THE DRACULA SHOT THAT NEVER MADE IT : CUSHING THE MERCILESS AND GOOD SHOES, MAKETH THE MAN!

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAY! My Granny always said, 'You can always judge man by the quality of his shoes..!' With Christopher Lee busily polishing his custom made Italian brogues here, Granny would have obviously rated him quite high on her crib sheet. That's a nice shine too. Lee obviously doesn't trust to leave his shoes outside his hotel room door...after that LAST episode, with one going missing.

The Prince of Darkness . . .. 'Dracula, Prince of Darkness'
 (Hammer films 1966)

ALL TOGETHER NOW: 'FLASH! AHH...AHHH!' What a song! What a movie! Think on this . . .what if GEORGE LUCAS has decided not to make #STARWARS back in 1977, but instead, waited until 1980...and made, FLASH GORDON instead???? . . .Cus-HING as MING would have been interest-ING though...maybe? No? Mark H and dear Carrie, would have been perfect, not sure about Karen Allen though . . 🙂 This stunn-ING mock up cinema poster is the work of El Ray Network, I believe.

#CHRISTOPHERLEESATURDAYS! Can YOU spot the shot, with Marsha Hunt, that never made it to the final UK edit of #DRACULA AD 1972...starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, before the big bow out, in the Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

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  . . 

VINCENT, KATY, EDDIE AND PETER ARE SHOCKED! GIFS! GIFS!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY! Here's #VINCENTPRICE as 'Sinister Man' in probably one of his sharpest put-downs on film in 'Blood Bath At The House Of Death' (1984), an interesting little black comedy staring Kenny Everett . . he is SHOCKED, and the line he delivers, is sadly unrepeatable here . .  our silent disposition serves us well!  I thought his jibbing before the delivery, was well worth posting . . .

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY!: KATY WILD IS SHOCKED! But sadly her character, BEGGER GIRL, is MUTE! Hey, thought Anthony Hinds, she can't speak, she doesn't NEED a name! But Cushing gets it. There's nothing like a 7foot tall ex wrestling champion, in mashed-up make up, wearing diving boots and a mean look . . . carrying a wrought iron spear, to sharpen the senses. This leads into one of those scenes, that you can see, Cushing REALLY enjoyed. A right royal scuffle, with crushing grips, heroics, floppy fringe flying and Cushing's Baron comes out looking hair ruffled, but still sharp and smart! It's a pity the girls didn't get to play though... I just love the way, Cushing flings our poor 'Begger Girl' out...of..frame....! 'The Evil of Frankenstein' (1964), certainly is from the good ol days, when monsters were mean and big, and girls screamed, until a CHAP stepped in...!

#SILENTBUTDEADLY!: In #STARTREK lore, there's a there's a theory. If a cast member in the 1960's tv series was wear a red top as part of their uniform, they were for the chop. After they had set down on the planet, while checking out the sandy desert terrain, you could count the seconds before a scream went up, and the red top guy, had bought it! Dead. Not so the case with the 1966 Cushing film, 'Island of Terror'. Actor Eddie Byrne was the go to guy in the late 50's early 60's, if you wanted a strong, straight talking, serious detective, police office or doctor. Here he plays Dr. Reginald Landers, strong, straight talking, serious and tentacled silicate, tea time snack! You can see the shock in his eyes. Who could have known? In Hammer films, 1959 The Mummy, Bryne had played the SSS Detective Inspector Mulrooney. For him it was double added value, playing to his strengths Police AND IRISH! He played it very well, feeding Cushing's British archaeologist all the right questions, that lead us through a complicated flash back story about how, Christopher Lee's High Priest Kharis had ended up minus his tongue and wrapped in enough bandage, to stretch to Tut's tomb and back! So, that he should die, for me was a surprise and sad. I am not one of these cinema goers who spends their time wasting my ten bucks, trying to find the clues to end of the film, when I have paid good lolly, for them to tell me. I also happen to be a fan of Eddie's work. so, for him to leave film three quarters in, was a downer. Still, he died well. Convincing audiences you are being SUCKED to death, could be a tall order for some actors. Not Eddie. He's a strong, straight talking, serious doctor here. He was never going to suck in this role.....

#SILENTBUTDEADLY! 'Corruption' (1968) is a motion picture that is full of SHOCKS, and that's even without the CENSORED shock shots! Here Cushing shockingly bites the dust. It's interesting, despite how carefully director Robert Hartford Davies set up this clever shot, so that we get the full impact of the Laser Zap on PC, my dear ol Mum, when she saw this many years ago was distracted. 'Hasn't Peter Cushing got really BLUE eyes!', she exclaimed. And yes, he DOES. The weird thing is, if you look at at Cushing's death pose as Gustav Weil in Hammer films, 'Twins of Evil' (1971) and the last death shot of Cushing's Sir John Rowan . . .they are uncannily similar!

