THE COMFORT OF CAT AND SLIPPERS : HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN CONNOR DIRECTOR OF 'FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE'!

PETER CUSHING: The Comfort of Slippers and a CAT! I am sure many of you will enjoy this rare photograph, of Peter relaxing, not at home... but sitting in the study of his long time friend and secretary, Joyce Broughton, in Herne Bay, near Peter's home in Whitstable, Kent. For those of you who know Peter's work well, I am sure you'll see the interesting connections in this photograph . . despite the terrible time his character Wilbur Gray endured in the 1977 film 'The Uncanny', personally he did have quite a passion and love of animals, birds, cats, dogs and wildlife. This cat lived in Joyce's home, a family pet...along with a dog too.

TO MY KNOWLEDGE, neither Peter or his wife Helen, ever had pets at home . . they preferred to enjoy the children and pets of their friends . . and have a quiet life! The slippers...well, we ALL know the connection there, I am sure . . 😊 This photograph was taken by and is the property of photographer Colin Bourner. 😉 Marcus *NOTE the book on the foot stool 😉

HAPPY BIRTHDAY director KEVIN CONNOR . .born today in 1937. He joined the Amicus films train, a little late in their journey, but in his very first outing as director, did amazing job on 'From Beyond The Grave' in 1974. It was also the first time he worked with Peter Cushing. Connor's timing, having served as an editor, brought a tighter beat to the Amicus style, managing to create what certainly looks like much higher production values, but I am sure the budget was as tight as ever. Released during the opening tip -toe, death march steps, of the collapse and fall of the British film industry.. From Beyond The Grave arrived a little late, when horror and fantasy films had moved on from spooky supernatural to full on exorcisms and gore . . though it did feature the lifting of nasty and mischievous Elemental demon . .

IT WOULD TAKE until the arrive of Home Cinema and the arrival of VHS and BBC double bills on TV, before it started to get the praise and recognition it deserved. Conner was also director and working with Peter on the last Amicus film, 'At The Earth's Core', managing to make a good ol family feature and get the best from Peter's almost second cousin to his Dr who. It was a huge production to manage.. at the time filing most of Pinewood studios lots with staggering jungle sets, caves, lava and men in suits! Hey! It's for the kids!

SOMEWHERE around this time, Peter stepped in with a guest appearance in another Connor directed feature called, 'Trail By Combat' aka 'A Dirty Knights Work' with John Mills... Connor also directed other very popular Amicus / AIP fantasy films too.. The Land That Time Forgot (1975), The People That Time Forgot (1977), Warlords of Atlantis (1978) by this time, Connor was certainly off Milton Subotsky's Christmas card list... but he did manage one more with Peter Cushing, 'Arabian Adventure' in 1978, with Peter making a guest appearance alongside it's star, Christopher Lee with...Milo O'Shea, Oliver Tobias, Emma Samms and...Mickey Rooney!

SINCE THOSE DAYS, Connor now spends most of his time and working and living in Hollywood directing films like Motel Hell (1980), The House Where Evil Dwells (1982), Sunset Grill (1993) and Domestic Import (2006), as well as many TV miniseries and films, including Goliath Awaits, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Great Expectations, Diana: Her True Story, Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story, Mother Teresa: In the Name of God's Poor, In the Beginning, Frankenstein, Blackbeard, Marco Polo and many more, as they say... 

TODAY, we thank Kevin Connor for bringing out some very entertaining films which thankfully also included Peter, if not starring, certainly in the mix. Beyond The Grave for many, is in their top three of the Amicus portmanteau productions, and deservedly so...as we will all see when it is released on blu ray by Warner Brothers next month.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN CONNOR, have certainly entertained us, took us BEYOND the grave, into the CORE, all while certainly making your mark as part of the Amicus adventure !!

A REMINDER: BACK LAST WEEK we shared the news that Warner Archive had just announced that the Amicus films 'From Beyond The Grave' (1974) . . . . .starring Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, David Warner plus a rostra of other stars names, in the true Amicus portmanteau tradition, and directed by Kevin Connor . . was coming to blu-ray. Warner have also announced that this release will be a NEW 2019 1080p HD MASTER too! The SPEC as we have right now is as follows: FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE (1973) Running Time 98:00.Sound Quality DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 - English Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, 16 X 9 WIDESCREEN: Product Color COLOR Disc Configuration BD 50. TO PLACE YOUR PRE-ORDER JUST CLICK : HERE!

USA RARE CINEMA TRAILER 'I MONSTER' HITS THE MONSTER SPOT!

THE USA TRAILER trailer for Amicus films, 'I, MONSTER' starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. A film with a production story, that sometimes is even more dramatic than the film! You can read all about it in a NEW feature at our PCASUK website shortly. In the meantime, enjoy this RARE trailer and the first of TWO great rare stills galleries, with many behind the scenes and on set photographs, never seen before. YOU can see PART one RIGHT HERE!

ABOVE: WHEN AMICUS FILM I,MONSTER and MR BLAKE made our weekly #MONSTERMONDAY selection! Everyone without a pause, voted BLAKE  a monster of some standard!

THE FILM 'I MONSTER' will be taking the platform at the PCASUK sites in several posts over the next two weeks. Be sure not to miss the I MONSTER RARE STILLS GALLERY and a new feature, with addition gallery at this website over the next few days. Gallery Part TWO will be here on MONDAY 6th 2018. Most posts that are daily posted here, are also posted and shared at the FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE  where fans and lovers of Peter's work and life, are able to debate and comment on the content of that day's posts. PLEASE feel free to join us and over 33 Thousand other followers at the FAN PAGE. JUST CLICK HERE  and CLICK LIKE there! 

