IT'S A BIRTHDAY WISH FOR BRAM AND IS HOLLYWOOD PUPPETEERING THE DEAD?

BORN TODAY November 8th 1847 in Clontarf, Dublin, Republic of #Ireland… we mark the BIRTHDAY of  #BRAMSTOKER, creator of #Dracula and a hundred thousand nightmares! #HappyBirthday, Mr Stoker!!!

BACK IN 2016, for some it was an act too hard to accept. #PeterCushing's Grand Moff Tarkin featured nearly 20 years since his passing, kind of live and kicking courtesy of mega bucks CGI, presented on the big screen in the #StarWars epic, Rogue One. In a cinematic series where the footing is firmly rooted on a fantasy and other worldly canvas, those who wanted to embrace could. This week #Hollywood has announced the arrival of another CGI resurrection, in #JamesDean. Dean will be recreated in an action drama entitled #FindingJack through a mixture of old footage and computer-generated creations projected over stand-ins, as a secondary character called Rogan. The producer Anton Ernst said he will try to keep Dean's “legacy firmly intact”.

AND AS IN  the case of Peter Cushing, the 'estate' or family are on board. “We feel very honoured that his family supports us,” he said. “The family views this as his fourth movie, a movie he never got to make. We do not intend to let his fans down.” says Antin Ernst. Zelda Williams, daughter of the late actor and comedian #RobinWilliams, accused the producers of “puppeteering the dead” while #LordoftheRings actor #ElijahWood tweeted a simple “NOPE” in response to the news, while #Avengers star #ChrisEvans wrote: “This is awful... the complete lack of understanding here is shameful.”

 

OVER AT THE FACEBOOK PCASUK FAN PAGE we are asking what your opinion on this?! . .. Should the Cushing Tarkin CGI appearance be seen as an interesting 'one-off' and a good try, totally necessary to help embellish and tell the story of Rogue One . . Is this a CGI trick too far, bringing James Dean, once more to the big screen??

FIDELIS ET MORTEM? TUESDAY TOUGHY ANSWER AND RARE SIGNED DRACULA 1958 LINK!

ABOVE IS THE QUESTION  and ANSWER to last week's Cushing Tuesday Toughy! It seems as though either script writer Jimmy Sangster's or set designer, Bernard Robinson's LATIN was a bit lacking! We asked you where were the Latin words we posed, seen in a Peter Cushing film, AND what did they mean? Well, the latin is seen on the family crest, above the fireplace in Hammer films 1958 'DRACULA' and it looks as though didn't quite translate, in the way they probably wanted or intended. FIDELIS ET MORTEM translates as 'FAITH AND DEATH', where what they thought they were displaying was, 'FAITHFUL AND DEAD'. Oh dear! Utinam Non!

ABOVE is a RARE and INTEREST LINK to REMIND you, that TODAY is  the LAST DAY in which to send us YOUR answer to WARNER BROTHERS REMASTERED BLU RAY OF HAMMER FILMS 1958 DRACULA! IF YOU TOO would LOVE to WIN yourself a copy of this EXCELLENT remaster of the BFI print, there is just HOURS TO GO before the competition entries time, pulls up the draw bridge! SO CLICK HERE!  

HAMMER FILMS ACTRESS SUZANNA LEIGH DIES

SAD NEWS TO REPORT, another one of the Hammer family has passed away, actress Suzanna Leigh who starred in the Hammer Films 'THE LOST CONTINENT' (1968) and 'LUST FOR A VAMPIRE' (1971)

Born Suzanna Smyth, the daughter of an auto engine manufacturer, Suzanna Leigh grew up in Belgrave, England, and in convent schools outside London. She began working in movies while still a pre-teen, appearing as an extra in 1958's Tom Thumb (1958) (film-debuting in the "Dancing Shoes" sequence), 1960's Oscar Wilde (1960) with 'Robert Morley' and other English productions. A few years later, she was the star of the 13-episode French TV series, Trois étoiles en Touraine (1966), which every week featured Leigh, her racing car and a different male lead (the "Three Stars" of the series' translated title).

Planning to attend London's Opera Ball, costumed as "Madame Du Barry", Leigh had a sedan chair made, along with costumes for five footmen who carried it (and her) through the streets of the city. Movie producer Hal B. Wallis saw newspaper photos of Leigh's elaborate stunt and imported the 20-year-old blonde to Hollywood for Boeing, Boeing (1965). Following her brush with major studio stardom, she resumed her English acting career, showing up on movie screens, most regularly in chillers. Her 1998 autobiography is entitled "Paradise, Suzanna Style".

"Elvis Presley's kisses held an intensity that melted my very being. I slipped my arms around his neck and our bodies entwined. This was all madness, but we didn't stop. A person could go to the gallows with such a kiss lingering on their lips, knowing life had been good...." Suzanna Leigh

 

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  . 

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY! REPACKAGING THE CLASSICS : HANDS AND FANGS!