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 . . 

#SILENTBUTDEADLY! : RAZOR BLADES GUNS AND TONGUES GIFS!

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE? Anyone who is a fan of the Amicus portmanteau films, or has been watching the uploads I have been making over the last four weeks of #DonaldFearney's 'Amicus Vault Of Horrors' #documentary, will know, every one of those Amicus movies contain two things, a so-so story and a really fantastic story . . . or maybe two fantastic tales! In the case of 'From Beyond The Grave' their last multiple story movie, seemed to crack the formula, where every story was a winner....sadly this happened just as they packed up shop, and Amicus were no more! This #GIF is from one of the more popular stories, from the film 'Tales from the Crypt' and it's a story with frightening moral, called 'Blind Alleys'. I won't give anyway any plot spoilers, to anyone who hasn't caught this film yet but, those of you who HAVE seen the film, will probably recognize the shot in the #GIF. If you were faced with the same dilemma as Major William Rogers ... BLADES or DOG? Which one would you choose?

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! : WHEN PETER CUSHING announced in a 1971 interview that he was currently working with AMICUS FILMS in the role of a certain MR SMITH, he made the role sound quite uninteresting and quite pedestrian. Anyone who has watched Cushing play Mr Smith will agree...the role is anything but usual or uninteresting.  ASYLUM would be the first in quite a few characters that Amicus would press on Cushing to play men who suffered great personal loss, of family or...wife. Watching Cushing emotionally dissolve while clutching his revolver is a strange experience to watch, and would wobble even the stiffest lip . . .

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! : Peter Cushing as Baron Frankenstein resetting the 'evil meter'!  'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed' presented us with a Frankenstein that reminded us that, it wasn't for nothing that Cushing's portrayal made the Frankenstein franchise one of the more profitable series in the Hammer film portfolio.

#SILENTBUTDEADLYWEDNESDAY! THE FAMOUS TONGUE cutting shot in Hammer films, 'The Mummy' must have had audiences twitching and cringing back in 1959, in much the same way as it does now on blu ray and late night screenings on tv. IMAGINE what the 'CONTINENTAL' audiences felt, when they were treated to the full-on, bloodied 'tongue in the tongs' version?? It was hoped when Lionsgate and Hammer launched their restoration project, to bring the THREE Cushing / Lee Classic Hammer marquee titles up to scratch, scratch-less, uncensored and complete, and in this case including the Kharis offending Lingua! Despite searches that did turn up the magnificent missing 'Dracula Death' shot, wandering eyeballs  in a jar and teeth clenching artery shots from 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell', and a few other once snipped out pieces, that were thought far too upsetting for the delicate tastes of the European audiences. The Kharis Tongue sadly, remains allusive . . . 

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   

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: THE ACID BATH AND THE HEAD

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY: #GIF  Paul Krempe (Robert Urquhart) looks on as Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) drops the crow pecked disguarded head from the body he is resurrecting into the vat of acid. In the thread below, I have posted a rare colour photograph, taken by John Jay the films still photographer, for publicity.

It's not known IF director Terence Fisher actually shot the footage that we see represented in the photograph, ...additional footage where the camera sees the face of the head AND the acid melting the head in the acid bath...... It's too easy to say, 'Nah, never happened!'. But the #incredible footage recently added to #HAMMERFILMS classic 1958 #HORROROFDRACULA started as a rumor too...AND a colour photograph ...! 😉 What do you think?

#FRANKENSTEINFRIDAY! The skillful performance of #ChristopherLee as Frankenstein 'Monster -Creation' hasn't weakened over the years. It must have been a pretty daunting idea to try and follow in the footsteps of all the other amazing actors who had played the 'monster' at #Universal, #Karloff, #Chaney, #Lugosi, Strange . . . the make up may have not looked as impressive, but any short fall was well and truly made up with a performance that nailed a new thinking about the Baron's 'monster' . . .Lee would do the same again in less than a year, with his portrayal of Dracula. 

The Curse of Frankenstein was a tremendous financial success and reportedly grossed more than 70 times its production cost during its original theatrical run. Cushing was already a household name in the UK, but his intelligent and driven Baron, would make him an international film star.

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    

MINA THE ONE WHO GOT AWAY! MELISSA STRIBLING REMEMBERED

REMEMBERING: Melissa Stribling who was born today November 7th 1927. Stribling appeared in just the one film with Peter Cushing...but boy did she pick the right one! She also got to play in one of Hammer films most iconic scenes in their 1958 'Dracula', where Christopher Lee's Count, in the dead of night, visits her home and..without a word.. seduces her. The scene is so super charged with sexual tension, it almost crackles off the screen and as a result got the scissors treatment from the censors at the time.

In 2013, in Hammer's restored print the exorcised footage was replaced, giving us the full picture of what Director Terence Fisher, Stribling and Lee had originally intended and created.