HAPPY BIRTHDAY WANDA AND TAKE YOUR PIC OF A FLICK AT WHITSTABLE!

YOU MIGHT HAVE HEARD OF or know Wanda for a whole lot of reasons... the ace 1960's Brit TV series 'UFO', Peter Cushing's 'love it hate it' Tigon horror film about a killer moth 'The Blood Beast Terror', the fact she played a role in a terrific Hammer horror film, mumbling under a paper mache mask for a fair while . . or the fact that she is THE Mum to a quite internationally famous actor...? Personally I LIKE 'The Blood Beast Terror', I like UFO and I love Ventham too 😊 Join in if YOU too want to wish the super Wanda Ventham, A Happy Birthday too, TODAY at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE!! 

JUST A FEW DAYS AGO, I was put on the spot! A message come though on the FACEBOOK PCASUK Fan Page, with a question, that really got me thinking. 'We are planning a FILM NIGHT at the Whitstable Castle, we would like to dedicate the film we are screening, to Peter Cushing, and are foxed as to which Cushing Hammer film we should screen. Any ideas? I don't know about you, but on the rare occasion I have a spare evening to sit and enjoy one of Peter Cushing's many titles, I usually end up cruising the spines of all 80 odd dvd's and blu rays, then studying the covers, a little dusting and rearranging, before I know, three hours or more has passed, with distractions and procrastination, resulting in not a one disc sliding into the player! I really am the last person to ask, but I did manage after at least an hour or chewing on it, one title. However, knowing often my suggestion may not fit their plans or thinking, I instead suggested the making of a token PCASUK banner very qucikly and throwing the question out to the entire following of the PCASUK FAN PAGE. The many, many, come back suggestions and results were very interesting indeed. If YOU want to add your suggestion to the list in the comments thread, PLEASE do! Here is a link to THAT post, join it with a click HERE! ANY news on the planned evening, I will share as NEWS here at the website, FACEBOOK and other PCASUK social platforms. Stay TUNED 😉   

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAM STOKER : BORN TODAY NOVEMBER 8TH 1847

BORN TODAY November 8th 1847 in Clontarf, Dublin, Republic of Ireland… BRAM STOKER, creator of Dracula and a hundred thousand nightmares! Happy Birthday, Mr Stoker!!!

REMEMBERING ONE OF HAMMER FILMS NICEST MEN : TUESDAY TOUGHIE : WINNERS OF CINEFICCION!

REMEMBERING: A wonderful actor and special guy, RALPH BATES. Sadly, no longer with us, and died today in 1991. A talented actor and a truly gentle and kind man.

THE GREAT, GREAT nephew of the renowned French scientist Louis Pasteur developed into a strangely handsome dark haired, pale complexioned English actor. Ralph Bates was born in 1940 in Bristol, England and attended the University of Dublin and studied at the Yale Drama School. His dramatic talents first came to audiences attention playing the evil Emperor Caligula in the well received BBC TV series The Caesars (1968). However, the Hammer studios resurrection of the horror genre was then in full stride, and Bates was soon engulfed in the swirling cloak of Hammer's success as he appeared in several horror films in quick succession.

FIRSTLY IN A SUPPORT role as demonic Lord Courtley in Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), followed as the lead character Baron Frankenstein in The Horror of Frankenstein (1970), then as Giles Barton in the sexy Lust for a Vampire (1971) and as the well meaning Dr. Jekyll in an unusual spin on the Robert Louis Stevenson story in Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971) and 'Fear in the Night' with Peter Cushing in 1972. Bates brought a new zest to Hammer and with his stylish dialogue delivery and film acting methods, he quickly won himself quite a few fans in both critics and regular film goers!

UNFORTUNATELY, by the early 1970s there had been a downturn in Hammer studios fortunes, and Bates then found himself turning to more traditional character work in other production houses and he appeared in several films before snaring other superb villainous role as George Warleggan in the 18th century period piece Poldark (1975).

AFTER POLDARK, Bates himself kept busy in a few forgettable UK made TV shows and television film roles which did not really do justice to his remarkable talents. In the late 1980s his health rapidly deteriorated, and he sadly passed away from cancer aged only 51 on 27th March 1991. 

BELOW OUR ANSWER to LAST WEEKS TUESDAY TOUGHIE!

ANSWER: THE ACTORS who Peter Cushing worked with BETWEEN 1956 and 1959 who became KNIGHTED were MICHAEL REDGRAVE in TIME WITHOUT PITY (1957) , CHRISTOPHER LEE in a whole range of feature films, STANLEY BAKER in VIOLENT PLAYGROUND (1958) and JOHN MILLS in END OF THE AFFAIR (released 1956)

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! HERE ARE OUR LUCKY FOUR winners to the competition we held LAST WEEK! YOUR magazine will be with you shortly. IF ytou did not supply a postal address where you would like your prizes mailed to, PLEASE contact me at the PCAS email. AGAIN thank you everyone who took part and entered AND many thanks to DARIO at CINEFICCION for those prize copies! HERE is where you can ORDER YOUR copy too!  ANOTHER COMPETITION LATER THIS WEEK! KEEP LOOKING IN!

