JUST WHO IS BEHIND THAT EAGLE COMIC?

I LOVE this figure of Peter Cushing as Dr Who from his first Dalek movie in 1965, 'Dr Who and the Daleks' 🙂 It's playful and I think captures the intention of Cushing and the film producer Milton Subotsky all those years ago. This is the fabulous work of sculpture Robert Price, who we have featured here before. These photo's don't belong to me, neither does the figure, as much as I wish it did, it's one of Robert's many private commissions.

ROBERT SAYS AT HIS TUMBLR ACCOUNT, 'A great challenge to make and certainly one of the more intricate and fiddly pieces I’ve ever made. Never made a comfy chair before!t was very interesting working with different media- if you count paper as a different media. The Eagle comic came together beautifully. Many frustrations and dark-nights of the soul- fretting it would never be finished or good enough when it was complete. I’m very happy with it now and will be sad to let it go!'

WELL, YOU ARE A VERY TALENTED ARTIST and very well done, Robert! I certainly look forward to see and sharing more of your work in the future here! MORE please 😉😊 - Marcus 

BERNARD CRIBBINS HITS 90 YEARS OF AGE AND WE REMEMBER THE QUEEN OF CREEPY WOMEN TODAY!

IT'S A VERY HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY to BERNARD CRIBBINS TODAY! Born in 1928, Cribbins started his acting career at the tender age of 14! An actor since the age of 14 and was a major star on the London stage by his mid-20s. It would be another ten years before he became a national star with success in film comedies, with likes of Peter Sellers and a string of hit records, the most popular probably being, 'A Hole In The Ground' and 'Right Said Fred'. He appeared in several of the "Carry On" series, and also achieved a great degree of success doing voice-overs for cartoons and TV commercials. One of his biggest successes being the 1970's children's animated puppet series, 'The Wombles'.

CRIBBINS also took PETER CUSHING snorkelling in the Gulf of Aqaba! The pair were in Israel filming the Hammer films 'She', and Bernard recalls: “We did a couple of films together and that particular one was out in the Negev desert and we used to have a little swim at lunchtime. Peter was a very athletic gentleman. He played rugby, he told me, ‘I used to love to tackle people’ and you can’t imagine that ostensibly gentle man knocking people over! He was a good swimmer but he’d never been snorkelling, diving down and having a look at things, and he kept talking to me underwater, sounding like Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men which had me in hysterics!"

BACK IN 1974 Cribbins was interviewed for the role of DOCTOR WHO in 1974, as the BBC prepared for Jon Pertwee, leaving the role. 'I didn't actually audition. But when Jon Pertwee was leaving, the producer Barry Letts - who died quite recently - interviewed a lot of actors, one of whom was me. I went along and sat down and he said 'now then what can you do?' I said 'I'm a very good swimmer, I was a paratrooper, I could fight' - and he said 'Oh no, no fighting no, the Doctor is never seen fighting at all!' So Tom Baker became the next Doctor, and one of the first things I remember him doing was knocking somebody out.'

BERNARD also appeared in many tv drama programes as a guest star throughout the 1960's and 70's including the popular 'The Avengers' in TWO episodes. 'The Girl From Auntie' and the weird, 'Look, Stop Me If You've Heard This One, But There Are These Two Fella's'! Of all his movie roles, Cribbins has a fondness for 'The Railway Children' directed by Lionel Jeffries in 1970, where he played Albert Perks. Cribbins has a longstanding association with the science-fiction series Doctor Who (1963). 

ABOVE: Cribbins as Arkwright in The Girl from Auntie (1966) ... his first role in the UK television series, 'THE AVENGERS'

ABOVE Cribbins as Bradley Marler, with comedian Jimmy Jewel in "Look - (Stop Me If You've Heard This One) But There Were These Two Fellers..." his second appearnce in The Avengers in 1966. 

