facts in terms of the films promotion centres around its sets. Designed by Scott Slimon (who worked on many contemporary horror pictures including Scream and Scream Again and The Skull amongst others) they are easily one of the most striking aspects of the production. Indeed so striking were they deemed by Milton Subotsky that not only did sections of them appear alongside the Daleks at the Cannes Film festival in the 1965, but they then went on a country-wide tour across the UK promoting the film. 

SEVERAL OF THE DALEKS from the film would be loaned out the BBC and appear as ‘Dalek guards’ in The Chase, which due to the shows tight turn-around would actually be broadcast before the film’s release. Their noticeable by the fact they are missing their large bases.

OF COURSE THE FILM was released during the height of so-called ‘Dalekmania’ within Britain, when the titular killer pepper-pots from the planet Skaro were taking over the toy stores. Indeed it’s often easy to forget that during this period it wasn’t really the ‘Doctor’ that was the draw of ‘Doctor Who’. The year the film was released the Daleks appeared in a massive 19 television episodes and that’s excluding cameo appearances, indeed one of the episodes didn’t even feature the Doctor (Mission to the Unknown). 

BY THE TIME the film hit cinema screens then a slew of Dalek related merchandise was available for the avid collector. Some was explicitly related to the Cushing film (The ‘Paint and Draw the Film of Dr. Who and the Daleks’ book) whereas a majority was simply ‘Dalek’ merchandise (Dalek soap, Inflatable Daleks). Most famous….or perhaps that should be infamous was the ‘Dalek Playsuit’. A red plastic dome would fit upon the head of the wearer, with a plastic sucker and gun arm, whilst there body would be draped in a plastic sheet, designed to look like a Dalek.

MORE EXPLICITLY movie related merchandise including a Dell comic adaptation, that like all Dell comic adaptations of the time told the story of the film with some rather unimpressive artwork. Meanwhile child star Roberta Tovey released the album ‘Who’s Who’ with a B-side featuring Jack Dorsey’s Dance of the Daleks. Listen to it at your peril…

PLEASE JOIN ME HERE AGAIN, next week! Where I’ll be discussing tid-bits concerning the second Dalek movie…DALEK INVASION EARTH 2150 AD!.

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  . . 

HORRIBLE DEATH WEDNESDAY 2: WITH CALLUM MCKELVIE

SO TODAY is of course our new theme, ‘Horrible Death Wednesday’, where we highlight some of our favourite dispatches for a multitude of memorable characters in Cushing’s film. It’s a pretty good line-up if I say so myself, featuring one film I’ve regularly mentioned as a personal best, another that featured in my ‘Choicest Cushing’ article and one that I haven’t as of yet praised- but will shortly. 

FIRST UP is the aftermath of the titular creature’s death from ‘Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell’. During the final moments, the creature (having of course been on the rampage) is set upon by the inmates of the asylum and quite literally ripped apart. A particularly gruesome moment, it’s one of a number of gory sequences that feel at odds in what is essentially a throwback film. None the less, it feels right in what is an exceptionally dark film (even for the Hammer Frankenstein series) and a fitting end to one of the more sympathetic creatures in the series.

NEXT UP is a sequence from a film I’ve regularly mentioned to be a personal favourite, though haven’t as of yet written anything substantial on it. Christopher Lee’s death in The Skull has long been one of my favourites and I think it’s down to the very subtle elements of black comedy in the scene. Bar one sequence at the opening, Lee and Cushing only ever appear playing Billiards together, so it’s little surprise when Cushing batters Lee over the head with a ball. Unlike the above sequence, there’s very little on-screen gore but it’s the context that makes this particularly gruesome. Subotsky had a particular flare for introducing gruesome elements into his films, but somehow instructing directors to keep the high levels of violence off screen (the ‘Blind Man’ sequence in Tales from the Crypt springs to mind). This is a prime example. 

FINALLY we have a sequence from The Mummy. The Mummy is full of a number of great death sequences, Daddy Banning’s and Mehemet Bay’s spring to mind, but today’s is the death of Cushing’s uncle played by Raymond Huntley. Huntley is a familiar British character actor and he’s such a friendly and likable character that his death, strangled as Lee’s titular walking cadaver crashes through a door, proves to have something of a resonance to 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 . . 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  .