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY! REPACKAGING Cushing and Hammer films classic films for new sales and audiences, sometimes throws up the most interesting box designs . . . what do we think of the covers of these two #HAMMERFILM classics: #bridesofdracula and #eviloffrankenstein ???

UPDATE: AN INTERESTING comment on our PCASFACEBOOK FAN PAGE
from ZAK PEARSON who says, :  'I don't know why these companies don't just use the original posters, gorgeous lush hand painted posters already in existence, rather than these very clinical designs?'.

WE ANSWERED: ' . . .Some of the films the media rights, posters, stills actually are not included in the license of having rights to distribute the film. Although many dvd and blu ray distributors flaunt this fact when they include the stills and posters in the extras... in the case of many of Hammers films films, the media rights are owned by a completely different company, to who owns the rights of the actual film . .. and some differ from country and territory . .to use the poster on the cover, would mean an paying extra lolly, so easier and cheaper, to have a new and bespoke design for the release . .'   

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY: WHAT AN INTERESTING, unusual painting and study for artists Sharon Wong to have painted...? I had to share it with you today . . .I have added quote by Peter's late wife, Helen Cushing on her observations about Peter, from the very first time she met him...and fell in love. . . taken from Peter's autobiography, it may have provided the inspiration for the painting perhaps? What do you make this? - Marcus

#THROWBACKTHURSDAY! AND FINALLY, here's a smashing photograph of actress KATE O'MARA, standing outside the WATFORD ODEON CINEMA back in October 1970, posing with  poster of  Hammer films, 'THE VAMPIRE LOVERS', in which she starred with Ingrid Pitt, Peter Cushing and Douglas Wilmer. Good for her!

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  . .

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! DOUBLE COMPETITIONS STRBLING AND SIR HUGO REMEMBERED!

#TOOCOOLTUESDAY! THIS WEEKEND is DOUBLE COMPETITION TIME! Happening here at the website AND at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE. Our COMPETITIONS are OPEN TO EVERYONE, WHEREVER you are . . . So BE SURE to JOIN us THIS SATURDAY and SUNDAY!

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.

A LARGE scan of a superb vintage publicity photograph of Melissa Stribling as Mina Holmwood, in 'Dracula / Horror of Dracula ' (1958) #hammerfilms #dracula #petercushing

I HAVE READ in several reviews of 'Dracula' both from the time of the films' release in 58 and in more recent times, that Stribling was a curious choice for the role of Mina Holmwood, that compared to the likes of Valerie Gaunt and other Hammer actresses, even though she was only in early 30's when she appeared in Dracula, many thought her slightly ordinary and plain. I totally disagree...but if that was the case, I can't help thinking that, director Fisher's choice in Stribling was intentional. That subtext in the story of Arthur Holmwood's wife being frustrated and bored, suddenly being charmed and seduced by the exotic and erotic Count, Stribling was...the perfect choice.

REMEMBERING DAVID OXLEY. (November 7th 1920 - October 30th 1985 ) Was there ever a more terrifying, evil, rip snorting, bag of fury than Oxley's portrayal of Sir Hugo Baskerville in the 1959 Hammer films production of 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee? I must be honest, I actually find him more frightening than the hound!

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  . .

SHE GETS WHAT SHE WANTS : DISOBEY AT YOUR PERIL!

#GETTHECUSHIONITSCUSHING: TODAY we feature a short clip from Hammer Films She (1965). Major Holly (Peter Cushing), Leo Vincey (John Richardson) & Joe (Bernard Cribbins) witness what happens to those that disobey, Ayesha (Ursula Andress).

SHE is one of films covered in our TODAY'S feature 'CHOICEST CUSHING' by Callum McKelvie!

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  . .

ACTOR TONY BOOTH DIES

Surprised and  very sorry to hear of the passing of actor Tony Booth, best known for his role as Mike Rawlins in the BBC series Till Death Us Do Part. Booth appeared with Peter Cushing in two films Suspect (1960) and Corruption (1968) as the photographer Mike Orme, who has a pretty memorable fight scene with Cushing.

In his time, Booth was a bit of hell raiser. His love of the 'ol shampoo' though never caused him problems at work. 

In 1954, he married the actor Gale Howard (nee Joyce Smith). They had two daughters, Cherie and Lyndsey, and later divorced. He had five daughters with partners whom he did not marry: with Julie Allan, Jenia and Bronwen; with Pamela Smith (the model Susie Riley), Lauren and Emma; and with Ann Gannon, Lucy. In 1988 he married Nancy Jaeger, and they had a daughter, Joanna. After their divorce, in 1998 he married his fourth wife, Stephanie Buckley, a Labour party worker.

During the late 70's and 80's his passionate and fiery, with actress Pat Phoenix kept the UK tabloid busy. Political, passionate and not shy to show it . . . the world is becoming a pretty dull place, as people like Tony Booth take the final bow...

Tony Booth is survived by Stephanie and his eight daughters.

Anthony George Booth, actor, born 9 October 1931; died 25 September 2017

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