NOT ONLY DID HE play a companion in the second Peter Cushing film, 'Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.' (1966), which was 40 years before his regular role as a companion, Wilfred Mott, in the Russell T. Davies version of Doctor Who (2005). It certainly has been a very active and sucessful 90 years for sure. Please let us know what your favorite Cribbin's films, roles and shows so far . ..over at the FACEBOOK PCAS FAN PAGE. I think he is far from over yet! HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY BERNARD and have a wonderful day😀

TODAY WE ARE ALSO REMEMBERING and marking the BIRTHDAY of actress . .  FREDA JACKSON who was born today. 29th December in 1907. Was there ever a more frightening actresses in a Peter Cushing Hammer film? Here we see her as the 'hair-raising' Greta in 'The Brides of Dracula' (1960) starring Peter Cushing, Yvonne Monlaur and David Peel. I have always thought it was a great shame that Hammer didn't cast her in any of their other films. She does appear in that 'is it a Hammer film or isn't it?'... 'Shadow of the Cat' (1961) as Clara the maid. But what a waste! Freda's performance as Greta in 'Brides' is as powerful now, as it was when the film was released all those years ago. What an actress! Happy Birthday, Freda!

FRED JACKSON'S GRETA, was also one of the very few feamle roles in Hammer's films, that also featured Cushing, that could give his character Van Helsing a fair fight on screen!!! 😮😉

WHY THIS DR WHO DESERVES TO REMAIN SEPARATE AND NOT PART OF ANY CANON . .

SO. STEVEN MOFFAT in his new novelisation of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary special 'The Day of the Doctor', reveals that the PETER CUSHING DR WHO FILMS, exist in the Whoniverse as actual movies, with Cushing starring in big-screen adventures adapted from the Doctor's "real" exploits . . . .

ANY CUSHING FAN WHO READS THIS SITE, would have seen the post we made about Moffat's attempts at making Cushing's-Dr Who, part of the party a while ago, from The Doctor Who Magazine. Moffat had previously wanted to incorporate this idea into the TV version of 'The Day of the Doctor', with plans for UNIT's Black Archive to include ACTUAL CINEMA POSTERS from the two Cushing films, DR WHO AND THE DALEKS (1965) and DALEKS INVASION EARTH 2150 AD (1966).

TWO EXAMPLES of the CINEMA POSTER art for BOTH of Cushing's DR WHO films that Moffat tried to obtain permission to use in the BBC episode, 'DAY OF THE DOCTOR' . . but failed.

"IN MY HEAD, in the Doctor's universe, those films exist as distorted accounts of his adventures," Moffat told Doctor Who Magazine. "Sadly, we couldn't afford the rights to the posters."

FOR SOME CUSHING ADMIRERS it has been a matter of debate and often irritation for years, that the MOVIES and CUSHING's 'DR', aren't considered to be canon, worth it and / or wasn't 'serious entertainment for families and children' now or even back then. . .! Really....?

WELL, personally I think many might have much respect for Mr Moffat, for trying what sounded to be quite an interesting angle. It's certainly very kind and generous, to include Peter Cushing in the novel though. But, it wont change anything and to be honest, I am relieved, the inclusion of Cushing's playing a character called Dr Who, didn't come to fruition.  THIS Doctor is Peter Cushing's Doctor and as he said many times, QUITE different from a Doctor Who excellently played by William Hartnell in the TV series. It's Cushing's creation, not unlike his ABER PERRY from his AT THE EARTH"S CORE film of 1976. THIS creation, just doesn't fit anything that the tv series has grown and developed since the TOM BAKER years. 

THE FILMS were made for what was seen as the young audience who were watching the TV series...and cash in on that popularity. It was as I remember, kids floating up and down the school playground and streets, with the hood from their anorak up, one arm extended, screeching EXTERMINATE, not grown ups?  Over the years, I have met all kinds of exciting, warm, wonderfully friendly and open minded Cushing admirers, who love to explore and chat about his life, career and even the maybe expanded background, to some of his characters. 