REQUESTED RARE IMAGES FROM TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA ON CHRISTOPHER LEE SATURDAY!

#REQUESTED IMAGES: Following our giveaways of RARE #Hammerfilms #Dracula images earlier today, I received a few messages of requests for colour rare images from Hammer films, 'Taste the Blood of Dracula' (1970) I can only post these few at this time, as I am assisting with extras for a BR release of the film, that is being released in the next few weeks, I guess. MORE NEWS and INFO news, as they tell us....!

ANTHONY HIGGINS and Linda Hayden, trap Christopher Lee's DRACULA on the altar, in 'Taste the Blood of Dracula' (1970) Colour transparency. Gail Joyner, this is for you!

AND HE IS ...GONE! This is a colour transparency of the altar set after Dracula's demise in 'Taste the Blood of Dracula' (1970) Note the gold clasp medallion on the cloak. T Beeson, this is for you

FOR MICHELLE DOLLAN who requested any unreleased work from the amazing artist , the lateTom Chantrell, who was responsible for...and appeared in many..cinema and publicity posters for Hammer films. This one, again is Taste the Blood of Dracula, and example of a concept for the cinema poster, that has elements of what actually appeared in the competed poster artwork.. and yes, that IS Tom in the poster..!

AND FINALLY, A LARGE AND  RARE transparency of Christopher Lee in 'Taste the Blood of Dracula' (1970) Lee had a leaner look in this, in the 1958 Dracula / Horror of Dracula, Dracula AD 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula . . . Paul Miles, this is for you

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    

DO YOU KNOW YOUR FU FROM YOUR TONG?

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAYS! It's a role you don't hear much about these days, Dracula, Saruman and Count Dooku cast a long shadow... but Lee did play FU MANCHU in FIVE films : The Face of Fu Manchu (1965) The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966) The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967) The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969)... plus Chung King in Hammer films, 'Terror of the Tongs' in 1961. Are you a fan of Lee's FU? Is one considered better than the others...educate me, I know next to nothing about this series of films...and am contemplating a FU night!

TRIVIA: What is the name of the actress who appeared in all FIVE FU films with Lee?  . . . AND When Christopher Lee played FU MANCHU, his mustache is LONGER than CHUNG KING's in 'Terror of the Tongs'??? True or False?

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT 'THE TERROR OF THE TONGS' HERE IS OUR FEATURE WITH RARE STILLS GALLERY: CLICK HERE!

#GETTHECUSHIONITSCUSHINGSUNDAY! JOIN US TOMORROW!

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.

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: VAMPS FIRE SMOKE AND FIGHTS!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: THE SCRIPT FOR HAMMER FILMS fifth Frankenstein film 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed' afforded the 'creation' an opportunity to share his feelings and emotions, in a way that no other 'monster/creation' had before in any of the previous Cushing / Frankenstein's'. How fortunate than, to have cast the excellent Freddie Jones as the unfortunate Professor Richter / Doctor Brandt, who was able to do that dialogue justice. For once the one who had gone under the Baron's knife, had intelligence and cunning, and no more than in the scene where this clipped GIF comes from.  

WHILE DESPERATELY dashing from room to room, looking for those all important notes, a hidden Brandt stops Frankenstein in his tracks, 'I fancy that I AM the spider and YOU are the fly, Frankenstein'. Lit by the flames of a flickering rag,  Brandt stands at the top of the staircase, holding glass lanterns full of  combustible oil. Brandt invites Frankenstein to a deadly game of cat and mouse. If he wants get out out of the house alive, he will have to out fox Brandt, and his intention of burning down the house, with them inside! Giving us one the all-times best endings to a Hammer film.

FAST LINK TO LOADS OF RARE PIC AND FEATURE ABOVE AT OUR WEBSITE : HERE

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) looks on in horror on discovering his friend, Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) in Dracula's coffin, now transformed into a vampire! There is only one thing for it! Hammer films Dracula Horror of Dracula (1958) Requested by Junior Fleetwood.

OUR #MONSTERMONDAY TRIBUTE  TO THIS SCENE A FEW WEEKS GO!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: VINNIE GOES PUFF! Paul Toombes sits in total boredom, during the junket party for his Dr Death movies, unfortunately it also brings together people and duds from his past, that he would rather forget . . . Weird coincidence, when I met with Vincent Price in 1980 and asked him about Madhouse, he said, 'I really would rather not talk about that one...!' He smiled and that made me laugh! Personally, it's a film I never get bored of...!
Request by Dan T

RANDOM RARE AND REALLY COOL POSTS: EVERY #TOOCOOLTUESDAY!

HERE AT THE WEBSITE AND OUR PCAS FACEBOK FAN PAGE! CLICK 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.