SHOT GUNS FEAR, OLD SOLDIERS AND DIGGING THE COUNT!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY! What a striking image Donald Pleasence's Jim Underwood makes in his dazzling orange shirt, matchless tie, and that silk handkerchief, is a nice touch. Still, all this doesn't hide that fact, that he and his daughter, are more than VERY weird. It's poor ol Ian Bannen's Christopher Lowe I feel sorry for, all these alarm bells ringing and he doesn't see it coming. Peter Cushing's shop keeper didn't spare the horses in making this costumer suffer......! From Beyond The Grave, never fails to entertain. One of the best of the Amicus portmanteau films of the 70's... yes? Gif requested by Davy Travers.

 ABOVE: ANGELA PLEASENCE PLAYES DONALD'S DAUGHTER IN

'FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE' TO MAGNIFICENT EFFECT!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY!: IF you ever need a bit of midnight gardening done OR you find yourself in a bit of hurry to bury the evidence of your latest victim of carnage, #DRACULA is your man! Here's Christopher Lee in a frightening feral act, of burying his next victim, as a bit of supper he can come back to later!! You won't find a fast digger, other than my pet cat Ralph, after he has craftily stolen a pork chop, from my plate, and sets to burying it in the rose bed! It's true that Melissa Stribling got more than a mouthful of 'Bray-Village-Genuine- Best-of-English-Sod' while Lee was enthusiastically burying her. He almost fell in the hole during the shooting too! It's all part of the never-to-be-equaled final reel of #HAMMERFILMS #Horrorofdracula / #Dracula 1958. Peter Cushing's Van Helsing has never been better! You think? #GIF requested by Paul Ashman!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY! IT'S PRETTY OBLIVIOUS, that Ralph Bate's character Robert Heller, in Hammer films Fear In The Night never read page 238 of the 'Film Script Schemes and Plot Devices : Guns'. If a character has a loaded gun or rifle, and something moves or twitches behind a curtain, under a duvet or dust sheet' DON'T SHOOT! I didn't actually get to see this Hammer gem, until 1982, a full ten years after it was theatrically released. Watching the film with a crowd who really weren't au fey with Hammer films or this title was a real treat. They too were as caught up in the drama as I was, as not one of us knew the plot or any of the red herrings. 

THE PLOT REVEAL DETAIL that leads up to that gun shot, is a good one. Not wanting to give anything away, all I will share is the good news, FEAR IN THE NIGHT proves two things. One, the fact that this script nestled in the dust and dark recesses of Hammer films, scriptwriter Jimmy Sangster desk for over a decade, proves he wasn't that pin sharp at picking a potential winner, when he wrote one. Two, neither were Hammer! This script went through several rewrites and at one point, the whole thing was set on a canal boat!!! Things must have been more than tight, budget wise at that time I guess? 

FEAR IN THE NIGHT, is what Hammer called one of their quickies. And looking at the particulars for the film, you can see why! Sir James Carraras must have sold the family silver to pay Peter Cushing a misiliy £500 for a four day appearance, and the whole thing was in four weeks with a budget of a mere £141,000! The small cast of Ralph Bates, Judy Geeson and Joan Collins (slumming it, as Dynasty was just a twinkle in her agent's eye at this time) according to Sangster who also directed, had a wonderful time making the film. 

ABOVE: OFF SCREEN JIMMY SANSTER AND RALPH BATES WERE VERY GOOD MATES. AFTER RALPH'S SAD AND TRAGIC PASSING IN 1991, SANGSTER WOULD OFTEN REFLECT IN INTERVIEWS HOW MUCH HE STILL MISSED HIS OLD FRIEND . . 

SANGSTER DOES a good job cranking up the tension, but he must have used up his entire stock of directorial skills on Fear, as his other two outing for Hammer, 'Lust for a Vampire' and 'Horror of Frankenstein' are no way as inventive and entertaining as Fear. If you haven't seen Fear In The Night, it's worth your trouble digging it out. For those who have, revisit it, and remind yourselves, just how good Hammer could be when they had to....

#SILENTBUTDEADLY: PETER CUSHING EVER THE optimist, roles up he sleeves and attempts his, what's going on here then, medical sensibilities to a man who is WELL GONE, in the rip roaring, a 'new twist and plot development every minute', #HORROREXPRESS.  It never fails to surprise me how much everyone has a soft spot for this film. According to Christopher Lee, who appeared with Cushing in this Spanish-Horror, it wasn't the most comfortable of excursions. A little like Cushing dip into the Hong Kong way of making movies, with Seven Golden Vampires, the studio was basic, the catering was..basic, and Cushing who was still very much in an emotional spiral after the recent passing of his wife, Helen..wanted to just go home. In fact, if Lee had not intervened, Cushing would have been booked on the next REAL train out. The work surroundings and home comforts were absent, but every penny of the budget, was on the screen. Including that beautiful locomotive of the title. Sadly, before  all the 'train-spotters' race for a copy, much of the 'Express' travel footage was model work, good model work, but not the real article in loco-motion.

CHRISTOPHER LEE DEMONSTRATES THE OL ADAGE WHEN A SHOT GUN ISN'T  AT HAND, USE YOURS HANDS, TO KILL....A DEAD PERSON!

PETER CUSHING PROVING SHOT GUNS ARE NOT ONLY GOOD FOR SHOOTING PEOPLE UNDER DUST SHEETS - BUT ZOMBIES TOO!

LEE AND CUSHING are really on form in this one, and supported by a largely dubbed but capable cast. It appears that since the film moved into a weird and strange siding, in the world of ever confusing copyright, and has become public domain, the Horror Express timetable now appears on just about every compilation bootleg dvd of horror films you can spot on ebay. This in turn has helped the film, garland an even more prominent place with fans of zombie-fossil-thing-on-a-train films. Which can only be good for genre, if a little annoying for the guys who scrimped with that meany budget...! 

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