ALSO MANY PEOPLE who worked at producing the BBC's Doctor Who series and Doctor Who dvd / blu ray extras, magazines and merchandise. Really friendly and helpful folk. Sadly, I can't say my experience of meeting and chatting with some of the Doctor Who fans has ever been that enjoyable, particularly if the subject of the two movies come up!! Which is a bit like a fan of Cushing's Sherlock Holmes movies and tv work, getting a little weird about someone mentioning .. BASIL RATHBONE and his unique and wonderful performances also as that great detective! 

IT'S NO SECRET, that Peter Cushing himself was not personally a fan of the tv programme, and found little to say about the movies, except he enjoyed working with the cast and the talent of Roberta Tovey. Typically generous, he made the condition that he would only agree to appear in the second DALEK film, if Tovey would be included too. 

ABOVE: PETER CUSHING talks on PLAYING DR WHO in

 TWO movies in the MID 1960'S 

NOPE. Peter Cushing wasn't a fan and only ever made one comment about his Dr's prime enemy, the DALEKS . . he found them, 'Not my cup of tea. Daleks did rather get on my nerves'  So, there you go. If Peter were still with us, I am sure he would tell us he is flattered, to be mentioned in the novelisation of 'The Day of The Doctor'  . . . and then probably ask if we had ever seen that amazing, universally popular blockbuster film, that he once appeared in during the 1970's, called STAR WARS. . 

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT CUSHING'S DR WHO MOVIES? HERE IS CALLUM MCKEVIE'S SUNDAY FEATURES, WITH GALLERIES OF RARE STILLS:  PART ONE ON DR WHO AND THE DALEKS HERE! AND PART TWO HERE!

CUSHING was talented and popular enough to have had  three careers. In theatre for many years, when he first began, in television drama and receiving several awards during the 1950's and 60's and to a huge success in film on the big screen. He carved out quite a reputation for his appearances in adult supernatural movies. 

WHENEVER HE WAS APPROACHED by his agent, John Redway, about a appearing in something that wasn't a horror film, he had a simple rule and method he used before, signing on the line. 'Would children like to see me in this?' He agreed to appearing in At The Earth's Core and Star Wars, using this very technique, and mentioned doing so in many interviews. I am pretty sure, he applied it to the 'Yea and Nay' of making the Dr Who films too. 'I am making them for children, because it's pretty obvious, they are intended for a young audience!' Children. . .  In the words of Cushing's Dr Who, 'Fascinating!' . . .

FINALLY for those of you back home in the UK,  I would love to bring to your attention , what sounds like a real TREAT.  I personally greatly admirer the work of the actor LON CHANEY jr and I am  more than a bit annoyed I am missing 'Cursed Horror: 'Son of Dracula' Talk and Film Screening presented by Mark Iveson at the NEWCASTLE CASTLE THIS SATURDAY, April 14th starting 6pm until 8pm. Here is the FACEBOOK LINK to an evening that sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun.

. . . Join author and horror expert Mark Iveson to find out more about the screen legend ahead of a film screening. The definitive Wolf Man who scared many a young woman during his horror reign during the forties, Lon Chaney’s greatest fear stemmed from the shadow of his famous father, and whose own insecurities were hidden behind an abrasive personality and a dependence on alcohol, the latter of which would eventually destroy him. Our talk centres on the rise and fall of this horror great . . . .

 
AS WELL AS producing a fine book entitled, CURSED HORROR STARS on the lives of Bela Lugosi, Peter Lorre, Robert Quarry and Basil Rathbone, he has also written some excellent features for this website, called THE GREATEST PETER CUSHING FILMS NEVER MADE!, full of facts, stories and 'what it could have looked like' images of blu ray box and cinema stills and posters, had those films ever seen the light of day! Mark certainly knows his stuff, writes and presents well researched detail and  backgrounds on his subjects, and isn't in the business of character assassinations, of the people his is presenting, even if it is warts and all. If you are looking for a fine night out, in the company of Chaney and one of his all time BEST movies, go grab your ticket NOW! 

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  . .